People, RISE UP

Originally Posted By u/serious_bullet5 At 2025-05-05 02:29:05 PM | Source

106 comments

I swear to God, people spend more time blaming Democrats for not fighting Republicans well enough than they do Republicans for doing things that need fighting.
- When representatives in democracy aren't representing. You kinda lose democracy.
- The ire has to do with the representative government where the representatives are not representing.
  Which would, in fact, prevent Republicans from doing things that need to be fought.
- Well I think there’s some validity to this, but not just because “democrats bad”
  We are seeing across the western world a resurgence in far right parties that are largely running on a populist sentiment that “things are bad and we were great once and let’s go back”
  Why does this messaging resonate with so many? Propaganda has its role to play, but propaganda works best when there is a truth to the underlying message.
  We are at the tail end of over half a century of neoliberal policy. Now I don’t use neoliberal as so many do as a pejorative, but as a descriptor. As Nancy Pelosi so eloquently stated “We're capitalists and that's just the way it is.”
  Now if you enjoy your life subscription under capitalism, especially our super fun late stage capitalism, there’s lots to dislike. The right has decided that while they will wholeheartedly support the capitalist machine, they are going to go out and stump like populists, telling people that they are getting screwed over and a vote for them is a vote to end the screwing, even better, it’s a vote to screw over people you don’t like, you get to do the screwing for once!
  The Democratic Party can’t seem to find a coherent message because at the end of the day, the neoliberal project they are working on is going smoothly. The fact that your rent is going up, that private companies own the prisons and all the houses, that’s the free market free marketing baby.
  I think the ire is misdirected, but it comes from this gnawing feeling that while the right is awful and doing awful things the democrats aren’t articulating any real alternative. And you don’t have to believe me, I think the trump - Biden - trump pattern shows you that to a lot of Americans things didn’t get better.
  Now you and I might sit here secure in the knowledge that within the neoliberal world order as established, Biden did amazingly well. Our economy the envy of the world in how we tackled inflation and had one of the softest landings. But we exist in a system that has expected catastrophic failure roughly every 7 years and we see it happening more and more often. A system that doesn’t seem capable or willing to tackle the most pressing issues that people face. And so it is cold comfort when the Democratic Party goes “yes everything sucks and is getting worse, but believe us this is the best we can do with how the system works”
  It’s not super surprising that if someone comes around and says “that system is bullshit” that people are excited. It sucks major ass that the guy saying it has no idea what the system is, how to build a better system, etc. But it also sucks that the democratic party’s response is basically, “put us back in charge and we will restore this system that is hurting a lot of people and really kinda sucks ass and only benefits a few super wealthy donors”
  People want someone to stand up and articulate a compelling vision for the future and then deliver on it. For everything wrong with trump, he understands that first part, and he’s unmoored by any kind of morals or ethics so he’s willing to spend hours painting in great and baffling detail just how wonderful his future is going to be. He’s so good at it that his followers don’t even mind that it never happens.
  
  The thing I object to is saying the Democrats don't have a vision for the future.
  Universal healthcare, free education, loan forgiveness, a green economy, a higher minimum wage, all manners of increased social spending, electoral reform, civil rights expansions. The Democratic Party has, as an institution, spent decades trying to accomplish this. It has failed, largely due to the Republicans and splitters within it's own ranks. But the failure to accomplish it's goals is not the same as not having them or not saying they have them.
  That's why all the criticism of the Democratic Party is so eye roll inducing. People accuse Democrats of just trying to maintain the status quo when they have a whole platform that would constitute major changes to our country.
- American democracy is completely broken.
  You basically get to choose between fascism and fascism-light.
  Yes, Democrats are the better choice out of the two, but it's still absolute shit.
- That's because after watching mitch McConnell do literally fucking anything he wanted for years, Democratic leaders and the DNC have the audacity to whine about not being able to do anything.
  All so Cuck Schumer can suck off Netanyahu.
  I hate republicans, and conservatives in general. They are worse than vermin. But democrats deserve a ton of hate for how badly everything is going. The DNC allowed this to happen, Biden failed his oath of office, allowing Trump to even get on the ticket. The Supreme Court straight up granting immunity to Presidents meant that he could have and should have done everything in his power force them to reverse that because that shit isn't in the constitution.
  
  McConnell managed that because Republicans vote in lock step on basically everything. That's not the DNC's fault.
  
  Democrats tend to follow rules. That's kind of their thing. When society prefers those who aren't following rules, and explicitly and implicity give them power, the power imbalance is undeniable.
  Unfortunately, if Democrats stop following rules, it will make them not worth giving power, power corrupts and all that.
  So while it's very nice to push all the blame on them, the only group of people who actually responsible is that quarter of Americans that still didn't lost their minds. Their job was to elect nit monsters and continue to push them to the right direction. Instead they elected monsters into all the power and now are surprised why monsters have all the power.
- I mean, what's the larger problem: the operator of the orphan crushing machine, or the guy that won't try to stop them because there's a 'no trespassing' sign on the lawn?
- Americans love to complain but hate to take action.

You forgot to add the corporations raining down money on both sides to keep things this way.

They're not doing anything because they are complicit. The DNC and the majority of Democrats are completely fine with fascism as long as it does not impact themselves.
It's not even a question anymore, every single House Democrat proved it recently by voting in favor of the "Take it Down" act.
- It’s not even a question anymore, every single House Democrat proved it recently by voting in favor of the “Take it Down” act.
  everyone voted for that except 2 republicans lol
  this includes AOC, and i think bernie sanders, some didnt vote at all

We all need to do what we can do to fight back including civil disobedience. One of the most powerful but unfortunately forgotten ways of fighting back is protesting. The powers at be don’t like it because they have no control of the information. Reddit perm banned me for being too outspoken. So here I am. Please people rise up and get loud!!!
- Absolutely. Republicans aren’t afraid of losing their seats with 5M people in the streets nationwide. We need a lot more of us to scare them into dissent.
- Ever since Trump won I sloooooow walllllkkk everything at work. It's been great for my mental health. I can't give up my job because I have a family to feed. But I can slow down machinery at work and cause lots of inefficiencies. Fuck you, trump voting industry.

Not shown: the people who hate the left side of this photo while yelling at the right side and not doing much else.
Atleast the elephant has his side doing whatever he wants. The donkey is stuck fighting a battle with no support.
Now yall go ahead and downvote since that's the full extent of your power
- I know Republicans won’t listen to me.
  I assume Democrats might.
  After all, I vote in all their primaries.
  Or does that mean they don’t have to care because who the hell else am I going to vote for in the general?
  
  I was just ranting about all the independents that would rather vote 3rd party or not vote at all because "the democrats are just as bad/lazy and don't get anything done" crowd
  Every time the democrats have power they use it to try to help out to most common people, yet it's all brushed under the rug all the same because it's not normally headlining news.
- The Donkey could refuse to participate, rather than licking the elephant's boots.
  
  Yup! That'll get them more support from the people who already say they don't do anything!

imagine functioning as controlled opposition while not even being controlled opposition. those desk jobs are way too fucking nice

If you assume that Republicans will ever compromise, it makes an ass out of you and me.

Are people not paying attention, or just love to blame Democrats? They’re not asking for compromises. They’re making clear demands and getting voted down. Most recently, the House Judiciary Committee voted on the deportations. Democrats insisted that citizens be exempt from deportation. Republicans voted them down. This is what happens when you have full Republican control of our government. Keep bitching about the minority party fighting for you, and this is here to stay.
You want fresh blood in the seats? Me too. Vote in the congressional midterm primaries next year. We all have a say in who sits in those seats, but only the elderly retirees show up for the vote.
- 100% of Dems voted in favor of Trump's first 2 picks for his cabinet, despite spending hours upon hours grilling them and talking about how unfit for the jobs they are.
  It was only after they started getting outraged calls in the thousands per day compared to the usual 30 that they started voting against Trump's cabinet.
  Look at Schumer and Pelosi. Or the party appointing a man practically on his deathbed over fresh blood to one of the most important positions in the party. A man who had to resign 4 months later, IIRC.
  The Dems only offer up any real resistance when they're forced to by us. Otherwise, they vote no, voice a few complaints, and then go about their day like it's any other.
  
  It’s our job to replace them in primaries if they don’t represent us. It’s also our job to inform them of our stance on issues, just as it’s their job to vote in line with those requests.
  You just said they do their job, like it’s a bad thing. There are Republicans getting lambasted in town halls that go right back to DC and do whatever Trump wants. How is that the same to you?
- And they’ve been sitting on their hands for years even when they did have power. They routinely allow this shit to happen and it’s a little late to say them asking if maybe US citizens could be exempt shows how great they really are. Like, they should be demanding that any deportation needs far better scrutiny, and that would right there take care of the citizen part while also protecting so many others. It’s basically the meme we’re commenting on!
  They aren’t protecting the US from shit, and it fucking shows. Your country is bad and you should feel bad, not be making excuses and complaining about Democrats not getting respect for unsuccessfully doing the bare minimum and then saying “guess that’s that.”
  
  The only time in the last 30 years that Democrats had the same control that Republicans have now, was the 111th Congress. It was considered the most productive Congress since the 89th Congress.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/111th_United_States_Congress
- You talk about blaming people but that's a waste of our time. We actually want to make things better in the future, and to do that you need to look at how we got to where we are, and it's clear that we got here by corporate Democrats caving to Republican and corporate interests. That's been going on for the past 30 years. Of course the Republicans are more to blame than the democrats, but if you can't recognize that the old Washington Democrats are largely worthless sandbags, then there's no way you're going to make things better in the future. They simply lack the values that we have, they don't actually want to make life better for the average American, and that's never going to change.
  If you want to ask what more the Democrats can do, I think there are a ton of good examples. They can obstruct the process in so many ways, they can have independent press conferences, they can generate a ton of PR by creating videos for Facebook and YouTube and TikTok. They can go visit prisoners held in Central America. Just go look at what the active newer generation of Democrats are doing, go look at what Bernie Sanders does, and ask yourself why we don't have hundreds of people doing that every day. Quite simply, we don't see that in large numbers because most of those people have s***** values. Most of them are out to protect their own power and their own seat and that's it.
  
  The Democrats had the power that Republicans have now only for two years in the last 30. The 111th Congress was the most productive Congress since the 89th. They’re not all good. Far from it. That’s what primaries are for. If people actually showed up and voted, we wouldn’t be here at all.
- Democrats should have demanded the removal of most of the republican party from office via the 14th amendment. Refuse to cooperate with this illegitimate government.
- If republicans can do it as the minority. There’s no reason democrats can’t. McConnell was great at it. Just copy his playbook.
  
  McConnell uses the filibuster, which the Senate could use to stop bills if any of these were bills passed in Congress. Unfortunately the only power they have against Trump’s executive orders is forcing a 15-day vote, which they’ve repeatedly done, while helping the ACLU bring these cases to the courts.
- They just love to blame the democrats
- So what about 2021 - 2022, when the Dems had the Senate, the House and the Presidency? Where was the push to codify Roe v Wade? Why didn't they put Trump in prison, pending trial? There were dozens of things they could have done when they had power. The don't want to do any of the things they SAY they want to do. They want to ask for campaign donations to fight the MAGAs but they don't actually want to fight. They're scammers.
- Voting isn't enough, a lot of us are going to have to start volunteering for Bernie Sanders and the DNC. Our Youth and the nonpartisans are lost and without direction moreso than previous generations.
- There will never be enough fresh blood.
  Even if the democrats were all progressives and had 100% of the entire government things are too fucked to be fixed before the collapse.
  Also, I vote in every primary and they always lose. Turns out we’re just a conservative country.
  
  Only 22% of the nation voted for Trump. Many of them already regret their votes. Trump won on the apathy of the majority. Defeatism is simply fuel for that fire.

Unpopular opinion: The problem is the people, roughly 30%-40% of them but continuing to grow, and their inability to cope with modern propaganda herding techniques through big data, social networks, and now AI.
What we have today are governments, whether they be two party or more, being divided into the ideological parties, those willing to operate within the framing and intent of their constitutions, to those willing to game it. Those willing to game it and those attracted to oligarchs and easy lobby wealth only seem to have an ideological factor to them because they adopt the political ideologies of least resistance - which they will gladly go back on, and have done so as their attempts to game the system have led them to the sort of voter menagerie they have now.
People blaming the "democratic party", in this context the US democratic party, are ignorant enough to not realize that a "party" in the US is just a donor list to finance candidate race's for congress and that it is very easy for a corrupt candidate to run for the "party" in states where it is beneficial for them to do so - as long as they can cajole that list of donors long enough. This isn't like some other countries where being part of a party actually means something. In the US, both parties have a significant degree of corruption, and it was already arguably an oligarchy.
But within the democratic party, due to the aforementioned biases, it has less members willing to outright game the government and more of those operating from an ideological basis. An ideological basis is basically the only thing a government can be built around, once parties start getting in that don't operate from an ideological bases, you are just voting on who scams you. Yet nowadays the portion of those action from an ideological position within the US government is no longer the majority. There was even a rift in the Republican party a few years ago, and because it is inherently the party dominated by those most willing to game to government instead of serve it, it was MAGA that won out.
More to the point, an ideological basis limits what candidates do to working within the constitution and actual good faith.
So people blaming the democrats are people who have a deluded world view, blaming a governing minority party who by their very nature will operate in a handicapped ideological fashion versus a dominant authoritarian insurgency willing to do anything to game the system and make it that much more subservient. They are the sort of people who think they will still get fair elections for the midterms and subsequent elections, and they don't realize their democracy is now over and that what they will need is either secession into a new governing entity (not going to happen any time soon, because today's Americans can't comprehend things like the UK being able to leave the EU and the EU and UK continuing to exist and having that be the normal way federal and state interactions could occur, never mind the shadow of debt being a chain to the central government) or a Civil War (and while Americans will virtue signal all the way to kingdom come, it is in their ignorance, those countries that were democracies but are today authoritarian states, that shows most of society will be quite willing to bend the knee - if US society were for some reason different than the rest Trump wouldn't have gotten so far).
At a personal level, what people can do and will do is resistance, and be honest, let me ask you, supposing 1/3 of the US was doing the same effort, the same investment at resisting that you, personally are doing right now, given that 1/3 are inert "undecideds" more likely to get caught and the other 1/3 is MAGA, and keeping in mind that the authoritarian government is operating outside of society and is choosing to game it, what change would you really affect? How about we make it an even easier question? What if the authoritarian was a foreign monarch in Europe with an ocean of distance between them and you, if the most advanced form of travel was by ship and there was no AI, no big data, no social network herding, no instant communication, if your actions right now were representative of what the rest of society was doing, how much of a change would they be likely to make?
- 1/3 of people don't vote. They are disenfranchised or politically apathetic. 2/3 of people are propagandized or coerced into voting for parties that don't serve anything besides capital, greed, and their own lust for power.
  We need a new system. The concept of "political parties" is harmful to human progress. We don't need people on imaginary teams playing tug of war with each other while the world burns.
  What we do need is strong and principled leadership, that is not poisoned by capital or team politics, that is motivated towards improving the planet and actually working to solving critical issues instead of worrying incessantly about "cost" at every single step.
  There's no need to play the blame game, but if we want a future that is not undesirable, it necessitates positive action and a willingness to identify what is blocking or stagnating us as a species.

Let's talk it out!

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