This is a guest post by Bitcoin Lefty.
To understand Bitcoin’s relationship with Democrats, we must first understand Democrats themselves. More specifically, we must try to understand the schism within the Democratic party between progressive Democrats and non-progressive Democrats.
Historical political background
American political parties and the individuals that make them up have always been a fluctuating, ever-evolving variable. Americans have always flip-flopped political parties and identities over generations. For example, the Civil War fought between Democrats and Republicans had the Democrats dying over the Confederate flag; however, in the modern day those who wave the Confederate flag identify as Republicans. Politics makes for strange bedfellows. Partisan politics is fluid—a partisan melting pot.
Americans flip-flop regularly over time, so at some point you must ask yourself: are you loyal to a word, a political identity such as ‘Democrat’ or ‘Republican,’ or are you loyal to a specific idea of what you thought or hoped that word represented to you (ex: the Confederate flag flip-flop).
What does ‘Democrat’ mean to you?
So today, what does the word Democrat mean to you? A member of the party? A voter? An elected representative? A donor? Surely all those are Democrats, right? There are donors who donate to both parties. Are they still your allies? There are representatives who abandon the party or their campaign promises after being elected (Manchin, Sinema etc.). Even Trump was officially a Democrat until he switched parties right before being elected. Ask yourself, “What is happening?” Is party loyalty a real thing, was it ever real? Where and why do your political loyalties lie?
The Schism
This is where we begin to understand the progressive Democrat schism. Many Americans felt betrayed due to the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) in 2009. Foreclosures, homelessness, and unemployment soared and Americans did as they have always done since the founding of the country; they protested. Coordinated protests in multiple cities became known as Occupy Wall Street (OWS) which persisted when the Obama administration was judged to have done far less than was promised, particularly for Black Americans.
On to the scene came the Bernie Sanders (and later, AOC) iteration of the progressive movement within the Democratic party. They attempted to fill the gap left by seemingly-progressive Obama’s empty “hope & change” campaign promises. Once again, progressive Democrats felt betrayed by Bernie and became even more disaffected by a broken political system. So comes along the first Trump term and it is met with minimal resistance by the DNC and institutions. And once again, Americans turn to other political means such as more protests during the Trump reign. Demands to defund the police by social justice protestors at the end of Trump’s first term echoed the OWS protests a decade earlier calling to defund the bankers who caused the GFC. The 2020 & OWS protests shared overlapping participants, motives, and goals.
Then Trump loses to Biden, the protests are quelled, but the Democratic party once again fails to establish a foothold with its progressive wing. This leads to yet another embarrassing defeat to Trump when he becomes only the second nonconsecutive re-elected president in US history. An embarrassing defeat for the Democrats once again.
Where do we go from here and how does this relate to Bitcoin?
The 2-party system has a stranglehold on US politics. Third parties such as the Greens and Libertarians are barred from debates, federal funding, and even ballot access. Challengers even from within their own party are forced to jump through hoops, and bow to party leadership rather than fight for immediate change and progress. The definition of insanity is repeating the same thing and expecting a different result. If progressive change is going to happen, it must happen another way. Progressive economic change will not come from the Democratic establishment. Progressive economic change has already begun with Bitcoin adoption by progressives themselves.
TPB Community
There is a community of progressive Bitcoiners who are here for you. In our experience, Bitcoin has helped us combat some of the economic factors that contributed to Americans becoming more poor and politically disaffected. Bitcoin was born as a result of OWS. Bitcoin’s founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, talks about the distrust in banks that people rightly feel after the GFC, thus leading to the creation of Bitcoin, and as evidenced by his well-known timestamp message in Bitcoin’s genesis block. OWS protestors who have adopted Bitcoin as a protest against an economy that betrayed them have seen their wealth grow incredibly. Repeat this for the 2020 protests where social justice protestors demanded defunding of corrupt and racist policing and how the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations all funded crackdowns of the protests. Trump also doubled the debt and inflation during Covid leading to a K-shaped economic recovery just in time for Biden to take over. The rich continued to get richer and the poor and middle class unsurprisingly continued to see their wealth and options decline. The K-shaped economy continues under each political party. The president wont change that. Economic change is being achieved now through Bitcoin and in the progressive Bitcoin community!
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Progressive Bitcoiner, Inc.
