I never thought that I would find myself abandoning my party but here I am again. But there really is nothing there to hold onto anymore. No foothold, no anchor. No point of entry. I feel special despair for those in my party like AOC and Jamie Raskin and Jasmine Crockett who are holding down the fort. On one hand I can never see myself abandoning them, but on the other hand I would hope that they would extricate themselves from the current Democratic Party and form Something that I can wrap my head around. I genuinely hope that they decide to define themselves as separate from this failed Democratic Party, because I really think that they are a force that could act as an a tractor. Even now they don't feel polluted and corrupted like the rest of theDemocratic Party. They feel separate from it. And I would hope that they would take that separation seriously and create something different than you.
Goddammit.... I'm so sick of my inner Pollyanna popping her curly little blonde fucking white girl head out of her despair hole to insist that not all is lost. But here she/he/is again. He being me. America unlike Germany of the 1930s and 40s is already a multicultural stronghold. It is nowhere near as homogenous as Germany was during the Weimar years leading up to the Nazi years. The cat is out of the bag. The horse is out of the barn. We are here, queer and not going away. There are far too many of us non whites to put back in the goddamn box. The biggest obstacle that I see to defeating this Nazi insurgency is American exceptionalism itself. And how the myriad peoples of different faiths and creeds and colors who come to this country IMMEDIATELY become enamored to this American exceptionalist ethos. The people who come here for a better life, leaning into the exploitative nature of our capitalist system. Everybody's slumming for the American dollar. I certainly don't begrudge them taking advantage of these opportunities, but the fact that so many of them are becoming complicit to the American problem is really troubling. The reward system is polluting their influence. And I have totally undermined my original point. I was being a Pollyanna about something. But I can't remember what it was. Sigh
If someone turned to me now and actually said, "Presidents come and go," I'd have to stop myself from smacking them in the mouth. What a "thoughts-and-prayers-after-school-shootings"-level pathetic thing to say. How hard is it to just stand up for the country? Literally, that's all you have to do with this goon in the Oval Office.
“Democrats seem so desperate to preserve their own pleasing lie — that America is still a normal functioning democracy — that they willingly collaborate with Trump.”
Exactly. Liberals have been playing by a mythical definition of “american democracy” while the oligarchs have been playing by their own rules the entire time. It's been pathetically obvious since Reagan, and yet the Dems seems to think we live in a West Wing episode. Ideally.
What's worse is that most of the Dems are themselves oligarchs or are beholden to oligarchs and have no interest or political will to threaten the status quo. We have no Left in the USA, so there is no concerted counter efforts or plans.
"and yet the Dems seems to think we live in a West Wing episode. Ideally."
That's it in a nutshell. And you are right in that Democrats are viewing this in the same way as Republicans do. It's the entertainment problem. Politics has literally become "that thing that you see on TV" and little else. The downstream effect of policy versus results is so extended into fiction that it has extricated itself from reality. The idea that how you feel about something isn't going to resolve in something because of a simple act of voting.
"We need to seek new leaders who won’t accept Trump’s America as irresistible reality, and if we can’t find them, we might have to look within ourselves."
We're on our own - the national democratic party is a shamble of cowards, lickspittles and self-interested grifters (with a few notable exceptions I'll warrant). In this sense, it is little different than the GOP.
The real problem is American elites are corrupt, top to bottom, left to right and all over the goddamn place. When a nation's elites go corrupt, the nation follows.
True, a lot of liberals HAVE been tuning out of the news—at least the mainstream outlets—because it's so damn infuriating to see NONE of them standing up to the Orange Fecal Stain or calling him out on his bullshit. They're still sanewashing everything he says and does and it's often too much for us mere mortals to healthily bear. However, we're not the ones in government—we're not the ones elected to represent the people who put us into office to fight a fascist administration at every turn. (The Republicans, unfortunately, know how to throw major monkey wrenches into Democrat administrations and HAVE been doing it for a long, long time.) Yes, everyone SHOULD keep up with what's going on (I think a lot of us use The Guardian and independent journalists such as yourself, SER, to stay in the loop) but we can't vote against trump's picks or go on the Sunday shows to really hammer it home that what he's doing is wrong and un-American. That's what those elected Dems should be there for right now.
As for despair, I get it. I alternate between depression and anger and wanting to bash someone’s head in a wall (Trump and his asshole brigade ). I feel like I’m being bullied daily.
I gave money to AOC and Maxwell Frost. Warren is still fighting, as she has been. I’d rather she was minority leader. The men have failed us
Notice how photos of Democrats who are actually doing something feature AOC, Tammy Duckworth, Jasmine Crockett, and Elizabeth Warren. I see social media comments like “The women will save us!” Really? So that’s our responsibility, too? Well ok then, get the f*ck out of the way and let us get on with it. To these men I’ll quote Veruca Salt, impatiently grabbing the signing pen from her feckless father’s hand: “You’re always making things difficult.”
I once heard that depression is rage turned inwards. I'm trying to point mine in the appropriate directions. I'm an aging punk who spent quite a few happy years hitting Nazis with a field hockey stick and I'm trying to get my inner child back in the mix instead of succumbing, but it's a process when it's just so damned big.
Then I look at pics of my friends' kids who are trans, nonbinary, gay, or queer and whom I've loved for eons and it gets a little easier. Or read science denialism. As someone who went through grad school thanks to the NIH, DoEd, NSF, and NIST, and check in on colleagues who are still in academia or research, it's just infuriating.
I was inspired to vote too but my fellow Americans kicked me in the face. All of this is happening because of deliberate choices of Americans to make this happen. So like the long period post-Taney Court 1.0 we have to wait for the American electorate to upgrade.
Perhaps Senate Dems have not learned to go viral like AOC but hey let's see what happens when the full force of the rightwing media human centipede is turned upon her. I am all for AOC running for President in 2028. She has my primary vote sewn up at this point. We can all see what happens to her after someone popular is slimed up with fanciful lies. And just like the Democratic rank-and-file demand she and a ragtag group of allies will have to do it all on their own.
Speaking of fanciful lies she better do something about the Green New Deal or else it will be her millstone. Fanfiction about that nonexistent legislation (e.g. “She's gonna ban meat!”) is certainly part of the fanfiction that killed us.
Well put. This is not an opposition party that can regain power, and hoping the voters will be so pissed with the GOP by 2026 that they’ll take over by default is a foolish bet.
Democrats need their own Tea Party—a movement to put fire in their belly, reconnect them with their people and establish a new way to communicate with voters. And more “safe” Dems need to live in fear of primary challenges.
Sadly, I have to agree with you on all points. Dem "leaders" are letting us down. Maybe AOC and a few others, who aren't in leadership positions will be the ones to step up and fight the fascists running the nation into the ground right now.
‘Senate Democrats are reportedly trying to figure out how to go viral in their communications when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is just down the hall.’
^This. Amended to include Congressional Democrats as well. The establishment refuses to acknowledge that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the future of the party.
As far as I'm concerned, Jasmine Crockett is right up there, too. It's too bad that, apparently, a lot of so-called Democrats can't see past skin color or gender, as evidenced by the no-shows in November.
I never thought that I would find myself abandoning my party but here I am again. But there really is nothing there to hold onto anymore. No foothold, no anchor. No point of entry. I feel special despair for those in my party like AOC and Jamie Raskin and Jasmine Crockett who are holding down the fort. On one hand I can never see myself abandoning them, but on the other hand I would hope that they would extricate themselves from the current Democratic Party and form Something that I can wrap my head around. I genuinely hope that they decide to define themselves as separate from this failed Democratic Party, because I really think that they are a force that could act as an a tractor. Even now they don't feel polluted and corrupted like the rest of theDemocratic Party. They feel separate from it. And I would hope that they would take that separation seriously and create something different than you.
Goddammit.... I'm so sick of my inner Pollyanna popping her curly little blonde fucking white girl head out of her despair hole to insist that not all is lost. But here she/he/is again. He being me. America unlike Germany of the 1930s and 40s is already a multicultural stronghold. It is nowhere near as homogenous as Germany was during the Weimar years leading up to the Nazi years. The cat is out of the bag. The horse is out of the barn. We are here, queer and not going away. There are far too many of us non whites to put back in the goddamn box. The biggest obstacle that I see to defeating this Nazi insurgency is American exceptionalism itself. And how the myriad peoples of different faiths and creeds and colors who come to this country IMMEDIATELY become enamored to this American exceptionalist ethos. The people who come here for a better life, leaning into the exploitative nature of our capitalist system. Everybody's slumming for the American dollar. I certainly don't begrudge them taking advantage of these opportunities, but the fact that so many of them are becoming complicit to the American problem is really troubling. The reward system is polluting their influence. And I have totally undermined my original point. I was being a Pollyanna about something. But I can't remember what it was. Sigh
If someone turned to me now and actually said, "Presidents come and go," I'd have to stop myself from smacking them in the mouth. What a "thoughts-and-prayers-after-school-shootings"-level pathetic thing to say. How hard is it to just stand up for the country? Literally, that's all you have to do with this goon in the Oval Office.
Fromtheyardtothearthouse.substack.com
Perfectly said
“Democrats seem so desperate to preserve their own pleasing lie — that America is still a normal functioning democracy — that they willingly collaborate with Trump.”
Exactly. Liberals have been playing by a mythical definition of “american democracy” while the oligarchs have been playing by their own rules the entire time. It's been pathetically obvious since Reagan, and yet the Dems seems to think we live in a West Wing episode. Ideally.
What's worse is that most of the Dems are themselves oligarchs or are beholden to oligarchs and have no interest or political will to threaten the status quo. We have no Left in the USA, so there is no concerted counter efforts or plans.
"and yet the Dems seems to think we live in a West Wing episode. Ideally."
That's it in a nutshell. And you are right in that Democrats are viewing this in the same way as Republicans do. It's the entertainment problem. Politics has literally become "that thing that you see on TV" and little else. The downstream effect of policy versus results is so extended into fiction that it has extricated itself from reality. The idea that how you feel about something isn't going to resolve in something because of a simple act of voting.
"We need to seek new leaders who won’t accept Trump’s America as irresistible reality, and if we can’t find them, we might have to look within ourselves."
We're on our own - the national democratic party is a shamble of cowards, lickspittles and self-interested grifters (with a few notable exceptions I'll warrant). In this sense, it is little different than the GOP.
The real problem is American elites are corrupt, top to bottom, left to right and all over the goddamn place. When a nation's elites go corrupt, the nation follows.
True, a lot of liberals HAVE been tuning out of the news—at least the mainstream outlets—because it's so damn infuriating to see NONE of them standing up to the Orange Fecal Stain or calling him out on his bullshit. They're still sanewashing everything he says and does and it's often too much for us mere mortals to healthily bear. However, we're not the ones in government—we're not the ones elected to represent the people who put us into office to fight a fascist administration at every turn. (The Republicans, unfortunately, know how to throw major monkey wrenches into Democrat administrations and HAVE been doing it for a long, long time.) Yes, everyone SHOULD keep up with what's going on (I think a lot of us use The Guardian and independent journalists such as yourself, SER, to stay in the loop) but we can't vote against trump's picks or go on the Sunday shows to really hammer it home that what he's doing is wrong and un-American. That's what those elected Dems should be there for right now.
As they always said on Television Without Pity: God is in the tub. Apathy is the enemy of justice.
I loved that site!
As for despair, I get it. I alternate between depression and anger and wanting to bash someone’s head in a wall (Trump and his asshole brigade ). I feel like I’m being bullied daily.
I gave money to AOC and Maxwell Frost. Warren is still fighting, as she has been. I’d rather she was minority leader. The men have failed us
Notice how photos of Democrats who are actually doing something feature AOC, Tammy Duckworth, Jasmine Crockett, and Elizabeth Warren. I see social media comments like “The women will save us!” Really? So that’s our responsibility, too? Well ok then, get the f*ck out of the way and let us get on with it. To these men I’ll quote Veruca Salt, impatiently grabbing the signing pen from her feckless father’s hand: “You’re always making things difficult.”
I once heard that depression is rage turned inwards. I'm trying to point mine in the appropriate directions. I'm an aging punk who spent quite a few happy years hitting Nazis with a field hockey stick and I'm trying to get my inner child back in the mix instead of succumbing, but it's a process when it's just so damned big.
Then I look at pics of my friends' kids who are trans, nonbinary, gay, or queer and whom I've loved for eons and it gets a little easier. Or read science denialism. As someone who went through grad school thanks to the NIH, DoEd, NSF, and NIST, and check in on colleagues who are still in academia or research, it's just infuriating.
I was inspired to vote too but my fellow Americans kicked me in the face. All of this is happening because of deliberate choices of Americans to make this happen. So like the long period post-Taney Court 1.0 we have to wait for the American electorate to upgrade.
Perhaps Senate Dems have not learned to go viral like AOC but hey let's see what happens when the full force of the rightwing media human centipede is turned upon her. I am all for AOC running for President in 2028. She has my primary vote sewn up at this point. We can all see what happens to her after someone popular is slimed up with fanciful lies. And just like the Democratic rank-and-file demand she and a ragtag group of allies will have to do it all on their own.
Speaking of fanciful lies she better do something about the Green New Deal or else it will be her millstone. Fanfiction about that nonexistent legislation (e.g. “She's gonna ban meat!”) is certainly part of the fanfiction that killed us.
Well put. This is not an opposition party that can regain power, and hoping the voters will be so pissed with the GOP by 2026 that they’ll take over by default is a foolish bet.
Democrats need their own Tea Party—a movement to put fire in their belly, reconnect them with their people and establish a new way to communicate with voters. And more “safe” Dems need to live in fear of primary challenges.
“It was a giant flag of surrender constructed from urine-soaked tighty-whiteys.”
“Here’s a more relevant Bible verse for Jeffries: ‘Faith without works is dead.’”
Boy howdy, Stephen, you have nailed it. Every single word you said, and I’m glad to see someone writing it all out loud. Thank you, SER.
Sadly, I have to agree with you on all points. Dem "leaders" are letting us down. Maybe AOC and a few others, who aren't in leadership positions will be the ones to step up and fight the fascists running the nation into the ground right now.
‘Senate Democrats are reportedly trying to figure out how to go viral in their communications when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is just down the hall.’
^This. Amended to include Congressional Democrats as well. The establishment refuses to acknowledge that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the future of the party.
As far as I'm concerned, Jasmine Crockett is right up there, too. It's too bad that, apparently, a lot of so-called Democrats can't see past skin color or gender, as evidenced by the no-shows in November.
Thank you! (I’m sometimes oblivious as well.)
You mean, racism and sexism also occur on the Democrats’ side of the aisle? Say it ain’t so and fetch me my smelling salts.