Like, yeah, they can ‘get away with’ ending soft power. They can ‘get away with’ extrajudicial killings. They’re operating off of pure machismo right now. They’re getting drunk on their vices. They’re stripping masks where masks wouldn’t be advised to be stripped. I feel like I understand now that Fascism is, in part, an expression of weakness. They wouldn’t be doing this unless they were scared. It’s too volatile. It feels both too late on a power-level and too early on a popular-level. Never mind the ticking time bomb that is AI data centers. It feels like, and I’m sure this is cope, there is a timer on their ability to run the circus much longer.
My first instinct here is to doubt myself, intellectual pessimism and all. In that vein, maybe this is just revolutionary optimism, but we’re at the point where it feels like there is a palpable anger brewing in the basement. I don’t know. Maybe Palantir works as an anti-communist panopticon and we just death spiral forever. I don’t want to lose hope.
We just saw a women get murdered while opposing them, and the entire world is condemning it while the Administration tries to spin the murderer as a hero, and the Christian Mom protester as a domestic terrorist who deserved to die. Now the whole world is angry at MAGA, including many on their own side.
That’s a pretty meaningful resistance. MAGA is slipping fast, and the fall is starting. One way or another, they are going to come out of the Midterms in bad shape. In fact, things are going so bad, they have so many retirements, that the House may actually flip BEFORE the Midterm. Then the Dems will control investigative committees with full subpoena and arrest powers. The Dems may not have done much during the Biden administration, but they did put Bannon and Ron Varo in prison for defying subpoenas.
Of course, Trump will pardon them, but that only strengthens the eventual court case that he was using his pardon power to tamper with witnesses and cover up his crimes, and then ALL of his pardons can be annulled by Congress as illegitimate criminal activities, and all those people - the Jan 6 Traitors, the ex-prez of Honduras, his criminal white collar conman buddies, etc., will all go back to prison.
We could make all that happen, and more, if we can force Congress to do their jobs this time around, and not expect them to wait for MAGA to have some sort of moral epiphany, which seems to have been the strategy until now.
Go for the football again, Charlie Brown. I’m sure Lucy will let you kick it this time.
What did the Democrats do during the Biden administration (or the Obama administration, for that matter) that permanently took away powers that the Republicans had been building, such that Trump couldn’t just reinstate them with the stroke of a pen upon election? Literally nothing. The country is backsliding from neoconservatism into fascism and there’s nothing that an aesthetic and media-savvy Democrat contingent will do about it.
The fact that you’ve been
politicallyelectorally active for 48 years and still haven’t figured out that Democrats are compromised defeatists and controlled opposition in the age of neoliberalism is not something to brag about, in fact it’s extremely embarrassing. Most intelligent progressives figure it out within a couple election cycles.The progressive activist wing is at most 20% of the Democratic Party, and they have none of the money, because the money comes from the tech/pharma/banking interests that the party ultimately represents. The Democrats as an oligarchic party will outlive you as a human, and they will possibly outlive America as we know it.
First of all, let’s forget the Biden administration. He could have become one of the top 10 presidents, but instead he’ll be ensconced in the bottom 10, among those who dithered as the nation moved toward Civil War. IF the Dems ever get back in power, they should blacklist every member of the Biden administration. You had your chance, and you blew it badly. You’re fired.
20% is a lot, and it is almost certainly going to grow after the Midterms. The Tea Party started controlling the Republican party with less than that, partially based on the fact that the rest of the party recognized that the Tea Party was the only growing sector of the party.
That’s the situation that the Progressives are in. They should start throwing their weight around, based on the fact that they are the only active sector of their party, and their influence is certain to grow in November.
Money isn’t an issue, the money will follow the power. Besides, Progressives are attracting a lot of support from Independent voters, and regular people. Bernie has been a powerhouse, while refusing corporate money, and relying primarily on small private donors.
The money issue only highlights the BIGGEST problem in our election system. Campaign Finance Reform is the issue from which literally EVERY other issue flows.
Before we can address corporate corruption in government, we need to prohibit ALL campaign contributions of any kind. Campaigns need to be fully financed by the Federal government, shortened to a 90 day campaign season (these people should be working the jobs we elected them to do, not gallivanting around the country pursuing their own ambitions), and tightly controlled, including campaign language and promises. Lying, propaganda, etc. will not be tolerated, and candidates can be cut off from Federal campaign funds, and kicked out of the race for violations.
Campaigning to represent American citizens is a serious matter, and the process should be held to an extraordinarily high standard. The system we have now filters out the best, and promotes the most outrageous, and we end up with idiots in charge, almost exclusively. I’m not that smart, but I’m pretty sure I’m smarter than any of the presidents that I’ve lived under for most of my life, and I’m POSITIVE I’m smarter than ANY of the Republicans. The only one who might have been smarter was Jimmy Carter.
I’d love to be on Jeopardy with Trump and GW Bush next to me.
I think you’re being delusionally optimistic about the ability to grow the progressive representation in the government. We got a boost to the DSA in the first Trump term, and the Squad, which maxed out at 9/435, that’s 2%. The Congressional Progressive Caucus went from 68 to 96 in two elections, and then likewise plateaued. The path to victory there is something seven (7) times that jump. I think less than 4% of the electorate are socialists, and I doubt as much as 25% are progressives. But let’s set that aside.
I agree with something synonymous to this on a core level: money pervades and corrupts everything. There’s just context that makes my structural analysis different.
Power follows money, money does not follow power quite as much. Economic power is the basis for political power, and always has been throughout the history of civilization.
America has always been an oligarchy. It inherited that orientation from its colonial precursor, its government was deliberately set up that way by the founders, and it has found ways to remain oligarchic, from the resistance to Reconstruction to the Red Scare to Dominion ballot machines and expanding primary seasons today. We may have had a brief few decades (from universal adult suffrage and the New Deal) where it got a little bit less oligarchic, then found ways to return.
The rich and powerful will never allow you to simply vote away their wealth and power. As soon as they see what you’re aiming to do, they will put more safeguards in against what you’re doing. This is why the largest upheavals in American history (Revolutionary War, Civil War) were largely two different elevated classes contesting for dominance.
There is no incentive for entrenched congresscritters to approve of campaign finance reform that actually works instead of making the whole thing more byzantine. You are trying to fight corporate interests by flinging yourself against a wall propped up by corporate interests and also the American political inertia. How do you expect you’ll make it happen by working within the existing system, with a large majority of voters who are centrist to reactionary, and who have vested interests in preserving the global functions of capitalism?
How in the world could you believe this? How have the scales not fallen from your eyes? What consequences were there for the targeted assassination of Michael Reinoehl by the DHS? Biden had four years to even do a rote investigation to make it look like the Dems care and they didn’t even bother to do that. The Democrats are not on your side and they never ever will be. They are on the side of the wealthy. ICE isn’t a problem for the wealthy.
The Dems learned a hard lesson from the fecklessness of the Biden Administration, and they know how furious the voters are at them. Right now we still have Jeffries and that cowardly, simpering little bitch Schmuck Schumer as leaders, but if Dems take over, they are unlikely to last.
IF the Midterms Elections happen, it is very likely to be a bloodbath, and a lot of new Dems are going to come into Congress, perhaps even replacing some of the weak Dems from the past. They will enter Congress with real political capital and power behind them, as well as the righteous indignation of the voters, and the Dems leadership will have to listen, or be replaced, which should happen anyway. These people have already proven they’re cowardly losers. Go sit down, and STFU.
The next time Democrats get power, they’d better use it against MAGA, and use it ruthlessly, or else. Right now, Revolution isn’t happening because we still think we have a chance under the Democrats, but if they fail again, and especially if they fail deliberately, then the Democratic Party will be in as much trouble with the American people as MAGA, and without any party to defend them, the American people will have no choice but to defend ourselves.
I would love to hear the actions or statements by the Democrats that led you to believe this. From where I sit, there has been no change, nothing even coming close to acknowledging their past grievous errors, and certainly not a single whisper of any plans to do anything about this shit. They support ICE, they support kidnapping Maduro and are just a little bit peeved they didn’t get to put their signatures on it, they support economic warfare against China and Russia, they like bombing Iran. They’re all just Republicans with a civility fetish.
Hard to respond when you are just making shit up:
That’s really dumb, and has no basis in reality. This part:
Is true, and we should keep economic pressure on them. Nothing wrong with that at all.
Moving on, this request:
A few months into MAGA 2.0, I saw an interview with Adam Schiff, who I generally respect. He’s an old school Democratic weakling, but he’s shown a bit of willingness to fight back (along with Raskin), so I want to encourage that inclination. Anyway, he was asked about the MAGA blitzkrieg of EOs and illegal actions, and he was very contrite in saying that they underestimated America 's willingness to handle “bold action,” and MAGA clearly demonstrated that it was possible. It was clear that HE, at least, had a change of heart, and I suspect he’s not alone. He knows they made mistakes, and the American voters are going to take it out on them at the polls. I doubt they will proceed with the same strategies, or they will get their asses kicked even worse the next time around.
And as I have said in other posts, it isn’t about what they’ve done in the past, which is worse than shameful, it’s been political malpractice, nearly to a criminal degree. It’s about the future, with new blood, like those we’ve seen come on over the last few years, like Frost, Slotkin, AOC, Smallwell, etc. Then there are the new rising stars like Kelly and Walz, who nobody thinks is going to back down.
The point is that there is every reason to believe that the incoming Democratic freshman Congressional Reps, and hopefully some Senators, too, will be Democratic Warriors. They wouldn’t make it out the primaries if they weren’t. This time around, people aren’t going to be trying to elect a “Good Democrat,” or vote against a bad candidate, they will be voting for Democratic Warriors who will aggressively take the fight to MAGAs and stand toe-to-toe with them. Those Old School Democrat Weenies who have fed us to the wolves, and manage to squeak out another term, better get with the program, or get stomped.
Oh, you’re an imperialist. No big surprise then that your analysis and beliefs are all complete fantasies.
Moving on, holy shit, you’re hilarious
So one single guy said doing more is possible, not that he will pursue it, and you bought that?
I’m not going to keep this up because you’re a simple rube. The Dems will do nothing and you will keep voting for them as they shed more and more of the mask until one day you’ll wake up and just be an outright fascist. Maybe you’ll be doing the roman salute at a DNC convention in ecstatic joy with all the other vote blue no matter who fascists. Either way, it’s clear you’re not willing to grapple with reality. I hope you have a terrible day, you sucker.
Imperialist? Because I recognize the perfectly normal competitive economic relationship between nations? You think competing economically with a country means we are Imperialists? Does that mean we shouldn’t pursue economic arrangements with Canada, Mexico, Europe, Japan, India, etc, because it would make us Imperialist? That sounds like a MAGA America First strategy. Seriously DUMB take.
And the “one single guy” was just the example I used, but it is by no means the only one (AOC, Crockett, Smallwell, Frost, Stefanik, Slotkin, etc.), but since I only offered one example that PROVES MY POINT, you think it allows you to move the goalposts, and once again disingenuously misconstrue my argument. Weak. Very weak.
Schiff isn’t just “one single guy,” he is an important member of Democratic Leadership, and a potential replacement for Jeffries. He is also respected by his colleagues AND voters. When he goes on Meet The Press, or some other Sunday morning political show, he isn’t just offering his own personal opinion, he is there on behalf of the Democratic leadership, and is speaking for the entire Democratic party. THAT is the reason that the show puts him on in the first place. They know he is speaking for the party.
You’re calling me a Rube, but you don’t understand the slightest thing about how politics is played, completely leaning on whatever political science nonsense you learned from some Community College professor, probably some local MAGA, while passing the bong with your equally genius pals.
And BTW, I will NEVER be defending the Democratic Party, at least the past party. I have been an Unafilliated Independent since I first registered to vote in 1977. I have never been a fan of the Democratic Party, and didn’t even vote for a Democrat until Gore in 2000 (I didn’t vote Republican, either).
My speculations are based on historical precedent, based on my own education and degrees in history, as well as closely observing politics since the 60s, watching the Vietnam War, and hoping it ended before I got drafted. Politics has been personal to me since before I was 10 years old, and I know what I’m talking about, not from some philosophy class and discussions with my stoned buddies, who know just enough to be dangerous, but from actually LIVING it.
And another BTW, I like how you attack on the “Imperialism” thing, but completely ignored the fact that I called you out for lying about Democrats approving of kidnapping Maduro, supporting ICE, and approving of the bombing of Iran, and you just let it go by, to go on the offense about Imperialism. Show me where Democrats have supported ICE, or wanted to “sign off” on the Maduro kidnapping (WTF?). Those are two of the dumbest takes I’ve ever heard. Really ridiculous assertions with absolutely no basis in fact. Hard cringe, Junior. You should be seriously embarrassed, and a person with the slightest self-awareness would delete their posts. But I doubt that’s you.
So get back to class, live a little life, and come back when you actually KNOW something real.
Is this what they call “copypasta material”?
Ooh, edgy Internet lingo. Groovy.
Sorry, can’t read :(
Not surprising. You should learn, and add Critical Thinking Skills as well.
The fierce Democratic Warriors like:
*Slotkin - A former CIA operative heavily funded by AIPAC who believes Israel ‘has a right to defend itself’
*Smallwell - sponsored legislation that made it illegal to boycott Israeli goods and businesses
*AOC - has voted twice, once in July after the genocide had been ongoing and in the spotlight, to keep funding the Iron Dome that allows Israel to conduct their heinous actions without fear of retaliation
I’ll give you Frost since he’s changed his views, but it sounds like you don’t really care if the US war machine keeps destroying the rest of the world, as long as they turn the dial down on their own citizens a little bit. In a just society, they would be in the same jail block as the current administration.
I’m concerned about the very real existential threat facing THIS country. Sorry about everywhere else, but our own house is on fire.
You’re a nazi
No, I’m not, you Putz. I’ve got Nazi Zombies on my doorstep trying to get in, I’m concentrating on my own country right now. Whoever commits to fully crushing and purging MAGA gets my vote. I don’t care what they think about anything else. When MAGA is handled, we can then afford to address the issues of other nations.
Sick of trolls trying to get us to take our eye off the ball.
Dawg what fucking world do you live on? Have you seen the Democratic leadership? Schumer was chumming it up with Rubio YESTERDAY. They are not going to hold anyone accountable.
I’m getting really sick of this attitude. You are speaking about the past Dem leadership, and I’m speaking about the future Dem leadership. They don’t have to continue on the same feckless path they’ve been on, especially if we FORCE them to act decisively.
If the Midterms happen, it’s going to be a bloodbath, and a LOT of new Democratic Warriors are going to enter Congress, carrying the righteous indignation of the voters.
Jeffries and Schmuckie aren’t likely to survive the leadership vote, and the next leaders will have to be willing to stand up to MAGA. This is what the people, and the incoming Congressional Warriors, are going to demand.
This is how the 90s Republicans spawned the Tea Party, which took over the party, then morphed into MAGA, and took over. The Dems are at the stage of creating their own Tea Party (Progressives) that can take control of the Democratic Party, and reconfigure it to reflect the true values of the Democratic VOTERS.
If Democrats manage to gain power again, they’d better hold people accountable, or we will hold them accountable. And weak citizens like you, trying to convince people that it’s already over, the Dems will never fight for us, we might as well roll over for whatever fate MAGA has in store for us, are as much a problem as MAGA. If you aren’t going to encourage people that there is still an enormous battle ahead of us to prepare for, and are going to just discourage people that it’s already lost, them YOU are as much a part of the problem as MAGA.
"And weak citizens like you, trying to convince people that it’s already over, the Dems will never fight for us, we might as well roll over for whatever fate MAGA has in store for us, are as much a problem as MAGA. "
This is incorrect. PorkrollPosadist’s pessimistic opinions do not make him as much as a problem as MAGA.
You are being emotional, and some of your assertions only have a basis in emotion and not rationality.
I encourage you to retract the insult.
Damn right I’m pissed off, and emotional about the loss of my nation to treasonous pedophile scum. I’m not apologizing for pointing out that discouraging action, without offering solutions, is encouraging that enemy. Anyone who isn’t angry about MAGAs vicious destruction of our country IS a disgusting weakling.
And your whiny call for politeness toward MAGA appeasers and collaborators makes YOU just as much of a MAGA appeaser. You’re probably one of those people who follows the insipid Michelle Obama Doctrine: “When they go low, we go high,” possibly the dumbest political statement I’ve ever heard, outside of EVERYTHING uttered by any MAGA. When they go low, you metaphorically kick them in the teeth, then stomp their heads.
Corrupt Traitors, racists, rapists, misogynists, ignoramuses, and PEDOPHILES deserve nothing less. They certainly do it to us every chance they get. They even manufacture opportunities to deliberately hurt us. Don’t they deserve the same treatment in return?
But you want to be polite, just like Chamberlain and the Nazis. That pathological need for Democrats to always be polite, even in the to face of withering corruption, is the reason that the MAGA Traitors are BACK in power. We locked them out once, and weaklings like you let them right back in, because it was so important to be polite to bullies. How is THAT strategy working out for you?
Retract my posts? No, I stand by every word.
Lol I’m not polite, I just don’t like you.
Pressuring the democrats to take action is somewhere between neutral impact to positive impact.
Pure electoralism will not help you. You need to understand that the guy you’re chewing out has a point.
The point of the 2 party system is to preserve capital and the interests of capital. The democrats have spent decades pretending to be unable to fight back.
Remember that it was Chuck Schumer and the democrats who decided to amplify Donald Trump in the Republican primary of the 2016 election.
Real action involves organizing with other people to create a force that can stand on it’s own legs and push back against the system.
Also fuck your country.
You’re getting sick of the truth is that you’re sick of.
I’ve seen this one before. In 2016-2018, the entire party, media, and generally any member of the public who could be described as vaguely progressive was in complete hysteria about the end of democracy. A massive national soul-searching was undertaken (within the boundaries of Liberalism). A massive pondering of “how did we get here?” Setting the absolute fixation on Russia aside, ideas of an epistemological crisis driven by disinformation campaigns on social media weren’t unfounded. It also raised deep questions about the health and wellbeing of democracy in the US. There were so many problems to tackle, from felony disenfranchisement, to voter roll purges, to gerrymandering, media consolidation, the asphyxiating torrent of corporate campaign finance. All of these things contribute to creating the perfect storm which is our shambolic electoral system. For a moment, it seemed like people (like, powerful people) were beginning to realize we had let this shit slip too far, and that deep reforms were necessary to save the republic.
I was THERE. I was a true believer. A patriotic liberal who had come to realize what a smart thing Obama did. Taking a trust-fall into the arms of the institutions, rather than expediently circumventing them to side-step the oncoming disaster. I trusted the system. I felt a personal responsibility to contribute. I went to demonstrations, contributed to electoral campaigns, and spent nearly every waking hour trying to spread the gospel on social media. I had people on r/Politics asking me to run for Congress.
The Trump regime enjoyed total impunity for two terribly long years. At last the Democrats had retaken the house. Now was the time for investigations, transparency, accountability, reform, impeachment. They poured water on that REALLY quick. Delayed for demured for nearly a year before finally impeaching Trump over some extremely contrived bullshit, rather than the fucking across-the-board fraud and corruption.
With the incoming administration in 2020, it was time to fix all of these holes. To do something, ANYTHING about the onslaught of corporate money in elections, the ubiquitous corruption, gerrymandering (2020 was a Census year, after all), ALL the fucking bullshit they use to turn our elections into a fucking joke. It was also a time of acute revolutionary crisis, with the George Floyd Uprising fighting back in steadfast resistance to the impunity of the police state.
The time was ripe for long overdue reforms. What we got instead was a shriveled warm body who was run for the explicit purpose of preventing that from happening. The Biden administration spent another four long years doing everything in its power to sharpen every implement of state violence, reforming absolutely nothing of substance, only to hand the keys right back over to Trump.
This year a number of new Democrats will be elected as freshmen representatives. Some of them might even be GOOD, but the incumbents aren’t going anywhere. They are the ones who control the party, control the committee assignments. They are the ones who will choose the leadership, and their decision will be driven by the same calculus that it always has been.
What gives you this impression? Congressional leadership is not a popular election. It is one of the first orders of business after swearing in a new Congress, when public pressure on the caucus is at its lowest. Schumer might leave just because he’s ancient and bad for the brand, but we’re not getting a radical. We’re getting somebody who can maintain the status quo, but do the messaging better.
Again, do you live under a rock? What do you think the Sanders campaigns in 2016 and 2020 were? They were EXACTLY this. They fucking crushed it. It turns out the bourgeoisie finds social democracy to be utterly repulsive, while they couldn’t care less about the personal power-play of a couple oil tycoons who want to “run America like a business.”
We’ve already run though the cycle of expecting the Democrats to hold people accountable, and then trying to hold the Democrats themselves accountable. There is NO accountability.
Ok. How many hours have you spent standing in Lafayette Square shouting at the White House in the pouring rain? How many times have you packed a tent and a sleeping bag and skipped going to party with your friends because something must be done, even though you know that something will change absolutely nothing. How many nights have you spent sleeping on the cold city concrete to maintain an encampment? I vote. I go to demonstrations. I used to write my representatives too, but I know my representatives well enough to know I am better off writing to my allies. I’ve been doing “my civic duty” for nearly two decades now. Long enough to know this is not going to cut it.
It IS over buddy, but don’t worry. It is not the end of the world. This sclerotic republic must die, so something new and beautiful can be born from the ashes.
PRP’s story demonstrates the (rueful) value of electoral work. People get in, do the work, see how the deck is stacked and how it plays out, move left.
Wishcasting better leadership isn’t going to do shit. What are you going to do to force them? Millions of people protested all across this country against police brutality and the Democrat response was to increase police funding and increase federal law enforcement budgets. THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT YOU OR WHAT YOU WANT.
You are that cowardly that you’ve already given up, and have now taken to try to talk others into giving up with you? Either you are MAGA, or just a coward. How pathetic and gross, just ew.
We have to make them care. They care about their jobs, so threaten to take them away, and mean it. They care about their legacy, so relentlessly call them out in social media. Go to their town halls and aggressively demand action. Dog their every action, call their offices on every vote, etc. If you have the ability, primary your feckless Democratic rep, even if you know you’ll lose. You’ll still get to publicly call them out on their abdication of their responsibilities. And you never know, sometimes primaries have surprises, like AOC kicking out the #4 guy in Congress, or Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle losing his primary while he was the highest ranking member of Congress in 2004. Crazy shit happens in elections all the time.
And it’s not just about our DC reps. MAGA has deliberately infiltrated every level of government, demanding stupid legislation on chemtrails and vaccines and other stupid flat-earth bullshit, and we need to mercilessly attack every MAGA in government.
We can force them, we just have to flex our Citizen muscles, and not just tell everyone to surrender because it’s already over. How fucking weak and cowardly is that?
TOWN HALLS! PHONE CALLS! Lmao
Your belief that those who doubt your tactics are giving up makes you a fascist in my view. If you think the only way forward is to believe in America, then I’m going to pave the future straight over you, and Trump too.
You are as delusional as MAGA. All you have is vague whiney complaints based on your lack of Critical Thinking Skills, and absolutely no solutions at all. Just scream about how everything is unfair, everybody is mean to you, and everybody is a big poopyhead.
Grow up and get in the real fight, and quit trying to pretend you’re doing something, by doing nothing.
Wow this one is mega scratched
MAGA troll.