Why are the Democrats so spineless? | Moira Donegan
www.theguardian.com
No wonder the American public thinks of Democrats as out of touch, opportunistic and cowardly. That is because they are
  • horse_battery_staple@lemmy.world
    12·
    6 days ago

    There’s a protest planned for today near you. If you’d like to attend below is a bit of info.

    Some more media mentions, mostly local and brief:

    edit:

    BONUS:

  • Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world
    193·
    7 days ago

    Luckily for us it should not matter. Days of free and fair elections are over. If you understand what that means please let people know. The sooner we can separate ourselves from the controlled opposition real opposition can emerge.

    We are talking about a 30+ years project here. Governments die, ideas do not.

  • chilicheeselies@lemmy.world
    5·
    6 days ago

    That was an excellent oped. Ibreally cant find any fault in it. The wet noodles running the party rihht now are a detriment to America. They simply are not up to the fight. They need to get in the mud or cease to be a party.

  • But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world
    617·
    6 days ago

    American voters and the left in particular told the democrats to eat shit and fuck off. Suddenly they want to be saved by these same democrats they called fascists?. How does any of this make sense?

    The democrats should just take 4 years off and let the American voters reap what they sowed. They’ll be ok they have money and property. It’s the voters who get what they asked for.

    Why help or fix anything if the voters are just gonna tell you to fuck off and give the republicans all the credit? It benefits them far more to let the republicans wreck everything

  • Sanctus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1144·
    8 days ago

    Not just them, anybody with fucking power. Where is the military right now? Theres a fucken coup happening in plain sight.

        • RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com
          3·
          6 days ago

          Not my country, not my lifestyle. But when all those gun nuts give a militia protecting the democracy for an answer to the question why the second amendment is necessary you have to wonder if they started maching by now. Because if not, that argument might be bull.

            • RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com
              3·
              6 days ago

              I’m not calling anyone to be brave. I’m calling them to put their money where their mouth is. Twice now, but you seem to not understand.

            • zovits@lemmy.world
              11·
              5 days ago

              I’m not a vegan, nor claim or aim to be one. But if I went about loudly proclaiming that I was, using this to justify my actions, and then it became public knowledge that I am in fact not a vegan, then it would be the same hypocrisy. When a group claims to need weapons to quell a threat to democracy, and then proceeds to ignore the threat when it arises, then they are hypocrites. Hope that helped understand the point - let me know if it did 👍

              • RedditRefugee69@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
                2·
                5 days ago

                I get you, but being a vegan requires zero risk of injury or incarceration.

                Like I told the (much less pleasant) other user, it’s no surprise that people are less brave than they’d like you to believe. That’s just… human nature.

                • zovits@lemmy.world
                  1·
                  4 days ago

                  Sure, it was them who acted tough for the rewards when there were no risks and now are reluctant to actually take those risks. And this is textbook hypocrisy that deserves to be called out.

  • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
    824·
    8 days ago

    The dems have no coherent message and strategy because they are an attempt to unify basically everything that isn’t the far right under one banner. That means that different politicians under it, and different voters that vote for them, want fundamentally different things. Taking a firm, party-wide stance that satisfies the left wing of the party would risk driving off the segment that is just “conservatives that dont feel comfortable with how openly bigoted the republicans are”, and vice versa. But trying to please everyone by committing to nothing and running on good vibes eventually results in people getting frustrated with voting for a party that doesn’t advance what they want.

    • inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world
      284·
      8 days ago

      And yet Republicans have successfully runs on being everything the left is not under one banner successfully for two decades now, taking over the entire federal government.

      That’s because the Republicans aren’t afraid to tell their base they’ll do it all regardless of it contradicts with something else, even if they know it’s controversial, and they push all of it through and let’s everyone know they tried to push it through. They show to their members they have their backs regardless of how stupid it is.

      Meanwhile on the Democrat side, you don’t have a single mainstream leader that’s willing to do that and actively squashes anything that might upset the moderates or their donor resulting in no one feeling like the Democrats will actually fight for them because they won’t.

    • Nightwingdragon@lemmy.worldEnglish
      93·
      8 days ago

      This is something else that the Republicans have always had an edge on.

      I can’t remember exactly how the saying goes. Something about trying to serve two masters and you end up pleasing neither. Republicans have learned that message. Democrats have not.

      Even before the days of Trump, Republicans have always given one clear, consistent message and you either have to take it all or leave it all. You want the immigration policies? You take all the bigotry and tax cuts for the rich that goes with it. You want religious freedom? Then you take our anti-abortion policies too. If it’s that important to you, then your option is to hold your nose and vote for us. Trump has streamlined the process and put a face to the ideology, but the underlying tactic is the same. One man, one message. Take it or leave it. There is no option B.

      Democrats have never learned that. Think of it. Even when Trump isn’t in office, who is the face of the Republican party? Trump. He will be the face of the party long after he’s dead. And his party’s message will be the same as it’s been for decades: This is what the party is all about. Take it or leave it.

      Who’s the face of the Democrat party? What consistent message have the Democrats ever sent? They try to be a broad umbrella for everybody who isn’t Republican. They have no party leader. No face of the party. No message. They try to please the independents and centrists and end up pissing off the far left, only to try to please the far left and alienate the centrists. It’s the epitome of trying to please two masters and pissing off both. It’s the epitome of “jack of all trades, master of none”. It has always been this way. They have never, ever learned that trying to please everybody just ends up pissing everybody off. They need to learn one thing from the GOP: Find a message, stick with it, and stop trying to be all things to all people. If the people are on your side about an issue that’s that important to them, they’ll hold their nose and accept the rest.

      • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
        152·
        8 days ago

        They try to please the independents and centrists and end up pissing off the far left, only to try to please the far left and alienate the centrists.

        Only because they pretend the far left are about “woke” social policy stuff and absolutely refuse to even consider left economic policy.

        • kreskin@lemmy.world
          142·
          8 days ago

          Ask people what progressives stand for lately and they will say trans rights and wokeness.

          I do wonder if everything on the far left seeming to be about “trans” this and that is an attack by centrists and fascists to portray all of the progressive left’s agenda as being about issues that are critical to only 1% of the population.

          Are trans issues Important? Yes. But are trans rights issues the most critical issues of our time?
          No. Not even close. Trans rights doesnt rise to importance over class struggles affecting all of us or state sanctioned mass murder in Gaza.

          Are they more important than … school vouchers, school lunches, and oil drilling issues? yes.

          Are they more important than gun violence in schools?
          I’d argue no.

          Womens reproductive care rights?
          Fuck No.

          I think the progessives have been trapped by cleverly malign marketing tricks, many of which are from our own dem coalition partners. Centrist bad actions within the DNC to limit progressive influence needs to be reckoned with.

  • kinther@lemmy.worldOP
    814·
    8 days ago

    I was just asking a friend this last Friday. The party is led by out of touch boomers, backed by moneyed interests, and refuses to change. They’d rather not rock the boat or be the cause of a division in our society. Yet here we are, more divided than ever and growing by the day.

    At least it wasn’t by their hands?

  • kreskin@lemmy.world
    565·
    8 days ago

    Easy answer: because they are led by centrists who stand for nothing much beyond being in the middle so something can get done. The very nature of centrism is to not be in favor of either side of a political spectrum. Everything is negotiable, lately even the current value of human life abroad, which will come back to our shores. Centrists sure as hell cant lead much of anywhere coherent, or win elections. They can be proud of something like an infrsatructure bill, and they feel like that should be enough to get voters to the polls for them. Its just not. Anything uncontroversial enough that the right wont object to is not going to animate the left either. They can’t win on road-building and post office branch naming.

    Parties need money to exist. Without voter funding from people and groups who want to get specific things done, the only funding they can get is from corporations who want dirty favors, so centrists inevitably become the dirty corporate favor party too. Or, “whores” if you will. Its whore or starve for these folks.

    • bitjunkie@lemmy.world
      2·
      6 days ago

      When their idea of “starve” is to live the normal middle-class lifestyle they’ve actively deprived us of.

    • Asafum@feddit.nl
      40·
      8 days ago

      “look, there are good billionaires. We’re going to take money from the good billionaires, we won’t accept money from the bad ones.”

      The new DNC “leader”

      • fallowseed@lemmy.world
        321·
        8 days ago

        just saw that clip today… this guy is exactly what you expect of the dnc- they’re signalling they haven’t learned a thing. hope democrats are looking forward to jd vance and co.

      • kreskin@lemmy.world
        7·
        8 days ago

        We’re going to take money from the good billionaires, we won’t accept money from the bad ones

        As a lifelong Dem, thats just inspiring right there. “You’ll all service the clean Johns only, not the diseased ones. Some trickle down goodness to you poors may or may not happen in the process. Now everyone put on your knee pads and get on your knees. The boss billionaire is entering the building.”

    • DiagnosedADHD@lemmy.world
      6·
      8 days ago

      I think that’s mostly true, I see Democrats as the power brokers. Basically they hold power between the people and corporations and attempt to maintain order. This was the mo of Republicans until Trump.

      I think that they probably believe they’re doing the best they can, but the reality is they serve corporations first, us second.

  • jagged_circle@feddit.nlEnglish
    394·
    8 days ago

    Money. They want money.

    They’re not spineless. They just have different values than you.