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Democratic Governance
(lemmy.world)
... As opposed to the superior Republican plan for increasing minimum wage?
Crickets
What if I told you the viable alternative wasn't to look further right, but further left?
Well, I don't know about you, but I can't teleport. the last time I checked, neither can the u.s. political zeitgeist. If we want more left, we are going to have to get there the long way.
...and saying "but Republicans blah blah blah" in no way moves us in a desirable direction. It's used as an excuse to not move at all because "at least I'm not the bogeyman".
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I'm not American but, “the other party would do worse” is not a very… powerful argument. Even if true.
unfortunately it is for a two party system. if you don't vote Dem, the only lesson they'll take from it is "oh, people must want more conservative positions" and go further right.
the solution to this isn't to not vote Dem, it's to elect representatives that align with more leftist positions, which to the credit of democratic voters, has been happening more than in any time in history.
that is partly thanks to a new generation of people who don't fall for the red scare propaganda that previous ones did, and leftism and socialism being less stigmatized.
What really amazes me is how set up to maintain the status quo 'murican politics is. Political parties have to be registered on every state, otherwise they don't "exist". Gerrymandering ensures voting districts are always drawn in favor of specific parties. Delegate votes means popular vote isn't as important. Even fucking Brazil is more democratic by comparison.
don't forget that the election is on a Tuesday and a lot of people can't take a day off, and there's serious push to limit or remove early voting.
forget brazil, a lot of countries Americans would see as "shitholes" are actually more democratic in their process. they think they have it better because they don't have an obvious strongman on top (though that may change now, we'll see) but the people's will has been systematically suppressed more and more over the years. the boot of corporations has been firmly pressed on the neck of the public to make sure they can't raise their head for long enough to breathe, let alone participate.
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I think the real lesson is that our government is so broken that it can't do its job.
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Classic whataboutism: shits on the topic without adding anything worthwhile to the conversation. These responses are only exceeded in worthlessness by trolling.
"but republicans" is not a valid excuse for democrats to do nothing.
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The push for a “$15 minimum wage” was first made law in Seattle, and the law included annual increases to keep up with inflation.
The current minimum wage in Seattle in 2024 is $19.97 / hour.
Any minimum wage law that doesn’t address inflation is not taking itself seriously.
Pretty sure liberals are past 15 an hour and have been for awhile. Centrist Dems are still on board for 15, at least in the party platform. And regardless it's a damn sight better than those calling for the elimination of the minimum wage altogether.
Meanwhile Congress has never missed a pay raise and that receives minimal attention.
Its always baffled my how many government positions have perioidic pay increases, sometimes annually, a good pension usually as well, but they will never pass legislation to make other employers do the same.
Companies pay damn good money to ensure their payroll stays as low as possible. It's cheaper to ~~buy~~ donate to politicians than raise base pay.
Which is why the government should take responsibilty and deny the ~~bribery~~ lobbying and enforce better wage and labour laws
Absolutely. It's unfortunate that the ones we need to make those changes are the ones who benefit from the current system. The cycle has to be broken, and that's an enormous task.
one universal health care idea was to allow all citizens to buy into the same healthcare plan as congress at the same rate they pay.
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They're referring to liberalism, not social democracy or progressive or whatever weird definition American media started using in the last 25 years or so.
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How could the checks notes DEMOCRATS do this to us?! Pretending that the Dems are responsible for things this meme admits they're actively fighting against is so braindead that it's no wonder everyone thinks all these leftists are just Russian bots or right wing trolls. The premise here is just so moronic and short sighted that it's depressing to think that a real human could actually post this and genuinely think they're being honest.
Oh it gets worse. The Democrat's "failure" to do X, Y, or Z (in the face of fierce Republican opposition but never mind that) becomes a reason to either not vote or... gasp... vote Republican.
Like... WTAF?
Remember when the Democrats had both congress and the presidency twice? Remember when the Democratic party kept promoting extremely conservative Democrats that beforehand constantly voiced their opposition to progressive policies, over their progressive enemies? Remember people like Joseph Lieberman? Remember Jay Rockefeller, who was the deciding vote for the ACA who suddenly reversed his pro-public healthcare rhetoric and opposed it he said because "the timing wasn't very good"? Remember what they did to progressives like Jamaal Bowman? You know, putting all their resources into George Latimer (a blatantly pro-wealthy, pro-corporation, pro-Israel conservative) to get Bowman unseated, making it the most expensive house primary in the entire history of the United States? Remember the Democrat party leadership frequently donating tens of millions to centrist non-profits whose sole purpose is to get centrist/conservative candidates elected over progressives, and act as a "spoiler" for progressives in the party? Remember Democratic Party leaders infamously going on to work lobbying jobs time and time again when they leave the party? Remember when Obama and the Democrats could have gotten progressive Supreme Court judges in despite Republican opposition, but they just lied down and accepted not doing that in the name of "compromise"? Because I sure remember.
The Democrats constantly, intentionally, pump millions into blue conservatives which they can use to block leftist measures and use as the scapegoats to point to as the reason they couldn't get anything done. They always have a bunch of people to spare to block bills which are "too progressive" that they don't actually want passed. They ARE responsible for this shit.
Leftists have good reason to be absolutely pissed at the party. They know they're the only "left" option, and they abuse the FUCK out of that. Blue Dog Democrats even existing is a sin in and of itself.
Why would the Democrats do this? As with most things wrong with the American democratic process, the reason is lobbying. Corporations lobby the Democrats seemingly just as much as the Republicans to ensure they don't take away too much of their power. Shit's fucked.
The fact that you have the audacity to blame progressives or leftists for being mad at the clear lack of democracy and the messed up stuff the Democratic party does to block important bills & candidates is so fucked up, holy shit. People are starving and dying because of the Democrats actively working against progressives in the party. Them giving us a few crumbs of good does not absolve them of intentionally absolutely fucking us over again and again. The party isn't the friend of progressives, they're just the "only choice". I can only hope that the upcoming elections change that, and we don't just get a dozen more obstructionists who the Dems use to block any vaguely center-left policy.
I'm sure voting for Republicans or not voting will help though right? Lol. I live in a state that's been controlled by Democrats for a while and we keep voting for more and more progressive people. Things are objectively better and they'll keep getting better.
I'm sorry that the entire country isn't a socialist utopia after the Dems had tiny majorities in the house and Senate for one term and an even slimmer one another time. Both times with those majorities made up of vulnerable representatives in conservative areas. Turns out that's how democracy works. It's slow and that sucks but Republicans have spent 40 years grinding us towards fascism. Fascism is way easier to push as well.
We have to vote for the most progressive candidates possible. They all have to win big so they don't have to be scared of being unseated by moderates or Republicans. We have to keep doing this from the local level to the federal level for a long time for things to change. Because if that's who gets voted in consistently then the Republicans and the Democrats will move left.
40 years since Reagan and you're over here crying that the Dems didn't change the entire momentum of the country in 4 when they didn't even have a clear mandate from the voters? Pathetic. You are the problem. Get some perspective and have the decency to spend an hour or two to vote for the most progressive candidates available which is the absolute easiest and least thing you can do. I know it's slightly harder than crying on the internet. Sorry about that.
I'm sure voting for Republicans or not voting will help though right?
Stopped reading after this. You are a dumbass. I never even implied this. It takes about 5 seconds of looking through my profile to see that I borderline shill for voting for the Democratic party. In fact, if you read even just the last sentence of my comment, you should immediately realize that I was wishing for Democratic candidates to win these upcoming elections. You need to learn to think past a binary "full dicksucking of Democratic party = good, pointing out that Democratic party is fucked up = anti progressive Republican voting tankie and bad". Please grow up.
I felt like I already made it obvious enough, but in case I didn't: the Democrats are the only choice. They're the better choice. That doesn't mean that people like you can start crying about leftists being too harsh on the party when people point out how much the Democratic party has intentionally fucked us over time and time again, and the leaders of the party effectively completely block enough dedicated progressive leaders from actually being elected to make the differences that people vote Democrats in for. This process isn't "democracy", this is sacrificing the wants and needs of the voters for personal financial gain. It's evil, and it's cruel. They are causing an incredible amount of suffering and death. It's not that the Democratic party "can't" do it, it's not that they would lose voters if they did it. These are literally the things the Democratic party as a whole campaigned on and put on their agenda each time, the voters explicitly expected them to follow through on the policies they ended up intentionally not passing. It's that the Democratic party is extremely corrupt regardless of how you look at it. The way the party is run would probably be illegal in most of the first world. The fact that the "alternative" is borderline Nazis doesn't make them the hero of the story, or undeserving of being torn apart by criticism. When the Democratic party as an organization stops spending millions to fuck over progressive politicians which otherwise would have won elections, and stops killing their voters because of lobbying from healthcare corporations, fossil fuel corporations, AIPAC, etc. then they'll be deserving of the benefit of the doubt when it comes to these situations.
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Peak "leftism" is creating posts like this that are completely inaccurate and take all responsibility away from one of the two major parties when they did everything they could to obstruct the process and posting them on the Internet for head nods, meaningless upvotes, and "that's so true" responses.
We should make this fun, how about if someone under this posts MLK's quote about white moderates, you have to buy us all a round of gin and tacos?
Reminds me of a relative. He often hits me with a "And why doesn't Biden do more for Ukraine? Like use the money he has available as president?". He never manages to understand that 1. he did end up sending a part of that money (intended for emergencies) and 2. his preferred option (Trump/MAGA) was the one fucking blocking the aid for half a year! (the before mentioned emergency)
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Drink less gin:
- Democratic Party is not liberalism
- The republican party would keep the minimum wage where it is now or remove it altogether
IOW Dems have a razor thin majority a couple of times in the last 20 years for a 2-year period each. They are expected to pass legislation to fix every single problem in that time frame. They manage to get X, Y, and Z done in spite of Senate rules that tie one hand behind their backs and full out raging opposition by the repubs, and the response is "goddammit why didn't you get the whole alphabet done, you assholes?"
Even worse are the ones who think the POTUS position is some kind of emperor who can just simply decree "Make it so" and boom it happens, so why hasn't he done this or that like I want (yes I'm mixing metaphors but you get the point).
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Ooh wow congrats everyone . I think this might be the most downvoted post in this space
So brave.
What many legislative bodies with outdated minimum wages need are minimum wage committees or commissions, i.e. institutions that arbitrate between democratic employer and employee (e.g. unions) associations on a regular time frame (say 1 or 2 years) who create binding minimum wage tariffs.
Oregon changed their minimum wage to step up over several years, split slightly between the major urban centers and rural areas, and go up based on consumer price index after that. Works well.
https://www.oregon.gov/boli/workers/Pages/minimum-wage-schedule.aspx
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this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2024
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