Yale historian Timothy Snyder notes that voting is the most important way to stop fascism in the United States.
“Hitler came to power after an election which enabled his appointment as head of government. It is much easier for fascists to begin from within than to begin from without. Hitler’s earlier coup attempt failed. But once he had legitimate power, inside the system as chancellor (prime minister), he could manipulate it from within. In the American system, ‘voting’ means not just going to the polls yourself, but making donations, phone-banking, and knocking on doors. We are still, happily, at the stage when unglamorous actions can make the difference.”
Also, coalitions are necessary. “In 1932, in the crucial German election, the far left and the center left were separated. The reasons for this were very specific: Stalin ordered the German communists to oppose the German social democrats, thereby helping Hitler to power. To be sure, the American political spectrum is very different, as are the times. Yet the general lesson does suggest itself: the left has to hold together with the the center-left, and their energies have to be directed at the goal rather than at each other.”
I have some hope that even on a rather lefty place like (most of) Lemmy, the dialogue among the left is a lot less tolerant of far-left absolutism than I sometimes see. Hopefully lefty infighting can take a backseat long enough for right wing threats to lessen.
I mean no, but I’ve long ago made my peace that I’ll get downvotes from the far left when I veer away from the groupthink. Whatever. It’s fine that they want to go further left as long as they vote to keep Trump out of power. I actually miss having a sane right that offers an alternative to candidates I disagree with, but right now I’m all in. You want to come destroy my suburban way of life? Sure, buddy, but let’s just beat fascism first.
People seem to think that calling everyone a Nazi is the best way to build a powerful coalition.
Unfortunately that may have been true before trumps first election, and the now corruption of the Supreme Court. We are at the point where we must succeed at every possible election until the end of time… and the numbers now look like absolute trash. Even if Biden wins this time the damage has been done, we can only lose footing against the slow slide into fascism.
Liberals that thought they were stopping Nazis voted for the lesser evil that always leads to right wing power. Until they realize lesser evil does not exist they will keep repeating their fuckup.
A vote for Biden isnt stopping fascism when their ratchet effect enables it.
I see this dynamic in our two party system:
The governing party makes wealth inequality worse.
The difference between R’s and D’s is how quickly they sprint toward greater and greater wealth inequality.
R’s don’t even discuss economics beyond offering meaningless platitudes. R’s never use economic metrics outside national deficit and never hold themselves responsible outside cutting all the social programs. This is what they call “fiscal responsibility” (to their billionaire donors).
D’s pretend to care about economics and do use a few metrics but always deceptively. They talk about jobs gained but never the conditions of those jobs. They talk about inflation slowing but never talk about the inability of the bottom quintile to build wealth.
Thus economics is guaranteed to worsen no matter who is in power. Which when this gets bad enough, the center folds, because very few can tolerate the status quo. So people rush to political radicalism on the left and on the right, because people want “anything but THIS!”
Both parties are complicit and work together to fuck the people over.
If voting just makes it worse slower, then what can We the People do to make it better?
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Advocacy. Mouth to mouth education like what you are already doing. Too few people understand yet. We need more people with this same understanding first.
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Direct action, and I don’t exclude anything. Protests and strikes make an impact, but they are just two forms of direct action out of infinity. Direct action means taking matters into your own hands instead of delegating.
The thing is, if you want to take the more radical forms of direct action while still staying relatively safe yourself, you need broad popular support. See #1 above.
Eventually, the primary beneficiaries and boosters of the status quo, the billionaires, will fold.
