3 ms·

> Yes, we made a grave mistake in electing the wrong person as president—but that doesn’t mean the country is obligated to sit silently for the next three years

by palmotea 10mo ago

> Yes, we made a grave mistake in electing the wrong person as president—but that doesn’t mean the country is obligated to sit silently for the next three years while he lurches from one dangerous blunder to the next. Correction: the only viable opponent party ran the wrong person and chose the wrong strategy to oppose him. Their candidate(s) weren't the "right person" to be president. And despite a year of Trump, that opponent party is still unpopular. It's a testament to how broken the system is. They'll all acting stupidly, and no one is the good guys. > If impeachment and conviction aren’t on the table, then the least our leaders—Republicans and Democrats alike—must do is stand together and speak with one clear, unmistakable voice in opposition. Wake up, you're dreaming. What needs to happen is the Democrats need to listen to their own rhetoric and actually take the threat seriously, instead of seeing an opportunity to win a narrow partisan victory for their extremists. They need to reconfigure into a truly majoritarian party, which will make the progressives unhappy, so it won't happen. > Our credibility with Europe, already strained, will continue to erode if the world sees that American leadership is unwilling or unable to check reckless behavior. Honestly, few care about our "credibility with Europe." And they've got too many of their own problems to be considered in such a superior position.

bestouff 10mo ago
> Democrats need to listen to their own rhetoric and actually take the threat seriously, instead of seeing an opportunity to win a narrow partisan victory for their extremists. I'm wondering what you call "their extremists". Seen from Europe all Republican candidates are extremists, and Democrats are centrists at best.
- palmotea 10mo ago
  > I'm wondering what you call "their extremists". The deep blue ones who demand everyone check all their boxes. > Seen from Europe all Republican candidates are extremists, and Democrats are centrists at best. That seems like a warmed-over 90s perspective that's long past its sell-by. Aren't there "far right" parties in power or nearly in power in much of Europe, and at least one European country that's totally dominated by one?
  - watwut 10mo ago
    Europe is not having terror groups beating and shooting liberal cities.
  - general1465 10mo ago
    > That seems like a warmed-over 90s perspective that's long past its sell-by. Aren't there "far right" parties in power or nearly in power in much of Europe, and at least one European country that's totally dominated by one? Not even close. European politics is by design coalition politics there is no voting blue or red, you are voting for a party and if party has certain amount of votes it will get into parliament (except UK). The thing is that you would need absurd amount of votes to get more than half of seats in parliament and govern as a single party. So what is normal in USA (one party rule) is exceptionally rare in Europe. So even if you "win" elections, you need to establish coalitions with less extreme parties to actually achieve majority in government and to be able to modify laws. This will average out your program and will cut down extreme edges on both sides.
watwut 10mo ago
Bullshit. There were no democrat extremists. Insteat, democrats run as centrist and anodyne position as possible. And you still lie about it as it they run some kind of extreme position. Trump won, because people like you will call his opposition extreme no matter what it does. And people like you will just try to push Trumps opposition into adopting his ideology, step by step.
- throwawayqqq11 10mo ago
  Yep, that dipshit doesnt even grasp his own arguments implications. When Kamala Harris left you no choice but to vote for Trump (bEcAu5e Sh3 1s eVEn wORs3!!1) then the problem is on the republicans side to bring up better candidates. When your political opponent makes mistakes, dont try to correct it, yet, all he talks about is what the dems should do. I cant fathom how twisted these minds must be.
  - palmotea 10mo ago
    > then the problem is on the republicans side to bring up better candidates. Look: the Republicans are terrible, but Democrats have this bad habit of using that as an excuse to cover up their own shortcomings. They blame MAGA, blame Trump for not being better, instead of looking in the mirror and becoming a party that people like enough that it can win. Any party that can't win handily against Trump, especially after all the scary warnings, is unfathomably incompetent and dysfunctional. IMHO a key part of that is that the party is beholden to ideologues on the far edge of the mainstream who keep it on a losing course. For instance: we wouldn't be in this mess if "farm state Democrat" was a category that was still allowed to exist. I watched one of the last of those fall, and it appeared she was hemmed in by ideological out-of-state donors who prevented her from adapting to local conditions.
    - throwawayqqq11 10mo ago
      But what if these "local conditions" are the actual problem? The left has generally two sides, the intelletual and emphatic side and the identity politics side about gender, etc. The right has only identity politics, decorated with fabricated bullshit to have a clear enemy/outgroup. The left has actual constructive suggestions for improvement while the right fear mongers about in/out groups. The democrats in total are certainly not perfect, esp. the old guard, that mostly fails to oppose trump proportionally to his megalomania. But there are (young) democrats that are _clearly_ better candidates and the internal frictions (sanders, mamdani) to unsuccessfully suppress them by the donor class clearly shows you which party is less corrupt. Intellectual leftists have the problem that realitys complexity works against them while right wingers can just summon the next boogeyman. Republican voters are _literaly_ programmed on their enemy stereotypes! "Extreme left", "marxist/socialist/communist", down to, "critical race theory", "war on christmas", etc. All these cheap negative labels get thrown around to terminate critical thought and vote as the tribe does. That is the actual problem to fix and it is on the right! Today, dipshits still run around arguing, that "this is what i voted for", while poverty, healthcare, etc. are still the most pressing issues. As long as democracies somewhat reflect the populus, democracies cannot fail by definition. When the dipshits dont get their heads cleared and educate themsels, eg. about actual migrant crime rates and their economic contribution, _they will fall for the next populist with the simpler 'answers'._
UncleMeat 10mo ago
Dems elected majoritarian focused centrists in 2020. Harris did things like promise to have a republican in her cabinet and campaigned with Liz Cheney. Durbin intervened in judicial oversight to avoid making a big thing out of Clarence Thomas' bribes. Schumer refused to endorse Mamdani. The dems supported a bill to expand ICE. And the big one: the Biden administration slow rolled prosecuting Trump for trying to install himself as president despite losing the election. The majoritarians winning in 2026 and 2028 just repeats the failures of 2020. What we need is a serious response to fascism.

bestouff 10mo ago

> Democrats need to listen to their own rhetoric and actually take the threat seriously, instead of seeing an opportunity to win a narrow partisan victory for their extremists. I'm wondering what you call "their extremists". Seen from Europe all Republican candidates are extremists, and Democrats are centrists at best.

palmotea 10mo ago
> I'm wondering what you call "their extremists". The deep blue ones who demand everyone check all their boxes. > Seen from Europe all Republican candidates are extremists, and Democrats are centrists at best. That seems like a warmed-over 90s perspective that's long past its sell-by. Aren't there "far right" parties in power or nearly in power in much of Europe, and at least one European country that's totally dominated by one?
- watwut 10mo ago
  Europe is not having terror groups beating and shooting liberal cities.
- general1465 10mo ago
  > That seems like a warmed-over 90s perspective that's long past its sell-by. Aren't there "far right" parties in power or nearly in power in much of Europe, and at least one European country that's totally dominated by one? Not even close. European politics is by design coalition politics there is no voting blue or red, you are voting for a party and if party has certain amount of votes it will get into parliament (except UK). The thing is that you would need absurd amount of votes to get more than half of seats in parliament and govern as a single party. So what is normal in USA (one party rule) is exceptionally rare in Europe. So even if you "win" elections, you need to establish coalitions with less extreme parties to actually achieve majority in government and to be able to modify laws. This will average out your program and will cut down extreme edges on both sides.

watwut 10mo ago

Bullshit. There were no democrat extremists. Insteat, democrats run as centrist and anodyne position as possible. And you still lie about it as it they run some kind of extreme position. Trump won, because people like you will call his opposition extreme no matter what it does. And people like you will just try to push Trumps opposition into adopting his ideology, step by step.

throwawayqqq11 10mo ago
Yep, that dipshit doesnt even grasp his own arguments implications. When Kamala Harris left you no choice but to vote for Trump (bEcAu5e Sh3 1s eVEn wORs3!!1) then the problem is on the republicans side to bring up better candidates. When your political opponent makes mistakes, dont try to correct it, yet, all he talks about is what the dems should do. I cant fathom how twisted these minds must be.
- palmotea 10mo ago
  > then the problem is on the republicans side to bring up better candidates. Look: the Republicans are terrible, but Democrats have this bad habit of using that as an excuse to cover up their own shortcomings. They blame MAGA, blame Trump for not being better, instead of looking in the mirror and becoming a party that people like enough that it can win. Any party that can't win handily against Trump, especially after all the scary warnings, is unfathomably incompetent and dysfunctional. IMHO a key part of that is that the party is beholden to ideologues on the far edge of the mainstream who keep it on a losing course. For instance: we wouldn't be in this mess if "farm state Democrat" was a category that was still allowed to exist. I watched one of the last of those fall, and it appeared she was hemmed in by ideological out-of-state donors who prevented her from adapting to local conditions.
  - throwawayqqq11 10mo ago
    But what if these "local conditions" are the actual problem? The left has generally two sides, the intelletual and emphatic side and the identity politics side about gender, etc. The right has only identity politics, decorated with fabricated bullshit to have a clear enemy/outgroup. The left has actual constructive suggestions for improvement while the right fear mongers about in/out groups. The democrats in total are certainly not perfect, esp. the old guard, that mostly fails to oppose trump proportionally to his megalomania. But there are (young) democrats that are _clearly_ better candidates and the internal frictions (sanders, mamdani) to unsuccessfully suppress them by the donor class clearly shows you which party is less corrupt. Intellectual leftists have the problem that realitys complexity works against them while right wingers can just summon the next boogeyman. Republican voters are _literaly_ programmed on their enemy stereotypes! "Extreme left", "marxist/socialist/communist", down to, "critical race theory", "war on christmas", etc. All these cheap negative labels get thrown around to terminate critical thought and vote as the tribe does. That is the actual problem to fix and it is on the right! Today, dipshits still run around arguing, that "this is what i voted for", while poverty, healthcare, etc. are still the most pressing issues. As long as democracies somewhat reflect the populus, democracies cannot fail by definition. When the dipshits dont get their heads cleared and educate themsels, eg. about actual migrant crime rates and their economic contribution, _they will fall for the next populist with the simpler 'answers'._

UncleMeat 10mo ago

Dems elected majoritarian focused centrists in 2020. Harris did things like promise to have a republican in her cabinet and campaigned with Liz Cheney. Durbin intervened in judicial oversight to avoid making a big thing out of Clarence Thomas' bribes. Schumer refused to endorse Mamdani. The dems supported a bill to expand ICE. And the big one: the Biden administration slow rolled prosecuting Trump for trying to install himself as president despite losing the election. The majoritarians winning in 2026 and 2028 just repeats the failures of 2020. What we need is a serious response to fascism.