top: PERCEPTION
a line marked FAR LEFT, LEFT, CENTER, RIGHT, FAR RIGHT
above the line in order from left to right are the following faces: Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden who is above “centre”, Jeb Bush, Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump, and Stephen Miller
bottom: REALITY
the line is tipped to the right, the faces falling off the right end. Bernie Sanders is now just left of centre and Elizabeth Warren just to the right, the empty space left behind Sanders to the left is labelled “WATCH THIS SPACE”
Yes, agreed, but claiming that historically both sides were the same I think is doing certain administrations a disservice. The New Deal and Great Society, while obviously working within a capitalist system, were radical and anti-free market. Using make-work to help unemployed workers provide for their families while setting up state-owned hydroelectricity projects (Tennessee Valley Authority, which was not without its problems re use of native lands of course), or setting up Medicare and Medicaid, are both unequivocally schemes that many leftists would support (though obviously like to see go further).
I worry that ‘both sides’ rhetoric results in ‘all or nothing’ style political apathy that allows the overton window to be dragged inexorably right. We have had better leaders, and we can have better leaders in future, than we currently do have, and they do make a material impact on people’s lives when they do get into power.
It is being placated by crumbs like you mentioned that moves the overtone window, not demanding an and to a two puppet system that serves to give us the illusion of choice while it continues to oppress and exploit us.
Liberalism enables fascism.
I’m going to have to disagree with you there. I’m not in any way suggesting being placated by these measures.
To put it in context, let’s compare to fascist tactics – something this meme acknowledges has been successful in pulling the overton window to the right. They know full well that the successes that they have had in recent years does not constitute their final vision. Queer people are still de jure permitted to exist in limited form; the white ethnostate has not been established.
Do they throw their hands in the air, and say their vision cannot be accomplished through the current system, and that they should just sit back and shitpost online?
Of course not. They infiltrate the current system of government and bend it to suit their long term goals. If something they want is politically unacceptable in the current climate, they couch it in such a way that they can incrementally introduce it. De jure discrimination becomes illegal, so they implement less direct methods.
Why should we let that tactic be their sole preserve? Why should we sit back waiting for revolution while they actively grind our faces into the dirt? The electoral system can and has worked in favour of the workers when sufficient pressure has been applied.
The protections we currently enjoy – especially those for unionisation – were written with the blood of workers. So many failures and brutal repressions; Homestead, Pullman, Blair Mountain; had to happen for us to get to where we are. We should continue applying pressure and pushing, because those ‘crumbs’ make a material difference for those who are most vulnerable. It is from a position of relative privelage that anyone is able to scoff at the progress that has been made.