About a third of Democrats and Democratic-leaning adults identify as democratic socialists, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS.
  • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world
    1·
    2 months ago

    The “centrist”/right-leaning/neo-liberal democrats would rather rip the party in half than to use this swell of popular support for leftist ideals to win elections and make real change. The old Dems will flail and writhe and hurt themselves in confusion as the old guard dies and change happens whether they like it or not. They’ll try to kick leftists out, jump ship themselves (going independent, forming a new third party, merging with libertarians, or maybe going all the way to going Republican), and bomb the entire party with infighting, fixing nominations with anti-democratic party tricks, and intentionally letting republicans win rather than supporting a socialist candidate. Can’t wait for this cluster fuck.

  • realitista@lemmus.orgEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    I wish there was an option for Social Democrat, because that’s what fits me. Bernie made Democratic Socialism famous but I don’t think most people who define themselves this way understand the difference.

    • RejZoR@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      I mean, Americans can just look at Europe. It’s basically entirely social democracy. I don’t understand why entire America is pretending social democracy is some sort of socialist boogeyman…

      • realitista@lemmus.orgEnglish
        0·
        2 months ago

        Because they are uninformed. And Democratic socialism is closer to communism than social democracy.

        • Default Username@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          Democratic Socialism is closer to socialism than communism. It literally means using democracy to transform the economic system to be socialist.

          I’d consider myself a democratic socialist myself, as I believe that workers should own the businesses they work for instead of consolidating the power to a small amount of executives and shareholders who only care about making more profit than they did the previous quarter. I also believe this would limit the possibility of corruption by preventing extreme wealth from existing in the first place.

          I do not consider myself a communist because I don’t believe that centralized control is a good idea in most cases. An exception to that for me would be a single payer healthcare system, where the government guarantees healthcare to all of its citizens and visitors free at the point of service.

          • stylusmobilus@aussie.zone
            1·
            2 months ago

            transform the economic system to be socialist

            Here I reckon you’ve made an important point. Socialism is economics, not governance. Well, in a democracy anyway. Perhaps that should be indented. I think it’s one of the biggest barriers to being comfortable with the word itself.

    • atomicbocks@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      This sounds like the same kind of splitting hairs that results in fighting between “leftists” and “liberals”. As long as we continue to bicker and come up with all of these ridiculous purity tests then we’re never going to defeat the right.

      • realitista@lemmus.orgEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        There are pretty substantial differences.I voted for Bernie so I don’t think they are so substantial as to cause a fight, but I just wish there was better education out there in the US on Social Democracy. It works in Europe and most Americans are blind to it or think Democratic Socialism is the same thing.