You forgot unions outside of ones held for public servants. It’s no coincidence the strongest unions and best worker protections are for judges, police and firefighters.
Most people on the left aren’t willing to talk openly and honestly about why we lost and continue to lose so much of the working class.
The answer is almost always something to the effect that it’s because they’re stupid brainwashed rubes, which is highly counterproductive.
The truth is that the elites and elite institutions in this country have utterly failed the working class in every way. The right uses this to stoke class and regional resentment while steadily pushing exploitative policies, while much of the left takes only half measures and views much of what’s important to the working class with basically open contempt.
One of the above tactics has been far more effective than the other.
This is not a meme.
I’m not American, so I curious why they have only two parties?
Their election system (basically winner-takes-all) pretty much guarantees that it will converge in a two-party system with roughly 50/50 share and people voting for “the lesser evil” rather than their favourite. If a third challenger appears, it will split the voter base of the more close candidate and guarantee a huge victory for the farther candidate (the opposite of what the challenger stands for). So essentially it’s doomed to be a bipartisan circlejerk unless the election system itself is changed.
Correct. Also worth saying that because it was designed by rich white male British colonists over 200 years ago who deliberately made it almost impossible to change, our system is hopelessly outdated and very difficult to upgrade. This is especially true when there are certain demographics that get a ton of over representation through the existing system.
Ranked choice voting seems to be the solution
However, both parties are against it because neither want to give up power
Some states have switched over to ranked choice for some if not all of their elections. Alaska is a big one - nearly every election on the ballot is ranked choice.
Maine also allows it for their presidential elections. Originally, it would have been used for their gubernatorial, state legislature, House, and Senate elections, but the state Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional since the state constitution required a plurality to win.
Nevada is also likely to approve it for their primaries.
Many other states use it to some degree at the local level. Unfortunately, we’re unlikely to see much progress nationwide without a major shift in politics.