It's extremely distressing to me that schmucks like us down here in the engine room are 10 times more politically savvy than the people who are right there in the middle of the action. Seriously. This is like having to remind your doctor where the appendix is before he operates on you. It's their fucking job to know the subtle ins and outs of this bizarre current moment. I mean, I see commenters on liberal progressive sites just running rings around these motherfuckers day in and day out on every single fucking issue. It's like that scene in rear window where Jimmy Stewart is watching helplessly across the quad as Raymond Burr is about to discover Grace Kelly in his apartment. Fucking listen to us for fucks sake. Read the fucking room. Go to some progressive websites and read the comments sections. Collectively, They have been remarkably accurate and astute in their observations. This isn't fucking rocket science. If you can't figure out how to do your fucking jobs, just ask us. You'd be surprised how right we've been on almost all of this shit and how willing we would be to share that knowledge and insight with you. I really don't want to be a better diagnostician than my fucking doctor. It's creepy
>> “I think a lot of us thought Marco Rubio was going to stand up to Donald Trump on an issue like this.” Oh, I see the problem. Apparently Senate Democrats are all idiots. <<
I think you nailed it for sure, Stephen. I’m seeing posts from some Dems who had voted for him and are now deeply concerned and disappointed, because they thought Rubio would somehow provide “guard rails” on this runaway train wreck of an administration. Where they got that notion must have come from their trust in, as you point out, his past personal actions and statements. What a monumental failure of imagination on their part. I hope they’ve learned their lesson.
Also, “[Rubio’s] body language looks like an impressionist painting of a human soul putrefying” is the best description I’ve read yet of his attempted disappearing-into-the-sofa act. (No no you guys, you’re thinking of JDVance 🤨)
Rubio would have crawled inside the sofa if he could have. Trump makes Rubio's skin crawl. But either the quest to hold power, or, behind the scenes, veiled threats to Rubio and his family, or a combination, is what fuels him. As for the Democrats, the less I say the better. If they ran on a democracy platform and are doing nothing - at least Murphy opens his mouth - it's all BS.
I don’t buy that Democrats thought Rubio would stand up to Trump. They were playing a political game - maybe trying to convince their GOP colleagues to vote against worst nominees, maybe trying to sell a story to voters that they made a good faith effort to work with Trump until he made it impossible. And that’s the kind of thing that makes Democrats look inauthentic and makes people hate the political system.
"maybe trying to sell a story to voters that they made a good faith effort to work with Trump"
If that's their read on what democratic voters want, they need to get out more. Or just ask AOC, Jasmine Crockett, or Jamie Raskin. They're literally just across the hall.
I agree with you entirely. But I think what they are looking at is “Trump won the popular vote, ergo the majority of voters (and/or swing voters) want us to make a good faith effort to work with them.” And that’s the problem, right? It shows a lack of conviction in their own stated beliefs. These are people who were telling voters (correctly, imo) that Trump is a fascist and a threat to democracy a few months ago.
That most DEFINITELY was their reasoning and calculus. Without a doubt...Lets just say that they're not very good at calculus...LOL
If they think THAT is what democratic voters WANTED from them, then they really don't know or understand their base...They're STILL trying to appeal to the unicorn of the reformed reasonable republican...sure they exist, but not in the numbers needed to sway elections...FIRST order of business...Don't sacrifice the loyal (but losing patience) voters you already HAVE for people that, lets be honest, we really don't WANT determining the future of democratic policy...
The optics of voting 'no' to ALL of the appointments (that were going to be approved in any case) was SOOOOO much more important than playing arcane political-nerd 4-D chess that only a TINY percent of the American population gives a damn about...NOTHING was going to be different with or without their vote...This was a MASSIVE PR fail, and 100% free and doable...
it's incomprehensible to me that even a senator like Murphy, at the moment the loudest and clearest of those sounding proper alarms over the the president, DOGE, et al, fell in with the (also incomprehensible) vote for Rubio. why are the Democratic senators blind to what we on the outside, just from what we see in public reporting, see as blindingly obvious?
Are congressional Democrats ever going to get the message that you can't negotiate with terrorists? Every time they act as if their attempts at moderation will get them some reward from the GOP, the poo gets flung directly in their faces, and yet they never seem to learn. The old GOP is gone. Senate comity is gone. All that remains is power and the use of it.
It’s a mistake I could forgive in 2017 when the idea of “adults in the room” was plausible. But since then we’ve seen the same pattern of Trump either forcing the adults to confirm to his raging worldview or bypassed and thrown out. If this was obvious to an outsider like myself then there’s no excuse for senators who do politics for a living to be so naive.
Plus, what’s even the upside here? That some mythical swing voter will lean towards Democrats because Democrats were so nice and norm-respectful to Republicans? That’s not what a swing voter really is, and if Democrats don’t get that we’re in worse trouble than I thought.
Clean them all out—form Democratic Tea Parties and primary the bunch of them. We cannot win a war with soldiers like this.
"If this was obvious to an outsider like myself then there’s no excuse for senators who do politics for a living to be so naive."
This can't be reiterated enough.
Even though Raw Story is kind of a garbage aggregate site, the comments section, like here, is collectively stellar at reading the situation. Any Democratic Congress person could go back and read 10 years worth of comments to see what excellent prognosticators we are. Collectively of course. They could learn so much about how politics actually works, and what it is the people who vote for them actually want.
[We can only hope that Democrats at least learned an important lesson from all this.]
Ah... this is why I keep following you. You have such a great sense of humor!
They’re like the premise of Seinfeld—no learning. It blows my mind
It's extremely distressing to me that schmucks like us down here in the engine room are 10 times more politically savvy than the people who are right there in the middle of the action. Seriously. This is like having to remind your doctor where the appendix is before he operates on you. It's their fucking job to know the subtle ins and outs of this bizarre current moment. I mean, I see commenters on liberal progressive sites just running rings around these motherfuckers day in and day out on every single fucking issue. It's like that scene in rear window where Jimmy Stewart is watching helplessly across the quad as Raymond Burr is about to discover Grace Kelly in his apartment. Fucking listen to us for fucks sake. Read the fucking room. Go to some progressive websites and read the comments sections. Collectively, They have been remarkably accurate and astute in their observations. This isn't fucking rocket science. If you can't figure out how to do your fucking jobs, just ask us. You'd be surprised how right we've been on almost all of this shit and how willing we would be to share that knowledge and insight with you. I really don't want to be a better diagnostician than my fucking doctor. It's creepy
>> “I think a lot of us thought Marco Rubio was going to stand up to Donald Trump on an issue like this.” Oh, I see the problem. Apparently Senate Democrats are all idiots. <<
I think you nailed it for sure, Stephen. I’m seeing posts from some Dems who had voted for him and are now deeply concerned and disappointed, because they thought Rubio would somehow provide “guard rails” on this runaway train wreck of an administration. Where they got that notion must have come from their trust in, as you point out, his past personal actions and statements. What a monumental failure of imagination on their part. I hope they’ve learned their lesson.
Also, “[Rubio’s] body language looks like an impressionist painting of a human soul putrefying” is the best description I’ve read yet of his attempted disappearing-into-the-sofa act. (No no you guys, you’re thinking of JDVance 🤨)
Rubio would have crawled inside the sofa if he could have. Trump makes Rubio's skin crawl. But either the quest to hold power, or, behind the scenes, veiled threats to Rubio and his family, or a combination, is what fuels him. As for the Democrats, the less I say the better. If they ran on a democracy platform and are doing nothing - at least Murphy opens his mouth - it's all BS.
Rubio, like many republican cowards, conflates holding power with wielding power
I don’t buy that Democrats thought Rubio would stand up to Trump. They were playing a political game - maybe trying to convince their GOP colleagues to vote against worst nominees, maybe trying to sell a story to voters that they made a good faith effort to work with Trump until he made it impossible. And that’s the kind of thing that makes Democrats look inauthentic and makes people hate the political system.
"maybe trying to sell a story to voters that they made a good faith effort to work with Trump"
If that's their read on what democratic voters want, they need to get out more. Or just ask AOC, Jasmine Crockett, or Jamie Raskin. They're literally just across the hall.
I agree with you entirely. But I think what they are looking at is “Trump won the popular vote, ergo the majority of voters (and/or swing voters) want us to make a good faith effort to work with them.” And that’s the problem, right? It shows a lack of conviction in their own stated beliefs. These are people who were telling voters (correctly, imo) that Trump is a fascist and a threat to democracy a few months ago.
That most DEFINITELY was their reasoning and calculus. Without a doubt...Lets just say that they're not very good at calculus...LOL
If they think THAT is what democratic voters WANTED from them, then they really don't know or understand their base...They're STILL trying to appeal to the unicorn of the reformed reasonable republican...sure they exist, but not in the numbers needed to sway elections...FIRST order of business...Don't sacrifice the loyal (but losing patience) voters you already HAVE for people that, lets be honest, we really don't WANT determining the future of democratic policy...
The optics of voting 'no' to ALL of the appointments (that were going to be approved in any case) was SOOOOO much more important than playing arcane political-nerd 4-D chess that only a TINY percent of the American population gives a damn about...NOTHING was going to be different with or without their vote...This was a MASSIVE PR fail, and 100% free and doable...
it's incomprehensible to me that even a senator like Murphy, at the moment the loudest and clearest of those sounding proper alarms over the the president, DOGE, et al, fell in with the (also incomprehensible) vote for Rubio. why are the Democratic senators blind to what we on the outside, just from what we see in public reporting, see as blindingly obvious?
Exactly. When ordinary dem voters like you and me run circles around our elected dem leaders when it comes to political analysis...I mean WTF.
Are congressional Democrats ever going to get the message that you can't negotiate with terrorists? Every time they act as if their attempts at moderation will get them some reward from the GOP, the poo gets flung directly in their faces, and yet they never seem to learn. The old GOP is gone. Senate comity is gone. All that remains is power and the use of it.
Lucy keeps pulling away the football. Democrats are either incredibly naive, or part of the joke.
Lucy keeps pulling away the football. Democrats are either incredibly naive, or part of the joke.
It's a shit day for me personally. So I'm just going to thank Mr Robinson and figure out how handle today as best I can.
Y'all take care, find the cause you love locally and get involved.
You are all lovely.
It’s a mistake I could forgive in 2017 when the idea of “adults in the room” was plausible. But since then we’ve seen the same pattern of Trump either forcing the adults to confirm to his raging worldview or bypassed and thrown out. If this was obvious to an outsider like myself then there’s no excuse for senators who do politics for a living to be so naive.
Plus, what’s even the upside here? That some mythical swing voter will lean towards Democrats because Democrats were so nice and norm-respectful to Republicans? That’s not what a swing voter really is, and if Democrats don’t get that we’re in worse trouble than I thought.
Clean them all out—form Democratic Tea Parties and primary the bunch of them. We cannot win a war with soldiers like this.
"If this was obvious to an outsider like myself then there’s no excuse for senators who do politics for a living to be so naive."
This can't be reiterated enough.
Even though Raw Story is kind of a garbage aggregate site, the comments section, like here, is collectively stellar at reading the situation. Any Democratic Congress person could go back and read 10 years worth of comments to see what excellent prognosticators we are. Collectively of course. They could learn so much about how politics actually works, and what it is the people who vote for them actually want.
Where we will dump every Tesla we see into Boston Harbor...
Their owners will be given 20 seconds to exit their vehicles…
I mean I’ll give them a full minute, I’m a patiot not a boor