The Democrats

[bucknaway]

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[Suckrates]

Now that the house and Senate are taking a break (AGAIN) because the Dems REFUSE to vote on the DHS funding bill for ICE unless their 10 conditional demands are met,  lets do a bit of think-tanking.....

One of the Dem wants is "standardized uniforms" for ICE....  I have an idea I think Trump might like ?

How's about Camo KLANSMAN hoods ?     this might be contrary to another ask for "no masks",  but at least it will be standardized and represent the GOP's values and position these days.....

And Remember..... "Nazi Germany wasnt built in a day".....,    and when you think about it,  Trumps agenda is moving along much faster than Hitlers did.    

[stevenkesslar]

39 minutes ago, Suckrates said:

How's about Camo KLANSMAN hoods ? 

Hermana, I know we ain't gonna see eye to eye on this.

You're into elegance, and I can't compete.  I am quite sure in your hands we could design a truly elegant Klansman hood.

I like things a bit more subtle than that.

First, can we just do Black?   Besides, Black is the new White, anyway, as @Barknaway knows.  Even a dog can figure that out.

Second, our dumb but lovable dog has figured out that quantity trumps quality.   Who'd have guessed?

Third, turns out Steve Bannon had this figured out all along.  Black is the new MAGA.  

 

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[Suckrates]

17 minutes ago, bucknaway said:

 

Fetterman is nothing more than a cognitively challenged Obstructionist.   If he does want to help Dems, he should simply switch sides..... The Dems survived MINUS Manchin, another party obstructionist.... They will fare much better WITHOUT the vagabond in shorts and a hoodie constantly criticizing THEM.. 

[bucknaway]

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[Pete1111]

I have a question for you Democrats.

I mentioned before, I attended a local event with my fellow libtards and radical leftists, how our Asian American congressional rep. spoke, that he mentioned the difficulty of pleasing everyone and how expectations can be frustrating for him. 

I was in the second row.  I caught the vibe, that he was saying Democrats (like the one that had just stood up to force him into a corner on some issue) have this expectation that Blacks, Asians, Latinos, gays and women should sit their ass down on the far liberal end of the Democrat teeter totter where they belong.  Afterall, they owe everything to "us".

All that said, in the end, my rep encouraged us to get in touch with our thoughts on the issues.

That brings me to my question, below, in two parts. 

If a shift from Red to Blue is coming, then what might be a winning playbook that will keep the Democrats in the majority?

and

What is an issue you want the Democrats to solve?

For example, I believe in a path to legal status for long-term undocumented immigrants, as well as enhanced border security.  I don't mean building more walls.

Imagine the improvements in monitoring the border that could have been made using the money Trump is spending in Iran and on ICE. 

Trump has fucked up so much that all tasks ahead for the Democrats are daunting.  

A winning playbook is tricky.  For example, endless blaming gets old. Yet voters need to understand enough not to prevent a return to the MAGA election denier crowd.  Perhaps enlist the likes of Jack Smith and Stacey Abrams.

[stevenkesslar]

2 hours ago, Pete1111 said:

If a shift from Red to Blue is coming, then what might be a winning playbook that will keep the Democrats in the majority?

 

Ezra Klein to the rescue!

But before I get to Ezra, I will answer with one four letter word:  WAIT.

Incumbent parties all over the world got shellacked because of the huge list of grievances that sprang from COVID and then inflation.  It is why Trump lost in 2020, and why he won in 2024, I think.  So now all the same forces are working against him.  Democrats need to just let it play out.  

What is remarkable is that Biden and the world had no choice, I think.  Neither COVID nor inflation could be stopped.  Yeah, Biden did inflationary stuff. The economists I find credible say it added fractions of one percent to global inflation.  Everything Trump is doing is by choice.  He did not have to cut health care.  Or start a war.

Speaking of which, a second three letter answer:  OIL.  It has now spiked to $120 a barrel.  Trump is fucked.  This is on the girl killing girl raping war mongering felon.  He is a threat to economic growth, and a threat to civilization.  

And now on to Ezra:

Ezra Klein: This Is How Democrats Win

I think that's a great piece.

There are three things that struck me the most.

 

1.  The fact that Ezra Klein is saying this is part of the problem.  It confirms that college educated liberals who read the New York Times are not who we need to worry about.  He quotes books with lovely phrases that people in Montana who did not go to college didn't read and don't care about.  Ruben Gallego does better when he talks about young Hispanic men who want to buy big ass trucks.

 

2.  Elitist or not, Klein understands people won't vote for a party that does not respect them.  Or that they feel does not respect them.  And this is hard.  Newsom, who has pretty good approval ratings, goes to red parts of California all the time.  And he knows that there is nothing he can say or do that will change the minds of people who have an aversion to him for who he is.

 

3.  That said, build the biggest fucking tent we can.  It is not either/or.  This is exactly what makes good politicians good.  Biden was very good at this, in his day.  Were he younger, and had there been no COVID + inflation, things might have been different.  We need a leader that can unify different ends of the party.  This is why I like Newsom.  Whatever his flaws, he has demonstrated he can do that in the fourth biggest economy in the world, get re-elected, and maintain decent approval ratings.

 

I'll add one more.  Be Paul Wellstone.  He is now revered in Minnesota politics.  When I knew him, because I consider him my mentor, he was a left wing Jew college professor who people saw as an unelectable gadfly.  Democrats had not been elected Senators for over a decade.  Paul convinced farmers and union people that his opponent was a rich fat cat and he would fight like hell for them.  And he did.  Minnesota went from a red state to a blue state on his watch.  And as a US Senator he had a lot to do with it.  AMLO did the same in Mexico, which was a decades long labor of passion and love. 

These are two examples that show it can be done.  Si se puede.

[Pete1111]

2 hours ago, stevenkesslar said:

 

Ezra Klein to the rescue!

But before I get to Ezra, I will answer with one four letter word:  WAIT.

Incumbent parties all over the world got shellacked because of the huge list of grievances that sprang from COVID and then inflation.  It is why Trump lost in 2020, and why he won in 2024, I think.  So now all the same forces are working against him.  Democrats need to just let it play out.  

What is remarkable is that Biden and the world had no choice, I think.  Neither COVID nor inflation could be stopped.  Yeah, Biden did inflationary stuff. The economists I find credible say it added fractions of one percent to global inflation.  Everything Trump is doing is by choice.  He did not have to cut health care.  Or start a war.

Speaking of which, a second three letter answer:  OIL.  It has now spiked to $120 a barrel.  Trump is fucked.  This is on the girl killing girl raping war mongering felon.  He is a threat to economic growth, and a threat to civilization.  

And now on to Ezra:

Ezra Klein: This Is How Democrats Win

I think that's a great piece.

There are three things that struck me the most.

 

1.  The fact that Ezra Klein is saying this is part of the problem.  It confirms that college educated liberals who read the New York Times are not who we need to worry about.  He quotes books with lovely phrases that people in Montana who did not go to college didn't read and don't care about.  Ruben Gallego does better when he talks about young Hispanic men who want to buy big ass trucks.

 

2.  Elitist or not, Klein understands people won't vote for a party that does not respect them.  Or that they feel does not respect them.  And this is hard.  Newsom, who has pretty good approval ratings, goes to red parts of California all the time.  And he knows that there is nothing he can say or do that will change the minds of people who have an aversion to him for who he is.

 

3.  That said, build the biggest fucking tent we can.  It is not either/or.  This is exactly what makes good politicians good.  Biden was very good at this, in his day.  Were he younger, and had there been no COVID + inflation, things might have been different.  We need a leader that can unify different ends of the party.  This is why I like Newsom.  Whatever his flaws, he has demonstrated he can do that in the fourth biggest economy in the world, get re-elected, and maintain decent approval ratings.

 

I'll add one more.  Be Paul Wellstone.  He is now revered in Minnesota politics.  When I knew him, because I consider him my mentor, he was a left wing Jew college professor who people saw as an unelectable gadfly.  Democrats had not been elected Senators for over a decade.  Paul convinced farmers and union people that his opponent was a rich fat cat and he would fight like hell for them.  And he did.  Minnesota went from a red state to a blue state on his watch.  And as a US Senator he had a lot to do with it.  AMLO did the same in Mexico, which was a decades long labor of passion and love. 

These are two examples that show it can be done.  Si se puede.

One takeaway for me is how Ezra Klein mentions the need for genuine politicians and then circles back to the idea that genuineness will appeal to voters who have sensed they are not listened to. 

In Texas, people such as Beto O'Rourke and James Talarico fit that quality.  

For me, some other genuine public figures are the two I mentioned in my post above as well as Pete Buttigieg, Zohran Mamdani and Justin Jones.

Overall, one might say about the piece is that hindsight is 20/20.  

Perhaps you are correct we should just wait.  Me, I'm anxious to strategize, like Paul Wellstone did when he had a campaign booth at Gay Pride staffed with really hot young guys.  Find out what works.  Be genuine.

Part of Democrat's problem IMO is how the GOP playbook and messaging paints an extremely radical picture that may not be true, yet as the piece shows, is now believed, that we have shifted hard left.  The Dems have nothing to counter that and corporate media lets the GOP get away with it.

Another clip in the piece discussed how one can't defeat peoples emotions.  You can't tell a voter not to feel a certain way.

Yet there is still a need for a better playbook that appeals to voters and fact checks GOP lies.

 

 

 

 

[stevenkesslar]

31 minutes ago, Pete1111 said:

Part of Democrat's problem IMO is how the GOP playbook and messaging paints an extremely radical picture that may not be true, yet as the piece shows, is now believed, that we have shifted hard left.  The Dems have nothing to counter that and corporate media lets the GOP get away with it.

 

Actually, it is true.  That is the problem!

And I'm as much to blame as anyone.  In the sense that I'm a liberal who agrees with elements of the "progressive" vision that turn a lot of median voters off.

This is where Ruy Teixeira and his endless and somewhat angry rants are useful.  He wrote the book The Emerging Democratic Majority.  On a personal note, I bought that book while at my alma mater in Minnesota shortly after Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash, and Carleton had a symposium on his legacy.  This was in the run up to the Iraq War.  So the very idea "The Emerging Democratic Majority" seemed like a cruel joke in that moment.  But Teixeira and Judis were right.  The democratic majority did start to emerge under Obama, for at least a few years.

Teixeira has  a laundry list of issues where Democrats are out of touch with the median voter.  The median voter likes an "all of the above" energy strategy.  Lefties want a Green New Deal.  The median voter wants immigration enforcement, which they got under Obama, aka Deporter In Chief.  Leftists and immigration groups seemingly wanted open borders.  Then there is crime.  I'm not sure how much these fringey issues like transgender actually matter.  At the very least, we know from 2024 that you could use it as a symbol against Kamala Harris to say "these Democrats are not like us."

All that said, I actually think it's more basic than that.  I think Obama promised real change, but he did not deliver.

Most young people in my family, Millennials and Zoomers, basically feel they live in a system where they are screwed. And politics is not meant to work for them.  I don't quite buy that.  By every statistic I have seen, younger generations have higher incomes and net worth at the same age than Boomers did.  In large part because they are college educated.  But perception is reality. 

I actually buy it more from Trump's working class supporters, many of whom used to be Democrats and voted for Obama.  We lost 6 million factory jobs, mostly under W.  People's lives and communities were decimated.  Obamacare is a good thing, and most people like it.  But it was like a Band Aid.

I think this is the challenge of the Democratic Party.  Somehow it has to be inclusive, including of very progressive people, without turning off the median voter.  In practice, there is a two letter solution:  NO.  I think Obama was just better than Biden at saying no.  This is what drove Teixeira crazy.  All these progressive college-educated partisans said he was too moderate or racist or whatever.  He clearly grew to despise the very people trying to build the democratic majority he wanted, and still wants.

Some Democrat is going to have to come along, like FDR or like Reagan was for the conservatives, and put the pieces of a new deal together.  Trump has clearly failed to do that, after two tries.  Biden failed too.  But, again, if you look at Mexico it is quite possible to put together a working class New Deal that is overwhelmingly popular.  This is what 2028 will be all about.

Happily, I think Trump just flung the door wide open for Democrats.  Oil is going through the roof.  The stock market looks like it is about to collapse.  We now have monthly job losses.  We have a war Trump can't explain that most Americans don't want. 

I think he is toast.  I used to say at least he is not as bad as W.  Now that he is doing his thing with no restraints, he is far far worse.  He is a fucking disgrace.

[Suckrates]

7 hours ago, Pete1111 said:

One takeaway for me is how Ezra Klein mentions the need for genuine politicians and then circles back to the idea that genuineness will appeal to voters who have sensed they are not listened to. 

In Texas, people such as Beto O'Rourke and James Talarico fit that quality.  

For me, some other genuine public figures are the two I mentioned in my post above as well as Pete Buttigieg, Zohran Mamdani and Justin Jones.

Overall, one might say about the piece is that hindsight is 20/20.  

Perhaps you are correct we should just wait.  Me, I'm anxious to strategize, like Paul Wellstone did when he had a campaign booth at Gay Pride staffed with really hot young guys.  Find out what works.  Be genuine.

Part of Democrat's problem IMO is how the GOP playbook and messaging paints an extremely radical picture that may not be true, yet as the piece shows, is now believed, that we have shifted hard left.  The Dems have nothing to counter that and corporate media lets the GOP get away with it.

Another clip in the piece discussed how one can't defeat peoples emotions.  You can't tell a voter not to feel a certain way.

Yet there is still a need for a better playbook that appeals to voters and fact checks GOP lies.

 

 

 

 

The segment of America that is STILL supporting Trump, and cheering him on, doesnt care about his LIES..... They LOVE his LIES because they confirm what they already believe.     They have had a decade to "see the light" when it comes to Trump, his horrible leadership, his divisive , separatist agenda, and his Racism,  yet they have FAILED to see the light and CHOOSE to remain in Trumps darkness because "they ARE those people"..... However the glimmer of hope is that they are the MINORITY, and a much larger group see the TRUTH and dont want Trump.....  That sentiment might just be our savings Grace ?   Most DEM politicians continue to be disappointing and milquetoast, but the few bright lights of a younger group are giving Americans HOPE.....  The DEMS need to replace mouthpieces Schumer and Jeffries, they are nothing more than "talking establishment heads"....and really no better than the Lying GOP.   The worse Trump gets, the better chance we have to defeat him.... Trump will take himself Down !

[stevenkesslar]

10 hours ago, Suckrates said:

They have had a decade to "see the light" when it comes to Trump, his horrible leadership, his divisive , separatist agenda, and his Racism,  yet they have FAILED to see the light and CHOOSE to remain in Trumps darkness because "they ARE those people"..... Trump will take himself Down !

 

One other nice thing about a few Ezra Klein pieces is he reminds us how totally in the dark lots of voters are.  They basically do rely on Tik Tok for news.   So I wouldn't underestimate how much of this is just based on vibe and, basically, almost total ignorance.  Especially among young voters.  I don't really understand it, and I don't like it.  But it is what it is.

So, to put a fine point on it, am I the White guy saying young Black and Hispanic men are racist because they voted for a racist like Trump?  That kind of sounds foolish.  And while I am a fool, I am not that big of a fool, as you know Sis.

Why did so many young Black and Hispanic men vote for Trump?

Lots of reasons, I think.  The part of it that I literally brag about to my rich Romneyesque nephew, who I adore, is that these days the Republicans actually runs Black men for Senator in South Carolina, and Guv in Florida.  That is NOT the Republican Party of my youth, or even his youth.  (He lives in Tennessee, the birthplace of the Klan.  But his neighbors include affluent Blacks who are in and out of his house all the time, in part because he has a Black nephew.)  So when I am talking to him I make a point of saying that this is a Republican Party that is at least trying to be inclusive.  That's the plus side.

The minus side is in 2024 there were Tik Tok videos of Black men talking about how cool it was that Trump was a felon.  It actually was a positive among some people.  I think that is a marginal space in US politics.  It makes no fucking sense to me whatsoever.  But they were pissed about inflation and rent and food prices and all kinds of shit.  And Trump said blame it on the Democrats. 

So Trump has not solved their problems.  But neither have Democrats.  They do not know who Hakeem Jeffries is, nor could they give a shit.  I have absolutely zero understanding of how these voters make decisions.  Or whether they will even vote in 2028.  Obama tried to reach out to them, and failed.  But my guess is even on Tik Tok they are getting the message that this war is bullshit, nobody asked for it, and it is going to raise the price of gas and food so we can get the son of the Ayatollah.  What fucking sense does this make?

If these "disaffected" young voters vote at all, I would rather they vote Democrat.  But as Ezra Klein and David Shor know, even calling them "disaffected" is an elitist thing to do.  Somebody smart and young needs to make a lot of Tik Tok videos to reach out to them.

So, in the end, we agree Sis.   Trump IS taking himself down.   He just LOST the Iran War today.  The oil market took one of his testicles, and the stock market took the other one.  The Mad King was just castrated.  He can thank his own stupidity for that.

[Pete1111]

On 3/8/2026 at 11:45 PM, stevenkesslar said:

 

Actually, it is true.  That is the problem!

And I'm as much to blame as anyone.  In the sense that I'm a liberal who agrees with elements of the "progressive" vision that turn a lot of median voters off.

If Teixeira's list is a true summary of what's wrong, it still goes back to how Ezra Klein's piece appears to me, that hindsight is 20/20.  It's a little bit late now to realize all of that.

Or is it?

Corporate media loves to repeat how Democrat approval is in the toilet.  Yet I look at this Blue wave that's predicted for the midterms.  Those two things are so incongruent, it has to be a warning not to count on success too far into the future, without earning voter approval with a better playbook.  We have some clever Dems that can do it, like Buttigieg.  

My sense is we are living in a similar time to the Bush Jr. era, when his popularity was so low, the GOP seemed toxic.  Obama was an awesome candidate that came along at the right time.  Back then, after the Obama landslide, Pundits asked if that was the end of the GOP.  If only they'd seen into the future at Ezra Klein's piece. 😉 

I don't want to see the Dems "die on that leftist hill" after the midterms, whatever issue might represent that leftist hill.  

To quote Teixeira....

           So this would be a great time for the left to recalibrate its approach, right? But are they?  To paraphrase George W. Bush: “Is our leftists learning?”

 

 

Frankly I'm exhausted by how the left seems to burn everything down if we move to the center.  Even now I've been called names for supporting Talarico.

"Your white is showing."

"Your racism is showing."

etc.

When I watched the new Adam Kinzinger documentary on YouTube I interpreted a briefly passing comment he made, that he doesn't expect anything different from liberals.  They don't change.   I hope he's wrong.