Politicians are out of touch. Call them.
Politicians are in info cocoons, just like we all have a tendency to be these days, and they're not listening, or maybe not hearing enough from enough of us.
To become a politician, mostly you have to have some measure of wealth, at least stability, maybe independent wealth, maybe own a business where other people are doing the largest share of the work that brings in their income, or where they are otherwise connected to people with money willing to bankroll the effort. The system is NOT set up to allow most ordinary working class people entry into this system. When such people get in, they are an exception. So if the fancy people are not constantly hounded, they just get complacent, because often they’ve had the luxury of some measure of complacency most of their lives — it is the default mode.
Politicians need to hear from people outside the beltway, outside the state capitals, and from somewhere besides their country clubs and their fancy parties, and their Republican colleague workplace lunch dates or prayer circles, and somewhere other than the fancy association dinners they’re invited to.
MAGA Can't Run the Country To Save Its Life! (w/ Jonathan Martin) | Bulwark Podcast - The Bulwark Jan 3, 2025 Tim Miller: “Democratic strategist Chris hail tweeting this right now “it's remarkable how my party has ditched the Trump is a threat to democracy argument Agular didn't mention the word democracy once in his nomination of Hakeem Jeffries”. it is true I mean it sucks but it's true I as what maybe the biggest kerfuffle ever created on this podcast was when Ezra Klein was on and he said that his private convos with Democrats were that they didn't believe the Democracy message that they were pushing forth that they didn't believe that Trump was that great of a threat - this was last summer he said that - that seems to be bearing out in a way that's a little alarming for me.” Jonathan Martin: “If they thought he was a real threat to democracy then would the mayor of DC be taking meetings with him to talk about getting employees back five days a week into their cubes?”
I saw how these Democratic Party politicians were completely unprepared for this moment. This is not unexpected. It’s complacency. It’s wealthy privilege. And it’s normalcy bias.
Spectrum News - Maine U.S. Rep. Jared Golden predicts Trump victory, says he’s not a threat to democracy By Susan Cover Maine PUBLISHED 12:49 PM ET Jul. 03, 2024 “Biden’s poor performance in the debate was not a surprise,” Golden wrote. “It also didn’t rattle me as it has others, because the outcome of this election has been clear to me for months: While I don’t plan to vote for him, Donald Trump is going to win. And I’m OK with that.”
These politicians have made it clear they didn't see a problem. They were sleepwalking us into this.
Trump Would be PISSED if Dems Took the Spotlight Away Like This! (w/ Ezra Klein) | Bulwark Podcast The Bulwark - Jul 10, 2024 Ezra Klein: “I think it is clear like people are like weighing the set of things like it's you know it would be quite unpleasant for me personally to come out against the president um as a elected official Democratic party and weighing what will happen if Donald Trump wins and saying you know in a revealed preference way I can live with Donald Trump winning um and I've had people say that to me off the record to be fair I've had I've had top Democrats say to me basically something like - I don't know why all these Democrats who think Donald Trump is an existential threat to democracy or acting the way they are but the reason I'm acting the way I am is because I don't think that Tim Miller: “Who the __ is this - who are these people out your sources Ezra, I'm in I'm about to be in leaking text mode over here myself like that is crazy I guess it's consistent but it's maddening no?” Ezra Klein: “I find it maddening but I do find it consistent right I do find it to be a look you you can say this is true in a lot of things right it's a it's a charge Republicans always uh throw at liberals which is that if they really believe climate change was such a problem they wouldn't fly on planes and I think that people's means ends are less connected than this but I do think one I I'm I'm just I will.” Tim Miller: “we've only had one coup attempt though we really we've only had one coup attempt recently and it was the person that is on the ballot right now so I mean there's something to be said for that Ezra Klein: “if I were hearing from Top Democrats saying um listen I think our best path to winning is still Joe Biden I think that unfortunately Harris is a weaker candidate and I think that an open convention or a blitz primary would leave us in a worse place and you know these are all bad options but Joe Biden is the least bad option fine that is I I just want to say this because it is I don't think you can understand what I'm saying if I don't that is not what I am hearing from anybody like nobody says that nobody says Joe Biden's best chance of winning nobody even says they think Joe Biden can win I have not had one top Democrat say that to me nor has Joe Biden come to any of them with a plan for how to win.”
And now they are caught with their pants down, but they have no idea. They think their pants are supposed to look like that. They’re ineffectual, but many have no idea, they think they’re being effective, because they truly believe their role is to help Republicans succeed for a variety of reasons. Or, they think their role is to keep the public from panicking — they’re in elite panic, which means they will try anything to just stop the public from reacting at all, for any reason. You will see this demonstrated in the people who larp as left but downvote you on reddit or troll reply on bluesky telling you to stop being alarmed.
So that’s why they wind up saying stupid things like that they're going to "find common ground" with grotesque policies, and are signing onto GOP garbage instead of acting in opposition.
You know why some people came out to vote for Republicans even though they were probably not even keen on all of it? Because they see someone who's saying they’re going to fight for them. You may complain that they've been lied to, but it counts. Democrats don’t even pretend that. If democrat voters complain we get downvoted by their stooges on the local reddit, and they send us constituent reply letters that essentially tell us we should be grateful to have the jobs when they give money to banks and businesses. Democrats are the party that’s openly embraced trickle down economics, and so many educated liberals are totally on board and ready to tell working class people we’re wrong.
When Obama was elected, Mitch Mcconnell didn't tell republican voters "We're going to find common ground with Obama, and you’re going to like it." Republicans tell their constituents they’re going to bring their voters windfalls and easier times ahead. They don’t just make vague hand waving statements about The Economy as if it’s a false god, they tell people they’re going to lower prices. Democrats promise their constituents they’re going to bring shitty jobs that will trickle down through the community, by helping bosses, small business tyrants, and corporations. What did they think was going to happen?
Democratic party politicians have totally drank the conservative koolaid on framing. They really believe the narrative that helping business trickles down, and that everyone should be happy with this, and they seem to be deluded into thinking that Republicans are actually running their political campaigns on that. Wake up, they’re not. They promised their voters windfalls and easier times for white people. And it looks like they’re delivering.
It doesn’t matter that in the process tycoons and their cronies might be further raiding the taxpayers, because, after all, they’ve been doing it for years with no opposition voice from Democrats. “It’s just the way it is.” There’s no opposition party to the tycoons. That’s why we’ve been fooled for years into thinking tycoons are liberal, because nobody wanted to oppose them and lose the funding. So everyone sees what they want us to see. The tycoons pay both sides, and then whoever wins they pay more to keep everything greased toward their benefit. Why on earth would anyone ever believe that tycoons are actually for “the little guy” — the working class, the disabled or the otherwise marginalized? That’s silly.
For years now I’ve been writing my reps every couple of months saying I don’t think these tycoons should have government contracts, and that I don’t think the space program should be privatized. But where are the Democratic Party voices on this? There have been none. And they just treat me like I’m stupid or something for even suggesting this. Some of the most prominent scientists out there have been busy kissing up to the tycoons. I’ve had to assume most science fans just think the cheapened corporate space stuff is sexy. Because I’ve just felt like a lone voice on this.
I’m probably not alone, it’s pluralistic ignorance on a lot of this stuff — people just don’t speak up. So everyone assumes everyone else wants this crap. And now a lot of people don’t want this at all, really really don’t want this — but Democrats can’t downshift. It’s not that Democrats can’t downshift fast enough, they forgot where the stick is, they’re on cruise control, and maybe have even forgotten that they’re in the driver’s seat, and currently in a race for all the marbles.
The New Republica - Jason Linkins / February 1, 2025 Trump’s Abuse of Power Comes as No Surprise Somehow, Democrats got badly caught out by the president doing all the things he spent the past two years saying he was going to do if reelected. Nevertheless, D.C. Democrats seem to be some of the last people to learn that there is nothing left to learn about Trump. Trump’s first week back seems to have caught them off guard, so much so that they’ve largely spent the last few days tiptoeing around as multiple crises unfolded. They’ve been careful, circumspect, cautious—and they’ve gotten absolutely banjaxed as a result. It wasn’t until Trump tried to turn off the entire federal government that they recovered a bit of fighting spirit, vowing to escalate the conflict with the GOP into a “street fight.” It’s great that they got there in the end; I look forward to this street fight, but I’ll believe it when I see it. Still, one of the Democrats’ big problems is the sheer number of times you can use the word “belatedly” to describe their reactions. It might have been better if Democrats had actually used the time between Trump getting reelected and Trump getting inaugurated to prepare to confront the things that Trump spent over a year saying he was going to do.
I'll believe it when I see it. And we will not see it until enough people are, as Chuck Schumer described it, "aroused" to hold them to account. That involves telling them what you want, and doing all the things, not just shouting into the void of social media where they can just say it's "just some people online" and ignore you.
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“The liberals were outraged at Trump. But they expressed their outrage in cyberspace so it had no effect. Because the algorithms made sure that they only spoke to people who already agreed with them. Instead ironically their waves of angry messages and tweets benefitted the large corporations who ran the social media platforms. one online analyst put it simply — angry people click. It meant that the radical fury that came like waves across the internet no longer had the power to change the world. Instead it became a fuel that fed the systems of power making them ever more powerful.” — Adam Curtis, Hypernormalisation, 2016
Don’t lean into social media — it’s a place where you are under constant cognitive attack, it’s not a place to get through to politicians or even other people — it’s The Internet of Fakes. It’s an echo chamber at best, and a hall of smoke and mirrors more likely. Social media is not the town square, that’s not how this works.
January 19, 2024 - Professor Delivers URGENT WARNING Before Inauguration | The Weekend Show - MeidasTouch Jennifer Mercieca: “Social media platforms are not public spaces they are not used by officials to make decisions about policies that are affecting the public, right there's no way for us to directly communicate to politicians where they are listening to us and we know that they are and to have you know the sort of give and take there's the illusion of that right there's the promise of that we were we were told we were going to get that out of you know the sort of techno optimism of the 90s and the early 2000s but that's not what it it became it became this algorithmically controlled outrage machine” Anthony Davis: “and a business as well I mean it's a profitable business” Jennifer Mercieca: “big business right and so we think we're doing democracy when we go onto these platforms and we express our opinions but it would be much better for us to go out into the street and do that, that would be the kind of protected speech that you know the Constitution First Amendment protects it would be the kind that people pay attention to um and that is meaningful right gathering with others to express ourselves what we do on social media it isn't - it isn't the same thing.”
The people in charge who can do something will not do anything different as long as they think nobody really cares that much.
And if you're not writing them or calling their offices or showing up there and verifying that you're a constituent with a home address in their district - they can dismiss you as "outside agitators" or “just some people on the internet” that are not “home grown” and just tell themselves it’s nothing.
If you don’t write to your elected representatives, they just assume that you’re going to vote for them no matter what they do or at least that you don’t care about what they’re doing enough to be motivated to vote against them... Write your reps. Do it now. tinyurl.com/writingreps