• hark@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    “jUsT vOtE” wasn’t the solution. It required the opposition parties to work on getting those votes. If the democrats in the US wanted to learn a lesson, it’d be that they shouldn’t just lean on “sure we suck ass but trump is worse!!”

    This excerpt is key:

    First, voters punished Modi for putting his Hindu nationalist agenda ahead of fixing India’s unequal economy. Second, Indian voters had some real concerns about the decline of liberal democracy under BJP rule. Third, the opposition parties waged a smart campaign that took advantage of Modi’s vulnerabilities on the economy and democracy.

    Note the first point hitting on the economy. Democrats have gone with “actually everything is great and you not being able to afford things is just your feelings”.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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      5 months ago

      Modi won, so you’re basically saying “Democrats should try harder but they’ll still fail.”

      • hark@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        That’s what happens with complacency. There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done to dismantle the fascist machine, but it requires sustained full commitment and effort from the opposition. Think about how bad things were with george w bush. Democrats were able to seize that opportunity to get in and do some good things, but they were mostly fine with the status quo and this is what gave us trump.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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          5 months ago

          I think maybe rethinking tactics is in order because what people are doing isn’t working and doing it harder won’t make it work. That’s what I was trying to suggest.

          • hark@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            We’re in full agreement here and that was my point when I argued against the “just vote” talking point. Democrats need to change their tactics and apply pressure using what works. Currently their only tactic is pointing out “we’re not trump” and they’re putting their full force behind that tactic and it’s not working (or at least not well enough to enact meaningful change). One key problem is how we get democrats to change their tactics and clearly “just vote” isn’t cutting it because they’re not fazed by threats to withhold votes, so it’s not like they actually care if you vote for them beyond getting them into office. It does nothing to change democratic party policy.