this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2023
127 points (100.0% liked)
politics
22689 readers
285 users here now
Protests, dual power, and even electoralism.
Labour and union posts go to The Labour Community.
Take any slop posts to the slop trough
Main is good for shitposting.
Do not post direct links to reactionary sites.
Off topic posts will be removed.
Follow the Hexbear Code of Conduct and remember we're all comrades here.
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I think we're seeing movement on the political front.
Nebraska has a union man running an indie campaign, Dan Osborne, out polling the sitting Republican Deb Fisher
The DSA has been sprouting up all over the Northeast and Midwest
But after Bernie flared out twice, I don't know who else seriously wants to raise that mast again.
I can't help but wonder how successful a left-wing third party would be in the US. It abandons all the baggage that came with the dems, and while this hypothetical party probably won't be winning on a federal level any time soon, how would it fare at a local level?
The one thing I'm concerned about is that it needs to hide its power level to not scare off too many people, but if it hides its power level, then you might as well vote blue if you're able to catch on, or vote red because democrats being watered down republicans isn't working.
I'd imagine that the only way this works is if somebody spent 20+ years doing groundwork state by state. In the off election years, the election campaign staff work feeding the hungry, advocating for those that can't advocate for themselves, and shepherding people through the minefields of social service bureaucracies. Then, when election years roll around, the candidates have something to point to as an accomplishment as an outsider without political position followed by, "Now think what I could get done with the power and money of the federal government..."
Direct action + electioneering is a viable means for a socialist party to take power. The only trouble is in the US the electioneering always takes precedence and there are structural mean to encourage that.
Yeah, its really hard to see third party runs from people who you only hear about during their election season as much more than a really fancy Patreon scam.