I agree with the sentiment, but in practice the world of politics prohibits such drastic actions without employing violence and ultimately authoritarian control. Unless you can convince the centrists otherwise.
It’s not about what we want or what is right. It’s about what is possible, by necessity. Our entire system is predicated on the importance of equality, which means people who disagree with you (if there are enough of them) must be allowed a seat at the negotiating table, and be allowed to get some of what they want.
This way the government can efficiently produce results, which voters can see, which in turn convinces them to continue supporting those leaders, which enables the leaders to continue to improve the system. This is just kinda how reform works, as opposed to revolution, which has a tendency towards unpredictable results that may sometimes unintentionally create something worse than what existed before. Like, we wanted equality but ended up with the Holodomor. Oopsie.
Yeah, it’s deeply frustrating, something that took years to build can be torn down in a day. Centrists can be annoying sometimes. This is why we need to convince people to support progressive policies though. Grassroots has always been our strength, one voter at a time. This makes it very important to deliver them something, even if its imperfect, to reward their support when we do manage to win.
Republicans realized this, and it is why they obstruct anything that improves life for everyday people at every opportunity, and then redirect anger towards culture war issues. We can’t let that strategy continue to succeed, we have to deliver progress. At least something.
To me, though, it’s important to manage expectations. When people set their heart on getting everything instead of working with the genuinely ugly realities of real life politics, it just hurts both them and their team. It would be one thing if the left had a majority, but a majority was not secured. We can’t just pretend we have one when we actually don’t, and that shouldn’t stop us from working to improve the lives of our people as best we can.
I agree with the sentiment, but in practice the world of politics prohibits such drastic actions without employing violence and ultimately authoritarian control. Unless you can convince the centrists otherwise.
It’s not about what we want or what is right. It’s about what is possible, by necessity. Our entire system is predicated on the importance of equality, which means people who disagree with you (if there are enough of them) must be allowed a seat at the negotiating table, and be allowed to get some of what they want.
This way the government can efficiently produce results, which voters can see, which in turn convinces them to continue supporting those leaders, which enables the leaders to continue to improve the system. This is just kinda how reform works, as opposed to revolution, which has a tendency towards unpredictable results that may sometimes unintentionally create something worse than what existed before. Like, we wanted equality but ended up with the Holodomor. Oopsie.
Funny how going the opposite way (super high to super low taxes for the rich) didn’t require violence or authoritarians in power…
It does actually. The status quo is maintained by authoritarians utilizing the state to enact violence against the working class.
Yeah, it’s deeply frustrating, something that took years to build can be torn down in a day. Centrists can be annoying sometimes. This is why we need to convince people to support progressive policies though. Grassroots has always been our strength, one voter at a time. This makes it very important to deliver them something, even if its imperfect, to reward their support when we do manage to win.
Republicans realized this, and it is why they obstruct anything that improves life for everyday people at every opportunity, and then redirect anger towards culture war issues. We can’t let that strategy continue to succeed, we have to deliver progress. At least something.
The French have a solution for that too. I think the rich folks will prefer this option.
lol Yeah, you are not wrong.
To me, though, it’s important to manage expectations. When people set their heart on getting everything instead of working with the genuinely ugly realities of real life politics, it just hurts both them and their team. It would be one thing if the left had a majority, but a majority was not secured. We can’t just pretend we have one when we actually don’t, and that shouldn’t stop us from working to improve the lives of our people as best we can.