Post #4168701

Elections are useful when used as an agitational tool to activate more of the population. The problem is when electoralism is the end goal. It is ok for us to push for reforms on the way to revolution. To cohere a larger movement we need to not only prove ourselves as socialists who can improve your life materially, but also we need to uplift those who are worst off so they are able to join our movement in the first place. I believe in using everything at our disposal to do the necessary organizing, agitating, and educating on the path to fomenting revolutionary sentiment, but will fight subordinating the movement to milquetoast reformists who’s end goal is nicer capitalism, not the wholesale dissolution of it the world over. Our movement is still frustratingly in its infancy. The material conditions for revolution are building but are still not here. We need to keep agitating this line - people are waking up. They hear what we have to say and they agree. Organizing works but it takes time and a strategy of patience. If we do not meet people where they are at and engage in the structures they trust, even when we do not, we are simply ceding ground to those who would poison them against us. We aren’t gonna vote our way out of facism but we sure as hell can use those votes to agitate for why voting will never be enough. Edit: one other thing to add here is we should not be striving to build a movement predicated around voting. Voting is the least impactful way to be involved in politics. What we should be building is a movement of average people, the workers who make this country run, who have an active say and care about how the country operates top to bottom. We want people to care about how things work and get done. We want them get involved in areas they care about and making their voices heard with suggestions and concerns. We want a truly involved population of people engaging in democracy - not just by voting but by having a hand on the wheel that steers not only their country but by extension their lives. We are building a movement not of better voters but of leaders who can champion the world we all deserve.