No more concessions to liberalism
No more concessions to liberalism
> Democrats: Run most leftist administration in the history of the country
> Democrats: Pass law after law and EO after EO that are a wishlist of progressive and leftist policies
> Democrats: Put officers from the most famous leftist movement in a century in high and visible positions of power in the government
> Leftists online: We never get anything by voting for Democrats they have betrayed us and move to the right constantly
TBH, it’s long past time for the Democratic Party to actually start ignoring the fringe left and work for the American people.
Despite all the Biden administrations achievements, they still haven’t addressed what the left has been asking for over the last decade.
Stop supporting the war in Gaza? Nah.
Single-payer healthcare system? Nuh uh.
Housing crisis relief? If you’re good… maybe.
Courts and criminal justice reform? Lol.
Billionaire tax? Nope.
Increase minimum wage? Psh.
Legalize marijuana? Hah! No.
How many of those could be done with the amount of control the Dems have had in the past 8 years? They had full control of the government with the barest of majorities for 2 years with 2 senators that were basically liberal Republicans. You got Gaza, but besides that the rest require Congressional action. While in control they did get the biggest investment in green energy ever, they did get substantial increases for infrastructure (including public transport), and they substantially increased the amount of tech that will be made in the US.
Why didn’t you get those things done? Because you didn’t have the power to do it, just like Dems didn’t.
Marijuana probably could pass. They didn’t really try. It’s supported by most Republican voters. It’d be a death sentence for a lot of the Republicans to vote against it.
It helps maintain the status quo though, so they didn’t want it gone.
I’ve heard the argument from practicality for decades, but it just doesn’t pass the laugh test. When George Bush started the Iraq War, was that practical? No. When Donald Trump did everything Donald Trump does, was that practical? No. But they made big changes. Bad changes, but big changes.
So why is it that only the Republicans can make big changes? I think it’s because your position is the coward’s position. If you never try to make the country better in a major way, because you’re convinced it’s impossible, of course you’re always going to fail. And voters know this. We understand why people are afraid to take big steps, but we don’t respect it.
Few things here.
This isn’t defeatist. It’s a realistic understanding of how the systems work. The fact that we got so many major things passed with such a tiny amount of control and in such a small amount of time is amazing.
Those likely wouldn’t have gotten through Congress but that’s a poor excuse to abandon the efforts entirely. Embrace those changes as part of the platform, fight for them, make the Republicans publicly oppose what the people want instead of taking the accountability for doing that yourself.
The Democrats’ insistence on working across the aisle with a coalition that has abandoned good-faith bipartisanship only cedes power to the Republicans.
Obama won in 2008 with a message of “yes we can” but since he left office the Democrats’ most consistent message to voters has been “no we can’t”.
Since when did Dems abandon those things? They have repeatedly had them in the platform or at least verbally supported them and have pushed bills in Congress to get them done. The complaint was that they weren’t done under Dems control not that Dems didn’t support the issues.
Dems will make compromises to get incremental change. I don’t fault them for that. They fight for every inch they can get. That’s not a flaw it’s a feature. Giving up something that is minor for bigger progress on something else can be worth it. Just like when Pelosi and Schumer gave up minor concessions to Trump for significant protection on the budget fight.
What tactic should they have used to get those big things passed? Shutting down the government is pretty much the only thing they weren’t willing to do.
Again incremental change is the only thing that could get done with the power they were given. They still support major change but they don’t have enough power to get it done. Yes it sucks that one party is trying to improve things and they can’t get more done. But what else would you have them do with the amount of power they were given?
What policies changed when they courted Republicans?
They didn’t need to, because the Democrats have already been governing like Republicans. Pro-fracking, pro-genocide, pro-“States Rights” to deal with trans people as they see fit, etc.
Because as far as I can tell nothing changed for that but they did say that even with our policy differences, Republicans advocated voting for Dems.
Admitting that the Democrats are good enough for some right-wing talking heads is a damning indictment of the Democrats.