LightfighterThis is a very accurate graph of anything in my lifetime in the US.
Paul Rietschka@Lightfighter The worst part about this is the Reaganites, today, are the establishment Democrats, and they control the Democratic party and make damned sure that nothing progressive ever makes it into policy. All against the clear wishes of Democratic voters. The US governing system is so captured that nothing short of revolution can seemingly fix it.
@prietschka Amen. Burn it all fucking down.
@Lightfighter Yeah, but it's a big, ongoing problem.
Obama, Clinton, Biden, Harris. Since 2008 (and before, but let's just go back to there) the Reaganite establishment has successfully shoved useless chud candidates down our throats and, when they win, given nothing but austerity excepting Obamacare, which is a high-price-tag POS and failure.
It's depressing turnout because, understandably, people ask "why even vote?"
There is no compelling reason!
@prietschka Absolutely. The ADA was initially proposed as an alternative to Single Payer that Clinton was working on by Newt Gingrich. Obama repackaged it and sold it to us. The Dems just give the illusion of being an opposition party. Both sides are backed by the same money. When in doubt, class is usually the driving force. And our political class has sided with capital.
Danny Boling ☮️Y'all win the thread and both earned a new follower just for having this small exchange. Everything you've said is a truth lots of people won't admit to.
@IAmDannyBoling @Lightfighter Americans need to get serious about what politics today looks like. We have essentially three groups:
1.) Fascists in the GOP
2.) Reaganite Republicans in the form of the Democratic establishment
3.) Democratic voters who want social democratic policies like M4A, progressive taxation, better service provision generally
The last group is not represented in terms of getting policies implemented, at all.
It's a major, major problem.
Osteopenia Powers ;@prietschka
What can Group 3 do about this? Organize, contribute, work, volunteer, and vote in the primaries!
@IAmDannyBoling @Lightfighter
What can Group 3 do about this? Organize, contribute, work, volunteer, and vote in the primaries!
@IAmDannyBoling @Lightfighter
@Osteopenia_Powers @IAmDannyBoling @Lightfighter I mean, I don't know, I don't really have answers.
Never vote for an establishment Democrat again? Run for office?
The conservative movement slowly took over the GOP in the 70s, then ruthlessly killed (politically) everyone who opposed them. It was a slaughter once they gained enough power.
That's what's needed on the left. But that's a multi-decade project, and requires being mean, and not the kumbaya nonsense the left loves a bit too much.
@prietschka
I think this refusal to make alliances will not get us to a better place, rather a worse one.
If more people had seen a difference between Al Gore and GW Bush, we would never have had Citizens United for example. Purity pledges are pledges to lose. If we want people to vote for our candidates it is our responsibility to persuade them. If we want candidates to respect us, we have to start getting more votes.
@IAmDannyBoling @Lightfighter
I think this refusal to make alliances will not get us to a better place, rather a worse one.
If more people had seen a difference between Al Gore and GW Bush, we would never have had Citizens United for example. Purity pledges are pledges to lose. If we want people to vote for our candidates it is our responsibility to persuade them. If we want candidates to respect us, we have to start getting more votes.
@IAmDannyBoling @Lightfighter
@Osteopenia_Powers @IAmDannyBoling @Lightfighter No, what you're suggesting feels good but is the problem.
You're say "big tent," but in practice that tent stands for nothing. The left cannot contain everyone from social democrats like Sanders/AOC to conservatives like Joe Manchin, it's incoherent.
It leads to a party with no ideology or principles, but it's ideology that informs policy choice.
What you're arguing for is a movement that stands for nothing, does nothing.
This is the problem.
@prietschka
Here are some things my party has stood for, and continues to stand for.
*the right of asylum seekers to stay in our country
*the right of Iranian girls to go to school without being dismembered by bombs targeted by AI
*the right of millions of people receiving USAid not to die of AIDS
🧵
@IAmDannyBoling @Lightfighter
Here are some things my party has stood for, and continues to stand for.
*the right of asylum seekers to stay in our country
*the right of Iranian girls to go to school without being dismembered by bombs targeted by AI
*the right of millions of people receiving USAid not to die of AIDS
🧵
@IAmDannyBoling @Lightfighter
@prietschka 🧵
*the right of millions of people not to die of hunger because President Moron caused Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz and cut off the fertilizer that grows food for half the world.
*the right to have our government agencies staffed by competent people rather than loyal party stooges.
*the right to a minimum wage.
*the right to have that minimum wage be a living wage.
*the right to clean air, water, and food.
@prietschka
🧵 * the right to vote in fair elections and have our votes counted accurately
*as you pointed out, the ADA was originally a Republican plan. All but a few turncoat Democrats wanted a true national health plan. Then Republicans decided not to let the Democrats have any wins at all. They opposed everything. The ACA passed with 1 R vote in each house, all the Senate Dems, and the vast majority of House Dems.
@IAmDannyBoling @Lightfighter
🧵 * the right to vote in fair elections and have our votes counted accurately
*as you pointed out, the ADA was originally a Republican plan. All but a few turncoat Democrats wanted a true national health plan. Then Republicans decided not to let the Democrats have any wins at all. They opposed everything. The ACA passed with 1 R vote in each house, all the Senate Dems, and the vast majority of House Dems.
@IAmDannyBoling @Lightfighter
@Osteopenia_Powers @IAmDannyBoling @Lightfighter I don't know why you're listing this stuff, but it's not germane to what I was speaking about.
Good luck, ttyl.
Sheldon@prietschka Obamacare was pretty good before Republicans sabotaged it. I purchased my own insurance since before the ACA and how much I paid and what I got for that money was night and day before and after.
It took 10 years before my premiums were at the same level again and I was 10 years older and was still getting a lot more for my money. Even watered down as it is now, it's better than what was there before.
Blasting Obamacare is both sides are the same revisionism. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty good legislation given the constraints that Obama had to work with.
I was deep in the healthcare world at that point and I was really pleased with it as a starting point. People expected a miracle. It wasn't that. It was a good first step.
@sysop408 @Lightfighter The ACA is a piece of shit and isn’t M4A, which is the only answer.
The ACA is a Republican health care plan, we on the left shouldn’t be embracing something that was designed to fail, we should be calling it a piece of shit, throwing it in the trash, and enacting M4A.
Stop thinking so small. You deserve better. We all deserved better in 2010, but Obama was a piece of shit president — a self-serving fraud — so we got very little.
@prietschka Obama wasn't thinking small when he pulled together the ACA. It was what was possible and he barely managed to scrape it together.
M4A sounds awesome on paper, but even if it passed, it would have had a very high risk of blowing up on us. It would have been easy for Republicans to ratfuck because it only addressed one isolated layer of dysfunction in the American healthcare system that's dysfunction all the way down.
I was in healthcare myself and then spent the better part of two years touring hospitals interviewing hospital administrators, architects, technologists, and clinicians about their practices. I saw a lot of shit.
When Obama said if we were starting from scratch, he'd choose single payer, but it wasn't viable anymore at the time, I didn't see it as an excuse like most people. I witnessed that reality, a system ossified into a parallel political system rife with dysfunction. Insurance cos weren't even calling the shots in some places.
The #ACA is not shit.
@sysop408 @Lightfighter You and your attitude is the reason we can’t have nice things.
Seriously, what you just wrote here is absolutely emblematic of the problems America has. And here, it’s you. You. You’re the problem.
Also, Obama traded away a public option while lying to the public and pretending he hadn’t. He was a terrible president and his admin. looks shabbier by the day.
And the ACA? A Republican policy that was destined to fail.
But, again, you are the problem here. Think bigger.
@prietschka look, we're in shitty times, but dismissing every step in the right direction as not being worth the effort makes Republicans' jobs easy.
You want better. I want better, but I'm not going to piss on whatever we fought hard to get.
Years ago there was another Republican plan that got rejected for being a Republican plan. It was Nixons, which ironically ended up way to the left of the system that froze into place in the subsequent years.
Willing to only accept maximum gain when maximum gain isn't anywhere near the table and might actually backfire isn't how we get anywhere.
Yeah, I'm the problem. I'll keep fighting no matter how many setbacks I'm delivered. I'll never see the extend of change I want in my lifetime, but I'm not taking my ball and going home. That's how they win.
@sysop408 @Lightfighter You’re still just proving my point!
Every time you talk about building a better system there’s someone like you saying “no, we can’t do that.” Also, give me a break with the “fighting” bs and your moralizing posturing.
You and your “we can’t do that” attitude, you and your pretending we’re making incremental progress (we’re not, you’re not, it’s a bs excuse) are, again, the problem.
It’s been 16 years since the ACA, you’re not “fighting” for anything.
@sysop408 @Lightfighter I mean, jfc, all you’re doing is making excuses.
Is this not clear? “No, we can’t do that.” Yes, we can. “Obama did the best he could.” No, that Reaganite piece of shit didn’t, he did what he thought would be the easiest win/most aggrandizing to himself. “I’m fighting, and we’ll continue to make incremental progress!” No, you’re not and we’ve been backsliding on health care for years, no progress is being made.
Enough with the excuses! Jfc.