Democratic (Party) Direction

lol Joe Manchin brags about sinking Build Back Better in an ad he just cut for a Republican candidate for Congress.

Democrats were never going to get this guy on board for any part of their agenda. pic.twitter.com/0ILc2pScCu

— Jordan Zakarin (@jordanzakarin) May 1, 2022

the american hero that manchin is campaigning for:

WASHINGTON, D.C. —Congressman David B. McKinley, P.E. (R-W.Va.) released the following statement announcing his intention to vote “no” on impeachment later today:

“Last week the nation watched as a violent mob attacked the Capitol, disrupting and delaying a vital step in our electoral process. The mob damaged and stole property, assaulted members of law enforcement and caused five deaths, including one Capitol Police Officer. This attack was both disgusting and tragic.

President Trump bears responsibility for this. There is enough blame to go around. The statements of other elected officials, the 24-7 news media that seek out controversy, and social media platforms where going viral is more important than the truth have all contributed to the decay of civil discourse. Words and actions mean something, and reckless rhetoric has real world consequences.

Like anyone else, I am angry about what happened. But history is replete with poor judgments made in anger leading to knee jerk reactions.

...

With the benefit of all the facts, it may become evident that the President did indeed commit an impeachable offense. However, with a truncated, rushed process, I can’t fairly make that judgment and will vote against the Article of Impeachment today.”

https://mckinley.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=2965

the process was so rushed! there wasn't enough time to figure it out!!

even today, sitting here, with the benefit of almost a year and a half since it happened, does anyone really know what happened??? was trump even there that day? can anyone prove that??

did we ever investigate antifa's involvement? you're telling me there was rioting and killing people with an american flagpole and antifa wasn't behind it, somehow? are we supposed to be impeach antifa? what happened to talking about our children while we discuss ham and honey recipes while leaning on our shared neighborly fence?

i'm bruce stingbean, and out here on the edge of town, where it's dark and lonely and cold, i approve of this message

We warned you for years. But some of you with lofty lefty platforms told people not to vote for Democrats to send a message in 2010. You didn’t heed our warnings in 2016. Now you are “shocked” that the Republican Supreme Court will overturn Roe - but you should be ashamed.

— Christine Pelosi (@sfpelosi) May 3, 2022

Speaker Nancy Pelosi agrees; Pro-Life Democrats should be welcomed in the big tent!

"Nancy Pelosi says that it’s absolutely possible for someone to be a member of the Democratic Party and also be against abortion. 'Of course,' she told Chuck Todd.”https://t.co/XEyPZgh92g pic.twitter.com/qipktVLTpa

— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) August 14, 2020

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/03/23/nancy-pelosi-henry-cuellar/

I really wish Hillary Clinton had won in 2016.

crut otm

otm. Tonight's news is the worst I've felt about this country since that horrible election night

Democrats control the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. They should suspend the filibuster and pass a law protecting the right to abortion before this egregious decision by an illegitimately seated Christian Nationalist Court is allowed to take effect. https://t.co/YHfZ4IzbA7

— Ari Drennen (@AriDrennen) May 3, 2022

gonna have to consult president manchin on that per usual

Fuck President Manchin!

“CryptoBahamas”?

Beto seems to understand that we at least want the dem party leaders to express the frustration and anger that we feel at being bullied. When will they finally understand that this is good politics?

Consistent thing in our weekly swing & surge voter focus groups is how, after reviling various things about GOP, they go on to praise that party for "getting things done" and standing up for their agenda. An agenda these voters don't support.
Now rewatch @BetoORourke. /1

— Anat Shenker-Osorio (@anatosaurus) May 26, 2022

And this is coming from those sweet, juicy, irresistible SWING voters.

All thirty five of them?

I mean this is how thermostatic politics work. It's easy to "stand up for your agenda" when you don't have to pass anything because you're in the minority! Democrats "stood up for their agenda" between 2016 and 2018 and it made them really popular and they took over the government and then you gotta get everybody to agree and pass shit. Republicans ran on Obamacare repeal and guess what, when they controlled the whole government they couldn't get it done.

Pareene:

…I invite the reader to think about the implications of the fact that those people with power cannot answer my question with anything remotely credible. What are you going to do about the fact that we all know you can’t do anything?

https://theap.substack.com/p/the-unanswered-question

https://www.npr.org/2022/06/13/1104843151/senator-dianne-feinstein-cognitive-health-continues-to-raise-concerns-traister

Every question I asked — about the radicalization of the GOP, the end of Roe, the failures of Congress — was met with a similar sunny imperviousness, evincing an undiminished belief in institutional power that may in fact explain a lot about where Feinstein and other Democratic leaders have gone wrong.

Great work by the photo editor at the top of the Traister piece (that the above link is citing)

The link you cited.

Law enforcement are often paid less than a living wage, and that is wrong.

We must raise pay for officers and address violent crime as we work to build community trust and foster law enforcement accountability.

— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) June 23, 2022

we need to better remunerate violent crime when it is committed by the state, got it

killers/accomplices should be paid a living wage, unlike, say, teachers, got it

I would love to have that donation back right about now.

I mean, there’s a reason it starts with that and has accountability in the thread several tweets down

I’m not going to pretend to be so naive as to think any of these lists is going to start with accountability

I find all the *clever* liberal posts right now really disheartening. I have no problem with anyone mourning or howling at the moon, but all these pithy takes about the irony and hypocrisy of it all feel so ineffectual, like someone muttering to themselves the comeback they should have said hours later

i tune out a lot of stuff but ... is there a lot of re-hashing the 2016 election going on on yr social media?

Yes.

As if Clinton would've gotten ONE nominee on the court.

but what about Bernie? ...

For me, it's not about who has the correct evaluation of "what could have been" ... it is basically just pointlessly re-opening old wounds.

it's like the decades old argument about the appeasement of Hitler

yeah

xp can't believe you voted for Chamberlain

make her the leader of the party

Here’s how Dems can + must do more than wait for an election.

Let’s start w/ why:

- 7 of the 9 justices were appointed by a party that hasn’t won a popular vote more than once in 30 years

- 1 of those seats was stolen

- Several lied to Congress to secure their appointment…

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 25, 2022

i guess the cops whom the democratic party simply can not give enough money will be the ones arresting women from the wrong states who seek abortions

it would make me feel better if AOC were having these conversations with administration & elected officials instead of her twitter followers but maybe she is doing that too. i hope she is. i am very very depressed like many of you though and i can’t see the light at the end of this tunnel.

probably worth noting that Nancy and her donors would like nothing more than for AOC et al to be successfully primaried

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FWDSd2FWQAYbc98.jpg

sad lol

And everyone except Nancy and her donors wishes she was dead

it would make me feel better if AOC were having these conversations with administration & elected officials

Biden's Press Secretary went out and reiterated his opposition to expanding the Court yesterday - not that anyone expects him to change his mind but at least fake being less useless in this moment, right? Talking to her twitter followers is somehow less useless than hitting up Joe's people about What Is To Be Done.

keep trying to win state legislatures is probably the most bang for the buck thing that can be done immediately - I know they fucked that up in 2020 but it doesn't mean stop trying, GOP has been at it for years.

AIR FORCE ONE (@CNN) — Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden **does not** agree with calls to expand SCOTUS, or eliminate the filibuster, throwing cold water on steps some liberal Democrats have called for in the wake of Dobbs.

— Mike Valerio (@ValerioCNN) June 25, 2022

Working hard to get the incoming House minority under 120 seats.

I don't think the Democrats declined to pass a federal law protecting abortion rights because it would prevent them from fundraising off the threat or Roe being overturned. If they did pass such a law, they could still fundraise off the obviously correct idea that once in power, the GOP would repeal that law AND appoint justices that would overturn Roe.

I think the reason they didn't do it is just because they didn't have to. Passing a law to protect abortion rights just wasn't necessary to maintain their brand as the left alternative to the Republicans on that issue.

Would expanding the Court actually work though? My fear is that when not if Republicans gain control of Congress again, they would just ram through even more conservative justices. Term/age limits make more sense, but none of these things does anything in the short term.

Sort of like the Democratic Party.

The Democratic Party is so moribund that it should seriously be considering a "let's just do it and be legends" strategy for pretty much anything at this point.

Pursue the broadly popular policies you run on, protect voting rights etc. etc. perhaps the risk of a Republican trifecta declines.