imo the only realistic path to power for people who want to really fight for a better world is conquering the democratic party & replacing its leaders. third parties don't work on national scales, the other major party isn't an option, & current leadership of this one is obv not up to the challenge - ThreadSky

ultradavid.bsky.social • 4 days ago

imo the only realistic path to power for people who want to really fight for a better world is conquering the democratic party & replacing its leaders. third parties don't work on national scales, the other major party isn't an option, & current leadership of this one is obv not up to the challenge

Reposted from New York Magazine

Democratic lawmakers are expected to communicate their opposition to Donald Trump during the president’s joint address to Congress on Tuesday night by color-coordinating.

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skeletalminion.bsky.social•4 days ago

Colored shirts. Yeah, that'll show 'em!

alfzero.bsky.social•4 days ago

Yeah, you have strong voices in AOC, Bernie and Crockett who can get a message out being sidelined
In favor of the dems again playing Kingmaker. Putting Gerry Connolly in over AOC on judiciary, complete unknown Slotkin doing a rebuttal, and Hakeem "Obama minus the everything" Jeffries limping along

radspeon.neocities.org•4 days ago

i really dont know what i could do as a teenager to make any kind of change in this world. by the time ill be able to legally vote itll be halfway into this "presidency" and so much damage will already be done, probably. every "political action for teenz!" website just feels like theyre trying to 1/

radspeon.neocities.org•4 days ago

make us feel included without actually giving us anything useful to do. like we aren't capable of doing anything useful. "write your school a letter! that'll show them!" alright, i did that, and i saw that letter in the trash can a day later. maybe we just dont have any power and i should just 2/

radspeon.neocities.org•4 days ago

wait until i reach that magic number while everything around me burns. sorry, i know this isnt really relevant, i just started typing and now im in too deep i think 3/3

darockreaper.bsky.social•4 days ago

Tbh I think third parties can be a useful tool in that fight.

To provide an electoral outlet to the issues the dem leadership won't represent, and tbf, has earned the distrust of the public to address even if they did.

Someone has to stand on that debate stage and call out the hypocrisy.

tempusrob.com•4 days ago

"Not up to the challenge" but also actively avoiding the idea that there may be any challenge at all. Fully disconnected from reality.

ultradavid.bsky.social•4 days ago

progressives have been the biggest bloc in the democratic party for a while; only the rallying of all the other blocs around biden prevented sanders from getting the nom in 2020. imo anger against both trumpists & dem leadership's failure to fight gives us a plausible path to control of the party

ultradavid.bsky.social•4 days ago

btw i really recommend getting involved locally, i am & it feels great. like with voting, the power of it isn't that i'm gonna change everything myself, it's that if enough of us do it, we can make change collectively. plus, actually doing stuff makes me feel less anxious. big plus in these times

pepesilvia7.bsky.social•4 days ago

Do you mind sharing what you've done locally. I'd love to get involved but don't know where to start.

ultradavid.bsky.social•4 days ago

Sure! I joined a local Indivisible group, great place to start helping out with organizing. There are branches all over the place & they're easy to start on your own: https://indivisible.org/

You can also google for local Democratic Party affiliates, or if you prefer, DSA chapters, WFP chapters, etc etc

pepesilvia7.bsky.social•4 days ago

Thanks! I appreciate it 🙏🏼

lusca-maki.bsky.social•4 days ago

Honestly after all that, focusing on electoral politics feels like putting your pants on head-first. Progressives will never outbid mega donors, and what few seats they win are stifled by generations of seniority. We need pantries and shelters as much and more than votes.

xraen.bsky.social•4 days ago

I understand where you are coming from and I hope it is possible but I'm increasingly convinced that the Democratic party is not salvageable. A third party may be the only solution, even if it takes ages to happen (time we may not have, I admit).

mudkippy.bsky.social•4 days ago

I'm really not sure, feels like people have been saying to do this for ages with little progress. yeah third parties aren't gonna see success overnight but starting progressive parties in each state to contest local/state elections (see: VPP, DFL) and build up overtime could maybe work?

mudkippy.bsky.social•4 days ago

at the very least it can put pressure on state dem parties. and hey it's not an either/or, both can be done to push from two fronts

ultradavid.bsky.social•4 days ago

Yeah I think third parties in the sense of the DSA, Working Families Party, etc is great, in other words building community power outside of elections but then usually running as Democrats in elections. But some of need to be changing the Democratic Party from the inside too. Gonna take all kinds

mudkippy.bsky.social•4 days ago

hope I'm not telling you something you already know, but as I understand it, the Vermont Progressive Party was founded by the folk who helped Bernie's campaign for mayor of Burlington, and then decided keep doing that. They have gotten a number of people elected to various local and state offices

mudkippy.bsky.social•4 days ago

the Minnesota DFL was formed by a merger of the state Dem party and a left-wing Farmer-Labor party, resulting in what is probably the most left leaning state Dem party in the country. they are in power currently and the reason Walz was able to implement a number of good/progressive policy

mudkippy.bsky.social•4 days ago

these two examples seem to me to be far more impactful than the groups you mentioned (not to discredit them ofc), at least at the local/state level. I think this is an approach that could be very effective, grassroots parties in each state to build up to a national progressive party one day

jamesbelcher.bsky.social•1 day ago

"third parties don't work on national scales"

It's useful to remember that third parties don't have to "win" to make big changes.

Dems' business model of serving big donors first and foremost makes the party *impervious* to reform. I'm grateful to everyone building power outside of Ds and Rs.

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