If we go the electoral route, I think the main first focus needs to be on local elections in cities since those have the biggest proportion of progressive voters and less obstacles to fuck them over. In this case, probably the biggest problem aside from far-right conservatives is progress being inherently more divisive than keeping the status quo so winning over trust is difficult and Democratic voters are still biased toward voting for conservatives, as shown by the amount of people I’ve seen voting for conservative Democrats over progressives because they’re afraid that the progressives will lose elections, which then ironically leads us to people losing trust in Democrats because they don’t do shit and ignore problems that impact most people (or even worsen them). Competing with fascist candidates and their successful marketing would require very careful/well-coordinated and intense outreach to motivate people and also focusing primarily on offering solutions to domestic economic issues over stuff like LGBTQ and Palestine while simultaneously keeping strong stances on those issues as well (which is the opposite of what most Democrats are doing) and dodging attacks from the far right. Considering how badly the Democrats fucked up their reputation, I’m not sure if it would be better to run as Democrat or third party at this point. I do know that my local PSL chapter is interested in running candidates if they can find people who are interested in running and know how to navigate this sort of stuff, and PSL, while still being relatively obscure, has won a few local elections in the past.

Even with this there is still a long way to go, since even the most “progressive” parts of the country are still capitalist racist shitholes with most of the same problems as more conservative cities. Federal politics is extremely fucked and the people currently in power will do everything they can to prevent an actual leftist from peacefully gaining power, even moreso with Republicans controlling all branches of government. So it doesn’t address the immediate issue of Trump/Musk genociding Palestinians, deporting immigrants left and right and sending them to concentration camps in remote areas, stripping away LGBTQ rights, and privatizing public services while worsening the state of the economy while a third of the country cheers it on.

If they’re pushed away from harming property owned by the relatively well-off but not from committing genocide on actual people, then that’s on them

If these are the best ideas and people that the left has to offer we are never going to win this. Ugh.

Do you have any better ideas?

If you’re working paycheck to paycheck and bought a $37k vehicle you need to rethink your financial decisions

those 90% of Americans don’t own an expensive Tesla

I was also raised in a conservative family, and leftists vandalizing stuff didn’t stop me from arriving at socialism, at most it delayed it slightly since I wasn’t yet aware of what the driving factor was, which I ended up connecting later. Everything leftists do pisses off conservatives who have different motives, I don’t think vandalizing cars from fascists running our government is exceptionally different and I don’t think most people who are still developing a baseline political framework can afford them anyways so it doesn’t directly affect them.

The damage done to the Teslas costs insurance companies money. Insurance companies hate paying for stuff, so if this is sustained, insurance rates for Teslas will increase. That combined with dealing with the vandalism itself gives customers a reason not to use a Tesla, which means car dealerships and rentals will sell less, who will then purchase less ultimately losing Tesla money. People who buy expensive cars from fascists who are actively controlling our government aren’t innocent, and IMO the people vandalizing Teslas are doing more for society than the peaceful parades and book clubs are since it actually costs them something.

https://archive.ph/iKxfy