Summary
Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez condemned Donald Trump and Elon Musk at a packed Arizona rally, accusing them of harming working-class Americans and promoting oligarchy.
Sanders denounced corporate CEOs as “major criminals” exploiting workers, while Ocasio-Cortez called for stronger Democratic leadership.
Rallygoers urged Ocasio-Cortez to challenge Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer after he supported a Republican funding bill.
The rally, part of Sanders’ “Stop Oligarchy” tour, follows criticism of the Democratic Party’s weak response to Trump’s agenda and features further events in Colorado and Arizona.
The British empire was brought to its knees by normal patriots to form the country you’re making excuses not to defend. Coward.
That is such a gross and fundamental misunderstanding of the Revolutionary War it’s almost comical. Probably most important to note is that the Revolution was bankrolled by U.S. oligarchs, and we received a lot of help.
That sounds like Russian propaganda.
While not that untrue, it’s a pretty bleak interpretation of history.
You could argue the founding fathers were oligarchs but remember… they toppled a monarchy. Doesn’t get more autocratic than that.
You could also imagine some “oligarchs” could see that they benefit from a more equal society.
At the end of the day, the founding fathers clearly support rebellion. Say what you will about them but they were not hypocrites. From the Declaration of Independence:
“That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it”
Rebellion is your duty.
Sorry, you’re saying the people who were committed to making a Land of the Free that excluded blacks and women weren’t hypocrites? The Founding Fathers are some of the biggest fucking hypocrites of all time.
The only thing they hated is that they couldn’t be the British aristocracy. They absolutely were oligarchs and the vast, vast majority did not due it out of noble reasons. They did it because they wanted more profits.
Slavery abolitionist and Founding Father Thomas Paine would agree with you. He literally called Washington a hypocrite (and incompetent) in an open letter.
One of the few “Founding Fathers” that I tend to like.
As well as the indigenous and non-landowners.
U.S. oligarchs HATE competition. They conned the rubes of 1776 to fight the British monarchy so they could have a monopoly on graft in the colonies, the U.S. finally got pulled kicking and screaming into WW1 and WW2 because they hated the competition from Germany et al, and not out of any love for Europe. The support for Hitler among the U.S. ruling class was high and well documented, including Prescott Bush.
Okay sure. Just ignore the main point I was making. Sounds like a thing a coward would do. Have fun living under tyranny.
Your point is based on fundamentally flawed information. You can make the argument that Americans should engage in revolution! But I would point the example towards the great work of unions during the Industrial Revolution, rather than pointing to one of the many times the U.S. rose up to blindly support their oligarchs.
How is my information fundamentally flawed, exactly? Did the USA have a revolution? Did the very same people who took part in that revolution also turn around and clearly state that it is a right to rebel?
I agreed with your idea that they were oligarchs. How is that relevant? The revolution had help, how is that relevant? Are all oligarchs the same? Is that really a fair claim to make? What about the French? I don’t even feel like you have an argument, you’re just trying to justify your inaction.
I’m in favour of you using whatever example you need to make it make sense to you. Unions or whatever.
Some did say that. You can likely count the number on your hands. But one of the very first actions the newly formed U.S. government took was putting down a rebellion. They were not supporters of revolution, they were supporters of their own personal interest.
Because there are just as many people today who would be willing to rise up blindly in defense of their oligarchs, just as they were willing to fight for their oligarchs profit margins back then.
Because leftist groups in the U.S. have none. We’ve been desperate for funding for decades now. All media outlets are suppressing us. You cannot expect the same level of performance as when the oligarchs were on our side.
The ones who deliberately use propoganda to incite poor people to fight for their profits are. Hell the French aristocracy weren’t even helping the Americans for good reasons, they were just happy to use them as a warfront to weaken their real enemy in the British.
It seems like you fundamentally misunderstand the history and current situation in the United States, and are trying to criticize us without any context.
A state would never support a rebellion though…. Just because they understand revolution doesn’t mean they allow it under law. That’s not how it works. If you rebel you’re an enemy of the state until you over throw it.
Everyone is looking out for their own interests.
A lot of what you say is debatable and feels like mental gymnastics to avoid what you need to do. Ultimately it doesn’t matter. I don’t need to convince you, pain and suffering will.
I’m not saying they didn’t have help. I’m saying you have to start it yourselves! No one is going to swoop in and save you. YOU have to do it! Only then will you start getting others to join.
If you tell yourself you’re powerless, then you are. You sit there doing nothing while making excuses for it.
YOU ARE NOT POWERLESS. Together you are strong. Get up and act like it.
I know it sounds fun to believe that friendship or togetherness can topple a nation that’s willing to drone strike its own citizens, but the truth is that the game is so heavily rigged in the U.S. that we have a lot of needs. We need guns, we need intelligence, and we need enough peer to peer outreach to actually organize. Without third-party assistance, it’s pretty hard to go beyond the local protesting we’ve already been doing.
Everyone likes to fantasize about Jan 6th without realizing there were big financial groups working on outreach, organization, and supporting travel to the capital to make that happen. There is no money for the left in the U.S. You really want to yell at us, at least donate to organizations like Indivisible first.
Hey man, whatever you need to tell yourself to feel good about doing nothing.