I wanted to gather up everything I’ve been tracking on the politics of the current situation in one post:
Polls
- Polls are still all over the place but we’re seeing some movement in the direction shown above (among Democrats). The same poll showed a 60/40 split among Republicans, with the 60% group wanting Republicans in Congress to support Trump when they agree, pushback when they don’t agree.
- Another poll showed that there was a lessening of support for Trump for the under-30s age group.
- That said, I think the polls are showing, in general, that people are still catching with the coup and the freezing of funds for critical programs will continue to make a mark. Also, courts ruling against the Trump administration, consistently and often, is negative, no matter what those of us who are more politically engaged think about whether there will be consequences.
- Inflation, as Betty posted about earlier this morning, hasn’t magically gone down, and $8/dozen eggs are just one example. Even if Trumpers fuck with inflation figures, as we saw with the Biden Administration, people make their own judgment about prices independent of the graphs.
Musk
- As Betty posted below about the DOGE hearing, Democrats are eager and able to hammer Musk. Betty’s Casar clip is brutal, and Jasmine Crockett, Robert Garcia and Melanie Stansbury also got some licks in. (Follow that Garcia link for a real banger.)
- He is an unfuckable, weird, unelected incel. There is nothing about the guy that is politically attractive, and he wants to steal your grandma’s money. He’s a great target for Democrats and an anchor around the neck of Republicans. There are going to be protests at Tesla dealerships across the nation. Good.
Congress
- Republicans – This bunch of cowards are still trying to keep their mouths shut in public, but when they write to their constituents, they are singing a different tune. Betty mentioned this TPM piece below (another gift link from me), which includes a link to this Bulwark piece with some letters that aren’t just “don’t listen to the leftwing media”. Greg Sargent covered this with Elizabeth Saunders in his podcast this morning.
- Democrats – In general, I think they’re waking up. Axios posted a piece yesterday saying that Democrats are “pissed” that they’re getting so much pushback and phone calls. One of the reps quoted was Don Beyer. His Deputy Chief of Staff is on Bluesky and he said (and I believe him) that Beyer’s quote was truncated — Beyer welcomes calls, but also says to please call Republicans. I think all the following are true: some Democrats are pissed about getting so many calls, a lot of them welcome those calls, and a lot of people are calling Democrats instead of Republicans. There is zero point in calling a Democrat who doesn’t represent you. And calling Republicans can work. Another positive sign is Hakeem Jeffries appointing a Rapid Response Task Force that has some Democrats who aren’t afraid to fight. If I were a Dem who hadn’t been loudly opposing Trump, and I saw those “confidence” numbers in the graphic above, I’d be worried, because the base is more angry than I’ve ever seen them. Unfortunately, there’s still a lot of things happening in the Senate under unanimous consent.
Tariffs
- Trump, who a few days ago backtracked on across-the-board 25% tariffs, has now said he’ll impose 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum in March, further enraging our North American trading partners. He did that in his first term, and at least Mexico retaliated with targeted tariffs on, among other things, bourbon. They were in effect for a useless year and did nothing to revive the US steel industry.
- Canada – I spent some time on r/onguardforthee, a subreddit of Candians with a liberal bent. Canadians are pissed, and these new tariffs are just throwing gas on a fire. A new poll shows that the Liberals are projected to win a in majority Quebec if Mark Carney is their leader, a big change from earlier polling. The key point is that any Canadian who was Trump-curious is getting hammered, and the Tories can’t run away from their prior infatuation with Trump. Conservative Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who got a lot of press when he said he’d remove US liquor from LCBO shelves, and “rip up” a Starlink contract, has backtracked on both those promises, and even the generally Conservative-leaning Globe & Mail is on his ass about that. Canadian-US tourism (a $20 billion + industry) is going to take a big hit, because Candians are serious about boycotting the US, no matter what their political leanings. The Peace Bridge, a Canada/US crossing at Buffalo, was empty on the Canadian side the other night. I’ve never seen that. If you want to get a feel for just how pissed Canadians are, this interview with Member of Parliament Charlie Angus covers the bases.
- Mexicans are more used to being treated like shit by the US than Canada, but they think the tariffs are more than ridiculous because Mexico is a net importer of steel and aluminum from the US. Claudia Sheinbaum is sticking to her strategy of calmly saying that Mexico will negotiate with the US and work things out. Her Instagram, which in my view is a model of how a politician should use social media, has some not-so-subtle imagery. This weekend, she participated in the “loyalty march”, a tradition that AMLO re-started, which commemorates a time when cadets marched with the Mexican President from the Military Academy to the National Palace to thwart a putsch. Nothing subtle about this picture:
Overall, my take is that we’re still in trouble, but the pushback has begun.
lowtechcyclist
I’ve been aware of that for many years. But I understood it to apply to Congresspersons regardless of party. So:
IS there a point to calling Republicans who don’t represent you? I’d be delighted to do so if it’s worth doing (beyond my personal satisfaction, that is).
A Ghost to Most
You do you, but I no longer believe this will be settled with words.
Kristine
One of my favorite songs.
hrprogressive
https://www.reddit.com/r/law/s/ljLxtngd42
Musk has allegedly just stolen $80M from NYC that was FEMA allocated money.
Like, apparently, just gone in and wired it back out.
Not sure how this sort of criminality is stopped short of direct citizen action.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Kristine: It’s all Canadian or Mexican song references from here on out!
@A Ghost to Most: Yep
oldster
I am devastated, gutted, by Trump’s surrender of Ukraine.
He is a traitor. A foul, unAmerican piece of filth. He has condemned millions to death, millions more to slavery, and he has blackened our national reputation for a thousand years.
All because he loves Russia more than he loves America.
We could have won the second Cold War. We were winning it. And now Trump has completely surrendered, allowing Putin unopposed domination over Europe.
Trump has heaped shame on our national reputation. He is the greatest traitor our country has ever seen, outside of the CSA, and perhaps including the CSA.
Starfish (she/her)
I am enjoying Congressman Garcia, and I am also terrified that Marjorie Taylor Greene is chairwoman of something.
Jay
Reposted from below,
https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/eby-says-us-economic-integration-last-thing-bc-wants-ahead-of-white-house-trip/
As Premier Eby pointed out, there is no other source globally for the alloys of aluminum that BC produces, (specialty aircraft, missile and space grades) and as Alcan has reported, they have already cancelled US orders and found other customers, globally.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@hrprogressive: Yeah, I mentioned that in one of my New York posts yesterday, but like a lot of news, it’s still sinking in, and the framing of “stole the money” is new, to me at least. Another example of how normies are still learning about stuff we’ve known for a while.
JetsamPool
Wait, should we be calling Republicans who don’t represent us? I’m represented by Dems. I’ve been able to get through to my congressional rep, but the senators’ offices go directly to voicemail. I tried sending emails, not sure that helped.
I even tried calling my representative for the state legislature to see if anything was being done at state-level, but once again got voicemail. Also sent an email.
hells littlest angel
Democrats should oppose Trump as much as possible, but Democrats can’t effectively oppose Trump is some real loser attitude shit. What a country, meaning, what a fucked up country.
hells littlest angel
@lowtechcyclist: I wonder if there’s a point in calling a Republican who does represent you, unless you’ve better blackmail material on him than Trump does.
eclare
@oldster:
It’s hard to believe it was just 2008 when hundreds of thousands gathered in Berlin to see then candidate Obama speak.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I apologize for re-quoting the late great Sir Terry Pratchett, but in The Truth, while the putsch’s watchword was that “a lie can make it halfway around the world while the truth is getting its boots on”, the rejoinder is: “the truth has got its boots on, and it’s going to start kicking.”
I’m ashamed to be an American these days, but I’m grateful that we live in a world that can, in its entirety, bear witness to the evils being wrought, in damned near real time, and get the word out. The bastards may try to drown the truth in lies … but I get the sense that they’re afraid. They’re moving fast because they feel they have no choice, that the blitzkrieg is the only way they can accomplish their goals.
Blitzkrieg. That’s what this is. A political blitzkrieg.
Didn’t the architects of the original blitzkriegs end up with their necks stretched on the Nuremberg gallows?
catclub
ummm, with twelve kids with about 11 different women.
Jay
@hells littlest angel:
All the elected Democratic Party members can do for now is stall and seek redress through the Courts for now.
The Rethugs have all three (White Supremacy House, Congress, the House), the supine media and the White Supremacy Court.
Belafon
@catclub: Artificial insemination.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@catclub: He has a sort of evil charisma about him that attracts, but the effect isn’t permanent. Notice that nobody seems to stay with him once they get a good look at what sort of person he really is. And that includes at least one of his children.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Good on the Globe & Mail for calling out Ford. What a blowhard.
That photo of the Mexican President is awesome. That Humvee she’s in was built in Indiana.
scav
@catclub: An incel with money can purchase the birth (ahem) arrangements. Doesn’t change ths chassis.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Bruce K in ATH-GR:
We are in a cold civil war and everything we do should be done thru that lens.
Regarding “architects of the original blitzkriegs”, that term references an operational doctrine originally developed and championed by Heinz Guderian. He led the armored corps in the invasion of Poland, France and the USSR.
He surrendered to US forces, was imprisoned but never charged with anything. Died in 1954. You can betch ur ass that if the Soviets had grabbed him first, he would have died in a Siberian labor camp.
Thus endeth today’s brief History of Heinz Guderian.
Baud
Interesting that oppose was underwater in January.
eclare
@catclub:
Several of those are from IVF.
sixthdoctor
This at least is good news, the Army isn’t following illegal orders:
RaflW
I guess it’s good news that normies are starting to notice the wheels coming off. A whole lotta shit is already now so broken we’ll need a Marshal Plan — if we don’t just totally collapse.
Sorry to be dark. Today is overwhelming, which I know is a tactic by these shits. I’ll dust myself off, but it ain’t easy.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@catclub:
His kids are via IVF, he’s disclosed that before
Also “unfuckable” is a state of being, not a comment on whether or not some woman will fuck him on occasion. ;)
Ksmiami
@RaflW: we just need to destroy every single Republican. Then we can build a new country.
Trollhattan
Will never not upvote Cowboy Junkies.
Baud
Via reddit
Hunter Gathers
@Baud: ‘The added weight of the armor will not impact the range of the battery at all’ he said while bombed out of his mind on Special K.
Trollhattan
Takin’ it to the Tweets.
Moar.
Trollhattan
@Jay:
Such an own goal on ourselves.
Wasn’t surprised to see Canada is our biggest aluminum supplier, just by how much. (Hint: a LOT). But their being our largest steel supplier did. Bigger than Gyna. Mexico ranks high, too.
ETA nothing Trump or B.C. can do to affect power exports to the Western Grid. They make more than they use.
“Let’s bring that pollution back home to USA” said approximately no one.
Marc
@Trollhattan: Moar.
In my opinion, Khanna is running to lead the ticket for the Centrist Democratic Party of America. He loves techbros, cryptocurrency grifts, and is happy to sell us out to billionaires who don’t include Indians in their racist rants.
AKA The Man
I’m a Canadian who’s currently visiting the US for work and words can’t describe how excited I am to leave and never return. I had multiple friends reaching out to me who thought I was visiting for leisure essentially shocked that I would even be in the US right now. To say Canadians are pissed is the ultimate understatement. Not even getting rid of Trump will ever change our minds, I’m sure. We will never trust the US again.
Jay
@Trollhattan:
Lots of opportunities for “technical difficulties”, ruZZian hacker attacks and malicious compliance.
For example, we could release much of the current water stored in the Columbia reservoirs now to “make room” for the snow melt,…………. and just oopsie, we overestimated the snowpack.
Under the Columbia Treaty we get first use at the power, the US get’s what’s left.
sab
@AKA The Man: Give me a break. I have Canadian relatives. Rightly so, you never trusted us. It was all just pretense. Pretense is over now. Admitting you never trusted the sketchy southern neighbor, and now, with us having weakened ourselves, you can say so.
JDM
The local supermarket flyers in Victoria, BC are now prominently featuring the phrase “Buy Canadian” on their pages.
Kay
@AKA The Man:
Nor should you. We’re untrustworthy.
Jay
@sab:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-canadians-growing-more-trusting-of-us-as-an-ally-but-less-so-of-biden/
https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2015/10/06/canadians-satisfied-with-u-s-relationship/
Gin & Tonic
@AKA The Man:
Nobody will, or should. At age 71, I know I’ve lived through the heyday of US world influence, and will never see it return.
Lapassionara
@oldster: Ditto. Vlad has defeated the US completely, without firing a shot in our direction.
AM in NC
@hells littlest angel: I am calling my twoGOP Senators daily, and the staffers seem bummed. Tillis’s people at least aren’t freaks (Budd’s are full-on MAGA choads like the Senator himself). The Tillis staffers are not behind this Musk bullshit and the blatant illegality and they don’t sound really happy when I talk with them. I do not approach them with anger but with “I am a loyal American and why isn’t the Senator standing up to this attack on the foundations of our country by an unelected billionaire?”
Or does Senator Tillis agree that we should destroy American soft Power around the world by shuttering USAID?
Or Does Senator Tillis support the destruction of the FCPA and the legalized bribing of foreign governments? Is Senator Tillis now pro-corruption?
They know these things are bad, and I remind them that each and every one of us has to make a choice: USA or not?
AM in NC
@catclub: Elon’s an incel. It’s his money that’s fuckable.
kindness
We have to work Trump into some Neville Chamberlain stuff. Yea, it’s pre WWII (just barely) so MAGA & most normies won’t have a clue but maybe it’s worth teaching them some history?
sab
@Jay: Interesting how you all will poll now that our feckless leader wants your whole big country to be one of our states, and just a single state. Delaware with a few more congressmen.
Absolutely not sneering at you guys. I am too sick with shame about my guys.
Aussie sheila
@Marc:
This. He’s so overrated. I don’t get how he’s often tagged as ‘ progressive’. He oozes preening self regard. He’s an empty vessel.
Freemark
@AKA The Man: Born and raised here and I haven’t trusted the American people for quite some time.
FelonyGovt
I posted last night that in a telephone town hall yesterday, my Representative, Ted Lieu, encouraged us to get folks to “ask Republicans the same questions you’ve been asking me”. I took it that he wanted us to encourage friends and relatives who live in Republican districts to make those calls.
bbleh
… the pushback has begun.
Concur. And then there will be reaction to the pushback, and reaction to the reaction, and on and on.
And who rubs his hands almost every day in unimagined glee at what an EPIC intelligence coup he has wrought? None other than Mr. Trump’s BFF (and investor, and controller) Vladimir Putin. It’s almost unbelievable not only what he has got that he wanted — severe weakening of NATO, public loss of support for Ukraine — but what he got that is just gravy, notably the political damage that the US is inflicting upon itself, which will weaken it (ie, us) for years if not decades.
I’m generally not a believer in the “Great Man Hypothesis,” but OMG this particular alignment of longtime KGB controller with badly psychologically disordered and profoundly stupid American entertainer is one for the ages.
Jay
@sab:
As of last week, only 17% of Canadians had any confidence in the US and it appears to be shrinking.
sab
@Aussie sheila: Is he seen as a progressive? I always thought he was a rare Red dog, well to the right of Blue dog democrats. Runs as a Democrat because that is the only way to get on the ballot in his district.
I hate to disappoint Schrodimgers Cat, but Indian born American men are pretty much very often RWNJ Republicans. Tiny as they are as a percentage of the population, look at how many are in Trump’s administration. They somehow think that being educationally elite makes them not potential MAGA prey.
sab
@Jay: Breaks my heart, but sensible of them.
Baud
@sab:
He supports Medicare for All and increasing social security benefits.
TBone
Ah, my first deguello posted in honor of Claudia has achieved photographic accompaniment! Perfect.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LIovUBTrTa0
The definition of badass.
Bill Arnold
@Baud:
Here’s a Rolling Stone piece (the reddit thread does not include a link, now)
The Trump Administration Might Just Spend $400 Million on ‘Armored’ Teslas – Trump’s State Department expects to spend $400 million on ‘armored’ vehicles made by special government employee Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company (Miles Klee, February 12, 2025)
sab
@Baud: Well that is very very good. I may need to rethink. Fortunately he is not in my district.
Foreign policy is tricky. Makes us do and hope for awful things. I think they think we need to forget all people are people.
FelonyGovt
Pleased to see Robert Garcia kicking ass. I remember him as Mayor of Long Beach (CA).
hoytwillrise
@lowtechcyclist: I fail to understand why this is true in that all Congressional reps pass laws that affect the entire U.S.; so the idea that someone outside their district can’t criticize them is bullshit.
CaseyL
@Bill Arnold: I guess, if they’re gonna steal shit, I’d rather they stole it from DoD than, say, SSA.
frosty
@hoytwillrise: Anyone can criticize anyone in Congress. But if you’re not a constituent and potential voter, you have to be prepared that they don’t care what you tell them.
Although Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader are sort of national figures and it might matter to them. I really don’t know.
Geminid
@Starfish (she/her): I think Greene chairs a subcommittee of the Oversight Committee. It’s intended to review and promote the DOGE project
Miki
@oldster: This. All of it.
And I don’t usually like you.
But this.
#brokenheartemoji
Martin
I think it’ll be a bit longer for any pushback. We’re only in the anxiety phase. The hits to research universities won’t really be actualized until July 1 when fiscal years change and the budgeting consequences arrive. You’ll have some isolated job losses before then, but it’s closer to that timeframe you’ll see big swings with the scythe. Same is probably true for other funding cuts. Some will hit closer to April 1 – change in quarter. Hits to tax revenue will also be realized in April.
The shit is on its way to the fan, not yet hit it.
Glory b
@hoytwillrise: You can. But if you can’t vote for or against them, they won’t care what you think
Dane
They want you to stop calling them because 90% of them are doing the bare minimum at best. Keep calling democratic representatives at all levels and make sure they know if they continue to ostrich, they will not get your money and your vote.
lou
@sab: Don’t many Indian Americans also have their roots in the upper castes? That could explain a lot about the Trump supporters. In fact, IIRC there was a discrimination lawsuit against a couple of Silicon Valley engineering company managers who were Indian American and discriminated against other employees whose families were from lower Indian castes.
@sab:
Glory b
@oldster: Remember the attendees at the Trump rallies who wore shirts saying “Better Russian than Democrat.”
They’re getting what they claim to have wanted.
Geminid
@sab: Then again, there’s Democratic Cngressmen Raj Krishnamoorthi (IL), Shri Thanedar (MI), and now Suhas Subramanyam, who was just elected to represent the Virginia 10th CD. They all seem pretty solid, and they don’t showboat the way Ro Khanna does.
Glory b
@Dane: AND what will that get us?
schrodingers_cat
@sab: @lou: The MAGA Indian American Republicans are not representative of all Indian Americans.
As a demographic, Indian Americans have voted 2:1 for Dems for many cycles now. 30% Indian Americans are Republicans but they are loud, wealthy and obnoxious.
sab
@Martin: I agree.
By the time we seriously notice it will be too late. Programs destroyed. Best scientists emigrated.
We may fix this, but it will be multigenerational.
Fortunately, I am old. Not my problem.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
The people I network with in the region see him pretty much how we see Polis here in CO, not good.
He’s the tech bro’s House rep and has to have a (D) after his name to create the impression he’s actually a Democrat. He’s as fauxgressive as they come.
Glory b
https://www.reclaimthefight.com/2021/02/white-grievance-dominates-woke.html?spref=fb&m=1
Starfish (she/her)
@Martin: Those universities are major employers in red states.
sab
@schrodingers_cat: What are you talking about? //
My stepson’s girlfriend was taken in ( i.e. hired when she was desperate at age 16) by Indian immigrants running a gas station convenience store. She is in her thirties now, not Indian, but this family saved her life. She works for them and loves them.
The elder father is very conservative and Republican. Everone else in the family is more normal. They just defer to him and vote however they want, without telling him.
Still saying, there are a lot of extremely icky Indian background males in Trump and Musk’s entourage.
cain
Let. Mortal. Kombat. BEGIN.
Glory b
@schrodingers_cat: No, those who are loud and wrong get the most attention.
It happened with black men too.
TBone
Tooting on my horn and the algorithm brought me a song of prayer hahahaha for my cold, black heart. Here’s to you, you traitorous scum. Herewith I bescumber.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n1VvVtLla_U
sab
@schrodingers_cat: I think your stats are about right. Most not Trump. Significant but well under 50% are Trump. Those men always disappoint us.
oldster
@Miki:
“And I don’t usually like you.”
Wait, what?? Why would you say that you don’t like me? Do you even know me?
Starfish (she/her)
@sab: Agreed. There are a significant number of Indian Americans who are Republicans, and you can’t erase them by saying they are wealthy and obnoxious.
And though we like to build fake hostage stories for the Republican women, Usha Vance is sitting right there, and she clerked for Kavanaugh, Roberts, and Amal Thapur, another conservative Indian American who supported the cause of some religious godbotherers before he became a (conservative) judge.
sab
@Geminid: Cleveland has a great guy who has been running for office for twenty plus years. Can’t get elected because he sounds foriegn even though he isnt.
Deepak Chandra. He gave up running for office and founded his own highly successful law firm. They still do good work.
sab
@sab: But as you say, most are not icky Republicans. Those who are get too much attention.
I guess, as a white Democrat woman, I want to point out that other smaller demographics also have lots of bad people, talthough not as bad as mine.
sab
@sab: Gawd damn, I said Democat not Democratic.
This vileness is contagious.
Old School
@Bill Arnold: The Rolling Stone article is behind a paywall.
Here’s an article about the armored Teslas that should work for those interested.
sab
@Starfish (she/her): He married way up. She could have done anything and she chose to be his at home silent wife. Kind of stuns me. Getting into and through Yale couldn’t have been a picnic.
Ruckus
@sab:
It’s humanity.
It ranges through every single type of human. Some have to be the top of the pile, even if it’s a pile of dog poop. Or elephant poop if they are really bad. And it goes all the way up to those who will risk/give their life for others without hesitation. It has nothing to do with gender or money, it’s humanity. Some are very worthy of accolades because they are very talented and good humans. Some are worthy because they will risk everything for someone else. Some aren’t worth the oxygen they inhale. Some are worth far less. Most are somewhere in the middle.
schrodingers_cat
@Starfish (she/her): Yes, there are Indian Americans who are prominent Republicans when I have denied that?
sab
@schrodingers_cat: Never have you denied that. Isn’t that why you are here. Less annoying men running things
ETA Not less men, just the men are less annoying?
sab
@sab: Where the phuck was my brain? I am old and squirrels live in my head. I invented a wrong first name. As I have said, this guy has been working in our community for twenty plus years.
Subodh Chandra is his name.
sab
@sab: Subodh Chandra not Deepak Chandra. What was I thinking? Squirrels in the head.
YY_Sima Qian
@sab: There has been a long running (& often unpleasant) debate in this forum since the Nov. elections on the primary causes of the MAGA win, whether it was racism, misogyny, nationalist bravado, [feigned] economic populism, [feigned] isolationism. Why can’t it be all of the above, when the margins were relatively narrow?
It is indisputably racism, misogyny, & discrimination/hatred of minorities remain strongly salient forces in US politics, & they have become stronger & more open (& slowly more openly tolerated by “polite” society) as part of the reaction to the Obama Presidency & the Hillary Clinton candidacy & the growing diversification of America. The MAGA movement & all the other formerly fringe types (such as the libertarians/techno-authoritarians of SV) trying to leverage it to their own ends are united by white Herrenvolk ethno-nationalism, & all are sympathetic to authoritarianism/illiberalism, & all are speaking the language of economic populism domestically & naked imperialism overseas.
OTOH, the authoritarian/illiberal/faux-libertarian aspects of MAGA are drawing support from parts of the Hispanic & Asian American populations, as there has always been a strong undercurrent of support for authoritarian politics in the developing world where these immigrants came from, just as there has always been a strong undercurrent of support for authoritarian politics in the polities of self-proclaimed liberal democracies. The misogynistic & religious chauvinistic aspects of MAGA also attract the chauvinists & religious fundamentalists among the “diverse” parts of America. The [feigned] economic populism & the [feigned] isolationism are attracting the low information voters sick & tired of ever increasing wealth concentration toward the top, the economic policies that aim to protect the wealth of capital owners 1st & foremost in time of crises (in the guise of “protecting the system”), & the burden of empire maintenance overseas in face of domestic decay.
All of the above mix of currents is IMHO causing a partial re-alignment of US politics, on top of the age old racism, misogyny & hared of minorities, breaking apart the “demographics is destiny” delusion of the mid-2010s. To ignore that dynamic is a recipe for continued failure in the fight against the reactionary counterrevolution. To focus on any one of the above currents feels like blind people touching different parts of the elephant.
There has been another debate whether it was the establishment Dems that failed the electorate, or the establishment Dems that failed Biden then Harris, or Biden then Harris failed the electorate, or the electorate that failed Biden then Harris, or various parts of the Democratic coalition failed Biden then Harris. To me, the entire framing that the electorate can fail elected politicians is creepy & ass backwards for a liberal representative democracy. Elected politicians are generally people w/ strong egos & self-confidence who sought positions of great responsibility, & were vested w/ great responsibility to formulate & execute policy that greatly impact everyone else. Voters generally only get to register their displeasure during elections.
However, no one is off the hook in this rolling disaster of a collective outcome, because we all have agency as individuals. The Repubs & MAGAs are primarily responsible because they are actively trying to realize this outcome. The Dem politicians are responsible for largely ceding the field of economic populism & FP restraint to MAGA (even though the latter’s economic populism & FP restrain are transparently fake), for failing to do enough to alleviate the scarcity & precarity faced by lower & lower middle income Americans. Even Dem voters are not complete free of responsibility. Clearly, we failed to convince enough fellow Americans to come out & vote for Ds.
Take myself as an example. I voted straight D by absentee ballot, w/o hesitation. However, I did not donate to the Biden campaign because I was disgusted w/ much of his foreign policy. I did not donate to the Harris campaign because it didn’t seem like she needed it. I only donated to a few Congressional races because I did not keep that close tab on local/regional politics, being an ocean away. I did not engage in much political discussion w/ friends & colleagues in the US because I wasn’t sure it would be productive being 12 time zones away. Did it matter that much in the grand scheme of things? No, especially since my US residency is in Upstate NY. However, the collective outcome is the product of hundreds of millions of individuals exercising their agency, combining their infinitesimal effects for world historical impact.
If people truly believe in liberal & Enlightenment values, then people have to believe in the agency of individuals & not let anyone off the hook.
sab
@YY_Sima Qian: Canadian pundit/ reporter has long said that Americans pretend to be a melting pot (all melted down to be the same) while Canadians are a quilt. Everyone is in the quilt, but they better stay in their own ethnic block.
I don’t know if that is accurate, but my British Canadian ancestors were racist beyond belief, although unacknowlegded Meti furtraders.
YY_Sima Qian
@sab: The pretend melting pot is true. “pretend” in the sense that the pressure is to assimilate into the dominant mainstream culture & values. As someone who spent the teenage years in the US in the 90s, the pressure for young immigrants to assimilate fully is extremely strong even in a place such as the NYC, & that pressure often came from peers. However, no matter how much one assimilates, the nativists will still view non-white immigrants as aliens that don’t belong. It really came to the fore during the pandemic & the heightening Sino-US Great Power Competition.
Bonnie
Sadly, I had wanted Joe Biden to bomb the heck out of Russia on his first day in office; but, decided to keep my mouth shut.
RevRick
@JetsamPool: Calling any member of Congress who doesn’t represent you is a colossal waste of time. And phone calls and emails to those who do represent you will only give your Representative or Senator a general feel for what the most activist citizens are thinking. Staffers will literally just tally the numbers.
A personal letter will get more attention and often generates a response, though it will likely be whatever talking points are aligned with the party.
The only effective approach is to schedule an appointment to meet with the staffer who has responsibility for the particular issue. And if you only go to berate them, you will be placed on the shit list and probably escorted from the building.
Professional lobbyists spend hours simply cultivating a relationship and building trust.
I get that we are impatient for immediate results, but it is probably more helpful to view Congress as a church. We are dealing with human beings after all and it takes time to figure out what they want.
Martin
@Starfish (she/her): Yep. Lot of people all over going to get hurt, but telling the country to not touch the stove just made them all mad. Gonna touch the stove now.