This is not a facetious question. I know I can technically ask AI but i don’t think this is a simple answer TBH, as I am confused about process, and I do not know enough about US politics.

All my life when observing US politics (which I don’t really do for fun) there has generally been a very visible opposition leader, you know their name their stance etc. It’s the same for most major powers. But for the USA I simply do not know anymore. I get the jist there is only 2 parties but the democratic party seems like its just disappeared. Previously there was news of candidates etc but that’s just gone.

What is happening? and who is the leader of the opposition now?

I am not looking for a bunch of FTrump answers, it would be great to have a discussion that’s rational and not about him.

  • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
    10·
    2 hours ago

    As @Cowbee@lemmy.ml mentioned, PSL (and a few other socialist parties), are the only real opposition, since they’re a working-class party that’s consistently anti-war and anti-capitalism.

    From crash course socialism:

    Socialists view democracy under capitalism to be impossible. Most current-day systems are better labeled as Bourgeois Democracy, or democracy for the rich only, which socialists contrast with proletarian democracy. Under capitalism, political parties, representatives, infrastructure, and the media are controlled by capitalists, who place restrictions on the choices given to workers, limit their representative options to vetted capitalist puppets, and limit the scope of public debate to pro-capitalist views.

    Bourgeois democracies are in reality Capitalist Dictatorships, resulting in legislation favorable to the wealthy, regardless of the population’s actual preferences. The Princeton Study, conducted in the US in 2014, found that the preferences of the average US citizen exert a near-zero influence on legislation, making the US system of elections and campaigning little more than political theater. Multi-party, Parliamentary / representative democracy has proven to be the safest shell for capitalist rule, regardless of voting methods or differing political structures, for countries as diverse as Australia, Japan, Sweden, the UK, the US, South Korea, or Brazil.

    Ancient Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle more accurately defined Democracy as rule by the poor, and they considered states based on elections to be anti-democratic Aristocracies, since only the wealthy and ruling families have the resources to finance elections. They contrasted this with random selection / sortition, and citizen’s assemblies, as being the defining features of democracy, both of which are nonexistent in the countries listed above. Today, liberal / parliamentary “democracies” are dominated by wealthy candidates, and entrenched political families, with Capitalists standing above political power.

    This system of sham elections acts as a distracting theater piece, giving the illusion of democracy, whilst in reality it serves to platform capitalist views, make them appear more popular than they are, and manufacture consent for the system itself.

    Examples of restrictions include a media and news monopoly, 2, gerrymandering, long term limits with no way to recall unpopular representatives, restrictions crafted to disenfranchise poor and minority voters, bills directly crafted by lobbyists and bourgeois lawmakers, voter suppression, electoral fraud, unverifiable closed source electronic voting systems, capitalist campaign financing, low voter to representative ratios, inconvenient voting locations and times, and most importantantly, candidate stacking. Most elections are performed before we ever get to the polling booth. In short, political democracy can’t exist without economic democracy, and true democracy is only possible when workers control production.

    The impossibility of Capitalist democracy to make a transition to working-class democracy is best shown by the phrase: Capitalists will not allow you to vote away their wealth. Pacifism, and elections have never been an effective means of disenfranchising the ruling class.

    Communists propose building alternatives alongside of bourgeois democracy, with the goal of to replacing it with Proletarian democracy. Measures might include:

    • Replacement of bourgeois parliamentary bodies with broadly inclusive workers organizations, such as unions, councils, or syndicates.
    • Seizing land, productive facilities, and housing and putting them under democratic control.
    • Elimination of all debts, suppression of all private banks and stock markets.
    • Direct democracy in as many decisions as possible, often called cyber communism.
    • A democratically planned economy for human needs, with open participation.
    • Low-level workplace democracy.
    • Elimination of the standing army, and the substitution for it of armed workers.
    • An emphasis on universal education, health-care, child-care, care for the elderly, and human welfare, paid for socially.
    • Increase in productive technology.
    • Low levels of wealth and income inequality, often driven by a system of labor vouchers for compensation.
    • Experts (if any) elected by the working class through universal suffrage.
    • All representatives and officials (including police) are revocable at any time.
    • Public officials are paid worker’s wages.