Brilliantly and succinctly stated. I said this years ago, during his first term. I said it as plainly and clearly as I could and it fell upon deaf ears and closed minds: When your opponent offers you two choices, grins, and says “pick one, asshole” it is time to step back and examine the framework, not the binary choice.
Why is it that Dems keep doing this? They fail to counter the (mostly) bullshit arguments that the Rs always put forward. I always thought Obama could do this well but it seemed like once he became president he quit making the counter arguments. Perhaps Bill Clinton was right (paraphrasing) : loud and wrong is still convincing & sways many people. This is exactly the advantage Trump had over Biden. Trump knows bombast works ; he’s used it all his life to get what he wants.
Why can’t Dems designate one person at least to speak daily about what Trump & his gang are doing every day to undermine democracy & grab power. Pete Buttigieg communicates so well while H Jeffries sounds like a preacher & Schumer pulls a stunk with an avocado. If they are so caught up in insider political machinations to take the time to educate the public of what’s happening & explaining what’s being lost, they need to get the hell out of the way & let someone like Pete B get to work. Mike lays out a solid plan that highlights how Dems are failing their voters & the country as a whole. Can we all send his plan to our elected officials?
This article convincingly argues how the binary choice of shutdown (enabling the Republican Administration to rapidly destroy our government) and keeping the government open (temporarily saving jobs) was false. In his NY Times op-ed, Senator Schumer did not explain how he is going to protect our democracy. That would require a fight that Schumer may not be the right person to lead. If/when things get bad for even Republican voters, triggering massive public protests, I want to know what the Democrats will do if the Republican Administration orders peaceful protesters to be shot and rigs the midterm elections, cementing fascism in the U.S.A. This is my greatest fear.
How about removing Schumer as minority leader! To initiate a leadership change, a certain number of senators (typically five) from the Democratic caucus would need to request a party conference meeting. Senators could propose removing the current minority leader and electing a new one.
The only thing missing is the impact of all media also surrendering their responsibilities. Other than independent media and a few others the Narrative is it’s all the Democrats fault or Biden’s fault or whatever the daily dose of BS is available. 36 million people could not get off their couch to take care of their own interest and vote. You can’t put everything on the Democrats. But that does seem to be the easy answer.
The point about MAGA winning on the trans issue through basically polemic persuasive bullshit is right on point. We need continual every day explanations from ALL members about the threats to democracy. Flood the airwaves. Democrats need to lead and Chuck Schumer does no service by caving in. Indeed we do not want government to be “shut down”. But it is already being shut down with horrific delete swiped from Muskovite keyboards. Objecting to Trump’s Congressional tirade recently with little ping pong paddle signs was weak and pathetic. The whole of the Democratic caucus should have drowned out Trump. Create big noise. And 10 Democrats censoring Al Green?? What are they thinking? He broke decorum? They should ALL have broken decorum. By weakly protesting they effectively gave him the platform he does not deserve.
OK, thank you, now I understand your previous post.
While reading this post, the old chestnut "never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence" came to mind. Presumably there isn't malice at play in the Democratic leadership.
I've read a wide range of summary accusations toward the Democratic Party over the past several months (for actions over the past 1+ decade); that particularly the right-leaning Democrats are milquetoasts because they're afraid to threaten the electoral funding hand that feeds them (though in current climate it's hard to imagine such whiplash given how Trump policies are hurting almost everyone, individual & corproate, even Tesla lol); and that the left-leaning faction have been far too obsessed with identity politics, giving MAGA exactly the right sized baseball bat with which to beat them. And now we have Gavin Newsome, clearly on a 2028 run, "reaching out" to rightwingnuts; srslywtf? of all the people to his right he could "reach out" to, a small sea of moderate respectable Republicans who still respect law & Constitution, why go to the nutjobs? love to get your take on this at some point.
It feels like the Democrats today are what's left when everyone else has either been consumed by MAGA, depise MAGA but would never support Democrats, Just Because, or they've simply tuned out and didn't even bother to vote last November (helplessly short memories of Trump 1.0); a rag-tag team who aren't really aligned on much, a few circles of a Venn Diagram with too little overlap, wildly different views on what to do right now, and no one with the gravitas to pull them together, and thus hopelessly incapable of mounting the kind of response you call for.
Mark Kelly said they're all very busy trying to fight this, but whatever they're doing isn't getting air-time or traction. And where the fuck are Harris & Walz, still licking their wounds?
The Schumer 10 got on the merry-go-round for a free ride. Now, they’re trying to tell us that they saved us from a dictator using the shutdown to seize power. #47 told them to stick a lollipop up their arse , as he deified Two court orders today. He’s been emboldened by the CR Vote which established that he is King and nothing is free because the carnival is a ruse. We are now in a constitutional crisis. Congress neutered itself and the courts can’t enforce their court orders because the US Marshals Service is an Executive Branch Agency. Enjoy your pony ride, Schumer 10!
Always great analysis by Mr. Brock, concluding with: "And we will all bear the consequences of this strategic failure." Current Democratic leadership has failed. The excerpt of a comment below that stands out for me is from Bill Belanger: "36 million people could not get off their couch to take care of their own interest and vote." We need to point fingers as to how we got here. Now we have a FUBAR on our hands complicated beyond belief by the fascists and nazis in power. Duh.
Well said. One note with respect to framing: "Democrats" includes every Democrat in the House (save one) and more than 3/4ths the Democrats in the Senate who fought against Schumer's folly. Democrats stood up for Democracy instead of surrendering to Autocracy and deserve both credit and support instead of being tarred along with Schumer & company for his lack of courage and imagination.
Well stated…but would the Dems have done any of that prior to a shutdown? It would have required an extraordinary effort on the part of Democratic leadership, and we’ve *never* seen this from them.
Now, if they’d had the foresight to assign shadow cabinet members or department heads to refute what the administration is saying, this sort of effort would have had a fighting chance. AOC or Jasmine Crockett could have coordinated it. Bernie would have helped tremendously. But the current Democratic leadership is not up to that task.
All things considered, we got the best we could expect from them. We also have the fact that Trump now owns the recession. If Chuck Schumer and Co. have any sense left, they’ll push that fact until it hurts.
Either Schumer is playing by rules of the game that no longer exist, or he is complicit. My sincere hope is the former. Assuming that's the case, it demonstrates the D after his name stands for DINOsaur.
And for the record, I'm 70 and have been saying for over a decade that the DINOsaurs have to go.
Brilliantly and succinctly stated. I said this years ago, during his first term. I said it as plainly and clearly as I could and it fell upon deaf ears and closed minds: When your opponent offers you two choices, grins, and says “pick one, asshole” it is time to step back and examine the framework, not the binary choice.
Why is it that Dems keep doing this? They fail to counter the (mostly) bullshit arguments that the Rs always put forward. I always thought Obama could do this well but it seemed like once he became president he quit making the counter arguments. Perhaps Bill Clinton was right (paraphrasing) : loud and wrong is still convincing & sways many people. This is exactly the advantage Trump had over Biden. Trump knows bombast works ; he’s used it all his life to get what he wants.
Why can’t Dems designate one person at least to speak daily about what Trump & his gang are doing every day to undermine democracy & grab power. Pete Buttigieg communicates so well while H Jeffries sounds like a preacher & Schumer pulls a stunk with an avocado. If they are so caught up in insider political machinations to take the time to educate the public of what’s happening & explaining what’s being lost, they need to get the hell out of the way & let someone like Pete B get to work. Mike lays out a solid plan that highlights how Dems are failing their voters & the country as a whole. Can we all send his plan to our elected officials?
This was definitely a case of “heads I win, tails, you lose!….:)
This article convincingly argues how the binary choice of shutdown (enabling the Republican Administration to rapidly destroy our government) and keeping the government open (temporarily saving jobs) was false. In his NY Times op-ed, Senator Schumer did not explain how he is going to protect our democracy. That would require a fight that Schumer may not be the right person to lead. If/when things get bad for even Republican voters, triggering massive public protests, I want to know what the Democrats will do if the Republican Administration orders peaceful protesters to be shot and rigs the midterm elections, cementing fascism in the U.S.A. This is my greatest fear.
It's already rigged - the Nov presidential election was the proving ground which succeeded without fail. The fix is already in & proven to work.
How about removing Schumer as minority leader! To initiate a leadership change, a certain number of senators (typically five) from the Democratic caucus would need to request a party conference meeting. Senators could propose removing the current minority leader and electing a new one.
The only thing missing is the impact of all media also surrendering their responsibilities. Other than independent media and a few others the Narrative is it’s all the Democrats fault or Biden’s fault or whatever the daily dose of BS is available. 36 million people could not get off their couch to take care of their own interest and vote. You can’t put everything on the Democrats. But that does seem to be the easy answer.
The point about MAGA winning on the trans issue through basically polemic persuasive bullshit is right on point. We need continual every day explanations from ALL members about the threats to democracy. Flood the airwaves. Democrats need to lead and Chuck Schumer does no service by caving in. Indeed we do not want government to be “shut down”. But it is already being shut down with horrific delete swiped from Muskovite keyboards. Objecting to Trump’s Congressional tirade recently with little ping pong paddle signs was weak and pathetic. The whole of the Democratic caucus should have drowned out Trump. Create big noise. And 10 Democrats censoring Al Green?? What are they thinking? He broke decorum? They should ALL have broken decorum. By weakly protesting they effectively gave him the platform he does not deserve.
1. Daily Press Conferences
2. Shadow Cabinet
3. Daily Town Hall Meeting
4. Rapid Response to anything
from Musk.
5. Excetera
A quote or something close to it I was referenced to from a deep red southern state grandmother regarding elected officials:
'You've got to make them fear us more than they fear Trump."
OK, thank you, now I understand your previous post.
While reading this post, the old chestnut "never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence" came to mind. Presumably there isn't malice at play in the Democratic leadership.
I've read a wide range of summary accusations toward the Democratic Party over the past several months (for actions over the past 1+ decade); that particularly the right-leaning Democrats are milquetoasts because they're afraid to threaten the electoral funding hand that feeds them (though in current climate it's hard to imagine such whiplash given how Trump policies are hurting almost everyone, individual & corproate, even Tesla lol); and that the left-leaning faction have been far too obsessed with identity politics, giving MAGA exactly the right sized baseball bat with which to beat them. And now we have Gavin Newsome, clearly on a 2028 run, "reaching out" to rightwingnuts; srslywtf? of all the people to his right he could "reach out" to, a small sea of moderate respectable Republicans who still respect law & Constitution, why go to the nutjobs? love to get your take on this at some point.
It feels like the Democrats today are what's left when everyone else has either been consumed by MAGA, depise MAGA but would never support Democrats, Just Because, or they've simply tuned out and didn't even bother to vote last November (helplessly short memories of Trump 1.0); a rag-tag team who aren't really aligned on much, a few circles of a Venn Diagram with too little overlap, wildly different views on what to do right now, and no one with the gravitas to pull them together, and thus hopelessly incapable of mounting the kind of response you call for.
Mark Kelly said they're all very busy trying to fight this, but whatever they're doing isn't getting air-time or traction. And where the fuck are Harris & Walz, still licking their wounds?
The Schumer 10 got on the merry-go-round for a free ride. Now, they’re trying to tell us that they saved us from a dictator using the shutdown to seize power. #47 told them to stick a lollipop up their arse , as he deified Two court orders today. He’s been emboldened by the CR Vote which established that he is King and nothing is free because the carnival is a ruse. We are now in a constitutional crisis. Congress neutered itself and the courts can’t enforce their court orders because the US Marshals Service is an Executive Branch Agency. Enjoy your pony ride, Schumer 10!
Always great analysis by Mr. Brock, concluding with: "And we will all bear the consequences of this strategic failure." Current Democratic leadership has failed. The excerpt of a comment below that stands out for me is from Bill Belanger: "36 million people could not get off their couch to take care of their own interest and vote." We need to point fingers as to how we got here. Now we have a FUBAR on our hands complicated beyond belief by the fascists and nazis in power. Duh.
This is another home-run, Mike, and one that is sorely needed right now! Keep them coming!
Good commentary. You brought in a slight but impressive shift in point of view that I appreciate.
Well said. One note with respect to framing: "Democrats" includes every Democrat in the House (save one) and more than 3/4ths the Democrats in the Senate who fought against Schumer's folly. Democrats stood up for Democracy instead of surrendering to Autocracy and deserve both credit and support instead of being tarred along with Schumer & company for his lack of courage and imagination.
Excellent!
Well stated…but would the Dems have done any of that prior to a shutdown? It would have required an extraordinary effort on the part of Democratic leadership, and we’ve *never* seen this from them.
Now, if they’d had the foresight to assign shadow cabinet members or department heads to refute what the administration is saying, this sort of effort would have had a fighting chance. AOC or Jasmine Crockett could have coordinated it. Bernie would have helped tremendously. But the current Democratic leadership is not up to that task.
All things considered, we got the best we could expect from them. We also have the fact that Trump now owns the recession. If Chuck Schumer and Co. have any sense left, they’ll push that fact until it hurts.
This was fantastic and right-on. We need to empower people who understand this.
Exactly.
Either Schumer is playing by rules of the game that no longer exist, or he is complicit. My sincere hope is the former. Assuming that's the case, it demonstrates the D after his name stands for DINOsaur.
And for the record, I'm 70 and have been saying for over a decade that the DINOsaurs have to go.