Authoritarians like Trump gain power by exploiting public cynicism. The more that voters believe that all politicians cheat the system, the more decent citizens will give up engaging meaningfully in politics at all. Eventually, the only people left in politics are the ones with no vision of a better world beyond a bitter desire to stick it to racial minorities, LGBTQ people and women. Getting people to believe in equal justice and functional government is a necessary prerequisite if folks like Fetterman and Ocasio-Cortez are to make any progress on the social and economic issues that matter most to them.
Look she’s definitely at the top of the pack for US politicians who care and want to do good for us, and I appreciate her to that degree, but I’m still upset she voted with the party to stop the rail unions from striking.
After which the Biden admin kept working with the railroads and unions to get the workers’ demands met - and largely succeeded to no headline coverage.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/01/railroad-workers-union-win-sick-leave
https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5v9xy/the-freight-rail-labor-dispute-was-never-about-sick-days
Still neoliberal incrementalist bullshit. Support unions, full stop.
Never said I don’t. I know two railroad guys - one retired as soon as he possibly could to escape the hell outlined in the Vice article. The other was on the phone with work the entire night when we last had the chance to drive 4 states over to visit him. Never even got the chance to ask how he was doing but it was pretty obvious.
I’ll take whatever wins we can get, but that should make us hungry for more.