• krashmo@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Wilson said that he likes the idea of a multiparty democracy in theory, and would not be bothered by No Labels’ presidential ambitions in a more traditional election, but that the stakes are too high this year — even if it means depriving voters of options and making them choose between two candidates they might not be excited about.

    When was this not the justification for forcing people to accept a candidate they don’t like? It’s like every four years we all forget that the last candidate was sold that way too. Obama is the only semi-exception in that his first campaign was all about hope and change but we all know how that turned out.

    The funny part is that we could have taken Obama’s victory as proof that promoting progressive policies works to get a President elected but instead we decided to go back to calling that approach wishful thinking and impractical. Almost as if the goal isn’t to represent the people but rather to ensure Progressive ideas reach as few people as possible.

    • a lil bee 🐝@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      It’s first past the post, not the party, that is causing this issue. This is very much a “don’t hate the player, hate the game” situation. If democrats want to win elections and have their agenda accomplished, No Labels and similar groups present a real obstacle to achieving the goals of the democratic constituency due to FPTP, so you can’t exactly expect to consider them allies.

      • Beetschnapps@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        There is also the very real fact that these third parties and their candidates have never accomplished a single policy goal while consistently getting republicans elected; the only accomplishment lyndon larouche or jill kelly have is shifting the odds right.

        They never have a collaborative mindset, but instead a separatist / contrarian approach to supposedly a difference of political opinion, by the very nature of their party they are not trying to work with liberals they are going their own way knowing full and well they won’t win… why?

        Meanwhile Bernie worked with and endorsed the Democratic Party and successfully shifted the current administration leftward with significant legislative policy accomplishments to show for it.

    • DancingBear@midwest.social
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      9 months ago

      They’ve been saying it every election for at least 30 years and they are freaking out because it isn’t working as well as it used to.

      If Biden wants the younger peoples vote he is going to have to do more than spout rhetoric and meaningless nonsense.