Money, Propaganda, Tribalism, an undemocratic voting system…
Further, the uneveness of Power is gigantic: billionaires have way much power than common people, who are only powerful if together in large numbers and that’s incredibly hard to make happen in a structured way with everybody aligned in the same way compared with what a single billionaire can do if they feel like spending $100 million, and the entire system is set up against people organising in such a way - notice how the biggest demonstration ever in the US, the George Floyd protests, achieved pretty much nothing at all, and the police in the US is still a force of Injustice rather than Justice.
The vast majority of people are either played like fiddles or made to feel impotent and hence just turn of from politics and just live day to day.
As others pointed out, there’s major structural issues. There’s also issues with apathy and people buying into the anti-electoralism/accelerationism con with religious ferver.
Because while a lot of Americans support a lot of left wing positions, there are no major left wing parties, and a very small number of politicians who run for national or statewide office who actually take action to further left wing policies. There’s Bernie Sanders, who isn’t a member of a large party. AOC, and a few others qualify, but being a small proportion of those running, they’re a small proportion of those elected, and have relatively little actual influence.
Ideas neither major party supports are basically impossible to see happen.
Others have commented valid points but I also wanted to bring up propaganda;
A lot of people are unwilling or even unable (i.e. there is only one tv in the house and you don’t get to control the remote most of the time) to get their news from sources that aren’t constantly telling them that Democrats are out to get them and 2SLGBTQIA+ are the enemy and that if they just vote for (wealthy conservative) then all their problems will be solved overnight. Couple that with an education system that has failed to give people the critical thinking skills to ask what trans folk have to do with the economy and you get the 2024 election.
To make you more hopeful, they have to constantly fight to keep these systems of oppression in place. We win if/when this stops. All we have to do is keep fighting them. Make them work to oppress us, and it’ll crumble.
They remove the right to vote from our poor, our people of color, our citizens who have made mistakes but paid their debts to society, they remove polling places, making people wait hours and hours standing in lines to vote, giving them water is illegal, they purge voter roles right before elections…. And so so many more things. So many Americans don’t vote because they can’t because our right wing government has put so many roadblocks in the way.
My take is that there are a lot of Left people who won’t vote for anyone except a candidate they support 100%. Hilary Clinton should have destroyed Trump. Those people ignore the simple truth that any time any GOP gets elected the whole country moves to the right.
There are two sides. The Right and everyone else. The Right wins because they stay on topic and vote. Until the rest of us fall in line like they do, they’ll keep on winning. Show me where I’m wrong.
There is an evil witch that lives underground in the Moon and who is mind-controlling non-Rightwing votes in the US so that they don’t vote. Show me were I’m wrong.
The easiest thing in the World is to come up with a wild-ass theory without backing it with any evidence and then demanding others disprove it - I do believe that’s even a 4chan special.
Donald Trump won the election in 2016 over Hilary Clinton. How much more evidence do you need that people should have done more to defeat Donald and the GOP?
That’s as much “evidence” for your original “two sides” theory as it is for my “witch in the Moon” theory.
Also you’ve moved the goalposts to a self-fullfilling and generic to the point of uselessness statement “people should have done more to defeat Donald and the GOP”.
That’s like saying that “all drivers in car crashes should have done more not to crash their cars”.
Well, true, but also about as worthless as “insights” go as “the sky is blue”.
By worring so much about the puppet instead of the puppet masters, you’re playing into the hands of the handful of people who control the politics of the US and hence the US.
Go after the real power of the land: the ultra-wealthy.
Because most Americans have knee-jerk reactions to labels as opposed to policies. Like how everyone supports all the protections Obamacare provides, but how they all want to get rid of Obamacare.
Then why is the government so completely dominated by the right if most politically active people are on what Americans call the left?
Money, Propaganda, Tribalism, an undemocratic voting system…
Further, the uneveness of Power is gigantic: billionaires have way much power than common people, who are only powerful if together in large numbers and that’s incredibly hard to make happen in a structured way with everybody aligned in the same way compared with what a single billionaire can do if they feel like spending $100 million, and the entire system is set up against people organising in such a way - notice how the biggest demonstration ever in the US, the George Floyd protests, achieved pretty much nothing at all, and the police in the US is still a force of Injustice rather than Justice.
The vast majority of people are either played like fiddles or made to feel impotent and hence just turn of from politics and just live day to day.
The US is not a Democracy.
In one word: money.
As others pointed out, there’s major structural issues. There’s also issues with apathy and people buying into the anti-electoralism/accelerationism con with religious ferver.
It’s not hard to be anti-electoral when elections don’t seem to ever fucking work
because Dems allowed gerrymandering to go without protest
Because while a lot of Americans support a lot of left wing positions, there are no major left wing parties, and a very small number of politicians who run for national or statewide office who actually take action to further left wing policies. There’s Bernie Sanders, who isn’t a member of a large party. AOC, and a few others qualify, but being a small proportion of those running, they’re a small proportion of those elected, and have relatively little actual influence.
Ideas neither major party supports are basically impossible to see happen.
Mainly because your average person is apathetic to their own governenance
Because the left keeps falling in with the ineffectual center-right, leading to widespread voter disillusionment.
Others have commented valid points but I also wanted to bring up propaganda;
A lot of people are unwilling or even unable (i.e. there is only one tv in the house and you don’t get to control the remote most of the time) to get their news from sources that aren’t constantly telling them that Democrats are out to get them and 2SLGBTQIA+ are the enemy and that if they just vote for (wealthy conservative) then all their problems will be solved overnight. Couple that with an education system that has failed to give people the critical thinking skills to ask what trans folk have to do with the economy and you get the 2024 election.
The fact that there are so many valid reasons makes me extremely unhopeful.
To make you more hopeful, they have to constantly fight to keep these systems of oppression in place. We win if/when this stops. All we have to do is keep fighting them. Make them work to oppress us, and it’ll crumble.
So the electoral college and the apportionment act will go away, too?
And Americans won’t be a bunch of fucking idiots with the attention span of a goldfish?
And we’ll get proportional representation when they crumble?
Because most of the issues pointed out are structural and have nothing to do with Trump
Well, either they will be fixed or the state collapses eventually. If they keep this up people lose faith in the government.
Too late.
Two words, voter disenfranchisement
They remove the right to vote from our poor, our people of color, our citizens who have made mistakes but paid their debts to society, they remove polling places, making people wait hours and hours standing in lines to vote, giving them water is illegal, they purge voter roles right before elections…. And so so many more things. So many Americans don’t vote because they can’t because our right wing government has put so many roadblocks in the way.
Gerrymandering and other structural means of disproportionate representation in federal government are big parts of it
My take is that there are a lot of Left people who won’t vote for anyone except a candidate they support 100%. Hilary Clinton should have destroyed Trump. Those people ignore the simple truth that any time any GOP gets elected the whole country moves to the right.
You’re right of course, the left is responsible for anything the right does. Would you care for a glass of soap?
There are two sides. The Right and everyone else. The Right wins because they stay on topic and vote. Until the rest of us fall in line like they do, they’ll keep on winning. Show me where I’m wrong.
There is an evil witch that lives underground in the Moon and who is mind-controlling non-Rightwing votes in the US so that they don’t vote. Show me were I’m wrong.
The easiest thing in the World is to come up with a wild-ass theory without backing it with any evidence and then demanding others disprove it - I do believe that’s even a 4chan special.
Donald Trump won the election in 2016 over Hilary Clinton. How much more evidence do you need that people should have done more to defeat Donald and the GOP?
That’s as much “evidence” for your original “two sides” theory as it is for my “witch in the Moon” theory.
Also you’ve moved the goalposts to a self-fullfilling and generic to the point of uselessness statement “people should have done more to defeat Donald and the GOP”.
That’s like saying that “all drivers in car crashes should have done more not to crash their cars”.
Well, true, but also about as worthless as “insights” go as “the sky is blue”.
Let’s turn it around.
What’s your plan? How do you propose to get Trump out? Be very specific.
Trump is a symptom, not the disease.
By worring so much about the puppet instead of the puppet masters, you’re playing into the hands of the handful of people who control the politics of the US and hence the US.
Go after the real power of the land: the ultra-wealthy.
A General Strike would be a good start.
You’re wrong by blaming the fictional non voting left for all your woes. Don’t be stupid.
There’s your tankie behavior.
You’re saying I’m wrong, and not providing anything like actual information. Why don’t you give me some facts and figures to explain it?
Making stupid claims and then demanding proof they aren’t true is pretty weak
lol!
You are very funny!
And yes, I am laughing at you.
Laugh away, kiddy diddler.
Because most Americans have knee-jerk reactions to labels as opposed to policies. Like how everyone supports all the protections Obamacare provides, but how they all want to get rid of Obamacare.
also voter suppression gerrymanderinng élite control of the media etc