“It’s a little too quiet” - US Politics February 2021

listen the joke is that to kiss an entire ass at once oh forget it

What a POS: https://www.keloland.com/keloland-com-original/on-the-phone-off-the-road-ravnsborgs-activity-prior-to-the-crash/

Leftists expressing their racism differently from conservatives doesn't make them any less racist and it's extra tiring to keep needing to make that point

― Hello Nice FBI Lady (DJP), Friday, 26 February 2021 14:27 (two hours ago) link

so basically fuck off, xyzzz, you are a tiresome child

― Hello Nice FBI Lady (DJP), Friday, 26 February 2021 14:28 (two hours ago) link

Get fucked, Dan

are you going to run back to your slam book and whine about me now

Why would I whine in the slack when I told you where to go here?

It didn't seem to stop you before so I'm just assuming based on what I saw

^The Democratic Party in 2021 in a nutshell

By which I mean these arguments, which are painful but necessary. It’s healthy to have them.

It's also not necessary to say "liberals are just like conservatives" every time a liberal president does something you don't like. Liberals can just be bad in of themselves, without having to pretend they're the same as Trump supporters.

No one appears to have done that, though? It's the usual circlejerk that criticism of liberal capitalism or liberal imperialism necessarily implies equivalence.

I don't know what democratic socialist paradises y'all live in, but for those of us in red states with Trumpy Republican supermajorities, where the Legislature is, e.g., getting ready to pass yet another trans-bashing bill and refuses to expand Medicaid even tho/because it would help hundreds of thousands of people, the "Dems/libs are just as bad" arguments are not just stupid but kind of infuriating. No, they're fucking not.

You can criticize Biden and the Democrats all you want and still maintain the mental clarity to tell the difference.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra),

The three Miami-Dade congresspeople, two of whom beat Dem incumbents last November, joined the GOP minority to vote against the Equality Act. Three people who live in Miami-Dade County.

You can criticize Democrats in very specific, limited ways - never with feeling and you must caveat this criticism with a statement that you will nevertheless vote blue no matter who. No matter how bad things get, the important thing to remember is that nothing could have been better.

DJP hates me but he's not wrong in general about the conduct of the white left, including me. that obviously doesn't justify anything about this administration

I can't speak for anyone else, but literally all I said was, "Don't say liberals are the same as conservatives, because it makes you sound dumb." And yes, that is indeed what was said upthread.

yes milo that's a very helpful take in the context of the current discussion

I realize that for many of you the entire actual right-wing half of this country is basically invisible, so it's easy to pretend Joe Biden is Tom Cotton or whatever.

calling out racist memelords = "you can't criticize the dems for anything these days!!"

Dan, no need to thank me. I was really being an ass.

And regarding some of these other posts, I'm just fed up— what I see are photo-ops and assuaging words while things continue, business-as-usual, with all of these ghouls making money for themselves, their families, and their donors, and leaving the rest of us to starve and fight with each other.

tipsy, I've lived in deep red parts of this country, and deeply resent when people use "flyover" language. that doesn't change the fact that Joe Biden is a racist, corporatist creep.

I realize that for many of you the entire actual right-wing half of this country is basically invisible, so it's easy to pretend Joe Biden is Tom Cotton or whatever.

You know this isn't actually true so why would you say it?

I have voted three times in my life for a winning candidate for any office above city council - Obama, Obama and Biden. I do not feel unfamiliar with Republicans and conservatives.

I can't speak for anyone else, but literally all I said was, "Don't say liberals are the same as conservatives, because it makes you sound dumb." And yes, that is indeed what was said upthread.

That wasn't said, though, is the point - but as ever the line drawn here to dismiss any actual criticism of the Democrats is that "y'all are just saying they're the same" like someone outside of a Nader rally in 2000.

The nearest thing and the only reference to conservatives or Republicans before your proper prescription for the criticism of Democrats was "always hold up representational emblems of diversity in order to dissemble from their true motives, which are *virtually the same* as those of conservatives in many cases" - which is not an empty equivalence, given that the context is a bombing campaign at the edges of empire.

White House National Economic Council Director @BrianDeeseNEC reiterates VP Harris won't overrule Senate parliamentarian

"The Vice President is not going to weigh in."

Says, "We'll respect that process"

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) February 26, 2021

table, I never said Joe Biden wasn't a racist, corporatist creep. Pretty sure that was established as "stipulated" in all of the election threads. But American liberals are NOT like American conservatives, and if you've lived in deep red states you know that very well. The differences are deep and not at all superficial. I don't love the Democrats in my state, but they are the only voices in our political system here calling for universal healthcare, LGBTQ rights, climate action, a $15 minimum wage, labor rights, abortion rights, immigrant rights ... I mean, to live in that reality and then hear these blithe cynical takes about how they're all the same is just kind of maddening.

xpost: And Milo, it was indeed said. It was literally what several of us were responding to.

DJP hates me but he's not wrong in general about the conduct of the white left, including me. that obviously doesn't justify anything about this administration

Left, I don't hate you. I admit that I often get very angry with you and in most ways that matter, that is my issue. I agree that my dislike of using racism to criticize this administration does not justify the administration doing the wrong thing.

harris news is disappointing, not surprising. it's been most disheartening seeing top national dems not learn the lesson that even the appearance of fighting for something is better than the calculated "this won't happen so it's not worth fighting for" aesthetic that they're so used to.

people don't give a shit about arcane senate procedure, complete inability to meet the moment

It's really fucking disheartening. It's not entirely dumb but it's deflating and makes it that much harder for anyone who already doubts the motives of Democratic leadership to believe they are actually up to fighting for change in difficult circumstances.

This is where the "we just want to return back to normal" response falls apart because circumstances were bad enough that "back to normal" wasn't going to cut it before we had a global pandemic that destabilized the social safety net underpinning most of the First World. The institution must make bold and decisive moves if it wants to save itself and its citizens and the idea that something that breaks the rules must be dismissed needs to be dismissed itself because that is not how the opposition plays the game.

There's literally no point to being a person of integrity with regards to the rules of the government if the other party is rewriting the states to keep you out of federal power and rebranding everything you do that's even partially helpful as damaging to our existence as a society; at some point, you need to go hard with "fuck around and find out" otherwise you are just incentivizing them to fuck around.

the senate has had a parliamentarian since 1935. it's not a constitutionally-mandated office, and the ruling party isn't required to treat the parliamentarian's advisory as settled law

it's classic beltway brain. the dems were elected because people thought they'd help them, they weren't elected to be good boys and girls.

should add that the "beltway brain" part is believing that doing things like preserving the filibuster and listening to the parliamentarian is in fact helping people.

In Florida, a phased-in minimum wage amendment passed with huge majorities as the state went comfortably Trump.

The only way I can excuse the White House's gross, myopic misreading of the moment is that they can offer the bill as separate legislation and get the GOP on the record opposing a broadly popular idea; but I dunno if the Manchinator and Synema, new majority leaders, endorse a minimum wage hike either

Should add: Senate parliamentarian probably pleased many Southern racists in 1935.

it's shit like this that makes a lot of people wonder, quite fairly I think, whether democratic party leadership actually *wants* to govern or would prefer to just be a fundraising scheme

manchin supports an $11/hour minimum wage, which is hilarious cause you can see his calculations: "i'm a moderate and to be a moderate i must pick the number exactly halfway between the two proposals"

I think they ought to get rid of the entire Senate, so I’m totally on board with getting rid of the parliamentarian, the filibuster, and anything else that makes it even worse than it already is. Sure that benefits the Republicans when they’re in the majority too, but so what? They already ignore any rules or “traditions” they don’t like.

But of course you’d need a White House and Senate leader actually willing to blow things up and not look back, and that is not what we’ve got.

slightly less than halfway xp

^^ which is also vmic

the cult of legacy is a goddamned hindrance to them

it's really not about secretly despising their constituency, or wanting everything to be the way conservatives see the world, or any of that shit

for people like Obama and Harris, the weight of being "The First" in a society already primed to hate them for achieving at a high level combined with successful navigation of White spaces that makes them overestimate their ability to make hostile White spaces compromise with them and underestimate how their very existence is inimical to the people they are forced to work with creates almost by definition this defensive, conciliatory posture because every aggressive, overly forceful move they make will be projected by fearful Whites onto much less powerful Black people; a good 50% of the bullshit you see from them is informed by this dynamic and any Black person who succeeds within a white power structure recognizes how that dynamic stunts you

there is powerful symbolism in being the first Black X but oftentimes the largest, most significant impact is done by the fourth or fifth Black X because that's the point where white people realize they won't spontaneously combust if they let a Black person write the rules

This is not meant to make excuses for Harris; this is meant to offer a perspective that (to my knowledge, anyway) only Raymond would have first-hand experience with.

I also wonder how differently things would have gone had our first Black executives been state governors rather than senators but there have only been 4 Black governors in the country's whole history, so

DJP: yeah, that's what I implied in my long post an hour ago.

To climb to a position of ultimate power in this system is its own triumph.

I realize that for many of you the entire actual right-wing half of this country is basically invisible, so it's easy to pretend Joe Biden is Tom Cotton or whatever.

something good*

To climb to a position of ultimate power in this system is its own triumph.

I understand and agree that this is cold comfort to most. It also rides very heavily on the historical component of what is weighing them down. It's an achievement in service of a long-term goal in an environment where we need a bunch of massive short-term wins.

I instinctively roll my eyes when I see people say that "Democrats don't care about you and don't actually want to make people's lives better," because that seems so hopelessly cynical and reduces complex structural forces to simplistic personal motivations. But at the same time, I understand why people *feel* like that's the case, because the system is so broken. I guess I find myself more upset at Democrats who actively refuse to fix the system (Kyrsten Sinema, for instance) than those who are merely stymied by its dysfunction.

There's literally no point to being a person of integrity with regards to the rules of the government if the other party is rewriting the states to keep you out of federal power and rebranding everything you do that's even partially helpful as damaging to our existence as a society; at some point, you need to go hard with "fuck around and find out" otherwise you are just incentivizing them to fuck around.

This. The thing I am most worried about right now is many bills being passed in R states with new voting restrictions that are going to make it very difficult for Ds to compete if R engagement continues at or near 2020 levels. I have to will myself not to think too much about it because it makes me feel like the earth opening up beneath my feet. I guess another donation to Fair Fight might help with that.

Republicans in my state are currently trying to impeach and remove a local judge who had the audacity last year to rule that the state had to let anyone who wanted use an absentee ballot during the pandemic.

This is good (biden doing something would be better)

Interesting new details from Senate Finance Chairman @RonWyden on his plans to work around the parliamentarian's minimum wage ruling — using tax penalties to push corporations to pay workers more. pic.twitter.com/YxXNzNllea

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) February 26, 2021

I guess I find myself more upset at Democrats who actively refuse to fix the system (Kyrsten Sinema, for instance) than those who are merely stymied by its dysfunction.

But I also get that this can seem like a distinction without a difference, because the end result is the same: Nothing happens. People don't get the help they need. The party that claimed to have the solution looks like a failure.

Where is the room for Obama or Harris (or any other powerful Democrat) simply having bad politics in certain areas?