Haven’t you read their messaging? They are just perfectly innocent Democrat supporters who are super concerned about Biden’s chances in the election. Also they talk about Cornel West sometimes. For some reason they are not concerned about his chances in the election; they just really like what he has to say, and they’re going to vote for him. Flawless.
They each served one term. Just compare their actions.
Biden rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement, revoked the Keystone Pipeline permit, created a 13 million acre federal petroleum reserve for Alaskan wildlife, greatly increased oil site lease cost, signed $7B in solar subsidies, invested $66B in passenger rail, enacted the Inflation Reduction act to support clean energy, increased energy efficiency standards on cars, appliances, and industry, created new permitting rules to streamline transmission lines, leveraged the NLRB for an FTC ruling that eliminated non-compete agreements, capped credit card late fees, reduced or outlawed junk fees in several industries, forgave billions in student debt from predatory loans, created the CHIPS Act to improve reliance on domestic technology, reenacted Net Neutrality, repealed Title 42, ended the Muslim Ban, reinstated the law prohibiting Israeli settlement on Palestinian territory, signed the Equality Act for LGBTQ+ rights, restored gay rights to beneficiaries, pardoned thousands of gay veterans from being convicted based on their sexual orientation, reenacted trans care anti-discrimination law, signed the Respect for Marriage Act, enabled unspecified gender on US Passports, rejoined WHO, banned medical debt from credit reports, currently rescheduling marijuana, is actively reducing drug costs with the American Rescue Plan Act…
Trump repealed 112 climate regulations, left the Paris Climate Agreement, disbanded the pandemic response team stalling national pandemic response, left the WHO, repealed trans care anti-discrimination law, repealed gay rights to beneficiaries, enacted Title 42 and the Muslim ban, repealed the law prohibiting Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory, repealed Net Neutrality, provided tax cuts to the wealthy that further widened our already exploitative wealth inequality, increased tariffs on goods costing the consumers, seated the conservatives in SCOTUS that repealed Roe v. Wade…
Those are great and work well if you want to convince people who are leaning Biden, but if you want to convince Trump leaners, you might tweak the wordings a little. No need to mention the dangerous parts of anti-women’s rights stuff (ie. wanting to forbid abortion, thereby making women’s deaths much more likely), because that won’t convince them. The language they understand of “climate” is not “good measures”, but “I’m getting taxed and now I can’t pay my bills”. You need to speak in terms of fear, because that is what they are: afraid. Speak of fear, that the person who makes their bills higher, is actually Trump. Don’t do so by directly starting with how Trump is bad. Instead, say, interesting you vote for him, question, question more, push, but not too far… and then once you got them hooked, question them by fears. Then don’t tell them what the answer is (unless if they ask or seem to want one), but let them think. Let them figure it out. This will have a better effect.
“Biden respects the Constitution, because he let Hunter be trialed. Biden criticised the new rule. This whereas Trump called the Constitutional courts, who were IN HIS favour, into question. With the new rule, Biden could assassinate Trump. Trump could assassinate YOU. And he’d get away with it. Under Trump’s judges, the President gets power to affect YOUR life. Do you think any president should be able to infringe on your personal life?”
And to (very religious) Christians and (xenophobes); “As Christians, it is our Duty to be Good Neighbours. Then the Word will spread better. But can we be good neighbours, if we deny people being neighbours in the first place? If we drive out native people from their homeland? If you are a Servant of God, should you then not choose to let Palestinians have their own state, without being colonised by foreigners? Only then will the Palestinian refugees stop protesting with violence, and go back to their homelands. This is not a matter of what I think, but of what a Good Christian should see: injustice done upon us, injustice done upon them, injustice upon us all. Let us thus gather together.”
Granted, I’m not familiar with all what happens in the USA, but perhaps those also help.
You’re right. This won’t convince a Trump voter to vote for Biden. They dismiss anything from “liberal news” which is every outlet besides the far-right. It’s been my experience that talking to a Trump supporter is kicking water uphill.
I wrote that to do what Biden’s campaign is failing to do, speak to all of his accomplishments next to Trump’s “accomplishments,” in hopes of informing the discouraged, disengaged, and disenfranchised.
If you have enough money I would suggest moving to the south side of the border. If you have some kind of digital business you can buy a lot of nice things if you pay with USDs in a third world country.
Call your democratic politicians (if you have any) Governor/Senators/House Rep and advocate for pressure for Biden to step down gracefully from the ticket… then prepare to vote for Biden in November because that’s a hell of a longshot.
If you’re talking to people on the fence about voting or not focus more on Biden’s policy achievements instead of Trump being a boogie man. Anyone liberal who is considering sitting out this election has already internally decided that Trump is an acceptable outcome for trying to change the two party system or to avoid dirtying their hands voting for Biden to continue genocide - pushing against people’s fervently held beliefs is a waste of energy… the media really hasn’t put much attention on things that Biden has accomplished so talking those things up won’t make people defensive - you never want to directly challenge someone’s fervently held beliefs because it is extremely difficult to shift those.
I’m reading this and having flashbacks to me campaigning for Hillary in 2016 and agreeing with people on doorsteps: yeah she’s not great but she’s much better than the alternative.
Don’t have a genocidal sundowning segregationist nominated without a rank-and-file voting process with multiple candidates. Or accept that you are not really in charge of any of this when it comes to The Democratic Party and therefore you should place your political focus on ways to build and wield power that do not depend on it.
ways to build and wield power that do not depend on it.
How would one go about it? Would be useful if it’s in a general context, as I’m not a North American.
As has consistently been the case for people in our position, our power comes from our ability to organize and take collective action and to develop the question you asked even further and for the conditions in our own countries. This in contrast to what our rulers tell us gives us power (in reality, they give us instructions on how to maintain their power), which is usually some kind of institutional cooption, like joining an NGO or nagging people to vote for their oppressors or doing some slight participation in a milquetoast political party.
Increasing our organization and choosing good actions to take is not an easy process, though it is often surprisingly simple to describe. To be more organized we have to meet with one another, we must gain the skills to convince others to join up with us, to compile the information needed to contact interested parties, to strategically work in coalition with other organizations, to train each other regularly in the core tasks or running any organization. To choose the right actions to take, we must read political theory and history, teach this to each other, and understand how it applies (or does not) to our current situations. The political theory that is the most useful is that which is usually not taught, not even to criticize, but is glossed over or told stories about - it’s the political theory of the left and a fearless critical reading of history.
Because our institutions educationally neglect us so severely, particularly when it comes to the tools for our own liberation, it can take a while before you might feel like you are confident or ready to go. That is okay and normal. There’s nothing wrong with taking some time to read or to simply try things out a little first.
So I would recommend two things.
The first is to begin reading the political theory of the left and history. There may already be great authors and movements where you live, or there may have been some in the past. They can help you get an idea for who our enemy is (the ruling class) and what different movements have attempted (successfully and not) in the past. Try just one book at first. I often recommend that people start with Blackshirts & Reds by Michael Parenti, as it is a good primer in what we all need to unlearn, or at least take a skeptical lens to, when it comes to the mass media telling of history and politics vs. what actually happened. The value of reading is that it will help you and everyone you talk to choose good actions to take collectively. Those who do not understand the nature of the system we must fight will choose the wrong actions and may even hurt our interests. So education is not just a good thing in itself, it is a tool of political organization.
The second is to get involved with an organization that does mass left politics. There are certain kinds of organizations I would recommend avoiding and I’ll explain more if you ask about it. But most organizations that take a proper ground-up approach and are not an NGO will probably be a useful experience for you and your ability to politically organize. It will likely be useful even if you eventually leave that group for another!
Thank you.
read political theory and history
Which books other than the one that you mentioned(thanks for that), would you recommend? Introductory ones that are modern/contemporary, if possible.
I’ve been recommended State & rev and I have read it, but it seems that eventhough I get the idea, I don’t have the foundation and context(didn’t understand who all the people mentioned in it are) to fully understand it. Maybe I need to reread it.
Are there any books that you’d recommend about organising and the associated skills/strategy needed for it?
Could I ask a related question:
In my place I’m seeing communal polarisation increasing. Or it is becoming more evident. How would one oppose that in a populace where religion and caste hold good sway, without the opposition giving it more power accidently?
I’ve seen leftist n leftish organisations being affected by this.
To add to the extensive information you’ve already been given, I would highly recommend the Anarchist FAQ, which is all good, but specifically section J breaks down the “what can we do about it” part.
The anarchist Library in general is a fantastic resource, another good place to start might be David Graeber’s Are You An Anarchist? The Answer May Surprise You! or Kropotkin’s Mutual Aid.
Happy exploring!
