cross-posted from: https://jlai.lu/post/45502817
[purple, speaking]
We could fix everything
[purple, proudly]
It’d be easy actually, we have most of the political power
[purple, smug]
But we won’t
[zoom on purple’s face, smiling creepily at us]
https://thebad.website/comic/could
When was the last time they actually had a filibuster proof majority? Oh yeah, that was in Obama’s first term nearly 20 years ago.
I love how Democrats need a “filibuster proof majority” before they even pretend that they are doing something for the working class. But with a slight majority, they immediately bow down to help the Republicans.
Thats not what was said or what happens. If you want sweeping changes, you need a majoeity big enough to overcome the filibuster that will vote for that change. If you only have a simple majority, you need to go through reconciliation which may only be used for budgetary issues, must pass the judgement of the parliamentarian, and the secure at least 51 votes in the senate for the budget to pass, and may only be done twice per congressional period. Those are the rules the government factually operate by. And some of these can be changed, but again require enough elected members who want to change those rules in order to pass a specific law that would not otherwise have the votes. Which still means that we need to vote in as many democrats as possible to achieve reform. Something we have not had anything resembling since Obama’s first term, nearly 20 years ago, under an entirely different political paradigm
If you want sweeping changes, you need a majoeity big enough to overcome the filibuster that will vote for that change.
You mean the thing that the Republicans never have before their sweeping changes?
If you only have a simple majority, you need to go through reconciliation which may only be used for budgetary issues, must pass the judgement of the parliamentarian, and the secure at least 51 votes in the senate for the budget to pass, and may only be done twice per congressional period.
Actually, half of that you don’t need. Democrats do stuff all the time without going through that, but only when it’s what their doners want. When it’s the working class that wants it, suddenly they pretend that their hands are tied.
Which still means that we need to vote in as many democrats as possible to achieve reform.
Something that they’ve had plenty of opportunities to do, but keep pretending that they can’t do. Also, why would I want to vote in as many people in a party that fights against things like healthcare for all, or supports genocide, or bombs kids?
Something we have not had anything resembling since Obama’s first term, nearly 20 years ago, under an entirely different political paradigm.
And what did Obama do with it? He screwed over the voters, bombed a bunch of innocent people, gave handouts to his rich friends, and increased spending to the military.
Biden had similar opportunities, and just followed Obama’s playbook.
And how did they use it?
Passed obama care, and they were only 2 or 3 votes away from universal Healthcare
Ahh yes the republican crafted Healthcare plan formerly known as Romneycare. So glad they fixed Healthcare in america! What a crowning achievement. /s
Mamdani entered his office on his first day on the job, and when he moved all that stacked up paperwork from past Mayoral Bums, he found a red button that said Something Good. He pressed the button, and Something Good happened. So he pressed it again. And again.
Any previous mayor could have pressed that button, but they just didn’t. Furthermore, there’s a button like that on EVERY politician’s desk. They could press that button at any time, but they just choose not to.
Mamdani is showing what happens when politicians choose to press that button. We have to convince a lot more politicians to start pressing that button, and it seems like they are starting to hear the message.
The corporations are in charge
Could also be applied to the Spanish Socialist Party
There is no saving your system because it was rigged against you from the beginning. Got to bring it all down and start anew. Shouldnt be too much, considering how americans pride themselves on their independence revolution against oppression?
Shouldnt be too much, considering how americans pride themselves on their independence revolution against oppression?
It’s been engineered (deliberately and accidentally) to be as hard as possible: https://edgnts.substack.com/p/why-americans-dont-just-do-something
There is probably some positive way to break the system too and it would likely work much better than what i originally thought. I think the clue is in what the oppressors have spent decades in brainwashing the people to hate.
Either that or complete chaos and burning it all to the ground
The positive way is organizing a political movement on the spot, since every actually progressive organization was labeled “communist” (synonyms of terrorist), discredited, stunted via infiltration and propaganda implying impotency, and/or had it’s leaders assassinated
So that’s what we’re doing. It’s going better than could be reasonably expected (we find out how well in a couple weeks), but it’s going to take time. This election we’re going from having zero political voice to taking several dozen key seats, and over the next two years we need to leverage these these seats to build public trust that change is possible and overcome a lifetime of propoganda
Burning it all down isn’t really an option. Even if the majority of the population was willing to go that route (and we have not suffered nearly enough for that).
If we achieved it, tens of millions would starve and the federal government would survive. There’s multiple underground shelter systems where a predefined list of “key leadership” can be stashed for like 2 years
We have a “just in time” economy - both food production and food distribution (at each individual level and category of foodstuffs) operate like cartels, and if these megacorps fall cities will begin to starve after about 2 weeks. Our supply lines can’t handle a loud sneeze without snapping, things like COVID or the avian flu caused disruptions that lasted months and have had ongoing effects
In other countries, you could raid the storehouses and organize with the farmers. In ours, the farmers get the chickens from a megacorp, they get the feed from the megacorp, they sell the chickens and eggs to the megacorp. The seeds are bought from a megacorp, the depleted soil requires petro-fertilizers, the “smart” tractors and harvesters can only be maintained with megacorp technicians. Two companies supply almost every institution and restaurant with food, three companies own nearly every grocery chain, two (regional) companies control all the chicken, three control most of the leafy greens, etc
We have independent farmers and farm to table restaurants, but the overwhelming majority passes through monopsonies
Meanwhile, the military is the backup plan for everything. They have contingencies for every apocalypse scenario, including a general uprising or mass starvation, and they all end with “and this is how we restore ‘order’ and reinstall the government”
Every organization exists to perpetuate itself, but the US Federal government is the most resilient organization ever
TLDR: The only real options are a political takeover against the united will of both political parties, or a military coup. We’re trying for the first option
i really hope you succeed
Thank you. People love to shit on Americans (especially on Lemmy), but the truth is my people are suffering, and things will get much worse before they get better. We’ve got an impossible flight on our hands, and even if we win, we’re still living in a collapsing empire
But things can still be better, especially locally…I know it’s true, and if I say it enough I hope I’ll start to believe it again
So I really appreciate the empathy
My system?
well, i assumed you are american as you post american political memes. But i mean the political system in place there, the whole stupid republicans vs democrats thing. That whole thing has to go
I agree with you about pointless electoralism. But no, I’m not American, I just have a vested interest in what happens there, as do we all.
People don’t wield power. Power wields people.
If your model of change is focused on the behavior of individuals instead of systems, you’ll never get anywhere.
Yeah, focusing on the system is important. But there are very clear an obvious examples of individual people who could have worked on making things better, and chose not to.
It’s important to point out their unwillingness. Some might even say that to focus on why they keep doing that, is to focus on the system…
