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democrats got this
(lemmy.blahaj.zone)
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this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2025
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Okay then, I repeat: what should they be doing?
Well they sure as fuck shouldn't be capitulating to the fascists
I would expect that someone who really thinks we're at the end of democracy would be (at the very least) breaking decorum to derail the fascism machine before it picks up steam, not censuring their own colleagues for loudly defending what they all presumably believe in.
"What else could they possibly be doing?!" they cry, as ICE agents are pushing legal permanent residents into black vans and flying them to a prison in El Salvador for exercising their 1st amendment rights.
So, ten Democrats in the House constitutes the WHOLE PARTY doing nothing?
And you still aren't making any actual proposals for what they should be doing.
Because what you're looking for is some kind of policy proposal or voting strategy to stop a fascist movement, and I'm telling you that we're beyond that.
Democrats should be physically impeding the dismantling of our institutions - that means disrupting the normal proceedings of congress and the legislature in order to raise the alarm, or at the very least not punishing the members of the party who are, and not breaking the line to side with the republicans when it actually matters (Schumer is the fucking minority leader, not some random spoiler).
When the strategy of the minority leader of the senate is to cooperate with the republicans in tearing apart the government in the hopes that voters blame them for a dip in the stock market 2 years from now and vote them out, it tells their constituents that they don't really believe we're witnessing the end of democracy. One of the top 2028 presidential contenders welcomed a white nationalist onto his podcast to talk about the 'real concerns' with transgender participation in sports. The DNC chair is out in public soliciting donations from "the good billionaires" while the base is setting records rallying against oligarchy.
The democratic party would rather collaborate with the reactionaries in the conservative party than recon with the growing populism in their own base, and that's the entire-fucking point.
I KNOW! Why don't they hold up stupid little signs? That'll help!
Still not saying what you want Democrats to do.
I'm not the person you were talking with, I'm someone random passing through the thread. I'm just so fucking sick of the republicans being the "make shit worse party" and the democrats being the "do nothing" party and never having fucking anything improve. I'm so fucking sick of voting for people who aren't going to help people. I'm sick of nothing being done. And, what I'm REALLY REALLY FUCKING SICK OF IS PEOPLE DEFENDING THEM DOING NOTHING TO HELP. I'm not a fucking politician, I'm a regular dickwad on the internet like anyone else, I don't know what fucking specific actions they should be taking, I don't know how to improve things, THAT'S WHAT WE FUCKING HAVE ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES FOR.
What makes it fucking worse. I donated to bernie in 2016. Since then, my contact info has been spread like an STD and I get all these fucking fundraising emails, texts, and calls, from these fucking democrat assholes. "Give me money so I can fix things :)" Like my FUCKING god we had a democrat president, and majority in the senate and house and still nothing was fucking done to improve things. For the love of GOD stop begging me for money so you can sit on your goddamn asses and do nothing.
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to blow up at you, I hope you can understand my fucking frustration.
No, I can't. Because you're factually incorrect. They're not "doing nothing." They're doing what they can as the minority in a majoritarian legislature - which isn't a whole goddamned lot, but blaming them for not being able to effectively stop a majority is not exactly their fault.
And in the 117th Congress, they poured billions into the public coffers to deal with the economic devastation during COVID, they enshrined marriage equality into law, they expanded hate crime law. They tried for more, but undivided opposition from the Republicans, the clear political motivation of the Supreme Court and the unreliability of their slime majority hindered them. Blaming the whole of the Democratic Party is just not warranted.
I love how, in the same thread, you credit Republican opposition with stopping the Democratic agenda and then claim that Democrats are powerless to do the same.
Why are they powerless?
***Because they're voting with Republicans and helping them steamroll us when they get a chance to withhold their votes and draw concessions or filibuster, which yes, is something they deserve full credit for doing as a party. ***
Because Republicans vote in lockstep but Democrats don't. It was not some commentary on the ontological natures of the two parties, it's just the reality of the two. Republican voters punish their politicians for not abasing themselves before Trump, Democratic voters reward candidates for breaking ranks.
I was under the impression that federal Republicans were voting in lockstep due to threats from Elon Musk to primary them if they don't. Possibly interpretable as extortion.
The point that (I think) they're trying to make is that the democrats always have N+1 politicians who will be the ratfuckers of the party; your Machin, Sinema, Lieberman, etc. No matter how the numbers work out, there always seems to be juuuuust enough ratfuckers in the party that the big legislations never get through without getting the back broken for capital.
So you propose...what?
I don't have to propose anything to point out the flaws in the party.
And I'm saying this as someone who generally votes for them. Stop treating every response as if we have to provide some grand solution when pointing out the shit they're doing wrong. I'm not a policy wonk, so I don't know the best path forward. But I can still recognize when a bed has been thoroughly shat.
I started this by asking what people's proposals for opposition were. You do have to provide one otherwise you're not answering the question.
That's all well and good for how it started, but we're way down the thread and conversations evolve. And I responded where I did for a reason
If I had a response on what to do, I would have responded to your question instead of trying to expand on another posters point.
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.
I did, however.
How in the flying fuck are you defending this bullshit adherence to fascism? Please it is beyond pathetic.
Who needs enemy's with friends like those 10....
Let me try it this way.
If those 10 can undo the actions of the rest, did they really do anything?
Exactly.
As incredibly frustrated as I am by ICE, when they’re operating with the efficiency and speed of burglars, even politicians can’t stop them. Judges have slowed them down - preventing deportation to outside prisons and requiring lawyer visitation.
I do believe that raising voices about the abductions, and making sure as many people as possible see the fear in the video from Rumeysa as she’s taken, makes a difference in broad opinion and that’s critical.
I have no forgiveness for the votes to censure Greene. For what it matters, it didn’t do much to him. On the CR; I can formulate a very long argument why allowing it through was a reasonable decision made in a no-win situation, not a capitulation. To be fair, I could MAKE the argument - not agree with it. That comment about judges and courts was a huge part of it.
I’d have more respect for your argument if you had something constructive to suggest, rather than simply asserting what you stand against. Destroying is much easier than building.
I've made several.
The truth is that the Democrats have plenty of options in at least slowing down the rapid growth, but dismiss them out-of-hand simply because they break decorum. Booker just did a 25 hour filibuster (which is awesome), but he wasn't even filibustering a bill. Democrats only seem to want to break decorum when the stakes are low enough not to piss off republican lawmakers, and that's a huge problem when those lawmakers DGAF about democrat reactions and break the law anyway.
This is the time to be raising the alarm and making noise (remember when libs were whining that 16 months before an election was 'not the time' to be protesting democrats?). I don't care about the occasional good thing the dems do in opposition to fascism, I care about all the things they're not doing. They're still acting as if there will still be elections, even though they spent the last 2 years screaming that there won't be any more if trump wins.
At some point they have to start behaving like they actually believe what they've been trying to convince the rest of us of.
They are not powerless. They just have to fight dirty, which they should damn well be willing to do after watching the government get plundered for the last three months.
Yes, all of these.
But I don't think they are unaware of these methods or unwilling to play dirty. I think that's just a cover. I'm convinced they simply don't want to do any of that because on the whole, their donors are either okay with the fascist agenda and/or believe they can get back in power by default because of Trump's fuckups. Thereby going back to business as usual without promising any significant concessions to their voters. E.g. none of that Medicare for all shit. After two years of the fascists people would be happy to lap up anything that looks even remotely better. See how happy Booker's performance made people. It's something and people will take it over nothing.
Filibuster what, exactly? Trump is doing all of this damage with executive orders.
He’s making wild power grabs by EO because they’re not being challenged - outside some judges blocking the most egregious overreaches.
Congress has the lion’s share of the government power - the purse string - if they choose to use it. Nothing moves or happens without money in America.
It’s even worse than that. Democrats forced a 15-day vote against Trump’s emergency executive order. The Republicans in Congress redefined the entire congressional calendar as a single day, just to avoid holding the vote. Every last Republican in Congress is complicit.
Source? I can’t find anything linking the legislative schedule to a snap change, just dry press releases of ‘here’s the planned calendar’ and official announcements.
https://www.congress.gov/119/bills/hres211/BILLS-119hres211eh.pdf
On average, between 4,000 and 5,000 bills are considered in Congress every session.
Democrats should filibuster every one that makes it to the floor until Trump is out of office. Zero wins.
True, but Republicans haven’t brought a bill for a Senate vote this term as far as I’m aware. Have you seen a bill vote yet?
7 bills have passed the Senate, one has been signed into law: Congress.gov search
(note: the filter doesn't include bills starting in the House, but there aren't any relevant ones)
Also, the "Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025" and "Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act" were "filibustered" (failed to reach cloture).
Nope, but I have seen the Democrats hand away their leverage and capitulate to fascists.
Hence point #1.
I would have liked them to push on how Trump and a bunch of other republicans are not eligible for office because of the insurrection. Go for blood. Refuse to acknowledge that that these people hold office.
They did. There were campaign ads with footage from Jan 6th. They repeatedly called Trump a traitor on the campaign trail.
You clearly didn't watch any of it, so did you just presume they never brought it up.
Not "supported" in the past tense. What should they be doing now?
Calling him a traitor on the campaign trail isn't the same as actually enforcing the law, at gunpoint if need be. Laws don't matter if they're not enforced. They should be physically removing the republicans from office.
The Supreme Court said they couldn't.
Let them enforce their decision, then.
Look, I don't really want a civil war or constitutional crisis, but under no circumstances should we have let the republicans proceed as they have.
But we did.
Now. What. Do. You. Want?
I have asked this question at least five times in under an hour and I have not gotten one answer.
I want republicans dead. That's not really practical but that's what I want. Every republican up against the wall. The big players can get a guillotine.
More practically? Probably impeachment proceedings, noncompliance, fillibuster, malicious compliance, push hard to the left and sell people on a future that's not climate collapse and wage slavery.