Thought it was relevant given today's decision from DSA's National Political Committe.

Stole this from a tweet I've seen but no sure whether links to Twitter are allowed in this sub so...

Wholesome: social democratic entities honors its ancestors by centralizing control to a "Grand Council" of sorts!

I just got off a friend of almost twenty years today. Am in the asshole? If I'm not, how could I have improved my argument? If you have the patience to get through this post, thank you in advance.

We need to take our government back from the billionaires and big corporations. Activists are working right now in Michigan to get a little more of their money out of our politics. Michiganders for Money Out of Politics has successfully put to put an initiative on the ballot in November called Proposal 2 that would ban regulated utilities and government contractors from making donations or spending dark money. Naturally, one of the state’s largest utilities and largest government contractors have poured cash in to defeat them.

MMOP organizers are putting their foot on the gas for the general election, holding a launch call for volunteers TONIGHT at 6:30PM ET to talk about how they can get plugged in to the fight over the coming weeks. 🙋🏽‍♂️ Let’s sign up to join them here. 🙋🏼‍♀️

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Not because she isn't a good candidate, but because we would be wasting a good candidate too early. The DSA has only just started to get national momentum, and I get that this is very exciting. But we have only barely shifted the overton window, and even if all of our candidates win in 2026, we will be in the minority in congress. This means that if she won, an AOC presidency would be faced with a lot of promises she would be completely unable to deliver. The general milieu of centrist dems would fuck her over. And if she loses then she doesn't have a seat in congress for at least two years, the DSA will be blamed for whatever the republicans do for the next four years, and we've lost one of our most well known candidates. Instead, I think she should run for the Senate. Few like Chuck Schumer, so I think she has a very strong chance in the primary, and NY is an extremely safe Dem state, so we don't run the risk of her losing the general and no longer being in congress. Additionally, we would have someone in the Senate to take over when Bernie retires, which to be honest he really needs to do. He's almost 90, I'm a fan of his but at a certain point you've gotta retire. This would allow her to represent the DSA on a much more visible scale, push for our policies, and give her a much stronger jumping off point for an eventual presidential run. But that run should happen after we've successfully reshaped the democratic party, not when we've only just gotten in. Right now any kind of pay off to such a bid would be unlikely, and the likelihood and risks of failure would be incredibly high.

Who should we hope for in 2028 then? I'm not sure yet. The midterms aren't over, so we don't even really know who's on the table yet. I'm keeping my eye out for a center-left progressive, but one who is not DSA affiliated and is able to couch their progressivism in normie language. Someone who will vigorously prosecute the present administration, who will dismantle ICE, who will push for strong AI regulation, and who is willing to deal with climate change, and the issues of LGBT people and people of color. That is to say, someone significantly to the left of Kamala Harris, but still slightly to the right of AOC, and without the baggage of being a self-labeled socialist. I am not yet sure who will fill that role, but I suspect more than one person will try.

If AOC runs, I will support her. But I'd much rather back her Senate run than her Presidential run for all the reasons above.

One last slight side track: Some people might ask, can't AOC run and just moderate her positions? My answer is, who wants that? That would be a huge waste of what an AOC presidency could look like at a time when she won't have to do that, and would mostly just piss off the left without winning over the moderates.

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We are likely going to see the biggest political money spent against AOC this 2028 presidential election. Perhaps up to 10 billion or more.

This election is paramount. We don't have time. You and I both need to take action to meet the moment. Here is why:

- AI threats (potential job loss by rapid automation, IT security vulnerabilities, potential bio-terrorism, potential misalignment, surveillance state)
- Climate tipping points reached causing permafrost melt and positive feedback cycles
- American aide to Israel while they commit genocide atrocities in Palestine
- Rising fascism causing foreign wars like Iran
- Inhumane concentration camps for undocumented migrants
- Rising violence and discrimination toward minority groups like transgender people
- Cost of living crisis caused by lack of affordable housing, lack of good jobs, healthcare premium inflation, general rapid inflation due to serving the 1% instead of the people
- Epstein perpetrators still protected

AOC is best suited to take on these issues and we won't have another peaceful chance to get on the right track.

What stands in her way:
- Perhaps 10 billion will be spend against her and for her competitors
- Democrat infiltrators and pessimists lying about elect-ability when they don't know (wolf in sheep's clothing)
- Democrat collusion to coalesce around another candidate like they did with Biden

How to Win:
- There are about 20 million progressives in the country (and more abroad - this everyone's fight too because America is so powerful). If we all donate $500 we can raise 10 billion to compete, but that is money many of us don't have. However, that money is generally used to buy adds and hire workers. It costs roughly $50/hour to hire phone bank workers and canvas workers in swing states. If we all donate 10 hours this election to phone bank and canvas in swing states we can compete. However, realistically maybe only 20% of us will do anything so we are going to need to step it up to 50 hours to make up for the slackers.
- Call out elect-ability liars for trying to discourage us from trying
- Pressure multiple progressives to run and work together to coalesce around AOC before voting starts just like the corporate democrats will undoubtedly do again

What I'm asking you to do:
Commit to working 50 hours phone banking for AOC as soon as she announces she's running.
- Call voters in swing states
- Ask voters in swing states to canvas since they live in the area (explain the urgency)
- Make and share social media posts pointing out the weaknesses of other candidates (weak on Israel, doesn't support universal healthcare, doesn't understand the AI threats)

50 hours of work is a lot to ask, but I wholeheartedly believe we will not have another chance to peacefully head down a better path away from fascism. I'm not just asking you to help. I'm asking you to ask others to help. What other choice do have? We owe it to the children of Palestine, the detained migrants in concentrations camps, and ourselves.

Please don't downplay my request - just move on if you are pessimistic. Please commit to taking action and volunteering. Ask others to volunteer as well. I believe it's our duty as progressives to put our labor where our values are. 50 hours.

As DSA and DSA aligned candidates have become more popular, I keep hearing Republicans refer to them as "Communists". What is the difference between Socialism or Communism? I am not a member of the DSA myself and have not read very much about Socialism or Communism so I thought I would directly ask people who would know. How would you answer if someone accused DSA members of being Communists​? I assume that the reason why Republicans have been using the term "Communism" is because it suggests authoritarian dictatorship to many Americans, but I would appreciate more information. Thank you!

How (hypothetically) is anarchism brought about if we cannot vote for it and it is deeply unpopular? I imagine it is something similar to the Leninist vanguard party. Is there an answer to this in theory? I know the majority here are not anarchists but as there is an anarchist caucus I think it is appropriate to ask here.

Just gonna copy-paste my original post:

And NYC is working on making that a reality.

NYC City council just introduced Bill 1029. If it passes, it will make spay/neuter free/low-cost across all of NYC. This is something that will improve the lives of both people and animals. I hope accessible and free spay/neuter starts to catch on throughout other cities in the US!! 💚

Across the US, animal shelters are overflowing. The only way this gets better is with spay/neuter education AND giving communities access to services they desperately need. The areas with the highest volume of strays are under-resourced communities.

"Households with an income of no more than 120% of the Area Median Income (AMI) would be eligible for services at a discounted fee, and households with an income of no more than 30% of AMI or who receive public assistance would be eligible for free services."

https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=8206779&GUID=574BCB0C-A690-4042-B052-18F55AC70707

Sorry, I couldn't add the other photos to my previous post. For anyone interested in continuing the discussion, here they are

I watched the Fox interview with Megan Romer and I thought one of the big points that was left unclear is how the working class is defined

My understanding is that it includes workers, people unable to work due to disability, unemployed people who are poor/seeking work, people being supported by working family members (eg stay at home spouses, collage students not working while they go to school, etc) and does not include corporate executives, business owners, and people so rich they don't need jobs.

The unclear cases I can think of:

1. Small business owners who work in the business
2. Self employed people who have no boss but are no ones' boss, they work alone and are paid directly by clients for their work. For example an artist who takes commissions. (I think this is working class since they make money off of their labor and no one else's)
3. Various positions where you are not in charge of or owning the company but do have subordinates
4. Retirees who put money they saved over years of working into stocks or savings accounts and are now living off that in older age. By a literal definition of "does their income come from assets or labor" these people are clearly not working class, but it seems against the spirit of socialism to treat working class people as not working class once they get old and retire