I think a problem with the American electorate is that they think their gibs are their just due and therefore do not reward Democrats for giving them. We have to wait until Republicans take them away.
I mean, look at Obamacare. Followed by Assad numbers for GOP in 2010 midterms, then confused shock when Republicans actually tried to kill it under Trump.
"I don't need no gubbermint handouts. I earned every cent I made with nothing but my tractor, 400 illegal agricultural laborers, and eleven trillion dollars in subsidies from the farm bill." -The median American voter
they call DEF(Diesel Exhaust Fluid) government juice because they're now forced to use it on their diesel tractor engines. A relatively small added cost which keeps the air cleaner for everyone. Large scale farmers are trashy as fuck.
Yeah - it’s driven me to a really idiosyncratic place in a few ways - like I would say I align myself more with the ideals of socialism, but it seems every other fuckin person left of Bernie just has no idea what kind of beast we are fighting. It isn’t the 30s, stop acting like it is
The big fight is, as others have pointed out, that the structural apparatus of many unions is comprised of young socialist types, and the actual rank and file are (for at least the trades) largely Hitlerites
It also makes me concerned about putting large parts of our health care system in public control if I know the voters will elect someone who cheerfully says they will destroy it while also getting mad when it is destroyed.
Yeah the amount of cognitive dissonance is insane. Like we are seeing complete vindication of the whole “temporarily embarrassed millionaire” quote. It sucks to say but we gotta be reminded of how shit things can get
I mean, it's the labor aristocracy. They can't imagine what it took to get their privileges, and have never been without them, therefore they think they'll have them forever.
There are so many young mostly-men who voted for Trump and the GOP in 2024 are gonna to be absolutely shocked when they are ceremoniously kicked off their parents’ insurance and then denied their own coverage because of pre-existing conditions, I’ll tell you that much.
True. This is every election. Did Democrats just fix things? Vote for Republicans. Did Republicans just break things? Vote for Democrats. Add arrows, put it in a circle.
I think Harris and America getting fucked over in large part because Biden was *such* a good president that a massive voting segment couldn't imagine the stove being hot will be seen as one of history's supreme ironies.
Union workers were never going to vote for a black woman. They can "price of eggs" all they want, but racism, misogyny, or both meant they'd never pull the lever beside her name.
They'd rather destroy the thing that gave them five day work weeks and good wages than be decent fucking people.
A teamster lives a pretty darn good life. Good pay, not too crazy amounts of work, good benefits. The one thing left for them to hunger for is social status.
I wasn't super surprised by it because my great uncle who was a lifelong political activist told me about unions backing Nixon, then getting screwed by him, followed by unions backing Reagan, then getting screwed by him.
American workers and american workers specifically are feral animals worth less than the food needed to feed them. However because they are human beings it is unfortunately the right thing to do to force them into a better future where they less exploited and live better lives. By force.
Completely boggles my mind. I mean, okay, the media did their best to confuse voters on this issue. But if access to abortion is important to you, maybe do a little digging yourself? GOP plans were super clear to anyone who bothered to actually look.
my theory is that the referenda gave the median voter (derogatory) license to think he could have his cake and eat it too--he could vote trump so trump would make him rich while thinking republicans weren't going to hang his wife for having a miscarriage or force his daughter to bleed out in the ER
i do think our side has to realize that too many goddamn voters are dumb pieces of shit manchild who want to have their cake and eat it too, and be accordingly paternalistic
That’s exactly what I was talking about with a friend at a conference immediately post-election - the Dobbs effect mattering in the states but not federally. (Fun fact we actually attended the same conference in November 2016, so THAT was a fun flashback.)
Actually I seriously think you can draw a pretty direct link from Social Studies not being a tested subject in NCLB 2001 and the median voter (*spit*) not realizing that federal law would supersede any state results.
honestly still unhinged how that happened, but even more unhinged was how Biden has been one of our most pro union presidents in history IIRC and he barely did anything
There are three areas where Biden actually showed leadership: unions, climate change, and Afghanistan withdrawal. He got almost no credit for ANY of those.
There’s good independent journalists still and few places (e.g, WIRED, Teen Vogue, ProPublica) who mostly do clear-eyed, responsible work. But the majority of the media is in the tank for Trump/GOP to a level that makes 2016 look like the epitome of fair reporting.
im still rly rly teed off by the bizarrely negative perception among lefties wrt democrat trans legislation. i do not know what reality a lot of these ppl live in
One of mine was when Biden explicitly posted in favor of the Dockworkers Strike, which was going to tank parts of the economy, because he believes SO FUCKING STRONGLY in Union Power, and the unions (right and far left) fucking shrugged
Further convinced my irish catholic ass that rfk was right and that that union is a corrupt cesspool and any union run by white people/WASPs should probably not exist?
This entire bit is an indictment of Biden's strategy of "give voters material gains". This woman admits she got screwed by Trump and helped by Biden, but still sides with Trump
its just a complete rejection of my most deeply held beliefs - that if you help them then they will support you. theres just nothing logical about supporting your helper’s enemy, but it doesn’t register in their minds as a contradiction worth correcting.
Mine was when the left claimed that Hillary Clinton supported Citizens United despite that she...was...the...defendent...in...the...case...that...went...to...SCOTUS ...and...she...lost.
Citizens United literally was an Anti-Hillary campaign program that had been maligning her since 1993.
I got told she would never nominate a supreme court justice who didn't love citizens united by an honest to God lawyer who had passed the bar in 2016 and that was the first time I was like "are we fucked? Like as a country?"
I mean, I figured they would've covered Citizens United in Con Law, since it was one of the largest cases regarding corporate personhood since Santa Clara vs Southern Pacific in 1886.
(For those that don't know, a clerk wrote that "corporations are people". That clerk was a railroad VP.)
It was at the height of Bernie motivated reasoning season in the mid summer so I think they basically started from “she is money in politics and bad” and then worked backwards to find a reason her Supreme Court justices wouldn’t matter.
Agreed. My most radicalizing moment up to this was GOP responding to Sandy Hook by not only failing to pass reasonable gun control measures, but loosening them in states they controlled. I can deal with the GOP being evil fucks, but actual voters who directly benefit from a specific Dem policy???
Also Obama turning out to be RIGHT that even mild inflation would drive voters into a frenzy has effectively killed progressive fiscal policy for at least a generation. I tell people that wages rose for low-income workers for the 1st time in 40 yrs + they say, groceries went up so it doesn’t count.
Maybe? But the media freakout wasn’t about housing prices, but about inflation. It was the first time economic sentiment did NOT track with how well the economy was doing in modern history. Housing prices have been bad for ages, inflation has not been an issue since the 1970s.
I tried talking to other progressive activists who resolutely refused to affirmatively campaign for the benefits of the ARPA, Infrastructure Act or IRA because "you can't just say line goes up while someone is still homeless".
I know Will Stancil demonstrated that campaigning for Harris on the economy was a very uphill climb, but the refusal by other activists to at least not engage in damaging rhetoric in public, at least help the campaign with silence if they won't knock doors, was very frustrating.
As a union man myself, this did huge harm to my view of what solidarity is. I do not feel solidarity with the Teamsters and its become pretty impossible for me to argue the universal goodness of unions. A union that fails to stand in solidarity with OTHER workers is no better than a gang.
The teamsters and most large unions run by WASPs are just that, gangs and liars meant to harm actual progressive policy. From when alabaman white workers killed labor unions in that state to now it hasn't changed
Aren’t you a little confused w/ this, bc didn’t they not technically back Trump, they just refused to endorse a candidate period? Which was a first. And a break from the democrat norms of the past, so thus the non-endorsement was like a tip of the hat to Trump. At least that was my understanding.
Yep. Not a Sean fan. I will say his RNC speech was a message much needed for the intended crowd. But he plays too many games now. He did supposedly try to go to the DNC but they declined his request.
i think Biden sending them money is what caused the leadership to swing rightward, i think they got wined and dined and bribed by Silicon Valley VCs so that the $36 billion goes into VC funds and hedge funds
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They'd rather destroy the thing that gave them five day work weeks and good wages than be decent fucking people.
The Trump administration is going after unions one by one proudly proclaiming "go on strike, you're fired".
Follow the money, the SOB is on the take.
Actually I seriously think you can draw a pretty direct link from Social Studies not being a tested subject in NCLB 2001 and the median voter (*spit*) not realizing that federal law would supersede any state results.
Citizens United literally was an Anti-Hillary campaign program that had been maligning her since 1993.
sure, a lotta lawyers have great general knowledge, but a lot are kinda like physicists with very strong opinions abt the humanities
and u've seen the chuds of the trump legal team
I mean, I figured they would've covered Citizens United in Con Law, since it was one of the largest cases regarding corporate personhood since Santa Clara vs Southern Pacific in 1886.
(For those that don't know, a clerk wrote that "corporations are people". That clerk was a railroad VP.)
It's a distinction without a difference.
i think Biden sending them money is what caused the leadership to swing rightward, i think they got wined and dined and bribed by Silicon Valley VCs so that the $36 billion goes into VC funds and hedge funds