Democratic leadership announced their plans to play the 2013 Katy Perry song “Roar” very loud in response to the aggressive start of President Donald Trump’s second term.
Genuinely curious what people want the Democrats to specifically do right now, apart from vague calls of “something” and “more” and “better.” At least on a federal level, aren’t they pretty much powerless at this point? What even can they do?
Vote no on everything like Republicans did when Obama/Biden tried good things
Filibuster every bill like Republicans
Give motivated members of Congress more power, like AOC
Retire the old blood of the DNC and have people with ideas from after 1982 enter office (my state allows office vacancies to be filled by appointment until election)
Listen to the Americans who voted for you to stop Trump and stop whining about that in private meetings
Stop voting yes on anything Trump wants
Don’t ratfuck young faces because they are running in seats with old people
Don’t say everything is okay and normal despite the fact it’s clearly not, it didn’t work both times they ran on it as a platform
All great ideas. Have you mentioned them to the Democrats? They are depressingly poll-driven, but it’s probably worth directly reaching out. My local congress people are probably sick of my shit by now, but if so – good.
Figure out what they stand for, stated in two sentences. (From that old chestnut that says that you don’t understand a thing if you can’t explain it in two sentences, or less.)
Learn from the experts (PR people, psychologists, neuroscientists, screenwriters, etc.) how to state it in ways that resonate with people.
Then, do it. Convince all of us that they care, and are trying. Build coalitions around the message, and strengthen civil society.
The greatest damage from this administration’s lawlessness does not come from tearing down government agencies, it’s the corrosive effect of hopelessness in the minds and hearts of the citizens as we look around and feel like we’re alone, and that nobody else actually cares about our laws, traditions, and principles.
My interpretation: the right is broadly successful because they are presenting a compelling narrative to explain the problems in America. It’s “elites” in business, government (deep state), and schools that are pushing an unamerican agenda of “wokeness”, using immigrants to gain power, and indoctrinating through schools and universities. This is enough to get people to vote right because at least the right is doing something to address their concerns.
What the Democrats need to do, is present a more compelling narrative. They can’t just be the “non-maga” party. They have to actually address people’s concerns about economic insecurity and present a vision for the future. I remain convinced that the first president that runs on economic populism will sweep an election.
Yeah, I remember in 2016 when the Hillary campaign’s response to “Make America Great Again” was “America is Already Great” and man did that go over like a lead balloon. Democrats fucking love to pretend everything is okay.
And then Harris did the same and wondered why she lost.
“Everything is okay! Sure you can’t afford food, rent, housing, the government spends more on wars than social services, but I might give those with millions a few hundred thousand to buy a house! And I’ll appoint a Republican to my cabinet!”
I mean, I’m not an expert by any means but haven’t the republicans been able to very efficiently stifle democrat majorities before? If they just follow that playbook (delaying things, being pains in the ass, constant insistence on funky rules) they can at least annoy the shit out of them and hopefully slow things down. They’re way too polite for that tho, they’d rather just let it happen and hope they come out okay in the end then to risk the wrath of the annoying orange and his minions.
One thing they could do is stop voting with republicans to confirm Trump’s appointees. Have you seen. how well the Republicans obstruct? They can get everybody in their rank and file out on network TV to call for banning a book by title while the democrats can’t even get their best faces on TV to call what’s happening with NY’s mayor blatant quid pro quo corruption
agreed. that’s literally their job. oppose the other party by whatever means at their disposal. use the press, support union actions, so many ideas. be bold be creative.
they at least should stop pretending that “playing by the rules” and “trusting the system” is an appropriate response to illegal orders, illegal firings, violations of constitutional doctrine, and open defiance of judicial and legislative oversight. relevant video from InnuendoStudio, sadly aged like wine
Only if the appointees are bad (which, since it’s Trump and “stuff up the deep state” project 2025, there’s probably a lot of bad appointees). If we obstruct appointees that are good, we’ll just keep seeing the pendulum swinging when a new party comes into power.
I don’t believe you’re making that argument in good faith. Every one of his nominees have been ridiculous caricatures of stereotypical MAGA car salesman
Not lining up to bend over for republicans would be nice a nice start. Even a quarter the obstructionism as the republican party has put forth when Democrats are in charge would be appreciated.
Workers strikes, general strikes, work stoppages and walk outs … organize people to conduct mass disruptive activities in a peaceful obstructive way to force those in power to either move against them or take steps back to accommodate people.
Strikes need strike funds. Dem billionaire donors are not going to fund picket lines and unions (half of which majority voted for trump) are not going to sacrifice their livelihoods for what trump has done so far.
Mass protest is possible, but it won’t come from organized labor unless something changes drastically.
Congresscritters could do a little more to gum up congress. Stop confirming his nominees except for the 3 sane options.
As others have said they will have a chance to negotiate when the shutdown comes due. We will see.
Plenty of Nazis said that, plenty of Nazis had their reasons. There’s a word for them - Nazi. Would you get in line with fascists if it meant a sense of security? Would you hide targetted members of the public like Anne Frank? Or are you gonna rat out your neighbors (lets face it you don’t even know em, not your problem) to avoid getting into trouble? These are questions the “wife and child need to eat” crowd need to start considering, because there’s no “centrist position” when it comes to that.
The next real test will probably be the budget vote in the House. Post-Trump Republicans have historically been unable to pass budgets without democrat help, even when they had a majority, so one thing democrats can do is squeeze the GOP dry for concessions before helping them pass the next budget.
Genuinely curious what people want the Democrats to specifically do right now, apart from vague calls of “something” and “more” and “better.” At least on a federal level, aren’t they pretty much powerless at this point? What even can they do?
All great ideas. Have you mentioned them to the Democrats? They are depressingly poll-driven, but it’s probably worth directly reaching out. My local congress people are probably sick of my shit by now, but if so – good.
What the Repugs do whenever they’re in the minority: complain loudly and publicly, and obstruct absolutely goddamned everything.
Figure out what they stand for, stated in two sentences. (From that old chestnut that says that you don’t understand a thing if you can’t explain it in two sentences, or less.)
Learn from the experts (PR people, psychologists, neuroscientists, screenwriters, etc.) how to state it in ways that resonate with people.
Then, do it. Convince all of us that they care, and are trying. Build coalitions around the message, and strengthen civil society.
The greatest damage from this administration’s lawlessness does not come from tearing down government agencies, it’s the corrosive effect of hopelessness in the minds and hearts of the citizens as we look around and feel like we’re alone, and that nobody else actually cares about our laws, traditions, and principles.
My interpretation: the right is broadly successful because they are presenting a compelling narrative to explain the problems in America. It’s “elites” in business, government (deep state), and schools that are pushing an unamerican agenda of “wokeness”, using immigrants to gain power, and indoctrinating through schools and universities. This is enough to get people to vote right because at least the right is doing something to address their concerns.
What the Democrats need to do, is present a more compelling narrative. They can’t just be the “non-maga” party. They have to actually address people’s concerns about economic insecurity and present a vision for the future. I remain convinced that the first president that runs on economic populism will sweep an election.
Yeah, I remember in 2016 when the Hillary campaign’s response to “Make America Great Again” was “America is Already Great” and man did that go over like a lead balloon. Democrats fucking love to pretend everything is okay.
And then Harris did the same and wondered why she lost.
“Everything is okay! Sure you can’t afford food, rent, housing, the government spends more on wars than social services, but I might give those with millions a few hundred thousand to buy a house! And I’ll appoint a Republican to my cabinet!”
I mean, I’m not an expert by any means but haven’t the republicans been able to very efficiently stifle democrat majorities before? If they just follow that playbook (delaying things, being pains in the ass, constant insistence on funky rules) they can at least annoy the shit out of them and hopefully slow things down. They’re way too polite for that tho, they’d rather just let it happen and hope they come out okay in the end then to risk the wrath of the annoying orange and his minions.
One thing they could do is stop voting with republicans to confirm Trump’s appointees. Have you seen. how well the Republicans obstruct? They can get everybody in their rank and file out on network TV to call for banning a book by title while the democrats can’t even get their best faces on TV to call what’s happening with NY’s mayor blatant quid pro quo corruption
EDIT: Trump energy chief says there are upsides to ecological collapse
agreed. that’s literally their job. oppose the other party by whatever means at their disposal. use the press, support union actions, so many ideas. be bold be creative.
they at least should stop pretending that “playing by the rules” and “trusting the system” is an appropriate response to illegal orders, illegal firings, violations of constitutional doctrine, and open defiance of judicial and legislative oversight. relevant video from InnuendoStudio, sadly aged like wine
Only if the appointees are bad (which, since it’s Trump and “stuff up the deep state” project 2025, there’s probably a lot of bad appointees). If we obstruct appointees that are good, we’ll just keep seeing the pendulum swinging when a new party comes into power.
Please name a single person Trump has picked for a cabinet position that is objectively good.
I don’t believe you’re making that argument in good faith. Every one of his nominees have been ridiculous caricatures of stereotypical MAGA car salesman
There’s more appointees than Trump’s cabinet, which I agree is bad. There’s for example district court judges.
IIRC he had like two or so with good credentials. The one replacing Lina Khan I think was surprisingly good.
Yep, all they have to do is think…”what would republicans do in this situation?”
Probably have a party with cocaine and sex workers.
Republicans would get one of their followers to bash Mike Johnson’s spouse in the head with a hammer like they did to Pelosi.
Not lining up to bend over for republicans would be nice a nice start. Even a quarter the obstructionism as the republican party has put forth when Democrats are in charge would be appreciated.
Certainly, but like – what specifically? If you could pick one specific thing they should do/have done, what would it be?
Speak up, speak loud and speak often. Be the leaders of the grassroots organization they pretend to represent.
They seem to be incessantly tweeting and Facebooking, but people are complaining that that’s not very effective.
Because shitposting isn’t organizing.
It seemed to work for MAGA. Maybe the Democrats need more bot accounts? Shittier shitposts, maybe?
Project 2025 wasn’t a tweet.
It’s also not why people voted for Trump. He had to consistently lie about supporting it so as not to scare off his potential voters. Meanwhile, a deliberately misleading viral shitstorm made out of a single Biden comment had MAGAts rolling up to their polling places in trash bags.
Organising what? What should they organise?
Workers strikes, general strikes, work stoppages and walk outs … organize people to conduct mass disruptive activities in a peaceful obstructive way to force those in power to either move against them or take steps back to accommodate people.
Strikes need strike funds. Dem billionaire donors are not going to fund picket lines and unions (half of which majority voted for trump) are not going to sacrifice their livelihoods for what trump has done so far.
Mass protest is possible, but it won’t come from organized labor unless something changes drastically.
Congresscritters could do a little more to gum up congress. Stop confirming his nominees except for the 3 sane options.
As others have said they will have a chance to negotiate when the shutdown comes due. We will see.
“But my [insert excuse not to go out and protest]…”
…wife and child need to eat and have shelter? Yeah, clearly we’re the problem.
Plenty of Nazis said that, plenty of Nazis had their reasons. There’s a word for them - Nazi. Would you get in line with fascists if it meant a sense of security? Would you hide targetted members of the public like Anne Frank? Or are you gonna rat out your neighbors (lets face it you don’t even know em, not your problem) to avoid getting into trouble? These are questions the “wife and child need to eat” crowd need to start considering, because there’s no “centrist position” when it comes to that.
They could reach out to Sean O’Brien.
The next real test will probably be the budget vote in the House. Post-Trump Republicans have historically been unable to pass budgets without democrat help, even when they had a majority, so one thing democrats can do is squeeze the GOP dry for concessions before helping them pass the next budget.
step one should be a change of leadership.
Agreed. Can anyone think of somebody the Progressive wing and the mega-donors can agree on?
Voting against literally any of the trump cabinet nominees would have been a start
Most of the votes cast by Democrats were against Trump’s cabinet picks. (Not that it mattered, but I’ll never know how the fuck Marco Rubio pulled so many Democrats 🤦♀️ .)
massive string of lawsuits
That is happening as we speak: https://www.justsecurity.org/107087/tracker-litigation-legal-challenges-trump-administration/
interpretive dance
Surely this will be an Onion link
Oh, for fuck’s sake…
Also, please don’t link to Xitter.
https://kbin.earth/m/progressivepolitics@lemmy.world/t/932145/Bracing-for-a-Shutdown-Fight-Democrats-Warn-Their-Votes-Are