Like many other millennials I know, I grew up in a household of Democrat voters and followed suit, as a progressive sorta liberal. As a teenager during the Bush years, I began to see the failings of both political parties, but bought into Obama’s bold promises of change. After he came into office though, it quickly became apparent how vague those promises were and that they were never meant to be kept.
By his second term, I was ready for something else and voted accordingly, and when Trump came into office, I was horrified by what this meant for our Democracy, such that it is. Unfortunately, my political analysis fell short, and when Sanders really came onto the scene, I thought maybe this was something truly different from the vague promises of yesteryear (it wasn’t), but the Democrats united to defeat even his goals of modest reforms.
However, Sanders pulled me further to the left like a slingshot and got me to start reading, unlearning a lifetime of neoliberal capitalist propaganda, refining my political analysis, and coming to socialist conclusions. The final straw against “lesser evilism” for me came in the wake of October 7th and witnessing the horrible violence perpetrated against Palestinians with the full support of our government. We had voted in the “lesser evil” as a repudiation of Trumpism, but if that lesser evil was fully committed to genocide, could we truly call it a lesser evil at all?
Following this, I realized that being a vocal supporter of socialism wasn’t enough to call myself a socialist. Being a socialist is about organizing with other socialists for a common cause, so after spending a winter processing what we were seeing from Gaza daily on social media—but was suspiciously absent from the mainstream news—I was ready to find my people, and I found the ISG, who are ready to fight for genuine worker power and agitate for overthrowing this morally bankrupt system in favor of real change!
Independent Socialist Group 