Democratic Party strategy has been objectively bad.
Trickle down economics doesn't work. And people, yes people, need to fix this, because politicians doing badly aren't going to fix themselves. There's no change without public pressure.
Democrats who think kind gestures and "being reasonable" to "help Republicans" is some kind of strategy need to just stop with that nonsense, and nobody needs to treat that strategy seriously. Democratic Party politician strategy has been bad, and that’s being generous. And I’m not going to shut up or “refrain from attacking Dem politicians” because it supposedly “helps the GOP” or MAGA. This is silliness that I would have that power or that constituent criticism would do that. You know what helps MAGA? Democratic politicians like John Fetterman voting to confirm Elise Stefanik, Pam Bondi,1 and Kristi Noem.2 He shouldn’t do that crap. You know what helps the Elon Musk Trump administration’s worst constitutional betrayals? Hakeem Jeffries sane-washing the sus deal between Democrat New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the extreme right-wing Trump admin weirdo Tom Homan.3 He shouldn’t treat Eric Adams like a normal politician. I didn’t like the guy before he was charged with some kind of criminal corruption, and now he did some kind of corrupt looking deal with the Trump administration. I’m not the one betraying the Democratic Party here.
At this point, I have to assume that some politicians are delusional, or I have to assume that it's possible some Democrats, who push this nonsense, are in fact controlled opposition working with Republicans to try to control and shut people up.
Many of the same Democrats also take the peculiar strategy to tell working class people to accept trickle down economics, and tell us to be grateful businesses are "creating jobs" which often turn out to be crappy,4 and then they do taxpayer money giveaways to businesses and even banks.5 Trickle down economics is a fiscally conservative Republican elite business class scam idea that is used to usurp our money and our labor upwards to the already wealthy business owners, moguls, and actual tycoons. Trickle down economics should not be the standard practice it is nor endorsed by Democrats, since it was thoroughly debunked as unserious, flawed, and unworkable by everyone way back in the 1990s. I remember this, and then somehow was asked to memory hole it. President George H. W. Bush used the pejorative and unseemly term “voodoo economics” to refer to the ridiculousness of supply-side ideology, and also President Bill Clinton said the implementation of trickle down economics based policies were to blame for the U.S. going “from first to twelfth in the world in wages” and for Americans working harder for less. So why are Democrats repeating “job creator” nonsense even more than Republicans in the 2020s?6
No, some "Democrats" are not always on the side of ordinary people, and also sometimes not even living in reality apparently. I think the Democratic Party voters need to look at what the hell the party stands for and not bolster politicians that treat voters in this egregiously abusive way, and instead support those who are not betraying our values. Why would legitimate Democrats who want to represent their constituents want these kinds of bad actors in the mix? The answer is that the legitimate voters and legitimate politicians don’t and wouldn’t. This isn’t about everyone “agreeing on every policy” or enforcement of performative gestures or any of that stuff people like to whine and worry about. This is just about a fundamental moral loyalty to working class people, and rejecting bullshit narratives some politicians lean on to falsely justify pleasing rich donors. And there are some representatives, and even more people who will happily step up into those positions as representatives, who will not do that shit. They need to be encouraged, and the people doing nonsense — Democrat or Republican — need to be birddogged and pressured all the damn time until they change, resign, or lose their elections because people see them for who they are.
Voting for grossly inappropriate Trump nominees that endanger us all is not loyalty to the Democratic Party. When they profess that they’re going to “find common ground”7 with Trump, Musk, or Republicans, what does that mean? Finding common ground with fascism, racism, sexism, xenophobia, and medical misinformation? Meeting unconstitutional in the middle halfway?
They try to spin "reaching across the aisle" as a good thing. But it’s become an openly known thing that they treat this like a workplace where they make deals in order to go home early or have a long weekend.8 They want to have lunch with their break buddies who happen to be politicians who want to make their voters suffer. To us, it’s life or death, to them it’s a workplace and they have a social life around it.
Explanations are floated that all this inexplicable self-defeating behaviour is actually part the Democratic party strategy. And I think calling these things strategies is incredibly silly. They say that the Democrats try to make goodwill with Republicans to get goodwill back and make deals, and Republicans will come to their senses or something.9 But obviously those deals just sell out the people all the damn time. It’s quite obvious this doesn’t work, and that politics doesn’t actually work like that. I’m not sure why anyone would think it could, since this is a struggle for power — a lot of power. Government has an impact on every part of human civilization, and there’s no way around that — given a vacuum, someone always inevitably steps in.
Another strategy I’ve heard mentioned several times is that Democrats should just stand back and wait for people to get tired of or fed up with Republicans and their failed policies and they will go running to Democrats.10 Things just don’t work like that either.
Frankly that makes me more suspicious about the controlled opposition theory because I don’t think people screw up that bad on purpose, lowball themselves out of the gate in a haggle, and they don’t tend to just think things work out without working for them. I would think people who’ve managed to get themselves elected would be so foolish. And of course sabotage works best when it looks like incompetence.11
But let’s take them at their word that this is really the Democratic Party politician political strategy mindsets…
THIS IS ACCELERATIONISM.
Accelerationism is mostly associated with some far left and especially far right extremist politics. So why are centrist political party people adhering to such a fringe political ideology? Pretty sus, right?
But it does seem that many people have some weird apocalyptic hopium associated with accelerationism. Since the election I've heard voters talking nonsense like this all over the place, left and right. I’ve heard actual Trump supporters saying that democrats, liberals, and people on the left who voted for Harris, are going to wake up and realize how great Trump is and get on board with it once they see him clean things up, deport the immigrants, and bring the windfalls. I've also heard leftists claim that the Trump win and the Trump presidency is going to drive liberals and centrists into the arms of the left, when they realize that they've been betrayed by Democratic Party.
Some have even suggested that people will stop that voting stuff and sign up for a revolution because of Trump. That doesn’t even make sense of course because a violent revolution is actually harder to do than birddogging, primary challenges, and demonstrations. Youtube lawyer Mark Romano pointed out that impeachment is easier than having a civil war.12 I’d argue it’s also less harmful. But scholars have noted it’s actually tends to be less effective than trying things the non-violent route.13 Trump’s re-election was planned for years, and the January 6th insurrection attempt was actually in the works for years. It involved well-funded legal scholars, right-wing cults (actual cults), and various militia that had been organizing for decades. They had tactical cognitive warfare experts, and “digital warrior” was not just a joke term.14
Of course when people talk about revolution, most people are not talking about doing anything themselves. These are hopium ideas expressed by people across the entire political spectrum out of a yearning for a saviour, and hoping someone will tell them that some grand plan to force the right change is happening somewhere behind the scenes — and unfortunately there are influencers and content creators willing to profiteer on that alluring and tantalizing narrative story.15 Despite the fact that the real stuff is often planned right out in the open.16 It’s just that normalcy bias and pluralistic ignorance prevents people from seeing things that are right in front of us.
We don’t need the apocalyptic hopium. But we do need a better story, a better strategy for sure.
There's no tipping point that can be reached. There's no guarantee of spontaneous self-correction with an invisible hand of the market that will make everything right and just.17 Even if there is some pendulum swing or some realization that comes — in the meantime if you give people in power enough time to hang themselves, the guy from Indivisible.org pointed out he’s worried they might hang a lot of other people in the process — (metaphorically, or maybe not).18 There’s no benefit in just waiting and watching the destruction. It doesn’t make sense.
"Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent."
— John Maynard Keynes
The idea that a portion of people across the political spectrum in the U.S. has bought into this weird libertarian tipping point awakening accelerationism apocalyptic hopium is quite frankly a little embarrassing and weird.
Do yourself a favour, don't buy that bullshit, and try to recognize it when it creeps in.
There are things to do, like pressuring the representatives, of whatever party, that currently hold office, to do the right things, because that’s what we have to work with right now. And going forward to support and vote for better ones getting in there, and that includes asking some hard questions when they’re campaigning.
We need to birddog the heck out of them all in order to overcome their elite panic. Elite panic is the tendency of elites to worry more about their position of power within whatever structure,19 — the iron law of institutions or whatnot20 — and maintaining the status quo and preventing the mythical “public panic”21 or avoiding pressure from the public and trying to control them — who they start seeing as much of a threat as threats from above.22 And this leads people in positions of power diverted from actually solving problems.23 And I think it explains a lot of our problems in society. Elites can’t be depended upon to do anything — they wind up abandoning science after joining power brokering political cults like brought down Mayan empire cities,24 or just preserving the status quo, like Roman elites who failed to actually develop the steam engine.25 This is a problem with precedents we should not ignore.
Bottom up by interested groups of people is how innovation and progress really happens.26 It starts with the rest of us.
References:
Union-Bulletin - Sen. John Fetterman, who has supported some Trump nominees, says he's a ‘no’ vote on RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard - Benjamin Kail Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (TNS) Feb 7, 2025 Fetterman, who last month denied rumors that he was considering switching parties, has supported some of Trump’s nominees, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Trump’s pick for United Nations Ambassador.
Ken Klippenstein @kenklippenstein.bsky.social February 18, 2025 at 6:12 PM Hakeem Jeffries refuses to call for Eric Adams' resignation, instead calling on Adams to show "that he has the capacity to continue to govern in the best interest of New Yorkers"
PA Democratic Party politicians celebrate corporate giveaway. Less than 10 days after having to deny being elitists who’ve abandoned the working class, to defend the party’s historic defeats they announce millions of taxpayer money being given to a literal bank. Chloe Humbert Nov 18, 2024 This is “trickle down economics” being pushed by Democrats.
Puck - Silence of the Dems Democrats have been rendered speechless not just by the sweep of Trump’s victory, but also by the realization that his popularity has never been higher. A new Puck/Echelon poll illuminates his weaknesses—and how the likes of Whitmer and Pritzker could take advantage. Peter Hamby January 27, 2005 Whitmer, an occasionally talented politician, responded with some pablum—the same stuff you’re hearing a lot from Democrats right now, in state capitals and the halls of Congress. A few examples: “I am not out looking for fights. I am always looking to collaborate.” “I am focused on moving forward and finding common ground where we can.” “I am not against tariffs, per se, but we have to be strategic.” The interview wasn’t bad or embarrassing. It was just rote, cautious, and forgettable—a manifestation of where Democrats are right now in the first week of Trump 2.0, which looks very different from his first tour in office. Back then, the American public was stunned, Trump was unprepared, and Democrats were in permanent attack mode.
The New Republic - Meredith Shiner / February 3, 2025 Cleaning House Primary Every Democrat It’s exhausting to watch poll-tested, donor-beholden congressional Democrats continue to be too old, too cloistered, and too bumbling to do anything as the government burns. Well, last Thursday, they made a time agreement to advance the nominations of several Trump employees, including Doug Collins—who attempted to overthrow the government in 2020 by voting to reject the results of a free and fair election—to head the Veterans Affairs Department. Why did they make such an agreement with Republicans? Because they did not want to work Friday, Saturday, or Sunday and preferred to vote on Monday instead. Three-day weekends are nice but so too is democracy, and it sure would be swell if Democrats showed they cared more about the latter than the former. It feels pathetic to even have to write this, but right now someone, somewhere needs to fight for something. To stand for something.
2.13.25 - What's the Plan - A Weekly Discussion with Leah and Ezra - Indivisible Feb 13, 2025 some of us were saying we should not approve any of this guy's cabinet nominees um he's a bad guy he's wants to be authoritarian he wants to be a dictator day one why would you give him any votes and there was a different strategic path which was well let's vote for some of them let's give Democratic votes for some of these and that will prove that we're reasonable and that means we can fight harder on the really bad ones and Republicans will see that we're reasonable and they'll come over that was the strategy that was taken and I think what we've learned is that didn't work that didn't work and uh you could say in response to that therefore get them all out of office we need new leadership we need we need different Democrats and office well that that's not where we are we should learn from trying to strategy having out worth and say hey when you try to demonstrate you're reasonable to Republicans they take it for every penny you're worth they'll take all the votes you're willing to give and they'll give you nothing in return if you want to win against the Maga Coalition you got to play hard ball like they listen to power they listen to you actually using your votes they don't listen to your kind gestures just doesn't work that way and I also think you know there was the voting for some nominees in order to concentrate fire on the worse but there was also I think the policy was called strategic silence I have to it back up again but the whole idea was if Democrats weren't very outspoken about any of the nominees throughout November and December then that would clear space for Republicans to really fight each other that did not happen and in general I think if someone says the best way politically for us to approach the situation is to just stay as far away from it as possible and hope that voters come to the right conclusions on their own it's that is not a strategy that has much of a track record of working we've got to recognize that most people most of the time are not paying attention and one way that they form their opinions about what's happening in the world is they look to uh elites in Congress or elites in media spaces or maybe folks in their community who are organizing and think oh what are they saying okay well maybe I'm somewhere around there if you have strategic silence you know who they're hearing from they're hearing from Robert Kennedy they're hearing from JD Vance they're hearing from Donald Trump they're hearing from Elon Musk and they're hearing from Republicans who are in favor so you know this is why we we are pushing as much as we can a a a clear say no to the worst parts of what's coming forward agenda clearly go out there and speak to your constituents and ultimately where we want to end up I want to be clear is not in one faction winning the debate I don't care about winning the debate where I want to get to is a unified Democratic opposition that is the end goal and I'm not looking to settle any scores I somebody mentioned an axio article that um was brought up that some uh Democratic members were complaining about indivisible or moveon don't feed axios driven drama that that's not where we need to be y'all we need to be uh holding our friends accountable and pushing them into strategic Unity but but we need to have our eyes on the prize here which is nobody's going to do any good if we're fighting amongst ourselves ultimately we got to get to unified opposition that's all I I hope we can get there and that's what we're working towards
Americans WILL TURN on CRACKPOT Trump (w/ Jim Acosta) | WTF 2 0 - The Bulwark - Feb 11, 2025 but I suspect there're going to be enough Americans between now and then who are going to say we we don't want this this is not what we signed up for who the hell signed up for invading Greenland and taking over the Panama Canal in Canada we didn't even have that conversation during the campaign so you know they they I saw this when I covered him the first time around when I was a White House correspondent he always bites off more than he can shoot he always falls flat on his face I was talking to James Carville yesterday about this he was saying just let Trump go and do that to some extent yes go ahead and let him do that but I think between now and then the there is a need for push back and people have to push back and there's just no other way around it
fight this POS!! The Romano Report Feb 21, 2025 "it's funny you know in response to my video about impeaching Trump and I know we can't impeach him right now but getting to a point where we can impeach him and remove him in response to that I get so many people saying that's not possible it'll never happen we have to look at our other alternatives and you're ridiculous if you're talking about impeachment we have to go to these other alternatives what alternatives are those civil war? violent insurrection? okay those those are possible things um but don't you think we should maybe start with a political solution if we can cuz here's the news flash for you it will be easier to impeach and remove him than it will to have a civil war"
The success of nonviolent civil resistance: Erica Chenoweth at TEDxBoulder TEDx Talks Nov 4, 2013 "Sometimes, crackdowns do happen, but even in those cases, the nonviolent campaigns were outperforming the violent ones by 2 to 1. It turns out that when security forces beat up, arrest, or even shoot unarmed activists, there is indeed safety in numbers. Large, well-coordinated campaigns can shift between tactics that are concentrated, like protests or demonstrations, to tactics of dispersion, where people stay away from places they were expected to go. They do strikes, they bang on pots and pans, they stay at home, they shut off their electricity at a coordinated time of day. These tactics are much less risky, they're very hard, or at least very costly to suppress, but the movement stays just as disruptive. What happens in these countries once the dust settles? It turns out that the way you resist matters in the long run too. Most strikingly, countries in which people wage nonviolent struggle were way more likely to emerge with democratic institutions than countries in which they wage violent struggle." – Erica Chenoweth
AnimeRightNews - Peter Thiel’s MAGA3X With Jeff Giesea And Mike Cernovich Revealed In Document Leak Outline to be implemented & reconstituted in future PAC. by Zanting June 24, 2017 Document: “Table of Contents MAGA3X General Strategy Foreword Leadership Intel Division Team Structure: Groups and mission statements: 1st Reddit/LinkedIn Squad 2nd Twitter Squad 3rd MSM Squad 4th Facebook Squad 5th Dissemination Squad 6th Media creation Squad Social Media Division Team Structure: Mission statements: Local Division Mission Statements: Reddit /r/the_donald submitters Plan of Action Major Objectives (Overall) Minor Objectives (Social Media) Minor Objectives (Regional)...”
PBS Hacking Your Mind Weapons of Influence Episode 102 Aired: 09/16/20 Thaler helped to create a new field, behavioral economics, for which he won the Nobel Prize. One of the field’s key insights is that gut feelings like loss aversion lead consumers to make predictable mistakes, and companies in a market economy make a lot of money by encouraging us to make those mistakes. Until then, the widely accepted view had been that markets actually protect consumers from their mistakes.Thaler: “And so I would often hear something like the following — “Yes, yes.I understand that the people in your experiments and some of the people I know do foolish things, but in markets, then — and then I claim…” They could never quite finish this sentence without literally waving their hands, and the argument is somehow if you choose the wrong career or fail to save for retirement, that the market will somehow push you back toward being rational. There’s a reason why no one can make this argument without waving their hands, and that’s because the argument is just silly. You know, if you don’t save enough for retirement, what happens to you? You’re poor when you’re old. The market doesn’t discipline you.
2.20.25 - What's the Plan - A Weekly Discussion with Leah and Ezra Indivisible Feb 20, 2025 Ezra Levin: "oh Kathy you said, 'some say that we just need to give them enough rope to hang themselves what say you?' and I think this does hit on, this hits on a key strategic assessment that I would say that we have – frankly I'm worried that we give them enough rope to hang themselves they're also going to hang us – which I mean metaphorically… and also possibly not. what we know is that most of the time most people in this country are not paying attention to politics. you all here I commend you, you are on the forefront, you are in the vanguard, you are concerned about what is happening in our democracy, and you're spending a Thursday afternoon talking to us about what you can do to fight back. For the vast majority of people they form their opinions about politics not because they're consuming the news 24-7 but they look for others to figure out, well how big of a deal is this? do I need to be really concerned or not? and I do think there is some advice out there that says look Trump is only mildly unpopular now he's not deeply unpopular eventually he's going to do things that are naturally going to make him unpopular among the public and as that happens and as he gets more unpopular that's when we pounce, but we should be quiet until then and there is an honest disagreement an honest strategic disagreement that we have with that point of view because I just don't believe that folks are naturally going to come to the opinion that Donald Trump and Elon Musk are waging a coup right now, that they are engaging the country in a constitutional crisis. the way people are going to come to that understanding is they're going to look around and they're going to ask well what is my elected official saying? what is my senator saying? are there protests in the street? are there people making this point to me? and if we want Donald Trump's approval rating to be 25% – we got to make Donald Trump's approval 25%. if we want to shame Republicans for enabling and empowering Elon Musk the richest man in the world to come after their Social Security check, we gotta make that point out there. I do not buy that public opinion is like the weather and it just moves it comes in it goes out naturally it is not immutable it can be shaped, but what that means is you need leadership you need to actually say okay we're at point A we want to get to point B we could wait until people are naturally at point B and then show up there for the party or we can bring people to point B. we are on the side of bringing people to point B. we want everybody to understand the crisis that we're in so that those that are prolonging the crisis are scared away from prolonging. that is our that is our point of view and I'll just be upfront not everybody agrees with it but that is Indivisible's point of view. Leah Greenberg: "I will just add I think there's a strategic argument here about how do you actually build majority public opinion? and then there's also just a very real moral and practical argument which is: they are doing an enormous amount of harm in this time right and pushing back on everything cannot stop everything but it does sometimes stop something and if you're simply as the opposition party deciding that you're going to be muted when stuff like the birthright citizenship order comes down you're both making it harder to win and to stop those things and you are failing to set yourself up to make the strongest possible argument. so it's moral and it's strategic that we got to fight back."
Bucks County Beacon - Elites Won’t Lead the Opposition to Trump - Now is the time to start showing up, making connections, and organizing in your community. by Melissa Ryan | February 17, 2025 If we have any chance of opposing MAGA and stopping Elon Musk’s crime spree, it’s on us to be out front and create a public groundswell and uprising. If we can manage that, many elites will likely follow our lead. Elites aren’t incentivized to oppose Trump right now, and some are making it clear they don’t appreciate being pressured. MAGA comes hard for its enemies, and members of Congress, in particular, dealt with that firsthand at the Capitol four years ago. The threats of violence and harassment are effective, especially once you’ve seen friends and colleagues go through it up close. Business leaders are looking for ways not to piss off the Trump Administration, and many are comfortable with paying the financial or social bribes necessary to keep greasing the wheels. I’m sure many have simply made the calculation that they can ride Trump’s reign of terror out, or have an escape plan ready for when things go south. To be clear, I’m not saying this to defend anyone.
The Original Intent of the Constitution | Myths of American History what you have here one needs to realize is an elite definition of liberty it is not democracy at all it is individual freedom from tyranny or from any form of external control or interference but by the political thought of the day such tyranny or control could come from above or from below from mob rule that broke the social contract john randolph of virginia i think summed this up best in his famous quote “i am an aristocrat i love liberty i hate equality” now while the revolution has fought successfully for liberty and against tyranny from above liberty to these men is now threatened by tyranny from below
Lost World of the Maya | National Geographic (youtube video) Auto Transcript: Bill Ringle: perhaps a better way to think about it is a political ideology and of course it had religious overtones - cult's perhaps the wrong word because it suggests something kind of small-scale and extra-governmental this was political ideology front and center George Bey: the maya knew about droughts they were probably a civilization designed to respond not only to managing rainwater but managing a lack of rainwater too it's not a surprise they left what becomes the question for us is why they don't come back Narrator: so why didn't stairway's residents and the king of Kiuic survive these droughts as they clearly had in the past the extreme intensity of these droughts was disastrous making a carefully managed response their only hope but bey and ringle speculate the north's political establishment was falling into disarray distracted by the cult of the feathered serpent Bill Ringle: the collapse in the northern mile apparently began during the 9th century and that's also the time period during which this feathered serpent ideology was introduced and this undoubtedly led to rivalries with respect to power brokering Narrator: Ringle thinks the political situation may have become so extreme that there was no longer any governmental system capable of organizing their return. with a stable government the northern maya might have survived but it wasn't to be and within a century the major cities and towns of the north just like the south were left in ruins today the empty jungles of the yucatan serve as a reminder that even great civilizations can fail
John Michael Godier’s Event Horizon: Hidden History of the Ancient World with Dr. Garrett Ryan (youtube video / audio podcast) Auto-Transcript: Garrett Ryan: in the Roman World there is no industry catalyzing this development you know there are innovators like Heron of Alexandria who have obviously the skills to make machines you know the aeolipile heron steam engine is not very efficient in itself but it's the principles are all there um for a practical steam engine he could have done it if he wanted to but he didn't want to because there was no need for it there was no demand for it you know there are applications certainly um for things like it you know the the English famously the first steam engines are pumping out mines you know in places like the Midlands and Wales um and the Romans had their own deep mines in Spain they could have pumped out with steam engines um but they never made that particular leap because there wasn't this culture of innovation there wasn't this uh drive to incentivize um anything like it and so I think it was never likely that the Romans were going to make the leap to a Industrial Revolution just because um the people running Society the whole bent of the culture was towards stasis basically towards keeping things in the status quo keeping things stable and not in funding these madcap ventures and when there was no obvious goal for those Ventures John Michael Godier: that's interesting because we might actually have an example that backs that up if you look at the fall the end or the actually the dissipation of the Western Roman Empire it continues on in some form in that you've got these these Visigoths and these all these groups still putting a picture of an emperor on their coinage for at least 100 years into the Dark Ages and then lo and behold you know Charlemagne comes along and you which was 800 A.D and he looks like a Roman Empire Emperor on his coins so you it seems like there's this yearning to get back to that status quo where else do you see that in in that period Garrett Ryan: well I mean really that the whole political culture of the Middle Ages is made in the shadow of Rome and it's hearkening back to Rome so that's the great Exemplar you know that's the Empire that worked the the incredible stability of the Empire until the very end stuck people's minds