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US Democrats call for more aggressive tactics against Trump and Musk: ‘We’re going to be the opposition’
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2025
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politics
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I agree with you, and would also like to point out that "power" that they had was also CONSTANTLY razor thin at best.
Clearly they could be more effective with the power they do have, but voters have never given them the legislative authority needed to pass the sweeping reforms they demand. Congress is literally set up to give conservatives an advantage. 51/49 is not control of the Senate when you need to proactively do something, it's only enough to block action.
Well, it is and it isn't. The filibuster is a rule of senate procedure, not a law. The party in control of the senate can remove that rule if they wish.
I do agree that a lot of progressives will unnecessarily leap from valid criticism of the Dems to claiming - in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary - that they're literally as bad as the GOP. A party of some progress is manifestly and obviously better than a party that wants to undo progress.
But it's also complete valid to point out that a lot of the things that supposedly prevented the Dems from achieving more progress were norms, not hard rules. Biden could have rebalanced the supreme court by simply adding more members. The Dems could have thrown out the filibuster. There were options that were on the table that the Dems refused to use because they think they're playing a polite game of chess, while their opponent just showed up and slapped a gun down on the table. I despise the GOP with every fibre of my being, but at least they understand the stakes.
I think those are all reasonable criticisms.
But it still seems like the constant refrain here when Trump and his Republican party are doing terrible things to set this country back is to blame the Democrats.
The Democrats have been moving this country forward since the great reversal. There is room to criticize, but are they the biggest threat to America? I argued with someone who said Biden would go down as the worst President in history because he didn't stop Trump. So he's worse than... Trump?
"End Racism" was removed as the slogan in the end zones in the stadium where the Superbowl is being hosted, and people wanted to attack neoliberals for being so soft that "People Exist" would be their replacement slogan. Would there have ever have been an "End Racism" sign from the Saints and NFL if the "neoliberals" hadn't been pushing things forward since LBJ?
People constantly complain that the Democrats aren't united enough to block Trump's agenda. They point to Fetterman's nominee votes. Really? It's these same people who are pushing in-fighting in the party because they want to bring a very specific agenda about, and stopping fascism isn't good enough.
The American people are clearly on the fence about fascism. Your progressive agenda isn't going to be winning any time soon. Real people are suffering even more today than a month ago because of Republicans. Not because of Democrats. A truck is intentionally rammed into a crowd of pedestrians, and these people are arguing the regulators didn't have high enough standards for brakes on automobiles. That's the problem that needs addressing?
If the "neoliberal" party wasn't around to constantly stop socialism, do nothing slogans like that wouldn't need to exist at all. Slavery would have actually been banned, not enshrined in the constitution as punishment. FDR wouldn't have even been elected, it would have been Eugene Debs or someone even more radical. The purpose of the democratic party is to make sure that things cannot get better economically unless a large corporation benefits first and foremost.
Yeah except people don't vote for progressives. So...
Either these ideas are great and people will get off their ass for them or they aren't. Im not convinced it's the Democrats who are stopping progress. It's the lazy ass American people who wouldn't know a good idea if it bit them in the ass.
When they're shown progressive policies, they support them. When they're told those policies are associated with Democrats or progressives, they don't support them.