It took Republicans:
•40 years but they gutted the EPA
•50 years but they repealed Roe v Wad
•60 years but they gutted the VRA

All three are wildly popular policies with the American people. Republicans don't care. Gutted them anyway. Point is, any Democrat running for office for anything short of revolutionary change to the status quo should just stay home. We need a political revolution, not centrist cowardice.

@QasimRashid I think you might be missing your own point. It took them 40, 50, & 60 years to make those changes and you expect overnight revolution? That is a bit contradictory. They are winning because they played the long game while Democrats shouted "What do we want? Total change! When do we want it? Now!" If Democrats had stayed the course after Clinton, we would be better off. If they had stayed the course after Obama, same thing. But no, they wanted EVERYTHING! NOW! and so they got Trump.

@farbel @QasimRashid

Oh, yeah. Right. It was those crazy leftists who ruined the Democrats by being so extreme with their purity tests. How dare they complain about the Democratic Party supporting the mass murder of children in Gaza? Those kids were brown! You're not even supposed to see them!

Sorry, my patience for shitlibs is extra short today. Muting this asshole.

@farbel are you kidding me? are you trying to tell me hillary offered anything besides not being trump? are you calling people greedy for asking dems to codify and safeguard some of these things?

democrats do not do these because they want republicans to fuck things up, so that they can run on "not being them" and benefit from republican's shifting the overton window to the right.

@malnourishedradical even if not bring Trump were all she offered, and it fucking wasn't, that would have been enough. I voted for Bernie in the primary, and, like him, I vote for Hillary, because it was the right thing to do. How has Trump being president helped any cause you believe in? Neither Hillary nor Kamala is perfect, but you don't fucking get perfect. You get something that moves you forward, or you get fucked. Guess what you're getting now.
@farbel the concept of hillary and kamala being "moving forward"
@malnourishedradical I asked one question in my reply. Answer it.
@farbel he didn't, and neither would kamala harris or hillary clinton
@malnourishedradical what planet do you live on? Don't bother answering. Narcissists aren't worth my time.

@farbel

To answer your question, neither Hilary or Kamala would have been as bad

And both would have followed the #tradDem (political equivalent for politicians of all genders to the tradwife) policies that left so many Americans with unaffordable housing, medical debt, student debt, low wage jobs.

Tthe TradDems fully embraced neoliberal myths re market, free trade, as well as tough on crime, in ways the focused on minorities. Glass Steagall repeal laid the foundation for 2008 crash, for example. Biden getting Thomas onto SCOTUS. Insisting that insurance companies have a critical role to play in healthcare.

And the tradDems were very fond of AIPAC $$$, leading to the horrors in Palestine and related Middle East debacles.

So yes, I voted D in every election for over 40 years because #GOP was worse. But the tradDems created fertile ground for MAGA and their very wealthy enablers.

@malnourishedradica,[email protected]

⬆️ @PaulWermer @farbel

>> #TradDems fully embraced neoliberal myths re market, free trade, … crime… laid the foundation for 2008 crash… #Biden getting #ClarenceThomas onto #SCOTUS#insurance companies… role in #healthcare… voted D in every election … because #GOP was worse. But the tradDems created fertile ground for #MAGA and their … wealthy enablers.

NOTHING that is currently happening in the #UnitedStates would be possible without the #complicity and #connivance of the #DemocraticParty

@PaulWermer That doesn't answer the question, which was - How has Trump being president helped any cause you believe in? If Hillary had been elected, we would have inched forward on civil rights healthcare and many other fronts. Instead, we lurched backwards. Same with Kamala. Same with Gore, for that matter.

@farbel
I don't disagree. As I said, I voted for HC, JB and KH.

My point is that the Ds have failed to offer good support for any but the relatively well to do. (And yes, I am lucky enough to have benefited from those policies.). And that's in part why so many came to believe that the Ds were the party of the wealthy.

And that failure to support what had been a robust middle class, and failure to develop policies and programs that uplifted low-income communities (more than just food stamps and housing assistance, in other words) means that claims of "I will fix it" reach people who don't trust the traditional leaders.

And saying we need to move to the center ignores that the "center" did nothing to address core challenges facing well over half of the population.

@PaulWermer "Ds have failed to offer good support for any but the relatively well to do." I disagree strenuously with this premise. Democrats are not a monolith, nor are Democtaric politicians. Many Democrats pushed for Universal Health Care under Obama, for example, but their majority was thin, and three, I think it was, senators, refused. Lieberman, Testor, and one other. Obamacare was only passed by a single vote because Ted Kennedy came in from his deathbed. Democrats in general TRY.

@farbel
1) Look at the net favorability of the Dems right now. That is not consistent with a party that has earned the trust of the electorate. (https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/favorability/democratic-party)

2) Some Democrats have tried to do good things isn't a strong endorsement.

3) tacking to the center on money issues means saying we can't afford to necessary things.

4) I've had enlightening discussions with conservatives on social hot button issues. Those are not the thing cratering Dems - if the outreach is done. There are maybe 30% of religious bigots you can't reach. Had a discussion with on guy when canvassing, freaking out about trans kids in school. When we drilled down into the issues, he calmed down - most of his fears were based on the bigots lies, and discussing the issues calmed him down. And he realized that he loved his kid, and would love his kid if the kid was trans. Remarkable turnaround. And not the only such experience.

@PaulWermer The favorability in polls of Democrats right now is not indicative of their policies or attempts to further said policies (read the Dem platform). Their low ratings, and the realtive continued favorability of Trump are rather indicative of the general ignorance of the public and the poor information sources available to them.

@farbel

Yes, I've been telling my representatives (all Ds) and the DNC and the DCCC that they need to tell me more than that the GOP is bad (until 2016) and DJT is bad( since then)

No response, that's all I get from them- "give us money, the other side is bad"

If voters are blamed for not understanding how good the Ds are, I fear the wrong people are being blamed.

But then, why change anything when you're in a loosing streak? After all, the other side will prove even worse, so voters will come back to us. Not a convincing strategy.

Down and then out in Paris and London? Why Starmer isn’t the only one with a popularity problem

As continent faces tough headwinds, leaders are bearing brunt of delivering bad news to frustrated electorates

The Guardian

@malnourishedradical @farbel

Hillary and Kamala offered no changes, nothing for the working class, and continuing handjobs for the banksters and the oligarchs - just like Bill, Obama, and Joe.

Oh, and they also offered an increased police state, surveillance state, endless wars, and the continued use of our tax dollars to genocide children in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and many other places all over the world.

How DARE leftists reject such a generous platform? 😬

@QasimRashid Republicans are constantly pushing for more and accomplishing more for the oligarchs. The Democrats haven't done a single damned thing for the working class since the '80s. Shortening the work week? No. Health care for all? No. Guaranteed vacation time? No. Strengthening civil rights? No.

The Democrats haven't done a single goddamn thing for the working class because they don't want to. Their job is to lock in the gains that the Republicans make, and constantly play a weak defense game to raise money from their stupid and gullible supporters.

@QasimRashid I think we probably need to look at other options when it comes to revolutionary change.
The people who want to get rid of that stuff would never live in countries who don't have regulations. They consider them 'third world countries'
@hello @QasimRashid Banana Republic is becoming more and more isolated. Now number 3 in terms of investment potential, number one is Canada, two is Germany 😁
@QasimRashid Ironic given that the EPA was created by Richard Nixon.

@QasimRashid

We don't need a revolution, we need to re-establish the constitution & bill of rights with tweaks to bring it up to date. Actually the current battle between left & right started after FDR & Social Security. Watch Joe McCarthy & compare him to trump. Then Nixon, Reagan, Bush, now trump. Each has dismantled parts that helped Us. Biden/Harris were trying to bring back the economy of the 40's-70's when congress actually worked for We The People. Just not all the people.

@QasimRashid what are these acronyms?
@QasimRashid let's make sure someone other than billionaires and mega donors run the #DNC (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_National_Committee), first. Everything else will fall in place, IMHO #SandersWouldHaveWon
Democratic National Committee - Wikipedia

@QasimRashid You are a lawyer. One I know to have deep institutional memory. It was a republican who established the EPA. They didn't repeal roe vs wade, they weaponized it's weak original justification under a privacy concern. It had 50 years and multiple administrations capacity to become something more formalized.
These aren't masterminds playing 5D chess. They're velociraptors finding weaknesses in the democratic fence created by endless waves of placeholders kicking of cans down the road.

@QasimRashid

I'll say it until I die: "conservatism" is an irrational foundation for an political ideology.

The idea of doing the same failed ideas over and over is lunacy and always leads to fascism because it gradually misaligns you with reality until you have to either admit your idea doesn't work and look for a new one based on current data (i.e. be progressive) or you get a gun and force everyone else to play make believe with you.

It belongs in the bin with fuedalism and monarchy.

@QasimRashid
You say you want a revolution
We’ll you know
We all want to change the world

@QasimRashid Political systems of governance are public bodies. But they are so deeply commandeered by the incumbents, and the messages broadcast indoctrinate the validity of that commandeering the American people are entirely entitled to restart.

It is THEIR system.

@QasimRashid @VoiceofDuum We need someone who can get elected and turn things around.