Here’s some great messaging from Senate Brained Democrats:
After a rudderless post-election run, Democrats are suddenly showing some fight against President Donald Trump.
Yet unlike the progressive ascendance of eight years ago, it’s not clear who is leading the charge.
“I can’t answer that. Give us a little time,” Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told Semafor. “This is brand new.”
[…]“We’re obviously in a bit of disarray,” one Democratic senator told Semafor. “I don’t think people are really completely sure about what lesson is to be learned in this election.”
“The natural inclination is to fight, fight, fight, fight,” said Rep. Tom Suozzi, a centrist Democrat who represents a Trump-won district on Long Island. Suozzi stressed that Democrats need to be more disciplined in their politics to avoid their more reactionary tactics: “That’s what’s got us to this point.”
[…]“It’s not like everybody has surrendered,” said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri, describing his party as being in a holding pattern as they engage in “cerebral” questions over the lessons learned from Trump victory.
“People are sitting around in circles quietly talking about what the strategy ought to be,” he said. “Are there changes that we need to make? Do we hold Trump accountable on everything that we don’t like that he does? Or should we be selective?”
[…]One of the bright spots Democrats highlighted, according to a source familiar, was a viral video from the pandemic of Warner making a tuna melt in his kitchen that led to the lawmaker being cheered and jeered by people who questioned his culinary leanings.
I’ve heard of “more cowbell” but “more tuna melt” is certainly a strategy, I guess.
But, hey, don’t worry. As events of the last few days have shown, we have nothing but time for the leadership of the party to figure out next steps. Spend some time on “cerebral” questions like whether another “tuna melt moment” can go viral. Don’t fight too hard, because that’s what’s gotten us into this position.
This is the message from these stories, overall: no matter the circumstances, no matter that our base is crying out for some leadership, we value norms over consequences, and we value measured speech over showing genuine outrage. And we’ll squash any upstarts who think otherwise.
Again, I put a tag on this one (it’s from the quote from an “unnamed Senator”), so please stay on topic.
Glory b
AOC makes mac & cheese.
He makes tuna melts.
Is it something about cheese?
@mistermix.bsky.social
I was messing around with categories and what the rebuild called “snark” and I have to have a category, so I chose “Elections”. But the topic is the Democratic Party and how they’re responding to the challenge of Trump’s election.
Skippy-san
I’m furious with both Senate and House leadership in the Democratic party right now. There needs to be more high-profile opposition and calling out of Trump’s lies. Sure they won’t win every fight, but the least they can do is make it as painful as possible for Speaker Moses.
Wapiti
My offering to the Senators and Representatives: The White House fired the Inspectors General contrary to law. They are going to be lawless, unless you demonstrate that you will not tolerate lawlessness.
So: no Democratic Senator should vote to confirm *any* appointment until Trump reverses that *and* fires the responsible parties. Make it clear to your Republican counterparts that they own everything their appointees do or fail to do.
Lobo
I can answer that. Talk about Neroing(I just made Nero a verb) Navel gazing while America burns. He makes it sound like a graduate level philosophy course.
How about resigning, and appointing a Senator who can answer that. This is not quantum physics. See AOC.
Czar Chasm
@@mistermix.bsky.social: How about “Rebuilding Season”?
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Czar Chasm: Not bad. The category is also a homage to Pitchbot who uses that phrase all the time. It’s beyond parody that some Senator would say that to a reporter, on or off the record. But here we are.
cain
Went to a candidate for school board launch party for my wife’s friend’s husband. He’s Pakistani, his wife is also I believe in the city council or some such. The mood is both somber but also resistance. It’s at this level where we have to fight. We can’t really fix the national party, we need to organize and get the people we want who are both pragmatic and can get our message out. But most of all, we need to resist institutions like ICE.
ICE is already running around like the secret police hanging around malls and schools. The candidate asked not to take pictures of children because of ICE concerns and because they are muslim. He’s taking a bit of a risk.
In any case, local resistance is needed. Blue states need to join together and start working with each other to build relationships where we help each other recognizing that the Trump administration is not going to help blue states if there is a disaster.
Lots of ways we can show our own leadership and not wait for national party to do anything. They are gonna do what they are going to do, but if they see us mobilizing maybe that will give them some kind of spine.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Wapiti:
This really does seem like the bare minimum, but the Noem appointment vote has shown that even the bare minimum won’t be met.
JNic
Instead of Democrats just them the Chamberlains or the Neville’s
JMG
The only way to get some of these Democrats to fight is to make it clear “the base” will try its damndest to get rid of them if they don’t. As Durbin’s comment made clear, it’s also necessary to get them to work more than their accustomed six hours a week.
matt
God save us from the Tuna Melt Democrats. Time to fight. Get to work
How on Earth can their take away from the past 8 years be that they fought too hard? Are they literally brain dead?
Betty Cracker
I clicked thru and read the CNN article to see if there was some context that made the tuna melt thing less cringeworthy (no, there’s not). Then this bit from “several Dems” and Mark Warner (D-VA) made me want to bang my head on the desk repeatedly:
Bravo for voting against the incompetent, drunk, rapey weekend Fox & Friends host to run the U.S. military. But where does this burning drive to “find nominees they can vote for” come from?
Can someone explain that to me without referencing long-dead norms or the absurd belief that Dems voting for Trump cabinet appointees will a) be remembered and seen as something other than rolling over to the regime Dems were (accurately!) labeling as fascist during the campaign, and b) generate good will with Trump voters?
WaterGirl
Easy answer:
All the resistance. All of it. All the time. On everything.
Raoul Paste
@@mistermix.bsky.social: “ It is beyond parody…”. Infuriating and true
Barney
I cannot understand the mind of people who think a pandemic-era video of making a tuna melt (seemingly designed to be self-deprecating) can somehow be a “bright spot” for media messaging in 2025. This makes Trump’s obsessions with sharks and wind turbines look sane and relevant.
Ksmiami
Time to call and yell at every democratic dc organization too. This is insane
Chief Oshkosh
@Lobo: Goddamn but Durbin is an idiot. “This a brand new.” Really? Fuck you, Dick. I used to think that he’s just a squish and a man out of time, but now I wonder whether he’s been paying attention — at all — over the last 10 years.
Here, Dick, watch this and see if it helps you understand what you and your fellow wool-gatherers are supposed to be doing:
https://youtube.com/shorts/zBYoYr7NAZA?si=l0O0W-XWo0sqAPYL
PS: Sorry, Baud, I’m breaking your rule about only criticizing Republicans.
Lobo
@Raoul Paste:Ph.D. Course: The Politics of Opposition.In this course we will grapple with the question of opposition and the meta-physics of opposition. In this course you will have to take a one position on opposition and argue the strengths and weaknesses of it. You will also understand and appreciate other types of opposition. The merits of each type will be studied.
This is not a course on action given your mental construct of opposition. Please see Ph.D. Advanced Course: Opposition and Action.
Betty
@Betty Cracker: Losing the general election by a skimpy margin is enough for these guys to turn turtle? Gutless wonders. Give me more Elizabeth Warrens. For all her flaws, I think Katie Porter would have been more of a fighter than Schiff.
Ksmiami
@Chief Oshkosh: he needs to step the fuck down and shut up
Old Man Shadow
I’m guessing at least half of Senate Dems take checks from the same masters as Senate Republicans. We need to get rid of them in primaries.
Ksmiami
Any Illinois Dems want to yell at Dick’s staffers
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
One data point from Morning Consult.
2023
2025 (paywalled)
It’s the only poll I’m aware of, so maybe there is polling going the other way.
Shalimar
Not politics-related, but for anyone who has ever working in retail:
https://youtu.be/5hX8iQvs2mw?si=MQgSuLOWp919obRd
Baud
@Chief Oshkosh:
I neither have rules nor the ability to impose them on others. I only have my own point of view.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Betty Cracker:
This post was already long, and I’ll probably flesh this out a bit more, but my explanation has two parts. First, they think people aren’t paying close attention to nominees, and they also have a habit of taking the base for granted, so put those two together and that’s part of the explanation. Second, they think 2026 will be a res ipsa loquitur election, where the mere presence of Trump and his policies will be enough for voters to choose the anti-Trump option, the Democrats.
It’s all a rationale for business as usual because, as AOC pointed out in what I posted yesterday, they really are rule followers and norm lovers to a degree that most of us can’t imagine, and the thought of busting up the current order is unthinkable.
Ksmiami
@@mistermix.bsky.social: to which I say , no one likes a pussy. We need to push these guys out of leadership
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Baud: I’d want to see some longer-term polling than that.
Also, I was listening to Greg Sergeant’s podcast the other day, and his guest pointed out that you get two different numbers on another supposed Democratic liability, immigration, depending on how you ask the question. If you ask it as “Should we deport illegal immigrants”, it’s ~60/40 yes. If you ask it as “Should we deport illegal immigrants who are working and have not committed crimes, or should we develop a path for citizenship for them”, it’s ~60/40 for path to citizenship.
Long-winded way of saying I want to see the questions they asked, and I’m especially leery of polls that make a point about Democratic positions rather than people.
Baud
@@mistermix.bsky.social:
Agree. I was just answering BC’s question. Like I said, this is the only data point I’m aware of right now.
Chris Johnson
@Baud: Republicans are going to vote for him rather than a Republican and so this matters somehow?
Has he improved his numbers among Mexicans? You know, in case Mexicans vote for him? In, I guess, some kind of straw poll taking place in Mexico?
Dude is going to have to do a hell of a lot of heiling, in public, before Republicans believe he’s one of theirs. This is absurd.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
OT: WTF is this BS with the CIA claiming COVID “most likely originated from a lab but has low confidence in it’s own finding.” !?
If you have low fucking confidence in your findings, then maybe don’t announce them? It hasn’t been a fucking week and these guys are bending the knee to dear leader?
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Fetterman suddenly started pushing at least one right-wing policy position, which strikes me as a different category of suck than voting for Trump cabinet nominees because that’s the way it has always worked in the Senate (though he’s done that too). As for the efficacy of adopting wingnut policies to save your job, Sinema thought her “maverick” act would haul her cookies out of the fire and found out it doesn’t work that way.
If Fetterman follows that path, I hope he learns the same lesson.
Baud
@Chris Johnson:
Don’t know the answer. But his polling hasn’t gone down even though he’s making a lot of us antsy. Do you know of other polling that can shed light on this issue?
hrprogressive
The problem is that Democrats by and large told people Trump and the GOP are Very Bad and a Threat to the Country for so long that, now that the American Electorate shrugged and vibed their way to Fascism, the Dems who aren’t named AOC have fallen back on their “Gee willikers, I guess we better engage in bipartisan comity with them now!” base urges.
Every Democrat north of 65 needs to go.
These people have been in power too long and are unwilling/unable to read the room beyond what their consulting class minions and corporate donors tell them.
AOC gets it. I wish the rest of them did too.
eclare
@Chief Oshkosh:
What she said. 1000%. We’re not even bringing a knife to a gun fight anymore, we’re bringing a nerf ball.
Michael fucking Steele gets it
https://bsky.app/profile/calltoactivism.bsky.social/post/3lgmgaz3czc2n
TurnItOffAndOnAgain
The worst of Democratic governance and Democratic voters/support still think they’re white.
For clarification, there’s obviously a fair amount of white people in both of those camps who have privileges the rest of the party doesn’t. But Republicans stopped seeing them as white, as legitimate, decades ago, and have been chipping away at their legal legitimacy, boiling frog in a pot style, since the Civil Rights Act.
The worst of our elected officials don’t understand this: I’m white, or I’m even white and a dude, I have privilege, and I have power. You’re supposed to listen to me. We’re all supposed to be on the same side, at least to some degree. This will pass, and we’ll return to business as usual when you come to your senses.
They just can’t wrap their heads around the fact that, as far as the other side is concerned, the Democratic party turned in the legitimacy that comes with all those privileges decades ago.
And it’s not just governance; I think some (not all, but some) of the screaming for elected folks to “DO SOMETHING” and the post-election circular firing squads and the sighing about how women maybe just can’t get elected to POTUS in this country (when Clinton had decades worth of a poisoned reputation aimed at her, Comey, and Harris was a WOC who had just half a year to campaign and still almost won) rings just a bit of a Karen or a Keith howling for a manager because they haven’t figured out that people aren’t automatically going to listen to you if you yell loud enough anymore.
The white left is having trouble adjusting to being preemptively written off the way non-white folks have always been. We need to take a look at how POC have organized and pulled together against a world that decided it’s against them before they opened their mouths because that’s where the entire party’s at now.
Maybe we can’t fight Goliath like we are; we have to fight like we’re David.
Quinerly
Love me some “Chairman of the Board.”
Good shagging music. As a teenager, I used to shag for hours into the wee hrs of the morning at The Jolly Knave overlooking the ocean and its pounding waves on “The Circle” in Atlantic Beach, NC….multiple partners in one night. Take a break to cool off knee deep in the ocean and go back for more. That’s how we rolled in those days…..
*********
Get your minds out of the gutter. You are embarrassing yourselves. Google “Carolina Shag.” Check out the music of NC bands, “The Embers” and “The Band of Oz”…..and “The Drifters”……..”The Tams”
Here’s a taste of a classic from my college shagging days. “I Love Beach Music” by The Embers!!!!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tmlLbNaNTIc&pp=ygUSaSBsb3ZlIGJlYWNoIG11c2lj
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker: Warner has been enamored with both-sidery Gang of 6 – type things for a very long time.
He barely won re-election in 2014 when it was expected to be a walkover:
His winning margin was much bigger in 2020.
Who knows what 2026 will be like.
So, it’s not at all surprising that Warner is on this list. It’s who he is. (Personally, I don’t like that so many elected Virginia Democrats aren’t as liberal as I am, but I recognize that the state is not a liberal bastion as a whole even though it has been blue for a while. It’s important that Democrats continue to find a way to win here.)
HTH.
Best wishes,
Scott.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@hrprogressive:
Others who I think are doing well include Chris Murphy, Elizabeth Warren, Jasmine Crockett and Maxwell Frost. Crockett and Frost, no surprise. Murphy is pretty damn good, though, which surprises me.
Betty Cracker
@@mistermix.bsky.social: Interesting about the shift on attitudes toward immigration depending on how the question is posed. My working theory on the issue has been that Dems really are to the left of voters on immigration.
I could be wrong, but that’s my impression from polls, election results and conversations with non-political junkies. If I’m right, I don’t know what we do about it, other than do a better job of explaining why immigration is economically necessary and a net positive for the country.
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: That begs that question: Has anyone conducted a post-hoc analysis comparing polled approval with actual voting?
Let’s say 100% of Republicans “approve” of an elected Democrat, for whatever reason(s), since the last time they did not vote for him. What percentage of Republicans then in fact did vote for him at the next election?
I assume the null hypothesis here, as in, “zero.”
Quinerly
@@mistermix.bsky.social:
Chris Murphy has been excellent.
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: Ah, but I choose to use your POV as my rule because I agree with it — I’m just not a good enough human (yet) to always follow what deep down I know is probably right.
Another Scott
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): AFAIK, they always put statements about levels of confidence on their conclusions when sending reports to decision-makers. It’s part of the standard boilerplate. (And it makes sense, because decision-makers need to know how much confidence they have in their conclusions when deciding what, if anything, to do about it.)
Best wishes,
Scott.
Kay
@cain:
Agreed.
Lobo
@Lobo:
Seminar: Borg & Resistance is futile. – This is an optional seminar to the Politics of Opposition. Several Democrats will serve as guest speakers. Tuna melt, Borg nutrition, and resistance will be one of the topics.
Chief Oshkosh
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): This old chestnut. Isn’t this like 6 years ago?
The answer is: raw information and interpretation was taken out of context by MAGAts and their elected pols. The actual message was: Yeah, we considered this, and there was some hinky information that supported it, but in the end, we deemed it total fucking bullshit.
Eolirin
I really can’t stand posts like this. They make me want to stop coming here entirely.
Y’all wanna know why we keep losing?
Because we take reporting that’s literally just that there’s some debate amongst the Democrats in the Senate about how to move forward that is still on going, with members willing to air aspects of it publicly, likely to influence that discussion, as a sign of weakness and fecklessness in the part of our elected officials. To assume that we know better than elected officials what they need to do to get elected going forward, that tactics to keep their jobs are signs of betrayal, and that strategy must be decided upon, with unity, all at once and cannot evolve or include difference of opinion or we’re rudderless and ineffective.
Y’all are reinforcing our branding issues over a process carrying out in exactly the way it’s going to carry out when you’ve got 100 people with egos dealing with a difficult situation. And this is a topic that is neither actionable nor relevant to what we might be needing to do. This is an extremely pointless counterproductive waste of time for us to be engaging in.
Please, for the love of God, stop. Or at least extend the pie filter to apply to frontpage posts.
Edit: I want to remind everyone how much people would slag on Harry Reid, until all of a sudden he was viewed as hugely effective. Nothing actually changed. We just got far enough along in the process that outcomes became clearer than dicussions over messaging.
Another Scott
Speaking of AOC, Fritschner has a short thread.
tl;dr – Gerry Connolly was immediately out front talking about the illegal IG firings. Fritschner (and I) haven’t seen anything from AOC about it yet.
FWIW.
Best wishes,
Scott.
cain
@Betty Cracker:
We do not owe the GOP a single smidgen of grace. They’ve been fucking us over for 25 years now doing a burn it down tactics. We do not need to be the status quo party. The voters have voted to non status-quo that’s what the Dem party should take from this.
The voting public have reached a desperate stage that they don’t give a shit about democracy. You should let your freak flag fly and provide an equal no-status quo posture.
Yet, Dems keep trying to fucking reach out again. It’s amazing to me how badly to cling on to things. Radicalism is what is needed.
JaySinWA
@Czar Chasm:
Sounds like Infrastructure Week to me, unfortunately. I don’t think the strategy is going to come from the top down. It will fall out from a number of insurrections that start to work.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Another Scott:
AOC isn’t the ranking member of Oversight, Connolly is. Glad he’s able to make a statement about a topic that’s smack dab in the wheelhouse of his committee. If she had been elected to the position, she’d certainly be making a statement.
So what on both points, really. So what that Connolly said something — that’s his job. So what that AOC didn’t — it’s not her job.
Chief Oshkosh
@Eolirin:
Eh, not quite. In the case of Durbin, I can’t bring myself to ignore his actions over decades. “This is all brand new” just fits with all that is wrong with his approach. Contrast that with the examples that we do have of his fellow Senators who actually seem to have been paying attention the last 10 years — Warren comes to mind, apparently Murphy, probably others.
Of course, I will certainly give you this: Maybe the reporter simply made up the entire interview. Maybe Dick never said what he’s quoted as having said.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Chief Oshkosh:
FWIW, Kate Riga, the TPM reporter covering the Hill and Supreme Court, regularly points out that his messaging and actions are weak sauce, similar to what was quoted in this article. She’s named him numbers of times as a bad example of Senate Brain when she talks about him in the Josh Marshall podcast.
Betty
@Chief Oshkosh: Durbin has been useless as a fighter for a long time. He really should not be chairing two committees, especially Judiciary.
Steve LaBonne
@Eolirin: I keep saying this and people keep failing to register what it means- in our system the party that doesn’t hold the White House has no natural leader (and it’s even more difficult after losing the whole trifecta). Leaders (and it should be plural) will emerge but it’s very naive to expect that to happen overnight. And we’re in a four-year marathon, not a sprint.
RaflW
Steve LaBonne
@Betty: I can barely even express how much Durbin has been pissing me off for years. Retire already.
Ruff the dog
Seems like the Democratic leaders keep forgetting they’re lined up in front of the same firing squad. Left, right, or center, they’re aiming at you. You don’t earn any goodwill by offering to meet them halfway, there is no halfway. Oppose, oppose, oppose, and make them own it.
Matt
@Betty Cracker:
They hate conflict more than they hate fascism; it’s the exact same sentiment that MLK called out in “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”.
And that’s the optimistic take – the alternative is that they LIKE the fascist policies, and pretending to be helpless lets them keep up the grift. “Oh no don’t throw me in that thar briar patch!” vibes.
Steve LaBonne
@Matt: Isn’t this the kind thinking that as mentioned on another thread, got us Alito on the Supreme Court instead of Harriet Miers?
eclare
@RaflW:
Hoo boy!
Betty Cracker
@Eolirin:
Jesus. This is a blog, not an assignment desk. Also, scrolling on by is always an option if the discussion is a waste of your precious time.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@@mistermix.bsky.social: I think Chris Murphy was radicalized by the shooting at Sandy Hook and has never looked back. He’s a good one.
different-church-lady
AMERICA INCREASING DIGS FASCISTS. WHY IS THIS HARD?
Miss Bianca
@TurnItOffAndOnAgain: Wow. that’s quite a take.
Geminid
@Steve LaBonne: I get your point, but would add that the 2026 midterms will be a very critical election, and that is more of a 10,000 meter run. The preliminary races– the primaries– will be cranking up this time next next year.
Speaking only for myself, my biggest interest is in those House races. I’m analyzing current politics mainly in terms of what helps us win a House majority two Novembers from now. I pay attention to other matters of course, but winning the House is Job Number One in my opinion.
Steve LaBonne
@Geminid: Also in terms of legislation the House is where the action is right now. A lot may depend on whether Jeffries can keep the caucus unified and head off any defections.
Geminid
@Another Scott: I’m hoping Mark Warner retires. Rep. Jennifer McClellan can win that seat and I think she would make an excellent replacement.
Another Scott
@@mistermix.bsky.social: ??
This you? Checking In With Opposition Leader AOC
;-)
(I assume we’ll be hearing from her about it soon enough, myself.)
FWIW.
Best wishes,
Scott.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
A Dem senator actually used that word. JFC, the total cluelessness of a Dem senator making that statement using *that* word.
Geminid
@Steve LaBonne: I don’t think Jeffries Jeffries will try to prevent any defections even if people think he should. I think Jeffries, Catherine Clark and Pete Aguilar will concentrate on holding the caucus together on the votes where it makes a concrete, consequential difference.
Steve LaBonne
@Geminid: Yeah, I should have been clearer. The vote that matters will be the one on whatever reconciliation pile of crap they manage to come up with.
burritoboy
This is foolishness – you all know perfectly well why (some) Democratic legislators are the way they are. And you won’t point the finger at yourselves, because, ultimately, you yourselves caused it. If you wanted a strong party, you (and yes, plenty of you here as individuals and as a group) would have bent your shoulders to the grindstones and taken over your local party clubs. But – as hordes of you have repeatedly openly said – “I can’t go to meetings because [fill in arrant nonsense bullshit]”. Okay, great, you’ve thrown away your power. Why should anyone respect you after you’ve shown you actively can’t handle and actively reject the power you’ve been given? You don’t want to do the absolute minimum that citizenship requires. You don’t want the responsibility and clearly can’t handle it. If you can’t even show enough leadership to land your ass in one meeting a month, why should Durbin be any better? (These things are now on Zoom, a lot of people can literally be lying in bed and still attending the meeting……and you still don’t show. OK.)
Gretchen
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): The right seems to want to think covid was a dangerous Chinese bio weapon that we were helpless against, so it’s not Trump’s fault that it was such a problem here. But they want to simultaneously believe that it’s just a cold, so lockdowns, masks, and vaccine mandates were liberal over-reach to control us all. Of course both can’t be true, but that doesn’t stop them.
different-church-lady
@burritoboy: If you try hard, someday you will be a burritoman.
Birdie
Wow, you’re very certain of your own diagnosis, aren’t you?
One thing I’ll say, self-righteousness is always a turn off, so you’ll understand if I don’t find you a convincing authority on good messaging.
MomSense
Cory Booker has a series of posts on Instagram (and I assume other sites) called Shit that ain’t true. Worth checking out.
Glory b
@hrprogressive: Discriminating on the basis of age is no different from any other protected class.
Just like it wouldn’t do to say “All the black ones should go,” you shouldn’t say “All the older ones should go.”
By that measure, John Lewis would go and Fetterman would stay.
Glory b
@Another Scott: AOC is never wrong, she can only be wronged.
Miss Bianca
@different-church-lady: I do find myself wondering if bb has ever actually *been* a local party officer…
burritoboy
Different church lady:
Maybe, just maybe, if some of you could actually do stuff (like land your ass in a handful of meetings per year and not make every stupid nonsense excuse both imaginable and unimaginable), things might happen. Go and primary Durbin, and I would support it…….Your response: oh, wait, I have to go to a Zoom meeting? Too much work! Maybe I should put a picture of my dog up on Facebook, that will be great political action. The picture of your dog is what leads to Durbin, but you’re going to put up pictures of your dog, your cat, your turtle and your rabbit and then whine to us about how somebody else doesn’t have any fight in them. No, the problem is you don’t have any fight in you, and that’s what let Durbin be himself, which is not only nothing new but how he’s always been.
different-church-lady
@burritoboy: I’m now thinking I was wrong about the eventually-becoming-a-man thing.
TurnItOffAndOnAgain
@Miss Bianca: It’s grossly oversimplified (The Dirty Fucking Hippies Were Right is a tag on this website for a reason) and there’s been definite moments in history up to this point where the white left were ignored (Vietnam and the Iraq were to name just two big examples) and I should’ve made it more clear that no matter how marginalized white Democrats get it’ll never hold a candle to how POC members of the party are treated.
I can’t say I’m incredibly good at getting across what I’m trying to say much of the time.
But I think a big part of the problem is framing; you can quibble about the rules of the game all day and miss that the field is falling into a sink hole and maybe this was a bad location to play in the first place. Even if I’m not incredibly confident in my ability to get my points across, it felt worth bringing the idea up, since no one else seemed to be touching on it.
It’s worth thinking about, at least.
pajaro
@Wapiti:
Democrats can say they will not tolerate lawlessness. I’m sure the press will report the news breathlessly. Democrats can say they will oppose everything. Particularly in the Senate, on matters of appointments where a simple majority will be enough and Republicans have a large cushion, that will get them nothing. People need to get a grip on the facts that in the Senate, Republicans have a comfortable majority, and that they have the Presidency and the Supreme Court, to add to their small majority in the House, where opposing everything may be the right play, at least at the start.. It’s not that Democrats shouldn’t oppose, it’s that when they do and lose, they are going to look weak, there’s simply no way to avoid that. And people are going to say how feckless they are.
So why don’t you give them more that one freaking week to figure out the best way to navigate things, which may be different in the Senate than the House, and will surely be different in Blue States than in Congress.
Betty Cracker
@different-church-lady: Yep. A taquito, tops.
zhena gogolia
@RaflW: Late to this thread, but she’s a bishop, not a pastor, and she did no such thing. She did not call Trump a bigot to his face. She gave a perfectly calm sermon based entirely on scripture.
pajaro
@Betty Cracker:
If Fetterman moves too far to the right, he should be primaried when his term is up. That’s what elections are for.
pajaro
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Did Mr. Semafor say who the anonymous Senator informant was? No? Why not?
So one Senator said something. Yeah, it’s an outrage. It’s so important to keep our fire directed at those we need to be our allies, right? That’s the way to win!
Don’t get me wrong. Durbin’s not my cup of tea. But I know who my enemies are right now, and he’s not one of them.
burritoboy
It’s not like it makes me a great person, but I think I’m on nine boards (most with some political content), and I’ll be taking at least another couple more on this year. But sure, go right ahead and tell me your posting of a picture of your dog on Facebook is the resistance when you can’t show up to a monthly meeting from your bed. (Sure, there are people for whom that’s all they can do, and some who can’t do even that. That’s fine and great. But what’s everyone else’s lame excuse?) Durbin is Durbin because you’ve let him be Durbin. He’s always been this way and you let him skate. You’re asking for fighters when you won’t do anything to fight for yourself.
Betty Cracker
@burritoboy: It’s your unfounded assumptions that are beclowning you here. WTF do you know about how the commenters at this blog distribute their energy offline? Judging from your ignorant, self-righteous comments, nothing.
Miss Bianca
@burritoboy: Hey, fuckhead – I’ve *been* a local party official. For years. For all the good it did me, the local party, and local politics.
I did it even tho, as a reporter, I probably shouldn’t have been allied with the Democratic Party, because it put a(nother) target on my back in my blood-red county. I did it because I thought I was making a difference, helping to boost candidates, issues etc. And sometimes I did, and sometimes I didn’t.
Stopped going to the state conventions as a delegate after 2016, where I got to see all the Bernie Boors – including people I knew, or thought I knew – shouting down and booing all the POC who dared to say, “Hey, you know, *I’m* voting for Hillary.”
But even while I was appalled and disgusted by that behavior, I still did my bit as an officer for the Democratic Party. You wanna know why and when I quit? It was when all the Colorado Democrats meekly fell into line and shuffled onto the “Joe’s Gotta Go” train. That’s when I realized that I was, apparently, completely out of step with the common wisdom of the Colorado Democrats.
So I fucking quit, and re-registered as Unaffiliated. Like most of the state’s other voters. And you know what? I don’t regret it for a fucking instant.
Now, “despise me if you dare,” as Lizzie Bennet said to Mr Darcy.
Miss Bianca
@TurnItOffAndOnAgain: Sure, ’tis food for thought, entirely.