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They are gatekeepers for the oppressive status quo
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2026
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Late Stage Capitalism
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VOTE BLUE NO MATTER WHO isn't working out.
Let's pretend somehow the R party disappeared tomorrow... a new party would be formed, and they would do they exact same thing for the Democrats.
Because it's a tag team. Each needs the other to blame their failures on (the failure always being "what the people want").
Some approximate percentages on "what the people want" according to repeated polls for decades: 70% of voters want higher minimum wage... 70% of voters want term limits for reps... 80% of voters want to end insider trading... 70% of voters want universal healthcare... 80% want the rich to pay taxes again... and so on. Use your favorite source.
It doesn't matter. Our choices in this political system are "anti-union secular capitalists" vs. "anti-union theocratic capitalists", and "what the people want" is not a voting option.
I vote every election, and I often vote Democrat. But I realize it's more like another poll than an actual route to political change or reform.
On the bright side, the banks are very happy! If they invest in absolute shit, the taxpayers will always be there to "bail them out", over and over and over and over and over again.
I wonder if that's connected to inflation and lower standards of living and shorter lifespans? Meh, whatever. STOCK MARKET 50K BABY
Trying to scare people off from voting with principle and warning of "splitting the votes" is a neoliberal propaganda. Canada and UK are also two-party systems, and yet they have third parties gaining seats. The now centre right British Labour Party tried to also do the same scaremongering in a by-election to dissuade voters from voting the Green Party, which took the torch of British leftism. And yet, the vote splitting didn't happen, and the Green Party won by a huge margin against the right wing Reform and Labour.
America could learn a lot, instead of listening to their mainstream media who brainwash their citizens of being corralled to think within an allowed narrative. I remember a Singaporean diplomat years ago, who made a comment that even though America is nominally a free country, he finds the news and discourse to be limited and insular-- which is practically the same as listening to state-run news in countries like China.
Although, this hasn't always been the case. One hundred years ago, third parties in America do get seats. I think the difference is that one hundred years ago, ordinary Americans were more politically proactive and engaged. One hundred years ago was the generation that ended the Gilded age and elected the Roosevelts. I don't know what happened but my suspicion is that after World War II, when the nation experienced enormous wealth and prosperity that previous generations never experienced before, Americans have become complacent.
I vote third party often (D too, R from time to time), and it's the quickest way to find out what Ds and Rs really think of "democracy" (which is contempt).
Meanwhile, socialists are the only reason we have minimum wage in the USA, they have been fighting for it since the early 1900s, libertarians and greens are the only reason we have legal weed, they've been working for that since the 1970s, and so on. Only after LOSING VOTES to third parties do the major parties even bother changing their platform to get an edge over the other.
Most Ds and Rs don't realize this, because it's not reported on, and many don't have any clue about what is happening beyond the very obvious.
I encourage people of all parties and platforms to become politically involved and see how things work, a few months of being a precinct committee officer (the lowest rung of the political ladder) will open many eyes.
Ds and Rs are not in the constitution, they are private organizations with their own selfish interests over and above representation. I think it's pretty obvious at this point that very popular initiatives are squashed by the majors whenever possible; 70% of voters want universal healthcare, for example. It doesn't matter what "the people" want.
Thanks for your post, I agree with it 100%.