I’ve toyed with the idea of staffing the House by sortition. Maybe not entirely random, pooling from State and local offices might be more practical, political efficacy is a skill and a little experience is valuable.

Victorian style top hat

Having this pop up in the middle of a dozen goofy 5 minute skits with guys in Garfield and Odie costumes was an unexpected surprise, but a welcome one.

Sometimes, and Congress can override the President, as happened in the case I linked. If 2/3s of Congress decides to block the president on everything, there’s not much the president can do.

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What good does voting for a presidential policy do when Congress just blocks it? Offering people things they actually want, but you have no ability to provide, is the oldest trick in politics.

Used to swear a lot, still swear but much less frequently.

The effect of swearing is fairly diluted, they’re used so often they don’t really carry any weight when you use them. I find that there are typically better ways to emphasize a point, and using them more sparingly makes them more effective.

Not particularly. She has basically no real experience in political office, despite running for several offices. Some of her policy positions sound fine, but without any way to actually implement those policies, they’re just empty words. Plus there’s some shady implications between her and Russia, and historically the Green party is funded by Republicans because they’re an effective spoiler.

So she sounds cool on the surface, but without more progressives in Congress her attractive policies aren’t remotely actionable. If you want a useful progressive candidate, vote for progressive in local and state elections every chance you have. This presidential election is not an effective time to vote third party.

Back pocket for me. Even at my most active I’ve never had it fall out. Just have to remember to take it out when you sit down.

Ducks. Masters of land, air, and water. Good ol’ duck, nothing beats that

And they will not be progressive.

20% of House reps are in the Progressive Caucus, we’re not starting at zero here.

And they will not make it into the party full time. Just see how vilified the Squad is.

The Squad exists. The bigger they get, the harder they are to bully. Seat by seat.

Building up dual power by organizing in Communist Parties, yes. That’s what I recommend.

Which is it? Can progressive candidates get elected, or not?

-You don’t stop fascism by voting it out, the conditions for it remain until Capitalism is overthrown.

How, pray tell, does one overthrow Capitalism? If you lack the support and coordination to elect progressives, where are you finding support and coordination for the revolution? I feel like a broken record, you keep ignoring this.

Again, even if everyone voted for PSL this election, they cannot beat the network of checks and balances. Capitalist States are designed against change.

Again, the more pieces of those checks and balances you control, the looser their grip.

The State must be smashed and replaced by a State-as-non-state, ie an organization of workers units in a syndicate

Magic and vibes.

The groundwork is organizing outside the bounds of Capitalist Electoralism, Congress will never shift progressive, you’re trying to rewrite history.

If it’s impossible for Congress to shift progressive, progressives don’t deserve to win.

More magic and vibes, trying to beat the overhwhelming forces of Capital with hopes and dreams, rather than material efforts.

If democratizing your workplace and directly engaging your local elections to generate more viable progressive representatives aren’t “material efforts”, I don’t recognize your use of the term.

Maybe the right way is to fix the reasons they feel that way in the first place, and pull them out of their echo chambers. Even the Nazis didn’t try to kill half the voting population.

The bad side of the Nazis was executing people.

Every time a third party candidate is proposed, the very fact that they are third party is used against them despite popular policy.

Proven, again, being the important distinction. Randos coming out of the woodwork every 4 years with swell official policies but no significant political administrative experience are not proven. Senators and governors are proven, they have a track record to look back on to see how effectively they actually implement their policies.

And to get progressive senators and governors, we need progressive mayors, county commissioners, city councilors, etc to seed those higher offices with proven political administrators. These third party candidates are shooting too high too fast, and spoiling the vote in the process.

In order to make it to the federal level, you must satisfy donors and wealthy Capitalists, and support their economic interests.

And how exactly do you plan to implement revolution? A coordinated, distributed grassroots network of leftists supporting a cause? Maybe try that. Build unions, vote for pro-union candidates at every opportunity, draft referendums to empower unions. You want to coordinate the proletariat? Do it.

You’re pretending fascism is an idea that magically sprouts out of thin air, rather than a known phenomenon as a reaction to Capitalist failure.

No, I’m not addressing the source of fascism at all, I’m purely concerned with its popularity. You need to change material conditions, which requires power, which requires support. If you have majority support, you have the votes. If you don’t, the revolution wouldn’t work anyway.

The way you combat lots of money is lots of people. If you have the apparatus to lead a successful revolution by the majority, you have the apparatus to elect progressives. If you don’t have it, you don’t have a revolution by the majority, you have a revolution of the minority.

Even if you could elect progressives, they still can’t enact change. The structure of the US is designed to uphold Capitalism, and as long as it is, it will act against any change to the status quo. The “democratic” apparatus is filtered and controlled by wealthy Capitalists, you yourself are arguing against progressive candidates in this election, pretending you’ll ever change your tone.

Again, the answer is to stop trying to skip the groundwork. Get as many progressives into as many offices as possible as soon as possible. When Congress starts shifting progressive, suddenly a progressive president isn’t so far fetched, and the general population is more likely to consider one. You can’t jump straight to President.

Engage your community, flood your local community boards with progressives. Get the ones who do well elected to city council. Prove that your policies work in your city, then your county, then your state. The presidency is the highest administrative office in the country. I don’t consider anyone without experience at the level of at least governor to be a serious candidate.

these candidates will not gain enough influence to make a difference at the federal level.

“My policies are not popular enough to win elections”

Neither the DNC nor the GOP will ever field progressive candidates.

Vote lesser evil until you have proven progressive candidates

Even if the party disappears, a new one will take its place that is just as fascist, because fascism is a response to crumbling Capitalism. This is such a well-studied phenomenon.

“My policies are not popular enough to win elections”

Nope, I got them.

You keep ignoring the very simple math: if you have enough support for revolution, you have enough support to elect progressives; if you don’t have enough support to elect progressives, you’re the clear minority and imposing your policies on the country is undemocratic. How in blazes do you expect to coordinate a revolution if you can’t coordinate a campaign?

Homie, I’m not gonna read two books because you can’t explain your own political beliefs yourself.

Revolution is inevitable, and it cannot happen without mass support in the first place.

Of course, which is the central problem with your reasoning. What is this “mass support” which is both large enough to coordinate a revolution, but too small to elect representatives? What percentage of the population is willing to do what it takes to unseat the government, but not willing to fill out a piece of paper every couple years?

All your points boil down to “My positions are not popular enough to win elections”.

I repeat,

Not getting what you want because the voters that disagree with you outnumber the ones that agree is the fundamental principle of democracy.

If your candidates can’t get support from voters, your revolution will be a dictatorship of unpopular positions. You’re saying that your positions are in the minority, but they should be implemented anyway. Regardless of how correct you think those positions are, this approach is definitely undemocratic.

Ah yes, peak anti-fascism: declaring your political opponents to be monolithically evil to justify their execution. Half of all American voters are subhuman scum that must be cleansed to bring about democracy.

The problem is systemic, it can’t be solved by one office in one election.

Y’know the old saying about the best and second best times to plant a tree? Sweeping political change takes time. You need progressive candidates to prove themselves on local and state levels.

It’ll take 6 years to replace every governor and congressperson, and based on the landscape I see, at least 5-10 years to promote enough progressives to a position suitable to candidacy. 15-20 years of voting for capable progressives in every race from school board to governor will provide us with a rich crop of experienced candidates.

That does mean voting lesser evil until you can get proven progressives on the ticket. That’s just reality. If you don’t vote for a candidate that wins, you didn’t get even the most meager semblance of representation. Not getting what you want because the voters that disagree with you outnumber the ones that agree is the fundamental principle of democracy. Show up. Vote, for someone who might win.

Republicans planted their tree 50 years ago. Progressives’ best move in the next few elections is show up in droves to big tent blue wave, and then splinter when the Republican party is defunct.