Another day of doctors and such….I will not be around for most of the day and I shall try to catch up as soon as possible….thanx for understanding.
College of Political Knowledge
This is part of the series I write looking at the Democratic Party and the upcoming election.
After the ass kicking the Dems took in 2024 they set about to change the way they approach elections (that was the lie they told then)….I wrote about it so I went back into my archives (that is why I have them) and found what I had written then….this from about a year ago….
After a year of lip service and lies things are not going well….so far all they have done is theatrics for the media and accomplished very little….some Dems have even sided with the GOP on some spending bills…..not much has changed….
Recent polls show approval of Donald Trump hovering in a deep unlit trough around 40 percent. Yet his dismal ratings have done little to bolster the reputation of the opposition party. Commentators across the political spectrum have overwhelmingly agreed that the Democratic brand is shot. The American Prospect called it “damaged.” NBC said it was “weak.” Rolling Stone said it was “cooked.” Semafor announced that “left-wing ideas” had “wrecked” it, and Bill Maher compared Democrats to has-been companies like Sears or Kodak that had “screwed themselves out of relevance.” The pejoratives aren’t confined to the armchair critics. Arizona Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego lamented, with only slightly more finesse than the news outlets, the “national brand problem.” Michael Bennet, a Democratic senator from Colorado, delicately agreed that the branding is “problematic.”
Is all lost for the Democrats, or is there opportunity in the shambles? When the only party offering a bulwark against Trump’s murderous, crackpot regime appears to be losing the vibes war—and as we approach the midterm elections that offer our last best chance to rein in the madness—these questions are not merely of political interest; they are a matter of existential importance.
And so, in a survey of 2,421 Democratic voters, conducted January 7–16 by Embold Research, The New Republic sought to explore what rank-and-file Democrats want to see from their candidates and elected representatives. Is it true, as one popular strain of criticism goes, that some of the party’s more liberal social ideas are a liability? How important to voters are housing, prescription drug prices, trans rights? How should we approach economic policy, foreign policy? How conciliatory or aggressive should party leaders be toward their foes? What, in other words, do Democrats want from Democrats?
https://newrepublic.com/article/206015/new-republic-opinion-poll-democrats-leaders-results
Not much is changing because the Dems are still in corporate pockets….the people mean nothing to these politicians no matter how much manure they spread none of it is true.
The Centrists are leading the way…..
Centrist Democrats led by Cheri Bustos, a corporate lobbyist who previously headed her party’s campaign arm in the US House, are launching a policy and advocacy organization aimed at pressuring Democrats to embrace the kind of “pro-growth” deregulatory agenda associated with the so-called “abundance” movement.
The new organization, named Next American Era, was formed “with an eye toward 2028” as Democrats work to recover from their crushing defeat to President Donald Trump in the 2024 elections, Axios reported Sunday, noting that the group describes itself as a “hub for center-left policy and advocacy.”
Bustos, whose lobbying client list in 2025 included OpenAI and Larry Ellison’s Oracle, said Next American Era plans to “air issue-focused ads during the midterm elections and the 2028 presidential campaign, but it won’t endorse candidates,” Axios reported.
Bustos said the founders of Next American Era share “many of the same principles as the Abundance movement,” a loose assortment of organizations and individuals—including large corporations and prominent billionaires—broadly supporting views expressed by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson in their 2025 book Abundance.
“She said cutting red tape, streamlining regulations, and supporting workforce training are among the top policy goals of her group, which is structured as a 501(c)(4) political nonprofit,” Axios reported
https://www.commondreams.org/news/cheri-bustos-next-american-era
Their aims are the aims of the GOP so how do these fools still wear the Democrat name tag?
I wish I could say that these fools are a minority….they are not even the minority leaders of both houses are wishy washy….
Democratic leaders in Congress are already backing down on one of their key demands in the fight to reform the federal immigration agencies terrorizing Minnesota and other parts of the country.
On Wednesday, Democrats laid out a list of 10 “guardrails” they said they wanted to see put in place to protect the public from abuses by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, before agreeing to a new round of funding for their parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
https://www.commondreams.org/news/jeffries-schumer-ice-masks
Was this an attempt at some form of bi-partisanship? Or was it just cowardice?
Now look at the protests around Minneapolis….the Congressional Dems were quick for lip service but have done nothing to join the protests.
One Democratic lawmaker to whom Axios granted the veil of anonymity suggested that Democrats expect the base to “get upset” but believes the discontent will wash away because “then you’re going to have the real fight in two weeks.” Whether or not that period ends with any meaningful change in the status quo remains to be seen. Much of what Democrats seek would merely require various federal agents to obey rules and regulations that they’re already supposed to follow as a matter of agency directive—though enshrining these policies as laws would be a step in the right direction.
That said, there’s still the thorny matter of enforcing any new constraints that are imposed on ICE and Border Patrol. I hope I’m wrong about this, but by the time all is said and done, I don’t expect much in the way of material change where the president’s paramilitaries are concerned. At best, perhaps, people will see the faces of the thugs who are beating them—though not always, if Schumer has his way.
https://newrepublic.com/post/206262/democrats-join-civil-resistance-midterms
The Dems should be out there let the people see that their lives matter to them…..so far empty words and ill promises is all we have got.
So far the only ones that are stepping up are the true Progressives, not those that use the term to appear important, and I agree that working class politics is where this party should be centered not in the pockets of billionaires.
Speaking at a panel at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said that decades of government failures such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the 2003 Iraq War had opened the door for demagogues such as Trump among working-class voters.
The only way to defeat this, she said, is to reorient progressive politics around social class.
“We have to have a working-class-centered politics if we are going to succeed,” she said, “and also if we are going to stave off the scourge of authoritarianism, which provide political siren calls to allure people into finding scapegoats to blame for rising economic inequality, both domestically and globally.”
Elsewhere during the panel, Ocasio-Cortez elaborated on the way economic inequality fuels the demand for authoritarian leaders.
“We’re seeing, in economy across economy around the world, including in the United States,” she said, “that extreme levels of income inequality lead to social instability and drives in a sense in authoritarianism, right-wing populism and very dangerous domestic internal politics. And that is a direct outcome of, not just income inequality, but the failure of democracies over decades to deliver, the failure to deliver higher wages, the failure to rein in corporations.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-munich
I agree!
The DNC has tried to eliminate any dissenting voices and embraced the corporate policies that Clinton championed.
This is not what the people of this country needs we already have a big business party, the GOP, we need a party of the people that will work tirelessly for the betterment of people’s lives……something we have not had for a generation.
Time to stand up and bring this party back to where it belongs….on the side of the working masses.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
I can only comment from what we see over here, and we see very little about the Democrats, which suggests they are not functioning as a real opposition. Trump is handing them a marvellous opportunity, to ridicule his stupid antics and criminal dealings. As far as I can tell from here, only Newsom is doing that regularly, though Bernie Sanders is occasionally reported as speaking against Trump. News about Mamdani the Democrat mayor of NYC has gone quiet too.
Best wishes, Pete.
Howdy Chuq!
A great round-up of various Democratic failures and responses. The Democrats have sold themselves to corporate America but are not as open as the Republicans about it. Next American Era are just spouting the same corporate line as the Republicans.
I”m posting a column about where Democrats should be going and offering for 2026 and 2028.
Huzzah!
Jack
s it true, as one popular strain of criticism goes, that some of the party’s more liberal social ideas are a liability? YES!!! While I personally believe in democratic ideas re: inclusivity, I feel way too much focus was put on social issues during their reign. This is NOT what runs a nation.
Also, IMO, they need to do MUCH more speaking out against Trump and his antics …. rather than voting for/approving stuff JUST to keep their plush positions.
It’s crazy how it took one person – a deranged madman – to expose the weakness of the current political system: they are all conmen and women to a degree: those on the far left calling for socialist policies while they rake in millions through their political connections, the same thing happening on the right with just different way to steal, lie and cheat us all…I know there are more right-leaning people who read your posts, so let me say you are right about the far left – and I feel comfortable criticizing the far right…we need a middle and there is none