I guess my expectation is that they say something, AND what they say indicates that this is far outside of “normal politics.” I was happy to see Schumer addressing it, but his memo didn’t really seem all that different from a “normal” policy disagreement statement. They’ve been a lot better today.
Thank you so much; I was seeing people angry Dems didn't have a unified and well-organized response when one of the most absurd things to ever happen just happened
i'd note it is also in part how the instant Dem response is going. Who did what. Which of my constituents does it hurt. What do I, an elected official, plan to do about it.
That's missing a ton of the time and no easier way to get constituents riled up to let them know they've been affected.
just now: people dogpiling on a senator's account on here writing strongly written, right-on thoughts about democracy, etc. WELL DO SOMETHING. STOP TRUMP.
if that were true then we wouldn't be facing this admin in the first place.
we work with the army we've got.
incidentally, actually phoning one's actual (FEDERAL) Reps to bitch about this, preferably with a script if you don't know exactly what's going on, > shitposting.
No. But there are a number of people I've seen just in the last hour who, among other things, seem to not understand that it's kind of pointless to yell at a State Senator (their account on here, no less) about approving Trump's Cabinet members.
I just posted (rather tartly, oh well) links to "find your Congressperson" and a script from a poster on here to do just that in that thread. Hopefully at least a couple more people do so.
We want a Communications strategy! We want something that will compete with the sophisticated brainwashing done by the right. We want the American people who think they’re down with fascism to understand why it’s bad.
correct, although I think these are less in tension if fast leadership response is used as a tool *to corral internal unity", which is something Trump figured out. Just TWEET IT OUT without getting buy-in and leave everyone scrambling to comply!
Absolutely, I think if the Dems had shown any evidence that they will respond in a way that meets the moment recently, there would be less gnashing of teeth.
In this case you'd have one social media guy [non-gendered] posting "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want" and the one in the next room posting "We only came here to chew gum and fuck up motherfuckers. And guess what we're out of?"
People see Republicans stop Democrats all the time and wonder why Democrats can't do the same to Republicans.
The answer is mostly that Republicans have controled SCOTUS since 1969, and partially that Republicans want to break the government, and it's easier to break things than to make them work.
What I want is Dems, publicly, every day, pointing out how bad this stuff is. Why have we completely given up on stunts? Stunts work? Hold press conferences with cancer patients and veterans! Show up! Be loud! Try stuff!
Even better imo. If they act before they're united on the regular, that'll set up a prisoner's dilemma situation (in reverse). It's why the GOP is so lockstep
It was like 100 years ago when Will Rogers said “I don’t belong to an organized political party, I’m a Democrat.” The disorganization isn’t a bug so much as a feature.
lots of people saying “how hard is it to just say no” and while I’m not going to do the work on this I suspect that some of you have also made fun of strongly-worded letters, perhaps even today
Yes, there is a real practical problem here. There isn't anything Dems can do to immediately stop or significantly slow down any of this nonsense. Senate dems can't stop seating of cabinet picks but also, "no cabinet" is even worse than "awful cabinet members" because Trump has more power alone.
Go on the record to vote no on the worst ones, but I can in fact see voting yes on the less awful ones ie Rubio, Rubio isn't a strong resistor but he's someone in the office who might bring SOME sense versus leaving Trump to replace with a much worse recess appointment or perpetual "acting" role.
I know the court rulings don't happen like that, but they could at least trumpet every legal filing they do challenging it - like how we had that press blast about 18 states filing a lawsuit against DOGE's constitutionality.
I think the biggest frustration is that while all of this is happening, there is zero room for, "I'm going to give this RFK 10 hours of my time and see if he can convince me to shut down the FDA and ..."
I also think people want dems to react in the same way Trump acts (as in, brash responses that are more emotion than fact), but I don’t think going down that road is healthy for anything.
I'd like Democrats to have at least a concept of a plan that can guide their political reactions. Coordinating action and formulating official statements takes time, yes, you're right about that. But I notice Republicans, although not always in formation yet, at least know roughly what to say.
And thanks to Trump-45 court-packing, although we should win in court on all of this, it's very far from a guarantee that we will draw judges who will apply the law in good faith.
There's a difference between fuck with the OMB (loyalty test for appointees) and fuck with the OMB (defund all social welfare in the country with a single memo)
Please don’t make me thumb through Project 2025 where they inevitably talk about this fuckery. Am I certain it’s there? No. Am I paid to do this full time? Also no. Is it probably in there? Yes.
Your suspicions were mostly correct! P2025 called for review of all spending. Blocking all spending while the review happened must have been someone's genius idea after the election.
Interesting to compare the responses Warren gets to the ones Schumer gets. Hers mostly 'appreciate your work but what do we actually DO now?' and his are all 'step down you useless fossil'
Have Waltz get on camera for some FDR fireside chats and don't put a leash on him so he can talk like a normal person. Put him and bernie on a teleprompter.
A daily vocal & public brief from Dems in response to events would be a good start. As for “ will be defeated in court”, it’s a fair guess that we all have collective ptsd from the non-existent ability of the courts to stop a damned thing— if they could have we wouldn’t be here.
It's definitely not complete; elected Democrats keep on joining BlueSky, and it takes me a while to find and add them.
It's probably close to complete for congressmembers, and more than 90% for state legislators, but probably only around 30% for DNC members and state party officials.
How? Where? They are using the levers available to them. I agree with this sentiment but it is limited by the tools of communication. People protest, there is a story written, BUT it isn't elevated by the varied algorithms that dictate our information landscape, is the protestor at fault?
I do get this but I also have the dunk impulse, and I think Dems could improve their comms by just explicitly saying this with every post, or at least the ones intended for virality. When short tweets can be taken out of context, you can't assume people are aware of work being done behind the scenes
What we have here is a situation where the messengers have poisoned the water for themselves so thoroughly over the years that they could offer me ambrosia and I still don't trust it isnt toxic
basically it isnt the reactions that people are upset with, it's the reactors. A whole bunch gotta go, its the only way to get credibility back in the larger public space
For sure. I feel like the median response has been "OK now what's the plan exactly?" If they would even just say "We have a plan for how to deal with this" I think it might lower the temperature.
To be clear not saying we shouldn't be angry, we should be *furious*, just pointing out that I feel like the majority of the non-troll response has been not liking they are not indicating they have a plan beyond saying "Hey stop that."
this lot have taken the phrase "elected leaders to represent the public" and managed to eliminate the 2nd word entirely, like fuckin lead or go sit in the corner and suck your thumb there, if all you can do is freak out like every doomer on my TL what is the actual point of you I get that for free
Thank you. This sentiment has been bouncing around in my head but you stated it perfectly. And how can these people not know about the law suits? I can’t imagine whining about it without looking it up.
Ok, but maybe a an initial massive cacophony of responses signaling broad unacceptance/shock (thus gaining the attention of voters that this is an actual crisis) that coalesces into a best approach over a few days?
I think the GOP showed the way over the last 4 years.
Spam every message you can think of as rapidly as possible, evaluate what's sticking after 6 hours, and then say that message and nothing else every time you open your mouth for 3 days.
I don’t think people care much about a united response, but in any event, a united response that bad things are bad shouldn’t take a lot of coordination.
Right. Fascism thoroughly simplifies the field of appropriate responses. Trump's efforts amount to indiscriminate dictatorial plots to kill Americans; there's no balancing the needs of your constituents with this unless you and your constituents are sympathetic to the regime already.
Agree with this mostly but there's also wanting to be effective versus just performative. Not saying those who aren't doing the latter are necessarily doing the former, or vice versa or, uh, any other combination.
There was no mistaking the opening acts of this regime change would be awful.
To not have every Dem ready on the Capitol steps to declare 'Weird. Illegal. Wrong. We reject the destruction of our government.' collectively in the first week or this past week for media optics alone was a big failure.
they’re mostly saying good things but the occasional call for bipartisanship (Schumer) or the votes to confirm the worst appointees ever (Fetterman) make me think they’re not rising to the occasion
Not sure why it is hard to be unified when the response should be all of these things are bad and the end of our government as we know and we are doing everything we possibly can to fight.
Anyone that things there is some middle ground of anything less then all out opposition needs to gtfo.
Comments
The HF's Project 2025 playbook was published in April 2023. The original was pub. in 1981.
Dems should've war gamed responses to every line item.
Instead they look weak, feckless and incapable of fighting back or leading
but a lot's already changed in the past 24-36 hours. big difference reading (catching up on) the early comments vs a few hours ago.
That's missing a ton of the time and no easier way to get constituents riled up to let them know they've been affected.
they're a state senator.
I didn't recognize the name. so I looked.
this isn't hard, people.
we work with the army we've got.
incidentally, actually phoning one's actual (FEDERAL) Reps to bitch about this, preferably with a script if you don't know exactly what's going on, > shitposting.
yes both can be done.
- Democrats, probably
#UnitedFront #VichyDemocrats
The answer is mostly that Republicans have controled SCOTUS since 1969, and partially that Republicans want to break the government, and it's easier to break things than to make them work.
Most of them very likely have non-instant negations! We’re going to win these in court!
But court doesn’t happen at the speed of post
1. Didn’t think they could lose in Nov or
2. didn’t think Trump would really do what he said he would do
They said they were gonna fuck with the OMB, why weren’t they ready? I take his shit seriously
No duh, Senator.
We know you must act, but will you?
Trump's voters love him because they believe he fights for them due to his rhetoric.
Dems need to let people know they are fighting this.
It's probably close to complete for congressmembers, and more than 90% for state legislators, but probably only around 30% for DNC members and state party officials.
I don't like. Or that's really lame because I'm not its target market? Or the person making it is really old?
Surely that amounts to the same thing?
Spam every message you can think of as rapidly as possible, evaluate what's sticking after 6 hours, and then say that message and nothing else every time you open your mouth for 3 days.
To not have every Dem ready on the Capitol steps to declare 'Weird. Illegal. Wrong. We reject the destruction of our government.' collectively in the first week or this past week for media optics alone was a big failure.
ugh.
Anyone that things there is some middle ground of anything less then all out opposition needs to gtfo.