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108

The "Both Sides" Argument (web.archive.org)

submitted 1 year ago by Dee_Imaginarium@beehaw.org to c/politics@beehaw.org

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"When someone says both sides, its obvious they have not been watching the actions of the political parties. Lets look how they vote." - /u/armored_cat

Really annoys me when I read apathetic people saying that Dems and Reps are the same. Yes, there's a lot of crony corpos in the Dems side but they are in no way even close to the same. There's a lot of stuff the Dems have done that I'm not a fan of, but are still not even close to being the same as Reps.

This is a great comment that outlines the stark differences on voting records that I archived so it wasn't lost.

They are not the same, make sure you vote to keep the fascists out. Also vote in the primaries so we can get more progressive/populist representatives as candidates. Voting is not the only answer to salvage the future but it's definitely a part of the answer.

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[–] thepaperpilot@beehaw.org 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I'm personally a pretty hardcore leftist, and from this position both liberalism and conservatism are too right leaning for me. Of course the democrats are closer to me, but I think it's important to keep in mind they are conservative lite, not truly left leaning. Establishment Dems in particular do not have the best interests in the people in mind, similar to Republicans. "Both sides" are acting to preserve capitalism and consolidate power, not distribute it.

With that in mind, the typical "both sides" argument that there's extremists on both sides is ludicrous to me. Extreme leftism doesn't mean forgiving student debt or implementing a UBI, it's banning corporations in lieu of co-ops, or replacing any company that provides things we need to survive with state-run monopolies (like single payer healthcare, for example). Neither side is left enough, and rhetoric that there's a happy medium between the two parties will end with us being incredibly right leaning.

Edit: should have mentioned Biden forcing the striking rail workers to go back to work. That is not leftism; democrats are not an extremist party.

[–] Dee_Imaginarium@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago

Completely agree, the Dems have a lot of changing to do before they're close to representing what the people truly want and need. But they are the political party that's more left leaning and could more easily be pushed to a progressive stance with proper primary turnout from voters. You raise a lot of additional points on areas they need to improve on that I didn't cover in the post though.

[–] psudo@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, the US is now in this weird state where center right policies are accused of being communist.

[–] szczur@szmer.info 1 points 1 year ago

There's one singular social-democrat party in Poland and it's being branded "hardcore left", "communist" and even "bolshevik" so it's not just US. Truth be told, Poland has always played a racoon role - stealing ideas, but just from the trash. We are dangerously close to the two party system, too.

Fuck me.