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162

Democrats’ brutal poll problem - The Democratic Party is now at 31% Favorability (www.washingtonpost.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 151 points 3 weeks ago (10 children)

The republicans are bringing back fascism but they are at least doing awful things their constituents want.

I disagree with these things, but they deliver on their stupid backwards promises.

I’ve voted for the democrats for my entire adult life, the very first vote I cast was for John Kerry.

Here’s the thing though. Are you a liberal, you wonder why the party is hated, have you ever seen Last Week Tonight?

Jon Oliver gets on tv every week and talks about some horrible problem that started with Reagan or Nixon and has just been going strong ever since. There are so many of these. And which ones can I look at and go “well the democrats sure did fix X when they finally had the levers of power”

I can’t think of a single thing. The most important project they’ve undertaken was the ACA, and I don’t know if entrenching health insurance companies permanently and legally into the fabric of our nation is all that much to celebrate.

Do they do some good things from time to time, sure. You can point to a policy here or there that are nice. But it’s a party of not-even-half-measures.

Can we have single payer? No How about a public option? No What can you do? Romneycare… great

Can we have immigration reform? No What can you do? DACA and that’ll be rescinded the moment we lose power.

Can we reign in the banking sector? Nah

Can we close Guantanamo? Too difficult

Can we enshrine the right to abortion in law? No, but we will ask justices to pinky swear… oh they just removed it, nevermind

Can we do anything to help the common man? Let me check with the donors, nah they don’t like that, but if you like some tweets about how trump is bad, I’ve got those for you.

A party that refuses to use the power you give it is not much use.

And before you type up your essay about how Ackshually! There was only one weekend in 2009 when they could have passed any kind of legislation at all. Fucking stuff it. Then they should have sat there all goddamn weekend and passed bill after bill fixing this shit box nation. Their lack of any kind of foresight and planning and doing anything but building a better and better donation collection machine has led us to fascism.

They can collect a billion goddamn dollars but have to text me to see if I can give them just $27 more dollars before they can pass a bill. We need a new party to represent the people.

[–] [email protected] 54 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I can’t think of a single thing. The most important project they’ve undertaken was the ACA, and I don’t know if entrenching health insurance companies permanently and legally into the fabric of our nation is all that much to celebrate.

Yes, and don't forget that the ACA was modeled after "Romneycare" that Mitt Romney had implemented in MA, which in turn was modeled after a plan from the Heritage foundation. In other words, the ACA was essentially a Republican/conservative plan. The main reason Republicans hate is that it was Obama who implemented it nationwide.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

Single payer was killed by Lieberman, Hillary Clinton actually pushed for it. When it became clear they didn't have the votes in the Senate they tacked to an idea implemented by Romney after some Republicans hinted they would support it - none did.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Yet another case of Democrats being Charlie Brown kicking a football held by Republicans

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

Single payer was killed by Lieberman

Let's not pretend it was Lieberman alone. Ben Nelson was also instrumental in killing the public option.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

Leiberman, the rotating villain during that cycle.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago

This is really well thought out and written, and the most popular comment on this post.

Please consider adding links at the bottom for some movements we can get behind to achieve this goal. The time for a new candidate isn't when Biden suddenly wants to drop out and fuck us over, the time is now.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Can we please resurrect FDR, we need a newer deal.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Sure. But the cost of the incantation is another great depression.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago

It's working already!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

I'm gonna be depressed for the next 4 years.

[–] gravitas_deficiency 2 points 3 weeks ago

gestures broadly at the insane protectionist shit Trump et al are doing and the effects it’s bound to have

…so when do we get FDR Mk. 2 again?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago

Always the victims and never responsible.

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[–] [email protected] 72 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Yeah, it's a "poll" problem 🙄🙄🙄 not a "we antagonize and betray our base and voters constantly" problem

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Definitely not because they are spineless either

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Be fair. They stood absolutely steadfast when pressure was applied to abandon Netanyahu's genocide.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago

“If these people saw the macroeconomic picture they wouldn’t disapprove of us. They’re just ignorant of statistics.”

[–] [email protected] 62 points 3 weeks ago (11 children)

Couldn't beat the bad guys on easy mode with every advantage.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 weeks ago

A billion dollars thrown at their garbage political consultants and they lose to Angry Orange’s dumber brother.

Again.

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[–] [email protected] 60 points 3 weeks ago

Honestly, if folks haven't listened to that interview of AOC by Jon Stewart, she really lays out the problem with the DNC pretty clearly (and really, they problem with the two party winner take all house, too). I recommend giving it a listen.

[–] [email protected] 53 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (6 children)

Huh - apparently just being not-the-Republicans isn't enough.

The important question is, will the DNC learn anything from this?

I'm guessing no.

It'd be bad enough if that just meant that the US is for all intents a one-party system, but at this particular point in history, the future of the country and the lives of millions depend on effective opposition to those who are building a plutocratic/fascist oligarchy, and the exact institution that should be the vanguard for opposition is just a bunch of greedy pigs and cowards.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

They didn’t even learn anything from Dubya. Their answer to Bush was Clinton, not Obama. Obama was an unexpected primary winner thanks to people that were insanely enthusiastic about his platform, and healthcare reform coming into the public spotlight. The turnout he got was like nothing they’d been able to do before.

And what they took away from that was “wow, Obama was just a once in a generation charismatic speaker.” 🤦‍♂️ I look forward to the next round of being told how good the economy is!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

What the DNC actually took away from Obama is that they could never run a fair primary again, because it threatened their ability to push corporate stooges.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 weeks ago

Of course they won't learn jack fucking shit. If we have another election it will be "super fascist Nazi KKK" Republican vs "corpo fascist mildly less racist" Democrat. American politicians have completely abandoned anything remotely resembling liberal or leftist ideaology in favor sucking the fat dripy corporate cock for money. It is utterly disgusting.

I'd like to be hopeful that with the list of DNC committee members leaked that maybe the ones who want to drag the party left will come together and bring change. But honestly I'm just hoping to be able to afford chicken breasts and eggs by the next election.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I've never understood why "Not Republicans" isn't enough, frankly.

Criticism of center-right Third Way corporatists aside, one would have to be half braindead to believe a chasm still doesn't separate the two. I mean, if you could go back and take milquetoast over Hitler, wouldn't you?

I mean it was basically Stagnation vs. Fascism if viewing Dems in the worst light this cycle (and that's being harsh). Gee... Tough choice.

Instead let's take a step back and recognize the superseding problem: if you don't fix the skewed media landscape, then it really doesn't matter who you run or what policy you run because reality is being distorted by the right wing propaganda machine.

Harris was better than Trump in literally every single way. Trump could do no wrong in the electorate's eyes while Harris had to be perfect. Can't win with that uphill battle / double-standard.

There's a reason the education gap widened this election. People who had critical-thinking skills to sort truth from bullshit understood this.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I've never understood why "Not Republicans" isn't enough, frankly.

Well there are two reasons:

1-It'll never beat fascism. The "critical thinking" skills you're talking about simply don't exist or aren't well-developed in most of the American (or really, world) population. The average person does not care about politics, so you have to make them care and no matter how good your stick is if there's no carror it won't stick. Voters can wait hours in polling stations to vote for the smaller shit sandwich against the bigger shit sandwich, or they can just... not do that and go about their day. The consequences will only come later, meanwhile the disappointment and indignation come now. Humans simply aren't made to take the lesser evil here.

2-Voting for a politician is an inherently transactional affair. You vote for them and if they gain power they use it to pass the bills you want them to pass, or at least prevent bills you don't want to pass from passing. The Democrats stopped honoring that transaction, and in their misguided rightward shift crossed too many red lines. They angered Muslims and progressives by their stance on Gaza, they angered left-leaning Latinos by their stance on immigration, and angered the average voter by pretending that the economy was fine and that they were doing a terrific job when it was not and they were not, etc etc. I remember seeing a comment here a little ways back saying something to the effect of "I'm a Latino and I used to vote blue because of immigration, but now they adopted the republican position so they lost my vote". Repeat this enough times and you have a significant fraction of their support base saying "you don't care about me or my struggles? Then fuck you too" and not voting on election day.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago

Warn democrats that this is happening and they call you a russian trumper and blame you when they lose.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 weeks ago

We it's a good thing the Democratic Party has a history of listening to incredibly obvious poll results...shit.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

What's to favor? Conservative-lite is only sensible by comparison to the fascists-in-denial that got elected. If you actually want your government to change the world to make it better for everyone, then neither major party is for you.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago

gestures broadly at the Democrats behavior the last 10+ years gee it's a real mystery guys.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It’s almost as though the people don’t like it when you lie to them about genocide or the failing mental acuity of your candidate.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

But that can't be true, they voted for Trump.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

They just didn't vote.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

That seems pretty high for people who just ran a losing genocidal candidate and then blamed everybody else.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

That's so strange after all of the they did in the last election cycle, or how they stood up for and made sure that .

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