I read an article a few years ago about the "learned helplessness" of the Democratic Party. This just exemplifies that description. I'm lucky to be represented by Merkley and Wyden in the Senate, but Kurt Schrader is clearly a problem. I'm writing my whole delegation this morning and asking them to buck up.
I believe the Party missed the opportunity to turn its ship around when it passed on putting Stacey Abrams at the DNC helm. And I believe I know why.
Follow the money. ALWAYS follow the money.
Picking up on your point, the Party has the electorate's wind at its back and still can't won't raise the sails to move forward, damn the torpedos. It makes mw want to bang my head into the wall, over and over and over. But what this has in common with 2009 is the art of political calculation, and for Democrats that unfailingly comes down to equating political strategy with raising money (see, for instance, the Sara Gideon debacle).
Watching Democratic politicians engaging day after day in performative politics (great new term, btw) increasingly makes me see them as having devolved into the Pinnochio Party, each of their noses popping out a little farther and their ears getting longer with every reading of their scripts. We know Republicans have no shame. But do Democrats? We'll know soon, maybe before the end of October. If each of the Performative Pinnochios don't soon let their conscience be their guide, 2022 will be a bloodbath for Democrats.
Your points re: political strategy to me are valid but secondary. We're fucking fed up with the self-serving political calculus. We're quickly losing patience with pundits reading electoral tea leaves. We voted FOR some things as well as against others. If all the Democratic Party stands for is what it stands against, then millions will say fuck it, why bother to vote?
They need to stop acting like its 2009? No shit? But it's not a substantially different world. We want basically the same things we wanted in 2009. The kinder, gentler Tea Party making a ruckus at town meetings has been upgraded to rabid antivaxxers and fascist insurrectionists making their presence known. And the Democratic Party hasn't done and isn't doing much to reverse the tide.
Does it REALLY want to do away with Citizens United?
That's a serious question that demands an answer that will only come from whether or not it reforms the Party infrastructure.
I say screw the Rs. Keep the Dems in DC and pass filibuster reform Friday afternoon at 3pm when they’ll be 30,000 ft and helpless. Keep the session open and pass every Dems’ wet dreams. Keep working over the weekend on the reconciliation and pass the damned thing first thing Monday morning before everyone gets back in town. Rs want us to go it alone, the by damned we should!
By the way, don’t I remember Sinema as an AZ legislator being pretty liberal, and taking the charge on some pretty progressive legislation? Not from there, so I could be wrong. Is this just Sinema trying to hide the aroma of progressivism? Like when Robert Preston said he needed to play a gunslinger after starring in Victor/Victoria? Funny movie, btw.
Can we separate the noise going on out in the halls of Congress from the dealing going on inside the offices and meeting rooms? If you’re some back-bencher from a non-frontline state, man, this is your chance to get in front of the TV cameras. Make a little noise, say something that sounds important, let your constituents see you. Then go back and be a good soldier and vote as your party and President need you to.
If you throw all the work and all the need for affirmative votes on the Dems, of course they look like they’re in disarray. The GOP is just a cypher. All the discussion and all the stage-acting has to take place in just one theater.
My guess (and hope) is that both bills will pass. Who would you rather have running the show than Pelosi and her team, Schumer and his team (well, maybe Harry Reid), and Biden? I can’t think of better hands to put this in.
Seems like who runs the DNC is immaterial for this particular challenge. And if we lose some or all of it, well sure it’ll be disheartening. But it still means we take a moment to sigh deeply and then get back to it. The alternative is just too awful.
This has always been politics, right? We can clean up the money and corruption over time, but that’s at the margin. You just have to realize that dealing with large groups of egotistical people (elected officials) is a messy and scary thing to hang your hopes on.
"Republicans are staying quiet about the bill because they are having too much fun watching Democrats punch themselves in the face for no reason. Which we should obviously stop doing."
I read an article a few years ago about the "learned helplessness" of the Democratic Party. This just exemplifies that description. I'm lucky to be represented by Merkley and Wyden in the Senate, but Kurt Schrader is clearly a problem. I'm writing my whole delegation this morning and asking them to buck up.
I believe the Party missed the opportunity to turn its ship around when it passed on putting Stacey Abrams at the DNC helm. And I believe I know why.
Follow the money. ALWAYS follow the money.
Picking up on your point, the Party has the electorate's wind at its back and still can't won't raise the sails to move forward, damn the torpedos. It makes mw want to bang my head into the wall, over and over and over. But what this has in common with 2009 is the art of political calculation, and for Democrats that unfailingly comes down to equating political strategy with raising money (see, for instance, the Sara Gideon debacle).
Watching Democratic politicians engaging day after day in performative politics (great new term, btw) increasingly makes me see them as having devolved into the Pinnochio Party, each of their noses popping out a little farther and their ears getting longer with every reading of their scripts. We know Republicans have no shame. But do Democrats? We'll know soon, maybe before the end of October. If each of the Performative Pinnochios don't soon let their conscience be their guide, 2022 will be a bloodbath for Democrats.
Your points re: political strategy to me are valid but secondary. We're fucking fed up with the self-serving political calculus. We're quickly losing patience with pundits reading electoral tea leaves. We voted FOR some things as well as against others. If all the Democratic Party stands for is what it stands against, then millions will say fuck it, why bother to vote?
They need to stop acting like its 2009? No shit? But it's not a substantially different world. We want basically the same things we wanted in 2009. The kinder, gentler Tea Party making a ruckus at town meetings has been upgraded to rabid antivaxxers and fascist insurrectionists making their presence known. And the Democratic Party hasn't done and isn't doing much to reverse the tide.
Does it REALLY want to do away with Citizens United?
That's a serious question that demands an answer that will only come from whether or not it reforms the Party infrastructure.
I say screw the Rs. Keep the Dems in DC and pass filibuster reform Friday afternoon at 3pm when they’ll be 30,000 ft and helpless. Keep the session open and pass every Dems’ wet dreams. Keep working over the weekend on the reconciliation and pass the damned thing first thing Monday morning before everyone gets back in town. Rs want us to go it alone, the by damned we should!
By the way, don’t I remember Sinema as an AZ legislator being pretty liberal, and taking the charge on some pretty progressive legislation? Not from there, so I could be wrong. Is this just Sinema trying to hide the aroma of progressivism? Like when Robert Preston said he needed to play a gunslinger after starring in Victor/Victoria? Funny movie, btw.
Can we separate the noise going on out in the halls of Congress from the dealing going on inside the offices and meeting rooms? If you’re some back-bencher from a non-frontline state, man, this is your chance to get in front of the TV cameras. Make a little noise, say something that sounds important, let your constituents see you. Then go back and be a good soldier and vote as your party and President need you to.
If you throw all the work and all the need for affirmative votes on the Dems, of course they look like they’re in disarray. The GOP is just a cypher. All the discussion and all the stage-acting has to take place in just one theater.
My guess (and hope) is that both bills will pass. Who would you rather have running the show than Pelosi and her team, Schumer and his team (well, maybe Harry Reid), and Biden? I can’t think of better hands to put this in.
Seems like who runs the DNC is immaterial for this particular challenge. And if we lose some or all of it, well sure it’ll be disheartening. But it still means we take a moment to sigh deeply and then get back to it. The alternative is just too awful.
This has always been politics, right? We can clean up the money and corruption over time, but that’s at the margin. You just have to realize that dealing with large groups of egotistical people (elected officials) is a messy and scary thing to hang your hopes on.
"Republicans are staying quiet about the bill because they are having too much fun watching Democrats punch themselves in the face for no reason. Which we should obviously stop doing."
AAAAAARGH.