this post was submitted on 24 May 2025
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Yeah, don't get me wrong — it's not that Obama/Pete types don't do anything. Generally they do things, and those things are good. (I'm simplifying for the sake of argument, since there are also bad policies that liberals engage in, obviously.)
The problem is that the good things don't go far enough — even ACA was based on the Mitt Romney plan drew up by the goddamn Heritage Foundation! It was a compromise of a compromise. All other developed countries have some version of universal healthcare, while the US has preventable deaths and medical bankruptcies and Blackrock suing United Healthcare for breaking fiduciary duty by not refusing enough clients, a thing it did so often that its CEO got merced for it.
Or, take education: as someone from an EU country, I have a master's degree and zero debt — it was all free although I did have to pass an exam ahead of a hundred others, but if I needed to pay, it would have been like 1-2k USD per year, with a chance each year to get into the free tier next year if I got good grades.
Anyway, my point is that when people get too many small compromises for a long time, they start to feel duped, they get uneasy, then frustrated, then angry (disinformation contributes a lot to this process), so next thing you know they begin to reject "not enough" in favor of "burn it down". People yearn for fundamental changes, this is why they're voting Trump types all around the world: they promise big change, they promise to move fast and break things. People feel like nothing ever happens, so the promise of any change gives them hope. Ironically, the fascist appeal is just a bizarro version of "hope and change".
And here's the darkest part: despite the differences I outlined above about healthcare and education, EU countries still have the same systemic problems. People still feel duped. People are still frustrated. People still choose fascists here. Because the problems are very deep: inequality, alienation, disinformation. And neoliberalism doesn't have an answer to any of them: you need a democratic socialist for that, i.e. someone who's willing to reject capital to put people's needs first.
That's wild, the American brain truly cannot comprehend the amount of things you can have for free in the EU and in Nordic countries haha
It's a good point to remember that in other countries where they have more social safety net and social good baked in to their system the citizens still feel duped. The far right is rising all over the western world right now.
I definitely agree with your points. I want that type of leader on the left who can really changed things for the better here. But the system will never fund him. Bernie was doing crazy things with grass roots fund raising. His 27$ donation campaign was getting thousands of working class people to donate. I didn't know if we can ever get that kind of effort going again.
I don't know how you bridge the gap between what the people donate and what's required to win a presidential campaign because the elite are not going to help a far left candidate the way they help a Biden or Obama.
And that problem assumes we solved the other big issue of getting someone through the primary and selected to run.
Those are the hurdles where I get disheartened thinking about how an actual good candidate would be so hard to elect. They will fight that person every step of the way.
If you believe Michael Moore, the dnc lied at the 2016 convention and stole votes from Bernie in a critical state to ensure Hillary was selected. that's the type of things that really makes me question how much we could really grab at one time.
To me, it seems necessary to use stepping stones to elect someone who will do the campaign finance law reforms and maybe revamp the primary system. Then you can reach for that ultra progressive candidate. But that's just a back of a napkin theory. Idk how to really do it.