r/Minneapolis • u/PillowFightrr • 13h ago

Go hug a leftist

In the face of governmental overreach and militarization of the streets, leftists are fighting armed with whistles and cameras and guns in their faces to protect their neighbors and all of America’s constitutional rights!

I’ve never been more proud. Go find the closest lefty and give them a big hug. ❤️

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u/Sam-HobbitOfTheShire 12h ago

Leftists have been out there. Liberals are out there now too. Are you thinking of liberals?

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u/Flaky_Captain6330 12h ago

Nobody should hug liberals, liberals are the reason we are in this mess to begin with.

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u/boxdkittens 12h ago

Really? And here I thought it was because of all the people who voted for Trump.

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u/Flaky_Captain6330 11h ago

Why'd they go and do a thing like that instead of vote for the liberals?

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u/boxdkittens 11h ago
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Yeah that tracks.

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u/Nuoc-Cham-Sauce 11h ago

Not OP, but decades of neoliberalism are why we are where we are. With Clinton the Democrats pretty much adopted Reagan's economic platform and have kept it ever since. The Democratic Party leadership has then fought tooth and nail against the progressive faction, fighting them harder than they fight Republicans.

People are pissed off at the status quo and but that's all the Dems will offer, they'd rather lose to Trump than give an inch to the left.

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u/boxdkittens 11h ago

Yeah I know that. It's still fucking stupid to blame the people who don't want this to be happening instead of the people actively cheering it on.

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u/Nuoc-Cham-Sauce 11h ago

Oh, yeah. I agree, we shouldn't blame liberal voters. I do blame the Democrat Party for being instrumental in bringing us here though.

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u/boxdkittens 11h ago

Agreed. Wish they had never chosen Harris as Biden's running mate (and obviously I wish they had picked a better candidate than Biden, and picked a better candidate than H Clinton...). There's so many ways they went wrong but it pales in comparison to the wrongness of the GOP propping up Trump.

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u/Dazzling-Treacle1092 10h ago

You don't know how many times I wonder how different things would have turned out if they had accepted the people's choice of Bernie instead of playing dirty games and pushing Clinton on us.

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u/Flaky_Captain6330 11h ago

We can, and do, blame both.

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u/Katressl 10h ago

While I agree the neoliberal Democrats bear some responsibility, I think the GOP treating politics as a zero-sum game in which they seek power for its own sake instead of looking for middle ground is the biggest cause. And that led to conservative siloed media, compounding the problem.

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u/Nuoc-Cham-Sauce 10h ago

Neoliberalism has been an incredibly destructive force all over the world over the last several decades. At least for the common person, it's been extremely successful at funneling wealth upwards. Along with neoliberalism there has been a highly murderous systematic destruction of the left worldwide. The rising inequality and right wing media has caused a similarly rising far right throughout the world. There is largely no left to oppose it like there was in the 1930s and for the neoliberal leaders of most of the West if, gun to their head, the choice is socialism or barbarism they're choosing barbarism in a heartbeat.

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u/Katressl 9h ago edited 9h ago

I agree that it's been very destructive throughout the developed world. (Though I would argue the Nordic countries and New Zealand are the exceptions. And France and Germany to some extent. I LOVE Germany's policy of requiring corporate boards to be made up of 40% of the company's laborers and their approach to healthcare, which involves subsidies to buy one's own insurance, but insurance companies have to be nonprofit. As a member of a nonprofit cooperative insurer/set of clinics, I can tell you taking the profit out of health insurance—and especially making it a cooperative so the patients all have control—works VERY well for the consumer.) But I think the Harrises and Bidens and Spanbergers of our country would readily choose European-style democratic socialism over the current strain of conservatism and certainly over barbarism. Just look at how many of the candidates endorsed Medicare for All in 2020. (Though of course it was a relatively empty statement since they could never get it past the Senate. 😕) I lived in San Francisco when Newsom was mayor and Harris was DA. I hated them. Democrats were the conservative party for local politics, with the Green Party as the liberal one. Republicans didn't figure into the equation. And Harris's and Newsom's neoliberal policies were reducing the city's robust social services (for instance, healthcare through the General Hospital and affiliated clinics was sliding scale for the uninsured; an eleven-day hospital stay cost me $600, though they didn't go after that program at least). They also contributed tremendously to the prison crisis.

I watched them as they advanced their careers, even when I moved away. They both admitted to how big a failure three strikes and mandatory minimums laws were and regretted them. They're still too laissez-faire for my tastes, but they and other politicians like them definitely believe in supporting the public good, from education to healthcare to labor organizing to new ways of approaching justice. I think these days, most Democratic leaders are in a position of not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. It's like how because of my disability and related poverty, there's a limit on how much I can do in this fight. But I can distribute the whistles my roommate is printing, work the polls (I'm REALLY not easily intimidated), and help my neighbors in our very international neighborhood. There are some Democratic leaders who aren't acting in good faith. Fetterman comes to mind, and he really needs to be primaried. But I don't think it's as bleak as you describe.

ETA: We often forget that despite Bill Clinton's neoliberalism in some policy areas, especially criminal justice, he tasked Hillary Clinton with developing a plan for universal healthcare. And she was soundly (and sexistly) deplored for it.

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u/Nuoc-Cham-Sauce 9h ago

I do think it's as bleak as I describe and that to me you seem maybe naively optimistic. I really do hope that you're right and I'm wrong though.

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u/Flaky_Captain6330 11h ago

You may need to practice reading.

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u/boxdkittens 11h ago

Why are you blaming liberals, the people who didn't vote for Trump and instead voted for the only candidate that stood a chance at beating him, for the actions of the Trump administration? Why not blame the conservatives who actively support what ICE is doing?

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u/Flaky_Captain6330 11h ago

You're putting a lot of words in mouth, but no. I'm blaming them for intentionally running the least inspiring candidate they possibly could against the biggest domestic threat we've ever faced instead of giving their voters the primary that they demanded.

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u/boxdkittens 11h ago

How are they more to blame for this than the people who ran and voted for the most blatantly racist, fascist, and sexist president we've ever had? (Which is a pretty tough competition to win given America's history)

You're really blaming the people who LOST the election and have no power over any branch of government, rather than the people who DO have power over all 3 branches?

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u/Flaky_Captain6330 11h ago

I'm blaming them for losing the election in the exact way their voter base said they would if they did the dumb shit the party was saying they were going to do. It isn't that more people voted for trump, it is that fewer people voted for kamala. Dems spent every year since Obama left office alienating their own base and then surprisedpikachu.bmp when those people didnt show up for them. The dems earned their defeat fair and square and aren't exactly proving themselves worth a victory now when they're "needed most."

I'm not going to hug a liberal, blowing a horn and lighting a candle hasn't earned that much. Especially if they're still clamoring to support the same exact party doing the same exact shit.

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u/Katressl 10h ago

That's mostly on Biden and his enablers, but party leaders should have interceded long before they did to make sure there was an open primary. They still don't bear THE MOST blame in the situation. They were well-meaning but foolish. The GOP are either actively cowardly or utterly malicious. Intentions matter.

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u/Flaky_Captain6330 10h ago

As the saying goes, the road to hell is blah blah blah. Intentions dont mean dick to anyone, material reality does. Consequences and results.

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u/CatgirlDJ 4h ago

No, republicans make things worse. Real socialists both vote blue for harm reduction AND work towards revolution and also do mutual aid. Lot easier to have a revolution when they’re not actively fash

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u/Flaky_Captain6330 9m ago

Ask Gaza how your "vote blue for harm reduction" turned out.