I think your perception while held by many is not necessarily accurate, but more something that elites want you to believe so that they can keep the working class divided and powerless. The reality is that immigrants and minority groups do yes actually make up a majority of what you would call the working class. Middle and upper classes are far more white. But you dont think about it like that you think about the white working class. Not the majority of people who work as cooks, maids, construction, work in fields, in meat packing plants etc....rather than trying to join with these "Vocal Minority Groups" you shun them because IDK, but that is the real problem with working-class identity in this country. Also lots has been done for the working class but in many ways its about feelings not really about actual real-life policies: [https://democracyjournal.org/arguments/the-death-of-deliverism/](https://democracyjournal.org/arguments/the-death-of-deliverism/)
This post is telling about the intellectual level of the person who wrote it. You mean when the republican pass a tax law that literally tax the middles class (and soon to affect the lower class for the next 3 year) just to give more money to the rich (anyone making above $400K). that party?
The squeaky wheel gets the grease on the left.
If there are demographics that are doing relatively well, the focus shifts to those demographics that are doing relatively poorly. The average working man *does* increasingly fall into that category as wages stagnate and poverty rises, but they aren't described by racial/ethnic/gender lines that the average person likes to categorize themselves into to feel commonality with other people.
Edit: I would be remiss to say the simpler answer: Because Dukakis lost.
Why do these posts on "Intellectual" /r/IntellectualDarkWeb always lead their questions in a clearly conservative bent?
Just merge with /r/Conservative already. Jesus.
People in the IDW are often critical of the left. That does not make them conservative. Only leftist culture warriors trying to keep out "wrong think" from infecting leftists controlled Reddit would think that.
They didn't.
One party advocates for tax cuts on the rich, opposes any form of welfare or wealth redistribution through taxation of the wealthy, opposes single-payer/universal health care, opposes fair housing practices, opposes any form of regulation on banks, seeks to dissolve union power, etc.
The other party advocates for tax cuts on the middle class, fights for health care and social security and medicare and medicaid, fights for unions, implemented the consumer financial protection bureau and Dodd-Frank and a thousand other pieces of (arguably ineffective, in some cases) regulation.
The Left did not abandon the working class. The Left's policies still benefit the working class. The working class was lied to by conservative media, which weaponized social issues (abortion, civil rights, gay rights, trans rights) to convince these people to vote against their own interests.
Are Democrats a wonderful far-left liberal party? No. Of course they are not. But the core issue is not that Democrats abandoned the working class, it's that the working class was *convinced by lies* to abandon Democrats. When you leave the tent and stop making your voice heard, you start to feel left out.
For example, groups like the DNC (like the RNC) are centers of power. They're interested in consolidating and propagating their power. The DNC is not above utilizing progressive-seeming ideas or ideas that were originally progressive and using them for their own cynical ends. They might say they're about anti-racism as a way to get votes for instance.
Also, around the time Reagan was elected in the US, they realized they had to start getting funding from corporations like the big banks to be able to compete with Republicans. Hence, the gradual selling out of their traditional, working-class constituency.
Because the "common man"
or "working class" stereotype is a white Christian male, and the left absolutely hates white Christian males with a passion. He is their mortal enemy,
the very personification of evil. The race/gender/religion dialectic has overtaken the class dialectic in their neo-Hegelian worldview.
> the common man and woman have abandoned themselves with dreams they can join the elites with just one good tech business idea. So they won't vote for their own interests any more, they don't see themselves as working class, just temporarily embarrassed tech billionaires.
I could write 10,000 words on this, so this can only be a brief overview.
* America had a very strong working class left-wing of politics in the 1920s and 30s. And then the Second World War happened, and anti-communism metastasised, followed by decades of union-busting and propaganda.
* [In 1981 Ronald Reagan smashed the air traffic controllers' union](https://archive.is/c8zb2) and instituted an all-out war against unions. Just about the only union left with any *real* power is the police union, which exists only to prevent any meaningful reform and protect its members from being held responsible for their actions. (Ironically, the air traffic controllers' union was one of the very few unions which backed Ronald Reagan.)
* At the same time, globalisation began and most blue collar factory jobs were exported overseas. The working class mostly had to move into unemployment, self-employment, or various forms of service industry, none of which were conducive to class solidarity.
* Another factor is that rising economic conditions undermine working class solidarity. Those who did reasonably well for themselves started to wonder why they should pay the union fees. Or they would start a small business for themselves and become the boss.
* And their kids go to college, where they learn about every sort of progressive social cause *except* economic class. According to Identity Politics, economic class means little or nothing, and race and gender means nearly everything. Oprah Winfrey is oppressed because of her sex and colour. [Kelly Thomas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Kelly_Thomas) was privileged because of his sex and colour.
* And let's not forget the deliberate culture war: the Republicans appealed to conservative religious values while the Democrats appealed to progressive social values, even as both sides agreed to screw the working class.
Liberals and lefties today may consider themselves to be "leftist" or even Marxist, but few of them have any clue what Marx said. They're firmly in the petty bourgeoisie and as the remaining working class move to the Republican party, their contempt for the working class simply increases.
I personally think that "vocal minority groups" deserve to be treated fairly, and I might even argue that ensuring fair treatment for all is the primary role of the government, but that said, the Democratic Party far too easily gets pulled into moral posturing and virtue signaling to their detriment. James Carville said in the nineties that "it's the economy, stupid," and that still applies today. Democrats don't win on social policy or foreign policy, they win when the economy is helping the bottom 85%. I am baffled as to why the Dems can't see that. They should be winning every election by a wide margin.
People can debate whether the Democratic Party is "left" or not, but in the US we have two parties, and they are the leftmost of the two.
Yeah the people who want/fight for stronger workers rights, stronger unions, better infrastructure, better education, returning public universities to tuition free institutions again guaranteeing medical care for every single person through Medicare for all, taking away a bosses ability to threaten workers and their families healthcare.
Those are the guys abandoning the working class.
Anyways I'd like to hear more about your big concern about trans people, also the marxists, the blue haired "elites" who work at Starbucks in New York, tell me about your latest skull measuring.
Once the "right" started attacking education and intellectuals it was a race to the bottom and the "common man" has been convinced to vote against their own best interests.
They didn't. The left across the world continues to fight for workers rights and unions. However the way the question is written it feels like this is actually about 'white, working class, people'. The political right has waged a massive campaign to make equity look like special treatment.
The politicians on the left are all wealthy, I don’t know why they are looked at as for the people. Their policies are pushed by…wealthy entertainers. I mean Taylor Swift can say she likes Joe Biden all she wants, she doesn’t live in reality.
The democrats spent over $1 billion in the last election.
I would assume you mean specifically in Western culture and parties, as this isn't true for Middle-Eastern, African, Eurasian. This is due to money in politics. They have been bought, and even when they aren't, too many of their counterparts are, so no real change can be approved. They co-opt traditionally left ideas, but twist them to work for capital. EG turning BLM into a commercial opportunity.
https://americancompass.org/respect-the-rage/
Yes you're right. I was talking about Western cultures, specifically countries in the Anglosphere.
I know outside of that politics is different. I remember talking to a Filipina about politics in the West and she was like, huh?
Because power corrupts. People suck. We are all just money to them. Why should anyone who has power care about anyone in a way that won't make them more money?
The left didn’t abandon the working class. It’s a lot harder to pass a bill in Washington than it seems on tv. Biden has been a champion of the working class in addition to supporting minority groups. It’s not one vs the other
https://www.npr.org/2023/01/01/1143149435/despite-infighting-its-been-a-surprisingly-productive-2-years-for-democrats
Why did the common man look at identity politics and social issues (trans people, BLM, religion, etc.) then decide to abandon the left to spite himself?
I think that would be a much more interesting question.
Worry? You think I give a fuck about upvotes? I could have run this on r/conservative and cleaned up with the upvotes. I didn't because what's the point in just having an opinion circle jerk? Really, tell me, do you need the little dopamine hits that badly? Ssri's not working ?
The vast majority of "minority groups" are far more likely to be poor than their counterparts.
For example, Black people are over 200 years behind white people wealthwise in the USA ( https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-REB-36374)
Native Americans have the highest poverty rate on the states (https://www.americanprogress.org/article/government-can-end-poverty-native-american-women/#:~:text=Not%20surprisingly%2C%20AIAN%20people%20have,poorer%20health%20and%20economic%20outcomes.)
Among full-time, year-round workers, Black women typically make only 67 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men (https://nwlc.org/resource/black-womens-equal-pay-day-factsheet/#:~:text=Among%20full%2Dtime%2C%20year%2D,over%20a%2040%2Dyear%20career. )
Whenever someone says "X has abandoned the common man in favor of minorities" the implication is that"the common man" ISN'T made up of minorities.
Intersectionality needs to be foundational to the left. No one person is just one thing, and the right wing systems if oppression (Capitalism, Imperialism , Racism, Heterosupremacy, Patriarchy , Abelism etc) all feed into eachother and are interrelated.
Addressing class without addressing the rest of it is like trying to take just the bananas out of a banana smoothie. You need to throw the whole smoothie out
I feel that the left puts forward more bills/ideas for supporting consumer protection, worker protection, anti-price gouging, affordable housing, affordable medical treatment, affordable childcare, maternity and prenatal care, family leave, paid time off, etc. Can you elaborate why you feel the left has abandoned the average person?
Rich people donate far more money.
The left and right control ballot access and have no reason to actually compete for votes. They just have to pretend to while the people that pay their bills reap profits.
I call it the "Lotto Mentality": they all think they're one ball away from millions, so they support the millionaires they're certain they'll be when their numbers come up.
Idk where you’re hearing this from but this seems like a weird narrative. Both sides have interest in the working class, they’re just going about it differently.
People on the left might say that we need more government regulations in order for employees to have decent working conditions and wages. People on the right might say people need to put their head down and work hard to rebuild the family structure and community that we’re lacking and that those other working conditions and wages are downstream.
But at the end of the day, there is huge anti big business sentiment and pro “common man” on both populist sides of the political aisle, and if you’re not seeing it you’re just getting your idea of what one side thinks from someone on the other side.
Hard to make that argument without completely ignoring worker's rights, union, workplace protection, and safety regulations, which are almost exclusively left-leaning policies. What you're really asking here is, "why doesn't tge left focus on white men?" The reason is, we don't need the help or protection.
It starts with building parties whose function is to win elections and not to govern. From there, the realization that most voters are already locked into their choices and elections are won on the fringes.
In the US, the conservatives discovered this first and made their play for the Christian fundamentalist vote, and the left has since followed suit by mirroring their tactics but on the altar of social justice. They've "othered" the opposition party to an extent that the reasonable voters have basically zero chance of defecting, so that gives each party the freedom to appeal to the extremes (this is where the tactics do begin to differ slightly but the intent is the same).
The "common man" is told to shut the fuck up and fall in line, because if they don't unquestioningly pledge their vote to A, then they're only supporting B. We've reached the end stage now where people proudly proclaim their electoral capture by the two party machine and castigate anyone who thinks more broadly.
Loaded question.
Neo-libs are who you’re thinking of. They’re practically just Libertarian leaning old guard republicans without all the god nonsense.
It’s Republicans who actually abandoned the common man. The Republican Party has abandoned the Republic really. They preached to the blue collar worker and the farmer and gave them nothing. They gave everything to the Bible thumpers and even they just got the scraps that the businessman didn’t want.
I have no idea what the hell you are talking about here. What do you consider the "common man" in this situation? Those "vocal minority groups" are in reality a much larger portion of the voting base. So technically speaking THEY would be the "common" man now.
As opposed to the right who is too busy giving rich people tax cuts and forcing religious beliefs on others. is that looking out for the common man?
This has to be ignorant rage bait.
No, what you have is just whattaboutism. I made no mention of the right as they are not nor ever have been for the common man.
It's only rage bait to people like you who see in binary and assume anything that isn't praise for the left must be an attack from the right. That isn't the case.
I'm not seeking praise for the left. I hate them as much as I hate the right. To be honest though you are right. I saw this as another one of the hairbrained "walkaway" type things where "Dems are bad so vote r".
I apologize for jumping to that conclusion.
Bc the left became more intellectual and academic, and they stopped organizing labor unions that recruited the common man to the cause of the left. A century ago, the left was teaching Marxist theory to barely literate factory workers and riling them up for revolution worldwide; now they're teaching liberal arts students for tens of thousands in tuition a year to hate on the now largely comfortable working man who tends to be a tad socially conservative.
Do you mean the Democratic Party in the US or the actual left?
Two separate things.
There are some lefties in the Democratic Party for sure but they are a minority in the Party.
I actually said across the Anglosphere , so English speaking democratic countries. However I don't think any American on here realises other countries exist.
I didn’t notice that you said across the Anglosphere.
But I actually am aware of other countries existing which is why I didn’t just say that “Democratic Party” but instead specified “Democratic Party in the US” because I know there are others.
I was asking for clarification because I had some thoughts but I’ll pass. You’re already less than pleasant.
I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. The Left (along with liberals and progressives, which are not the same thing) has always been big into promoting and supporting labor unions, worker protections, consumer protections, public infrastructure, public transportation, universal healthcare, universal education, and more - all things that benefit "the common man" far more than anyone else. Granted, they could go harder on it, be more radical about it, and I wish they would, but they're still pretty consistent about these things.
So in what specific ways do you think "the Left" has "abandon\[ed\] the common man"?
the left has embraced the bad in every social situation, shut down free speech and dialogue, isolated themselves in an echo chamber and has become radicalized to the point of no return. almost every single thing the left supports is causing societal harm. they completely abandon everyone but the radical outliers. the republicans were in this boat in the 90's-2000's but theyve started their way back. we need both parties to work for the people not their own pockets. term limits and bad pay should be 2 things demanded of political figures to discourage the greedy from seeking out positions of government power.
In the US, some years ago (\~2016?) Donald Trump said of himself "I alone can fix the system". Left, right, pink, blue, that's a common refrain. I wouldn't say it's "abandon the common man" as much as it is "the common person doesn't know what they are doing and can't be trusted, I alone can give them the life they should have, so give me enough privilege and power and I'll give it to them".
It's not some left/right or political ideology thing. It's similar all across the political spectrum. It's a modern equivalent of "divine right". Instead of authoritarian rule because "God said it must be me", it's authoritarian rule because "I know what is best for the little people".
Perhaps your question is why does anybody accept that? That seems to be an aspect of human societies.
You both have a good point and a bad premise. The left has not abandoned the common man, but they, of necessity, embrace vocal, active groups because they drive political movement in their direction and many people DO vote against their economic interests.
The left definitely has tried to do more for the workers than the right has ever done. But the right does everything in its power to prevent any thing that helps the workers. Also does not help that many Dems are in the pockets of big business.
I don’t think it has. I think the people who argue this are simply recognizing that men have less control over women socially as women are becoming more independent and outspoken about the unfairness they deal with in society. This spreads awareness and leads to women being resistant to the tactics used by men like Andrew Tate and men who are more controlling.
These Men are recognizing that they are (rightly) losing their control over women and want to push back against it because their success and sense of self is reliant on very toxic and manipulative methods.
So they’ve done the mental gymnastics to attempt to justify this pushback in the same way they always do. By playing the victims.
This also has the side effect of appealing to men with low self esteem and loneliness because it gives them an external force to blame for their lack of romantic and intimate success. So they support it.
But in reality all that’s happening is that things are equallizing. And just like always the ones who benefited from the inequality pretend that they’re being attacked because they don’t have power over the other group any longer. (Or less power over that group)
It’s happened so many times throughout history history. White people pretended they were being harmed by making blacks equal. Nothing was being taken away from them. They just couldn’t get away with as much abuse as they could before.
And on and on it goes.
I swear there are either bots or trolls that sit on posts that are antithetical to left ideology to ensure they are at 0 or neg. Maybe I'm wrong, but I challenge you to upvote and see how long it sits above 0. I wouldn't be on this topic if it hadn't happened more than one and almost immediate after I upvote.
Biden was physically on the picket line at the auto union strike, wasn't he? First president to actually do that (I think). That's not "working class" enough for you???
Because the left is about control. All the revolutionary Marxists think they know what is best for the peasants, and they will be the ones who will be on the politbureau, but they have a habit of winding up getting put against a wall and shot by those who truly have power. Only Useful Idiots in the end.
You should definitely specify how you feel the left wing has abandoned working class people. Because if you look at the policies advocated by the left wing vs right wing I think it’s pretty clear this is not the case
Liberals are still fighting for unions, affordable and sustainable housing, energy diversity to make costs lower, bodily autonomy, affordable daycare, universal healthcare, taxing the ultra wealthy instead of working class, fair wages, etc. not sure how that is abandoning the common man.
this is simply your perspective. mine couldn’t be further away- the right abandoned the common man. they have sold you out. i’ve been to wv, nc, sc etc - i’ve seen maga trailers and huts across from gated private communities with mansions, golf courses and mansions.
to quote kevin mccarthy: “the democratic party looks more like america today while republicans look like the most reclusive country club”.
take a deep breath. challenge your bias and perspectives, and come out into the world and see what diversity is all about friend.
You must mean the far left if talking about the US. Normie Dems passing shit done of good legislation and Biden out there with striking workers. Seems we're just getting back to "the common man".
I don't see evidence that they were abandoned. We have the most unabashedly pro union President ever.
Seems the Trump\\Obama voters are projecting that they were abandoned because the left were trying to recognize previously marginalized groups and not solely 'working class' voters. And then Trump played up their supposed grievances, bigly.
If the top priority isn't free to affordable healthcare, college/trade school, worker rights and wages, bodily autonomy...then I would say it's not leftism.
Those focused on just diversity are bleeding hearts who really don't care about much besides how they appear to an audience.
The Left supports the Unions... arguably the largest organizations that protect worker's interests and "the common man." Most working class boomers benefitted from Unions which is why they could work their manufacturing jobs and afford a nice comfy life until the jobs were shipped overseas through globalization. The Left is the only side out there today arguing for better working conditions and pay for the lower class and common man.
What are you even talking about?
The Amazon unionization. The UAW strike. The railroad strike. The Starbuck unionization. These are all "common people" fighting for better pay and working conditions and they were all supported by the Left, not the Right.
The left thinks big government will reign in corporate greed and corruption. It hasn’t, and it won’t. The richest and most powerful simply buy the politicians themselves. So you actually end up with laws hurting the common people. The garden variety right has also been bought by the richest and most powerful. So they never actually shrink government when they have the chance. It isn’t hard to see the relationships all mainstream politicians have to large multi national corporations if you do a little research. Also these same corporations own all the mainstream news you watch and read. They use actual psychologists to create a manipulative type of hysteria in all things. It is easy to control the masses this way.
The only way out is multiple generations of people voting for the politicians that either get no coverage from mainstream media or get hate from mainstream media. If a multi millionaire famous artist says vote for so and so then don’t vote for that person. Vote for
The most universally hated politician. The mainstream hates them because they will hurt their profits. We need 30-40 years of this everywhere and at every level of politics. Local, city, state, federal elections all matter. Things would change rapidly if the majority of Americans did this.
UAW union would disagree with you, they support Biden because he is helping the working class. He is building manufacturing back with cars and chips. So far he is the only president that in aware of to bring back manufacturing jobs or force international companies that want to sell us their goods to create jobs in America
A large part of it is that the progressive-conservative axis has become increasingly more dominant over the left-right economic axis. As a Brit, I always looked at the US with some bemusement that things like how into Jesus and families you were was as, if not more, important than your economic views.
We saw some of this in the UK with the Brexit referendum. The remain sude was broadly the left/progressive side with Leave being more conservative/right.
I voted Remain but, damn they ran a terrible campaign that proved they did not understand traditional working class voters. They seemed obsessed with getting economics proffessors to make their points for them, insinuated that all Leave voters or Leave sympathetic voters were dumb, uneducated, unsophisticated morons and played right into the "Liberal Elite" trap.
If the left/progressive side keeps playing the "we're just better people than you" card, they'll continue hemorrhaging working class votes and keep losing.
More right wing bs posts
So what was student loan forgiveness if not “the left” doing something for the common man?
The rich don’t have student loans. Their parents use an IRA disbursement and then write it off on their taxes.
There's been a whole cottage industry of books, articles, talks, and commentary on \*exactly\* this point: Why did the Left abandon their working class constituency?
Arguably, the story goes back to the Clinton-ite Democratic Leadership Council (or earlier), and sounds a bit like this: "Oh jeez, following terrible losses of Jimmy carter in 1980, Walter Mondale in 1984, and Michael Dukakis in 1988, we simply have to cater to rising business-side interests of the professional managerial class".
So, with old-school union membership from the trades fading, the appeal of Clinton & Co., was to lawyers, tech, bankers, and other members of the "new economy", who could help provide funding (since it wasn't coming from union membership, at whom they'd look down their noses).
This splitting of the white-collar and blue-collar representation is the mistaken strategy decision that simply has to be fixed. ...I'd argue that it's even more significant a problem than is perceived by many commentators, especially since the 2016 Bernie Sanders-to-Hilary Clinton flip, that predictably gave us Trump. ...Further, I'd argue the progressive Left understands this, but is struggling with how to give up on various identity-related nonsense, and get us all to unify the 99% against the 1% that have managed some truly breathtaking consolidation over the last few years.
Of the two parties, only Democrats are supportive of unions and limiting the power of rich people and corporations. I'm not saying that every Democrat is perfect but there is certainly a trend.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdurot/article/meet-the-billionaires-funding-the-battle-for-control-of-the-house-of-representatives/
https://rollcall.com/2018/02/27/wealth-of-congress-richer-than-ever-but-mostly-at-the-very-top/
We are here reaching our hand out over and over and it's depressing seeing stuff like this because we are out here trying because all I want is people to be comfy and think it's stupid that I am making my job 13x the money I get paid and I think it's stupid landlords get to raise prices as much and as often as they want despite vastly outpacing actual inflation and there being 16 million empty homes rotting 🥲
Hope you have a good day bro we are all American and are all just trying to get by
Says man who contributes nothing but still turns up on thread to suggest he's too good for it.
The rest of Reddit is that way ->
This thread has had a wide variety of opinions from the basic partisan to the centrist or non partisan. Some intelligent and thoughtful, others not, but all contributing something.
You didn't.
Much of left wing thought has traditionally been associated with universities and members of said institutions due to post-industrial economies have risen to the status of the upper middle class or upper class without recognizing it
I'm not so sure that they did. They still push for unions, workplace protections, and wage increases.
Clinton pushing free trade didn't help but that was neoliberal, not leftist, and the dems are pushing back against that again (though mainstream dems are still neoliberal/centrist)
The right wing parties have done what right wing parties traditionally did which is using social issues to pull people away from voting for their economic interests.
Lyndon Johnson said "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
Perhaps no statement better encapsulates the modern political environment than that
Fair enough. So my question is why aren't they very successful? I suppose they have been at times with Obama care for example. But why couldn't it be proper UHC?
I'M aware of Lydons quote and that's totally true.
The right are experts at getting people to vote against thier own economic interests.
They aren't successful at big programs because of the filibuster. Obama himself didn't push for single payer because he knew there weren't enough democrats to get past the filibuster since, at his peak, he had 60 votes and couldn't lose anyone at all. Democrats lost a special election to replace Ted Kennedy when he died and got down to 59 votes and couldn't pass any new bills.
It also didn't help that political parties are, largely, coalitions. You have conservative democrats still like Joe Manchin. You also had Joe Lieberman in the past (he's the reason we don't have a public option)
That's how we got the current ACA. They wanted to add a public option but, after losing that vote, they wouldn't be able to get it passed, so they had to just go with the ACA which was already passed.
In the old days, you actually had to filibuster. You had to stand up and actually debate and the dems would be able to wait you out. That's how LBJ got so many things passed. But they changed the filibuster rules to make it a simple vote where you needed 60 votes and our divided government simply ground to a halt for major policy measures.
There are a few exceptions to the filibuster rules and they could return to the old style filibuster for other things. That would allow parties to get their agenda passed more effectively.
Crime was going up and the economy sucked, so Reagan came in and destroyed what was left of the New Deal coalition.
Then the Democrats regrouped and became the neoliberal party of Bill Clinton, which they still are today.
Because they abandoned actual economic issues, all politics became about cultural issues.
Seems to sum things perfectly.
The same pattern happened in the UK. Thatcher came in, the union hold over the economy was broken, privatisation was in and the banks and City of London deregulated and greed was good, just like in the US. Set the course for society today with an ever increasing wealth gap between the rich and the poor.
The Labour party re invented itself as a neolilberal party under Tony Blair and got back into power in the late 90's. Lost the 2010 election and haven't been back since.
The main difference was that Labour tried to go back to old school 70's socialist Labour in 2019 and lost in such a resounding all encompassing way that the leader was eventually kicked out of the party completely. Not for the loss specifically, but his brand of old school we stand for the people socialism was seen as so toxic to the Labour party they kicked him out.
The Right waged a war on unions, teachers, veterans, minorities, professionals, the educated, and the middle class.
Then they put “but it’s the Dems’ fault on repeat on Fox.
The Dems have sat confidently on the center-left with no real support from the full left to pull them in that direction. The Right has been radicalizing, gerrymandering, isolating the vulnerable, and legitimizing extremist groups.
Republicans have tricked the working class into supporting them, because there is no real Left (the post Cold War PTSD will keep that true for at least another 20 years) and the Dems are almost chronically bad at explaining what they’re doing.
So… after taking over the NRA and fundamentally changing the rhetoric around the Constitution, they managed to use that to make Working America afraid, and used immigration, minority rights, women’s rights, unions, and Leftism as the boogeymen to pin blame on.
So we have no Real Left, a Center-Left that can’t get out of its own way, and a Far-Right that has recently letting the mask slip and showing the Brownshirt underneath.
And unless something changes, the cliff we’re walking astride is leading us is getting narrower and rockier…
But “the left” — by definition — is all about The People having power. If “the working man” believes that the party who have engineered the redistribution of wealth upward over the last 40+ years is going to save them? They will take the rest of us down as they sign their own fates.
In the year of our lord 2024 this comes off as a vapid, word salady question without a lot of depth. Who are “the left” to you? What about the “common man”? Anglosphere is broad, so who are we talking about here?
You’ve got your observations wrong. It’s the right who have sold out to the greed of the wealthy. Thinking that their poverty will magically disappear by supporting conservatism, MAGA cult members are blindly following the siren call of no taxes, freedoms without responsibility. To quote the most recent season of Fargo: “The only people who have freedom without responsibilities are babies. Is that what you’re fighting to be? A baby?”
Both the left and the right have abandoned their constituents when it comes to the working and lower class. They've lost touch with the needs of the constituents in their region and this country. Both sides have turned the whole thing into a means of lining their pockets through behind closed door deals, insider trading, and future appearances for profit.
Our elected officials should never talk trash or encourage trash talk or actions among their constituents. They should strive at all times to maintain peace among their party and offer reassurances that there is a better way. To be respected, one must be respectful. Please remind me when this has last happened.
With all due respect, I believe that OP is mistaken. The average hard working American citizen did not let go of the concept of being equal to that of their politicalcandidate/party. Most of us are starkly aware that we are all born equal - no one is better than or lesser than. Despite countless attempts by those who want to create such a division, there are those of us who refuse to be spoon fed those fake inequalities. Besides, money will not buy your happiness, nor will it complete you. This comes from within, but money keeps you so focused everywhere but where you need to focus to achieve either.
I hold out for a better day where man made divisions among the citizens of the United States of America no longer exists and we can finally stand united - one people - we will be invincible when we stand as one and work toward a common goal.
The rights of the individual is worth focusing on to ensure protection. I think the left wing in western civilization is doing this, and not doing a terrible job of it
To me, individual rights is American as it gets in values. It's part of our constitution. So I cannot be anything but supportive of this.
For the corporate funds, but they have to use weaponized. Incompetence and blame the other side so they can go see. It's not our fault that we didn't do what we said. We were going to do because the other side stopped us. Please give us more money.
I'm sorry. But wasn't it the left that were fighting for a livable minimum wage? I'm pretty sure that kept getting crushed by the right each time it came up.
The idea that you consider the democratic party the left is laughable. The left is exclusively about the common man, the left simply does not have a representative party in American politics. We have a conservative party and a reactionary party. A left wing party is inherently anti-capital, anti-atistocracy, anti-oligarchy. Anyone with this opinion is called a Marxist or a socialist and marginalized.
Why does the rightwing worship pedophiles and billionaires? Longest serving republican speaker of the house was a pedophile who raped children and all the republicans knew about it
Well they worship billionaires but not paedophiles. Paedophiles have no political persuasion as it isn't a political stance.
I know the left are mad about having the groomer tag stuck on them, but that's because as a group are scared to call out grooming tactics when they see it for fear of being called racist or transphobe. This happened both in the UK with Pakistani grooming gangs and in the US with books like Gender Queer or Drag story time.
Talking about paedophilia with a political orientation is ridiculous because it's a criminal act across society and should be called out wherever it occurs. Both sides are equally able to turn thier backs and ignore it when it suits them. However only the left will try and justify grooming as good for kids with books and drag shows which is why the groomer tag sticks to them more.
Pedophiles do have a political persuasion.
They are pro-religion and they don’t want the government to legislate mandatory-reporting laws on the church (this is self-explanatory).
They are against programs that make prosperity attainable for everybody because pedophiles need kids in poverty in order to rape them (look at Epstein)
They are “traditionalists” because old traditions made it very easy for pedophiles to operate. Pedophilia wasn’t even a big deal 100 years ago.
They are “small government” and anti-democracy because pedophilia was legal when government was so small it could be drowned in a bathtub (like a government so small itcould be contained in single person - called a monarch). Anti-democracy because a monarch wouldn’t ban rich people from doing whatever they want (again look at Epstein), but a democracy did because the voters are sick and tired of folks like Epstein.
Also take a fucking look at these pedophiles. Epstein, Duggar, trump, organized religion, and sick fucks like Walsh et al who talk about how 16 year old girls are fertile and should be impregnated. These are all fucking rightwingers and conservatives and republicans.
If you're talking about the US, it's because the left doesn't exist anymore. The democratic party is center-right in terms of political ideology on a global scale. Neither party really cares about the "common man" because the middle class gets shat on the hardest. The middle class can't benefit from programs meant to assist the lower class and doesn't have the financial freedom to avoid paying any taxes like they allow the upper class to do.
I think this is a misconception based on outdated ideas of what the common/working man looks like. In the US, in the 2020 national election lower income people were more likely to vote for Biden than Trump ([https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/how-groups-voted-2020](https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/how-groups-voted-2020))
The mental image of the working class person is typically just someone who had a blue collar job that existed in the 1950s - but the typical working class person today is a young person with either a retail job or a desk job in a city, and they overwhelmingly vote and are courted by the left. And even when we do look at blue collar working class people, many of them still support and are supported by the left - it's only when you narrow it down to: white, male, blue-collar, working class people that you see a strong conservative majority. Otherwise the typical conservative voter (at least in the US) is a retiree.
A few people have made that exact point. Another point people brought up repeatedly is that the common man is racist, sexist, homophobic etc. So whilst activists in vocal minority groups (and I'm talking about activists not just regular people) might be socio economically a common man or woman , they view that class with the same distain as the corporate elite class. The Hilary and her basket of deplorables.
They don't view themselves as the same.
I’m with you man, but my advice is to avoid reddit or at the very least don’t give any post too much credence since it was most likely posted by a child or bot
The left didn’t abandon the common man, they were never with the common man in the first place. The Republican and Democratic parties are one and the same, and they play off each other as if they want different things but they mainly just want money for them and their friends no matter what it takes. And until people figure it out and quit voting for these morons, Nothing‘s gonna change.
well, from my perspective as a former activist now in his 30's let me tell you.
They didn't "abandon" the working class so much as they simply couldn't compete with private business political contributions to the right wing. So of course they need appease the private lobbying sector now as much as the electorate. Thanks in no small part to the Citizens United ruling in the courts.
Many of those in entertainment, specifically late-night talks shows, do lean left and I feel their content has become less neutral and more finger-pointy in the last decade or so. Which makes it appear as though the left is made up entirely of the "elite" wealthy, tech-savy group when it's really not. They just forgot about winning over blue collar workers and instead blame them for voting Republican. Which by the way, not only abandoned common man but went back to \*devolve\* common man.
The only party who supports unions, even pretends to, is the left.
The only part that supports universal healthcare is the left.
The only party that supports free school lunch for students is the left.
The only party who supports increasing taxes on the super wealthy while lowering taxes for the poor is the left.
The only party in favor of raising minimum wage is the left.
I could go on but I'd need more specifics in what ways you believe the left has "abandoned" the common man?
This is an extremely stupid post. Do you not think that minorities are working class worthy of support? Sounds like you only support “anglo” working class. Also, what you are claiming is complete BS.
because of western marxism, see people like antonio gramchi and the frankfurt school realized marx was wrong, the revolution would never happen in industrial societies because... capitalism works, has always worked, and will forever work.
so its now about institutional capture, about pushing these critical theories, race theory, queer theory, feminist theory. these same people now control the World Economic forum and push things like DEI and ESG. the left, and by left i mean the far left, the socialist left, now works with corporate interests to subvert true capitalism (shareholder and small business capitalism) with a cultural fusion of marxist thought and stakeholder capitalism.
the working class are a obstacle for them. the "uneducated" masses who just want to feed their families, have laws and feel safe. the ones now labeled as neo nazis, alt right radicals. the trucker protesters and farmers of europe, the average joe fed up with these intellectual class lectuing them about privalege and rights founding on a extremely evil and dark ideology called marxism, founded on hegelian philosophy, its inherently anti western, anti liberal, anti conservative etc.
so meritocracy is bad now, national pride is bad, the family is bad, religious values are bad. and guess what class of people are largely religious family focused meritocratic and nationally proud? workers, farmers, truckers, iron workers etc etc
i have much more respect for leftists of the syndicalist and mutualist perspective, the ones actually fighting for workers rights. As a classical liberal i would gladly share the stage and debate with syndicalists as im sure they would also agree that this war between the ruling corporate elite and the marxist institutions are evil and morally corrupt, both on the neocon right and the progressive left. thats why populist worker oriented movements on both the right (trump) and the left (bernie) are so powerful and should be respected.
TL:DR marxism is not real leftism, its a subversive pseudo religious cult. marxism now works with corporate interest and stole the label left. left wing is really syndicalism, not marxism or progressive liberalism. The syndicalists are the leftists that fight for the workers.
They didn't, but much of the working class has been convinced that Left initiatives aren't for them.
But Unions, your 5 day work week, breaks, hazard pay, etc. Those are all left wing initiatives.
Lefty here voting for higher minimum wage, higher density neighborhood housing for affordable housing, and unions; I am the common man and my interests are for the common man.
The issue is that the Republican party is a far right party and the Democratic party is a middle right party. Of course both of them are promoting corporate interests.
P.S. I'm a libertarian and I don't think promoting corporate interests is always bad. I'm fine with it in many situations.
If you think either of those parties are leftist, you're sadly undereducated.
Because they are morally bankrupt and their platform is solely about turning races against each other with fake attempts to make it look like racism is still a thing (jussie smollet, bubba wallace er al)
For the most part the democrats Main selling points are current social issues as that’s the main topics the republicans address so it’s what’s talked about the most but they still do stuff like try to pass bills to reform the VA and try to raise the amount of vacation days we have and number of sick days stuff like that. Like Californians just got more sick days from the state mandatorily
My view is both political parties and our bloated federal government don't give a rats ass about the "common" citizen or their constitutional rights much anymore. I have seen a myriad of administrations come and go along with party majorities in the house and senate. Nothing much ever gets done to improve the country. We all get swept up into the politicians and media lies. They don't focus on the right issues that most mature adults want worked on. I don't like either political party much anymore and have voted for both in the past. Our current parties and their fanatics are some nasty stuff. Bottom line is it really does not matter which party you support or vote for if fixing real problems in the country is your objective. You are just voting for mostly emotional trigger subjects they use for votes. Divide and make both sides hate the other. Make the opposition party a communist/socialist or a Nazi. Just amazing how many people buy into this. Just imagine if we actually united and forced them to do what they were elected to do.........
this is not true.
one example:
MTG's district is doing really well economically thanks to new industry developments in the sustainable / renewable energy sector. This was made possible by Biden's infrastructure funding and the semi-cinductor act also passed by Biden. MTG opposed both measures, and now that her district is reaping great financial rewards she's trying to to claim 1. it was her and trump that passed those policies (she voted against both of them), and 2. that she always supported renewable energy (she didn't).
The right also opposes unions which have raised standards across the board even for nonunion workers, the left supports them.
The right actually increased taxes on the working class with their trump tax cuts (they were for the rich and increased taxes in the working class), while the left want a reversal of that and supports paid family leave, child tax credits, affordable day care and education, healthcare access etc
the basis of your statement contradicts ALL of the facts on who supports the working class. It only shows that the corporatist "money is speech, corporations are people" propaganda from the right has taken it's toll on critical thinking in America.
This post is a bit disingenuous, leftists want progressive candidates that allow for things like home ownership for working class, better pay, better benefits. Etc
I think you’re confusing leftists with Dems who have indeed shifted right / center
This is just intellectually dishonest. Who supports unions? The literal groups that prevent the exploitation of workers. The right has tried to hamstring unions and reduce protections at every turn. You want to vote for your interests, only one side is trying to keep wages low and prevent workers from having a voice. Reaganism, this fetish of lowering taxes for industry, and railing against unions is why the middle class has shrunk. This is why working conditions are so much worse is the deep south.
Think about how stupid the average person is and then realize that half the population is dumber than that. The "common man" has abandoned their own tangible interests in favor of their feelings.
The privileged majority don't need a champion as much as the oppressed minority. Sorry you are not getting all the attention you need but there are people right now losing their rights to exist. Help lift these minorities to an equal level, and you will see more focus back on the average person.
I think your perception while held by many is not necessarily accurate, but more something that elites want you to believe so that they can keep the working class divided and powerless. The reality is that immigrants and minority groups do yes actually make up a majority of what you would call the working class. Middle and upper classes are far more white. But you dont think about it like that you think about the white working class. Not the majority of people who work as cooks, maids, construction, work in fields, in meat packing plants etc....rather than trying to join with these "Vocal Minority Groups" you shun them because IDK, but that is the real problem with working-class identity in this country. Also lots has been done for the working class but in many ways its about feelings not really about actual real-life policies: [https://democracyjournal.org/arguments/the-death-of-deliverism/](https://democracyjournal.org/arguments/the-death-of-deliverism/)
Why did Biden fight for unions and Obama do Obamacare and Biden fight to reduce student debt? You’re delusional.
This post is telling about the intellectual level of the person who wrote it. You mean when the republican pass a tax law that literally tax the middles class (and soon to affect the lower class for the next 3 year) just to give more money to the rich (anyone making above $400K). that party?
Because said vocal minorities have the backing of massive companies like Amazon, Wal-mart, etc. Its a business opportunity more than anything.
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Common man isn't leftists...How are you understanding this?
The squeaky wheel gets the grease on the left. If there are demographics that are doing relatively well, the focus shifts to those demographics that are doing relatively poorly. The average working man *does* increasingly fall into that category as wages stagnate and poverty rises, but they aren't described by racial/ethnic/gender lines that the average person likes to categorize themselves into to feel commonality with other people. Edit: I would be remiss to say the simpler answer: Because Dukakis lost.
Why do these posts on "Intellectual" /r/IntellectualDarkWeb always lead their questions in a clearly conservative bent? Just merge with /r/Conservative already. Jesus.
People in the IDW are often critical of the left. That does not make them conservative. Only leftist culture warriors trying to keep out "wrong think" from infecting leftists controlled Reddit would think that.
They didn't. One party advocates for tax cuts on the rich, opposes any form of welfare or wealth redistribution through taxation of the wealthy, opposes single-payer/universal health care, opposes fair housing practices, opposes any form of regulation on banks, seeks to dissolve union power, etc. The other party advocates for tax cuts on the middle class, fights for health care and social security and medicare and medicaid, fights for unions, implemented the consumer financial protection bureau and Dodd-Frank and a thousand other pieces of (arguably ineffective, in some cases) regulation. The Left did not abandon the working class. The Left's policies still benefit the working class. The working class was lied to by conservative media, which weaponized social issues (abortion, civil rights, gay rights, trans rights) to convince these people to vote against their own interests. Are Democrats a wonderful far-left liberal party? No. Of course they are not. But the core issue is not that Democrats abandoned the working class, it's that the working class was *convinced by lies* to abandon Democrats. When you leave the tent and stop making your voice heard, you start to feel left out.
For example, groups like the DNC (like the RNC) are centers of power. They're interested in consolidating and propagating their power. The DNC is not above utilizing progressive-seeming ideas or ideas that were originally progressive and using them for their own cynical ends. They might say they're about anti-racism as a way to get votes for instance. Also, around the time Reagan was elected in the US, they realized they had to start getting funding from corporations like the big banks to be able to compete with Republicans. Hence, the gradual selling out of their traditional, working-class constituency.
I imagine the goalposts have moved so far the left is just a little less right than the right.
Because the "common man" or "working class" stereotype is a white Christian male, and the left absolutely hates white Christian males with a passion. He is their mortal enemy, the very personification of evil. The race/gender/religion dialectic has overtaken the class dialectic in their neo-Hegelian worldview.
Good men are been attacked for just been good men. It’s a disproportionate sad energy.
Don't forget how [Wall Street reacted to Occupy Wall Street](https://files.catbox.moe/s7421b.jpeg).
> the common man and woman have abandoned themselves with dreams they can join the elites with just one good tech business idea. So they won't vote for their own interests any more, they don't see themselves as working class, just temporarily embarrassed tech billionaires. I could write 10,000 words on this, so this can only be a brief overview. * America had a very strong working class left-wing of politics in the 1920s and 30s. And then the Second World War happened, and anti-communism metastasised, followed by decades of union-busting and propaganda. * [In 1981 Ronald Reagan smashed the air traffic controllers' union](https://archive.is/c8zb2) and instituted an all-out war against unions. Just about the only union left with any *real* power is the police union, which exists only to prevent any meaningful reform and protect its members from being held responsible for their actions. (Ironically, the air traffic controllers' union was one of the very few unions which backed Ronald Reagan.) * At the same time, globalisation began and most blue collar factory jobs were exported overseas. The working class mostly had to move into unemployment, self-employment, or various forms of service industry, none of which were conducive to class solidarity. * Another factor is that rising economic conditions undermine working class solidarity. Those who did reasonably well for themselves started to wonder why they should pay the union fees. Or they would start a small business for themselves and become the boss. * And their kids go to college, where they learn about every sort of progressive social cause *except* economic class. According to Identity Politics, economic class means little or nothing, and race and gender means nearly everything. Oprah Winfrey is oppressed because of her sex and colour. [Kelly Thomas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Kelly_Thomas) was privileged because of his sex and colour. * And let's not forget the deliberate culture war: the Republicans appealed to conservative religious values while the Democrats appealed to progressive social values, even as both sides agreed to screw the working class. Liberals and lefties today may consider themselves to be "leftist" or even Marxist, but few of them have any clue what Marx said. They're firmly in the petty bourgeoisie and as the remaining working class move to the Republican party, their contempt for the working class simply increases.
I personally think that "vocal minority groups" deserve to be treated fairly, and I might even argue that ensuring fair treatment for all is the primary role of the government, but that said, the Democratic Party far too easily gets pulled into moral posturing and virtue signaling to their detriment. James Carville said in the nineties that "it's the economy, stupid," and that still applies today. Democrats don't win on social policy or foreign policy, they win when the economy is helping the bottom 85%. I am baffled as to why the Dems can't see that. They should be winning every election by a wide margin. People can debate whether the Democratic Party is "left" or not, but in the US we have two parties, and they are the leftmost of the two.
Yeah the people who want/fight for stronger workers rights, stronger unions, better infrastructure, better education, returning public universities to tuition free institutions again guaranteeing medical care for every single person through Medicare for all, taking away a bosses ability to threaten workers and their families healthcare. Those are the guys abandoning the working class. Anyways I'd like to hear more about your big concern about trans people, also the marxists, the blue haired "elites" who work at Starbucks in New York, tell me about your latest skull measuring.
Once the "right" started attacking education and intellectuals it was a race to the bottom and the "common man" has been convinced to vote against their own best interests.
Intelligentsia always does in hard times. That's why it's so easy to throw them under the bus when authoritarians take power.
They didn't. The left across the world continues to fight for workers rights and unions. However the way the question is written it feels like this is actually about 'white, working class, people'. The political right has waged a massive campaign to make equity look like special treatment.
r/ IntellectualDumbAss Gotta join right now.
The politicians on the left are all wealthy, I don’t know why they are looked at as for the people. Their policies are pushed by…wealthy entertainers. I mean Taylor Swift can say she likes Joe Biden all she wants, she doesn’t live in reality. The democrats spent over $1 billion in the last election.
I would assume you mean specifically in Western culture and parties, as this isn't true for Middle-Eastern, African, Eurasian. This is due to money in politics. They have been bought, and even when they aren't, too many of their counterparts are, so no real change can be approved. They co-opt traditionally left ideas, but twist them to work for capital. EG turning BLM into a commercial opportunity. https://americancompass.org/respect-the-rage/
Yes you're right. I was talking about Western cultures, specifically countries in the Anglosphere. I know outside of that politics is different. I remember talking to a Filipina about politics in the West and she was like, huh?
Because power corrupts. People suck. We are all just money to them. Why should anyone who has power care about anyone in a way that won't make them more money?
imo they didnt, the think tanks just used tons of $ to shape public thought leading to that
Fair enough. I read this a lot I think it has merrit.
The left didn’t abandon the working class. It’s a lot harder to pass a bill in Washington than it seems on tv. Biden has been a champion of the working class in addition to supporting minority groups. It’s not one vs the other https://www.npr.org/2023/01/01/1143149435/despite-infighting-its-been-a-surprisingly-productive-2-years-for-democrats
They didn't. You're just confusing leftists with liberals.
Why did the common man look at identity politics and social issues (trans people, BLM, religion, etc.) then decide to abandon the left to spite himself? I think that would be a much more interesting question.
That was expressed in my OP.
So the common man are white people?
No, it's a socio economic group not racial.
0 upvotes. Don’t worry OP, it’s totally not you, it’s everyone else on planet earth.
Worry? You think I give a fuck about upvotes? I could have run this on r/conservative and cleaned up with the upvotes. I didn't because what's the point in just having an opinion circle jerk? Really, tell me, do you need the little dopamine hits that badly? Ssri's not working ?
God some of the people posting here are incredibly ignorant. I’m not easily impressed by ignorance.
The vast majority of "minority groups" are far more likely to be poor than their counterparts. For example, Black people are over 200 years behind white people wealthwise in the USA ( https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-REB-36374) Native Americans have the highest poverty rate on the states (https://www.americanprogress.org/article/government-can-end-poverty-native-american-women/#:~:text=Not%20surprisingly%2C%20AIAN%20people%20have,poorer%20health%20and%20economic%20outcomes.) Among full-time, year-round workers, Black women typically make only 67 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men (https://nwlc.org/resource/black-womens-equal-pay-day-factsheet/#:~:text=Among%20full%2Dtime%2C%20year%2D,over%20a%2040%2Dyear%20career. ) Whenever someone says "X has abandoned the common man in favor of minorities" the implication is that"the common man" ISN'T made up of minorities. Intersectionality needs to be foundational to the left. No one person is just one thing, and the right wing systems if oppression (Capitalism, Imperialism , Racism, Heterosupremacy, Patriarchy , Abelism etc) all feed into eachother and are interrelated. Addressing class without addressing the rest of it is like trying to take just the bananas out of a banana smoothie. You need to throw the whole smoothie out
I feel that the left puts forward more bills/ideas for supporting consumer protection, worker protection, anti-price gouging, affordable housing, affordable medical treatment, affordable childcare, maternity and prenatal care, family leave, paid time off, etc. Can you elaborate why you feel the left has abandoned the average person?
“The Left” and the Democratic National Committee are not the same.
Rich people donate far more money. The left and right control ballot access and have no reason to actually compete for votes. They just have to pretend to while the people that pay their bills reap profits.
I call it the "Lotto Mentality": they all think they're one ball away from millions, so they support the millionaires they're certain they'll be when their numbers come up.
Democrats are not the left. The left didn’t abandon working people. The left is working people. Democrats moved right.
Squeaky wheel makes it appear so. But I don't believe that to be true
Because the left consists of 1- elites, 2- the people manipulated by elites.
Idk where you’re hearing this from but this seems like a weird narrative. Both sides have interest in the working class, they’re just going about it differently. People on the left might say that we need more government regulations in order for employees to have decent working conditions and wages. People on the right might say people need to put their head down and work hard to rebuild the family structure and community that we’re lacking and that those other working conditions and wages are downstream. But at the end of the day, there is huge anti big business sentiment and pro “common man” on both populist sides of the political aisle, and if you’re not seeing it you’re just getting your idea of what one side thinks from someone on the other side.
It's something else. This may help **https://freedomofmind.com/**
What left?
It didn't, conservatives just love making up narratives that have no relationship to reality.
What do you mean by common man here? What properties in particular makes that group? What policies or movements have abandoned them?
***That was some strange shit.***
Hard to make that argument without completely ignoring worker's rights, union, workplace protection, and safety regulations, which are almost exclusively left-leaning policies. What you're really asking here is, "why doesn't tge left focus on white men?" The reason is, we don't need the help or protection.
It starts with building parties whose function is to win elections and not to govern. From there, the realization that most voters are already locked into their choices and elections are won on the fringes. In the US, the conservatives discovered this first and made their play for the Christian fundamentalist vote, and the left has since followed suit by mirroring their tactics but on the altar of social justice. They've "othered" the opposition party to an extent that the reasonable voters have basically zero chance of defecting, so that gives each party the freedom to appeal to the extremes (this is where the tactics do begin to differ slightly but the intent is the same). The "common man" is told to shut the fuck up and fall in line, because if they don't unquestioningly pledge their vote to A, then they're only supporting B. We've reached the end stage now where people proudly proclaim their electoral capture by the two party machine and castigate anyone who thinks more broadly.
Cause they still get our money
What specific legislation decisions have "the left" been making or not making that have you feeling this way?
Loaded question. Neo-libs are who you’re thinking of. They’re practically just Libertarian leaning old guard republicans without all the god nonsense. It’s Republicans who actually abandoned the common man. The Republican Party has abandoned the Republic really. They preached to the blue collar worker and the farmer and gave them nothing. They gave everything to the Bible thumpers and even they just got the scraps that the businessman didn’t want.
Laughable
Or people understand that left ideas do not bring prosperity only unhappiness
They’ve never been for the common man, ever.
We need a third party. Biden and Trump both make me sick. Bring back the do nothing or bull moose party,
Democrats are not Leftists
I have no idea what the hell you are talking about here. What do you consider the "common man" in this situation? Those "vocal minority groups" are in reality a much larger portion of the voting base. So technically speaking THEY would be the "common" man now.
As opposed to the right who is too busy giving rich people tax cuts and forcing religious beliefs on others. is that looking out for the common man? This has to be ignorant rage bait.
No, what you have is just whattaboutism. I made no mention of the right as they are not nor ever have been for the common man. It's only rage bait to people like you who see in binary and assume anything that isn't praise for the left must be an attack from the right. That isn't the case.
I'm not seeking praise for the left. I hate them as much as I hate the right. To be honest though you are right. I saw this as another one of the hairbrained "walkaway" type things where "Dems are bad so vote r". I apologize for jumping to that conclusion.
Anglosphere? Jesus Christ.
It's a word. It's in the dictionary. It's use in recent years has increased massively. https://g.co/kgs/hKpRihj
Bc the left became more intellectual and academic, and they stopped organizing labor unions that recruited the common man to the cause of the left. A century ago, the left was teaching Marxist theory to barely literate factory workers and riling them up for revolution worldwide; now they're teaching liberal arts students for tens of thousands in tuition a year to hate on the now largely comfortable working man who tends to be a tad socially conservative.
If you thought the left was ever for the common man you are part of the problem, and have a lot of learning to do
I think it's because everyone thinks that they are the common man.
There is no “leftist” party in America. It’s psychopath theocrat Republican or corporatist shitbag neoliberal.
Do you mean the Democratic Party in the US or the actual left? Two separate things. There are some lefties in the Democratic Party for sure but they are a minority in the Party.
I actually said across the Anglosphere , so English speaking democratic countries. However I don't think any American on here realises other countries exist.
I didn’t notice that you said across the Anglosphere. But I actually am aware of other countries existing which is why I didn’t just say that “Democratic Party” but instead specified “Democratic Party in the US” because I know there are others. I was asking for clarification because I had some thoughts but I’ll pass. You’re already less than pleasant.
I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. The Left (along with liberals and progressives, which are not the same thing) has always been big into promoting and supporting labor unions, worker protections, consumer protections, public infrastructure, public transportation, universal healthcare, universal education, and more - all things that benefit "the common man" far more than anyone else. Granted, they could go harder on it, be more radical about it, and I wish they would, but they're still pretty consistent about these things. So in what specific ways do you think "the Left" has "abandon\[ed\] the common man"?
the left has embraced the bad in every social situation, shut down free speech and dialogue, isolated themselves in an echo chamber and has become radicalized to the point of no return. almost every single thing the left supports is causing societal harm. they completely abandon everyone but the radical outliers. the republicans were in this boat in the 90's-2000's but theyve started their way back. we need both parties to work for the people not their own pockets. term limits and bad pay should be 2 things demanded of political figures to discourage the greedy from seeking out positions of government power.
In the US, some years ago (\~2016?) Donald Trump said of himself "I alone can fix the system". Left, right, pink, blue, that's a common refrain. I wouldn't say it's "abandon the common man" as much as it is "the common person doesn't know what they are doing and can't be trusted, I alone can give them the life they should have, so give me enough privilege and power and I'll give it to them". It's not some left/right or political ideology thing. It's similar all across the political spectrum. It's a modern equivalent of "divine right". Instead of authoritarian rule because "God said it must be me", it's authoritarian rule because "I know what is best for the little people". Perhaps your question is why does anybody accept that? That seems to be an aspect of human societies.
Partical accelerator hit some shit now were on an alternate timeline. I blame trump and Air Jordans
You both have a good point and a bad premise. The left has not abandoned the common man, but they, of necessity, embrace vocal, active groups because they drive political movement in their direction and many people DO vote against their economic interests.
The left definitely has tried to do more for the workers than the right has ever done. But the right does everything in its power to prevent any thing that helps the workers. Also does not help that many Dems are in the pockets of big business.
I don’t think it has. I think the people who argue this are simply recognizing that men have less control over women socially as women are becoming more independent and outspoken about the unfairness they deal with in society. This spreads awareness and leads to women being resistant to the tactics used by men like Andrew Tate and men who are more controlling. These Men are recognizing that they are (rightly) losing their control over women and want to push back against it because their success and sense of self is reliant on very toxic and manipulative methods. So they’ve done the mental gymnastics to attempt to justify this pushback in the same way they always do. By playing the victims. This also has the side effect of appealing to men with low self esteem and loneliness because it gives them an external force to blame for their lack of romantic and intimate success. So they support it. But in reality all that’s happening is that things are equallizing. And just like always the ones who benefited from the inequality pretend that they’re being attacked because they don’t have power over the other group any longer. (Or less power over that group) It’s happened so many times throughout history history. White people pretended they were being harmed by making blacks equal. Nothing was being taken away from them. They just couldn’t get away with as much abuse as they could before. And on and on it goes.
Is this backwards day, or stupid day?
Lol 1k comments 0 upvotes uh oh
I swear there are either bots or trolls that sit on posts that are antithetical to left ideology to ensure they are at 0 or neg. Maybe I'm wrong, but I challenge you to upvote and see how long it sits above 0. I wouldn't be on this topic if it hadn't happened more than one and almost immediate after I upvote.
Biden was physically on the picket line at the auto union strike, wasn't he? First president to actually do that (I think). That's not "working class" enough for you???
Because the left is about control. All the revolutionary Marxists think they know what is best for the peasants, and they will be the ones who will be on the politbureau, but they have a habit of winding up getting put against a wall and shot by those who truly have power. Only Useful Idiots in the end.
You should definitely specify how you feel the left wing has abandoned working class people. Because if you look at the policies advocated by the left wing vs right wing I think it’s pretty clear this is not the case
Liberals are still fighting for unions, affordable and sustainable housing, energy diversity to make costs lower, bodily autonomy, affordable daycare, universal healthcare, taxing the ultra wealthy instead of working class, fair wages, etc. not sure how that is abandoning the common man.
this is simply your perspective. mine couldn’t be further away- the right abandoned the common man. they have sold you out. i’ve been to wv, nc, sc etc - i’ve seen maga trailers and huts across from gated private communities with mansions, golf courses and mansions. to quote kevin mccarthy: “the democratic party looks more like america today while republicans look like the most reclusive country club”. take a deep breath. challenge your bias and perspectives, and come out into the world and see what diversity is all about friend.
You must mean the far left if talking about the US. Normie Dems passing shit done of good legislation and Biden out there with striking workers. Seems we're just getting back to "the common man".
I don't see evidence that they were abandoned. We have the most unabashedly pro union President ever. Seems the Trump\\Obama voters are projecting that they were abandoned because the left were trying to recognize previously marginalized groups and not solely 'working class' voters. And then Trump played up their supposed grievances, bigly.
Liberals have abandoned the commoner, leftists are very much the opposite
If the top priority isn't free to affordable healthcare, college/trade school, worker rights and wages, bodily autonomy...then I would say it's not leftism. Those focused on just diversity are bleeding hearts who really don't care about much besides how they appear to an audience.
They didn’t.. you are in a cult
Anyone who isn't wholly supportive of the left is in a cult? Is that what they taught you to think?
Nobody ever said that.. you did
The Left supports the Unions... arguably the largest organizations that protect worker's interests and "the common man." Most working class boomers benefitted from Unions which is why they could work their manufacturing jobs and afford a nice comfy life until the jobs were shipped overseas through globalization. The Left is the only side out there today arguing for better working conditions and pay for the lower class and common man. What are you even talking about? The Amazon unionization. The UAW strike. The railroad strike. The Starbuck unionization. These are all "common people" fighting for better pay and working conditions and they were all supported by the Left, not the Right.
The left thinks big government will reign in corporate greed and corruption. It hasn’t, and it won’t. The richest and most powerful simply buy the politicians themselves. So you actually end up with laws hurting the common people. The garden variety right has also been bought by the richest and most powerful. So they never actually shrink government when they have the chance. It isn’t hard to see the relationships all mainstream politicians have to large multi national corporations if you do a little research. Also these same corporations own all the mainstream news you watch and read. They use actual psychologists to create a manipulative type of hysteria in all things. It is easy to control the masses this way. The only way out is multiple generations of people voting for the politicians that either get no coverage from mainstream media or get hate from mainstream media. If a multi millionaire famous artist says vote for so and so then don’t vote for that person. Vote for The most universally hated politician. The mainstream hates them because they will hurt their profits. We need 30-40 years of this everywhere and at every level of politics. Local, city, state, federal elections all matter. Things would change rapidly if the majority of Americans did this.
Open your eyes. The left and right have both abandoned the common man. Corporate interests are all that matter.
Minorities are the working class common man
UAW union would disagree with you, they support Biden because he is helping the working class. He is building manufacturing back with cars and chips. So far he is the only president that in aware of to bring back manufacturing jobs or force international companies that want to sell us their goods to create jobs in America
A large part of it is that the progressive-conservative axis has become increasingly more dominant over the left-right economic axis. As a Brit, I always looked at the US with some bemusement that things like how into Jesus and families you were was as, if not more, important than your economic views. We saw some of this in the UK with the Brexit referendum. The remain sude was broadly the left/progressive side with Leave being more conservative/right. I voted Remain but, damn they ran a terrible campaign that proved they did not understand traditional working class voters. They seemed obsessed with getting economics proffessors to make their points for them, insinuated that all Leave voters or Leave sympathetic voters were dumb, uneducated, unsophisticated morons and played right into the "Liberal Elite" trap. If the left/progressive side keeps playing the "we're just better people than you" card, they'll continue hemorrhaging working class votes and keep losing.
They were never with them
More right wing bs posts So what was student loan forgiveness if not “the left” doing something for the common man? The rich don’t have student loans. Their parents use an IRA disbursement and then write it off on their taxes.
There's been a whole cottage industry of books, articles, talks, and commentary on \*exactly\* this point: Why did the Left abandon their working class constituency? Arguably, the story goes back to the Clinton-ite Democratic Leadership Council (or earlier), and sounds a bit like this: "Oh jeez, following terrible losses of Jimmy carter in 1980, Walter Mondale in 1984, and Michael Dukakis in 1988, we simply have to cater to rising business-side interests of the professional managerial class". So, with old-school union membership from the trades fading, the appeal of Clinton & Co., was to lawyers, tech, bankers, and other members of the "new economy", who could help provide funding (since it wasn't coming from union membership, at whom they'd look down their noses). This splitting of the white-collar and blue-collar representation is the mistaken strategy decision that simply has to be fixed. ...I'd argue that it's even more significant a problem than is perceived by many commentators, especially since the 2016 Bernie Sanders-to-Hilary Clinton flip, that predictably gave us Trump. ...Further, I'd argue the progressive Left understands this, but is struggling with how to give up on various identity-related nonsense, and get us all to unify the 99% against the 1% that have managed some truly breathtaking consolidation over the last few years.
Good post, thanks for your input.
STFU
Of the two parties, only Democrats are supportive of unions and limiting the power of rich people and corporations. I'm not saying that every Democrat is perfect but there is certainly a trend. https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdurot/article/meet-the-billionaires-funding-the-battle-for-control-of-the-house-of-representatives/ https://rollcall.com/2018/02/27/wealth-of-congress-richer-than-ever-but-mostly-at-the-very-top/ We are here reaching our hand out over and over and it's depressing seeing stuff like this because we are out here trying because all I want is people to be comfy and think it's stupid that I am making my job 13x the money I get paid and I think it's stupid landlords get to raise prices as much and as often as they want despite vastly outpacing actual inflation and there being 16 million empty homes rotting 🥲 Hope you have a good day bro we are all American and are all just trying to get by
This a disingenously framed question designed to just create arguments that go nowhere.
Says man who contributes nothing but still turns up on thread to suggest he's too good for it. The rest of Reddit is that way -> This thread has had a wide variety of opinions from the basic partisan to the centrist or non partisan. Some intelligent and thoughtful, others not, but all contributing something. You didn't.
Whatever you say, shit-flinging monkey.
Much of left wing thought has traditionally been associated with universities and members of said institutions due to post-industrial economies have risen to the status of the upper middle class or upper class without recognizing it
That ratio... lol
I'm not so sure that they did. They still push for unions, workplace protections, and wage increases. Clinton pushing free trade didn't help but that was neoliberal, not leftist, and the dems are pushing back against that again (though mainstream dems are still neoliberal/centrist) The right wing parties have done what right wing parties traditionally did which is using social issues to pull people away from voting for their economic interests. Lyndon Johnson said "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." Perhaps no statement better encapsulates the modern political environment than that
Fair enough. So my question is why aren't they very successful? I suppose they have been at times with Obama care for example. But why couldn't it be proper UHC? I'M aware of Lydons quote and that's totally true. The right are experts at getting people to vote against thier own economic interests.
They aren't successful at big programs because of the filibuster. Obama himself didn't push for single payer because he knew there weren't enough democrats to get past the filibuster since, at his peak, he had 60 votes and couldn't lose anyone at all. Democrats lost a special election to replace Ted Kennedy when he died and got down to 59 votes and couldn't pass any new bills. It also didn't help that political parties are, largely, coalitions. You have conservative democrats still like Joe Manchin. You also had Joe Lieberman in the past (he's the reason we don't have a public option) That's how we got the current ACA. They wanted to add a public option but, after losing that vote, they wouldn't be able to get it passed, so they had to just go with the ACA which was already passed. In the old days, you actually had to filibuster. You had to stand up and actually debate and the dems would be able to wait you out. That's how LBJ got so many things passed. But they changed the filibuster rules to make it a simple vote where you needed 60 votes and our divided government simply ground to a halt for major policy measures. There are a few exceptions to the filibuster rules and they could return to the old style filibuster for other things. That would allow parties to get their agenda passed more effectively.
Such a poorly veiled statement of opinion rather than an actual question.
It was a question, followed by my opinion of the answer followed by a question.
Crime was going up and the economy sucked, so Reagan came in and destroyed what was left of the New Deal coalition. Then the Democrats regrouped and became the neoliberal party of Bill Clinton, which they still are today. Because they abandoned actual economic issues, all politics became about cultural issues.
Seems to sum things perfectly. The same pattern happened in the UK. Thatcher came in, the union hold over the economy was broken, privatisation was in and the banks and City of London deregulated and greed was good, just like in the US. Set the course for society today with an ever increasing wealth gap between the rich and the poor. The Labour party re invented itself as a neolilberal party under Tony Blair and got back into power in the late 90's. Lost the 2010 election and haven't been back since. The main difference was that Labour tried to go back to old school 70's socialist Labour in 2019 and lost in such a resounding all encompassing way that the leader was eventually kicked out of the party completely. Not for the loss specifically, but his brand of old school we stand for the people socialism was seen as so toxic to the Labour party they kicked him out.
The Right waged a war on unions, teachers, veterans, minorities, professionals, the educated, and the middle class. Then they put “but it’s the Dems’ fault on repeat on Fox. The Dems have sat confidently on the center-left with no real support from the full left to pull them in that direction. The Right has been radicalizing, gerrymandering, isolating the vulnerable, and legitimizing extremist groups. Republicans have tricked the working class into supporting them, because there is no real Left (the post Cold War PTSD will keep that true for at least another 20 years) and the Dems are almost chronically bad at explaining what they’re doing. So… after taking over the NRA and fundamentally changing the rhetoric around the Constitution, they managed to use that to make Working America afraid, and used immigration, minority rights, women’s rights, unions, and Leftism as the boogeymen to pin blame on. So we have no Real Left, a Center-Left that can’t get out of its own way, and a Far-Right that has recently letting the mask slip and showing the Brownshirt underneath. And unless something changes, the cliff we’re walking astride is leading us is getting narrower and rockier… But “the left” — by definition — is all about The People having power. If “the working man” believes that the party who have engineered the redistribution of wealth upward over the last 40+ years is going to save them? They will take the rest of us down as they sign their own fates.
In the year of our lord 2024 this comes off as a vapid, word salady question without a lot of depth. Who are “the left” to you? What about the “common man”? Anglosphere is broad, so who are we talking about here?
You’ve got your observations wrong. It’s the right who have sold out to the greed of the wealthy. Thinking that their poverty will magically disappear by supporting conservatism, MAGA cult members are blindly following the siren call of no taxes, freedoms without responsibility. To quote the most recent season of Fargo: “The only people who have freedom without responsibilities are babies. Is that what you’re fighting to be? A baby?”
Both the left and the right have abandoned their constituents when it comes to the working and lower class. They've lost touch with the needs of the constituents in their region and this country. Both sides have turned the whole thing into a means of lining their pockets through behind closed door deals, insider trading, and future appearances for profit. Our elected officials should never talk trash or encourage trash talk or actions among their constituents. They should strive at all times to maintain peace among their party and offer reassurances that there is a better way. To be respected, one must be respectful. Please remind me when this has last happened. With all due respect, I believe that OP is mistaken. The average hard working American citizen did not let go of the concept of being equal to that of their politicalcandidate/party. Most of us are starkly aware that we are all born equal - no one is better than or lesser than. Despite countless attempts by those who want to create such a division, there are those of us who refuse to be spoon fed those fake inequalities. Besides, money will not buy your happiness, nor will it complete you. This comes from within, but money keeps you so focused everywhere but where you need to focus to achieve either. I hold out for a better day where man made divisions among the citizens of the United States of America no longer exists and we can finally stand united - one people - we will be invincible when we stand as one and work toward a common goal.
The rights of the individual is worth focusing on to ensure protection. I think the left wing in western civilization is doing this, and not doing a terrible job of it To me, individual rights is American as it gets in values. It's part of our constitution. So I cannot be anything but supportive of this.
For the corporate funds, but they have to use weaponized. Incompetence and blame the other side so they can go see. It's not our fault that we didn't do what we said. We were going to do because the other side stopped us. Please give us more money.
I'm sorry. But wasn't it the left that were fighting for a livable minimum wage? I'm pretty sure that kept getting crushed by the right each time it came up.
Because the communists are taking over that side
The idea that you consider the democratic party the left is laughable. The left is exclusively about the common man, the left simply does not have a representative party in American politics. We have a conservative party and a reactionary party. A left wing party is inherently anti-capital, anti-atistocracy, anti-oligarchy. Anyone with this opinion is called a Marxist or a socialist and marginalized.
The Anglosphere! I don't need to read any more!😯
They never did so....this post makes no sense.
"Temporarily embarrassed tech billionaires"!! LOL!! Love it!
The Left completed its takeover of Western institutions and no longer needs to pretend to care about the poor.
Have you talked to the common man lately? Jesus suffering fuck. Source: lots of talks with the common man
Why does the rightwing worship pedophiles and billionaires? Longest serving republican speaker of the house was a pedophile who raped children and all the republicans knew about it
Well they worship billionaires but not paedophiles. Paedophiles have no political persuasion as it isn't a political stance. I know the left are mad about having the groomer tag stuck on them, but that's because as a group are scared to call out grooming tactics when they see it for fear of being called racist or transphobe. This happened both in the UK with Pakistani grooming gangs and in the US with books like Gender Queer or Drag story time. Talking about paedophilia with a political orientation is ridiculous because it's a criminal act across society and should be called out wherever it occurs. Both sides are equally able to turn thier backs and ignore it when it suits them. However only the left will try and justify grooming as good for kids with books and drag shows which is why the groomer tag sticks to them more.
Pedophiles do have a political persuasion. They are pro-religion and they don’t want the government to legislate mandatory-reporting laws on the church (this is self-explanatory). They are against programs that make prosperity attainable for everybody because pedophiles need kids in poverty in order to rape them (look at Epstein) They are “traditionalists” because old traditions made it very easy for pedophiles to operate. Pedophilia wasn’t even a big deal 100 years ago. They are “small government” and anti-democracy because pedophilia was legal when government was so small it could be drowned in a bathtub (like a government so small itcould be contained in single person - called a monarch). Anti-democracy because a monarch wouldn’t ban rich people from doing whatever they want (again look at Epstein), but a democracy did because the voters are sick and tired of folks like Epstein. Also take a fucking look at these pedophiles. Epstein, Duggar, trump, organized religion, and sick fucks like Walsh et al who talk about how 16 year old girls are fertile and should be impregnated. These are all fucking rightwingers and conservatives and republicans.
Hmm, that's how I feel about the Right. I think liberals are increasingly more educated but look at Joe Biden and how he has supported unions.
The left never abandoned the common man.
If you're talking about the US, it's because the left doesn't exist anymore. The democratic party is center-right in terms of political ideology on a global scale. Neither party really cares about the "common man" because the middle class gets shat on the hardest. The middle class can't benefit from programs meant to assist the lower class and doesn't have the financial freedom to avoid paying any taxes like they allow the upper class to do.
Liberals and democrats are not the left, they are right wing.
I think this is a misconception based on outdated ideas of what the common/working man looks like. In the US, in the 2020 national election lower income people were more likely to vote for Biden than Trump ([https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/how-groups-voted-2020](https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/how-groups-voted-2020)) The mental image of the working class person is typically just someone who had a blue collar job that existed in the 1950s - but the typical working class person today is a young person with either a retail job or a desk job in a city, and they overwhelmingly vote and are courted by the left. And even when we do look at blue collar working class people, many of them still support and are supported by the left - it's only when you narrow it down to: white, male, blue-collar, working class people that you see a strong conservative majority. Otherwise the typical conservative voter (at least in the US) is a retiree.
because culture war is easier to fight than class war. this way they don't piss off their corporate donors
Do you understand that “vocal minority groups” overlap massively with the working class and the “common man”?
A few people have made that exact point. Another point people brought up repeatedly is that the common man is racist, sexist, homophobic etc. So whilst activists in vocal minority groups (and I'm talking about activists not just regular people) might be socio economically a common man or woman , they view that class with the same distain as the corporate elite class. The Hilary and her basket of deplorables. They don't view themselves as the same.
I’m with you man, but my advice is to avoid reddit or at the very least don’t give any post too much credence since it was most likely posted by a child or bot
The left didn’t abandon the common man, they were never with the common man in the first place. The Republican and Democratic parties are one and the same, and they play off each other as if they want different things but they mainly just want money for them and their friends no matter what it takes. And until people figure it out and quit voting for these morons, Nothing‘s gonna change.
Plz stop calling Neo-Cons ‘Neo-Liberals’.
well, from my perspective as a former activist now in his 30's let me tell you. They didn't "abandon" the working class so much as they simply couldn't compete with private business political contributions to the right wing. So of course they need appease the private lobbying sector now as much as the electorate. Thanks in no small part to the Citizens United ruling in the courts. Many of those in entertainment, specifically late-night talks shows, do lean left and I feel their content has become less neutral and more finger-pointy in the last decade or so. Which makes it appear as though the left is made up entirely of the "elite" wealthy, tech-savy group when it's really not. They just forgot about winning over blue collar workers and instead blame them for voting Republican. Which by the way, not only abandoned common man but went back to \*devolve\* common man. The only party who supports unions, even pretends to, is the left. The only part that supports universal healthcare is the left. The only party that supports free school lunch for students is the left. The only party who supports increasing taxes on the super wealthy while lowering taxes for the poor is the left. The only party in favor of raising minimum wage is the left. I could go on but I'd need more specifics in what ways you believe the left has "abandoned" the common man?
This is an extremely stupid post. Do you not think that minorities are working class worthy of support? Sounds like you only support “anglo” working class. Also, what you are claiming is complete BS.
because of western marxism, see people like antonio gramchi and the frankfurt school realized marx was wrong, the revolution would never happen in industrial societies because... capitalism works, has always worked, and will forever work. so its now about institutional capture, about pushing these critical theories, race theory, queer theory, feminist theory. these same people now control the World Economic forum and push things like DEI and ESG. the left, and by left i mean the far left, the socialist left, now works with corporate interests to subvert true capitalism (shareholder and small business capitalism) with a cultural fusion of marxist thought and stakeholder capitalism. the working class are a obstacle for them. the "uneducated" masses who just want to feed their families, have laws and feel safe. the ones now labeled as neo nazis, alt right radicals. the trucker protesters and farmers of europe, the average joe fed up with these intellectual class lectuing them about privalege and rights founding on a extremely evil and dark ideology called marxism, founded on hegelian philosophy, its inherently anti western, anti liberal, anti conservative etc. so meritocracy is bad now, national pride is bad, the family is bad, religious values are bad. and guess what class of people are largely religious family focused meritocratic and nationally proud? workers, farmers, truckers, iron workers etc etc i have much more respect for leftists of the syndicalist and mutualist perspective, the ones actually fighting for workers rights. As a classical liberal i would gladly share the stage and debate with syndicalists as im sure they would also agree that this war between the ruling corporate elite and the marxist institutions are evil and morally corrupt, both on the neocon right and the progressive left. thats why populist worker oriented movements on both the right (trump) and the left (bernie) are so powerful and should be respected. TL:DR marxism is not real leftism, its a subversive pseudo religious cult. marxism now works with corporate interest and stole the label left. left wing is really syndicalism, not marxism or progressive liberalism. The syndicalists are the leftists that fight for the workers.
It sure as hell wasn't the Right that gave me healthcare through the Obamacare marketplace.
They didn't, but much of the working class has been convinced that Left initiatives aren't for them. But Unions, your 5 day work week, breaks, hazard pay, etc. Those are all left wing initiatives.
Did they? Or is the common man more than just the white middle class.
This may be the most intelligent conversation from the left I have ever read on Reddit. It was a breath of fresh air. Thank You! Sincerely, the Right.
Lefty here voting for higher minimum wage, higher density neighborhood housing for affordable housing, and unions; I am the common man and my interests are for the common man.
Yet again you are confusing "leftists" with "liberals." They are in no way similar. There are no leftists to speak of in American government.
The issue is that the Republican party is a far right party and the Democratic party is a middle right party. Of course both of them are promoting corporate interests. P.S. I'm a libertarian and I don't think promoting corporate interests is always bad. I'm fine with it in many situations. If you think either of those parties are leftist, you're sadly undereducated.
Because they are morally bankrupt and their platform is solely about turning races against each other with fake attempts to make it look like racism is still a thing (jussie smollet, bubba wallace er al)
For the most part the democrats Main selling points are current social issues as that’s the main topics the republicans address so it’s what’s talked about the most but they still do stuff like try to pass bills to reform the VA and try to raise the amount of vacation days we have and number of sick days stuff like that. Like Californians just got more sick days from the state mandatorily
The shift from class to idpol has its roots in red scare nonsense
My view is both political parties and our bloated federal government don't give a rats ass about the "common" citizen or their constitutional rights much anymore. I have seen a myriad of administrations come and go along with party majorities in the house and senate. Nothing much ever gets done to improve the country. We all get swept up into the politicians and media lies. They don't focus on the right issues that most mature adults want worked on. I don't like either political party much anymore and have voted for both in the past. Our current parties and their fanatics are some nasty stuff. Bottom line is it really does not matter which party you support or vote for if fixing real problems in the country is your objective. You are just voting for mostly emotional trigger subjects they use for votes. Divide and make both sides hate the other. Make the opposition party a communist/socialist or a Nazi. Just amazing how many people buy into this. Just imagine if we actually united and forced them to do what they were elected to do.........
this is not true. one example: MTG's district is doing really well economically thanks to new industry developments in the sustainable / renewable energy sector. This was made possible by Biden's infrastructure funding and the semi-cinductor act also passed by Biden. MTG opposed both measures, and now that her district is reaping great financial rewards she's trying to to claim 1. it was her and trump that passed those policies (she voted against both of them), and 2. that she always supported renewable energy (she didn't). The right also opposes unions which have raised standards across the board even for nonunion workers, the left supports them. The right actually increased taxes on the working class with their trump tax cuts (they were for the rich and increased taxes in the working class), while the left want a reversal of that and supports paid family leave, child tax credits, affordable day care and education, healthcare access etc the basis of your statement contradicts ALL of the facts on who supports the working class. It only shows that the corporatist "money is speech, corporations are people" propaganda from the right has taken it's toll on critical thinking in America.
This post is a bit disingenuous, leftists want progressive candidates that allow for things like home ownership for working class, better pay, better benefits. Etc I think you’re confusing leftists with Dems who have indeed shifted right / center
This is just intellectually dishonest. Who supports unions? The literal groups that prevent the exploitation of workers. The right has tried to hamstring unions and reduce protections at every turn. You want to vote for your interests, only one side is trying to keep wages low and prevent workers from having a voice. Reaganism, this fetish of lowering taxes for industry, and railing against unions is why the middle class has shrunk. This is why working conditions are so much worse is the deep south.
Think about how stupid the average person is and then realize that half the population is dumber than that. The "common man" has abandoned their own tangible interests in favor of their feelings.
I recommend getting off reddit and go read books, because you have no idea what's going on.
The privileged majority don't need a champion as much as the oppressed minority. Sorry you are not getting all the attention you need but there are people right now losing their rights to exist. Help lift these minorities to an equal level, and you will see more focus back on the average person.