Comment on necessary read

hark@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• KombatWombat@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  People tend to approve of their own representatives, and blame others in Congress for unsolved issues. We have become good at identifying problems while minimizing our own contributions to them. And in general, as a country we are very divided on the way things should be changing.

  For presidential candidates especially, I’ve found people tend to latch on to reasons to dislike someone and ignore positive things, except perhaps for their favorite candidate. It’s a form of tribalism. But from what I remember Trump and Hilary were both considered distinctly weak candidates at the time.

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  • Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Hilary […] considered distinctly weak

    Not by the same proto blumaga libs who insisted Biden and Harris were strong candidates. If you pointed out people were suffering and her policies and messaging was “get a high paying job lmao”, you got bombarded with “sHE iS ThE mOsT qUaLiFiEd cAnDiDAtE iN hIsToRy”.

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• frostedtrailblazer@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I believe that’s an overstatement, not all politicians are corrupt. There are many members of Congress that are working to make things better and pass progressive legislation. AOC and Bernie for instance haven’t been silenced and replaced by big corporations.

  I agree with you that the US’ federal Congress is more pro-billionaire, but there are still people that want to make things better. The issue is that those people do not have the votes to pass progressive legislation. Lots of people are seemingly happy with the status quo given that half of the states predominantly vote Republican each election cycle.

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  • hark@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The non-corrupt ones are a tiny minority and get drowned out by well-funded opposition. If the tide even hints at turning then the billionaires turn to straight-up fascism, as we’re seeing now.

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    • frostedtrailblazer@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I wouldn’t say they’re necessarily tiny but they are a minority by far. 94/213 of the Democrats in the House are part progressive caucus for instance, which is 94/435 total seats in the House. Having 1/100 of the seats in the Senate by comparison.

      Imo they just do what they can get away with. Which will continue for the foreseeable next three years at minimum.

      For progressive change, it really needs to happen at the state level within Blue states. We need those programs passed at the state level and then we can sell how successful they are to the other states.

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• moonluna@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  You are right. Americans are slaves, tricked into thinking their votes count. But people must understand the enemy is the corruption found by members of both parties. Democratic and Republican

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  • frostedtrailblazer@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I wouldn’t say Americans are tricked, but a vote for positive change tends to be met with a vote for change nothing by someone on the other side of the aisle.

    People’s best bets is really to focus on making their own states more progressive and pass those progressive programs at the state level. Banking on having the federal government pass the progressive programs people want is not going to work

    People living in Purple and Red states are going to need to see Blue states thriving from progressive policies if they’re going to be convinced to change their voting habits. People living in Blue states should no longer be banking on doing the more caring option of passing progressive programs federally, instead Blue States should be willing to go into debt to fund these progressive programs.

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