cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/5309499

After Biden’s meltdown, the Democrats are hoping to reenergize people with a supposedly “progressive” pick for Kamala Harris’ running mate.

  • Chronicon [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    1 month ago

    yep, that’s walz. He’s one of the better dems in the country, or to put it another way, he’s a spineless liberal bootlicker.

    Anyone who thinks Harris/Walz is an improvement for palestine is almost certainly wrong. Domestic issues idk, sure, maybe a bit better than crime bill author/student debt lover joe biden, but not meaningfully different besides just not being a 100% obvious bloodless ghoul on an interpersonal level (which doesn’t matter materially even if it is true).

    His entire claim to fame besides coining the “weird” thing (which honestly could have been fabricated intentionally), is not somehow cocking up or vetoing the one halfway productive session of the MN legislature that’s happened in the last few years (2023). Dem majorities in all branches of MN government, still compromised with republicans a bunch and then failed to get a bonding bill passed in '24 leaving a bunch of critical projects unfunded

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 month ago

      Walz mobilized the entire MN national guard to crush the 20 uprising.

      That should be everything the left, PoC, anyone who thinks fascism is bad needs to know.

      • Chronicon [they/them]@hexbear.net
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        1 month ago

        what drives me crazy is how many people, if pushed, will admit they think it was a good thing. That it was more important to “restore order” by cracking down hard than it was to actually do anything about all the racist police murders happening all the time.

            • YEP [he/him]@hexbear.net
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              1 month ago

              Have you like deluded yourself you were about to lead a revolution? You are non stop posting about the national guard cracking down. You live in the American police state that’s what happens. I don’t think walz is some based hero or some dumbass shit he is just a compromise. I just don’t understand the point you are even trying to make.

              Edit: I don’t mean to come off agro if I did

              • Chronicon [they/them]@hexbear.net
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                1 month ago

                that’s a pretty aggro comment yeah. If you have people who think they are leftists saying “hey this walz guy actually seems pretty good”, throwing his piggishness and nature as a class traitor, in their faces is a good and normal response, and leading with personal experience is normal as well. A temporary loss of state control resulting in “something good” happening doesn’t require a full on revolution. Minneapolis could have done a lot better than “well we convicted the piggies in this one incident and utterly refused to reform in any other way”, and part of what stopped the momentum there was the national guard crackdown.

                Frankly if you weren’t there why shit on a random comrade online about it? Nobody thought that was gonna be it for america, but there were ambitions to take it further.

                • YEP [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                  1 month ago

                  I really don’t think I’m trying to shit on them I apologized bc Im a hexbear poster, I come off as condescending when I don’t mean to be.

                  My objection is the non stop pooping on people that are celebrating the Dems not picking aipacs favorite in Shapiro or some demon like buttigeg.

                  I’m not saying walz is breaking the mold of an American politician on this stuff, it is actually just a fresh of breath of fresh air compared to the zealotry of Biden and Trump and w/e. Like I pushed for walz among my lib friends who like people like buttigeg and shapiro bc their political media diet is like seeing a soundbite of a bog standard dem being like “isn’t <insert neo nazi trump surrogate> crazy?”. I’m not voting for them, I kinda like that they picked someone who didn’t really compromise on things like lgbt legislation when he had a super slim majority as governor. I like that he was RELATIVELY dovish in Congress, voted against intervention in syria and against us aiding Saudis in Yemen ect. I’m not delusional and thing he is a brave anti imperialist. it literally the best that can happen in the imperial core.

                  It just feels like people are projecting everything that comes with living in the imperial core onto him. Please tell me if I’m off base.

        • sloth [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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          1 month ago

          I would rather have an outside force come in and restore order than letting two sides that hate each other escalate. I feel if Chauvin had been arrested sooner it would not have gotten to the point it did, but I’m not sure the Governor can just issue an arrest warrant and send the Marshals or whatever. Of course he could have done more with police reform, but I think he was up for re-election in 2020 2022. It’s politics or something.

      • sloth [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        1 month ago

        Sure it wasn’t a great response, however I could argue the NG actually were less violent and more restrained than the police would have been. Some of the NG were sincerely worried about killing people, not sure how many cops had that apprehension.

  • autismdragon [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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    1 month ago

    I disagree. He’s not fake progressive. He’s a real progressive. Progressivism is the left side of liberalism and progressives often do bad things. Its fine to call things what they are. Just because “progressive” has positive connotations doesn’t mean we can just, be communists and say that progressivism is insufficient. We’re communists, not progressives.

    • EelBolshevikism [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      1 month ago

      “Progressive” gives an implication that they’d have strong (or at least the appearance of strong) but still liberal belief in at least superficial non-hitlerite ideas, and violently suppressing protestors during the George Floyd protests is a pretty obvious hitlerite move. Most liberals and “progressives” believe they were “tOo vIoLent” though and those actions got forgotten anyways, so that checks out with liberalism/progressivism.

      But he can’t even pretend to be a non-hitlerite, he could be a “real” (as in successfully giving the appearance of being a human being) progressive but having an outright pro-Israel stance makes that impossible. He’s faking being a faker

      • HamManBad [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        1 month ago

        American progressives have always been imperialist. Historically they supported eugenics. He’s not mislabeled at all, in fact today’s progressives are much less rabid than the ones from the Teddy Roosevelt era

      • autismdragon [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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        I disagree that “progressives” cant be pro-Israel because social democrats in imperial core nations will always support imperialism. There were two people in all of congress who were consistent on Israel and one of them just got primaried. And I’m pretty sure they still stumbled on other questions related to imperialism. Like I said, progressivism isnt actually good, and the main way its not good is that “progressives” will support imperialism while supporting progressive policies domestically. For me, he fits the bill of what I expect of an American “progressive”, its just that progressivism isnt actually good lol. Almost all of us here are former progressive socdems so I think some of us still have an interest in keeping the label “pure” but we dont actually have to do that really. We’re communists, we left that behind. Social imperialists can have the label lol.

  • PKMKII [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    1 month ago

    At some level I think the most damning thing is that he supported pay-as-you-go fiscal policies while in Congress. He could soften up on all three of these issues, throw major bones to unions, Palestinians, and the black liberation movement, the well would still be fundamentally poisoned as he believes neoliberal economics underpins it all.

    • Rashida Tlaib, the only non-genocide politician

      Or fuck, someone who doesn’t hold elected office and is anti-genocide. Pick like, the leader of Jewish Voice for Peace or something like that. The VP pick doesn’t have to be a current politician, it can be literally anyone.

      Like 80% of the people on this website are eligible and have better positions than Tim Walz

      • sloth [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        1 month ago

        I don’t disagree, those options would produce better results. Do you think they would win an election though?

        From what I’ve seen Walz is the most pro-palestine candidate they considered.

        • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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          1 month ago

          I think a ham sandwich with a small bit of mold on the corner could win this election. Donald Trump is the most beatable presidential candidate in a generation. I’m pretty sure Shillary and Genocide Joe were some of the only people on earth who could lose to Trump.

          The only demographic that will lose the Dems this election is people pissed about the genocide. Picking Stephanie Fox (Director of JVP), for example, combined with calling for Biden to stop weapon sales would convince the one demographic they need to bring back.

          I do still think picking Walz was both a strategically sound choice and not the most evil thing the Dems could’ve done. If they wanted to lose and be the most evil while doing it they would’ve chosen Josh Shapiro.

          Also isn’t it fucking crazy that serving in a foreign military doesn’t disqualify you from being president? It should disqualify you from any elected office, from president down to school board.