Cowbee

Are you asking how do we organize for revolution? How do we conduct it? How do we know it's fairly inevitable, and needs to be prepared for? All have different readings I can recommend, and questions I can answer.

One thing I do think is just fantasy is the idea that if "enough people" voted we could have all the things you listed. People don't pick policy, politicians do, and the politicians we are allowed to pick from are intentionally limited to pro-status quo individuals.

Secondly, you make a critical misunderstanding of fascism. Fascism is Capitalism in decay, it can't be voted out. It isn't an ideology to adopt, but something that rises with deterioration of Capitalism and Imperialism. I recommend reading at least the first chapter of Blackshirts and Reds to truly understand what fascism is, who it serves, why it rises, and how to banish it forever.

I realize getting people to participate is the harder problem than just saying an ideology will solve everything, but that’s the world we live in.

I am not saying "an ideology will solve everything." I am saying that voting is ineffective at protecting working class interests, and explaining why that is. I am additionally telling you what is necessary instead of hoping voting will fix anything, as we just saw, voting failed. I am sorry, I know that voting is easier than building up Dual Power, organizing, reading theory, correctly analyzing the working class movements, educating the masses, and more, but I maintain that this is the path forward.

Any realistic plan for revolution must at least include voting as long as voting is still an effective part of progress.

See, voting evidently isn't an effective part of progress, which is why I recommended the two most famous and revered works on the question of reform or revolution. Participation in bourgeois elections is good, but won't be anywhere close to the main path of success, it is a supplemental part of the whole.

"Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement."

• Vladimir Lenin, What is to be Done?

I am sorry, but this is not going to happen. Liberals are found in cities because of class interests, not genetic opinions. People's ideas are driven by their material conditions. But, hope is not lost. The Dems are, but they were never a path out, they represent their donors above all else.

Revolution is necessary. Voting can't get us there. I recommend reading Reform or Revolution and The State and Revolution for why reform is pretty much impossible and revolution is necessary.

I can offer a good intro list to Marxism if you'd like, or answer any questions you may have.

Exactly. In bourgeois "democracy" political parties serve the wealthy Capitalists and Imperialists that can afford to buy them. Socialism is the only path to actual democracy.

America's left is what you describe as the far-left, but the far-left is much the same as it is everywhere else, Marxists and Anarchists. The far-left is relatively consistent internationally because its built on centuries of theory and practice.

Both are revolutionary parties, they have the same stance Marx and Engels did:

that workers’ candidates are nominated everywhere in opposition to bourgeois-democratic candidates. As far as possible they should be League members and their election should be pursued by all possible means. Even where there is no prospect of achieving their election the workers must put up their own candidates to preserve their independence, to gauge their own strength and to bring their revolutionary position and party standpoint to public attention. They must not be led astray by the empty phrases of the democrats, who will maintain that the workers’ candidates will split the democratic party and offer the forces of reaction the chance of victory. All such talk means, in the final analysis, that the proletariat is to be swindled.

Straight from Marx and Engels themselves.

The US' First Past the Post climate will never leave without struggle and resistance, both parties cement it because they benefit from it. Revolution is necessary. Voting can't get us there. I recommend reading Reform or Revolution and The State and Revolution for why reform is pretty much impossible and revolution is necessary.

Confront reality, please. Harris couldn't replicate past voter turnout because she made no wide, progressive promises like Medicare for All, which the working class loves.

Why do different elections have different vote totals? Why is non-voting a significant bloc?

That's not how Capitalism or fascism works. Capitalism is in constant decay, this decay leads to sharpening contradictions and fascism is deployed to protect Capitalist interests. Bernie would not end Capitalism, he may only slow it's rate of descent, not stop it or reverse it. A great work on fascism is Blackshirts and Reds. I can provide a longer Marxism intro reading list if you'd like, but Blackshirts is a great start.

It's not that liberal democracies always slide, specifically, it's that Capitalist states always slide, and this is heightened by being in the Global North. Global North countries brutally explioit Global South countries via Imperialism, by relying on vastly under-paid labor and selling it in the Global North for higher prices.

Fascism is Capitalism in decay, the violent immune system employed by the Capitalist class. A great work on fascism is Blackshirts and Reds. I can provide a longer Marxism intro reading list if you'd like, but Blackshirts is a great start.

I also recommend Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, and the famous Yellow Parenti Speech (a small excerpt here.

Fascism is Capitalism in decay, the violent immune system employed by the Capitalist class. A great work on fascism is Blackshirts and Reds. I can provide a longer Marxism intro reading list if you'd like, but Blackshirts is a great start.

The two biggest ways are to get organized, like joining The Party for Socialism and Liberation or Freedom Road Socialist Organization, or an org more local to you or better aligns with your views. The other biggest part is reading theory! A good primer is Blackshirts and Reds. It will help contextualize what fascism is, what causes it, and how to stop it. I can offer a good introductory reading list regarding Marxism if you'd like, but this is a good starting point.

I made a longer, 6 point list of what is to be done, but these are the most important bullet points.

Revolutionary optimisim is one of the key aspects of being a Marxist.

Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle.

-Vladimir Lenin