OK last comment, but I really think this article captures a lot of my frustrations with the party (maybe the median voter too idk) But if they ran on packing the courts, being a 'dictator on day 1', green new deal, tough on monopolists , doing whatever needs to be done - basically everything Trump's promising to do but instead of for massively unpopular niche issues for stuff people actually like. I genuinely don't care with what means they want to do it. People say- Trump will destroy democracy! And all I can hear is that maybe he's going to actually do something. (The tragedy is that all of the somethings he's going to do are Bad) but imagine! If our side had 1/16th the gumption. It would be heaven on earth I barely even trusted Kamala to have the political will to get Roe v Wayde passed tbh. The dems have been punting on that one for decades
I think it's fair to say that the enthusiasm behind Bernie Sanders was because of the idea that he'd 'fucking do something.' I think people over 30 were jaded about that because the dude has been in government his whole fucking life and has yet to fucking do something. It's been interesting to watch AOC turn from firebrand to wallflower. Maybe she's biding her time. Maybe she's been subsumed by the system. It's also abundantly clear that the politicians we see the most are the ones who aren't doing their fucking jobs - MTG, Gaetz, etc. IF: you get into government because you want to 'fucking do something' BUT: nothing can actually be done THEN: (gestures vaguely everywhere) Jimmy Carter was a populist. Then he got to government and nothing happened. Schwartzenegger was a populist. Then he got to government and nothing happened. FDR came into power by basically taking the wind out of Huey Long's sails; by adopting 70% of the crazy socialist policies Long wanted and dragging them into the mainstream, FDR got four frickin' terms out of it. But that was what, 80 years ago? The green new deal was a layup. Fuckin' legalized marijuana was a layup. Student loan forgiveness was a layup. Price controls on groceries could have been a goddamn executive order. And yet.
Democrats are not doing anything because they’re captured. They take money from the same business interests and banks that the Republicans do. It’s almost a controlled opposition party— they exist to hold things in place until the next republican term. They aren’t there to do things, they barely bother to pretend to be interested in that. In fact, I’d say they’re not even really an “ideas” party. If they had ideas, they’d want to get them out. They don’t, which is why Heritage Foundation can spend millions on Right Wing media outlets, radio, TV (multiple channels), websites, and so on. Democrats had Air America, but didn’t really invest in it. So now it’s NPR, MSNBC, and Bread Tube. That’s how into getting things done they are. Podcasters, Vaush, and MSNBC and the three political shows on NPR. They don’t even believe in their message enough to bother getting it out there. The way most people find out about anything the democrats actually want to do is republicans telling them it’s bad. Completely rearguard action.
I think I would temper this by arguing there's no real alternative. The 2024 elections cost $16b. Bill Gates gave $100m, Elon Musk gave $150m. Kamala Harris got 74m votes; in order to counterbalance Elon Fucking Musk every Harris voter would have needed to chip in $2. In order to counterbalance Musk & Gates, they needed to chip in 68 cents. But now we're talking campaign finance reform and we're both already asleep with boredom.Democrats are not doing anything because they’re captured. They take money from the same business interests and banks that the Republicans do.
I genuinely don't know what the Dems want to do. Kamala's climate change policy was some of the most baffling word salad I've ever had to read. It seemed like every week they shifted positions or compromised on something I figured was a core Dem value. Doesn't matter either way cuz they lost in a landslide lol
I think the first step to getting the party back on track is to invest in getting the message out there. Have a network or three on the radio or TV, have news sites, etc that can explain what the ideas are and why they work and where they’ve actually done good things. Start talking about your ideas. And when you do something TELL THE PEOPLE. It’s like the democrats almost want it to be top secret. I’ve had this conversation a few times with conservatives convinced there’s a conspiracy to poison Americans with additives in foods. Exhibit A is that a lot of things that are common in American food are not in European foods. So the government is obviously trying to kill us, population control and so on. No, the European Union is simply much more willing to ban poison from their foods than our FDA is. So this would be an excellent thing for democrats to be actually talking about and making the case for smart regulations to protect people. They’re generally MIA. And the same is true of other things. The infrastructure bill Biden passed is building lots of highways. Not one will have any sort of signage telling people that this is the infrastructure bill at work making roads better.
I think before investing on getting a message out, they should have one to begin with. I actively sought out what their platform is and as far as I can tell they don't have one
Yeah my enthusiasm for Bernie is more the symbolism of someone with at least passably good values in office. No pretense that he could get anything done. Which is another baffling thing about the Dems- if you're going to do literally nothing, why compromise all your values? Why have a stupid hedged weaksauce plan that you don't do instead of an exciting cool plan that you don't do. Honestly the IRA passing at all was a shock to me, weaksauce as it was. My only hope from the Trump admin is that the Dems exploit all the broken norms to 'fucking do something' but god knows they haven't ever in my lifetime, idk about yours but sounds like not then either. At this point I kinda want to see America fall before I do, just for the schadenfreude