this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2024
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United States | News & Politics
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In America you either one of the 2 main or a spoiler. Y'all really need ranked voting.
Alternative voting systems haven't proven to be even the slightest obstacle to capitalist rule. Japan and Australia have alternative voting systems, and they're still on the same far right path, still evict indigenous peoples, and still act as US military bases.
It's not supposed to counter capitalism or any one political ideology. It's supposed to create more proportional representation. If everyone in a city is a conservative, then ranked voting will still skew conservative.
Its impossible to have a government that represents the people, if capital stands above the political system.
You fix that by seizing the means of production, generally with unions.
You protect union rights by both voting for candidates that will protect unions, and also fighting to unionize your own workplace.
While your proposition is still better than the neoliberal merry-go-round, unions can only serve as a base for vanguard worker's party. Unions by themselves never once seized the means of production and ultimately most of them turned into tools of class collaboration.
What's wrong with Marxism? Why do you advocate for Syndicalism, does it just sound good to you, or is there a materialist reason for it?
First off, nobody takes Marxism by itself. If it's accepted, it's always with extra things attached and other parts removed.
Second, my issue in this case is the Lennist part. A vanguard party degrades into cult-like behavior, and this is very consistent with ML groups big and small.
What on Earth do you mean? What do people remove?
What do you mean "cult-like behavior?" Why do you believe this "cult-like behavior" arises? Where does Lenin deviate from Marx?
Why do you advocate for Syndicalism, because it sounds good to you? You aren't making any analysis nor points, you just seem to be contrarion. Surely you have some reason for wanting syndicalism, no?
I think you’re confusing two different tendencies.
Small parties that do not have a social base can become insular. If they do not realize that their limitations are set by external factors they can turn inwards and become cult like. You see that a lot in Maoist groups in western countries where there is no peasant class their brand of politics can mobilize.
On the other hand successful socialist parties that come to take power end up having to defend it from various reactionary forces, both external and internal. Being put on the defensive causes these parties to seek resiliency through centralized decision making.
That said, I don’t think either of these tendencies are unique to Marxist parties. Also, Marxism is meant to be scientific so learning from past experiences is key to avoiding the mistakes of other Marxists.
Actually, it's very possible. Capital, despite being a tool of oppression, is also a tool that pays for roads, schools, hospitals, and everything else that the government funds. Capitalism is definitely not the best system, but it's the one that's currently available, and despite the common narrative here on lemmy, there are people that work at the Federal level that aren't being actively lobbied that do indeed pass good legislation. The way to improve the system is by implementing ranked voting, which increases the equity of representation in DC. Voters in Wyoming shouldn't have the same say in politics as voters in New York or other more densely populated congressional districts.
Then do it. Try to test your ideas against reality. You'll find that RCV
Will only be allowed in small amounts as a show of feasibility, without affecting major change
Will be gutted if it ever does get implemented and stands chance of changing anything.
The path forward is revolution, not a giant prayer for RCV to be implemented magically.
Capitalism is not a tool that pays for social services. Its a system that allows private individuals to own the means of production (and along with those, the political systems, laws, and media of their domiciled countries) with the goal of extracting a profit from the sale of commodities produced by wage workers they employ.
Capitalists only apportion some of the surplus value stolen from workers to public services, when forced to by political agitation from below.
These proposals for ranked choice voting are a dead-end, because they already exist in many capitalist countries, and it doesn't fix anything. They just stack any number of candidates they like, and have their media push the most friendly ones.
If you allow capitalists to own production, then the political system will always be subservient to them, and be nothing but puppets to serve their interests. Anyways here's some more resources: