Yes, I appreciate that Bernie moved me further left than I was already. Although, if I had more political consciousness before Bernie arrived on the scene, that shift would have happened irregardless. I dropped out of politics for about a good decade (after being disillusioned with Obama’s first term) and he got me back thinking that a real progressive had a shot.
But after the last ten years, it’s quite evident that the progressive wing of the Dems are merely a pressure release valve, same that the Dems are for the Republicans. It just keeps people endlessly mired within the constraints of a system that will not move leftward no matter the consequences of not doing so.
After reading enough Marxist literature, it’s clear Marx was right, and that only a revolution ending in the dismantling of the current system and installation of a worker’s controlled one, will create any meaningful and lasting change for the working classes.
A fantastic book covering the American political system, is “Democracy Inc” by Sheldon S. Wolin, which wrote about how the system is constructed to give the semblance of democratic participation but, is in fact, what he terms a “managed democracy”, in which the levers of the democratic processes are manipulated to a minute degree. He wrote this book in ~2006, I believe, which just goes to show how long this horse and pony show has been going on for (probably FAR longer).