The first ballot I was old enough to cast was for John Kerry in 2004. After Bush lied about WMDs and got us into a pointless war, a torture program, mass surveillance of Americans, let alone shit conservative social policies. 4 years of that, and Americans knowingly reelected him by a wider margin than his initial election. This time he won the popular vote, which he didn’t do in his initial election. Any of this sound familiar?
But we survived, and we paid attention, and we organized, and by 2008 we had a (by the standards of the time) progressive candidate at the top of the ticket, offering “radical socialist” policies ideas like universal healthcare and just a general vibe of inclusiveness rather than division. The Democratic party rejected the establishment options and nominated the bold candidate, the black guy with the middle name huessain. And we worked our asses off, I was mostly working on local campaigns but did some door knocking for Obama in a swing state.
And we won. The same country that four years ago shrugged off concerns about a guy who lied to get us into a war, turned around and voted for the (comparatively) progressive black guy the right painted as an out and out socialist by a landslide.
It’s not just that we defeated Trumpism in 2018, and 2020, and to some extent in 2022. Democrats turned a country that voted for a moron with little to no respect for democratic norms and the rule of law by wide margins, into a country that voted for a progressive in 2008.
We can do it again. We can organize and fight and convince the working class Americans who are so fed up with the status quo that they are so desperate for change that they voted for Trump, that real change that actually benefits working people is progressive. We can do that.
Two conditions though. First, we can’t let the DNC force another moderate center right candidate on us. Second, we have to make sure elections are still a thing that happens in America come 2026 and 2028. Both are tall orders, but we can do it.
The Supreme Court ruled that he can do whatever he wants with no consequence and American voters handed him the key to the castle. There’s not going to be another election. Say hello to Supreme Leader Vance.
Yeah, I hope that’s not the case but I worry about it. I think the most hopeful take is Trump isn’t running again, he’ll be like 86, so he’s not going to give a shit what comes next. Why bother to use the power of the state to help dipshit Vance? If anything, Vance losing just reinforces how special and unique Trump was, inflates his own ego. In terms of elections, I’m more concerned with the midterms. Trump has an incentive to prevent Congress flipping.
But also remember, W. Bush also had a conservative supreme court willing to let him get away with war crimes. Fuck, he “won” in 2020 only because SCOTUS stepped in to hand him the win. W. Bush was more illegitimate than Trump. But we survived, and we got Obama after. So there’s hope here too.
We need to get rid of the DNC. We need a different party, one that will fight and not concede the election the way Harris did. She didn’t even fight, she should have gone “wait a minute the Republicans said they were going to do election fraud, we should check those numbers” instead she gave up. The same way it always happens the DNC GIVES UP.
I’m not going to defend the DNC, and I know the “fight from the inside” line gets eye rolls. But look at what Trump did. He took over the Republican party. He represented what the grassroots activists and voters in Republican primaries wanted. It was ugly and gross, but that’s what they wanted. And Trump transformed the Republican party in his image. Traditional Republicans became refugees, “never trumpers”. The Paul Ryan’s and Elizabeth Cheney’s who were willing to go along, without adopting the new maga Republican line, were forced out. Now the old Reagan, country club, fiscal discipline, free trade Republican party is dead. The survivors are exciled to places like the Bulwark, like it’s Taiwan and they’re just waiting for the opportunity to take their party back, an opportunity that will never come because the grassroots won’t let them.
I’m not saying this is a model. It happened in large part because fox news let Trump run wild because he was good for ratings, and by the time they went to quash him with Megan Kelly as hitman during a Fox News debate, it was too late, the base was with him and it was Kelly who was sacrificed as appeasement. It was overall a hostile takeover of the party based on the force of personality of one person, not a takeover based on differing policy ideas or a general vision for the party and country. I don’t think we can, or should want to, replicate that. But still I think there might be something there, some nugget we can replicate, for the grassroots to force change from the inside.
It’s a whole lot easier to take over a party than to build a new one.
But… Do you want to? I don’t feel like this is a country I want to contribute to anymore. I’m not going to leave (because that’s very impractical) and I’ll still support myself, but the goodwill I had towards my fellow Americans is very much diminished.
It’s easy for me to say that because I could leave if I needed to. The situation is very different for the people who can’t. Maybe I should have more concern for them than I do right now, but instead I just keep thinking how one upside of Trump winning the popular vote is that whatever happens, most Americans will deserve it.
I’m right here with you. I have completely lost all faith in my fellow Americans. The facts to repudiate all of Trump’s lies are easily and readily available, and they are willfully ignorant. They deserve the misery Trump plans to bring to them.
Sorry, too late! I gave up yesterday morning. I’m going to focus on me and my family for a while.
It’s okay to start your resistance by just surviving. And helping your kids grow. And looking out for those dear to you. Sometimes you gotta just work on the “Outlive” part.
Thank you.
“We.”
The popular vote spoke volumes. This is what they wanted.
meh, it’s over.
decent will never win over indecent. and in or towards the end, only the indecent will survive.
Decent sometimes wins over indecent. And sometimes (certainly far too often) it doesn’t.
To those of us spared, when decency won, it was worth it.
Nope. Burn. It. Down.
Jews have been at the center of every progressive American Public Good in the last 150 years, because we know, from two millennia of experience, to protect the least of us is to protect us all, having been the least of every national community we found ourselves in and subject to inquisition, pogrom, and holocaust, we have worked with everyone in the public space for the public good
Now, those who see themselves as Progressive Liberals have vilified Jewish support for Israels existence and defense, and made Zionists, which make up the overwhelming majority of all American Jews, unwelcome in the progressive spaces we have been central too for a very long time
So, good luck, god bless, we’re sure you can do some good, but it’s going to have to be without us, as you won’t let us in the door now
You can’t create a better world by allowing Arabs to kill half the Jews in it
As a fellow American Jew, I just want to say, loud and clear:
Fuck Israel, fuck Netanyahu, and free Palestine.
Israel is a segregationist state actively committing genocide. If you feel unwelcome in places that are against genocide, that sounds like it’s a you problem.
Progressive spaces do not accommodate those supportive of genocide, even if you try to frame the genocide as “self defence”. The “majority” of Jews you describe are not shut out of progressive spaces, they have chosen genocidal revenge as their policy and have thus turned their back on ideals like protecting the “the least of us”. Remember, it’s not just progressives who are against the genocide supporting zonists, it’s basically the whole world who has rejected you. You are welcome in conservative circles only because Jewish control of Israel is a necessary condition for the Christian cultists doomsday proficiencies. They don’t care about Jews, they dislike Jews generally, they just support Israel because 1) a lot like ethno states and want to replicate Israels model, and 2) Jews need to be there so Christ comes back or whatever.
Jews are more than welcome in progressive spaces, and many are there, just not the ones cheering on the mass murder and starvation of civilians. Maybe take a hard look at yourself and why your on whatever side your on.
