It all goes back to money in politics. First-past-the-post and Citizens United absolutely fucked us. FPTP gave us a MAXIMUM of two parties (both are “private” organizations that literally have non-democratic bylaws for their primaries) and Citizens United made massive political bribes into a legal form of free speech.
Edit: I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the excellent and nuanced comment below that corrects my hypothesis and details the concerted effort by capitalists and the World Bank since World War II to violently quash any and all leftist/socialist movements that they deemed a threat around the world.
The cavernous power vacuum on the left caused by unchecked capitalism/corporatism (corporate personhood) caused all of the fiscal conservatives in the GOP to leave the circus and take over the DNC (look into the “Democratic Leadership Council” headed up by the Clintons and their right wing buddies). Now, we’re stuck with an extreme right wing vs. a bunch of old school Bob Dole right wingers like Chuck Schumer. As a leftist, it hurts so much to see the Overton window shift unnaturally toward fascism. We have “spirited” debate about things that wouldn’t even be a question in a society (equal rights for all people…like what the fuck. There’s only one answer that even remotely makes sense to non-sociopaths) that isn’t sick to the core with corruption. It hurts to be spat on and shamed by people that should be my allies (or in a different political party altogether) because I have the intellectual honesty to call out the DNC for their blatant corporatism. I always say: Obviously Trump is shit. It’s the power vacuum on the left that caused this shift toward radical right wing ideas becoming mainstream.
Here’s a favorite graphic to show how badly FPTP polarizes the US government:
The cavernous power vacuum on the left caused by unchecked capitalism/corporatism (corporate personhood) caused all of the fiscal conservatives in the GOP to leave the circus and take over the DNC (look into the “Democratic Leadership Council” headed up by the Clintons and their right wing buddies).
You can’t just leave that at the feet of the electoral system. The cavernous vacuum was the direct result of domestic intelligence, surveillance, and disinformation campaigns organized by the federal government to undermine any organization that threatened the white supremacist state structure dominant during the 60s and 70s. The Cold War wasn’t just something Americans fought abroad. It came in the form of political assassinations (Fred Hampton, Malcolm X, and MLK). It came in the form of corporate strike breaking efforts on a national scale. It came in the form of paramilitary operations - the MOVE bombing in Philadelphia was a classic example, but SWAT raids and police harassment efforts stretching from California to Florida helped break down the nascent counter-culture organizations post-WW2, while the CIA-fueled crack epidemic and lead paint/gasoline fumes and other ecological catastrophes demolished the mental capacity of a generation.
Left wing organizations and movements didn’t just vanish, they were systematically uprooted and destroyed. The modern fascist state and municipal governments we live under are the direct result of policies implemented generations ago. The electoral system is as much a victim of that violent manipulation as anything else.
You’ve hit the nail on the head as to why I prefer to keep my activism quasi anonymous. The long list of amazing activists who were right but still ended up dead…. The only one who survived (Kwame) left the country.
Anecdote: At the beginning of this most recent uptick in the ongoing genocide of Palestine, I was pretty vocal and downright subversive with my language about Biden and his bloodthirstiness with regard to Gaza and was actually taken aside and expressly warned by a friend of mine in the MIC. I decided that my family was too important to me to keep up my activism. I’m sure I’m not alone in giving up and I’m sorry if I sort of glossed over the concerted effort by the that cadre of World Bank puppets working tirelessly to stifle any perceived threats to capitalism.
It all goes back to money in politics. First-past-the-post and Citizens United absolutely fucked us. FPTP gave us a MAXIMUM of two parties (both are “private” organizations that literally have non-democratic bylaws for their primaries) and Citizens United made massive political bribes into a legal form of free speech.
Edit: I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the excellent and nuanced comment below that corrects my hypothesis and details the concerted effort by capitalists and the World Bank since World War II to violently quash any and all leftist/socialist movements that they deemed a threat around the world.
The cavernous power vacuum on the left caused by unchecked capitalism/corporatism (corporate personhood) caused all of the fiscal conservatives in the GOP to leave the circus and take over the DNC (look into the “Democratic Leadership Council” headed up by the Clintons and their right wing buddies). Now, we’re stuck with an extreme right wing vs. a bunch of old school Bob Dole right wingers like Chuck Schumer. As a leftist, it hurts so much to see the Overton window shift unnaturally toward fascism. We have “spirited” debate about things that wouldn’t even be a question in a society (equal rights for all people…like what the fuck. There’s only one answer that even remotely makes sense to non-sociopaths) that isn’t sick to the core with corruption. It hurts to be spat on and shamed by people that should be my allies (or in a different political party altogether) because I have the intellectual honesty to call out the DNC for their blatant corporatism. I always say: Obviously Trump is shit. It’s the power vacuum on the left that caused this shift toward radical right wing ideas becoming mainstream.
Here’s a favorite graphic to show how badly FPTP polarizes the US government:
You can’t just leave that at the feet of the electoral system. The cavernous vacuum was the direct result of domestic intelligence, surveillance, and disinformation campaigns organized by the federal government to undermine any organization that threatened the white supremacist state structure dominant during the 60s and 70s. The Cold War wasn’t just something Americans fought abroad. It came in the form of political assassinations (Fred Hampton, Malcolm X, and MLK). It came in the form of corporate strike breaking efforts on a national scale. It came in the form of paramilitary operations - the MOVE bombing in Philadelphia was a classic example, but SWAT raids and police harassment efforts stretching from California to Florida helped break down the nascent counter-culture organizations post-WW2, while the CIA-fueled crack epidemic and lead paint/gasoline fumes and other ecological catastrophes demolished the mental capacity of a generation.
Left wing organizations and movements didn’t just vanish, they were systematically uprooted and destroyed. The modern fascist state and municipal governments we live under are the direct result of policies implemented generations ago. The electoral system is as much a victim of that violent manipulation as anything else.
Thank you. I surely oversimplified it.
You’ve hit the nail on the head as to why I prefer to keep my activism quasi anonymous. The long list of amazing activists who were right but still ended up dead…. The only one who survived (Kwame) left the country.
Anecdote: At the beginning of this most recent uptick in the ongoing genocide of Palestine, I was pretty vocal and downright subversive with my language about Biden and his bloodthirstiness with regard to Gaza and was actually taken aside and expressly warned by a friend of mine in the MIC. I decided that my family was too important to me to keep up my activism. I’m sure I’m not alone in giving up and I’m sorry if I sort of glossed over the concerted effort by the that cadre of World Bank puppets working tirelessly to stifle any perceived threats to capitalism.
Thank you for your comment.