If the Dems want me back, they have to APOLOGIZE for supporting post-pubescent males in female sports; they have to APOLOGIZE for allowing the border crisis to get so horrifically bad; they have to APOLOGIZE for emboldening Iran's proxies by lifting sanctions against Iran; they have to APOLOGIZE for not condemning the horrific anti-Jewish hatred on college campuses; they have to APOLOGIZE for pretending not to know what a woman is (how effing stupid do they think we are????); they have to APOLOGIZE for lying to us about Biden's mental decline; they have to APOLOGIZE for lying to us about Covid's origins and the effectiveness of the vaccines (I got vaxxed, I got boosted, and I got Covid). And that's just for starters. Will they apologize and change course? I won't hold my breath.
I haven't heard a single Democrat politician condemn Molotov cocktail violence. Destroying a successful American business w/~120,000 American workers is not a strategy (looking at you Mark Kelly). I'd buy a used Tesla in a heartbeat for my second car, but now I'd be afraid to drive it. In America.
Whatever - Tesla is self-destroying, the childish juvenile vandalism is not their problem
Their problem is a 50-70% sales drop in Europe and Asia (where there's not any vandalism of any particular level) and making the brand toxic with the very market segment that they were selling to, combined with other automakers getting their EV game in place.
Fundamentals, bad management and Musk being quite delusional since Covid in brand management.
Pretending your concern is about the silly idiot juvenile vandals is mere pretense.
Tesla is self-destroying on its own basis via bad brand strategy and absent CEO - and that's all on them, not on some marginal vandalism promoted by Fox News agitprop as a significant excuse for the Tesla sales collapse.
Frankly as a professoinal investor Tesla is on its own merits a Sell. (this is in no way to adhere to the idiotic Democrat-Progressive denialism about Musk's initial brilliance on building the company, quite the contrary - however Musk is doing his own harm and no good CEO would be acting this way - he is well into Howard Hughes territory and Righty Hero Worship foolishness is not any more well founded than the Lefty idiodcy denying / minimizing his past accomplishments)
The Covid vaccine was critical to ending the pandemic. Yes, some people, including yourself, got vaccinated and also got Covid, but for most, it was a milder case. It was a lifesaver for many. I agree with your other point, though. That said, Trump presents us with the deconstruction of our democracy - and other issues too many to get into.
I just don't feel comfortable with your statement about the C19 vaccine. I do not disagree that it probably helped some of those most vulnerable, but I believe strongly one has to acknowledge the following before trying to suggest the C19 vaccine was a net positive:
- RED FLAG #1 The VAERS data can not be ignored; it was there for all to see, more adverse events reported by a factor of at least 4, than all other tracked vaccines, combined, since the systems inception. And this is a voluntary system. I still have the emails I was sending to my family with links to the VAERS data so they could see if for themselves.
- RED FLAG #2 The adverse effects shouldn't have surprised, when prior to this vaccine, the average time of development was at least 3 years, much longer when children were being considered; we rolled this out with no long term history on top of new (in the sense that it had never worked before) technology (mRNA)
- RED FLAG #3 Especially in the first year, there were no disclaimers spoken of! One can hardly watch an Advil commercial, let alone a vaccine commercial, without at least 30 seconds of health warnings and disclaimers being heard and seen in 4 font; yet this unproven brand new vaccine, no worries was the message
- RED FLAG #4 One size fits all; this was a huge mistake and I believe they knew it, healthy children were never at serious risk, yet they are still recommended to get the vaccine, have you noticed how many other countries suggest children get this?
- RED FLAG #5 Immunity under the emergency process used to bring the vaccine about; pharma already had a level of immunity when it comes to vaccines but the emergency process completely took them off the hook. Really, that doesn't concern anyone?
- RED FLAG #6 We were told by Biden and the 'experts' take the vaccine and you won't get Covid, you won't spread Covid, you won't die from Covid. As you know, all were false, if you are getting C19 today, or over the past 2 years, the one thing that is for sure, is you got the vaccine
- RED FLAG #7 Natural immunity, never heard of it? You'll recall, it wasn't until a good 2 years had passed that we started hearing the 'experts' start to acknowledge that natural immunity was a thing again, like we had heard our entire lives (there are more red flags, NIH royalties, Big tech censorship, etc, etc)
I'm sorry Jim for such a lengthy rebuttal, but you know what would have made me a lot less passionate about this issue? If at anytime, from anyone in authority, I would have seen at least a small smidgeon of humility. If any of them would have said, during the first 3 years, yes, we got some things wrong, we did our best, we messed up, we are reversing course. God bless, and I'm sure I'll get another chance in the future to debate, respectfully, our different perceptions of Trump.
You're spot-on about Dem's bone-headed and credulous support for and defense of gender identity ideology and trans people. And Biden's border policy was a no-border policy thanks to the appallingly ill-considered asylum process that released economic migrants into the country never to be seen again by the immigration authorities. Dems are deeply complicit in creating and maintaining campus wokeness and DEI culture. Too many Democrats are such mindless and selective free-speech fundamentalists and/or crypto-Islamists that they tolerated anti-Semitic campus organizing and activism.
But . . .
I got the COVID vaccine and got boosted repeatedly. About a year ago, I spent 11 hours on a metal tube with hundreds of other people whose vaccination status was unknown and then spent 30 days on that floating petri dish known as a cruise ship with over 3,000 other people whose vaccination status was unknown, making repeated shore excursions where I was exposed to the local population whose vaccination status was unknown. I did not contract COVID.
Some months later, I made a four-day trip to the Midwest and came down with COVID when I returned. I am at high risk for complications from COVID. I had no complications and recovered quickly.
Do you know who owes the nation an apology? Everyone who is still being uncharitable about the public-health response to the pandemic and the COVID vaccine. As long as I have known about the COVID vaccine, I have been aware from official sources that I could still contract the disease. I was also aware that the case would be much less severe than if I had not been vaccinated. That all turned out to be true.
I would hate to have to go through a major national crisis like WWI or WWII with today's American public.
I think my party is still in the denial stage of grief.
I've been reading all weekend about people wanting their politicians to fight, fight what and how I'm not really sure. Sell their Teslas? At some point we have to face the fact that we are out of power, and to get back into power we need to expand our party to include people who maybe think differently.
I like some of what Trump has done, and I'd think many others do too. Sure I've lost a lot of money in the market, it comes back. Tariffs that bring manufacturing back to America might not be great for my investments, but long term they might mean jobs for the younger people coming up.
I also hear a lot of anger directed at Democrats from Democrats, which is really dumb. If we had 3 or 4 more Democrats in congress we'd be deciding which bills make it to the floor of the house. Electoral success is a thing in a two party system.
How are you going to win elections when your strategy is getting nothing done? I think you've beat the "Trump is a Nazi" and "existential threat to democracy" horses to death.
How will anyone win elections when the sitting president clearly does not respect election results? I am very concerned we will not have a fair election in four years, perhaps not even for mid-terms.
And Trump is an ongoing existential threat to democracy. Not making that point would be like responding to a fire in a theater by hoping everyone would smell the smoke and find their way to the exits on their own without having to sound the fire alarm.
When I see the mindless raging raving of my sister in law about what is happening now I know it will be a while before the Democrats will get this act together.
I'll assume for the sake of argument that your sister-in-law is not a mindless rager by temperament.
Isn't it possible that if the Democratic Party's leadership were seen to be opposing Trump conspicuously, frequently and in a hard-hitting manner instead of holding tryouts for the 2025 Political Potted Plant awards, your sister-in-law might be less inclined to rage?
Possibly. She did do this also in 2017 when there was plenty of political resistance to Trump. It is hard for me to compare but it could be worse now and there is a certain sense of helplessness that may not have been there before. What is completely lacking is a self awareness of how the very steps that she has supported over tha last 8 years has led to this point in history. Everything is externalized, kind of like what Trump does. Ironic
I am not sure what the base expects the leadership to do. With a few exceptions, the leadership has opposed everything Trump has tried to do. There were almost no votes for any of Trump's appointees (DoL excepted) even when said appointees espoused some traditional Democratic positions. There is a tactical dispute about the shutdown vote but Schumer has been a master tactician for decades in the majority and the minority and people ought to give him the benefit of the doubt about the situation. In personal and internet contacts with the base, I have observed their attitude to be unfocused rage which is not a strategy. The leadership cannot afford such an attitude. Tariffs are not an issue to focus on. A little quiet talk with big donors might pay some dividends but members of the public have little understanding of the issues. DOGE is probably a good target but specific items not the whole thing. After all, Clinton and Obama stood up similar efforts which the Republicans will happy to point out. There is video. But there are areas that are worth focusing on like public lands and medical research (but don't get sucked in to defending overhead). Other issues will arise as time passes. Be patient and try to find some 80-20 issues that cut the other way.
Saving medical research and healthcare infrastructure are winners, as is social security. However, Trump is breaking down the infrastructure so that the agencies that administer these services may no longer be functional. I think people are missing the smaller-scale but no less destructive damage he is doing to the viability of our democracy.
I want our leadership to do exactly what Trump did to the Democratic Party and individual democrats starting on January 20, 2020 and continuing to the present, minus the lies, of course.
Shouldn’t the real leaders be determined first. It looks like the informal ones of the Democrats are in charge. But unlike Biden’s term, it might be good to identify them.
Dems are in desperate need a Reformation, but they can't reform, without a Martin Luther. At some point, a Dem politician is going to realize the shortest road back to the WH, requires an autopsy and apology for much of Biden's 4 years.
Any Dem 2028 hopeful will have to admit while cleaner energy is a worthwhile, longterm goal, it is insanity to to level the living standards of US lower and middle earners, as 7 billion other people on the planet, burn whatever they want, whenever they want.
Dems will have to acknowledge, it appears the transition to Green energy may take the better part of a century, not a decade. In the meantime, clean and cheap natural gas, that the US, has in abundance, is the best bridge to Green energy, that is actually affordable and available to all.
Dems memory holed Covid, like a bad Vegas weekend. They largely escaped, the worst US public health fail, unscathed. Purposefully importing 10 million unvetted people, without a single extra housing unit, doctor or bilingual teacher, will not be buried, with such ease.
Dems have a massive migration problem, that is not going away. The squeals that democracy is ending, because child rapists and murders are being deported, is not helping their cause. If Dems do not want Dreamers to spend their lives in Limbo, they must first assure Americans, they are bound by law, to never again open the borders.
Finally, astute Dems would stop fighting DOGE, and cheer the end of worthless programs. Then they would find waste, fraud and abuse spurred by the Right. 330 million Americans not employed by the federal government, feel empathy for RIFed fed employees, but very few believe federal employment, should be guaranteed for life. Just as very few believe trans girls in female bathrooms, locker rooms and athletic fields, is a good idea. Dems should stop trying to convince Americans otherwise.
Democrats remind me of the rejected girlfriend that rages, keys his car, stocks him, trashes him on social media, shows up at the bar and screams at him... all with the expectation that he will change his mind and take her back.
Reform--and in this case, salvation from an extinction level event---requires brutal honesty. Cherry picking polls doesn't help. For example, while "polls" show Trump slipping in approval, those polls THAT WERE DEAD ACCURATE in November show him gaining. In one pull he gained 6 points in the past week to go to 54-44 approval. Inflation fell by half and both industrial and manufacturing indices today were up by .5 more than expected. This is reality.
A second reality Democrats must grasp is that their numbers have been WILDLY inflated over the past 30 years by illegal immigrants, and those numbers are being radically slashed. Even in California, yesterday, new voter registration #s show Democrats trailing by 135,000. Now, not much in California, but the trend is a reality. In every single state that has updated their voter registrations since November (save Colorado) Republicans have gained---and continue to do so when (supposedly) Trump is "losing momentum." AZ went from R+5 to R+7.2 in the last two months; NC went from D+175,000 in November to D+30,000; NH saw Rs gain another point to R+5; and so on. No, the public doesn't dislike either Trump or his policies based on those numbers. Rs have won 3/4 special elections in the last two months, and 3 young(er) D US Senators have announced "no mas." That doesn't look like confidence to me.
Finally, it is absolutely critical to understand that unlike the "Dallas Cowboys of Politics," the Rs of the previous 30 years are no more. Those Rs were perfectly willing to fold in the playoffs, to give in when the time came. Not any more. The Trump Republicans do NOT like being in the minority as the old Bob Dole/John Boener GOP did.
So far, Trump is three steps ahead of the Democrats. With the upcoming 2030 reapportionment, that could give Rs another MINIMUM of 10 seats/EVs (IF Trump's census director does not "claw back" some of the fraudulent 2020 census numbers and assign more population where it rightly belonged and without illegal aliens), that number could be 14-20. Either way, those are nearly extinction level event numbers for Democrats.
I am reluctant to think that the Democrats are on the brink of extinction. Serious problems, yes, extinction, no.
I look at the 1980s, when Reagan was elected twice and succeeded by Bush Sr. At that time, the Republicans were predicting a "re-alignment" and dominance. Along came a more centrist Democratic Party and Bill Clinton. I have written elsewhere in this comment thread that I think reform will be harder for the Dems now than it was then, but if they are "shellacked" again in '26 and especially in '28, I expect them to shave off the rough edges.
The one thing that does seem baked in the cake is that the big blue states will lose considerable electoral votes after the '30 census, but there's no guarantee that the states that will gain EVs will remain red. I think it's likely that the '30s will be considerably tougher for the Dems, but it's funny how the worms turn.
An example would be when Bush Sr.'s approval rating was 90% after the first Gulf War. I thought he was a shoo-in for '92. Wrong-o. Another one would be the Republicans after getting utterly crunched in 1964, only to come back and win in '68 and '72, and again three times in the '80s.
Bottom line would be the cliche about not counting your chickens until they are hatched. Cliches are cliches because they are usually true.
The grass roots of the party are focusing on an unelected billionaire who says German public employees implemented the holocaust, not Hitler, and endorsed the German neo-fascist party in the most recent German election. Also he is leading a haphazard and non-transparent campaign to dismantle the Social Security Administration, the Veterans Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration etc.
All federal employees are unelected. Making that same claim over and over doesn’t help any arguments. And we saw the power of the unelected federal employees by all the life changing rules they put out. Until SCOTUS shut them which greatly vexed the left.
The President can change federal regulations and fire federal employees but he must follow legal procedures in doing so. He is not a dictator and is subject to judicial review. It is called checks and balances. The rule of law is more important than the caprices of any President.
We saw during Biden and all the times he was stopped by the courts. Not a big problem because if most of these past muster, the presidents powers will be more refined. I believed for the better and not the worse. And SCOTUS over turned Chevron, the bureaucrat has a been neutered a lot.
I don't think you understand Chevron. It limits the power of the President and the executive branch. The Courts will have more power to interpret ambiguous statutes.
Chevron was used to have courts defer to bureaucrats as subject experts to determine if they had the authority to issue the rules they did. That unauthorized authority was taken back from the bureaucrats.
Regulations are not issued by lower level bureaucrats or subject matter experts. They are developed and promulgated by the heads of federal agencies who are appointed by the President. They are subject to the Administrative Procedure Act. In simple terms, the Supreme Court shifted the balance of power, giving courts more authority to decide what laws mean, rather than relying as heavily on the interpretations of the agencies that enforce them.
The old ways die hard. We’ve tried that system for decades and where did it get us? Tariffs under Trump are negotiating points. People don’t have to pay tariffs if they don’t buy goods with tariffs. Reciprocal is what the goal is.
Finally, this generation seems hell bent on making sure our country’s poor financial position will be pushed down to our grandchildren and their children. To figure out or suffer severe consequences because of us. That’s how selfish we are. If there is economic pain, it needs to be addressed and borne by today’s generations.
DOGE provides two things. The chance for future generations to take part now in our economic system and hopefully lessen the pain for the generations down the road. And educating future leaders about the quagmire we call government. Unfortunately for the Dems, they do more to alienate the youngster and thus have none coming up with the knowledge to compete with those who have experienced it now.
DOGE is a very mixed bag. I do not like the blanket dismissals at all, and welcomed Trump's statement about using a scalpel instead of a hammer. I also thought that demand to list five accomplishments was truly insulting. I sure wouldn't want to work for Musk.
Similarly, the Social Security stuff was grossly misinterpreted. The listings of dead people were an artifact of an antique database. It was obvious from the start. DOGE has appropriately shined light into dark corners, and I certainly appreciate it, but it has thus far been a ham-fisted approach.
DOGE needs some work. I worked for the FAA for 25 years. Employee, union created, VP for 8 years and supervisor. You want to know what is tough? Watching UAL 232 crash in front of you and the carnage afterwards. Including watching survivors stumble out of corn fields. None of the controllers came out unscathed. And they did what the job demanded, sucked it up and keep doing their job. For 25 years a supervisor stood over us to make sure we did our job. If you can’t list 5 items you did last week, you don’t deserve to work in government. And it is that kind of attitude that shows termination is appropriate. Government needs to downsized. Probationers and those who can retire are the ones most likely to leave. The employees have been coddled too much. That’s on the Dems, I know I worked under Dems and Repubs. This is all the consequence of Dems in charge. Life’s tough. I had a lot of good friends from the military who Regan fired. I can’t find one who didn’t do better. Life sucks, people need to get over it. Pick themselves up and move on.
We'll have to agree to disagree on the "accomplishments" question. I thought it was insulting. In any case, those mass firings were the wrong way to go, IMO. That much said, I also think the employer, i.e. the federal government, needs more flexibility when it comes to dismissals. From my outsider's understanding of the civil service rules, there is too much protection for underperformers.
By the way, now that we're talking about DOGE, I have a hunch about why the federal employee unions are going claws out to keep DOGE away from the IRS and Social Security databases. Probably also away from the roster(s) of all federal employees too, although I haven't read that this is one of their jihads.
Imagine this: Extract the names and SSNs of every Federal employee who's been working remotely. Merge with the IRS database. Voila! The names of any remote feds who took a second job while drawing a federal paycheck, at least if that second employer sent FICA and withholding to the IRS. Then send that to the U.S. attorneys.
It could even be better. Imagine that, in the D.C. area and maybe elsewhere, that some of them double-dipped with federal contractors, who then were compensated by the feds for those costs. That would be triple-dipping. If I were emperor, that's a place where I'd be looking hard.
So don't imagine that I'm some huge defender of federal employee sloth. I only want this stuff to be investigated correctly and effectively, and then prosecuted harshly if it happened. No mercy for that kind of thing if it has happened and if it can be documented.
Right out of the leakers during Biden’s administration. Probationers have no protection. Can be fired at any time for any reason. It sent that tough to fire one. Just takes a little more than here’s the paper work your fired. Many supervisor/managers are lazy and need to go also.
Never have. However it was clearly obvious just like the house 1/6 committee, the system was corrupted. Which is the answer to how could anyone vote for an insurrectionist.
If this were just about tariffs and possible trade wars you might be right. But it isn’t so your declarations don’t pertain in this case. Having a tough time with this one? Ive pointed it out more than once.
You are right, Ed. Federal employees were not shutting down agencies; they were providing services. It wasn't perfect, but this is not how you improve problems. It's how you accomplish a coup from within. Dismantle, piece by piece.
Had our elected representatives ever made any progress in reigning in the spending of the Federal government none of this would have been necessary. As it stands, we are dooming future generations to try and fix that system so it didn’t greatly harm those future generations. In other words, we were fu*king the lives of future generations so we could live comfortably. It’s our pain to bear. Not our grandkids and their children.
We live about 100 miles downstream from Hanford. Believe me, I was very far from amused by Biden's appointment of a transvestite nutcase to be in charge of the cleanup, but I was equally very far from amused by that DOGE firing of nuclear engineers there.
Both of those were reversed, DOGE's thankfully much more quickly, but they are both examples of rank idiocy. Another example would be the dismissals within the Bonneville Power Administration and the U.S. Forest Service. I could go on and on about bad federal management of national forests for the past 35 or so years, but firing the people who'll be fighting the fires this summer was stupid and scary.
We live 15 miles as the crow flies from a national forest named for the first head of the Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot, appointed by Teddy Roosevelt. Part of it caught fire the summer before last. Reform of the Forest Service is very much needed, but not that way to say the very least.
The first rule of ANY incoming administration should be: "Don't be stupid." That others have been stupid is no excuse to be stupid, only in different ways.
Unfortunately, it’s the way it had to be done because dragging one’s feet would give the left even more time to stop it. And which employees would have joined the DOGE to allow a scalpel approach? The ones who barricaded themselves in their building so no one could in. It’s a time of extremes. Sad, but that is the only way to get it done.
Shoot first and ask questions later? Nope. Especially with the nuke plants and the forests. Here in the Pacific NW, national forests cover one-fourth of the land. Wildfire is a perennial thing here. Last summer, Oregon had the most acreage in the country on fire.
Now, there are some aspects of federal firefighting that I don't fully know about. One is how many federal employees fight the fires vs. private contractors. If the latter, were the funds for the contractors cut? Call me a flaming "progressive," but I don't think the federal government should slack off on nuclear safety or firefighting.
I don’t see it as bad as hiring incompetents and slackers. Pros and cons to both. And yes, the vast majority of controllers I worked with were good at what they did. There were incompetents, hopefully they ended up in management before they killed anyone. Which actually said more about the hiring process of the FAA. Plus the best always watched out for those who needed help.
Let's face the real issue. As Baharaeen says, Democrats favor "a more robust federal government." The resistance to Trump doesn't confront this central ideological issue. If Democrats want to regain credibility and a durable governing majority, they need to convince voters that "a robust federal government" is the better path to a growing economy, broad based prosperity, better and safer communities, better schools, and upward mobility. Burning Teslas, calling Trump a fascist, ginning pop up protests may chip sway at Trump's support, but those tactics won't move voters toward the Democratic party, and they certainly won't convince people to place their trust in big government. Here's what Democratic advocates like Baharaeen have to address. Why, and how, will giving more power to the federal government improve the lives of a majority of Americans. If you can't, or won't, address that central ideological issue, then you're just whistling past the gravesite.
Your point about the govt shutdown paradox is well taken. My question at this point is what CAN Dems do about DOGE? It seems like, for better or worse, it's in the hands of the courts. All I can think of is for Dems to relentlessly message around the direct impacts of DOGE on ordinary Americans so that it's top of mind come the mid-terms.
Yeah, I think it unfortunately is largely in the hands of SCOTUS. Folks who follow congressional politics closer than me may be able to speak to other opportunities on the legislative front, but part of the issue here is that Trump is doing most of his legislating through EOs, and what little he's doing in Congress is via reconciliation bills. So Dems aren't just the minority party but essentially a parliamentary minority party, and what little leverage they do have carries its own risks if they employ it. Stuck between a rock and a hard place.
That said, organizing the grassroots at town halls or even on trips to GOP Hill offices might attract national media attention and help keep their voters mobilized.
"If Democrats can coalesce around a thoughtful strategy for opposing Trump on his most controversial moves—at this early stage, this appears to be his tariffs, DOGE (to a slightly lesser extent), and possibly his tax cuts—they might succeed in replicating their GOP predecessors’ success: making Trump and his policies unpopular enough to derail them or, at minimum, reap electoral rewards from them. This requires keeping a concerted focus on those things and not getting sidetracked by other tempting fights, especially those on the cultural front, where they are currently at a clear disadvantage."
The data (rather than ad hoc anectdote) as very ablely shown by Shor is that Trump won essentially on the irritation factor of Inflation Denialism that working class saw from the Democrats (but Marco GDP is Great!) coupled secondarily with the working class irritation with Wokey Woke. Ditch wokey woke cultural - not just silence, ditch - and bang away on inflation, on disruptoin, on job losses.
Trump as Dime Store Maoism or Reality TV Peronism is not going to generate the benefits - and there is the angle, basic fundamental Bread & Butter
(couple that with some good Yglsias style Pro Growth rationalisation about gov policy, talk about intelligent Little Guy Friendly red-tape cutting combined with Level the Playing field and you have something that seems a very good hook against the Trupmist Oligarchic Reality TV Peronism)
Out of curiosity, what policies do the Democrats have to offer the voters as an alternative to Trump's? Saving the voters from reductions to government waste, fraud and inefficiency? Letting everyone's taxes snap back to pre-2016 levels in the belief that middle-income voters are eager to pay more if it means sticking it to the rich? Preserving trade imbalances that favor other nations? Social justice policies that prove the Democrats are better, more enlightened people than the retrograde troglodytes that comprise the rest of the electorate?
It's kind of hard to fight if you are only fighting against your misconceptions about the other side and don't have a set of consistent principles your side can agree on.
Start by forcing the toxic Congressional Progressive Caucus to either align with the party or fuck off to the Green Party. Every election these idiots spout kook bullshit they picked up from the academic far-left and Free Palestine cult, and its elections poison every time. Everyone associated with the “uncommitted” movement needs to be tossed out of the party permanently. Everyone shilling for Hamas should fuck off to a more fitting party for them. The violent transqueer activists need to go, now. The DEI promoters need to either STFU for good about that racist, anti American stupidity, or leave the party.
Fight the progressives first because they twice helped Trump get elected, then fight Trump, where it makes sense.
Personally, I think the GOP should counter threats of non-cloture by reinstating the filibuster - the REAL filibuster, requiring Senators to present their objections in floor speeches without yielding. It would make the legislative process more dramatic and interesting to voters, and it would require Senators on both sides to put their mouths where their mouths are, so to speak. One of the Senate's big problems right now is that obstruction is too easy and cost-free with the agreement to "assume the filibuster."
If the Dems want me back, they have to APOLOGIZE for supporting post-pubescent males in female sports; they have to APOLOGIZE for allowing the border crisis to get so horrifically bad; they have to APOLOGIZE for emboldening Iran's proxies by lifting sanctions against Iran; they have to APOLOGIZE for not condemning the horrific anti-Jewish hatred on college campuses; they have to APOLOGIZE for pretending not to know what a woman is (how effing stupid do they think we are????); they have to APOLOGIZE for lying to us about Biden's mental decline; they have to APOLOGIZE for lying to us about Covid's origins and the effectiveness of the vaccines (I got vaxxed, I got boosted, and I got Covid). And that's just for starters. Will they apologize and change course? I won't hold my breath.
I haven't heard a single Democrat politician condemn Molotov cocktail violence. Destroying a successful American business w/~120,000 American workers is not a strategy (looking at you Mark Kelly). I'd buy a used Tesla in a heartbeat for my second car, but now I'd be afraid to drive it. In America.
Whatever - Tesla is self-destroying, the childish juvenile vandalism is not their problem
Their problem is a 50-70% sales drop in Europe and Asia (where there's not any vandalism of any particular level) and making the brand toxic with the very market segment that they were selling to, combined with other automakers getting their EV game in place.
Fundamentals, bad management and Musk being quite delusional since Covid in brand management.
Pretending your concern is about the silly idiot juvenile vandals is mere pretense.
Tesla is self-destroying on its own basis via bad brand strategy and absent CEO - and that's all on them, not on some marginal vandalism promoted by Fox News agitprop as a significant excuse for the Tesla sales collapse.
Frankly as a professoinal investor Tesla is on its own merits a Sell. (this is in no way to adhere to the idiotic Democrat-Progressive denialism about Musk's initial brilliance on building the company, quite the contrary - however Musk is doing his own harm and no good CEO would be acting this way - he is well into Howard Hughes territory and Righty Hero Worship foolishness is not any more well founded than the Lefty idiodcy denying / minimizing his past accomplishments)
The Covid vaccine was critical to ending the pandemic. Yes, some people, including yourself, got vaccinated and also got Covid, but for most, it was a milder case. It was a lifesaver for many. I agree with your other point, though. That said, Trump presents us with the deconstruction of our democracy - and other issues too many to get into.
I just don't feel comfortable with your statement about the C19 vaccine. I do not disagree that it probably helped some of those most vulnerable, but I believe strongly one has to acknowledge the following before trying to suggest the C19 vaccine was a net positive:
- RED FLAG #1 The VAERS data can not be ignored; it was there for all to see, more adverse events reported by a factor of at least 4, than all other tracked vaccines, combined, since the systems inception. And this is a voluntary system. I still have the emails I was sending to my family with links to the VAERS data so they could see if for themselves.
- RED FLAG #2 The adverse effects shouldn't have surprised, when prior to this vaccine, the average time of development was at least 3 years, much longer when children were being considered; we rolled this out with no long term history on top of new (in the sense that it had never worked before) technology (mRNA)
- RED FLAG #3 Especially in the first year, there were no disclaimers spoken of! One can hardly watch an Advil commercial, let alone a vaccine commercial, without at least 30 seconds of health warnings and disclaimers being heard and seen in 4 font; yet this unproven brand new vaccine, no worries was the message
- RED FLAG #4 One size fits all; this was a huge mistake and I believe they knew it, healthy children were never at serious risk, yet they are still recommended to get the vaccine, have you noticed how many other countries suggest children get this?
- RED FLAG #5 Immunity under the emergency process used to bring the vaccine about; pharma already had a level of immunity when it comes to vaccines but the emergency process completely took them off the hook. Really, that doesn't concern anyone?
- RED FLAG #6 We were told by Biden and the 'experts' take the vaccine and you won't get Covid, you won't spread Covid, you won't die from Covid. As you know, all were false, if you are getting C19 today, or over the past 2 years, the one thing that is for sure, is you got the vaccine
- RED FLAG #7 Natural immunity, never heard of it? You'll recall, it wasn't until a good 2 years had passed that we started hearing the 'experts' start to acknowledge that natural immunity was a thing again, like we had heard our entire lives (there are more red flags, NIH royalties, Big tech censorship, etc, etc)
I'm sorry Jim for such a lengthy rebuttal, but you know what would have made me a lot less passionate about this issue? If at anytime, from anyone in authority, I would have seen at least a small smidgeon of humility. If any of them would have said, during the first 3 years, yes, we got some things wrong, we did our best, we messed up, we are reversing course. God bless, and I'm sure I'll get another chance in the future to debate, respectfully, our different perceptions of Trump.
You're spot-on about Dem's bone-headed and credulous support for and defense of gender identity ideology and trans people. And Biden's border policy was a no-border policy thanks to the appallingly ill-considered asylum process that released economic migrants into the country never to be seen again by the immigration authorities. Dems are deeply complicit in creating and maintaining campus wokeness and DEI culture. Too many Democrats are such mindless and selective free-speech fundamentalists and/or crypto-Islamists that they tolerated anti-Semitic campus organizing and activism.
But . . .
I got the COVID vaccine and got boosted repeatedly. About a year ago, I spent 11 hours on a metal tube with hundreds of other people whose vaccination status was unknown and then spent 30 days on that floating petri dish known as a cruise ship with over 3,000 other people whose vaccination status was unknown, making repeated shore excursions where I was exposed to the local population whose vaccination status was unknown. I did not contract COVID.
Some months later, I made a four-day trip to the Midwest and came down with COVID when I returned. I am at high risk for complications from COVID. I had no complications and recovered quickly.
Do you know who owes the nation an apology? Everyone who is still being uncharitable about the public-health response to the pandemic and the COVID vaccine. As long as I have known about the COVID vaccine, I have been aware from official sources that I could still contract the disease. I was also aware that the case would be much less severe than if I had not been vaccinated. That all turned out to be true.
I would hate to have to go through a major national crisis like WWI or WWII with today's American public.
Grow up.
Parties don't apologise and of course this is merely Internet Drama Llama posturing.
they of course need to drop the idiocy but apologies tours are weak and pathetic, and asking for them is silly and juvenile.
I think my party is still in the denial stage of grief.
I've been reading all weekend about people wanting their politicians to fight, fight what and how I'm not really sure. Sell their Teslas? At some point we have to face the fact that we are out of power, and to get back into power we need to expand our party to include people who maybe think differently.
I like some of what Trump has done, and I'd think many others do too. Sure I've lost a lot of money in the market, it comes back. Tariffs that bring manufacturing back to America might not be great for my investments, but long term they might mean jobs for the younger people coming up.
I also hear a lot of anger directed at Democrats from Democrats, which is really dumb. If we had 3 or 4 more Democrats in congress we'd be deciding which bills make it to the floor of the house. Electoral success is a thing in a two party system.
How are you going to win elections when your strategy is getting nothing done? I think you've beat the "Trump is a Nazi" and "existential threat to democracy" horses to death.
How will anyone win elections when the sitting president clearly does not respect election results? I am very concerned we will not have a fair election in four years, perhaps not even for mid-terms.
OK, then, how about "Trump is Mussolini"?
And Trump is an ongoing existential threat to democracy. Not making that point would be like responding to a fire in a theater by hoping everyone would smell the smoke and find their way to the exits on their own without having to sound the fire alarm.
The past 10 years is like your party pulling the fire alarm during every single movie. And promising to do more of the same for the next 10 years.
When I see the mindless raging raving of my sister in law about what is happening now I know it will be a while before the Democrats will get this act together.
I'll assume for the sake of argument that your sister-in-law is not a mindless rager by temperament.
Isn't it possible that if the Democratic Party's leadership were seen to be opposing Trump conspicuously, frequently and in a hard-hitting manner instead of holding tryouts for the 2025 Political Potted Plant awards, your sister-in-law might be less inclined to rage?
Possibly. She did do this also in 2017 when there was plenty of political resistance to Trump. It is hard for me to compare but it could be worse now and there is a certain sense of helplessness that may not have been there before. What is completely lacking is a self awareness of how the very steps that she has supported over tha last 8 years has led to this point in history. Everything is externalized, kind of like what Trump does. Ironic
I am not sure what the base expects the leadership to do. With a few exceptions, the leadership has opposed everything Trump has tried to do. There were almost no votes for any of Trump's appointees (DoL excepted) even when said appointees espoused some traditional Democratic positions. There is a tactical dispute about the shutdown vote but Schumer has been a master tactician for decades in the majority and the minority and people ought to give him the benefit of the doubt about the situation. In personal and internet contacts with the base, I have observed their attitude to be unfocused rage which is not a strategy. The leadership cannot afford such an attitude. Tariffs are not an issue to focus on. A little quiet talk with big donors might pay some dividends but members of the public have little understanding of the issues. DOGE is probably a good target but specific items not the whole thing. After all, Clinton and Obama stood up similar efforts which the Republicans will happy to point out. There is video. But there are areas that are worth focusing on like public lands and medical research (but don't get sucked in to defending overhead). Other issues will arise as time passes. Be patient and try to find some 80-20 issues that cut the other way.
Saving medical research and healthcare infrastructure are winners, as is social security. However, Trump is breaking down the infrastructure so that the agencies that administer these services may no longer be functional. I think people are missing the smaller-scale but no less destructive damage he is doing to the viability of our democracy.
I want our leadership to do exactly what Trump did to the Democratic Party and individual democrats starting on January 20, 2020 and continuing to the present, minus the lies, of course.
Well, then, we'll just talk quietly among ourselves so as not to make any missteps and hope for the best : )
Shouldn’t the real leaders be determined first. It looks like the informal ones of the Democrats are in charge. But unlike Biden’s term, it might be good to identify them.
Dems are in desperate need a Reformation, but they can't reform, without a Martin Luther. At some point, a Dem politician is going to realize the shortest road back to the WH, requires an autopsy and apology for much of Biden's 4 years.
Any Dem 2028 hopeful will have to admit while cleaner energy is a worthwhile, longterm goal, it is insanity to to level the living standards of US lower and middle earners, as 7 billion other people on the planet, burn whatever they want, whenever they want.
Dems will have to acknowledge, it appears the transition to Green energy may take the better part of a century, not a decade. In the meantime, clean and cheap natural gas, that the US, has in abundance, is the best bridge to Green energy, that is actually affordable and available to all.
Dems memory holed Covid, like a bad Vegas weekend. They largely escaped, the worst US public health fail, unscathed. Purposefully importing 10 million unvetted people, without a single extra housing unit, doctor or bilingual teacher, will not be buried, with such ease.
Dems have a massive migration problem, that is not going away. The squeals that democracy is ending, because child rapists and murders are being deported, is not helping their cause. If Dems do not want Dreamers to spend their lives in Limbo, they must first assure Americans, they are bound by law, to never again open the borders.
Finally, astute Dems would stop fighting DOGE, and cheer the end of worthless programs. Then they would find waste, fraud and abuse spurred by the Right. 330 million Americans not employed by the federal government, feel empathy for RIFed fed employees, but very few believe federal employment, should be guaranteed for life. Just as very few believe trans girls in female bathrooms, locker rooms and athletic fields, is a good idea. Dems should stop trying to convince Americans otherwise.
It would be very hard to believe the Democrats have sincerely changed their mind on immigration as long as there is a sanctuary movement.
Democrats remind me of the rejected girlfriend that rages, keys his car, stocks him, trashes him on social media, shows up at the bar and screams at him... all with the expectation that he will change his mind and take her back.
Reform--and in this case, salvation from an extinction level event---requires brutal honesty. Cherry picking polls doesn't help. For example, while "polls" show Trump slipping in approval, those polls THAT WERE DEAD ACCURATE in November show him gaining. In one pull he gained 6 points in the past week to go to 54-44 approval. Inflation fell by half and both industrial and manufacturing indices today were up by .5 more than expected. This is reality.
A second reality Democrats must grasp is that their numbers have been WILDLY inflated over the past 30 years by illegal immigrants, and those numbers are being radically slashed. Even in California, yesterday, new voter registration #s show Democrats trailing by 135,000. Now, not much in California, but the trend is a reality. In every single state that has updated their voter registrations since November (save Colorado) Republicans have gained---and continue to do so when (supposedly) Trump is "losing momentum." AZ went from R+5 to R+7.2 in the last two months; NC went from D+175,000 in November to D+30,000; NH saw Rs gain another point to R+5; and so on. No, the public doesn't dislike either Trump or his policies based on those numbers. Rs have won 3/4 special elections in the last two months, and 3 young(er) D US Senators have announced "no mas." That doesn't look like confidence to me.
Finally, it is absolutely critical to understand that unlike the "Dallas Cowboys of Politics," the Rs of the previous 30 years are no more. Those Rs were perfectly willing to fold in the playoffs, to give in when the time came. Not any more. The Trump Republicans do NOT like being in the minority as the old Bob Dole/John Boener GOP did.
So far, Trump is three steps ahead of the Democrats. With the upcoming 2030 reapportionment, that could give Rs another MINIMUM of 10 seats/EVs (IF Trump's census director does not "claw back" some of the fraudulent 2020 census numbers and assign more population where it rightly belonged and without illegal aliens), that number could be 14-20. Either way, those are nearly extinction level event numbers for Democrats.
I am reluctant to think that the Democrats are on the brink of extinction. Serious problems, yes, extinction, no.
I look at the 1980s, when Reagan was elected twice and succeeded by Bush Sr. At that time, the Republicans were predicting a "re-alignment" and dominance. Along came a more centrist Democratic Party and Bill Clinton. I have written elsewhere in this comment thread that I think reform will be harder for the Dems now than it was then, but if they are "shellacked" again in '26 and especially in '28, I expect them to shave off the rough edges.
The one thing that does seem baked in the cake is that the big blue states will lose considerable electoral votes after the '30 census, but there's no guarantee that the states that will gain EVs will remain red. I think it's likely that the '30s will be considerably tougher for the Dems, but it's funny how the worms turn.
An example would be when Bush Sr.'s approval rating was 90% after the first Gulf War. I thought he was a shoo-in for '92. Wrong-o. Another one would be the Republicans after getting utterly crunched in 1964, only to come back and win in '68 and '72, and again three times in the '80s.
Bottom line would be the cliche about not counting your chickens until they are hatched. Cliches are cliches because they are usually true.
Energy, but with discipline. Opportunities to strike and strike hard will be there. Great article.
The grass roots of the party are focusing on an unelected billionaire who says German public employees implemented the holocaust, not Hitler, and endorsed the German neo-fascist party in the most recent German election. Also he is leading a haphazard and non-transparent campaign to dismantle the Social Security Administration, the Veterans Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration etc.
All federal employees are unelected. Making that same claim over and over doesn’t help any arguments. And we saw the power of the unelected federal employees by all the life changing rules they put out. Until SCOTUS shut them which greatly vexed the left.
The President can change federal regulations and fire federal employees but he must follow legal procedures in doing so. He is not a dictator and is subject to judicial review. It is called checks and balances. The rule of law is more important than the caprices of any President.
We saw during Biden and all the times he was stopped by the courts. Not a big problem because if most of these past muster, the presidents powers will be more refined. I believed for the better and not the worse. And SCOTUS over turned Chevron, the bureaucrat has a been neutered a lot.
I don't think you understand Chevron. It limits the power of the President and the executive branch. The Courts will have more power to interpret ambiguous statutes.
Chevron was used to have courts defer to bureaucrats as subject experts to determine if they had the authority to issue the rules they did. That unauthorized authority was taken back from the bureaucrats.
Regulations are not issued by lower level bureaucrats or subject matter experts. They are developed and promulgated by the heads of federal agencies who are appointed by the President. They are subject to the Administrative Procedure Act. In simple terms, the Supreme Court shifted the balance of power, giving courts more authority to decide what laws mean, rather than relying as heavily on the interpretations of the agencies that enforce them.
Has anyone invented a drinking game revolving around progressives calling Trump and/or Republicans "Nazis?" LOL
The old ways die hard. We’ve tried that system for decades and where did it get us? Tariffs under Trump are negotiating points. People don’t have to pay tariffs if they don’t buy goods with tariffs. Reciprocal is what the goal is.
Finally, this generation seems hell bent on making sure our country’s poor financial position will be pushed down to our grandchildren and their children. To figure out or suffer severe consequences because of us. That’s how selfish we are. If there is economic pain, it needs to be addressed and borne by today’s generations.
DOGE provides two things. The chance for future generations to take part now in our economic system and hopefully lessen the pain for the generations down the road. And educating future leaders about the quagmire we call government. Unfortunately for the Dems, they do more to alienate the youngster and thus have none coming up with the knowledge to compete with those who have experienced it now.
DOGE is a very mixed bag. I do not like the blanket dismissals at all, and welcomed Trump's statement about using a scalpel instead of a hammer. I also thought that demand to list five accomplishments was truly insulting. I sure wouldn't want to work for Musk.
Similarly, the Social Security stuff was grossly misinterpreted. The listings of dead people were an artifact of an antique database. It was obvious from the start. DOGE has appropriately shined light into dark corners, and I certainly appreciate it, but it has thus far been a ham-fisted approach.
DOGE needs some work. I worked for the FAA for 25 years. Employee, union created, VP for 8 years and supervisor. You want to know what is tough? Watching UAL 232 crash in front of you and the carnage afterwards. Including watching survivors stumble out of corn fields. None of the controllers came out unscathed. And they did what the job demanded, sucked it up and keep doing their job. For 25 years a supervisor stood over us to make sure we did our job. If you can’t list 5 items you did last week, you don’t deserve to work in government. And it is that kind of attitude that shows termination is appropriate. Government needs to downsized. Probationers and those who can retire are the ones most likely to leave. The employees have been coddled too much. That’s on the Dems, I know I worked under Dems and Repubs. This is all the consequence of Dems in charge. Life’s tough. I had a lot of good friends from the military who Regan fired. I can’t find one who didn’t do better. Life sucks, people need to get over it. Pick themselves up and move on.
We'll have to agree to disagree on the "accomplishments" question. I thought it was insulting. In any case, those mass firings were the wrong way to go, IMO. That much said, I also think the employer, i.e. the federal government, needs more flexibility when it comes to dismissals. From my outsider's understanding of the civil service rules, there is too much protection for underperformers.
By the way, now that we're talking about DOGE, I have a hunch about why the federal employee unions are going claws out to keep DOGE away from the IRS and Social Security databases. Probably also away from the roster(s) of all federal employees too, although I haven't read that this is one of their jihads.
Imagine this: Extract the names and SSNs of every Federal employee who's been working remotely. Merge with the IRS database. Voila! The names of any remote feds who took a second job while drawing a federal paycheck, at least if that second employer sent FICA and withholding to the IRS. Then send that to the U.S. attorneys.
It could even be better. Imagine that, in the D.C. area and maybe elsewhere, that some of them double-dipped with federal contractors, who then were compensated by the feds for those costs. That would be triple-dipping. If I were emperor, that's a place where I'd be looking hard.
So don't imagine that I'm some huge defender of federal employee sloth. I only want this stuff to be investigated correctly and effectively, and then prosecuted harshly if it happened. No mercy for that kind of thing if it has happened and if it can be documented.
Right out of the leakers during Biden’s administration. Probationers have no protection. Can be fired at any time for any reason. It sent that tough to fire one. Just takes a little more than here’s the paper work your fired. Many supervisor/managers are lazy and need to go also.
I understand about the probationers, but my understanding (correct me if I am wrong) is that the firings went beyond probationers.
Never have. However it was clearly obvious just like the house 1/6 committee, the system was corrupted. Which is the answer to how could anyone vote for an insurrectionist.
If this were just about tariffs and possible trade wars you might be right. But it isn’t so your declarations don’t pertain in this case. Having a tough time with this one? Ive pointed it out more than once.
You are right, Ed. Federal employees were not shutting down agencies; they were providing services. It wasn't perfect, but this is not how you improve problems. It's how you accomplish a coup from within. Dismantle, piece by piece.
Had our elected representatives ever made any progress in reigning in the spending of the Federal government none of this would have been necessary. As it stands, we are dooming future generations to try and fix that system so it didn’t greatly harm those future generations. In other words, we were fu*king the lives of future generations so we could live comfortably. It’s our pain to bear. Not our grandkids and their children.
We live about 100 miles downstream from Hanford. Believe me, I was very far from amused by Biden's appointment of a transvestite nutcase to be in charge of the cleanup, but I was equally very far from amused by that DOGE firing of nuclear engineers there.
Both of those were reversed, DOGE's thankfully much more quickly, but they are both examples of rank idiocy. Another example would be the dismissals within the Bonneville Power Administration and the U.S. Forest Service. I could go on and on about bad federal management of national forests for the past 35 or so years, but firing the people who'll be fighting the fires this summer was stupid and scary.
We live 15 miles as the crow flies from a national forest named for the first head of the Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot, appointed by Teddy Roosevelt. Part of it caught fire the summer before last. Reform of the Forest Service is very much needed, but not that way to say the very least.
The first rule of ANY incoming administration should be: "Don't be stupid." That others have been stupid is no excuse to be stupid, only in different ways.
Unfortunately, it’s the way it had to be done because dragging one’s feet would give the left even more time to stop it. And which employees would have joined the DOGE to allow a scalpel approach? The ones who barricaded themselves in their building so no one could in. It’s a time of extremes. Sad, but that is the only way to get it done.
Shoot first and ask questions later? Nope. Especially with the nuke plants and the forests. Here in the Pacific NW, national forests cover one-fourth of the land. Wildfire is a perennial thing here. Last summer, Oregon had the most acreage in the country on fire.
Now, there are some aspects of federal firefighting that I don't fully know about. One is how many federal employees fight the fires vs. private contractors. If the latter, were the funds for the contractors cut? Call me a flaming "progressive," but I don't think the federal government should slack off on nuclear safety or firefighting.
I don’t see it as bad as hiring incompetents and slackers. Pros and cons to both. And yes, the vast majority of controllers I worked with were good at what they did. There were incompetents, hopefully they ended up in management before they killed anyone. Which actually said more about the hiring process of the FAA. Plus the best always watched out for those who needed help.
Democrats need to be the party of Law and Order.
Let's face the real issue. As Baharaeen says, Democrats favor "a more robust federal government." The resistance to Trump doesn't confront this central ideological issue. If Democrats want to regain credibility and a durable governing majority, they need to convince voters that "a robust federal government" is the better path to a growing economy, broad based prosperity, better and safer communities, better schools, and upward mobility. Burning Teslas, calling Trump a fascist, ginning pop up protests may chip sway at Trump's support, but those tactics won't move voters toward the Democratic party, and they certainly won't convince people to place their trust in big government. Here's what Democratic advocates like Baharaeen have to address. Why, and how, will giving more power to the federal government improve the lives of a majority of Americans. If you can't, or won't, address that central ideological issue, then you're just whistling past the gravesite.
Your point about the govt shutdown paradox is well taken. My question at this point is what CAN Dems do about DOGE? It seems like, for better or worse, it's in the hands of the courts. All I can think of is for Dems to relentlessly message around the direct impacts of DOGE on ordinary Americans so that it's top of mind come the mid-terms.
Yeah, I think it unfortunately is largely in the hands of SCOTUS. Folks who follow congressional politics closer than me may be able to speak to other opportunities on the legislative front, but part of the issue here is that Trump is doing most of his legislating through EOs, and what little he's doing in Congress is via reconciliation bills. So Dems aren't just the minority party but essentially a parliamentary minority party, and what little leverage they do have carries its own risks if they employ it. Stuck between a rock and a hard place.
That said, organizing the grassroots at town halls or even on trips to GOP Hill offices might attract national media attention and help keep their voters mobilized.
I rather like this
"If Democrats can coalesce around a thoughtful strategy for opposing Trump on his most controversial moves—at this early stage, this appears to be his tariffs, DOGE (to a slightly lesser extent), and possibly his tax cuts—they might succeed in replicating their GOP predecessors’ success: making Trump and his policies unpopular enough to derail them or, at minimum, reap electoral rewards from them. This requires keeping a concerted focus on those things and not getting sidetracked by other tempting fights, especially those on the cultural front, where they are currently at a clear disadvantage."
The data (rather than ad hoc anectdote) as very ablely shown by Shor is that Trump won essentially on the irritation factor of Inflation Denialism that working class saw from the Democrats (but Marco GDP is Great!) coupled secondarily with the working class irritation with Wokey Woke. Ditch wokey woke cultural - not just silence, ditch - and bang away on inflation, on disruptoin, on job losses.
Trump as Dime Store Maoism or Reality TV Peronism is not going to generate the benefits - and there is the angle, basic fundamental Bread & Butter
(couple that with some good Yglsias style Pro Growth rationalisation about gov policy, talk about intelligent Little Guy Friendly red-tape cutting combined with Level the Playing field and you have something that seems a very good hook against the Trupmist Oligarchic Reality TV Peronism)
Out of curiosity, what policies do the Democrats have to offer the voters as an alternative to Trump's? Saving the voters from reductions to government waste, fraud and inefficiency? Letting everyone's taxes snap back to pre-2016 levels in the belief that middle-income voters are eager to pay more if it means sticking it to the rich? Preserving trade imbalances that favor other nations? Social justice policies that prove the Democrats are better, more enlightened people than the retrograde troglodytes that comprise the rest of the electorate?
It's kind of hard to fight if you are only fighting against your misconceptions about the other side and don't have a set of consistent principles your side can agree on.
Start by forcing the toxic Congressional Progressive Caucus to either align with the party or fuck off to the Green Party. Every election these idiots spout kook bullshit they picked up from the academic far-left and Free Palestine cult, and its elections poison every time. Everyone associated with the “uncommitted” movement needs to be tossed out of the party permanently. Everyone shilling for Hamas should fuck off to a more fitting party for them. The violent transqueer activists need to go, now. The DEI promoters need to either STFU for good about that racist, anti American stupidity, or leave the party.
Fight the progressives first because they twice helped Trump get elected, then fight Trump, where it makes sense.
Personally, I think the GOP should counter threats of non-cloture by reinstating the filibuster - the REAL filibuster, requiring Senators to present their objections in floor speeches without yielding. It would make the legislative process more dramatic and interesting to voters, and it would require Senators on both sides to put their mouths where their mouths are, so to speak. One of the Senate's big problems right now is that obstruction is too easy and cost-free with the agreement to "assume the filibuster."