My first instinct is to pose a question. One I've asked many times over the past several years, but without ever receiving an accurate answer:
Can anyone name ANY legislation...
1) Either proposed or supported by the GOP
2) Intended to assist middle-income, working-class Americans
3) Anytime in the past 75 years?
Today's vote says that the lesson learned from the only correct answer I know of was NOT learned. The GOP did not propose the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), but neither did their fight it tooth and nail, as is usually the case when anyone other than the 1% is to benefit. But obviously, though the GOP once valued the votes of Americans with great need for affordable / provided health care, today we learned how much we matter in America's new vision.
Agreed, Alexander, but we're on our own, the DNC, DCCC, and DSCC are too busy filling their bank accounts to be bothered with such trivia as winning elections. We will have to seek out viable candidates, help them raise sufficient funds to get on the ballot, then volunteers to spread the message and support for that candidate. We can do it, it's been done before. Most of our Representatives have around 750, 000 constituents, but most of them live with other family or friends. Contact your local Democratic Party officers - let them know you won't support the DNC, but you are willing to help YOUR candidates get elected, there are also groups like MoveOn, and some climate groups, I'm sure there are several on Substack too
Schumer stepping down as minority leader would be a good first step. There is no effective strategy nor fight as long as he remains at the helm in the senate. It’s madness. He needs to go.
Democrats continue to be haunted by that sarcastic comment: "They snatch failure from the jaws of victory." Vicious, politically motivated attacks on Democrats by MAGA loyalists certainly should alarm Republicans who still believe in the Constitution and the oath they took to protect it (and that includes Donald Trump). They have a small window to get their act together before the bright young lights in the Democratic Party steamroller over them. Dems have some serious talent in their ranks. In the Senate eloquent speakers like Elizabeth Warren ("Nevertheless She Persisted" who champions Americans trying to stay financially afloat), Bernie Sanders, who many say could have defeated Trump in 2016, but was undercut by his own party, Cory Booker (25 dramatic hours on the Senate floor), Hakeem Jeffries, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Tammy Baldwin and many others who can close ranks and produce a Blue Wave in 2026 if given the full backing of their party. Independents are growing in number, leery of both parties, but likely to lean Democratic because of the continuing violence and fascist tendencies taking over the GOP (no longer so grand). No more squabbling among yourselves, Dems. Unite and let the Trumpublicans drown in their own corrupt swamp.
The only working concept I’ve heard out of this Administration that had any political relevance, was Vivek’s discussion of mediocrity versus excellence.
That is a doomed position to champion in an Administration following the cult of personality, in which even mediocrity is beyond their grasp. Even Elon sees they are wrong-way drivers.
The “Deep State” that they rightfully criticized is a bureaucracy of pragmatism and survival, the Iron Cage that requires all its energy to tread water and resolve the Crisis of the Day. That has always been a Republican talking point, which they only oppose when there is a Democratic administration.
Ron Reagan pounded Carter because the US was due to have a TRILLION DOLLAR DEBT. Now, a trillion here, a trillion there, starts to add up to real money.
The Administration can’t make any headway as it is itself the very definition of mediocrity. It expends all its energy trying just to stay in place, and fails at that.
The Democratic Party would be the apotheosis of mediocrity today, had Trump not snatched the ring of incompetence from the Democrats. They are still powerful rivals.
Trump burns through political capital and goodwill with almost nothing to show for it. The Budget thing - really, a reconciliation act without future goals - may have hit its high-water mark, and could fail in committee.
Trump must call for sacrifice and trust from the Congress to craft a final bill. He has just sacrificed several Senators to get it through the Senate. Giving in, to him, is weakness, is for losers. Murkowski, Hawley, and Ernst received the coup de main in repayment for their support - the end of their political careers. Now it is time for others to do the same. They won’t.
He always comes up a yard short on fourth down. The question has been, as usual, quid pro quo; what do you get from it? Murkowski did it for a big side of pork for Alaska, but the Republicans screwed it up, and she gave her vote for nothing gained.
You need trust to pass this, and the jackals are wary.
We are looking at a few years of suffering. Thom Tillis jumped ship, not from a sense of honor (HAHAHAHA!!) but so that he could be the anti-MAGA Republican in 2018.
“We the billionaires, and our King, in order to deform and sicken our union, establish injustice, ensure domestic servility, weaken our people’s defenses, undermine the general welfare and reserve for ourselves and our posterity staggering debt servitude for eternity, do hereby instruct the Republicans in Congress to strip 17 million people of their health care, increase copays, deductibles and premiums for everyone else, cut 42 million people off nutritional assistance, increase the national debt by $4 trillion, trash renewable energy systems, increase our electric bills for the carbon kings, all to weaken and destroy the Constitution of the people of these United States of America.”
Your last paragraph is the KEY! Dems can’t just rely on MAGA failure. Dems MUST have a real NO BS message. Gary
Gary,
My first instinct is to pose a question. One I've asked many times over the past several years, but without ever receiving an accurate answer:
Can anyone name ANY legislation...
1) Either proposed or supported by the GOP
2) Intended to assist middle-income, working-class Americans
3) Anytime in the past 75 years?
Today's vote says that the lesson learned from the only correct answer I know of was NOT learned. The GOP did not propose the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), but neither did their fight it tooth and nail, as is usually the case when anyone other than the 1% is to benefit. But obviously, though the GOP once valued the votes of Americans with great need for affordable / provided health care, today we learned how much we matter in America's new vision.
I fear that as long as Trump believes that he presents as brilliant and rational...
His MAGA cultists will as well.
Even when he can no longer remember his bronzer shade or diaper size.
Agreed, Alexander, but we're on our own, the DNC, DCCC, and DSCC are too busy filling their bank accounts to be bothered with such trivia as winning elections. We will have to seek out viable candidates, help them raise sufficient funds to get on the ballot, then volunteers to spread the message and support for that candidate. We can do it, it's been done before. Most of our Representatives have around 750, 000 constituents, but most of them live with other family or friends. Contact your local Democratic Party officers - let them know you won't support the DNC, but you are willing to help YOUR candidates get elected, there are also groups like MoveOn, and some climate groups, I'm sure there are several on Substack too
Schumer stepping down as minority leader would be a good first step. There is no effective strategy nor fight as long as he remains at the helm in the senate. It’s madness. He needs to go.
Elections are being canceled in TX, FL and NC!
Democrats continue to be haunted by that sarcastic comment: "They snatch failure from the jaws of victory." Vicious, politically motivated attacks on Democrats by MAGA loyalists certainly should alarm Republicans who still believe in the Constitution and the oath they took to protect it (and that includes Donald Trump). They have a small window to get their act together before the bright young lights in the Democratic Party steamroller over them. Dems have some serious talent in their ranks. In the Senate eloquent speakers like Elizabeth Warren ("Nevertheless She Persisted" who champions Americans trying to stay financially afloat), Bernie Sanders, who many say could have defeated Trump in 2016, but was undercut by his own party, Cory Booker (25 dramatic hours on the Senate floor), Hakeem Jeffries, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Tammy Baldwin and many others who can close ranks and produce a Blue Wave in 2026 if given the full backing of their party. Independents are growing in number, leery of both parties, but likely to lean Democratic because of the continuing violence and fascist tendencies taking over the GOP (no longer so grand). No more squabbling among yourselves, Dems. Unite and let the Trumpublicans drown in their own corrupt swamp.
The only working concept I’ve heard out of this Administration that had any political relevance, was Vivek’s discussion of mediocrity versus excellence.
That is a doomed position to champion in an Administration following the cult of personality, in which even mediocrity is beyond their grasp. Even Elon sees they are wrong-way drivers.
The “Deep State” that they rightfully criticized is a bureaucracy of pragmatism and survival, the Iron Cage that requires all its energy to tread water and resolve the Crisis of the Day. That has always been a Republican talking point, which they only oppose when there is a Democratic administration.
Ron Reagan pounded Carter because the US was due to have a TRILLION DOLLAR DEBT. Now, a trillion here, a trillion there, starts to add up to real money.
The Administration can’t make any headway as it is itself the very definition of mediocrity. It expends all its energy trying just to stay in place, and fails at that.
The Democratic Party would be the apotheosis of mediocrity today, had Trump not snatched the ring of incompetence from the Democrats. They are still powerful rivals.
Trump burns through political capital and goodwill with almost nothing to show for it. The Budget thing - really, a reconciliation act without future goals - may have hit its high-water mark, and could fail in committee.
Trump must call for sacrifice and trust from the Congress to craft a final bill. He has just sacrificed several Senators to get it through the Senate. Giving in, to him, is weakness, is for losers. Murkowski, Hawley, and Ernst received the coup de main in repayment for their support - the end of their political careers. Now it is time for others to do the same. They won’t.
He always comes up a yard short on fourth down. The question has been, as usual, quid pro quo; what do you get from it? Murkowski did it for a big side of pork for Alaska, but the Republicans screwed it up, and she gave her vote for nothing gained.
You need trust to pass this, and the jackals are wary.
We are looking at a few years of suffering. Thom Tillis jumped ship, not from a sense of honor (HAHAHAHA!!) but so that he could be the anti-MAGA Republican in 2018.
Mediocrity, debt and failure are in the cards.
I wonder, who is going to be coming up with an effective message, because the present Dem leadership is not effective.
Here's one from Jamie Raskin...
“We the billionaires, and our King, in order to deform and sicken our union, establish injustice, ensure domestic servility, weaken our people’s defenses, undermine the general welfare and reserve for ourselves and our posterity staggering debt servitude for eternity, do hereby instruct the Republicans in Congress to strip 17 million people of their health care, increase copays, deductibles and premiums for everyone else, cut 42 million people off nutritional assistance, increase the national debt by $4 trillion, trash renewable energy systems, increase our electric bills for the carbon kings, all to weaken and destroy the Constitution of the people of these United States of America.”