Look, Connolly is one of the few old white men in the party who actually does try to fight the MAGAs, but he's old, he's sick and it's time for him to move on. No matter what Pelosi, Cummings, Schumer and others think, AOC is the future if the Democrats want to have a future. She understands both the threat the MAGAs pose and how to communicate to real, not imaginary voters. This fiasco shows us all why the Democrats lost, and may never regain, power in DC. Even f'king Gallego who saw first hand the destruction that Sinema brought with phony bipartisanship knows better but spouts the old line from the before days - not before MAGA, not before the Tea Party, before Gingrich - that the parties can work together. They can't the Republicans have seen to that. The assignment is clear - fight them at every turn and tell the f'king country why they are so damn destructive. Give Trump voters real buyers remorse, hard, strong and every damn day.
But we’re never going to a get a different response from someone who is similarly older(elderly , let’s just say it, elderly) white, and in power for a long time. Similarly - im fatigued of seeing the Clintons and the Obamas trotted out all the time. Yes, it’s good to have done occasion speaking engagements - B Clinton still has great insights - for example. They all do- but let’s move on. Really move on. And it seems we’re not going to be allowed to do that but the same people who have their claw like grip on power.
Even L Cheney wants to have her say about GOP let her do it, but she doesn’t need to have the full on embrace of the Dem party. Let her do what never trumpers do- they need to save THEIR brand and we don’t necessarily want them doing that at the expense of our brand.
Really really ready to move on from the Old Guard - and I’m a 60 yo white woman. Can only imagine how those younger than me feel when they watch this crap. If someone is elderly - they better be speaking like sanders , not some milquetoast actor no one knows and will never remember .
“Democrats, on the other hand, are terrified of what they believe the prototypical persuadable voter is. In their minds, that voter is someone who watches Fox News, has right-leaning social values, loathes the government, and thinks Democrats are a bunch of snooty anti-American elitists. Essentially, it’s a heartland conservative.”
And yet, while being terrified by that imagined voter, they play right into the hands of the right wing information infrastructure. Rather than offer messaging and policy that works, they try to avoid stepping in whatever pile is in front of them. It never works. Far better to aggressively react to every critique than fail to act or apologize immediately. Imagine if Obama had said, “yes, they are clinging to guns and religion. Here’s how we will protect both responsible gun ownership and religious freedom. You don’t have to be afraid.”
Leadership, at least, seems to be doing a pretty good job of proving the point of labor reporter, Hamilton Nolan, that while the members of the Republican party are absolutely the enemy, we can think of (many) members of the Democratic party as essentially cowards. 🫤
Wow -- that is a really powerful column, one to pull out and re-read when one's focus feels like it's slipping away a bit. Three bits jumped out at me:
"The onus is on us to give the cowards a soft path to the moral choice."
"...think of even the politicians on your own side ... as basically disreputable figures who are necessary to deal with but who should always be looked down upon and forced to prove, through action, that they are not pieces of shit."
"Our job is to get so strong and organized that the cowards will have no choice but to come along with us. The real action in politics is not in Washington. It is right where you are."
Excellently presented. The Democrats need to stop bringing ballpoint pens to a knife fight. They look ridiculous. The rules have changed. When Trump and the GOP fail, and they will, we need to point out the failure. This is where we say, “Look who destroyed the economy. Trump. And the GOP.” Don’t say to people who voted for Trump, “this is what you voted for.” People don’t like to be made wrong. Say “you put your trust in them and they betrayed you. Because that’s what they do. They betray people.”
I agree with some of this. But everyone ignores the obvious issue: promises bipartisanship and bill passing are what won so many Democrats a trip to Washington in the first place. In other words, it’s what voters wanted in 2018 and 2020 - otherwise we’d have more Squad members in the House. Not less.
You want to create better communicators? You have to convince Dem voters to pick candidates who place “fuck Republicans” at the top of their message. And that doesn’t really happen- even AOC still talks about policy accomplishments. So maybe the citizens should stop picking the old people they don’t want anymore for more terms in 2026.
The sooner Democrat lawmakers understand that AOC is the future of the party, then the sooner the voters will be ready to return the Democrat party to power.
"If perception is reality, than the House Democratic Caucus’ decision to elevate Congressman Gerry Connelly (VA-11) is further proof that the old guard is unwilling to release their reins on the party that desperately needs new direction, leadership, and spirit. ... Rep. Don Beyer’s assertion that Connelly is a “young 74” continues the sort of gaslighting that depressed and dispirited so many Democratic voters and activists earlier this year.
Don’t tell us we’re not seeing what we’re seeing."
"To put another old white guy atop a key post at the behest of a bunch of other old white Establishment types, puts paid to the idea that Democratic leadership really cares more about the type of voters in AOC’s district (which they need) and those in Connelly’s lily-white, suburban, affluent Northern Viriginia district (which they have, but maybe not for long.) ...
"The perception of the party’s distance, philosophically and economically, from the party’s base (and many swing voters) is only exacerbated by Ocasio-Cortez’s relegation. ... The longer they [the old white party establishment] endure, the harder it will become for rising stars like AOC and Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies to truly establish themselves."
Y'all listening up there on Capitol Hill? We folks down here in the grass roots are PISSED. Long since time for y'all to GTFOOTW.
People are full of shit most of the time, and if you don't understand that, I don't know how you can do politics.
It's like with Hunter Biden and very serious pundits believing that there was any sort of principle at stake with the Burisma nonsense. Nobody going after Hunter truly cared about what he did in anything demonstrating consistent principles, not one single person, yet we have an entire media dedicated to the idea that they are. I don't know how we'd ever break through without just calling people out on it.
AOC’s working class views don’t sit well with multimillionaires Congress critters like Pelosi. Universal Healthcare? Antitrust enforcement? Unions? The horror!!
This title is bullshit. The problem isn’t Democrats. The problem is that American voters are significantly shitty people, because America is shitty. No gun control? No health care? What a shitty place! Those Americans must all be huge uneducated fuckups.
Failing over and over again and eventually emerging victorious only happens in fiction. The Dem leadership is living in a reality that only they inhabit. The rest of us are on our own.
nothing here left for me to add except this: one might assume the Dems understand politics. If that is the case, we must consider whose side they are really on. Schumer and apparently all the Den senators just voted for a measure that will cause the Social Security Trust Fund to run out of money six months sooner than has been predicted for years and years. Worse, the measure' called The Fairness Act, is inened to give relatively well off people extra money from SS, that they did not pay taxes for, that was designed to be an insurance supplement to the very poor. Since, unusually, there are voices out there who understand this, and it gets reported. But apparently either ALL Democratic Senators are completely ignorant of how SS works, or they are complicit in the plot to destroy it.
Amazon has it. But also here: https://billmitchell.org/blog/?p=749 or The Deficit Myth chapter 6 on SS your library should have it. Money is a legal instrument of the state and the state is the monopoly issuer. Good luck with taking it from there. Lots of talented people want us to understand how the macro economy works (we have a fiat currency so yes, its created by fiat).
Congress can always add money to the Trust Fund. Running out of money is an idealogical stance. I recommend Macroeconomics by William Mitchell, Martin Watts and Randall Wray to understand this. Page 543 is specific to SS and Medicare. The good news is there is no financial constraint unless you want to invent one.
it is very unlikely i would be able to find a copy of the book you mention. worse, it is very likely i would not agree with it.
it is hard for me to tell if you are making a serous mistake here: congress COULD add money to the Trust Fund. But that sounds like you are expecting "someone else" to pay for your groceries when you can no longer work. If you are an MMT-er you may think the money can just be created out of thin air. it can't. money is supposed to represent someting..a product or a service.. It is true that a bank or the government can create money in advance in order to faciitate the creation of goods and services not yet in existence. this only works as long a reasonable amount of such goods and services are in fact created in time for the created money to be taken up as the medium of exchange for such goods and services.
or you may be thinking the government can just tax the rich...or use the general taxes to provide the money. It could, but Social Security was designed to avoid that...because "the rich" don't want to pay for your groceries, and they have the power to keep "the government" from making them pay for you. They would pay for a lmited amount of "welfare," but always be looking for a way to cut it.
Social Security was designed to avoid all that by making it worker paid. you pay for your future groceries in the normal way..by saving your own money at interest so that you will have enough when you can no longer work to pay for your own needs.
The advantage of SS over private savings is that it can be made very secure against inflation or losses...as from bad days on the market, or even personal bad luck or lack of prudent saving. It is also a very large insurance pool so that those who for some reason are unable to save enough, even with the help of Social Security, can collect an "insurance benefit" that comes from the premiums paid by all the workers. This is where the rich can be seen to be collecting their fair share; they don't get the insurance benefit because they don't need it...they did not have the fire . But they did not know they would not have the fire, so they are willing to pay for the insurance...up to a point. The insane right would rather you gave them your moey to manage for you. That way they get the gains while you bear the risks. The insane Left wants to "make" the rich pay for your groceries. They cannot make the rich pay, and it would turn SS into welfare if they could.
If you think I am wrong, please try to expalin why...maybe tell me what your book says in a few words, so i know what you are talking about.
Paying for your own needs in advance is not an ideological stance. It is a practical way out of an ideological trap. It is not welfare, but neither does it allow the poor to just starve if they don't win the capitalist money game.
I thought I'd give it a try thinking about it from the MMT point of view. So far it looks favorable to your position. It will be a while before I think I understand it, but the most promising line right now appears to be that just prjnting the money would be much like just giving the workers a pay raise...which is fine because I had thought that increasing worker pay might be an answer to the projected Trust Fund depletion. I suggest you give it a try and see wht you come up with. Try to keep track of goods and services instead of "money"... and the effect on "inflation" (which is about money) and the effects of that on people in different circumstances. good luck and thanks for encouraging me to look beyond what i think i know.
increases in worker pay should be an automatic consequence of the "labor shortage" the enemies of SS always claim an increaseing elderly population demanding more than a smaller ratio of workers to retirees can produce "and therefore we must cut benefits or eat the old people." the enemies of SS never think beyond the first answer they get tht justifies reducing benefits.
looked up bill mitchill current blog. showed interview with him by something called "bad news..." liked him. agreed with him about everything...was not about mmt per se but history of us politics since about 1970. i still don't think mmt can be made to work in america as it is.... congress gets too much benefit by hysteria about deficit/debt. i think raising the payroll tax one tenth of one percent would be a lot easier for people to uderstand. anyway thank you for calling my attention to him.
The problem is, Democrats never get to Part 2 of this plan—the part where you tell the public, “Right. That’s it. We tried working with them, and look what happened. We’re done.” What you’re suggesting—and I agree—is that there’s enough of a track record that they can skip to this part. At best they’re going through the motions; at worst they’re expending a lot of time and energy coming up with reasons not to do anything.
Look at the government shutdown that’s coming. If it’s averted, “brave moderate Republicans” will be hailed as the heroes, not 100 percent wrongly.
This is the BEST column I have EVER read on this subject.. Someone posted it on Democratic Underground and people love it.. I wish every Democrat could read this..Its the key to stopping the fascists
Democrats are more concerned with how things look. That is why Insane Clown is not in jail right now. And why they decided that the way to beat this Insane Clown madman was to present as a joyous pom pom waving Barbie Doll. Democrats have a relentless will to lose. And that won't change any time soon.
Understanding voters only causes one to have justifiable contempt for them.
I'm having trouble mustering all this fire and anger at Dem electeds over tactics, strategy, and weakness.
They fought through an election campaign and told the public about the Republican side's plans. The information was certainly all available. The Democrats certainly governed and legislated and worked at their jobs with the power they had when they had it.
Both they (the electeds and their campaign staffs, volunteers) and all of us who voted and contributed their way in November are still within our rights to not be done with our primary rage and anger at John Q. Voting public, who is a civic fuck-up of the worst kind and really failing on the citizenship test in a big way, not doing its part at all. We get the the type of politics we "train" (by our votes) our politicians to produce, so in this election, John Q. Swing-Voting public basically did a big training reinforcement for our politicians to be assholes and for anti-asshole politicians to STFU.
Continuing on this, I feel like our Democratic pols, the Democratic Party, and consistent Democratic voters, like me, are entitled to some venting at the voting public for their stupidity.
In addition to just being historically aware and well-read, I'm also old enough (early 50s) to have seen this movie three times already, and I tell you what: "America, we Democrats are sick of being your fucking rebound boyfriend."
"Every time you're in real trouble America, then you come running to us, and we make it better, make you feel safe and cared for. First you came when there was the recession of 91-92, the first one that started to hit white collar people in number alongside blue-collar, and your GOP wonder boys of the 80s just didn't seem to get it. We balanced the budget and brought the economy back. Cue to 8 years later, economy kicking butt, US geopolitically on top of the world."
"....And then you get bored, wondering if it would be more fun to have beer with that other guy from Texas instead of hang out with the nerd" who invented the internet." Cue 8 years later we are in two wars, one of them especially a dumpster fire, and our economy circling the toilet, **now** you want to see us. We work through eight years of recovery. It's slow, a bit hard. There's arguments, but we're getting there and we're eight years later and time for another choice. And there you go and decide, hey let's just burn it all down and see what we get with 'The Apprentice' guy instead of work with the solid school marm. Cue four years later, we have raging pandemic and discontent over out of control police in the cities, and you're scared shitless with a President unable or uninterested in calming anyone. Like a comedian said, like a horse running loose on an airplane. And you're running back to us. That you do, and in the transition, 'the horse' pulls his worst move yet, trying a coup at the capital out of sore loserdom. Our team gets normalcy back and the pandemic under control and the economy back and unemployment to record lows. Prices are increased, but inflation is eventually checked. Prices don't go down but they never do. Four years on, time for a choice, let the repair and recovery an better building back continue, or empower the sore loser crowd. ...And there you go with sore loser crowd and with the serial liar, fraudster and rapist because the price of eggs got high."
"America, before the 21st century you did not have such a goldfish memory problem. Jimmy Carter kind of got a dog's breakfast to fix, but he did not fix it, or enough of it, and some things got worse. It was fair to give the other guys a shot. In 1968, the Johnson Administration had given a lot with one hand, Civil Rights, Medicare, Medicaid, but screwed up big, often the same people, with the other hand----Vietnam, so changing management....fair." "FDR did a big rescue job from the Depression Hoover and Coolidge left him, but the public had a memory then, and provided civic reciprocal loyalty commensurate with the job performance and contrast for the next almost two decades. Similar civic memory and reciprocal loyalty has not been a functioning thing in America since 1993, and showed signs of brokenness with most midterms since 1994"
Look, Connolly is one of the few old white men in the party who actually does try to fight the MAGAs, but he's old, he's sick and it's time for him to move on. No matter what Pelosi, Cummings, Schumer and others think, AOC is the future if the Democrats want to have a future. She understands both the threat the MAGAs pose and how to communicate to real, not imaginary voters. This fiasco shows us all why the Democrats lost, and may never regain, power in DC. Even f'king Gallego who saw first hand the destruction that Sinema brought with phony bipartisanship knows better but spouts the old line from the before days - not before MAGA, not before the Tea Party, before Gingrich - that the parties can work together. They can't the Republicans have seen to that. The assignment is clear - fight them at every turn and tell the f'king country why they are so damn destructive. Give Trump voters real buyers remorse, hard, strong and every damn day.
But we’re never going to a get a different response from someone who is similarly older(elderly , let’s just say it, elderly) white, and in power for a long time. Similarly - im fatigued of seeing the Clintons and the Obamas trotted out all the time. Yes, it’s good to have done occasion speaking engagements - B Clinton still has great insights - for example. They all do- but let’s move on. Really move on. And it seems we’re not going to be allowed to do that but the same people who have their claw like grip on power.
Even L Cheney wants to have her say about GOP let her do it, but she doesn’t need to have the full on embrace of the Dem party. Let her do what never trumpers do- they need to save THEIR brand and we don’t necessarily want them doing that at the expense of our brand.
Really really ready to move on from the Old Guard - and I’m a 60 yo white woman. Can only imagine how those younger than me feel when they watch this crap. If someone is elderly - they better be speaking like sanders , not some milquetoast actor no one knows and will never remember .
Yessiree!!
“Democrats, on the other hand, are terrified of what they believe the prototypical persuadable voter is. In their minds, that voter is someone who watches Fox News, has right-leaning social values, loathes the government, and thinks Democrats are a bunch of snooty anti-American elitists. Essentially, it’s a heartland conservative.”
And yet, while being terrified by that imagined voter, they play right into the hands of the right wing information infrastructure. Rather than offer messaging and policy that works, they try to avoid stepping in whatever pile is in front of them. It never works. Far better to aggressively react to every critique than fail to act or apologize immediately. Imagine if Obama had said, “yes, they are clinging to guns and religion. Here’s how we will protect both responsible gun ownership and religious freedom. You don’t have to be afraid.”
Leadership, at least, seems to be doing a pretty good job of proving the point of labor reporter, Hamilton Nolan, that while the members of the Republican party are absolutely the enemy, we can think of (many) members of the Democratic party as essentially cowards. 🫤
https://open.substack.com/pub/howthingswork/p/how-to-think-about-politics-without
Wow -- that is a really powerful column, one to pull out and re-read when one's focus feels like it's slipping away a bit. Three bits jumped out at me:
"The onus is on us to give the cowards a soft path to the moral choice."
"...think of even the politicians on your own side ... as basically disreputable figures who are necessary to deal with but who should always be looked down upon and forced to prove, through action, that they are not pieces of shit."
"Our job is to get so strong and organized that the cowards will have no choice but to come along with us. The real action in politics is not in Washington. It is right where you are."
Excellently presented. The Democrats need to stop bringing ballpoint pens to a knife fight. They look ridiculous. The rules have changed. When Trump and the GOP fail, and they will, we need to point out the failure. This is where we say, “Look who destroyed the economy. Trump. And the GOP.” Don’t say to people who voted for Trump, “this is what you voted for.” People don’t like to be made wrong. Say “you put your trust in them and they betrayed you. Because that’s what they do. They betray people.”
I agree with some of this. But everyone ignores the obvious issue: promises bipartisanship and bill passing are what won so many Democrats a trip to Washington in the first place. In other words, it’s what voters wanted in 2018 and 2020 - otherwise we’d have more Squad members in the House. Not less.
You want to create better communicators? You have to convince Dem voters to pick candidates who place “fuck Republicans” at the top of their message. And that doesn’t really happen- even AOC still talks about policy accomplishments. So maybe the citizens should stop picking the old people they don’t want anymore for more terms in 2026.
Waldman nails it.
The sooner Democrat lawmakers understand that AOC is the future of the party, then the sooner the voters will be ready to return the Democrat party to power.
Paul's on it here. As a complement, see Reed Galen's Substack yesterday: "Democrats (Still) Don't Understand the Nature of Power" (https://reedgalen.substack.com/p/democrats-still-dont-understand-the)
A few snippets:
"If perception is reality, than the House Democratic Caucus’ decision to elevate Congressman Gerry Connelly (VA-11) is further proof that the old guard is unwilling to release their reins on the party that desperately needs new direction, leadership, and spirit. ... Rep. Don Beyer’s assertion that Connelly is a “young 74” continues the sort of gaslighting that depressed and dispirited so many Democratic voters and activists earlier this year.
Don’t tell us we’re not seeing what we’re seeing."
"To put another old white guy atop a key post at the behest of a bunch of other old white Establishment types, puts paid to the idea that Democratic leadership really cares more about the type of voters in AOC’s district (which they need) and those in Connelly’s lily-white, suburban, affluent Northern Viriginia district (which they have, but maybe not for long.) ...
"The perception of the party’s distance, philosophically and economically, from the party’s base (and many swing voters) is only exacerbated by Ocasio-Cortez’s relegation. ... The longer they [the old white party establishment] endure, the harder it will become for rising stars like AOC and Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies to truly establish themselves."
Y'all listening up there on Capitol Hill? We folks down here in the grass roots are PISSED. Long since time for y'all to GTFOOTW.
People are full of shit most of the time, and if you don't understand that, I don't know how you can do politics.
It's like with Hunter Biden and very serious pundits believing that there was any sort of principle at stake with the Burisma nonsense. Nobody going after Hunter truly cared about what he did in anything demonstrating consistent principles, not one single person, yet we have an entire media dedicated to the idea that they are. I don't know how we'd ever break through without just calling people out on it.
AOC’s working class views don’t sit well with multimillionaires Congress critters like Pelosi. Universal Healthcare? Antitrust enforcement? Unions? The horror!!
This title is bullshit. The problem isn’t Democrats. The problem is that American voters are significantly shitty people, because America is shitty. No gun control? No health care? What a shitty place! Those Americans must all be huge uneducated fuckups.
Failing over and over again and eventually emerging victorious only happens in fiction. The Dem leadership is living in a reality that only they inhabit. The rest of us are on our own.
And yet we love fictional characters who fail over and over again but stay in the game. Just look at Charlie Brown.
There's a sucker born every minute. ;)
nothing here left for me to add except this: one might assume the Dems understand politics. If that is the case, we must consider whose side they are really on. Schumer and apparently all the Den senators just voted for a measure that will cause the Social Security Trust Fund to run out of money six months sooner than has been predicted for years and years. Worse, the measure' called The Fairness Act, is inened to give relatively well off people extra money from SS, that they did not pay taxes for, that was designed to be an insurance supplement to the very poor. Since, unusually, there are voices out there who understand this, and it gets reported. But apparently either ALL Democratic Senators are completely ignorant of how SS works, or they are complicit in the plot to destroy it.
Amazon has it. But also here: https://billmitchell.org/blog/?p=749 or The Deficit Myth chapter 6 on SS your library should have it. Money is a legal instrument of the state and the state is the monopoly issuer. Good luck with taking it from there. Lots of talented people want us to understand how the macro economy works (we have a fiat currency so yes, its created by fiat).
Congress can always add money to the Trust Fund. Running out of money is an idealogical stance. I recommend Macroeconomics by William Mitchell, Martin Watts and Randall Wray to understand this. Page 543 is specific to SS and Medicare. The good news is there is no financial constraint unless you want to invent one.
dear Sue,
it is very unlikely i would be able to find a copy of the book you mention. worse, it is very likely i would not agree with it.
it is hard for me to tell if you are making a serous mistake here: congress COULD add money to the Trust Fund. But that sounds like you are expecting "someone else" to pay for your groceries when you can no longer work. If you are an MMT-er you may think the money can just be created out of thin air. it can't. money is supposed to represent someting..a product or a service.. It is true that a bank or the government can create money in advance in order to faciitate the creation of goods and services not yet in existence. this only works as long a reasonable amount of such goods and services are in fact created in time for the created money to be taken up as the medium of exchange for such goods and services.
or you may be thinking the government can just tax the rich...or use the general taxes to provide the money. It could, but Social Security was designed to avoid that...because "the rich" don't want to pay for your groceries, and they have the power to keep "the government" from making them pay for you. They would pay for a lmited amount of "welfare," but always be looking for a way to cut it.
Social Security was designed to avoid all that by making it worker paid. you pay for your future groceries in the normal way..by saving your own money at interest so that you will have enough when you can no longer work to pay for your own needs.
The advantage of SS over private savings is that it can be made very secure against inflation or losses...as from bad days on the market, or even personal bad luck or lack of prudent saving. It is also a very large insurance pool so that those who for some reason are unable to save enough, even with the help of Social Security, can collect an "insurance benefit" that comes from the premiums paid by all the workers. This is where the rich can be seen to be collecting their fair share; they don't get the insurance benefit because they don't need it...they did not have the fire . But they did not know they would not have the fire, so they are willing to pay for the insurance...up to a point. The insane right would rather you gave them your moey to manage for you. That way they get the gains while you bear the risks. The insane Left wants to "make" the rich pay for your groceries. They cannot make the rich pay, and it would turn SS into welfare if they could.
If you think I am wrong, please try to expalin why...maybe tell me what your book says in a few words, so i know what you are talking about.
Paying for your own needs in advance is not an ideological stance. It is a practical way out of an ideological trap. It is not welfare, but neither does it allow the poor to just starve if they don't win the capitalist money game.
sue in CO
if you are still here
I thought I'd give it a try thinking about it from the MMT point of view. So far it looks favorable to your position. It will be a while before I think I understand it, but the most promising line right now appears to be that just prjnting the money would be much like just giving the workers a pay raise...which is fine because I had thought that increasing worker pay might be an answer to the projected Trust Fund depletion. I suggest you give it a try and see wht you come up with. Try to keep track of goods and services instead of "money"... and the effect on "inflation" (which is about money) and the effects of that on people in different circumstances. good luck and thanks for encouraging me to look beyond what i think i know.
btw
increases in worker pay should be an automatic consequence of the "labor shortage" the enemies of SS always claim an increaseing elderly population demanding more than a smaller ratio of workers to retirees can produce "and therefore we must cut benefits or eat the old people." the enemies of SS never think beyond the first answer they get tht justifies reducing benefits.
looked up bill mitchill current blog. showed interview with him by something called "bad news..." liked him. agreed with him about everything...was not about mmt per se but history of us politics since about 1970. i still don't think mmt can be made to work in america as it is.... congress gets too much benefit by hysteria about deficit/debt. i think raising the payroll tax one tenth of one percent would be a lot easier for people to uderstand. anyway thank you for calling my attention to him.
The problem is, Democrats never get to Part 2 of this plan—the part where you tell the public, “Right. That’s it. We tried working with them, and look what happened. We’re done.” What you’re suggesting—and I agree—is that there’s enough of a track record that they can skip to this part. At best they’re going through the motions; at worst they’re expending a lot of time and energy coming up with reasons not to do anything.
Look at the government shutdown that’s coming. If it’s averted, “brave moderate Republicans” will be hailed as the heroes, not 100 percent wrongly.
This is the BEST column I have EVER read on this subject.. Someone posted it on Democratic Underground and people love it.. I wish every Democrat could read this..Its the key to stopping the fascists
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220107220#post19
Thanks!
Democrats are more concerned with how things look. That is why Insane Clown is not in jail right now. And why they decided that the way to beat this Insane Clown madman was to present as a joyous pom pom waving Barbie Doll. Democrats have a relentless will to lose. And that won't change any time soon.
Understanding voters only causes one to have justifiable contempt for them.
I'm having trouble mustering all this fire and anger at Dem electeds over tactics, strategy, and weakness.
They fought through an election campaign and told the public about the Republican side's plans. The information was certainly all available. The Democrats certainly governed and legislated and worked at their jobs with the power they had when they had it.
Both they (the electeds and their campaign staffs, volunteers) and all of us who voted and contributed their way in November are still within our rights to not be done with our primary rage and anger at John Q. Voting public, who is a civic fuck-up of the worst kind and really failing on the citizenship test in a big way, not doing its part at all. We get the the type of politics we "train" (by our votes) our politicians to produce, so in this election, John Q. Swing-Voting public basically did a big training reinforcement for our politicians to be assholes and for anti-asshole politicians to STFU.
Continuing on this, I feel like our Democratic pols, the Democratic Party, and consistent Democratic voters, like me, are entitled to some venting at the voting public for their stupidity.
In addition to just being historically aware and well-read, I'm also old enough (early 50s) to have seen this movie three times already, and I tell you what: "America, we Democrats are sick of being your fucking rebound boyfriend."
"Every time you're in real trouble America, then you come running to us, and we make it better, make you feel safe and cared for. First you came when there was the recession of 91-92, the first one that started to hit white collar people in number alongside blue-collar, and your GOP wonder boys of the 80s just didn't seem to get it. We balanced the budget and brought the economy back. Cue to 8 years later, economy kicking butt, US geopolitically on top of the world."
"....And then you get bored, wondering if it would be more fun to have beer with that other guy from Texas instead of hang out with the nerd" who invented the internet." Cue 8 years later we are in two wars, one of them especially a dumpster fire, and our economy circling the toilet, **now** you want to see us. We work through eight years of recovery. It's slow, a bit hard. There's arguments, but we're getting there and we're eight years later and time for another choice. And there you go and decide, hey let's just burn it all down and see what we get with 'The Apprentice' guy instead of work with the solid school marm. Cue four years later, we have raging pandemic and discontent over out of control police in the cities, and you're scared shitless with a President unable or uninterested in calming anyone. Like a comedian said, like a horse running loose on an airplane. And you're running back to us. That you do, and in the transition, 'the horse' pulls his worst move yet, trying a coup at the capital out of sore loserdom. Our team gets normalcy back and the pandemic under control and the economy back and unemployment to record lows. Prices are increased, but inflation is eventually checked. Prices don't go down but they never do. Four years on, time for a choice, let the repair and recovery an better building back continue, or empower the sore loser crowd. ...And there you go with sore loser crowd and with the serial liar, fraudster and rapist because the price of eggs got high."
"America, before the 21st century you did not have such a goldfish memory problem. Jimmy Carter kind of got a dog's breakfast to fix, but he did not fix it, or enough of it, and some things got worse. It was fair to give the other guys a shot. In 1968, the Johnson Administration had given a lot with one hand, Civil Rights, Medicare, Medicaid, but screwed up big, often the same people, with the other hand----Vietnam, so changing management....fair." "FDR did a big rescue job from the Depression Hoover and Coolidge left him, but the public had a memory then, and provided civic reciprocal loyalty commensurate with the job performance and contrast for the next almost two decades. Similar civic memory and reciprocal loyalty has not been a functioning thing in America since 1993, and showed signs of brokenness with most midterms since 1994"