Ahh. “Why don’t these ingrates appreciate what they’re given?” cool, keep blaming voters. Your 1-2-E-Z electoral strategy has no issues with circular reasoning, yesss no reason to develop further
Their universal suffrage will keep ignoring your demands for loyalty. Voting is transactional. Give them what they asked for. Or don’t I guess…? The Whig party refused to change too, and look how they turned out
I feel you’re missing the point I’m making; Obama did have legislative victories yes. Did usher in an economic recovery from the precipice and a (relatively) speaking soft landing. But what fundamentally changed in healthcare? Especially for the low propensity and/or information voter? Nothing from their perspective, unfortunately. The reality delivered did not match the marketing, and though childish and petulant the reaction may be because of real issues like thin majorities or constitutional limits on power, that is the perception. And that is all that matters.
I don’t see Trump’s rise as being caused by his unique policy stances, white nativism, or better electoral strategy than the Democrats. He’s mediocre-to-awful, but has no institutional fealty or cogent ideology which is what makes him uniquely suited to the current populist vibe. Trump is a bomb that voters sent to blow up the established order in Washington, and in 2016 they got what they asked for. The palace coup that is MAGA, ate the Republican Party from the inside out, within a single four year cycle. Now you’re seeing the base souring on him as his second term has has been co-opted by capital and power structures, and is abandoning the ‘maverick outsider’ policies like “no new wars” or “I want to sell off the national parks to foreign nations”.
Confusing on the face of it no? How can someone vote for Barack twice, and then pull the lever for Trump? And the map is not clear either; counties in New England, the Rust Belt, southwest, and northeast. All over the country, red and blue states. So what happened?
- These 206 counties cast 7.5 million votes in 2016, which accounts for 5.5 percent of all votes cast in the election.
- Between 2012 and 2016, the Democratic popular vote margin declined by 2.1 million votes. Even though these 206 counties make up only 5 percent of the total votes cast, they accounted for 51 percent of that decline.
Low propensity voters, now disillusioned with politics. These are the people who got sold a vision of hope and change after the Great Recession in 2007-2008, and while yes things changed, not in a fundamental way. They still drive on crumbling roads to take their kids to the same underfunded schools. Still watch their taxes fund overseas wars, for nebulous ‘foreign policy’ reasons that aren’t clear. Still paying out the ass for their dialysis care. Watching standards of living regress around them, knowing their kids will be worse off regardless of a college degree.
You see, there’s a part 3 that you’re forgetting that needs to happen, otherwise another opportunist grifter can slide in with false promises and spam-abuse the populism cheat code:
- Deliver results for the people who voted for you - or don’t be in power when it goes bad
I’m not saying you have to forget what they did or advocated for, directly or indirectly, but ffs if someone is genuinely struggling with a belief/ideology, would you rather offer them a soft landing into a much more normal and moderate position, or that they get burned publicly and are lost forever to the echo chambers?
Do we ostracize the people who may be on the boundary of genuine evolutionary self-discovery, and exploit their moment of public vulnerability for what - smug hubris for the in group who were always on the right side? Or do you accept the Klansman’s contrition and disarm that hate via genuine dialogue, and maybe potentially you too might understand their base motivations that got hijacked by political grifters. And maybe in the future their problems aren’t ignored and don’t grow to the point where it becomes a political wedge issue…?
Or y’know don’t; farm those internet karma points. Post that hot take, then shy away from the follow up dialogue and comments. Block the people you mildly disagree with, whilst chiding everyone else’s echo chamber. Pontificate without praxis in friendly spaces. Downvote the dissenter, instead of dissecting their ideas. I know I’m guilty too and it’s hard to keep yourself in check - but it’s essential to keeping both yourself intellectually honest, and your arguments firmly based in reality.
Stay classy, telling a reporter to “kill yourself” for factually reporting on Connolly publicly announcing his cancer diagnosis.
Why does the party value fealty and seniority so implicitly? There’s a place for the ‘elder statesman’ voice to share institutional wisdom and tribal knowledge, but this man cannot seriously have had more vigor and energy to pour into leadership than someone under half his age…
As soon as Winston had dealt with each of the messages, he clipped his speakwritten corrections to the appropriate copy of “The Times’ and pushed them into the pneumatic tube. Then, with a movement which was as nearly as possible unconscious, he crumpled up the original message and any notes that he himself had made, and dropped them into the memory hole to be devoured by the flames…
This process of continuous alteration was applied not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound-tracks, cartoons, photographs—to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance.
Which is more disturbing; the fact that it’s increasingly hard to discern Kayfabe from grift? Or that the difference no longer matters?
It’s a shit spot to be in, as basically all of them work cases in federal court. If your lawyers are physically prevented entry to federal property because some orange buffoon bans the entire firm by the stroke of a pen, that law firm is completely impotent and unable to argue in federal cases, even those that don’t end up in a courtroom. Judges chambers, pre-trial motions, informal meetings, etc all are impossible or vastly more difficult.
It was a very targeted and deliberate move to put these firms in a lose:lose scenario - give an absurd amount of pro-bono work to your abuser, or wither and die as your clients are forced to move to another firm:
The orders threatened to bar attorneys from where they work, courthouses and federal agencies and cancel the contracts of law firm clients. For example, an aerospace company could lose its federal contracts if it stayed with the firm. A senior partner at one firm told us the president’s orders were, quote, “diabolical.” “Intended to bankrupt [us].”
I have worked professionally with Chinese vendors and suppliers for years, both pre and post COVID. China offers the whole range of manufacturing, not just cheap labor but high tech and precision devices too. You want cheap injection molded toys for Happy Meals? Done. Precision machine tools for CNC? Can do. Medical imaging devices? No problem. Mass assembly of automotive cable looms? Easy. If a business wants quality product from China they can do it.
And much like the classic European model where a textile or steel industry would collect in a valley for logistic/resource reasons and organically form an industrial ‘core’ the same is true in China, but with a centralized planned economy. Vocational schools feed local industry with skilled workers like engineers or tool and die makers, so that region experiences further and further specialization and conglomeration.
There’s no coherent or comparable manufacturing:educational alliance in the US, closest we have is ‘feeder schools’ that partner with individual industrial/scientific giants on an ad-hoc basis.
In any other presidential term, that can be a fair assessment only a few months in. The economy can be compared to a Panamax oil tanker - it moves with huge momentum and can’t be steered quickly.
But this tariffs nonsense detonated a bomb below the waterline. You may not be able to steer the ship quickly, but deliberate sabotage can absolutely cripple it and spread damage everywhere. Quarterly 401(k) statements are being sent out, plus it’s tax season, so people are very in touch with how this is impacting them and their money
So weird how, every time there’s criticism of the Democratic Party, some pearl clutcher brings out a cynical argument to divert attention from the train wreck that they persist in simping for.
I’m super tired of the Schrödinger’s Leftist argument - somehow insignificant enough to ignore on policy proposals, yet simultaneously crucial enough to be bullied into electoral compliance.
If a meme is giving you badfeels because your party keeps taking a rough shit each election whilst choking out grassroots challengers, maybe you should demand a better party instead of posting drive-by takes online?
Marco Rubio suicide watch has been sooo cathartic during this administration. The Zelenskyy blowup especially - after decades of waiting and maneuvering, deal brokering and sycophancy, he finally has the job where he can ‘outshine’ Kissinger… and the wave he’s riding is with these idiotic blowhards.
Absolutely. My best learning experiences in life - both collaborative like mentoring/educational setting, or competitive like sports - have been when I was massively outclassed. Because if you put aside your lizard-brain feelings of being less than or inferior and listen/observe, you can see how it’s working for them and understand what it is you are/aren’t doing or do/don’t know.
Observe. Ask. Understand. Decide… and Review.
But humility is understated. It doesn’t sell on TV, it doesn’t captivate a crowd or rally the masses. “I don’t have the answer, but let’s find out” is honest but doesn’t have the same pull as “the problem is clear, and I know the solution”
And all he had to do was shut up, and take credit for the federal apparatchik doing all the work for him with COVID. Blather at a press conference to his followers to stay home and ‘beat the China virus so America stays strong’ - and then play golf. Push on industry and suppliers to build ventilators, hospital capacity, and facilitate lockdowns and remote school/work.
Imagine if instead of nearly a million direct deaths, we had a mortality similar to Europe - better even as we bought our way to the front of the vaccine line. An actual ‘America first’ in recovery from COVID and the economic slowdown, instead of fumbling the ball so hard in his fourth year and making Biden president.
How anyone thought that he would be the right choice to manage any crisis, let alone economic woes is dumbfounding. The ‘smartest person’ in every room he enters, he’s incapable of anyone else to having the right answer.
Manchin glazing Trump at his 2024 inauguration speaks words, even without his problematic voting record on immigration, the border wall, or routinely blocking the Democratic agenda - to me runs beyond the ‘sensible silent majority’ centrism tropes, and veers to bedfellows of fascism:
I also extend my congratulations to [President Trump on his victory. He is our President, and I am committed to supporting him in moving this country forward…
As we reflect on this election, one lesson stands out clearly: The candidate who appeals to the sensible majority of Americans – the center – wins… In this 2024 election, Trump was again the candidate better able to connect with the concerns of the sensible majority – prioritizing the economy, securing our borders, and responding to the core needs of working Americans.
Hardly. How about letting ‘moderate’ reactionaries stay in your club?
Manchin wasn’t ejected from the caucus despite his numerous blocking votes and hostage holding, but they did cut off party fund disbursements . Never kicked out of the party, despite him leaning into Trump.
Sinema wasn’t ejected, but they did cut her off party funds after 2019. But never threw her out of the party either.
A Nazi sit down at a table with 10 others, and nobody leaves. How many Nazis are now sat at the table?
The Democrats should whip their members harder instead of giving members ‘outs’ that makes the party as whole look uncommitted - Pelosi managed to do it for years, even with those ‘pesky progressives’.
Use the billion dollars of DNC leverage and lean on them - just like Elon’s unlimited money has openly threatened to primary anyone “disloyal” on the right.
As a lurker who ends up rubbing shoulders with right wing culture spaces, I have to disagree. The right has heresy tests for their politicians, the left tests for their voters. However the left expects competency in government (because they actually believe in it) and will sacrifice ideals or policies, while the right can afford the luxury of rejecting good governance because they’re expressly transactional when it comes to politics.
Rightwing voters are willing to cut off their nose in spite and become single issue voters - and it works for them. Pro-life or you’re dead to them. Pro-gun or you’re dead to them. Non-Christian? Dead. They get the political rhetoric and efforts they demand, which has left them severely ripe for opportunist political grifters who say whatever gets them access power. Like the MAGAs who build nothing, but hand out bones to voting blocs. Abortion overturned. No new gun laws. Ten Commandments in school and state houses. “Hurting the right people”. Migrants deported. Culture wars.
Or in the more extreme examples, they’ll just outright co-opt the structures of power and governance to fit the voters whims. It’s why we have the political maximalist lobbying NRA of today, instead of the humbler sportsman’s advocacy group of yesteryear. Or Trump.
The Korean politicians literally put their lives on the line, and called the coup’s bluff by doing so. Posting on Twitter ‘man, Congress outta do something about that Doge’ when he is a Congressional leader while kicking the issue to the courts to ‘work it out’ is political theatre. Stand up, or step off Chuck.
If lawmakers don’t challenge DOGE, by passing new laws or going to court, they risk losing the powers Congress has held for two and a half centuries. Driesen and other legal experts said judges might consider the lack of congressional opposition as they decide cases on this question.
I said leadership, because yes the individual politicians do not have the ability to whip votes in Congress or create a cross-party platform. That Jeffries’, Schumer’s, and the DNC’s job. That’s who I’m mad at for refusing to recognize the new meta that Trump has tapped into - populist messaging.
People have been failed by late stage capitalism, and are mad about seeing their children have fewer chances in life and less hope, or that the lifestyle their parents were able to achieve is now a fantasy for many. They may not recognize the why, but they are pissed about it. Trump peddles easy to consume lies that offer no real solution to the problem, call him out and provide a real alternative, not more milquetoast centrism subservient to Wall Street. Voters want change and a new social contract. Become the party they want to vote for, instead of crafting districts to meet the DNC’s stance.
I enjoyed crypto when it was a decentralized asset that isn’t bound by monetary policy inherent in fiat shell games. Transfer fees were eh, but avoiding forex scalpers was dope.
Dumbasses who only see it as a financial instrument are what has ruined crypto. We literally had the potential for a new gold standard-esque inflationary hedge, and instead we got NFTs, rug pull scams, and a permanently bag-holding ‘investor’ class.