• SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Could you summarize his reasoning? A podcast isn’t accessible for a lot of people browsing Lemmy. I’m also not prepared to simply defer to an “expert” when it comes to political science.

    I’m skeptical. It doesn’t make much sense to me that the US would be further right under HRC than Trump, who caused a generational shift to the right and literally tried to overthrow the government. Or that the US would be further left under Trump than Biden. Under Biden, we’ve seen some of the most muscular regulation of corporations in a generation.

    The North Korean defector in this meme is also celebrated by the alt-right for her “anti-woke” ramblings, which has me questioning this angle.

      • SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        The FTC has been in the news for proposing an extremely progressive legal theory of anti-trust called the New Brandeis school. They’ve sued Meta, Google, Microsoft, and many others on anti-trust grounds. Biden appointed the main and most progressive legal theorist behind the movement, Lina Khan, surprising even progressives.

        We probably also need new legislation if and when democrats retake congress, but the will is certainly there if voters will reward it.

        • twisted28@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          You said “many” muscular new regulations but can’t list a single one. A lawsuit is not a regulation. Enforcing existing regulations is something that is supposed to be done, and not worthy of praise. The bar for our politicians protecting us is extremely low.

          • SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            Really you can’t find a single one? What do you think the policies of the FTC in relation to what it will sue over is? It’s a regulation. Because it’s a regulatory agency regulating an industry. I honestly don’t even know what you would want the FTC to do. There is a consensus that they have been surprisingly active.

            • twisted28@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              So they’re enforcing old regulations by suing or they crafted “new” ones like you stated originally?

              • SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca
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                1 year ago

                I don’t know what you think a “regulation” is, or what you mean by “crafting new ones”. Your question doesn’t make much sense to me.

                If you’re asking in good faith and wanting to learn, not just win an internet argument, let’s get into it. The pro-corporate anti-trust standard since the Reagan years is called the “Consumer Welfare standard”. According to that standard, to simplify, a merger is bad if it leads to market inefficiency or higher prices for consumers. It’s a hyper libertarian standard. It is notoriously hard to prove and has led to massive concentration of the market.

                The New Brandeis School takes a broader look at the market harms, such as harms to the labor market or to market platform choice. That means, to simplify, that a greater range of corporate behavior is deemed unacceptable that we’re previously considered fine. When corporations are found violating the new standard, they are sued by the FTC, and the courts decide the penalty. So your question doesn’t make sense. Change in enforcement regimes is what a regulation is.

    • TokenBoomer@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      His premise is that both Democrats and Republicans are corporatists that will resort to fascism to stave off any movement from the worker class in America. He teaches political science. This has nothing to do with the North Korean meme lady.

      • SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Nothing you said supports the claim that voting for the “lesser evil” always pushes the economy further right.

        Voting for abolition ended slavery. Voting for pro civil rights party got us civil rights. Voting for pro-labor politicians got us labor protections and the new deal. And in recent years, Trump oversaw the greatest transfer of wealth to the elite rich in history, while Biden has installed the most aggressively progressive FTC in a century. Against this history of obvious progress, what actual evidence does this guy cite?

        • TokenBoomer@lemmy.worldOP
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          1 year ago

          Voting for abolition ended slavery.

          During the civil war, not at the ballot box.

          Voting for pro civil rights party got us civil rights.

          After years of protests and violence, not at the ballot box.

          Voting for pro-labor politicians got us labor protections and the new deal.

          After years of social movements, strikes, violence and a the Great Depression. Not at the ballot box.

          Most significant political changes in America happen in the streets, not at the ballot box.

          • SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            It was obviously both. The violence without actually implementing the political policies would have been pointless.

            Show me an example where voting for the lesser evil leads to the adoption of more right wing policies. That is the specific claim you are supposedly defending.

            • TokenBoomer@lemmy.worldOP
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              1 year ago

              It’s not my opinion, it’s August Nimtz’s. I do agree with it though. FDR did the New Deal. Lincoln did the Emancipation, LBJ did civil rights. Public opinion was a factor, but it was the threat of social unrest that enacted them. As for the example of right wing policies, each Democrat caters to corporations. Maybe not as much as the Republicans, but they still do. After Reagan, we voted for the lesser evil Clinton, who did Welfare Reform and repealed Glass-Steagall. After Bush, we voted for the lesser evil Obama, and change. There was no change, he kept Bush’s surveillance state, did more drone strikes and the War on Terror. Promised healthcare, but borrowed it from Romney and the Heritage Foundation. Then after Trump, we settled for the lesser evil and Biden. Who promised his corporate funders that “nothing would fundamentally change.” We still don’t have healthcare, no campaign finance reform, no student loan forgiveness, scuttled a railroad strike, and is currently complicit in a genocide. If you think we are headed in the right direction; by all means vote for Biden. I see the systemic problems with the electoral duopoly and have no misconceptions that if we continue on this path, social unrest will facilitate the state to quell strikes, protests and riots. Business as usual never necessitates change, only the threat of violence from a social movement can do that. But we need to do that now, before it’s too late. I’m not telling you who to vote for, I will vote for Biden myself. But I’m under no illusion about the situation we are in, and what it takes to get out of it. I’m just disseminating information I found helpful and encouraging. It is better to be an informed electorate than an uninformed one.

              • SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca
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                1 year ago

                You haven’t shown how Democrats led to a further move to the right compared to Republicans. For example, Obama tried to pass universal healthcare with a public option. Zero Republicans voted for it, and the public option was defeated by independent Joe Lieberman. If there were one more Democrat in the senate, we would’ve had universal healthcare.

                Meanwhile, Republicans under Trump literally tried to repeal Obamacare. The reason why progressive policies don’t pass is NOT because too many people vote for Democrats, but because too few do.

                  • SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca
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                    1 year ago

                    That’s ridiculously untrue. You’re looking at two examples.

                    How about Civil Rights, the New Deal, Women’s suffrage, Pure food and drug act, the Meat Inspection act, Social Security, Medicare, the Sherman Act, Glass-Steagall Act, minimum wage laws, workers compensation laws, and on and on and on.

                • TokenBoomer@lemmy.worldOP
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                  1 year ago

                  You haven’t shown how Democrats led to a further move to the right compared to Republicans.

                  They ain’t moving left.

                  For example, Obama tried to pass universal healthcare with a public option. Zero Republicans voted for it, and the public option was defeated by independent Joe Lieberman. If there were one more Democrat in the senate, we would’ve had universal healthcare.

                  Before Sinema, it was Manchin. Before Manchin, it was Lieberman. And if it wasn’t them, it would have been another Democrat. They’re always one vote away. Curious.

                  The reason why progressive policies don’t pass is NOT because too many people vote for Democrats, but because too few do.

                  Yeah, why do Progressives’ always have to ask for more rights and a better standard of living? Can’t they just be happy with the way things are?

                  • SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca
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                    1 year ago

                    None of these respond to my points. Democrats passed Obamacare. They were one vote away from going even further left with a public option. Meanwhile, Republicans were ALL votes away from any healthcare reform. Claiming that Democrats made the country go further right than Republicans is completely bizarre.