The mistake the US did isn’t the failure of voting for the lesser evil. I mean it was a mistake but even if you avoided that and saved the center for another four years, the center would have impoverished people further over those four years and would have fallen into the right even harder afterwards. The real failure that’s driving all of this is letting the system get usurped by corporations and oligarchs which then never presents any choices that stop the wealth transfer from the majority to the top. Instead its always faster transfer or slower transfer. The center is unsustainable and it is very likely falling through around the world. If not now, then over the next little while. Until a non-neoliberal left takes over and unfucks the system like it did the last time around post the Great Depression.
The Left can run on an anti oligarchy platform. So another four years would have helped a lot in building that. If you take the US as an example, Bernie did do pretty well after 8years of Obama. He was stopped by the Centrist establishment, but things have gotten worse since then and the old school Democrats are much less popular.
On the other hand the left refuses to get off its ass unless the right is in charge, so extra time ends up being meaningless. Note that I’m not arguing for accelerationism, but “if we had just another four years…” is half the reason Western democracies are in this mess.
The Left does protest under centrist governments as well. LGBTQ+, climate, anti racism and so forth is run as well and often massive. They even win from time to time, as can be by same sex marriage, new climate laws and so forth.
They even win from time to time, as can be by same sex marriage, new climate laws and so forth.
They win sometimes, but lose a lot. The wins are nice, but this is simply not a sustainable dynamic, as seen from the rise of the far right and climate targets becoming less and less likely to fulfill by the day.
Do you seriously believe centrist want to let the left win? They want to do nothing. However under a right wing government winning just means nothing happens.
The goal of the left should be to be in charge and not the center or the right. So the question should be under whom is it easier to take power. The centrist will leave the electoral system in place, so there is a clear plan. The right wants to create a dictatorship, meaning the way to power can only go through revolution. That however is much much harder and in the meantime things will get worse much more quickly.
So a centrist government is better for the left. Even when the system is broken.
If you want to see that in action, just look at the 2024 French parliament election. Centrist in power and both the left and right won. In the UK the right was in charge and the center won. In the German election with a somewhat center left government the center lost votes, whereas the left and right won.
This is all well and good, but here’s the thing: You’re assuming that the left is a unified bloc of rational actors, which is just not true. A significant fraction of left-leaning activists put the lesser evil in charge and then bow out until the next election—or worse, actively run defense for said lesser evil. Remember when you couldn’t criticise Biden (later Harris) for supporting genocide on Lemmy? Well I do, and I can state with 100% certainty that nothing about that was unified or rational. The left does nothing to stop centrists from handing power to the right and then act surprised when the right is in power, as most aptly shown in America’s last election.
In the German election with a somewhat center left government the center lost votes, whereas the left and right won.
Die Linke certainly won a bunch of votes, but by far that election was a disaster for the left and a victory for the right. Die Linke winning 25 more seats does not counteract AfD winning 69. If this is what you consider a win then you should look at the numbers again and tell me who is going to end up in charge at this rate.
Remember when you couldn’t criticise Biden (later Harris) for supporting genocide on Lemmy?
No, the argument was that only Biden(later Harris) could win the election against Trump and that Trump would be far worse then either of them. Looking at the election results it was clearly a race between Harris and Trump, with nobody else coming close. If Harris would have gotten the votes Biden did get, then she would have won against Trump. Also Trump is worse then at least Biden and very likely Harris on basically every issue including Gaza. When Israel tried to cut off Gaza from food, Biden put a lot of pressure on them to allow food in and even used the US military to deliver food. Right now under Trump no food at all gets into Gaza, causing two million Gazans to starve.
The left does nothing to stop centrists from handing power to the right and then act surprised when the right is in power, as most aptly shown in America’s last election.
Harris lost due to a lot of left wing voters, not voting for her due to Gaza. Now the Gazans are all killed under Trump, while they can feel great about themself on their flight to El Salvador.
The mistake the US did isn’t the failure of voting for the lesser evil. I mean it was a mistake but even if you avoided that and saved the center for another four years, the center would have impoverished people further over those four years and would have fallen into the right even harder afterwards. The real failure that’s driving all of this is letting the system get usurped by corporations and oligarchs which then never presents any choices that stop the wealth transfer from the majority to the top. Instead its always faster transfer or slower transfer. The center is unsustainable and it is very likely falling through around the world. If not now, then over the next little while. Until a non-neoliberal left takes over and unfucks the system like it did the last time around post the Great Depression.
The Left can run on an anti oligarchy platform. So another four years would have helped a lot in building that. If you take the US as an example, Bernie did do pretty well after 8years of Obama. He was stopped by the Centrist establishment, but things have gotten worse since then and the old school Democrats are much less popular.
On the other hand the left refuses to get off its ass unless the right is in charge, so extra time ends up being meaningless. Note that I’m not arguing for accelerationism, but “if we had just another four years…” is half the reason Western democracies are in this mess.
The Left does protest under centrist governments as well. LGBTQ+, climate, anti racism and so forth is run as well and often massive. They even win from time to time, as can be by same sex marriage, new climate laws and so forth.
They win sometimes, but lose a lot. The wins are nice, but this is simply not a sustainable dynamic, as seen from the rise of the far right and climate targets becoming less and less likely to fulfill by the day.
Do you seriously believe centrist want to let the left win? They want to do nothing. However under a right wing government winning just means nothing happens.
The goal of the left should be to be in charge and not the center or the right. So the question should be under whom is it easier to take power. The centrist will leave the electoral system in place, so there is a clear plan. The right wants to create a dictatorship, meaning the way to power can only go through revolution. That however is much much harder and in the meantime things will get worse much more quickly.
So a centrist government is better for the left. Even when the system is broken.
If you want to see that in action, just look at the 2024 French parliament election. Centrist in power and both the left and right won. In the UK the right was in charge and the center won. In the German election with a somewhat center left government the center lost votes, whereas the left and right won.
This is all well and good, but here’s the thing: You’re assuming that the left is a unified bloc of rational actors, which is just not true. A significant fraction of left-leaning activists put the lesser evil in charge and then bow out until the next election—or worse, actively run defense for said lesser evil. Remember when you couldn’t criticise Biden (later Harris) for supporting genocide on Lemmy? Well I do, and I can state with 100% certainty that nothing about that was unified or rational. The left does nothing to stop centrists from handing power to the right and then act surprised when the right is in power, as most aptly shown in America’s last election.
Die Linke certainly won a bunch of votes, but by far that election was a disaster for the left and a victory for the right. Die Linke winning 25 more seats does not counteract AfD winning 69. If this is what you consider a win then you should look at the numbers again and tell me who is going to end up in charge at this rate.
No, the argument was that only Biden(later Harris) could win the election against Trump and that Trump would be far worse then either of them. Looking at the election results it was clearly a race between Harris and Trump, with nobody else coming close. If Harris would have gotten the votes Biden did get, then she would have won against Trump. Also Trump is worse then at least Biden and very likely Harris on basically every issue including Gaza. When Israel tried to cut off Gaza from food, Biden put a lot of pressure on them to allow food in and even used the US military to deliver food. Right now under Trump no food at all gets into Gaza, causing two million Gazans to starve.
Harris lost due to a lot of left wing voters, not voting for her due to Gaza. Now the Gazans are all killed under Trump, while they can feel great about themself on their flight to El Salvador.