I’ve wanted this for ages. And it’s represented so well in Republicans having only one platform: “Oppose Democrats. If it makes a Democrat angry, do it.”

Cleanse - and I mean CLEANSE - the opposition party. No one here can claim the Democrats never have good ideas. And yet, we can definitely do better than them. A better party means having better ideas - not just “Stop them libruls”. Bernie just toured the States with a message of exactly what that would look like.

“In power”? In a perfect world he’d never again be on this side of a prison cell!!

About ten Democrats participated in that. I have their names written down close to my workstation and do not plan to support them. But that’s still a minority of the party, as I expressed in my post.

It’s also very possible some of those senators had less concern for the financial sector or market crash, and more concern for the possibility of shutting down the courts amid so many illegal executive orders. It’s not a great excuse, but it’s also not a self serving one.

As for millionaires: Due to inflation, the metric has shifted a bit. Some people that I directly know, that are smart and empathetic people that do what they can to help the community, are millionaires in terms of net worth. Simply owning a home in my state often puts someone in that scope. Cory Booker is est. worth $15M.

Call it a cop-out but that’s why the targeting is now on billionaires. Many millionaires know that they have more money than their basic needs, and want to make that path to success possible for others. The same likely cannot be said for very many billionaires.

As incredibly frustrated as I am by ICE, when they’re operating with the efficiency and speed of burglars, even politicians can’t stop them. Judges have slowed them down - preventing deportation to outside prisons and requiring lawyer visitation.

I do believe that raising voices about the abductions, and making sure as many people as possible see the fear in the video from Rumeysa as she’s taken, makes a difference in broad opinion and that’s critical.

I have no forgiveness for the votes to censure Greene. For what it matters, it didn’t do much to him. On the CR; I can formulate a very long argument why allowing it through was a reasonable decision made in a no-win situation, not a capitulation. To be fair, I could MAKE the argument - not agree with it. That comment about judges and courts was a huge part of it.

I’d have more respect for your argument if you had something constructive to suggest, rather than simply asserting what you stand against. Destroying is much easier than building.

Every single one of us fantasizes about stepping in front of a gun to save an innocent person. I even wanted to do that when I heard about an illegal ICE deportation less than 30 miles from me.

But fascist actors like DOGE sweep in like burglars, and run before you know they’re there. They remove livelihoods by E-mail. There’s nothing to stand in front of.

The mechanisms that politicians have available to them are to use their voice to convince Republicans, to filibuster, to file lawsuits, and to gather votes for midterms. They’re doing all of that.

Any other kinds of actions require a massive majority of everyday Americans, not just a slim 51%; and certainly nothing a Senator or rep could magically do.

It only takes a few corrupt Democrats to turn a plain majority into a stalemate.

I’ve noticed the financially conservative bias of a certain minority of the Democrats, which I think you could term “corruption”. I’d say even a lot of them would prefer Americans at least be able to get by on a living wage; hence why blue states have a higher minimum.

I could be missing information you’ve found past me, but what statistics have helped you conclude a “large portion” of them are rich / serving corporations?

The condemnations are lukewarm because at best they wouldn’t accomplish much. For all the effort voting out Chuck and finding a replacement, Republicans would have full focus on special elections.

We all know for all intents AOC and JCrockett are the leaders of the Democratic Party currently. A title would not change that to a significant degree. Neither of them has encouraged focus on Schumer, and I imagine there’s good reason for that.

I’m all for finding inspiring new candidates - but we don’t actually gain all that much by dragging down the pretty bad ones - and I fully agree they’re bad, especially when their seats are not up for election. The house has a lot of seats to claim.

I once had a bad sandwich at a shitty sandwich shop. I said it was bad. I just don’t devote time and energy to warning everyone away from the shop. I’m finding better sandwiches. This is the challenge of building yourself off what inspires you rather than what you hate.

Something I want to highlight, because I know it’ll come up (even if just in people’s minds) is democratic betrayals and silence, eg on the budget CR.

Chuck Schumer likely betrayed the Dems either for financial institutions and “stability”, or for state safety and cowardice. The former is scummy, and pretty much grants him all the hate he deserves. The latter is also plausible, and perhaps more excusable (still betraying our wishes) in that millions of people who hadn’t been following politics would hear smear tactics against Democrats. Plus, it would shut down the courts which is the one area of frequent victory.

I’m not making that case because I agree with it, especially now that courts are faltering, just that someone good but scared could believe it. And even if you assume the worst of Chuck, think about the motivations that put most Democrats in place across the country. A good number of them aren’t going to capitulate to the silence/financial appeasement.

If you want a better solution: Research democratic candidates before you vote for them. I’ve been phone banking for Susan Crawford, and while everything I see about her is good, I do get worried by the voter response of “Oh, I always vote Democrat!” Someday, for some people, that will not be a good idea. For some 80% of them, it is. And if the House is ever 80% democrat, it won’t matter that 20% of them are spineless.

No. Republicans filibustered overnight on medical care as well.

…Oh, wait, that was Ted Cruz speaking against the ACA.

It’s 80% of the mantras of villains in fictional media. “Sometimes babies must be killed etc etc”.

I have begun entirely rejecting bullshit mantras that begin with “Sometimes”.

“Sometimes” is dismissive self-justifying word salad. Give a confident, circumstances-based ideology, or shut the fuck up.

Out of concern for how much the “Bible Belt” throws in with Israel’s Zionist bullshit, I did some basic searches on the topic, and the discussion was a bit different than I thought it’d be.

People need a place to belong. For many, they have communities in cities that fit. For rural areas, it’s one thing to say “Stop listening to that televangelist ordering you to deposit your savings”, but you’d need something else to take that place - something to believe in.

That’s where more progressive preachers, people similar to the current pope, are shaming themselves for not stepping up enough, recognizing people’s needs and being genuine voices of compassion; not trying to be the economic “immigrants pay taxes” or scientific “colleges fuel cure research” voice, but the “Be good to your neighbor” voice.

So even though I’m not a believer, I’m at least seeing the way churches can bring communities together rather than leave all one’s connections to Facebook. The important thing is what sort of voice is unifying them - because by god, there’s a million ways to pervert the message of any major religion into one of hate.

People using homes as an asset (the same way they buy stocks/etc) would panic realizing that their golden goose is suddenly draining their bank account. They’d either offer rental prices dirt cheap, or give up and sell the property at whatever price people can afford (eg, 10% of what they currently charge).

There are currently MANY empty properties so this could have a larger effect than we often realize. Currently some cities try this the inverse way by giving tax credit to residents.

The horrific absurdity is that even Trump was beginning sentences with “Somebody should …” AFTER he became president.

They are too used to the conspiracy-theorist, “humble-truth-finder” mindset EVEN when they are at the top.

One place that there’s still a lot of defiance is from lawyers and judges. There’s still scary stories there about attorney intimidation and even surrender, but courts are often winning against him. Brian Cohen recently interviewed Marc Elias who resolved not to cater to threats, and even Chief Justice Roberts gave a warning to Trump over his attempts to use bullying instead of normal appellate process.

Aha! Just like my local food bank didn’t lose funding - it just didn’t receive its next funding installment! Good job on the useless pedantry, Batman!

Remember, upvoting this meme back on Reddit might earn you a ban now!

Wait till you hear what rich folks say about that plan!

https://patrioticmillionaires.org/

(Spoiler: A lot of them agree)