• Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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    25 days ago

    People love to talk about how ‘the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of patriots.’

    It’s easy to talk about big dramatic battles.

    The truth is that it’s really a never-ending struggle that requires sweat.

    How many people bother to show up for primary elections? How many are willing to get a petition signed to get a good candidate on the ballot?

    • Signtist@lemm.ee
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      25 days ago

      The quote is that the tree is “refreshed” with blood, which is an important distinction. Also, Jefferson wrote it after the founding of the US - he understood that our democracy is not an exception to this cycle.

      Yes, if we all did our civic duty not just to vote, but to actually inform ourselves about the choices, we’d be able to maintain democracy potentially indefinitely, but the reality is that a huge portion of people are complacent, and won’t take even the simplest of actions until they’re forced to. So, democracy degrades slowly as it’s desperately propped up by the few who understand its importance until it finally fails enough to start really affecting the people who “aren’t really into politics,” by which point its too late to use sweat instead of blood.

      We water the tree with the sweat of the few, but when that inevitably isn’t enough and it starts to wither, we refresh it with blood of the many.

    • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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      25 days ago

      if we want a breather we gotta upend the system.

      not keep struggling with it.

      • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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        25 days ago

        Let me count the ways that upending the system isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

        For the system to be upended in a meaningful way first means you’ve got an organized cadre in place. Savvy political operators who can make things happen.

        The Left failed to get past the DNC twice with a popular candidate. The idea that the Left could get past the US Army is ridiculous.

        Next, let’s look at what ‘upending the system’ would actually look like. Look at the hyperinflation in Germany after WW1. Or the Depression. Or maybe just the riots of the 1960s. Life isn’t a video game, and when the system fails the most vulnerable people are the ones who suffer the most.

        Finally, do you really think that companies like Blackwater are just going to step aside and let themselves be swept away?

        If the system goes down, it will be replaced by something much uglier.

        • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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          25 days ago

          none of the examples you came up with have anything to do with a worker revolution. yes, silly, it does takes time. and no, democrats have never been leftists.

          do you have an actual idea to save the rest of that broken democracy? because its already being replaced with something uglier. you seem to think fascism is gonna stop itself?

          • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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            24 days ago

            The Left failed to get past the DNC twice with a popular candidate. The idea that the Left could get past the US Army is ridiculous.

            • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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              24 days ago

              cmon, tell me what your idea is for fixing the system that doesnt involve begging the right wing for a candidate nomination.

              • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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                24 days ago

                You’d rather face the US Army then vote for someone endorsed by Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders.

                Please read some history. Back in the day, Frederick Douglas campaigned for candidates who couldn’t promise to end slavery.

                • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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                  24 days ago

                  im sure you will have plenty of fascists to root for in 2028, no worries 😂

                  did the whitewashed history you learned in school include all the genociding you have been doing this last couple of centuries?