And I do agree with that.
I’m not American and we have the same issues here.
But the answer has to be putting in grassroots support and fighting the power where you can. By the time Biden and then Harris had secured the DNC nomination it was way too late.
I think right now the world at large needs big changes, and corporate power needs to be reigned in. But you have to engage with the possibilities in front of you, even though they suck. You can and should try to create new ones, but it’s a fight, and you have to treat it like one.
TheRealKuni@piefed.social 1 day ago
And you can only believe that if you ignore every bit of progress that has stuck around in the last thirty years.
Progress isn’t a straight line up. Like anything else it dips and wobbles. But it consistently moves upward.
Yeah there are always going to be things to make progress on. But to pretend that we are not in a better place on some of those issues now than we were thirty years ago is bafflingly silly.
As an example: In 1996, support for same-sex marriage was so low that congress passed and Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act, allowing states to ignore same-sex marriage licenses from other states in direct violation of the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution, and this was widely supported by the American people. In 2023, over 70% of Americans supported gay marriage while only 22% opposed. That number has dipped since, but not by much. In 2025, it was 68% support (88% of Democrats, 76% of Independents, and 41% of Republicans) while 29% opposed it.
That is an issue on which the American people have made significant progress. That progress hasn’t evaporated with alternating administrations. It ebbs and flows like literally everything, but over time it has improved.
Most are like this. Not all! Certainly some things consistently get worse, like wealth inequality. But to act like everything simply flip-flops between parties and that the Democrats are simply a ratchet that maintains the status quo and doesn’t let anything change just to let the next Republican make it worse is flat-out wrong.
Are Democrats largely spineless corporate shills? Yeah. But are they just as bad as Republicans? Fuck no. Go vote in primaries. Support candidates who will actually push for change. Giving up is pathetic.
Sibshops@lemmy.myserv.one 1 day ago
I’m not sure if I completely follow.
Bill Clinton passed a law defining marriage between a man and a woman and an example of progress made by a centrist candidate. Isn’t this saying the opposite?
And you are saying that Gavin Newsom, who has spoken out against trans rights, can do something similar? Like assuming he does the same thing, like pass a “Defense of trans rights” bill to allow other states to not recognize gender transitions.
Are you saying he will bring progress this way?
Wakmrow@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
Thank God the progress understander has logged on to explain why it was good, actually, that the Democrats banned gay marriage
TheRealKuni@piefed.social 13 hours ago
You clearly need to work on your reading comprehension if that’s what you think I was saying.
No, it was fucking horrible that Democrats banned gay marriage. It was fucking horrible that our society was okay with that. The entire point I’m making is that thirty years later we are living in a completely different WORLD on that front.
DaMummy@hilariouschaos.com 1 day ago
What do you say to the people of WV who voted for Bernie in the 2016 Democrat primary, won him every single county, and 40k more votes than the runner up, but Clinton won the state? Should they give up, or comitt voter fraud and vote 110%?