• cosmicrookie@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Sure individuals exist! I am even sure that many would vote for the left if they could. But because the US political system is what it is, they can’t vote for a politician or party that will represent their ideology. Hence, there is no left in the US even though people might actually want it to be.

    • Call me Lenny/Leni@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      they can’t vote for a politician or party that will represent their ideology.

      Says who? Nobody can guarantee they’ll succeed, but everyone can be guaranteed an honest vote. We’re not living in the Hollywood Blacklist era anymore. I’ve seen Marxist mayors win mayoral seats.

      • cosmicrookie@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        I think that we keep misunderstanding each other and i can’t figure out if its intentional. I am pretty sure that this is about the two party system and none of them being on the left

        • Call me Lenny/Leni@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          I thought the gist was about the supposed deterrence of potential “left” aspects of American culture as present in the individuals, which is mutually exclusive from the situation in the American leadership (especially if they don’t fully represent the people, which I don’t disagree with), especially if they aren’t the only positions of influence.

          There is a similar discussion in Mexico… you have the leadership which is historically “left” while the grand majority of the population is historically “right”, all before they get mixed up with America’s “left” because that’s the association they have when you run into debates about closed or open borders. Several EU countries come to mind as well, many have locked-in systems that contrast with the people. The two parties in Canada (because most countries have two parties) are both significantly more “left” that the people, but nobody there is saying there’s “no true right”, so why do we say America has “no true left”?

      • charlytune@mander.xyz
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        3 months ago

        Were they genuinely Marxist? Or did people just call them Marxist because they had more liberal policies than the norm for the area? Liberalism ≠ socialism, and socialism ≠ Marxism.

        • Call me Lenny/Leni@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          Some did identify as Marxist. Not sure how to square that with what counts “as objectively Marxist” since political labels tend to act as a sum of the policies. If a nation that’s canonically supposed to be “Marxist” has a policy out of place, is it “not Marxist”, as opposed to two, three, four, etc.? Without a doubt many nations in the fold of Marx were more unbecoming of Marx himself that the towns I’m thinking of.