While it’s probably true that the Democrats are relatively powerless to stop Trump’s actions, at least for now, what they absolutely can and must do is: 1) stiffen their collective backbone, and 2) shout loudly and often from the rooftops. Shout out about every lie, shout out the facts exposing that lie, shout out about how much and in what ways it’s going to hurt ordinary Americans. STOP with the socially appropriate talk, the mollycoddling approach, and the “let’s find common ground” capitulation. In may be exhausting, but stop letting Trump and all his Congressional toadies get away with murder!!!
I keep thinking of JVL’s point. After Republicans lost a presidential election by 7 million votes—losing to the largest coalition in modern American history—were Republicans in disarray? Or did they start opposing Biden’s agenda immediately…
I couldn't agree more with you, Kristol and Egger. And I have lots of ideas about campaigning improvements and who should represent the party. But how does one penetrate the Democratic swamp to offer these ideas? Other than AOC and Mayor Pete, is there anyone out there who would listen? Maybe Jeffries needs to assert himself more than he has. Work on the "new" Democratic Party needs to begin now, but I see no evidence it is happening.
I don’t agree with some of AOC’s politics, but she does understand that we are in a meme war and has an understanding of the new persuasion technologies that the Democratic leadership lacks.
For the love of god, it happened again! Bulwark contributors blaming the Biden administration's COVID stimulus for inflation, at least in part. This time it was by Tim Miller on yesterday's podcast.
There. Is. No. Correlation. Between. COVID. Stimulus. And Inflation.
I've done the analysis myself. When you look at international COVID spending as a percentage of GDP, there is absolutely no correlation between inflation and and stimulus aid.
Japan spent the highest amount in the world per GDP on COVID stimulus. Japanese inflation during 2023? 3.2%
Mexico spent virtually NOTHING on COVID stimulus. Inflation rate during 2023? 5.5%
These are but two examples. Look up the numbers yourself.
I do not know why the Bulwark is insistent on propagating false Republican talking points. I blame it on their Republican genes where any government spending (unless it's allocated to tax cuts and military spending) is inherently evil.
You can take the Bulwark boy out of the Republican party, but you can't take the Republican Party out of the Bulwark contributor.
Idea for Dem Resistance: daily message on TikTok(?!) from engaging and dynamic members of the party giving sound bite worthy response to the misanthropic executive actions, cabinet actions of the day-focused on factual responses to lies and score card about daily cost of eggs (etc). A la Tim Miller!!
I agree Dems are not out of future chances. But I despair reaching the voters who did not vote for then this time. And the key is what meaning do you derive from January 6? Unlike almost any other matter, it took place in public. But now the speaker of the house is able to keep a straight face while saying that January 6 was a peaceful demonstration.
It was not. Period.
Nor is a man who says he can grab women because he is a celebrity a man of any honor at all. Sorry, my father was a gentleman. Decent to a fault. Most of the men I knew growing up were loyal husbands, good fathers.
And it was the GOP that caved. Not Dems, not the press.
So what do we do now that Trump has released his Brown Shirts?
Now we the Democrats must be the "fight, fight, fight" people. Absolutely, every day, call out the Republican lies, gaslighting, disinformation, callousness, anti-law and order, cruelty, women dying from bleeding out, the erasing of LGBTQ persons, the anti-military purges of distinguished career men and women, the medicine price-gouging enablers, the criticism of compassionate preachers, the sickening idolatry of the fpotus, the deregulation of dangerous corporate practices, the banning of needed health and safety information, the firing of civil servants for political points, the obscene worship of greedy billionaires, the weaponization of justice departments, the release of violent criminals on our streets via pardons. So many issues to pin on Republicans.
I have come to the conclusion that the worst thing about 1/6 is what DIDN'T happen. The only ones hurt were the police. If I had a time machine, I would go back to that day and make certain that McConnell, Gaetz, Hawley, Johnson, McCarthy, etc., etc., etc. were actually physically manhandled, threatened, tied up, and ended up in the hospital like the police were. I would be willing to bet that POS would have been gone within days, and imprisoned not long after. It would have saved the country years of lies, pain, confusion and the sound of his voice.
I disagree with Mr. Kristol's observation... "There’s not that much Democrats can do to inject courage into Republican veins." They can make sure that the Republicans are called out and forced to articulate publicly their approval or disapproval with the MAGA party line... then to constantly and publicly remind the electorate in no uncertain terms who is at fault when that party line affects them personally. That will take hard work and lots of it but we should expect nothing less.
Jasmine Crockett should get dibs on what a democrat would like to say and re-say it in language only she is so damn talented at.
"Interesting and seems that would be disqualifying". Normie Dem
"Would you like to explain what this letter is and what code word was used and why and why would we think anyone's ex-sister-in-law would lie if someone is in grave danger or is fearful enough to use a code word, or better yet, for you to understand, a SAFE word? Do tell"....JC
I remember when Fox News was running hourly articles on the migrant "caravan" and one was entitled something along the lines of "Aggressive Caravan Migrants Turned Away from the Border by Tear Gas" and the photo under the headline was of a middle age mom and 2 kids holding hands while running away from gas all in flip-flops. Yah...real aggressive and threatening.
"But even if Democrats were being more inspiring, the fact is that for now, no one is that interested in listening to them. The Democrats aren’t the story. Donald Trump is the story. Trump has power and is exercising it." How do we get even one Republican in either the House or the Senate to speak out loudly and clearly over and over again, at every opportunity, about the danger Trump poses to our democratic republic? One person like that could make all the difference now. (Someone who is doing the good work of representing the people rather than her or his own self; someone who believes in conservative principles and our common ground as Americans; someone who could care less about being re-elected; someone who takes her/his oath of office to support and defend the constitution seriously - someone like Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger.)
While it’s probably true that the Democrats are relatively powerless to stop Trump’s actions, at least for now, what they absolutely can and must do is: 1) stiffen their collective backbone, and 2) shout loudly and often from the rooftops. Shout out about every lie, shout out the facts exposing that lie, shout out about how much and in what ways it’s going to hurt ordinary Americans. STOP with the socially appropriate talk, the mollycoddling approach, and the “let’s find common ground” capitulation. In may be exhausting, but stop letting Trump and all his Congressional toadies get away with murder!!!
I keep thinking of JVL’s point. After Republicans lost a presidential election by 7 million votes—losing to the largest coalition in modern American history—were Republicans in disarray? Or did they start opposing Biden’s agenda immediately…
I couldn't agree more with you, Kristol and Egger. And I have lots of ideas about campaigning improvements and who should represent the party. But how does one penetrate the Democratic swamp to offer these ideas? Other than AOC and Mayor Pete, is there anyone out there who would listen? Maybe Jeffries needs to assert himself more than he has. Work on the "new" Democratic Party needs to begin now, but I see no evidence it is happening.
I don’t agree with some of AOC’s politics, but she does understand that we are in a meme war and has an understanding of the new persuasion technologies that the Democratic leadership lacks.
For the love of god, it happened again! Bulwark contributors blaming the Biden administration's COVID stimulus for inflation, at least in part. This time it was by Tim Miller on yesterday's podcast.
There. Is. No. Correlation. Between. COVID. Stimulus. And Inflation.
I've done the analysis myself. When you look at international COVID spending as a percentage of GDP, there is absolutely no correlation between inflation and and stimulus aid.
Japan spent the highest amount in the world per GDP on COVID stimulus. Japanese inflation during 2023? 3.2%
Mexico spent virtually NOTHING on COVID stimulus. Inflation rate during 2023? 5.5%
These are but two examples. Look up the numbers yourself.
I do not know why the Bulwark is insistent on propagating false Republican talking points. I blame it on their Republican genes where any government spending (unless it's allocated to tax cuts and military spending) is inherently evil.
You can take the Bulwark boy out of the Republican party, but you can't take the Republican Party out of the Bulwark contributor.
Idea for Dem Resistance: daily message on TikTok(?!) from engaging and dynamic members of the party giving sound bite worthy response to the misanthropic executive actions, cabinet actions of the day-focused on factual responses to lies and score card about daily cost of eggs (etc). A la Tim Miller!!
I agree Dems are not out of future chances. But I despair reaching the voters who did not vote for then this time. And the key is what meaning do you derive from January 6? Unlike almost any other matter, it took place in public. But now the speaker of the house is able to keep a straight face while saying that January 6 was a peaceful demonstration.
It was not. Period.
Nor is a man who says he can grab women because he is a celebrity a man of any honor at all. Sorry, my father was a gentleman. Decent to a fault. Most of the men I knew growing up were loyal husbands, good fathers.
And it was the GOP that caved. Not Dems, not the press.
So what do we do now that Trump has released his Brown Shirts?
Now we the Democrats must be the "fight, fight, fight" people. Absolutely, every day, call out the Republican lies, gaslighting, disinformation, callousness, anti-law and order, cruelty, women dying from bleeding out, the erasing of LGBTQ persons, the anti-military purges of distinguished career men and women, the medicine price-gouging enablers, the criticism of compassionate preachers, the sickening idolatry of the fpotus, the deregulation of dangerous corporate practices, the banning of needed health and safety information, the firing of civil servants for political points, the obscene worship of greedy billionaires, the weaponization of justice departments, the release of violent criminals on our streets via pardons. So many issues to pin on Republicans.
I have come to the conclusion that the worst thing about 1/6 is what DIDN'T happen. The only ones hurt were the police. If I had a time machine, I would go back to that day and make certain that McConnell, Gaetz, Hawley, Johnson, McCarthy, etc., etc., etc. were actually physically manhandled, threatened, tied up, and ended up in the hospital like the police were. I would be willing to bet that POS would have been gone within days, and imprisoned not long after. It would have saved the country years of lies, pain, confusion and the sound of his voice.
I disagree with Mr. Kristol's observation... "There’s not that much Democrats can do to inject courage into Republican veins." They can make sure that the Republicans are called out and forced to articulate publicly their approval or disapproval with the MAGA party line... then to constantly and publicly remind the electorate in no uncertain terms who is at fault when that party line affects them personally. That will take hard work and lots of it but we should expect nothing less.
Jasmine Crockett should get dibs on what a democrat would like to say and re-say it in language only she is so damn talented at.
"Interesting and seems that would be disqualifying". Normie Dem
"Would you like to explain what this letter is and what code word was used and why and why would we think anyone's ex-sister-in-law would lie if someone is in grave danger or is fearful enough to use a code word, or better yet, for you to understand, a SAFE word? Do tell"....JC
It never ceases to amaze me the guts of the women who have stood up to Trump.
McGovern is. We could use some amplification of him.
Trump would put Jesus on the deportation list.
I remember when Fox News was running hourly articles on the migrant "caravan" and one was entitled something along the lines of "Aggressive Caravan Migrants Turned Away from the Border by Tear Gas" and the photo under the headline was of a middle age mom and 2 kids holding hands while running away from gas all in flip-flops. Yah...real aggressive and threatening.
"But even if Democrats were being more inspiring, the fact is that for now, no one is that interested in listening to them. The Democrats aren’t the story. Donald Trump is the story. Trump has power and is exercising it." How do we get even one Republican in either the House or the Senate to speak out loudly and clearly over and over again, at every opportunity, about the danger Trump poses to our democratic republic? One person like that could make all the difference now. (Someone who is doing the good work of representing the people rather than her or his own self; someone who believes in conservative principles and our common ground as Americans; someone who could care less about being re-elected; someone who takes her/his oath of office to support and defend the constitution seriously - someone like Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger.)
Who's that non-citizen sitting next to JD Vance?