And we know the centrist consultants favored by D leadership say this b/c @elainegodfrey.bsky.social quoted one. Swing voters say “Dems don’t fight.” This consultant argues it’s not REALLY about fight, it’s abt something else!! That’s hooey. But the leadership likes it: it supports the status quo.
They won’t with the PedoCongress!That was the point of the Pedophile steal!I know Dems don’t like to hear it and I understand why but you can’t bury your head in the sand.That’s why he’s getting away with it.He yelled the steal until we couldn’t stand it anymore and we wouldn’t challenge his steal!
Joe Biden got a lot of stuff done for people and was dramatically unpopular, so maybe that's, um, not the issue?
I understand why Dems think that they shouldn’t fight. They think they can’t change the polls; can’t change people’s minds. It’s not totally unreasonable. It is hard to change public opinion! Especially over short timescales.
If we’re strategizing, you need to be seen in active opposition so they see you as an alternative when the assholes do what it takes to change the rubes’ minds. Run against ‘they’re all the same’
Sitting quietly in a corner did not get Trump elected. Being the brashest voice in the room did. Wavering voters are attracted to surety, self confidence. They won’t trust the mousy Dems who put their heads down quietly to work. If things are so dangerous, shouldn’t they be screaming from rooftops?
Exactly. And by not being angry, they are sending a clear message: “the opposition party thinks there is nothing to be angry about.” Why send that message?
Yes. I think the Benghazi hearings showed that Hillary Clinton’s approval could be brought down over months. That was Republicans fighting hard and using a full-court comms press. Dems have shied away from both. It’s easier for them to just do what they’ve always done. It requires no leadership.
There is also the fallacy that because The Resistance of 2017-2020 didn’t prevent Trump from winning four years after Biden refused to take extraordinary measures against Trump, therefore it failed. It helped defeat an incumbent president! For the second time in my entire lifetime!
The tactics of opposition aren’t those of exercising power.
🎯🎯🎯
h/t @senategabe.bsky.social for posting about this
And yes I totally agree with this. It’s been clear since January. Democratic leadership massively misreads their base. The D base is behind Dem leaders because they think D leaders are doing everything they possibly can to fight. But now they’re finding out the truth and are incredibly angry.
But my lord. If you are a US elected Democratic politician in 2025, and you cannot see that the American Republic is ending, and you have no ideas but the status quo, you are failing our nation. I understand where you’re coming from but do not agree. Lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way.
At this point, I can't understand where they're coming from. It's not possible to miss that we're being pushed into fascism. Unless they start behaving otherwise we'll have to assume top Dem leaders are ok with that. If so, you will be primaried.
The Republic is saveble but if the Dems don't fucking fight they're going to let Trump quietly walk us into a dictatorship. (and I mean: fight, as in gum up the gears of government, do everything in their power to hit his approval, file lawsuits, etc. none of this consultant shit.)
This is not true. The major issue is that Democratic leadership likes their job the way it is, know how to be successful in the current system, and are temperamentally not risk-takers. Don’t bring this u**party or “controlled whatever” or “both sides are the same” garbage. They’re not the same.
You are simply wrong here. The Democratic leadership's first priority is maintaining the status quo which includes protecting Republicans. This has been true for a long time.
Yes, plus leading Democrats are not democratic: they genuinely believe that we are uninterested in and incapable of self government. E.g., they consistently tack opposite of mass protests or how they pantomimed the second impeachment. They have the typical beliefs of their class.
> know how to be successful in the current system see: The Iron Law Of Institutions
It's 100% true. They like their job the way it is, because it's a free gravy train where they don't do anything while in power and engage in toothless outrage theater when out of power, while the legislation their corporate owners lobby both parties for gets passed. THATS their measure of success.
This is true. We see the same donors donating to both parties in significant amounts. We see the same consultants working with both parties to ensure they align on issues. Pretending this isn't happening is to ignore a major force in American politics.
Fixing any problem requires having a correct f*cking diagnosis first!!!!
The centrist consultant quoted in the article is specifically rebutting this assertion. He says “voters say they want fight, but they don’t want fight they really want deliverism.” No. But you can see why that’s appealing to those who want the status quo.
‘It would be wrong to do anything that might inconvenience some rich asshole’ - Guy whose income relies on sucking up to rich assholes
The article here sheds a lot of light on this
Yes, as we were saying: The choice is the Mamdani-Lander pro-democracy coalition or the billionaire-centrist-Musk-Cuomo status quo coalition. The choice is an easy choice
The James Carvilles & other consultants that are hired use dirty tactics to distort statistics in specific directions, like LANDLINE PHONE POLLS in this day & age. Once you realize who still even responds to landline polls, & BAM. There's the reason the politicians don't listen & are out of touch.
If Dems are in power we want deliverism (a godawful word), but if they are out we want resistance. Join the Resistance and tell your grandkids you did. (Which most of them can do right away!)
why does it have to be just one of those things? I hate that so much.
I’m willing to bet Dem consultants got us this far into fascism by saying the same thing for 40 years.
It is underappreciated that consultants, by the very nature of their profession, default to telling those who pay them what they want to hear. In this case that gets couples with the arrogance of "you smol folks don't know what you want but I do, even if it contradicts what you say to me repeatedly"
The entire Dem consultant class is Principal Skinner convincing himself yet again it’s the children who are mistaken, like Ozymandias they say look at my polling and give up all hope… But the polling demos are fubar and the questions are all leading…
Sadly Dems don't fight for what they delivered on. They aren't making the connection to why you have internet at your farm or that new bridge. They ran away from ACA and lost too. And CALL OUT by name GOP standing in way.
Hi, I'm calling to order a fight. Yes, make it delivery.
I’m one of those liberal but moderate democrat seniors completely frustrated by the leadership’s failure to fight the way the times demand. The old guard’s got to step back, bring out a myriad of fighters & speak with one voice. Crockett’s brash but she’s got serious credentials behind her.
That's a false dichotomy and ironic, since we just had a centrist Dem regime that didn't deliver. No CTC, family leave, broad student debt relief, minimum wage, expanded Medicare, and they squashed Bernie on M4A—that's why centrist deliverism isn't credible. But for Zohran, free buses etc. worked.
But this is nonsense.
Biden had the lowest unemployment in 50 years, reversed neoliberal policy on antitrust, huge labor renaissance. they did expand medicare, there was a huge amount of student debt relief.
Literally this bsky.app/profile/nata...
Being a status quo party is essentially being a reagan republican at this point, which is NOT a meaningful improvement over being a trumpanzee. Why is this so complicated?
They aren’t “controlled opposition” but the rest is absolutely true. They did a round of “the groups have too much influence” when that is demonstrably, empirically false. They state as fact “will alienate moderates they need to win” but Mamdani is proof you can win by getting new voters excited.
This. I don’t believe “both parties are the same” but I do believe that Leadership has decided to support this: “sometimes it gets to be our turn”. They don’t believe in anything and so they don’t fight for it.
They support policies that are positionally opposite to the ones Republicans support, but they don’t really believe in them. It’s clear from their actions.
Both are problems are true, and the one you're pointing out is in part a result of the one you're dismissing. Temperamentally risk-averse status quo enjoyers who will serve rather than inconvenience capital are precisely what moneyed donors want, so that's what we get.
Not dismissing! Here is my view on that bsky.app/profile/prot...
But they aren't successful on the current system
Actually Eric, it is true. Get a load of the Democratic establishment's reaction to Kennedy '84, or Brown '92, or Dean '04, or Sanders '16. It's no secret that Neoliberal Democrats loathe the progressive branch of their own party. I agree that both parties aren't the same, and this is not the (1/2)
Jesus christ what they did to mcgovern.
Exactly. The Democrats aren't exactly "controlled opposition", but their donor class is in no way shape or form aligned with the baseline street level democratic voter, and you can really see this on issues like Immigration, Student Loans, Palestine, and Education/Curriculum.
same as "controlled opposition" (Although that does happen, as we saw with Sinema/Manchin/Fetterman etc.), but the Democratic establishment spends an incredible amount of time and energy trashing progressives and their policies rather than incorporating leftist ideas into their strategy. (2/2)
I think it’s disingenuous to suggest that corporate & wealthy donors don’t sway the establishment Dems decisions. Getting money out of politics should be a TOP priority, but the leadership doesn’t do it because they know it helps them keep the status quo you speak of. It’s both/and.
I agree with most of your thread, but don't get what your issue is with this point. A lot of Dem "timidity" comes from a fear of upsetting their billionaire donors, who don't in fact want them to fight the things that keep them wealthy.
No this is very true. I don’t say there is NO DIFFERENCE between the parties, there definitely is, but current Democratic leadership is just as much in thrall to billionaire donors as Republicans are, and yes they do want to just keep rich people rich and happy
Yeah…no. Whom do you think helped to establish this “status quo”? It certainly wasn’t populist Democrats or Left-Wing Democrats. Neoliberal theology (because it’s more of a religion based on the false belief that every public problem has a private solution) IS the current system they’re protecting
I wouldn't called them controlled opposition, but I would call them domesticated opposition, not a conscious conspiracy but a system where rich donors and insiders select what up-and-comers to support or quash to keep the core party as a whole docile towards wealth.
That's what is happening with Mamdani; donors and insiders see someone who even begins to have teeth and quickly move to do everything in their power (including literally working with Trump in Cuomo's case) to cull him from the herd.
Democratic leadership very obviously does not want to tax the rich or piss off donors in any way. Their timidness is an issue, too, but let’s not ignore that the leadership and most Dems in Congress serve corporate interests more than the interests of their constituents.
If it’s not true, then why, pray tell, do Dem leaders refuse to get solidly behind higher taxes on the rich, which has been an *extremely* popular bipartisan issue with voters for decades?
No answer, eh?
Not sure what you’re disagreeing with here. The poster responding is using off putting hard left language but basically supporting your point?
He explained why he disagrees. Second paragraph.
ty
100%
The following part is the problem. Democratic leaders have been trying to to follow from the front since Reagan, always with the same results. Lead or get the fuck off the stage
The neoliberal establishment Democrats are the controlled opposition. They serve their donors, not their constituents. Their donors want the same thing Republicans donors want. Wealth and power. Progressive voices are marginalized and stifled. They are not interested in change.
This is the truth, with the exception of some social concessions. This isn’t some centralized orchestrated puppet. It’s corrupted by monied interests. Is Noam Chomsky paranoid? Is Naomi Klein stupid? If you see no truth in this than maybe you’ve been asleep since Bill Clinton’s administration.
Yes. Chomsky & Klein are fucking tools.
Please enlighten us with your worldview. Chomsky and Klein are two of the world’s most respected public intellectuals, with a lifetimes of receipts to back up their opinions. What YouTube influencer is responsible for yours?
If that were true, it would be trivial for progressives to get power: they would just have to start donating to political campaigns. But we see that even when we do, establishment Democrats don’t budge. The problem is which Democrats we have, and the solution is primaries.
I agree primaries are how we change the composition of the party. That doesn’t solve the corrosive influence of monied interests though. That’s a much larger battle.
Honestly at this point saving the status quo IS going scorched earth on MAGA
What do you want Ds to do that they are not doing, Ds have little to no power in the House, Senate and certainly not the WH. The SCOTUS is no help even though we making some headway in the lower courts. Tell us what you want Ds to do. Don’t say Ds need to fight because that doesn’t mean anything.
Addressed here bsky.app/profile/prot...
Dems keep building their entire identity around a mythical massive “Republican lite” when they are, themselves, a minority “Republican lite” that everyone despises. The Democratic Party needs to be abandoned and destroyed.
Or, Democratic "leadership" is completely unprepared and out of their depth, paralyzed by fear and confusion, and has watched helplessly as Trump and co have systematically dismantled our government, extorted our institutions, stolen our tax money, and destroyed our standing in the world.
They read their base just fine they just hold their base in contempt.
As do I.
It’s truly a mystery why the minority party is not holding hearings in houses they do not control.
It’s truly a mystery why the minority party is not holding hearings in houses they do not control.
Hearings are not the only way to communicate
It’s largely the only sustained way the corporate media will pay attention to your messaging without having a ready made propaganda super-networks gifted to you by billionaires. right wing influencer: “Dems suck shit and hate you” left wing influencer: “*Most* Dems suck shit and hate you”
Yeah this guy didn’t hear about Van Hollen I guess
The thing is, Republicans controlled the US House during the Benghazi hearings, whereas Democrats do not control either chamber now. Dems can't hold hearings that the majority party won't allow, & you know the GOP won't allow these. If the midterms go well, that could change, but not before.
Addressed here bsky.app/profile/prot...
Fair, but old ppl won't watch YT or TikTok videos, young ppl don't vote, & the MSM won't cover these unofficial shadow hearings. It's a hard problem to solve, & it would already be solved if it weren't.
Even the J6 hearings didn't get as much coverage as they deserved (they should've been covered like Watergate), & they were official, sanctioned, hearings, w subpoena powers.
Exactly
When you are talking about Dems doing something bad, name names. Primaries for 2026 are coming.
Republicans had an enormous infrastructure amplifying every attack on Hillary on tv and radio. With Trump it would be the opposite: a massive propaganda arm fighting and discrediting any new impeachment effort. I doubt the public would broadly support removing him from office.
Republicans had the majority of the House then. Democrats are in the minority now. They did impeach Trump twice when they had the majority. You're making NO sense whatsoever.
They’re the minority party
They think that if they just pass good laws and do right by the people, they’ll get the votes. But they passed a revolution in healthcare coverage and then saved the country from a pandemic and related economic collapse…and got rewarded w two terms of a guy bent on destroying the country.
Your whole argument is embarrassingly ignorant
Maybe it can be done faster. Who knows? We will never know unless they try.
Believing in stuff makes the fight easier
What they’re failing to realize is public opinion has already changed. Every Dem should face a primary challenger. Let the voters show “leadership” what they want. But “leadership” works against what voters want (current example is Mamdani).
IMO, the fear held by dem leadership is losing control and power. Resources and efforts spent on retention of power instead of stopping the Orbanization of our republic
also: "Dems won't fight" and "Dems don't deliver" are not mutually exclusive assessments -- they're essentially the same!
How are they going to deliver on anything if they don’t fight???
"it's not that we don't fight! we also don't deliver 🤡"
Respectfully…what is the point of any of this circle-jerking? In real life Pritzker is protecting runaway Texas Dems and Hochul is calling the same thing a legal insurrection. Van Hollen and others have successfully gotten kidnapping victims out of CECOT, and of course you have AOC and… it goes on
Dems could literally impeach Trump (which they’ve literally already done twice previously) and half this website would get so disregulated they’d be waiting with bated breath to learn from Politico blind items what to be mad about.
I too am confident that all things anyone says are just proxies for the opinions I already hold.
“People think the brand issue I have is I say too much dumb stuff online and should curse less,” Stiegler said, “but those are just proxies for saying I should let it fucking rip.”
🙄Same old Dem hit pieces. The media sucks.
No one remembers the relentless drum beating for every scandal in the first Trump administration? It worked! But Democrats took the opposite lesson: they fought too much, they should be quiet until a _really big_ scandal comes along. They themselves have been brainwashed by right-wing propaganda.
How convenient that the putatively best way to oppose right-wing extremists is doing nothing to oppose right-wing extremists. Obviously the democrats are being played. But you’re right that their non-strategy of becoming an empty suit also conveniently preserves the status quo in the party too
The party has become so ossified and cliquish that any dynamism is extinguished, and that includes showing any fight that isn’t scripted and party-approved. People may not know this because they haven’t tried to help the party but it’s heresy to suggest anything new or try to shake things up at all
I don’t really give a fuck about whatever “tax advantaged savings account” Amy klobuchar jerks off to. I *do* want to see Tom homan at the end of a rope. And I vote!
This consultant exhibits the exact kind of elitist paternalism that Ds need to cast out of the party
no closet too deep or too dark for the democratic consultant class to be locked in
“No rebuke is strong enough for me to retreat from my stance of doubling down on my priors”
consultants are courtiers and their priors are aligned accordingly
This also makes them think that "bi-partisanship" is still the answer (and what people want) since "that's the only way to get things done".
www.c-span.org/person/laksh...
The Split Ticket guys are data/polling analysts, not “consultants”. They put out articles on the internet as opposed to being hired by campaigns. And their political opinions are issued separately from their data work.
I mean, I think there's something to this, though. The fighting doesn't mean anything if there's no actual policy outcome. This is why no one has really cared about stall tactics in the Senate if nominees ultimately still get confirmed and bills ultimately still pass.
It's still a horrible look when any democrat votes for any trump nominee. Like the caucus should absolutely be unified on this. But they aren't because they're horrible
Democrats need to do both.
They actually seem to have turned “Dems should fight more” into “Dems should capitulate more” because that’s how you “get things done”
Crockett is such an odd example. She does fight and people love it.
