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   Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 08-Jul-2024 04:48:21 JST Paul Cantrell

   You know what wins in electoral politics?

   Coalitions. Messy, annoying, disappointing, grudging coalitions.

   (Short 🧵)

   https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/07/exit-poll-shows-surprise-win-for-left-wing-alliance-in-french-election

   • Elledeeay repeated this.
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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 08-Jul-2024 04:50:25 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     This is a perfect example of what electoral victory looks like in real life: not awesome, not everything any of us would want, a parade of miserable disappointments ahead, but disaster averted — and maybe, maybe even moving the giant glacial ice sheet of society an inch in a positive direction.

     Alexandre Oliva likes this.
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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 08-Jul-2024 04:52:35 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     People expect way too much from elections. Change doesn’t come from elections. Change happens in daily life: in human relationships, in information bubbles, in protests, in conversations, in people showing up where it counts.

     Elections aren’t the source of progress. They’re dangerous single points of failure. This time, at least, it looks like France avoided the worst.

     Alexandre Oliva likes this.
     Elledeeay repeated this.
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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 08-Jul-2024 06:26:55 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     I should clarify: change •can• come from elections in the form of a malicious actor seizing power without real popular support (whether by low turnout, vote suppression, or broken process; we have all theee in the US). In that case, yes, the election itself is the cause of the change.

     •Positive• change requires popular support, so when it manifests in an election, it means some form of social change is already underway.

   • Embed this notice
     Tim Lavoie (tim_lavoie@cosocial.ca)'s status on Monday, 08-Jul-2024 07:05:25 JST Tim Lavoie

     in reply to

     @inthehands I must say, minority governments tend to be my favourite governments. I would prefer proportional representation instead, but it's always better when the parties involved actually have to learn to share the sandbox with others.

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 08-Jul-2024 07:08:06 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     This thread in a short metaphor:

     Elections are like steering: can’t miraculously teleport you to your destination, but stop minding it for even one minute and it will wreck you.

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 08-Jul-2024 07:51:40 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     This post from @burnoutqueen does a good job of expressing feelings I used to have 20 years ago or so:
     https://tech.lgbt/@burnoutqueen/112747510965269952

     I’ve since changed my thinking to flip the causal arrow in the other direction: campaigns are important, but success stems from the wider political movement created by [insert many social forces here].

     Electoral campaigns are a focusing lens, not the light source.

   • Embed this notice
     your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦 (blogdiva@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 08-Jul-2024 07:55:45 JST your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦

     in reply to

     🛎️ 🛎️ 🛎️

     Biden isn't antifascist and the Democratic leadership won't embrace antifascists after decades of railing against the Moby Dick of Antifa. after all, corporatist, neoliberals, they're all fascists.

     so what to do?

     vote to stop the nazis from entering the white house again with Trump; then cock block the nazis from forming a coalition with corporatist Dems. support all antifa incumbents all the while building a true antifascist coalition.

     VOTE WITH YOUR PROTEST BOOTS ON

     @inthehands

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 08-Jul-2024 07:55:45 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦

     @blogdiva
     I tend to think that the Biden admin is softly anti-fascist: opposed to outright fascism in principle, but unwilling to take the concrete steps that successful oppo actually requires. (I also tend to think what I’m saying there is a distinction without much of a difference.)

     Regardless, I think we arrive at the same place: strategic voting is necessary but not sufficient. Either way, we have a long series of fights ahead of us.

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 08-Jul-2024 08:00:54 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦

     @blogdiva
     Yeah, we really need to get our shit together. The SCOTUS’s president-is-a-king-whenever-we-say-so decision should have triggered massive protests, like the summer of 2020 or the Women’s March or larger. Instead, we get a two-day news cycle and done.

   • Embed this notice
     your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦 (blogdiva@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 08-Jul-2024 08:00:55 JST your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦

     in reply to

     a reminder that UNIONS and the left have been protesting Macron since... i want to say 2016. and i don't mean randomly. there has been some union strike or another that has paralized the whole country or a region since before the pandemic.

     @inthehands

   • Embed this notice
     Yeshaya Lazarevich (alter_kaker@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 08-Jul-2024 08:20:29 JST Yeshaya Lazarevich

     in reply to

     • your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦

     @inthehands @blogdiva I was just about to say that the only way forward I'm seeing is keep electing Democrats while taking out all of the conservative union leaderships, and mounting a tea-party style takeover of the Democrat party using union resources

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 08-Jul-2024 08:22:45 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Yeshaya Lazarevich
     • your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦

     @alter_kaker @blogdiva
     If we’re talking about lighting a fire under the Democratic Party’s ass, I think that fight starts at the local and state levels, including but not limited to union work.

     I’m planning to be out there knocking door for Ilhan Omar, for example.

   • Embed this notice
     Yeshaya Lazarevich (alter_kaker@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 08-Jul-2024 08:27:31 JST Yeshaya Lazarevich

     in reply to

     • your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦

     @inthehands if I tried that I'll get kicked out of the neighborhood, I'm afraid. But I was talking in general: putting forward candidates at all levels and supporting them with union money and infrastructure. I was discussing with someone about why has there been no successful effort to take over the Democrat party the way the Republicans were taken over by their right side. It was suggested that there hasn't been an equivalent of the Koch money and all that
     @blogdiva

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     ShadSterling (shadsterling@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 08-Jul-2024 10:24:48 JST ShadSterling

     in reply to

     @inthehands wait, so is the motivation to accelerate climate change to make it easier to move “the giant glacial ice sheet of society” in a negative direction?

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 08-Jul-2024 10:24:48 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • ShadSterling

     @ShadSterling
     This is a non sequitur?!

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 08-Jul-2024 11:22:12 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • ShadSterling

     @ShadSterling
     Ah, on reread, I think it was just a throwaway joke mixing the metaphorical glacier with the literal ones? If so, apologies for being dense.