But there has been no progress during my lifetime (well not here and not in the US, there might have been some progress in other parts of the world). In fact, whenever we had “left”-liberals in power here in Germany, the march towards the right only accelerated, as they adopted right-wing neoliberal policies and took at least part their base with them over to the right, and the rest gets marginalized. We’ve had some fatal damage done to the welfare state, worker’s rights and the anti-war movement, all by the social democrats and greens.
Your affirmation that there is “slow progress” is clearly not true. There was some progress before I was born, but as far as I can tell, that had nothing at all to do with voting for the lesser evil.
Are we talking about the US or Germany? And how long have you been alive? Things like legalized gay marriage, legalized marijuana (not federally but in many states), healthcare that can’t deny people because of pre-existing conditions are all examples of progress that have come in the last 15 years. There’s still a long way to go even on those things I mentioned, but ignoring that progress is needlessly pessimistic.
Sure but it’s always like one small step forward and two large steps back. Abortion was made illegal in many states. US domestic surveillance of its own citizens has increased dramatically and gone unchallenged. Housing and healthcare costs have continued to outpace wage growth. Inequality has increased unabated. Green energy remains woefully underfunded. I could go on.
You may have not noticed that there’s one side of the government severely holding back all of those efforts.
You have to understand that in this dynamic, both sides of the electoral spectrum play a role in moving us to the right.
The liberals can do certain things that the conservatives wouldn’t be able to get through, and the conservatives can do certain things that the liberals wouldn’t be able to do. But the leadership of those parties are captured by the capitalist class. They sell out and mislead their base. It’s all part of class warfare. And since I was born, the working class has been on the losing side, no matter whether social democrats or conservatives are in power.
Just as an example, our so-called center-left coalition just passed the most far-right deportation policy, and supported the most far-right EU immigration law (which fascists like Italy’s Meloni where very happy about). Why them and not Merkel? Because without the support of the Greens (and their support networks and associated media), no serious, organized and mainstream opposition to these far-right laws is possible. Previously, all these people would lobby and protest and make a stink in mainstream media about these sorts of dehumanizing laws. But the leadership of the Green party switched sides, and withdrew all institutional support, and now this stuff can get passed with barely a peep of protest.
