I’d say you can lead a horse to water etc etc but the Democratic Party can barely even lead the horse anymore.
Pundits are losing their minds, but I don’t think the Democratic party leaders are giving up.
My hunch is that they are playing the long game. They are counting on three things. First, Trump’s plans will crash the economy. Second, the Trump White House always turns on its own. Third, with a GOP trifecta there isn’t much Democrats can do to stop Trump - for now.
So any demands they make now will be ignored, and even used in the future to blame Democrats as obstructionist. I think they are lying low and giving the GOP what they need to hang themselves. When the public is furious about the economy, it will be time to start making demands.
Basically, it’s the political equivalent of the Willy Wonka gif
They kind of have to, I suspect. But it won’t work. They’ll see things go bad, put in their sound bite as “we need to do something about ___!” And the average American won’t see it, and instead be inundated with right wing “Democrats are screwing it all up!” And not think of the logic that the Democratic party can’t do anything. And they’ll vote Republican again.
Democrats need to get better at media.
Finally, a Jacobin article I agree with.
I mean I’ve basically given up on this country. It’s so irredeemable at this point I don’t see what my paltry involvment will matter. Bunch of people fucked around and now we all get to find out whether we wanted to or not. I can’t keep expending energy fighting stupid.
I’m not giving up on America. But for now I’ve given up on Americans.
The reason is that we agree on all of the concerns, working class families should be getting attention and support and they’re not. The rich are eating us alive. Mainstream politics isn’t helping.
But it’s clearly substantially more the fault of the right, who are lying through their teeth to the working class while accelerating wealth disparities, anti-worker policies, and removing their upward-mobility as well as democratic, institutional and social protections they actually rely on.
And if Americans are so uninterested in facing reality that they’d rather be lied to than put in a little effort to actually check the candidates’ policies, if they’ll vote against their interests and give in to blatant propaganda and manipulation, when everyone is telling them what well happen… Well, what can we say but, “Ok, face-eating leopards it is. Enjoy. Let us know when you’re tired of that.”
I think the reason why Democratic politicians have so much trouble articulating their vision is that their voters will call them out on blatant lies, so their positions need to have some logical consistency, or else those politicians will not win their support.
Republicans are not so encumbered. I think their base enjoys being lied to.
That’s part of it. The other part is that they can’t be honest about their vision because it (perpetrating the neoliberal status quo) isn’t actually what the working class wants.
Or rather, they can be honest about it, but then they lose. Then, of course, they learn the wrong lesson, blame anybody but themselves, rinse and repeat.
[Edit: LOL, I just realized I accidentally wrote “perpetrating” instead of “perpetuating.” Oh well, it fits so I’ll leave it.]
Civilizations are born, then they live, then they die.
The US is critically ill, and at this point, it looks terminal. It might not be, but the odds are that it is.
And that, as they say, is that.
