solacekames:

flowercowetherial:

solacekames:

thecheshirecass:

citizen-zero:

like no offense but there’s a lot of y’all leftists on here that are like super well versed in theories and ideology and like you’re not necessarily wrong about things but my GOD do a lot of you love to ignore material realities.

like there’s a lot of you that talk about both political parties being the same and in a lot of ways you’re right but you can’t fucking tell me with a straight face that we’d be in the same situation we’re in now if Clinton had won that election. like you cannot tell me shit would’ve definitely gone this far off the rails under a democratic administration.

and like honestly you can talk all you want about ~the revolution~ but personally I’m at a point where I deadass do not give a fuck. if you’re gonna be more focused on a distant hypothetical pipe dream, instead of working with the reality we’ve got and supporting the people and efforts that have the most real chance to keep the government from fucking us till we’re dead, then I can’t fuck with you. you can’t fight in a revolution if you can’t fucking feed yourself or house yourself or afford to keep yourself alive. a lot of y’all are the mother theresa’s of politics.

Also most of the leftists preaching revolution sure as shit aren’t jumping out into the streets and putting themselves in harm’s way. They want a lot of poor, brown bodies in front of them when the bullets start flying.

I’ll go farther. A lot of these people are just a bunch of goddamn spoiled lazy bitches. Creating real change outside of the electoral system means doing a lot of organizing and community building work. It means fighting (literally or figuratively) with rightwingers every step of the way, and building coalitions with people who don’t look or talk like you or share all of your values. It’s so much easier and safer to yell at so-called “liberals” on the internet, most of whom are just terrified, vulnerable people of color desperate to maintain the rights they’ve won in living memory.

If you’re a fellow leftist who isn’t like that, I strongly believe one of our top priorities, on the cultural level, needs to be getting these assholes who pretend to be on our side to either shape up or ship out. Most of the ones from rich white families are going to turn apolitical or Republicans once they hit their mid twenties, so it’s not like they’d be a great loss. All they do is alienate the potential popular base for a real revolution with their incessant cryptoracist bullshit.

The only thing i’ve seen from the far left is a concerted effort to run better candidates then the democratic establishment. While far too few on the left are canvassing, calling, nocking on doors, or even voting in primaries, it’s also true that centrist democrats have had their chance to fight for our rights, and have thus far folded to the republicans every time. The reality of the situation is that both main stream parties are committed to doing what their donors want from then so they can win elections and stay in office. You know, where they vote for their own pay raises. With the majority of Americans believing third parties are futile, the our best opportunity is to elect better candidates to the democratic ticket in the primaries.

I have to disagree with you partly because getting a candidate elected is only the first step, and it’s much easier than keeping an elected politician accountable and on track. Where the far left can run successful candidates on a Dem ticket (like in The Bronx) they definitely should!  But that’s not a broad sustainable strategy and I’ll try to explain why: 

Legislators, especially state legislators, don’t get paid that much. It’s a relic of our archaic system that legislators are supposed to be gentlemen farmers, basically. For example, in the state of Georgia the yearly compensation of a state legislator is $17,000. That’s impossible to live on, much less hire the kind of services a legislator needs to fully understood the bills they’re supposed to vote on. So generally the only people who run for office are already rich and already dialed into the good old boy network. They’re going to get richer off their elected position, sure, but it’s all through connections and kickbacks and consulting. Often small salaries are more indicative of corruption than large ones, because while salaries are transparent to the public, other forms of remuneration are much less so.

If you put a good leftist candidate into that kind of system, if they don’t have a lot of community support and backing, they’re either going to flame out very quickly or become corrupt. 

My hope for greater far left involvement under a Democratic tent:

1. Field good candidates who seem to truly represent their communities
2. Support those candidates once elected, don’t turn on them once they start making compromises that all politicians have to make
3. But also keep those candidates accountable, make sure they realize they can be turned on and voted out if they don’t deliver!
4. Operate on principles of harm reduction, not purity tests. If a formerly centrist Democrat starts pandering to the left because they realize that’s what’s going to get them elected, that’s a win, not a loss.
5. Educate people about getting involved in the electoral process. This includes fighting voter suppression among communities of color, which is something centrist Dems are already doing, either because of personal belief or simply because they know it’s in their best interests. 
6. Talk about electoral politics as simply one branch of possible political engagement. Other branches include things like community service, self-defense groups, mutual aid, direct action, counter-recruitment (and I’m going to stop now because I’m running out of time but OMG I wish people were working more on counter-recruitment because it’s so important right now. But every time I go looking for material on it, I run into websites that haven’t been updated for ten years)

There was a controversy in the governor’s primary over here over one of the candidates asking for a pay increase as a state legislator. Her opponent spun it as her asking to be paid more out of greed rather then trying to fix that system. I think dirty politics like that encourages state legislators not to rock the boat even if they arent independently wealthy.