Republicans: Pull yourself up by the bootstraps, kill all social programs, raise taxes on the 99%, kill public infrastructure, and lastly go fuck yourself (Republican voter base proceeds to cheer)
Democrats: Uhhhhh… Tax cuts for small buisnesses anyone? Oh wait the republicans are calling us communist for doing that. Well if we just compromise with them and allow sooome fascism we’ll be able to get some of our agenda across as well. (Leftists proceed to boo the Dems for being Fascism Lite™)
Republicans: No screw you
Democrats: Maybe if not too much effort
If you are one of the groups of people Republicans are targeting though, it’s a huge difference. At least they won’t utterly devastate and wreck your life because of your demographic.
Tweeted by someone that voted against ranked choice voting lol
No. Nobody voted against ranked choice voting; it was never allowed to be an option.
No, it was definitely voted down in my state
Oh c…well at least it got that far.
Its not like electoralism can get us out of this anyway.
It was on the ballot in well over 10% of jurisdictions, this past year. People voted it down.
From an outsider perspective, the Dems may be hopeless neoliberals, but isn’t it more:
R: hehe sure we will hehehe
D: here’s a set of policies that should improve things
Voters: too complicated, just say yes.
No.
R: exterminate the brutes! Send the unwomen to the camps! Family and prosperity!
D: we must compromise with our co-workers across the aisle, so this system can keep serving the aristocracy. I propose we only increase the einsatzgrupen budget by 20% this year; we aren’t hitting recruiting quotas, and we’d gave to raise taxes for my republican counterpart’s proposal of 3000%.
It’s more like the Republicans promise the moon even if they intend to shove the sun up your ass, while the Dems only promise what they think that they can accomplish, and often even that gets trampled by Republicans willing to break the government just to keep the Dems from doing anything.
The last time we had a Democrat who made big promises and ran on a campaign of hope and progress, we had the largest voter turnout ever recorded in the history of the country at that time. And then an even larger turnout for his second election. Cut to 2020, and we elected the VP of that guy largely on his relation to that former President and because he wasn’t the other guy, and in this past election we saw several million less voters than 2020 with notable drops in support in swing states amongst Democrats and unaffiliated voters after right wing politicians voiced their support for Kamala.
There’s also the issue to be had with the bias of media in the country and how that affects public perception. I still remember in 2016 when the news channels aired video of Trump’s empty podium for an hour instead of Bernie Sanders’ speech.
The time before that when we had a Democrat who made big promises and ran on a campaign of hope and progress he got re-elected three times and they had to make an amendment to stop it from happening again.
It might have been the largest turnout at the time, but the largest so far currently is 2020 with 158,427,986 votes, which is almost 30 million more than 2012.
Biden had the biggest turnout and lead of all time.
Did you mean 2020 or 2024? I think you’re right that 2020 was the largest turnout ever, and we can only assume why, but the jump from 2004 to 2008 and then 2012 was massive, and the drop from 2020 to 2024 was massive as well. They were all in the figures of tens of millions of voters shifting one way or the other in almost every election from 2008 to 2024 except for Hillary vs. Trump, if I remember correctly.
My point is that Republicans campaign on change and appeal to emotion, and the last time we saw a Democrat campaign on a similar message, we saw some of the largest turnouts in US history. The facts are that the country consistently does better under Democrats than Republicans, but Republicans appeal to emotion in a way that Democrats don’t. Biden added, what, 500 million jobs to the economy in the past 4 years? But the majority of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck - even some of those making six-figure salaries - and so the lack of an appeal to their daily struggles disincentivizes them from supporting Democrats. The Republicans promise change, and even if it’s a bold-faced lie, people eat it up because the issues they face every day seem to fall upon deaf ears.
yeah sorry typo, the biden statement was the biggest indicator
The Dems proposals are crumbs on what we should have. Universal health and education for example, never make it out of the primaries. Very few Democrats, really the ones that are Democrats so they don’t have to start a Social Democrat party, espouse that stuff. The rest of the party thinks a minimum wage increase will be enough and they can’t even get that done.
In reality we need real cost of living counterweights. Government run grocery stores and basic retail. Private businesses literally told everyone that abnormal inflation after the pandemic was just them price gouging. And we’re supposed to take a single policy that would have been good in 2005 as proof Democrats “get it”?
Fuck no.
Well said. I think they get that things have gone too far, but just don’t care / don’t know how to make it better at this point. And Dems definitely aren’t interested in listening to good ideas from the left, so…here we are.
Not really, it’s more like Dems give 5-10% of what they promise, and everything else is robbing from the working class to further cement the established power structure. That 5-10% is normally supposed to keep a lid on open revolt, but at a time when housing prices have doubled and food costs have tripled, that’s just not enough anymore.
Yea pretty much, Rs will line their pockets in the cruelest way possible through hate and fear and won’t even bother with breadcrumbs
Ds will line their pockets, but try to make sound policies and make gradual improvements that balances corporate interests with the peoples interest.
The sound policies are “too complicated” for the average voter and the whole “gradual improvements balanced against corporations interests” piss off those on the further left (Hence the whole bLuEmAGa bullshit)
There’s no balancing. It’s the people’s interests if a corporation isn’t inconvenienced.
That’s correct. This is a rather old post when Dems had power but kept getting cock blocked in Senate Trump mostly won because he said yes and stupid people ate it up, so you version is much more apt for today.
I’ve noticed this a couple of times: Any time the top handful of comments under some given post doesn’t create the consensus reality “Dems are doing everything bad on purpose, don’t vote, Democrats are your enemy,” there’s a notable little flood of comments to try to create that consensus reality. You can see quite a lot of them in these comments. I predict that there will be a continued push of vigorous participation until that reality is created in the comments, maybe by a newer comment with fewer upvotes but with the desired anti-Democrat messaging taking over the top spot as this one ages out, and then a bunch of blander replies to that top-spot comment to push everything else lower down. And then, once that’s established, the little flood of activity that created 10 comments with the “right” message in the last hour will subside, and the comments will become a trickle again, with that persistent reality created in the top few comments, and this one buried down below.
The OP comment has a point. That’s why it got a bunch of upvotes.
This comment also has a point. That’s why it also got a bunch of upvotes.
That’s an exchange of views. It is healthy. The little floods of comments with the “right” messaging which tend to continue until they take over the consensus reality are less healthy, in my opinion.
No. My point is you should vote. You should be primarying every corporate Democrat. You should also be working on a third party for the next few years.
Corporate Democrats don’t want people to vote. Pelosi doesn’t care about you or me, she gets richer off her insider trading and the GOP policies or Dem policies. All they want is to get re-elected. Until that is threatened all we’re ever going to get from them is fake concern on talk shows.
Did you think I was disagreeing with you in some way? My reply was to a different comment. I agree with pretty much everything you just said. Well, maybe reforming the voting system before trying a doomed effort to switch “the left” to a progressive third party for the next few years, under a FPTP system… but other than that, yes.
Sorry I’m just so used to people trying to characterize my views on the Democrats as “Both Sides” or “Stay Home”.
In fairness, there are quite a lot of people saying that, who have poisoned the well.
I get your frustration. I don’t even like the Democrats, and I am constantly accused of all kinds of sins against leftism, just because I keep pointing out that not voting for them, in the current political climate, will make things 10 times worse.
I’m interested to note that the top-level narrative of the first few comments has coalesced exactly as I predicted it would. If you go back and sort by “top,” you’ll see what the actual consensus is… and yet, somehow there’s an opposite consensus that things reliably coalesce into after a while, when the comments settle down.
Cheap #bothSides nonsense.
You mean
GqP: lol no plebe
Dems: if we can get the ability, that’s our goal. Aw fuck we’ve been cockblocked by the senate again. Sorry.
It doesn’t seem weird to you that there’s always some reason a Democrat prevents Democrats from accomplishing things when they have a majority? It’s been like two decades of this, bud. There’s always some reason for them not to fix anything.
I’ll vote Democrat every time because, although they barely do anything, at least they won’t actively make things worse. That choice fucking sucks though, so quit acting like Democrats aren’t trash. They are trash and the only reason to vote for them is because the other side is taking policy advice from literal Nazis.
I’ll vote Democrat every time because, although they barely do anything, at least they won’t actively make things worse. That choice fucking sucks though, so quit acting like Democrats aren’t trash. They are trash
Have you considered, y’know, participating in the party? It’s pretty easy to do. Or is it just like, “Feh. Muh. Bleh.” Which I totally understand. Things is complicated.
The members of my county Democratic party are insufferable.
Have you considered, y’know, participating in the party?
Yes, just like the over 100,000 protest votes in Michigan during the primaries to protest the Palestinian genocide.
The DNC gave Michigan Muslims/Arabs the middle finger and said “We don’t need your votes, and we’re not changing course on Palestine.”
The DNC threw trans people under the bus literally the day after they lost the election, and continue to tell us that the reason the DNC lost is because they were too woke.
In 2016, we tried to get Bernie to be our candidate, and Clinton and the DNC did everything in their power to ensure that wouldn’t happen, because the DNC knows best. 🙄
Same in 2020, they had Bloomberg and Warren siphon votes off Bernie to split the progressive vote and seal the nomination for Centrist-Joe, who had to borrow policies from Bernie’s campaign to be popular enough to beat Trump. And then spent four years not enacting any of those policies.
Like, I’m so tired of hearing how it’s our fault, the voter’s fault, for the DNC being a shitty party. Hundreds of thousands of people protest voted during this primary, and the DNC ignored their voices, and now you’re condescendingly making a comment about people not being more involved with the party?
What a load of horse shit. The voters don’t need to engage with the party, the party needs to engage with voters, and since they raised over a billion dollars and spent a majority of it on Clinton’s 2016 political consultants… I’d say they have the resources to get off their fat asses, leave their liberal white porcelain towers, and come fucking talk to their constituents for once and figure out why they don’t represent us.
Oh, I forgot, because they’re too busy raising campaign money instead of changing campaign finance laws, and they’re too busy rubbing elbows with their colleagues across the aisle instead of getting things done, OH**, or they’re on one of their numerous multi-week vacations at one of their second/third/fourth residential homes while their constituents are guaranteed no vacation time period. God, it must be so hard relating to a populace you literally share nothing in common with, why won’t the filthy poors just realize they’re inferior to these liberal elite who know best for them.
Or are we supposed to go participate as a PAC, should we all just be billionaires, since they’re the only ones the DNC will listen to?
“Participate,” what a joke.
“Participate,” what a joke.
I was actually asking the other guy. But uh, nice, uh . . rant.
I was actually asking the other guy.
Cool story, but I was talking to you.
But uh, nice, uh . . rant.
Says the troll out for his daily round of trolling, the legitimate only thing the sad troll can contribute to their sad, trolling existence.
You’re fun.
Still waiting for you to enlighten all of us about how to properly participate with the DNC, troll?
We’re waiting, c’mon Troll Genius, all of us morons need you to enlighten us, how do we participate with the DNC?
Well?
If someone’s using it as an argument “Here’s why we need to get involved in political activism and improve the Democratic party,” then it makes perfect sense. Biden did good, but the Democrats are far from what we need.
If someone’s using it as an argument “Why not just abandon the idea of influencing politics at all, even if that means letting the Republicans have a turn smashing up the country we all live in to sell it as scrap for them and their friends while killing anyone who disagrees, because what’s the worst that could happen, Dems suck anyway lol,” they are either trying to help the Republicans or they’ve been fooled by the people who are trying to help the Republicans. They will, in the next few years, be able to have a terrifying and tragic object lesson in what the worst that could happen is.
Then weren’t. They had a trifecta for 2 years and it became obvious that they were unwilling to actually fight. They gave up at literally the first sign of resistance. And they haven’t put forward anything that would actually change the system. Just a pay raise.
Then weren’t. They had a trifecta for 2 years and it became obvious that they were unwilling to actually fight.
You mean the term where the Dems passed the largest healthcare in 40 years with the passing of the ACA (Obamacare)? How is that not an achievement?
It was literally mitt Romneys Healthcare plan from Massachusetts. They didn’t even get a public option. It was the bare minimum because dems didnt want to mess with the insurance companies that line there pockets.
It was literally mitt Romneys Healthcare plan from Massachusetts.
I don’t care who gets the credit for the original model. Most Americans had FAR less healthcare options before the ACA.
They didn’t even get a public option. It was the bare minimum because dems didnt want to mess with the insurance companies that line there pockets.
You’re complaining about how it could be better. Do you not remember what life was like BEFORE the ACA?
- Being denied for a preexisting condition?
- Basic wellness care like mammograms not covered?
- Swiss cheese independent coverage chocked full of “gotcha” exclusions?
Could it be better? Sure. Was it so much better than the NOTHING we had before? Absolutely!
bud, that was 16 years ago and the situation has only worsened. maybe its time to stop trotting it out as some grand thing the democrats did and focus on what they’re doing today? which is essentially nothing.
and focus on what they’re doing today?
You mean like the recovery of the country from COVID with the American Rescue Plan Act, or Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPs act, Student loan forgiveness? How about repeal of the homophobic “Defense of Marriage Act”? Maybe the Honoring our PACT Act which finally recognized the conditions we put our troops in and covering their health needs resulting from that exposure? Those kind of things?
Wow! and americans day to day finances havent improved at all! Imagine doing all that and still having people struggling… I wonder…
Lets go down the list shall we?
CHIPs act: surprise a bipartisan corporate give away.
American Rescue Plan Act: corporate give away mixed with one time stimulus for americans.
Inflation Reduction Act: I actually liked this bill mostly too bad it does nothing for the majority of americans w/ respect to inflation and cost of living.
Student loan forgiveness: oh you mean the thing biden has slow walked, only managing to clear 9% in 4 years, and is the direct architect of causing? oh you mean the man who also resumed payments for them despite record inflation?
Defense of Marriage Act: yup wonderful, good job dems! the only thing that doesn’t negatively impact your corporate donors you got done!
Honoring our PACT Act: Oh you mean health care in america is fucking horrible? color me surprised, yet another excuse to not actually fix our health care system.seriously man. think about these things before you post them. I’m not opposed to many of these bills but NONE of them improve the general well being of the american worker or their families.
Do people still need to worry about their health coverage if they lose their jobs? Yes? oh.
Do people still need to work multiple jobs to make ends meet in many areas? Yes? oh.
Do people still have no protections for medical, family, vacation? Yes? oh.
Do people still have to go into massive debt for an education? Yes? oh.
Do sexual orientations still have no protections within the workplace? yes? oh.Until the democrats begin addressing these issues for working americans they won’t have the support of myself or individuals like me. Don’t even get me fucking started on the widespread genocidal support, moral bankruptcy, and graft within the party.
How is that not an achievement?
Because the Dems let the GOP gut it to get it to pass. The ACA as it is now, and as it was passed back then, was not what we were promised, and we still haven’t gotten the ACA we were promised.
In fact, Harris dropped support for M4A and didn’t campaign on it, so is that an achievement too? The Dems giving up the fight before it even started? Like they did during this administration, literally bending over any time the GOP put up any kind of resistance to any of the Dems legislation?
The Dems let the Dems gut it. There wasn’t a Republican that supported it. The massive partisan wall that created is a huge reason why things are so fucked now.
The Dems let the Dems gut it.
I don’t disagree. The original had more stuff in it that I liked.
There wasn’t a Republican that supported it.
True. The GOP rejected it for many stupid reasons.
The massive partisan wall that created is a huge reason why things are so fucked now.
This statement confuses me. Are you suggesting the Dems should have let the GOP gut it MORE? Are you suggesting the Dems should have dropped the legislation altogether to “keep the peace”? What are you saying the Dems could have done so “things are so fucked now”?
Yes the Dems should have got some gop votes. It may have made the bill slightly worse, but not by much. In return the Democrats would have had far more negotiating power with there own members if there were a couple of the more purple Republicans that they could count on instead. It also would have prevented the bill from being a great campaign piece for Republicans, and it might not have resulted in one of the largest midterm swings ever.
Getting 95% of the ACA and a Congress that wasn’t deadlocked for the next 6 years would have been much better overall. A split government that functioned more like under Clinton or Bush would have been much better than what ended up happening. The decision to stonewall when they had power unsurprisingly backfired.
uhhhh, literally the bill was designed and discussed with the GOP they just refused to support it after they basically got it watered down. then there was the ol’ whats his face dem that refused to vote for it without removing the public option.
Yes the Dems should have got some gop votes. It may have made the bill slightly worse, but not by much.
…and…
Getting 95% of the ACA and a Congress that wasn’t deadlocked for the next 6 years would have been much better overall.
The GOP were looking to deny any Obama passage of positive legislation. Are you not remembering “make him a one term President” message from the GOP?
There was ZERO amount of cooperate the GOP were willing to have on any bill that would give Obama a healthcare win.
A split government that functioned more like under Clinton or Bush would have been much better than what ended up happening. The decision to stonewall when they had power unsurprisingly backfired.
“make him a one term President”
Because the Dems let the GOP gut it to get it to pass. The ACA as it is now, and as it was passed back then, was not what we were promised, and we still haven’t gotten the ACA we were promised.
Perfect is the enemy of good.
What Obama signed with the ACA was far better than the situation before it.
Right, must be why I don’t have health insurance via the ACA because it’s unaffordable.
I make too much to qualify for actual help, but not enough to actually afford their awful health insurance plans with deductibles that negate the entire point of insurance to begin with.
And it’s all about to be undone anyway, so let’s keep singing the praises of the Democrat’s least-failure in the last decade.
Perfect is the enemy of good.
Which must be why the DNC has adopted “Progress is the enemy of our money.”
Right, must be why I don’t have health insurance via the ACA because it’s unaffordable. I make too much to qualify for actual help, but not enough to actually afford their awful health insurance plans with deductibles that negate the entire point of insurance to begin with.
Are you possibly living in a state where your GOP leadership refused to extend Medicaid which was part of the ACA? If so, you can’t complain about what the ACA doesn’t do for you if your state chose not to use it.
I live in a blue state in the Northeast, we went to Harris, and we’ve had a Democratic governor since at least the mid-2000s.
So am I allowed to complain?
No, this happens in states like MA/Cali too.
I’m so thankful my premiums doubled, now someone with a preexisting condition can pay $500 a month for a 50k deductible! So much hope and change!
I don’t think drumpf has killed a citizen without due process yet, but when he does he can thank Obama for paving the way.
Obama fucking sucked, but he was a charismatic media darling and liberals ate that shit up just like the cons do with drumpf.
I’m so thankful my premiums doubled,
Are you a guy? If so you many not know that men like us were paying FAR LESS for healthcare than women of our exact same age. I learned this when my woman co-worker (same age) and I were comparing pay stubs many years ago (and many years prior to the ACA). As a young 20 year old man I was paying $30/paycheck. She was paying $124/paycheck simply because she was a woman.
This is one of the things the ACA fixed, and I agree with it. Men pay the same as women under the ACA.
Another thing that the ACA fixed was “swiss cheese” insurance. Insurance policies were filled with tons of tiny exclusions where you would be paying for premiums for months or years and when you finally needed it for something big, they’d point out fine print and you’d have no coverage. The ACA stopped that and made all insurance plans have a basic level of coverage they couldn’t weasel out of. So you may have been paying cheap premiums before for insurance that would give you the finger when you needed it. The ACA fixed this. You’re paying now for coverage that actually covers what it says.
now someone with a preexisting condition can pay $500 a month for a 50k deductible! So much hope and change!
I don’t know how much you know about chronic health problems that were previously called “pre-existing conditions”. $500 a month for a 50k deductible would a godsend for many prior to the ACA. Treatment can cost literally millions of dollars, and if $50k covers that, its amazing.
You may not have a condition that needs this today, but you may in the future. You’d be thankful you would be covered by the ACA rules.
Obama had a 60 seat supermajority in the Senate.
It’s not a lack of ability. It’s a lack of will.
That 60 seat majority included Joe “totally a real Democrat” Manchin and a deceased Ted Kennedy, and they still passed the Affordable Care Act which was very much a “big fucking deal.”
The ACA was a national version of the Heritage foundation’s for profit friendly Healthcare bandaid that bent over backward to keep for profit insurer’s cut in and was initially instituted by a Republican governor. It didn’t even put us in the right direction, because the right direction is ending the role of private insurer middlemen in Healthcare, which is yet another national disease we suffer. It insured more people at the cost of expanding the profit base of the market capitalists, the enemies of almost everyone else whether they love that enemy or not.
The Democrats have never done what needs to be done, take some of the profit from the oligarchs that profit off society and only succeeded with societal infrastructure they don’t want to pay for, and give it to society through the commons.
Until a party starts addressing the greedy profiteer elephant in the room, nothing can improve, so nothing will improve until this gold plated cesspool collapses, almost certainly by the impacts of capitalist made climate change.
This system is comically too far captured by the capital market to have any reasonable hope for rehabilitation. It has protections upon protections, both through effective propaganda cannels and then force, to prevent any economic rehabilitation that doesn’t hand even more GDP to the 0.1% at everyone else’s expense.
The Affordable Care Act fell far short of being what we really needed, where millions still suffer with unaffordable premiums and worthless coverage. What we need is universal healthcare.
Joe Manchin wasn’t a god. They could have dealt with him if the political will existed, just like they could have dealt with Joe Lieberman back in 2009. Mobilize the people against him, Go after his financial supporters, go after his friends and family, make his life a living hell for defying the will of the Party and the People.
But Democrats will never do something like that
Or they could have bought a single Republican…
That probably wouldn’t work. They’d be outbid.
But you know what? Raising hell against Republicans is possible too - it’s possible to organize against them no matter which party they’re in. Go after them in their districts, go after their financial backers, go after the special interests that support them, go after the people that vote Republican, friends and family, I don’t fucking care, whatever it takes. Make them suffer our political wrath and they’ll fall in line.
Name one thing the US Government has done in your lifetime that you support.
One.
I don’t believe you are interested in a fair discussion.
Okay?
NOAA, NASA, USGS.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on March 3, 1879, to study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it.
You’re either 145 or full of shit ;). Also while important initiatives hardly anyone gives a shit about them. They’re things you do when base needs are met and base needs are not being met.
While it IS true that you and I are both full of shit, and it is also true that I’m not 145 it is no less true that the USGS does a tonne of important survey work that makes so many other endeavors possible. It’s the sort of thing that governments should do. The ‘name one thing’ question implies that there is nothing that government does or has done that is of value. Which, to employ your terminology is even more full of shit.
That’s a long way to say you didn’t actually read what you were replying to, let me help by refocusing you on the point that individual was making:
Name one thing the US Government has done in your lifetime that you support.
You’ll note that the things you listed are probably not in your life time. 1970 would put you at a minimum of 54 meaning a 32% chance. Not that I particular care about your age. Just refocusing you on the actual spirit and letter of the statement. And the fact that 1970 being your most recent example should be what concerns you even more.
You’ll also note I agreed with you that they were important. just not as important as ensuring the quality of life of the average american which has declined economically far too much in the last 6 decades.
NOAA was created by an executive order in 1970 and has never been established in law, despite its critical role.
Huh!
ACA.
But it could have been better. Like ALL things done, they are never perfect, they are never everything I want because I’m not the only person in the country, but if it moves the needle in the right direction I support it.
And the ACA was a compromise with Republicans. A lot was stripped out by Republican demand, and yet it was still such a massive improvement from the previous system.
. . . that the Democrats brought.
PACT Act.
The legislative push got a significant boost when Biden, who has said he believes his son Beau’s fatal brain cancer was caused by burn pit exposure, endorsed it at a State of the Union address, giving it the momentum needed to become law.
Democrats again
Tired of this narrative. Biden showed historic union support.
Lmao the bar is so low when you consider “first president to walk a picket line” to be historic union support. Was that before or after he broke the railroad strike?
He gave the rail workers everything they were striking for.
He didn’t make nearly as much noise about it which was a massive mistake which is why people like you keep not knowing about it.
He also promptly backstabbed them
But but Biden gave 11 billion dollars to Intel!
Tremendous concision!
Shame no one will understand
