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Cowbee [he/him]

Cowbee@lemmy.ml
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Actually, this town has more than enough room for the two of us

He/him or they/them, doesn’t matter too much

Marxist-Leninist ☭

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Little of A, little of B. Neon is making the false claim that leftists lost Harris the election, which is a separate argument from my initial claim that the Democrats are largely ineffective both because they fumbled the election majorly and failed to introduce meaningful protective policies against Republicans.

My claim was double-sided, they are arguing with one side of my claim, ergo I think it had merit.

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It’s important to note that there are 2 possibilities:

  1. Leftists had little influence, and therefore did not impact the election. This is further reinforced by the fact that many leftists did vote for Harris, leftists are not a monolith. Therefore, the problem is with how the Harris campaign fared compared to Biden in 2020. I believe this is more likely.

  2. Leftists had major influence, and the Democrats knowingly gambled on moving rightward. This is still a failure of the Democrats! If Leftists actually have the power claimed, then the minimum Harris could have done is run a similar campaign to Biden, not “Republican-lite.”

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  1. Get organized. Join a Leftist org, find solidarity with fellow comrades, and protect each other. The Dems will not save you, it is up to the Workers to protect themselves. The Party for Socialism and Liberation and Freedom Road Socialist Organization both organize year round, every year, because the battle for progress is a constant struggle, not a single election. See if there is a chapter near you, or start one! Or, see if there’s an org you like more near you and join it, the point is that organizing is the best thing any leftist can do.

  2. Read theory. A good primer is Blackshirts and Reds. It will help contextualize what fascism is, what causes it, and how to stop it. I can offer a good introductory reading list regarding Marxism if you’d like, but this is a good starting point.

  3. Aggressively combat white supremacy, misogyny, queerphobia, and other attacks on marginalized communities. Cede no ground.

  4. Be more industrious, and self-sufficient. Take up gardening, home repair, tinkering. It is through practice that you elevate your problem-solving capabilities. Not only will you improve your skill at one subject, but your general problem-solving muscles get strengthened as well. Theory guides practice, which sharpens theory to be reapplied to better practice.

  5. Learn self-defense. Get armed, if practical. Be ready to protect yourself and others. The Democrats will not save us, we must save each other.

  6. Be persistent. If you feel like a single water driplet against a mountain, think of the Grand Canyon. Oh, how our efforts pile up! With consistency, every rock, boulder, even mountain, can be drilled through with nothing but steady and persistent water droplets.

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Again, Harris was up in the polls when she was using successful tactics like targeting Republicans, calling them weird, and the slogan “We Will Not Go Back!” Those were popular, she had great momentum. And then she catered to the right, her polls plumeted, and she handily lost even the popular vote.

Harris and her campaign chose to run to the right of Biden in 2020. No promises of Student Loan Forgiveness, no Medicare For All, nothing, the only issue she took a hard stance on was abortion rights. She campaigned with Liz Cheney in the context of an ongoing genocide of Palestinians, this is a tremendous failure in understanding the optics of an election.

No, FRSO, PSL, Jill Stein, no Leftist or left-leaning boycott made a damn difference in the end. It all ended up being Harris failing to replicate the positive emotions surrounding the 2020 election with broad, popular policies. You have absolutely no evidence that fringe leftists somehow influenced people into staying home when Harris herself campaigned to the right of a successful Biden 2020 campaign. They tossed the winning formula into the dirt.

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I am telling you that if every single third party voter, including the libertarians that voted for Oliver, all voted for Harris and convinced several others to do so each, Harris would have still lost. This is an irrefutable fact, the Democrats failed to run a campaign that brought out voters like they did in 2020. They fumbled big time by not promising popular policies like Medicare for All, and the genocide in Palestine has only hurt her campaign.

The blame is not with the leftists, who are too small in number to make a difference one way or the other, but on the Democratic Party.

Finally, even if the Leftists had decided the election (which we proved they did not), then again, it was a failure of the Democratic Party to push to the right with Liz Cheney endorsements, rather than courting this imaginary powerful Leftist voting block.

Either way, it isn’t on Leftists.

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Marxists didn’t sabotage the Democrats, the Democrats sabotaged themselves. Third party voters swayed 0 elections, especially not swing states. The truth is that the Democrats failed to rile up their base, Harris stopped doing what was effective like calling Republicans weird, then shifted to Liz Cheney endorsements to court the right.

The idea that the .1-.5% of votes that went to Stein or De La Crúz swayed an election where Harris handily lost 1-2% at minimum in nearly every swing state caused her loss is laughable. It was not the Leftists making any difference on the election, it was the failure of the Democratic Party and the Harris campaign.

Where was Medicare for All? Where was “Build Back Better?” Where were the solid, progressive policies that encouraged massive voter turnout in 2020 that evaporated in 2024? Gone, from both the campaign and the voterbase.

Whether you identify as a leftist or not, blaming a tiny group on swaying a massive election where non-voters would have beaten both Harris and Trump is silly. Look at the vote counts, the fact is that the Dems failed by their own lack of merit. This is the first time in several decades where a Republican has won the popular vote, the real, material numbers cannot be ignored. They are real, and need to be taken seriously.

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  1. Get organized. Join a Leftist org, find solidarity with fellow comrades, and protect each other. The Dems will not save you, it is up to the Workers to protect themselves. The Party for Socialism and Liberation and Freedom Road Socialist Organization both organize year round, every year, because the battle for progress is a constant struggle, not a single election. See if there is a chapter near you, or start one! Or, see if there’s an org you like more near you and join it, the point is that organizing is the best thing any leftist can do.

  2. Read theory. A good primer is Blackshirts and Reds. It will help contextualize what fascism is, what causes it, and how to stop it. I can offer a good introductory reading list for Marxism if you’d like, but this is a good starting point.

  3. Aggressively combat white supremacy, misogyny, queerphobia, and other attacks on marginalized communities. Cede no ground.

  4. Be more industrious, and self-sufficient. Take up gardening, home repair, tinkering. It is through practice that you elevate your problem-solving capabilities. Not only will you improve your skill at one subject, but your general problem-solving muscles get strengthened as well. Theory guides practice, which sharpens theory to be reapplied to better practice.

  5. Learn self-defense. Get armed, if practical. Be ready to protect yourself and others. The Democrats will not save us, we must save each other.

  6. Be persistent. If you feel like a single water driplet against a mountain, think of the Grand Canyon. Oh, how our efforts pile up! With consistency, every rock, boulder, even mountain, can be drilled through with nothing but steady and persistent water droplets.

permalink
report
reply
  1. Get organized. Join a Leftist org, find solidarity with fellow comrades, and protect each other. The Dems will not save you, it is up to the Workers to protect themselves. The Party for Socialism and Liberation and Freedom Road Socialist Organization both organize year round, every year, because the battle for progress is a constant struggle, not a single election. See if there is a chapter near you, or start one! Or, see if there’s an org you like more near you and join it, the point is that organizing is the best thing any leftist can do.

  2. Read theory. A good primer is Blackshirts and Reds. It will help contextualize what fascism is, what causes it, and how to stop it. I can offer more advanced reading lists regarding Marxism if you’d like, but this is a good starting point.

  3. Aggressively combat white supremacy, misogyny, queerphobia, and other attacks on marginalized communities. Cede no ground.

  4. Be more industrious, and self-sufficient. Take up gardening, home repair, tinkering. It is through practice that you elevate your problem-solving capabilities. Not only will you improve your skill at one subject, but your general problem-solving muscles get strengthened as well. Theory guides practice, which sharpens theory to be reapplied to better practice.

  5. Learn self-defense. Get armed, if practical. Be ready to protect yourself and others. The Democrats will not save us, we must save each other.

  6. Be persistent. If you feel like a single water driplet against a mountain, think of the Grand Canyon. Oh, how our efforts pile up! With consistency, every rock, boulder, even mountain, can be drilled through with nothing but steady and persistent water droplets.

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We are on an international internet forum, basing terminology on the Overton Window of the US is silly. What makes more sense is to not rely on arbitrary vibes and lines that shift second by second and instead base terminology off of structures.

The center-left includes moderate Socialists and Market Socialists, having structures that support and reinforce Capitalism like Social Democracy creep across into “left” territory blurs the lines in ways that add confusion.

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Nice! Hope you enjoy it!

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