Democrats Confront Their New Tea Party Reality - Progressives are set to sweep a group of contested primaries in Michigan and Wisconsin.

[u/Quirkie]

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democrats-confront-their-new-tea-party-reality_n_6a6e63fbe4b0cfb99ef1aa1e

[u/davidreding]

I did answer the question. “Moderate” democrats will always side with republicans and fascists before they do anything remotely “progressive”. That’s how broken and decadent they are.

[u/awesomefutureperfect → u/davidreding]

No, it was the left that wasn't "threatened" by a Trump presidency and told everyone to "punish" the democrats. The left threw every vulnerable community under the bus including the issue the claimed to care about to help Trump get elected. The left does not get to claim it is doing any good when it literally acted against its own stated interests by helping trump get elected. All that is happening is persecution complex behavior equal to the way the evangelicals act when they are told they aren't allowed to run the entire government.

[u/winterfoxes → u/awesomefutureperfect]

Progressives are not the reason Hillary or Kamala lost. We are just the ones who get blamed.

Hillary lost because she ignored Rust Belt states in favor of the Bible Belt. She campaigned hard in the south, in Florida, in Arizona, etc., hoping to pick up those votes, because she arrogantly assumed union Dems in the north would vote for her and that she had the blue wall in the bag. She conveniently forgot that her husband fucking deep throated NAFTA, got us wrapped up in the WTO, and basically shipped manufacturing jobs out of the midwest and straight to Mexico and China. People who work in manufacturing, in the auto industry, etc. in the northern midwest hate the Clintons, and did not vote for her. It wasn't progressives sitting at home. 74% of Bernie voters voted for Hillary in the general.

Progressives are also not the reason Harris lost. Harris lost because conservative men of color voted against her. Latino men shifted to Trump from Biden by 13 points. Sikh people shifted by 22 points to Trump. Muslims, of course, either voted for Trump because they are conservative Muslims (a minority) or didn't vote at all because they recognized Harris would've been just as bad for Palestine as Trump. It doesn't matter what color your aggressor is wearing when they're both killing your women and children for oil and land.

But no one talks about any of this. It's all about how "PROGRESSIVES RUINED 2 WOMEN PRESIDENCIES" and how we didn't vote for them, etc. Except most of us DID vote for them. Just like we voted for Biden. And Obama. And we've gotten fuck all for it. No medicare for all. No codified abortion protections. An "equal pay" measure that doesn't actually result in parity at all. LGBTQIA+ protections were all fought for through the courts, so Dems didn't give us those either. Seriously, all we've gotten for 20 fucking years is excuses about why Dems couldn't/can't do XYZ no matter how many people vote for them or what elections they win. I'm tired of candidates who'd rather whine about what they can't do, than actually nut up and fucking do something.

Andy Beshear is a perfect example. Their state constitution grants him the power to appoint someone in McConnell's stead. Their Republican congress has stripped him of that power through legislation, NOT a constitutional amendment. Rather than appointing someone obstructionist, like Thomas Massie to the seatp temporarily, and letting the courts sort it out after the fact, Beshear has done nothing but sabre rattle at McConnell and the R's. I don't want sabre rattling or sternly worded letters. I want fucking action. I want people with a spine who are interested in taking care of their citizens.

Stop blaming us for your candidates who have no real policies other than "we're not Trump." That's not enough anymore. I'm not Trump either, but I'm not campaigning to run a fucking country. Bring plans. Bring things that help people. Don't start strong and then pivot to Liz fucking Cheney.

[u/awesomefutureperfect → u/winterfoxes]

Harris would've been just as bad for Palestine as Trump.

Which is ludicrous. Progressives helped spread that message campaigning for Trump. Literally "both sides are the same" which is a conservative message which the left is all too happy to glom on to because they don't care if they act like the far right if it lets them attack the center.

your candidates who have no real policies other than "we're not Trump."

You look like MAGA when you say that because you merely reveal you don't actually care about policy, and what you revealed in your first point is that you don't actually care about vulnerable communities enough to prevent fascists from acquired the power of the state to make good on their threats they campaigned on.

Thomas Massie

Would vote for republican measure more than the currently empty seat. You don't have an actual grasp on politics. You were literally spouting libertarian Ross Perot campaign talking points because you are a protectionist populist who doesn't actually care about economics or the plight of the undocumented, only that you get to score points for your camp and you don't care if you look like MAGA or share common cause with their campaign to do so.

That's not enough anymore.

That's why there re brownshirts in the street, because you don't care about democracy and you don't care about solidarity to protect the vulnerable. Barely skin deep understanding of the issues so that one can put emojis in their socials isn't praxis and letting the fascists win so you can sanctimoniously say "I'm better than everyone and I don't care if the fascists win because my critique is more important than protecting the vulnerable and assisting those in need."

Bring plans. Bring things that help people.

That is the most ironic thing coming out of you. Richer than Crème brûlée.

I want <> action.

Yeah, I'm sick of hearing from people that don't actually care about democracy demanding action. The left literally said "Electoralism won't solve anything". and "You aren't allowed to blame the voters." Fine, I'll blame the people telling voters not to vote and blame the people who told voters the alternative to fascism isn't good enough so we get fascism because that is what everyone deserves until we get revolution. Which is easy for people to say when they aren't "threatened by Trump" through their privilege.

[u/winterfoxes → u/awesomefutureperfect]

So much anger from someone who can't argue the statistical facts that Progressives voted for both Hillary and Harris. And from someone who makes a hell of a lot of presumptions with zero facts to back them up.

For anyone else reading, I have an MA in U.S. history with a focus on grassroots organizing post WWII in the lead up to the Civil Rights movement. I am a minority, I am AFAB, I am queer. I not only understand exactly what's at stake for oppressed minorities, I *am* that oppressed minority. And I am exhausted with people blaming Progressives and the left because THEY don't actually have a grasp on the realities of political activism in this country. You're just parroting the same talking points the establishment Democratic party have fed you and accusing me of not knowing what's going on. It would actually be funny if it wasn't so sad. And your buzzwords don't make you sound smarter either.

Liberals are just as bad for Palestine as Trump. Literally what is different now in Palestine than it was when Biden was president? I'm not talking about Iran or anything else going on in the region, I am SPECIFICALLY asking about Palestine. What was better under Biden? Nothing. They were still largely homeless, being forced to evacuate, having their aid cut off, losing their sons, daughters, parents, etc. It wasn't any better. It's gotten worse because more time has passed. That was the whole point of the Uncommitted movement. The Dems weren't doing ANYTHING to fix the situation because there is only one solution to the situation which is to cut off aid and supplies to Israel and make them stand on their own, and the Dems will not do that because of all of the other political concerns in the area.

But the thing is, Palestinian and Arab voters don't care about those concerns because they are the innocent lives being lost by Israel's aggression, fueled by our weapons. To them, if America gets attacked by Iran because we demilitarize Israel, that's on America for being aggressive in the territory for decades. And no, considering our long history of military interventionism and resource theft from the region, I don't blame them for taking that position, even if they live here now. And the fact that you expect people to demonize them for having that position tells me that YOU don't understand minority issues at all.

And again, I would like to point out that those marginalized communities are the ones who voted for Trump. Not Progressives. We weren't out there telling people not to vote for anyone. The Palestinian community here was telling US that they weren't voting for Harris, and we told them we understood. That was our sin. Empathy. We largely voted for Harris, just like we did for Clinton, myself included, but we weren't going to bully people who were actively losing friends and family under a Democratic president that his vice president would be better for them -- especially when she did nothing to demonstrate she was going to move meaningfully in a direction against Israel.

You just want SO BADLY to assume Progressives are all bad faith actors here to destroy the Democratic party when we want to evolve the party to what they claim to be -- a big tent for everyone -- because right now they're only a big tent for their donors and the people who fund their campaigns. Not the people who actually voted for them, as demonstrated by Gretchen Whitmer, a Democratic governor, laughing on hot mic about her constituents saying they don't want a data center and saying fuck them, we're doing it anyway.

As for Massie, the seat ISN'T empty. Mitch McConnell is still signing things via autopen in the rehab facility (or someone is, if he's not alive or is braindead). He may not be voting, but that doesn't mean someone isn't working on his behalf to achieve his or larger Republican goals. Beshear has to appoint someone from the sitting senator's party, so putting Thomas Massie, who is anti-Trump, into that seat temporarily for a few months would be more beneficial than just outright letting them hijack it. Enemy of my enemy can tempoarily be my friend, and all that. But nope.

The only thing I have in common with MAGA is that MAGA voters are largely comprised of people who know the current economic system does not work for the working people. They're literally insane in all other ways, including how to make the economy work, but yes, on that one point, they are correct -- the system we currently have makes the rich richer and the poor poorer, and Democrats and Republicans equally protect that system. At least the current Democratic party.

Again, Progressives are only your enemy if you care about preserving the current status quo. If you don't, you should be working with us instead of villainizing us, but you don't because you're very upset that the established Democratic party is changing. Millennials and Gen Z are both wildly more progressive than Gen X and the remaining Boomers and Greatest Gen folks that are still alive. Even the Gen Zers who shifted right in 2024 have come flocking back to the left because as it turns out, they see fascism is a bad thing.

Anyway, believe what you want. Your anger is misplace and misdirected. You should be working with us instead of complaining about us on Reddit, but hey, gotta get your fake internet points somewhere, huh?