Haven't watched it (yet), but wanna ask: what was different 40 years ago? Which problems were not going unsolved, back then? It was Reagan, Carter, Ford and Nixon, right?
And before that Johnson, JFK, Eisenhower and Truman, the guy that killed a quarter of a million Japanese civilians in 2 days...
This guy is a clown. The democratic party is dying because of highly ineffectual leaders like this dude. They derailed Bernie twice and any hope of saving their chances with the working class.
I’m 30 minutes into this episode, and I find it a really frustrating conversation. Jeffries is not responding to your broad arguments. You ask if substance instead of messaging is the Dems problem and he talks about messaging. You ask about the faults of the ACA and he lists all of its virtues.
I really wish he would talk like a real human person. They wonder why the message doesn't land? Stop being so damn careful. Real talk is what lands - real talk is what resonates.
That said, I appreciate the face time, and the effort.
I hope Jeffries is a more charismatic communicator keeping Democrats a cohesive voting block. That’s his value. The messaging is stale and I’m surprised John is letting it slide.
I know leader Jeffries needs to say that bipartisanship is amazing, yada yada. But the real problem is that democrats didn't kill the filibuster back in 2008. You ask why the ACA is a convoluted gift to private insurance? Thank Lieberman for vetoing the public option.
There is a fundamental asymmetry in the way the parties work. Republicans can get everything they want with 51 votes: unfunded tax cuts through reconciliation and hyper conservative court appointments. Democrats need to beg and plead for basic decency.
Worries that eliminating the filibuster will come back to bite democrats later are overblown. Nothing that Republicans actually want to legislate is remotely popular. And if they pass something that people hate you can reverse it later (and if you screw up and pass something bad you can fix it)
You want Supreme Court ethics reform? Pass a bill that tells them to abide by one or congress won't pay for their clerks and they can go back to meeting in the basement of the capitol: some real originalism for them.
The one catch is that this will make Democrats put up or shut up. If they really want to reduce home prices and revamp the electrical grid they will have to modify environmental laws that some people on the left like. You'll have to confront them instead of blaming the mean old Republicans.
Jeffries knows history, but does he learn the lessons of the history? Clearly the Democratic Party moved away from action addressing the needs of the underprivileged and working class in the Clinton era and never came back. Now it's purposely vague platitudes and no action to suck up to big money.
I’m about 15 minutes in, I’m listening to it on Overcast for people who want to listen to it right now. Hakeem Jeffries is a horrible communicator and more of a robot than human. By the way, just so everybody knows, he was touring with Liz Cheney a month after the election,let that sink in.
They weren't all that different!! C'mon guys, neocons all fought wars of aggression and neolibs all maintained the status quo for the economic elites. And everyone blocked Bernie Sanders from bringing real change. Pendulum? bs.
His justification for the Dems not having a plan similar to Project 2025 is interesting and is a good point, but the Republicans were equally part of those swings in control and they still managed to have a long term plan.
The Democrats continue to labor under the delusion that they can win because the other clowns promise to do awful things and they promise to do nothing (but at least nothing awful).
--The voters don't want "better messaging". If billionaires are the problem (they are), the voters want to know, what are you going to do to HURT billionaires.
--If healthcare is a right, voters want to know, who will you rob to pay for it for the people who can't afford it?
I note he never did describe the playbook. This is unacceptable 3 months after an election where the theme from the Democrats was Trump’s a fascist and we have to stop him dismantling democracy. Step aside, dude.
Rural communities have been gutted by globalization and drugs. They see money funneling into the cities, and people leaving for the cities, abandoning the lifestyle they need out of necessity. Do you blame them? We've had a shadow org in our government preventing help from getting to them.
It's essentially Stockholm Syndrome. We need to rescue them, depose the oligarchs and christofascists, and put a hard cap on how much money someone can have above median around 20x per year income with loopholes holding extreme monetary punishments.
The Congressman makes the same traditional statements of the last 35 years about how Dems are different.
But fail to explain WHY housing is unaffordable BECAUSE the developer-city slow growth model is a “privatization” that does not meet the demands of consumers/public➡️trickle down is a failure.
healthcare is unaffordable as corps have been given reins to charge whatever while government is hands off “the job creators”.
A subsidy (ACA) transfer from taxpayers to shareholders maintains profiteers.
Dems fail to define/fight the problems that built the anger. Interview Mark Blyth at Brown.
"We are waiting for public sentiment to change." Half of us didn't vote for this at the ballot box, probably more. The Democrats refuse to take this to the courts, which, let's face it, the right has already moved to capture. This denies the public the jury box. So they're waiting for the last box?
I was expecting an hour of empty platitudes and still was floored by the lack of substance or actionable plans. Broad discussions barely suited for discourse 20 years ago (e.g. immigration)
😡This is a fascist coup. An act of war. Respond as such. If you love Democracy, respond as George Washington did when called to lead. Respond as Winston Churchill did when called to lead. Respond as Nelson Mandela did when called to lead. Together we win. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸❤️✊🏽❤️✊🏼❤️✊🏿❤️✊🏻❤️✊🏾❤️🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
#buildtheresistance
😡This is a fascist coup. An act of war. Respond as such. If you love Democracy, respond as George Washington did when called to lead. Respond as Winston Churchill did when called to lead. Respond as Nelson Mandela did when called to lead. Together we win. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸❤️✊🏽❤️✊🏼❤️✊🏿❤️✊🏻❤️✊🏾❤️🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
#buildtheresistance
What continues to vex me is that Democrats absolutely DO address the kitchen table issues: the problem is that their policies aren’t given time to come to fruition before they’re voted out by a public who’s ignorant, impatient, and under the influence of RWmedia saying “expensive eggs!!”
That, and the RWmedia lies about EVERYTHING. And when the Rs get back in, they reverse and obstruct. It’s the same old thing every cycle. If the public were smarter or RWmedia was destroyed, they’d keep the Dems (or even a few reasonable Rs if they aren’t extinct), and they would see progress.
And still he just talks of tinkering at the edges. We need a real working class party in this country that won’t gaslight me about “access” to “affordable” health care while saying health care is an unquestionable right.
The problem is the pendulum DOESNT swing. The name of the party in charge changes back and forth but our descent into pro-corporate, low taxes on wealth, fewer benefits for working people, greater inequality continues since 1981. President Musk is trickle down economics’ Frankenstein’s monster.
I agree with this in large part. Citizens United was a disastrous decision for our nation. Allowing lobbies any influence at all is disastrous for our nation. The way that corporations are treated with privilege is disastrous for our nation.
That "special interests" and corporations have supplanted people as who government represents has been disastrous and will continue to be disastrous until there is little left worth saving. That needs to come to a screeching halt.
Yes. The country has been about 2-3% more toward the democrats for the past 20 years or so. The problem is that because of this failure to govern for the people by either party, the incumbent gets a 4-5% penalty. That’s now enough to flip to the other party each election. That’s a nudge, not a swing
I do think it's a bit more complicated than that. Both the true conservatives and liberals have been complicit in allowing the rich to ransack our culture and economy in the name of globalization, at least initially. But it's becoming clear that Heritage is a shadow org going back 50 years.
They were driving the Republican party right, and increasingly less moderate members jumped ship to the Democrats or elsewhere. Both sides have at the very least been complacent, on this point.
This has been going on for so long, sewing corruption into the rule of law. This is only going to end with a constitutional convention or a bloody war. I certainly hope to avoid the foxhole, but the democrats are clearly slaves of the system.
I don't know if they can separate themselves from it enough to see what needs to be done, in time. We need to demand real change, en masse, and make sure we're having dialog with moderate folks who are confused, as their lives fall apart around them.
I disagree completely. The pendulum swings: the problem is that the pendulum doesn’t swing fast enough for impatient voters who think everything can change overnight just because they get a president and maybe a majority. The system doesn’t allow for it, and it can’t be changed w/out a longstanding
…majority in DC and the states. Which means sane liberal people need to pay attention to the details of policy efforts, and show up to vote EVERY TIME.
The constant has been Mitch McConnell. He has had an agenda to not let anyone change anything unless it’s a means to his end. This wasn’t what he’d hoped I suppose, but he got it. One party controlling everything. Congrats Mitch, you own this abomination.
I've been voting since 1980. Americans have always wanted to elect Santa Claus. Now they have elected vengeful Santa who not only gives them what they think they are entitled to but punishes those they don't like.
Speaker Jeffries just kept avoiding questions and kept to his talking points. It was very hard to listen to when he says he understands but talks about a different angle highlighting the D win. It's hard when he doesn't want to talk real about things.
Comments
Where are the leaders?
And before that Johnson, JFK, Eisenhower and Truman, the guy that killed a quarter of a million Japanese civilians in 2 days...
They were, they always were, even before the US empire, the UK empire or the others.
Sorry, Jon. Love you, but the problem is you guys. Time to realize that.
That said, I appreciate the face time, and the effort.
--If healthcare is a right, voters want to know, who will you rob to pay for it for the people who can't afford it?
But fail to explain WHY housing is unaffordable BECAUSE the developer-city slow growth model is a “privatization” that does not meet the demands of consumers/public➡️trickle down is a failure.
A subsidy (ACA) transfer from taxpayers to shareholders maintains profiteers.
Dems fail to define/fight the problems that built the anger. Interview Mark Blyth at Brown.
#buildtheresistance
@hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social
This interview made my blood boil.
Not bc of you, Jon, of course. I love you. ❤️ You are wonderful. I appreciate everything you do.
As for Hakeem, I rarely swear but I mean this in the strongest terms, as a fellow Democrat:
FUCK OFF!
It's unbelievable.
How can you try to convince us that we're wrong? As if we don't see, hear, or understand what's going on.
It's not your messaging! It's the lack of action!
And no amount of feelings is going to change that.
#buildtheresistance
5 decades, actually... They started during the Nixon administration but Nixon set them back with his extracurricular activities becoming public.
Democrats are putting on a dangerous dog and pony show to make us think they are doing something about it, they are NOT
But they are rich, and they want to stay rich
AOC and Jasmine cannot do it all on their own