Part of what I see with 50501/Hands Off protests is that they have a theme of “defending the Constitution” from Trump. This is really a somewhat conservative position and doesn’t have much historical rigor to it.

Prof. Aziz Rana of Boston College Law School is having a moment on Jacobin Radio right now. His basic thesis is that the Constitutional order is so deeply antidemocratic that the left argued with itself and the liberals over whether to focus efforts on challenging it in the early 20th Century. In the broad sweep of history since then, Americans have come to view the Constitution as a sacred text, but in fact, that order is part of what gives the Republicans and the far right their advantages despite losing the popular vote.

The shorter interview: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#S250424 (April 24, 2025)
The 4-part long interview: https://thedigradio.com/archive/ (see the Aziz Rana episodes starting in April 2025) - Part 4 isn’t up yet.

So why should we venerate the Constitution, when it holds us back from real, direct democracy? I think part of what our liberal friends and family hold onto is a trust in the Constitution and the framers. They weren’t geniuses, they were landowners worried about kings taking their property. Use these interviews, or Prof. Rana’s book, to handle those arguments.

    • @[email protected]
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      5 months ago

      Fun fact: gaza lacked clean food and water for almost a year now. Its old news and was allowed under Biden.

      You really don’t know?

      There is 0 food coming in. The aid agencies inside have just run out. I’m not talking about “clean food.” I’m talking about mass starvation.

      People can’t survive for a year with 0 food. That’s what I am talking about. There was food coming in before, including with that pitiful effort to build a pier to get the US military directly involved in providing it. It was terrible, but whatever, it was something. Now it’s 0.

      Finally harris lost in no small part by demonstrating she’d throw any minority group under the bus and exactly how out of touch she was on working class economics.

      No, Harris lost because masterpieces of propaganda convinced people that she would be worse for the working class and Trump would finally set things right. Her actual positions had literally nothing at all to do with it, and Gaza was a tiny sideshow to it that was only occasionally deployed to people on the left who it would influence.

      They actually did opposite propaganda sometimes, depending on who was being targeted: To mainstream Americans, she was a friend to “terrorists” who was on Palestine’s side, and that’s why we can’t vote for her, and to leftists, she was a friend to Israel who was responsible for 100% of Biden’s Gaza policy, and that’s why we can’t vote for her.

      And people bought it. Like you! Good job. And look at how we’re fucked now.

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        5 months ago

        Lol im aware. They were fucked either way. Bombs or food. Pick one. Just happens to be bombs are more expensive. And biden let Israel murder aid workers and block food and aid literally until a month before November election when he wrote a strongly worded letter. Ooh ahhh so moral, 😍 so principled.

        So yes no material difference the only difference now is the hostages are all dead or returned so no point in keeping up the farce of troops ‘fighting to retrieve them’ which you know got most of them killed. There is now no need to waste bombs and troop efforts. So they stopped that and just rely on starving them to death.

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              25 months ago

              I don’t even want to make a joke about let’s talk in a month, I want to be able to point to the material difference in Gaza. It’s too horrifying to make light of or want to connect in any way with internet debate points. But yes, there is absolutely a material difference. Things were already hell on earth, and now they’ve gotten even worse. Beyond the slaughter that was already happening. Simply because you don’t see it doesn’t in any way make it go away.

              I think I’m done talking now, and it sounds like you were already, I think we can go our separate ways.