Summary

Democratic divisions intensified as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Nancy Pelosi sharply criticized Chuck Schumer for supporting a Republican-led funding bill to avoid a government shutdown.

AOC called Schumer’s decision a “betrayal,” urging Senate Democrats to reject the legislation backed by Trump and Elon Musk. Pelosi called the bill a “devastating assault” on working families.

Schumer defended his stance, arguing a shutdown would empower Trump and Musk further.

The controversy sparked suggestions among Democrats that AOC might challenge Schumer in a primary.

    • HiddenLychee@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      As far left as I am, that would guarantee the Republicans would win every election until we get ranked choice vote

      • tamal3@lemmy.world
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        23 hours ago

        This is what we need to be talking about as a country right now. How do we open up the political binary to include viable third parties? Does that require proportional representation? Does that require a parliamentary system?

        I know in NC getting a third party on the ballot requires signatures and a portion of the vote in the previous election. Those bars are too high and risky. What is another path?

        • HiddenLychee@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Honestly how I’m feeling these days. I honestly think their preferred state is not being in power, that way they don’t have to keep any promises and get to keep their jobs all while doing nothing but complaining about Republicans.

    • girlthing
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      1 day ago

      sizzling hot take: all political parties end up as tools for elites to capture power

      truly a bold and newfangled idea, surely only a few radical extremists could buy into it. surely parliamentary socialists in Meiji-era Japan, for instance, would never derive this dangerous concept from first principles

    • melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      23 hours ago

      no but you don’t understand! IF YOU HAD JUST VOTED, WE COULD HAVE HAD TEN CHUCK SCHUMERS TO VOTE FOR THE FASCIST CRAP! so really everything bad that happened is your fault for not voting. how dare you fail the democratic party like this.

  • BostonSamurai@lemm.ee
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    2 days ago

    Dems need to stop pretending Schumer is the only problem, any other dem in his position would have done the same thing including AOC. The party is rotten to the core it’s just a revolving door of sycophants who server wall st and capital. The party is working as intended. Notice how Dems never have power to make actual change, never have the backbone to oppose republicans, and when they have majorities they never use their power for actual progress or at the very least codifying laws like roe v wade ect. They are there to act like an opposition party not actually be one. The working class is perpetually screwed.

    • Triple Iris@lemmy.wtf
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      2 days ago

      I will never again take AOC or any other “squad” member seriously as long as they proudly call themselves Democrats. Go independent like Bernie or start another party. Until then, if they want to keep giving themselves the same label as Schumer or Fetterman, I’m going to lump them in the same batch of assholes and idiots.

        • Z3k3@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Its funny I have suddenly seen the leave the party thing pop up in multiple places at the exact same time.

          Beginning to think it’s AstroTurf to get the noise people out of the way and into 3rd party oblivion

    • usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml
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      3 days ago

      She would have to be in the senate to take over senate leadership in the short term. For his seat itself, there’s been house members - including moderates - starting to support the idea her primarying him when his term is up in 2028

      Several members — including moderates — have begun voicing support for a primary challenge to Schumer, floating Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) as possible candidates, three House Democrats said.

      https://www.axios.com/2025/03/14/house-democrats-angry-chuck-schumer-shutdown

    • PolydoreSmith@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Spinelessness is the chief defining quality of the entire Democratic Party. There are very few individual exceptions and those people need to start a new party. The US needs a real progressive party. The establishment Dems have made it very clear they won’t support a true progressive candidate, so what’s the point of bending the knee to these fuckers any longer?

      • formulaBonk@lemm.ee
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        3 days ago

        And honestly now is the time to do it. I have absolutely zero faith we will have honest elections in the next couple decades so splitting the funding between neo lib corpocrats and an actual progressive party for the people will not affect the crooked elections under trump since they won’t win anyway. The time for progress is NOW

      • kreskin@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Its hard to decide if they are spineless or complicit. Not that it amounts to much of a difference in the end.

  • Debs@lemmy.zip
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    2 days ago

    AOC needs to form a new party or at least go independent with Bernie. I’d really like an alternative to the Democrats because I’ll never be voting for them again.

    • wewbull@feddit.uk
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      No. She’s on a path that will shape the democrats of the future. If she leaves she will become irrelevant, and she knows it.

        • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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          1 day ago

          the gop’s schism of the maga, it already has occured with them, most of them had to embrace maga or risk getting primaried by trump aligned maga gop. there isnt one for the DNC yet

  • WorkshopBubby@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    I have been extremely pro-democrat and it has driven me insane how the far left ONLY ever shits on democrats when they are objectively better than republicans on every single issue. Democrats generally vote in the direction of increased taxes on the rich, more access to healthcare, better safety nets, etc. while republicans are just demons who obstruct all progress for the sake of destroying the world. But after Trumps election, watching the cowardice of the dems actually fucking disgusts me. They might as well be republicans with their lack of response. Just a fucking disgrace. Fuck Cuck Schumer. I will stop defending dems. Trumps election is the official end of both parties. Neither of those parties can be allowed to survive if the US manages to survive this.

    • Saint_La_Croix_Crosse@midwest.social
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      Democrats aren’t generally pro taxing the rich or deviating significantly on many issues since Clinton and the 90s. Yes, some of the squad said that they were pro-taxing the rich when they knew that there was no possibility of it being brought to a vote and the Democrats maintained a pretend opposition to the extreme violations of civil rights in the war on terror or ICE deportations. But after Obama, the most extreme and worst excesses of the war on terror were bipartisan, and after Biden all ICE and immigration policies were fully bipartisan (he continued the obviously facetious use of COVID as a terrible, contagious disease to deny asylum seekers, just as Trump did, after saying COVID was over, and continued deportations and putting immigrants in ICE concentration camps, when 4 years prior Democrats could understand that was fascist). That is why the left hates Democrats. Because the two-party system means the Democrats can absorb all opposition to the Republicans, while continuing all of their policies and claiming that wanting any movement to the left/away from fascism is only helping the Republicans. That we should just continue the Republican’s policies, but it is fine because Obama is going to file the paperwork correctly to send Arabs to blacksites or Biden is going to file the paperwork correctly to do ICE deportations at a greater rate than Trump [term 1] or genocide in Gaza. The Democrats are above criticism and should be allowed to do fascist immigration policy or genocide.

  • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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    3 days ago

    We will NEVER make progress by compromising with those who will not compromise with us in return.

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Schumer’s argument is shit. They’re going to go after government agencies with or without the funding bill. With the finding bill they get to choose. Without it they have to shut down everything. Passing that bill means they get more maneuvering room, not less.

    • makyo@lemmy.world
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      And with a shutdown the Dems would get to shout about ‘the GOP shutdown’ for however long it lasts which would also help to galvanize the public against MAGA.

      • Boomer Humor Doomergod@lemmy.world
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        There have been government shutdowns caused by Republicans in the past and they were never blamed on the Republicans. Hell, the Republicans blamed Dems for making them do it and it stuck.

        Do not assume Democrats have any ability to control the optics of a situation at all. They are feckless.

      • bitjunkie@lemmy.world
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        Fucking THIS. These feckless cunts couldn’t even be bothered to frame it as the GOP’s fault? They’re going to blame you for anything bad that happens anyway, look at their track record for the past ever.

    • CitricBase@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Primary Schumer, of course, but his term is up in 2028. AOC herself might be more focused on a separate race that particular year.

        • rigatti@lemmy.world
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          He’ll be 78 in 2028. He probably will bow out of politics by then to turn things over to a younger generation.

          Wait, who am I kidding?

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          I’m genuinely not sure that’s realistic.

          You’re just saying that because an AOC win would conclusively disprove the DNC’s mantra that Hillary and Kamala lost because of misogyny and not neoliberalism, so they’ll be desperate to stop her from becoming the candidate.

          • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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            3 days ago

            I would love it if she did win and disproved it. I’m just cautious of assuming that it’s a slam dunk. And I am also very cognizant that she is a conservative boogeyman, and that she’s made a LOT of staunch enemies in the DNC establishment (I hope that last bit won’t matter as much in 28, but who knows)

            • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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              3 days ago

              DNC establishment candidates are proven losers IMO. Only Biden won as a DNC establishment candidate in the last 20 years. The rest of the milquetoast horseshit from the DNC has lost national elections regularly and thoroughly.

              Obama won despite the DNC, not because of it, and he largely sat outside of its apparatus for his entire two terms. John Kerry was garbage. HRC was garbage. Harris would’ve been somewhat exciting if she’d been 2020 Harris, but instead she was a DNC robot candidate that had flipped all of her progressive positions to appease the DNC apparatus…with predictable results.

              • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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                It always breaks my brain when people talk about Bernie as Democrat, let alone establishment Democrat. He’s Independent, and only joins them to run in their presidential primaries.

                This is not a criticism of Bernie by any means. He just realizes you have no chance to be president if you aren’t part of a party.

        • formulaBonk@lemm.ee
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          3 days ago

          In 28 the chance of fair elections is less than zero. I don’t imagine anything than every state being declared red regardless of outcome and of course nobody doing anything about it.

          • WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works
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            2 days ago

            Then why are you even discussing electrical politics? If that is what you really believe, then you should be building bombs, not discussing politics.

            • formulaBonk@lemm.ee
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              One because i won’t encourage anyone to build mass death devices? But two because I want to and at least for now we’re allowed to? Who are you the fucking discussion police?

          • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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            2 days ago

            the amount of rigging from the last 2 election was not addressed one bit, and the MSM for obvious reasons will never report it as well.

        • chilicheeselies@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          If she is ever going to be president, she has to win a senate seat. Thats where we find out if its possible. I think it is becauae she isbwilling to put in thw work.

      • earphone843@sh.itjust.works
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        3 days ago

        I hope it’s as VP, though. I would love for her to run for president, but the country isn’t close to mature enough for that to happen.

        Waltz would be the perfect choice.

        • spacequetzal@lemm.ee
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          3 days ago

          “AOC is amazing, but…”

          I have never understood this rhetoric.

          She is more than qualified, has enough experience where she is out there educating her colleagues & the public about governmental processes and barriers, AND she speaks in a way that resonates with the working class AND younger generations.

          Her Among Us Twitch stream was a brilliant way to connect with her younger constituents and made her approachable.

          She does the same thing Bernie does, going out to rural America and speaking with the working class voters that feel unheard and abandoned.

          At Congress, she ain’t fucking scared to speak truth to power.

          And most important, she has demonstrated that she is impossible to buy.

          This whole rhetoric that because she’s a woman Americans won’t vote for her:

          No. Hilary is a crook and she still won the popular vote. If the electoral college wasn’t a thing, she would have been president.

          Kamala came in way too fucking late thanks to Biden. But even so, her policies were still pandering to corporations and the rich, although it is undeniable she would have been vastly superior to Trump which is why she got my vote.

          Whether America is ready for a female president or not is not the issue.

          America needs someone who will be strong against corporate interests and bring forth universal healthcare.

          • earphone843@sh.itjust.works
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            3 days ago

            It’s because a large portion of America is both sexist and racist. She should be a no brainer to win, but Trump should have been a no brainer to lose.

            • spacequetzal@lemm.ee
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              We can’t pander to the worst of us.

              You’d be shocked at how well people respond to someone genuine like AOC, especially because voters on all sides recognize her name and her spirit, especially because she makes healthcare access & relief her focus.

              • earphone843@sh.itjust.works
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                3 days ago

                You have to be pragmatic, though. There’s a time and place to push for progress, and this isn’t either. You need to stop the house from burning down before you can renovate it.

                If 2028 even happens, it’ll be a fight to reclaim the country. That means the person with the best chance of winning needs to run. AOC is not that person this year.

                You have to remember that the vast majority citizens aren’t anywhere near as informed on anything related to politics as the people here are. This is by design thanks to mass media. You have to field a person that appeals to the most people, and a Hispanic woman doesn’t do that.

                It’s really fucking stupid that things are this way, but people are really fucking stupid. Tim Waltz is a very likable old white man, and that’s what will win an election.

          • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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            Kamala came in way too fucking late thanks to Biden. But even so, her policies were still pandering to corporations and the rich, although it is undeniable she would have been vastly superior to Trump which is why she got my vote.

            I think what’s been proven is that the US will not vote overwhelmingly for a DNC robo-woman candidate.

            It’s still America. There are people who voted for two terms of Obama and then flipped to Trump. Hell, there are some people who voted for Biden in 2020 and then Trump in 2024.

            Perhaps most voters in the country have absolutely zero fixed values or do any meaningful analysis into who they are voting for. It’s vibes-based and perhaps always has been.

            All that said, I don’t think it’s been proven or disproven that the US will not vote for a woman candidate that aligns with the country’s “vibes” at the moment so to speak.

            The data doesn’t look very good that America will vote overwhelmingly for a woman for president based upon the limited results we have so far…but they did vote to send Harris into the east wing before she had been thoroughly unmasked as a corporate drone…so that’s something positive.

            It easily could be that the American electorate is just way more misogynist than it is racist. 🤷 We’ll never know without running a reasonably charismatic woman candidate with non-corporate drone policies though.

          • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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            I think this is the classic “she’ll have to work twice as hard for half as much” that the right-leaning voters will insist on to vote anyone for president who isn’t a white man.

    • obvs@lemm.ee
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      Unfortunately, he’s not up for reelection until 2028, at which time he’d be 78 years old, so probably wouldn’t be running anyway.

      • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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        i think thats why they go scorched earth, and nothing to lose type of voting, they are trying to get as much money out of it as possible.

      • ansiz@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Is this your first time? American politicians don’t give up power just because they are old. Feinstein, McConnell, Biden, Thurmond are just a few examples.

        • HeyListenWatchOut@lemmy.world
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          Don’t forget RBG - Justice YAAS Queen herself… because she wanted Hillary to name her successor. Then she died and was replaced by Trump with a character out of handmaid’s tale.

        • Boomer Humor Doomergod@lemmy.world
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          They do that because committee seats are determined by seniority, so they need to elect dinosaurs who’ve been there forever even if said dinosaur doesn’t know where they are or what year it is.

      • TheLowestStone@lemmy.world
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        And by then all of the positive things our government used to do will have been demolished we’ll all be too sick and exhausted to care anymore.

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    His vile cowardice is something I’m seeing people talk about, but the sheer stupidity of it isn’t touched on.

    CHUCK. HE IS GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU! THE D NEXT TO YOUR NAME MAY AS WELL BE THE STAR OF DAVID ON YOUR CHEST YOU DUMB FUCK! DICTATORS DO NOT LET “OPPOSITION” PARTY MEMBERS LIVE. NO MATTER HOW HELPFUL THEY WERE IN GIVING THEM POWER!

    Like are you fucking stupid?

    • Barbarian@sh.itjust.works
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      There’s plenty of opposition parties in Russia, for example. They’re just all controlled. They use intentional gaffs to throw the election to the “correct” winner. If they start getting too uppity and stop following orders, they get banned from running on some technicality.

      Navalny is what happens when even that doesn’t work, but he was very much the exception.

  • psiderman@lemmy.world
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    The only silver lining here is the remote possibility of progressive Democrats breaking out to form their own party. At least then the US will have a legitimate opposition party.

    • Boomer Humor Doomergod@lemmy.world
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      When people attempt to do that Republicans win even more power. Case in point: Ralph Nader.

      Our voting system has us stuck in this duopoly and it will not change without destroying the country and starting over.

      • HeyListenWatchOut@lemmy.world
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        Exactly - I’m seeing nothing but brand new baby accounts (hmmm wonder why) post this self-destructive crap over and over again.

        A third-party would destroy the chances of anyone but Rs winning without ranked choice.

        You have to do exactly what Republicans did - which is fucking eat the party from the inside out and fill it with your people.

        We have to get D voters and NON-voters angry and showing up at primaries in the same way that MAGA activated Republicans and non-voters to then primary normal neo-cons like McConnell and Romney with lunatics like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Bobert.

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        I guess we will see won’t we. I’m still voting in 2026 and 2028. I’m not going to be discouraged by all the nihilists on the internet that are trying to convince me I’m powerless. Maybe I’ll find that process is finished but I’m not rolling over or giving up. Hell you could be a Russian bot trying to make us feel apathetic about voting by just vaguely going … “ you guys realize it’s all over right ? Yea keep on sucking on that copium pal! 😈”

      • Montreal_Metro@lemmy.ca
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        Yeah they had their last election, ever, back in November. If they ever hope to get election back, they’ll need to actually fight for it instead of sitting on their butts.