Im skeptical a fair bit of time about those congressional 'lefties' but this is true, for the most part they're doing what they can. What I do like most about them is when they show up outside of a legislative capacity, like showing up at strikes or going to meet unions. I think many people discount how important that boots on the ground work is. Imagine being a franchise owner of something trying to snuff out union efforts knowing you're gonna have US Lawmakers who agree with your workers physically there with the workers. You better come correctly in that situation.
this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2023
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Just want to point out that they only showed up in support of the current labor movement after immense pressure was put on them after failing to support the historic Amazon JFK8 union drive. AOC and politicians like her still have to pushed, sometimes hard, to do the right thing.
They show an ability to learn from their mistakes, at a minimum. Can't be said for all.
Sorry man I just fundamentally disagree and feel like you are ignoring/undervaluing the role grassroots organizing plays. This is pure political pressure, not a reevaluation of policy.
I say this specifically because as soon as you give a politician the benefit of doubt and remove that political pressure they stop "learning from their mistakes".
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Good. I hope they achieve far more in the future, it would be a net benefit for everyone, even those who dislike them and their politics
The greatest threat to conservatives is other conservatives. Unfortunately, they’re just too stupid to understand why.
Their own party treats them with more disdain than their supposed "opposition party."
AOC and the other actual left-wing minority making waves in a sea of right-wing neoliberals and righter-wing fascists is amazing. They can't win, the game is fully rigged and the institutions are fully captured by monied interests with political bribery legalized, but it's like watching Cap get up to face Thanos' army alone, it's inspiring.
Too bad no one, including most Americans, are on their left.
Because were too far into the sunk cost fallacy to reject ~~"free market"~~ rigged crony capitalism.
"We can't re-examine our core economic beliefs! We already gave the owners all the money, and they promised for half a century to whip their dicks out and urinate golden showers of prosperity on all of us!... any day now..."
The article makes an argument exactly against this mentality.
Did you read the article?
I read the article, and I agree with Freddie deBoer. This is just liberal apologetics. This is just the same arguments of things are getting better, just wait, blah, blah, blah. I’m old. It’s tired. Give me healthcare and change my mind.
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Isn't that just the progressive left? As far as I know we don't worship figureheads like the fascist right with their orange demigod.
America’s “left” is pretty middle of the road if you compare the US to other first world nations.
Things like free affordable / free university education, universal healthcare, consumer protection, and decent unemployment insurance are not controversial elsewhere. But in the US the right wing claims these boring ass ideas, that the rest of the modern world has embraced, are radical.
If left wing idea were hot sauces, the GOP would think mayo was the Last Dab on Hot Ones.
You can still respect and admire a figurehead without worshipping them. The difference is whether you bend definitions and rules to make exceptions of them when they deviate from expectations.
I mean, the article linked is an AOC apologist quite literally bending “definitions and rules to make exceptions” for her after another columnist said she was "just a regular old Democrat now."
Branding the progressive left the “AOC Left” is also problematic and indicative of some hero worship on the author’s part.
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She's the Obama of millennials, and will probably achieve the same political success. (Once the boomers preventing her ascension all die off.)
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Just as subservience breeds subjugation, so choosing between differing forms of exploitation can only result in continued exploitation. Being asked to choose between capitalism and fascism does not change the direction we are travelling in, it only marginally changes the route we are taking to get there.
subservience breeds subjugation
I like that phrasing, goes well with 'civility breeds cowardice'.
Can I ask where that quote is from? Or is it your own?
My own, used often in the same context you use yours.
Civility breeds cowardice, when will people learn that their civility has been abused by those with hands on their throats and their wallets.
This article said basically nothing about what the “AOC left” has actually accomplished. It’s just a pro-Dem puff piece. Also, the author clearly doesn’t understand who leftists are.
How far did you get in this article?
The article sites examples such as the left dragging the party into supporting:
- a much bigger social safety net during the pandemic
- debt forgiveness
- investing a shitload in transitioning to green tech
I could go on. Read the article.
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Jesus I couldn't even finish the article. It was a long winded "but the Democrats are good actually!" Sheepdog bullshit piece.
This article is about progressives changing the Democratic parties objectives/policies and does give examples.
Between 2009 and 2020, many left-wing Democrats agitated for their party to embrace a “full employment” macroeconomic policy. AOC was among them. Then, when the COVID crisis hit, Democrats did as these progressives advised.
...
In 2020, congressional Democrats insisted on increasing unemployment benefits to a level that left many laid-off workers with more income than they’d previously earned at their jobs. Under Biden, meanwhile, Democrats enacted a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill on a party-line vote. The party’s decision to pursue stimulus on this scale — after Congress had already appropriated trillions of dollars in relief spending — was explicitly motivated by the left’s critique of Obama. As New York Times reported in 2021:
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Since Occupy Wall Street, the American left has made student debt forgiveness one of its core policy demands. The Biden administration has taken extraordinary measures to answer that call. The president has successfully canceled a record $116.6 billion in forgiveness for 3.4 million borrowers. He has also attempted to unilaterally cancel at least $10,000 of student debt for virtually every U.S. borrower.
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so most of this article was excuses as to why progressives supposedly cant achieve anything.
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