Never, until he doesn’t obey Trump.

Gaetz was reportedly two days away from the House Ethics Committee releasing its report on his… activities with minors - which was going to be damning. Gaetz instead quits congress to nullify their jurisdiction, and Trump gets easy blackmail over his new AG.

Obviously having a crony run the Justice Department kills all of Trumps investigations, but it also lets him steer the department as he pleases.

Identity politics is over. No one wants it. Latinos and blacks don’t even want it, as witnessed by the fact that they moved to Trump in record numbers

He’s sooooo close and yet missed it by a mile. How are our political commentators/class this inept? It’s. The. Economy. Stupid. Identity politics are an issue to those voter blocs - BUT IT IS NOT THE ONLY ISSUE VOTERS CARE ABOUT.

You can’t go up the pyramid towards (identity) actualization without having a firm base - of economic and physical safety. A Latino/black/gay/etc person trying to put food on their family’s table and struggling to make ends meet, is going to view your party as deeply unserious if the only thing you’re offering them is representation and token* allyship. Those things are important, but not the start and end of your platform when reaching out to those voters.

One man one vote, but it better be for MY TEAM

Are you sure you believe in democracy that you defend with such righteousness?

Doesn’t help when the Democratic Party campaigns against more direct democracy tho. When the Republicans don’t want it, and the Democrats not only don’t counter-message, but instead join in on securing FPTP, it should be obvious who they’re actually looking out for.

It’s time to admit that the party leadership does not represent us, and either have a palace coup and kick them out, or make a new party.

Except that basically every angle except geopolitics, MIC profits, and AIPAC money, pointed towards curbing Israel/Bibi as a a good move. Even a free and independent Palestine has supermajority support - from a Nov-Oct poll of American Jewish voters:

Jewish voters… priorities include a major speech proposing a Palestinian state and diplomatic relations between Israel and Arab states (72 percent) and increasing humanitarian aid to Palestinians (71 percent). There is also significant support (66 percent) for sanctioning Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich for aiding violent settler attacks against Palestinians.

Emphasis mine. Review the data if you care, but the continuation of Bidens policies was a huge self own. Resolve the issue and Republicans/Russian messaging of ‘Genocide Joe’ falls flat.

We’ve finally found it - an ethical application for deepfake AI

I (hate and) understand that the reason is geopolitics and CENTCOM military power projection in the region, but it’s still bad politics to not commit to a pretense of trying.

Especially as NATO allies and economic partners are breaking from the US position on Palestine - and now the Saudis are talking no normalization with Israel without Palestinian statehood.

Last year the kingdom was in the process of negotiating a historic normalization agreement with Israel but recently said that was “off the table” without Palestinian statehood, a demand rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

JAGEX WOLNT READ THIS

Please stop. We don’t need a blue “stop the steal”, take this L and learn from it instead of boosting impossible conspiracies about Starlink and packet tampering

Obama won, with record turnout and vote count. Clinton won the popular vote in 2016, despite her severe unlikeability and controversial history.

While it is important to recognize the role that white supremacy and misogyny have, it has demonstrably not been a hard ceiling.

Perception is (unfortunately) reality. While the campaign website and position papers were solid - especially contrasted with Trump’s “concept of a plan” nonsense, if you don’t effectively communicate how those plans are going to impact voters positively, it isn’t going to help you.

Biden did in fact win the primary in 2024 before he dropped out - as the incumbent he massively benefited from recognition and campaign staffing, but he still had to run. Had he kept to his “one term president” statement, there would have been an open primary instead of Harris’s ascension.

Corporate news and engagement driven profit motive has poisoned democracy for a long time, yellow journalism dates to the 1800s. A mad dash to make a network of “liberal Joe Rogan podcasts” will be effective for direct messaging. But if your messaging is still a defense neoliberalism and globalization, you are going to keep losing. To someone for whom having an extra $50 in their pocket is a big deal, the centrist-Dem message is not worth considering. Paid maternity leave, free healthcare, childcare credits, food stamps, stable employment, worker protections, etc are way more important to working poor voters.

Either you are with us, or you are against us

Where have I heard that before? 🤔

Division only occurs as people follow their rational self interest - enforcing orthodoxy and silencing dissent to protect the party that failed us all, will only perpetuate their poor performance electorally. People who cannot afford the luxury of blind fealty will go somewhere else - even if that person is a charlatan grifter who never delivers. You cannot defeat populism with more elitism.

If you interpret an ally trying to help as an attack? Clearly I can’t help you brother

Correct, that’s my argument.

Economy/ Cost of living: Beyond pithy “I feel your pain” statements and a late-election focus on price gouging and new homebuyer credits, there was not much for the working poor.

• Nothing about corporate tax dodging or enforcing consumer’s rights - Lina Kahn at the FTC would have been an easy layup and she’s gotten results already
• Very shy on pro-union messaging Silent about healthcare costs (beyond in-home carers)

For someone pinched by inflation and/or predatory corporate pricing, being told “more of the last four year’s policy is coming, sorry we have no money - except for Israel” is a huge turnoff.

State of Democracy: I think the DNC/establishment Dems massively misread this issue as purely J6/dictator Trump - because ignoring the massive democratic disengagement and apathy means they don’t have to address why voters are unenthusiastic about electoral participation at most levels, and instead “it’s all the MAGAs fault” without questioning why the MAGA movement exists beyond “they’re deplorable”. Trump’s vote total basically flatlined from 2020, two different assassination attempts barely moved polling, he isn’t an unknown figure and voters at large do not like him. What he is however, is a break from “more of the same” no matter how damaging or foolish that may be for the world/country. In no order, here’s what Dems should target/message on:

• Actually running a primary
• Not cheating in those primaries
• Alternative voting like ranked choice
• Not platforming billionaires
• Evidence of the party coming down on the side of the worker, instead of corporate/moneyed interests during tough choices. The rail strike is a perfect example, but also the East Palestine spill
• Evidence of the party listening to voters concerns, like not running Biden again or heeding the ‘uncommitted’ movement.
• Not surrendering to the Republican narrative on the outrage of the day, and being the adults in the room that deliver results for voters instead of distractions. Clap back with “It’s weird to focus on that - we have an economy to solve.” instead of allowing them to controls the narrative

Not right enough?

Harris represented a “return to normal” which for the working poor pinched by inflation and rising cost of living, meant more slow misery. Abandoning the supposed foundation of the party whilst running against a supposed anti-establishment/disruptive candidate via an appeal to neocon decency was foolish. “Banking” on voting blocs they actively rejected was foolish.

The party needs to do better, and that starts with us holding them to account for dropping the bag and critically misreading/ignoring the situation, and demanding change.

You could, possibly, potentially, consider that criticism is coming from a direction that outflanks you on leftism? And that it’s frustrated at the constant party/DC Beltway elitism clutching to neoliberalism during democratic apathy and distrust, and not you?

I reject this beggar mentality that we can’t do better because of how the chessboard stands today - as if it has sat forever unchanged and immutable - Obama stands in stark contrast to that. Clinton (awful politicaly and personally toxic as she was) still won the popular vote against Trump. In 2016 when he lied and ran as an outsider, promising to “drain the swamp”.

And how effective was the Liz/Dick Cheney appeal to the suburbs, in the end? Given the growing demographics since 2020 Trump should not have effectively flatlined given a growing electorate - until there was depressed turnout he’s never actually had the popular vote.

2016:

• Trump - 62,984,828 / 46.1%

• Clinton - 65,853,514 / 48.2%

2020 Cycle with heightened turnout for all parties

• Biden - 81,283,501 / 51.3% [+ 15,429,987 vs 2016]

• Trump - 74,223,975 / 46.8% [+ 11,239,147 vs 2016]

2024:

• Trump - 74,644,300 / 50.5% [+ 420,325 vs 2020]

• Harris - 70,910,573 / 47.9% [- 10,372,928 vs 2020]

Any criticism of The Party immediately means they want Trump, “no it’s the voters who are wrong”

I vote in all the primaries - and it’s a sobering assessment that pulling “Uncommitted” in 2024 was my most enthusiastic electoral participation since 2008. I still voted for Dem harm reduction for the general - in a swing state thankyouverymuch - but look at where we are. 100% unified neo-fash/nativist government with Trump at the helm.

Why is the Democratic National Committee so afraid of either listening to, or allowing the electorate to participate?

Bruh if you wanna argue with yourself, go ahead and build the straw man already

The argument I’m making in reply to your “stop complaining” post (and that you seem to deliberately be ignoring) is that the DNC and/or establishment Democrats routinely silence internal dissent at any and all times. And that right now they still aren’t listening internally, and have demonstrated a commitment to gaslight voters that inflation isn’t real, and that voters shouldn’t be trusted/allowed to pick who they get to vote for.

Voters have told us in exit poll after exit poll, that their primary issues are economic uncertainty and cost of living, loss of faith in governance, and then immigration.

32% of voters nationwide said the economy mattered most in deciding how to vote in the presidential election. 11% said immigration, 14% abortion, 34% the state of democracy, 4% foreign policy.

A popular mandate. That’s literally the bar we’re talking about here, and I’m amazed to see people upset that others are pointing out how low it is.

But when they fake a primary, you don’t get a genuinely popular candidate. When they don’t even hold a primary, you never hear the other opinions in the electorate. Biden owns a lot of responsibility for this loss, but the leadership has their share too for trying to walk this over the line on diet republicanism in a quest to scrape by 270.