It wouldn’t, it’s just regurgitating plausible bullshit per usual.

Fuck man I had no idea, I’ve missed out on my prime years of eating beaver anal secretions 😭

I felt this in my bones

Just tankies. Not all lefties are tankies.

There’s a difference, in my view, between good faith criticism of Democrats that’s rooted in reality - which is necessary and for fucks sake should have been listened to last year … …and hyperbolic performances of ideological purity for in-group approval - which social media has made far more common and popular.

The former might recognize the complexities of political coalitions, the American electorate, and public policy while offering prescriptive recommendations on how Democrats should advance - and win with - left-wing policies.

The latter is steeped in black-and-white absolutism, hyperbole, no true scotsman bullshit, fantastical thinking, and whatever this month’s overused leftwing meme phrase is (“HAND IN GLOVE!”). There’s usually zero depth there because it’s a worldview shaped by soundbites on social media, not nuanced reality. It’s nice to believe that there’s a magical dormant socialist majority just waiting to be activated in the United States but no, there isn’t. We have to build it first.

Mamdani succeeded because he had the energy of the former, not the latter. He spoke directly to peoples’ issues, went out into the community to build bridges, and so far he’s seemed flexible about the specifics of his policy proposals - like, he cares more about moving things towards a more equitable, just, left-wing outcome than making sure what he does is the purest socialist magic this side of Karl Marx, popularity and effectiveness be damned. He’s building an actual broad fucking coalition of support, an exercise that necessarily requires dialogue, compromise, realism, etc. That shit functions much better in the real world than ideological absolutism. Even Lenin himself had to adapt the NEP, after all.

Building a somewhat large coalition must precede durable political or systemic change. Either that or you enforce it at the barrel of the gun and, uh, fuck that.

We’ll see if other Dems try to throw sand in Mamdani’s gears or not; they seemed like they were going to at first but now they seem like they’re scared off by his genuine popularity (which they all wish they could emulate). Let’s hope he can keep his plot armor here - and that he SUCCEEDS as mayor. If he ends up more popular than other Democrats and his left policies are successful we’ll see more new young faces following his lead in other places.

I joined this community because I want to read and participate in more discussions with - and build coalitions with - more of the former, the Mamdani’s. I’m fucking tired of the vocal idiots demanding space communism TODAY while refusing to engage with reality and the steps necessary to get from here to there. That bullshit is getting us further from a left-wing populace & world and it needs to be shot into the sun.

You’re also wrong about "progressives failing to produce landslides. Voters have delivered material wins even in red and purple states: “Florida passed a $15 minimum wage in 2020”, and “Nebraska approved $15 in 2022”. Medicaid expansion passed at the ballot in “Oklahoma”, “Missouri”, and “South Dakota”. Labor is winning: “UAW’s 73% vote at Volkswagen Chattanooga in 2024”, and “Starbucks workers have organized hundreds of stores”. Housing reforms moved left: “Minneapolis ended single-family-only zoning and parking minimums under its 2040 plan”, and “California’s AB 2097 eliminated parking minimums near transit”. Criminal-legal reform is real: “Illinois ended cash bail statewide in 2023”. This is bottom-up material change that advanced despite donor-class resistance. And New York just elected a self described anti-zionist as Mayor.

To some degree voters in red states are willing to back progressive economic policies when they’re separated from progressive social policies. Look up support for racial justice or trans rights in those same places.

It’s a quandry that the left, at large, needs to figure out. We can’t throw vulnerable people under the bus, yet a large portion of the voting populace will choose harming (or declining to help) those vulnerable populations over their own material well-being.

That’s how you get dumbass shit like members of a union mostly voting for candidates who promise to bust unions.

Producing Broadway shows. The whole process of workshopping a theatrical production just seems like such an interesting - and communal - art form.