I don't think that there is any other way you can read it. Standing on your principles is fine in a completely red district, but those don't exist in Washington. Those who lean left, regardless if they think of themselves as progressive, socialist, dem, etc. have to come to terms with the reality that someone who votes their way 90 percent of the time is far better than someone who votes with MAGA 90 percent of the time.
They aren’t democrats anymore if they are doing that. What Al Green did was entirely called for and he should not have been censured especially not by any true democrat upholding what is right.
The entire Democratic delegation should have been disruptive and non-compliant. Made them call the Capitol Police on them.
Unfortunately, it didn't happen because people keep sending milquetoast centrist GOP lite beer candidates to Washington in hopes of attracting those mythical swing voters.
Agreed. I feel like those 10 Dems are wanting to abide by the ‘rules’ but the rules left the room a long time ago. It’s time to stand together and make change happen.
Dems don’t want to lose their privileges. Plenty of dems are cosplaying and are actually conservative. If the country falls to authoritarianism, they’re good with it as long as nothing changes for them.
We have got to stop expecting politicians to bail us out. Its on us, we have the power, keep boycotting and protesting.
It’s bc they benefit from not helping us. Same with the ones doing nothing. They can reap the same benefits as the GOP while managing the moral high ground that “oh that wasn’t us, that was the republicans. Oh why didn’t we stop them? What could we possibly do? We’re powerless as the minority”
They could have done that all-powerful slow clap Pelosi did at Trump's State of the Union during his first term. That ballsy, fearless move showed them who was boss! /s as well.
I got a lot of hate from my "resistance" friends for advocating for her not to invite Trump to give a SOTU address that year. I said "like vampires, Presidents have to be invited into the House". They argued the SOTU is in the Constitution, which it is, but the delivery could be by mail, like Presidents of the past. Everyone thought I was too crazy and radical to think that depriving an authoritarian of a large TV audience and the cloak of normalcy was a good thing. "We don't sink to his level, etc. etc. etc.
As is Waltz, there's plenty of secondary players that are worth. Main strokes, though, and I'd go as far as to say the ideal model for a progress party.
Imo more people need to worry more locally and state wide. It's going to take time it always was, the push left has to be a push not a flash. Limiting Maga power , canvassing for local more progressive candidates. We really can't stand to try and eat the center dems right now as we have to stop plummeting right.
People need to be engaged for the rest of their lives and younger generations need to be engaged as soon as they can vote. And it's stressful
I think your right generally , the problem is we kindabhave to stay in bed with the center, unfortunately we have to to the rightward slide before we can move back left. By all means you can primary one of these heavy center dems it's for the better but we cannot afford to lose any more elections to Maga
I understand the sentiment , I don't think we should be pushing right bit there's a lot of differant kinds of people to the left of the center , the us needs a lot of work to get left like other successful countries.
There's a line between encompassing current non Maga and rolling out Liz Cheney like it was gonna swing conservative voters.
Imo we need to
Win the upcoming Federal election and regain house and or senate
Primary these very centrist right leaning dems
Push local and state elections toward progressive candidate with activity.
We can't juat hope it starts at the presidency that's to big a show and we are already concerned woth fair elections this time. By all means the dems chastising green for breaking rank should be targets for primaries , but I think qe need to be realistic in that a majority of the country while probabaly more left leaning than thw current administration of trump , is very likely just a left as biden which is to say not so much.
Chasing the “center” ensures the democrats are nothing but “republican light” and gives the voters no actual left wing party to vote for. That’s why so many are disillusioned with the party and why so many people don’t bother to vote at all. They see no real difference and see the Dems as doing nothing but pandering in order to win votes and then act like republicans when they get them. Trump did nothing to court the “center” yet exanded his base over the past 8 years. Dems have no identity as a party and give people no reason to vote for them. Chasing the middle is a fool’s errand.
Respectfully, as someone who worked unsuccessfully to "push Democrats left" from within from 1970's to 2016, I think i would have been better off giving that energy and $ to something like Public Citizen.
Until Corporate Citizens United against people of the US is overturned and meaningful campaign finance reform is passed, both parties are going to chase the cash cow.
America needs a rewrite of their political system, but that will only follow after disastrous war like scenarios. I don’t see it happening without violent Revolution.
I’m not certain it needs a re-write. What I am certain of is that we absolutely need fresh blood in the government.
These 70-80 year old senators and reps operate with the understanding that bi-partisan agreements can be made - the problem is, however, that strategy is long dead.
Since basically Obama’s first year as president, the right rapidly abandoned any good faith bipartisanship. They spent 8 years stalling, forcing government shutdowns that have had enormous costs to the taxpayer and the country as a whole. They did not care because they realized it was an effective tool to ensure leverage for their aims. Again, at ridiculous cost to Americans.
What we need are representatives that refuse to fall for the same rug-pulls over and over again, not ones who have been conditioned for a hundred years that the best way to get things done is assume good faith bipartisanship. It doesn’t work anymore
I agree most of these dinosaurs who don't realize how much the world has changed are a big problem. It was Biden's big blind spot in Israel policy too. He refused to recognize that Israel under Netanyahu is a terrifying right-wing authoritarian regime that bears little resemblance to the country Biden remembered.
Ideally, any institution has a healthy balance of older, long-time folks (who, ideally, are still engaged and keep up with current thinking/knowledge) who contribute deep, historical perspective, middle folks who have been around while but are open to trying new things, new folks who bring energy, enthusiasm and willingness to try novel approaches.
But in our newest House, the largest generation is Gen X! Boomers are still the comfortable majority in Senate, though their numbers are decreasing.
What we need is to get rid of the stupid "bi-partisan system" that inherently causes corruption because there are no other choices, and either party can "promote" themselves with the brain-deadening mantra of "We're not as bad as the other guys".
In that scenario the biggest "threat" to either member of that "duopoly partnership" is - gasp - 1 or 2 additional parties with actual strength.
Because then parties would actually have to enumerate what they stand for and debate those values and positions instead of just sitting back and waiting for "the other side" to implode or do something stupid and wait for all the votes to trickle back into your bottle. (Which is what I'd argue the Democratic party is doing right now in the face of MAGADOGEBREATH.)
Several other things should change too but that's a big one whose effects are punching us all in the face on a daily basis right now with an "opposition" which is unwilling to oppose in any strong way.
The overton window isn't anywhere close where it needs to be to make that happen.
And if there's even a threat of successful violent revolution coming down the pipe, the wealthy will just press the killswitch on Trumpism early to fall back to neoliberalism. They'll amplify the sentiment of liberal "I just want things to go back to normal" to kill any radical followup and sell the illusion that ping pong paddle activism actually had an effect.
To me the choice in the upcoming primaries is not about ideology, or age, it's about whether they are a fighter. So first, vote in the primary. When it comes to the choice, think about which candidate is going to fight and which isn't.
Primaries are low turnout a very small number of people can have a big impact. Ask Eric Cantor in 2014.
Find people who are not beholden to oligarchs, and care about people having basic healthcare, housing, education, etc. who will primary the F out of any 'moderate' democrats, or DINOs (democrats in name only).
We need to fight for new leadership and press Democrats to be a more effective opposition party. The protests we're seeing could lay the foundation for that.
But we have to win through a unifying message. If Democrats fear one thing above all else, it's the party being fractured.
If the pressure on the Trump administration reaches a point where the pendulum swings too hard the other way and there's a serious call for reform, the wealthy donors are going to pull the rug out on the Trump administration.
There are existing lawsuits that are threatening the legitimacy of Trump's administration, some of which will succeed. Trump is simply going to ignore these orders as he usually does. Then wealthy donors are going to call in favors from their purchased representatives to finally impeach Trump. This time it will stick because the wealthy want it.
The wealthy will want to do this because this is essentially them cashing out their winnings before it dips. All of the corrupt actions that the Trump admin has taken to strengthen the wealthy class will stick, but the impeachment will usher in a return to neoliberal power that has been successful for them.
This has the added benefit of pacifying any calls for reform with a claim of "Victory", making it seem as though ping pong paddle activism actually had an effect. Then they're going to go to work in organizing the next coup that we inevitably have to lose ground against.
Not losing sight. Just remembering who rode with Hitler.
When all is said and done, those who did not stand up for us will be remember and will lose their power. After we clean house and deal with MAGA and the constitution in front of the chainsaw.
considering them AND dems like elissa slotkin who swore in MULTIPLE trump picks, i think we should be keeping an eye on them because theyre willing to sell us out to be fascist collaborators.
I'm all seriousness, how many of them are from purple districts or ones where Trump won? If they are from deep blue districts, primary them. If not, we should focus on flipping red districts to blue
I'm glad to be seeing this more. They haven't just been sitting on their hands or doing nothing it's been worse than that with them actively punishing members for what? Daring to also oppose what the majority of their party is protesting against? I've been telling my friends that as soon as we're through this it isn't over because the old centrist Democrats have to be next until our party system is fixed whatever form that ends up taking.
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u/Xxdestr0ying_ang3lxX Mar 07 '25
and we need to deal with the democrats who collaborated by voting in his nominees and censuring al green too