• Schmoo@slrpnk.net
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    9 hours ago

    I’m blaming the people that tipped the scales and got Trump elected.

    You acknowledge the influence of billionaires and foreign governments on our political process, yet you still place the blame on progressives for criticizing Democrats for refusing to challenge those billionaires. Why?

    The progressives are the Democrats’ true base, so if Democrats are unpopular with their base and are receiving criticism from them, it’s on the Democrats to respond to that criticism and appeal to their base. If you absolutely must play the blame game, place the blame on those who had the power to do better and didn’t. You can be frustrated about the way people vote all you want, but it isn’t going to change their minds. Only the Democrats had that power, and they refused to do what needed to be done.

    • UsernameHere@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      You acknowledge the influence of billionaires and foreign governments on our political process, yet you still place the blame on progressives for criticizing Democrats for refusing to challenge those billionaires. Why?

      Because most of the influence that billionaires have is from Citizen United and no amount of criticizing democrats will change that.

      It has the opposite effect. All that criticism is just ammo for their other method of influence: propaganda.

      Every criticism is amplified by swarms of fake accounts on social media and forums like this. Used to sow apathy in democratic voters.

      So that criticism makes it harder for democrats to get elected, which makes the GOP stronger, which entrenches more policies like Citizens United. Taking us all several steps backwards.

      • Schmoo@slrpnk.net
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        4 hours ago

        What’s your goal in confronting those who criticize the Democrats? You can’t shield them from criticism by wagging your finger at people with legitimate grievances and insisting that they’re helping Trump win. Again, if you want to play the blame game it can go either way; you can blame the leftists who criticize Democrats or blame the Democrats for failing to address the concerns of their own base.

        Trump and his cronies have been drowning in criticism since he first entered politics and he’s able to shrug it off like a minor annoyance because he’s done the work of building a strong base of support. He appeals to both the material and immaterial interests of his base and is responsive to their desires (to the dismay of anyone with any semblance of sanity).

        Meanwhile the Democrats treat their base with contempt, never responding to their concerns, and abandoning them like so much garbage when they thought it was strategically prudent. They make themselves vulnerable to the kind of propaganda you’re talking about by refusing to engage in even the slightest appeal to those who critique them from the left.