Theater Rule

Can we try a machete?

People who refused to vote and are now complaining about either the Democrats or about Trump doing what he said he'd do are similar to people who voted for Trump and are now complaining about Trump doing what he said he'd do. Like what did you expect? And thanks for letting me as a trans person get erased from existence, by the way.

It's not that we don't recognize the fault of Republicans, but yelling at them is less effective than mobilizing resources that are supposed to be more accessible to Democrats.

There are tons of campaigning dollars, expertise, and connections locked away behind intransigent Dems.

reply copied from 'the dems fight for us'.

I’m not old enough to really have much memory of the clinton. but after he did so much for racial equality and ending the drug war, I can’t begrudge the man a blowjob.

I DO remember during the brooks brothers riots, where they kicked the shit out of those fascists. I remember the guy with the full back tattoo of nixon’s face, being stepped on a bunch. I remember it was kinda controversial when president gore pardoned the people who did it, but it was obvious self defense; the cameras caught it all. I’m glad they fought that shit in the supreme court, and put those bastards in their place. they could’ve done some real damage to society if left unchecked, before we got rid of the reagan appointees.

fuck the gore administration was good. you remember those guys who tried to blow up those decrepit shit hole buildings in new york all those times? and the boondoggle of demolishing them that lead to that weird gay-coded-but-not-gay musical theater real estate failson from the home alone movies being elected governor of new york in 2018? that was so weird. glad he got what he deserved. kind of annoyed people didn’t make a bigger deal about all the rape he did.

I remember what president gore did for climate change, the scandal after energy was too cheap to meter for a couple years, and then we had to start metering it again because of that cryptocurrency nonsense, even though it was still cheaper than it had ever been at any point in the 20th.

I remember how the democrats in congress kept us out of that dumb fucking war the fascists tried to get us into in 2001 with their bullshit lies. I bet it would’ve killed or crippled like half the guys I went to high school with, and the first girl I ever kissed-maybe not directly, but she was the kind of uncritical heroic idiot who’d have rushed into some shit over her head, come back with horrible PTSD, and eventually killed her dumb ass over it-we still talk sometimes. I know without the democratic party, I probably wouldn’t have my dumbest friend. I remember when the dems in congress swept in and put a stop to all that subprime mortgage nonsense in 2006, stopped anyone from losing their homes, and locked up all the coke addled wall street goons who tried to con us all.

Al gore was a pretty great president, and with so many good people in the deliberative branch, how could we NOT have stopped global warming in its tracks? lol, tracks, like all the trains. I can go basically anywhere in the country on maglev. giving the japanese a run for their money, at least in the midwest. kinda disappointed the HSR in california uses traditional overhead wire on steel rails, but I can go from san diego to san francisco and hang out in the bay then come back home for dinner. I remember when it used to take that long to drive there-and that was really the only way-from sacramento, one way. I grew up walking and biking everywhere, imagine how many scars and broken bones I’d have if I had tried doing that shit for my entire adult life in a nation that still worshipped cars? I bet I’d look like fucking frankenstein’s monster by now.

I remember when they went after white supremacist terror groups being funded by our tax dollars during the gore administration, like the lynwood vikings, the moment they found out. WHOO! LOCAL WIN! that was pretty cool of obama to do. I remember the press release. I actually lived nearby at the time. seeing FBI snipers take out local cops, then pull off their LAPD uniforms to expose all the nazi tattoos and hang them on la brea avenue? that was fucking wild, man. there was a whole arc in the punisher comic books where he had like a crisis of conscience and became an FBI agent and it was weird, and he felt like an asshole when he had to quit but kept respecting them; it felt like it could have been realistic, I honestly felt something similar at the time, but it was so fucking badly written. fucking marvel comics, man. they could have made such good movies; you can tell by how popular the DC comics cinematic universe got under whedon (creepy bastard).

I remember when they were gonna ratfuck the wildly popular candidate for an arrogant hack who wouldn’t even have remembered to register everywhere she could have, but then decided not to, and won the 2016 election in a historic landslide, breaking the whole ‘red state/blue state’ paradigm. that was one of the best administrations we ever had, like a perfect whatever the reverse of a black mirror is of the reagan administration. the other guy was all “make america great again!” but president sanders actually did it. plus, cuban rum and the lung cancer vaccine. yesplz.

I remember after the “UNITE THE RIGHT” rally where the nazi in the car killed that lady? the one with all the tiki torches and polo shirts? where the ATF had been waiting on like a perimeter, and took a lot of flak for not charging in and killing those bastards sooner. I hear some of the surviving nazis ended up in gitmo. it wasn’t perfect, but it was ordered directly by a democratic cabinet officer. I hear president sanders was in the loop, he took some heat for letting that lady die, but honestly it could have gone so much worse.

I remember on january 7th, 2021, after the insurrection, when the white house lawn was covered in gallows of the nazi insurrectionists. the ones that didn’t get mowed down by machine guns day-of. the dems did right that day.

I remember when the weird guy from home alone 2? that guy kept insisting he was president and lead that shit, after they impeached him from the governership and kicked him out of office, they locked him in the darkest cage they had. I hear it was somewhere in syria. got blown up during the trouble there. some of his followers insist he’s still alive, but LOL, no fucking way. that guy wouldn’t live ten seconds in a war zone.

I remember when the FBI switched up their priorities and decided to go after domestic white supremacist terror groups, including foreign owned misinformation operations, like not-twitter and fox news, like they were black communists who’d just blown up a pipeline and sabotaged a logging operation. the killings were… I mean, it was kind of intense, and there was a lot of collateral damage, but they were nazis, you know? they would have done more damage if left alive, I bet. I didn’t even know how to feel while it was happening, I used to be an anarchist, and here was the fucking FBI, funded to hunt people like me like we were dogs, and they were killing nazis. real anti-hero hours, and if you’d told fifteen year old me I’d be cheering on the feds, I’d have laughed you out of the room, but they did good. I haven’t even seen a swastika in years, except when I replayed wolfenstein recently-kind of an irrelevant goofy nonsense game, but I played the old one when I was a kid. im glad we beat those bastards IRL back in the 40s.

god, getting gay marriage and trans rights in the constitution in 2010? fixing that loophole in the 13th amendment and ending private prisons? election reform? single payer healthcare? it’s pretty great. I like it here. I used to think I wouldn’t make it to 25 after my parents kicked me out. I used to think most of my friends were more doomed than I was. I was kind of a depressed edgelord I guess. but here we all are. all those old AIDS crisis survivors in the queer community sound silly, but the past is a foreign country, so let’s not judge our elders too harshly.

I guess I also remember the bad old days, when people would die unhoused outside empty houses. I remember the bad old days when so many people couldn’t get healthcare, and stores locked up dumpsters full of perfectly edible food. I remember the bad old days when people were afraid of the state. when people were afraid of the people paid by their tax dollars. when our tax dollars funded corrupt religious institutions, and taught their bullshit in public schools. I’m glad we’re past all that. I’m glad nobody thinks absurdist edgelord authors like bacigalupi are remotely serious anymore. it’s kind of ridiculous we ever thought otherwise, with leadership like this. when they defunded the local police after those killings, I became one of the emergency response social workers; it’s damn fulfilling work. Would you believe I used to be an anarchist? like, I’m still kind of a curmudgeon sometimes about bureaucracy and stuff, but with a robust safety net and amazing education and a world that pretty much works, with such a bright outlook for the future, I really don’t have much to complain about, and the complaints I do have all feel kind of petty. I used to think states couldn’t work, and america was an existential evil. I guess it’s still problematic sometimes, the international policies aren’t all great, but… I dunno; I feel like it’s a net good; just look at how we saved all those people by giving the world free vaccines during the pandemics. I guess I was proven wrong. I don’t know what to call myself now. just “democrat” i guess.

Things could go downhill, since they fucked it that last election. sanders was a tough fucking act to follow, especially that second term. I’m not worried though. they’re still fighting it in the courts, and they’re so loud in congress, the fascists can’t even finish a sentence. AOC proposed that bill to legalize dueling after bobo threatened to shoot her, and every republican voted against it; that was a really good one. filibustering everything, challenging everything. it’s honestly kind of funny to watch. fascists do not know how to adapt to that. I say fascists; they won’t admit it, but we all kinda know, right? DW; dems got out backs, no matter what, even if it loses them some rich donors. i dropped like fifty tubmans on a donation to my congressman last week; you should too.

so yeah, we should stand up for the democratic party. The same way they stood up for us so many times. we owe them that.

That's because they could have done something about it instead of playing stupid fucking games and playing nice with Republicans when they were actually in power and all of this could have been avoided, but here we are and they are still trying to play nice with the actual fucking Nazis instead of being leaders and standing up for their constituents. Hell or even standing up for their own fucking peers, Jesus fucking Christ is it so damn hard for them to have some fucking guts to stand up for what's right rather than trying to put up a facade of civility with the fucking Nazis party? FUCK

As someone who has spoken up numerous times about how "DEMS BAD" is a cop-out, the reason why we 'waste our time' focusing on the Dems is because

Let’s figure out a way to separate the base from trump. We have to get through before it’s too late.

is a fucking pipe-dream.

Trump could - and in his last administration, literally did - kill their loved ones and they would thank him for it.

The Trump 'base'?

They're monarchists.

If only the king knew about the decrees he's been writing and signing and haranguing us to obey.

If only the king knew...

The crazier the republicans get, the more it's the dems fault worse the Dems are for not doing anything about it

Fixed that for you.

But why waste your time focusing on them

Because they're the only ones with the power to do anything and are supposed to be on our side.

Of course, they're actually on the side of their owner donors whose interests rarely align with ours.

Let's figure out a way to separate the base from trump

You clearly have no idea how powerful cult indoctrination is. As evidenced by both this and your reflexive defense of the AWOL Dems.

We have to get through before it's too late.

There's nowhere near as much of a chance getting through to his own cult than to the people SUPPOSED to oppose his atrocities for a living.

the democrats have been gradually floating to the right for decades, and rarely put up any sort of fight against the far right bullshit.. and when they do, they aren't in it together as they need to be. they're unfocused, uncoordinated, and don't cooperate enough within their own party. so yea, it is at least partly their fault. if they don't get their fucking shit together, we're doomed. not just the country. but civilization as we know it.

The Democrats are the opposition. Their job is to oppose. Their opposition must be as forceful as the Republicans’ actions are crazy. Table tennis bat signs are not going to cut it.

Let’s figure out a way to separate the base from trump. We have to get through before it’s too late.

Sounds good, so who should do that first and foremost? The "elected leaders", right?
And what are they doing? Writiting haikus.
Hence the complaints.

Let's figure out a way to separate the base from trump.

Because it's either inevitable or impossible, depending on how much they choose to dig in their heels. If reality can't convince them they made a mistake, you sure as hell won't. Also, and equally importantly, progressives must unite behind an effective leadership if they expect to get rid of the Trump menace, and the DNC is not effective leadership. Getting progressives and liberals to stop carrying water for them is the first step to bulding real progressive opposition to Trump and hopefully a half-decent government in the aftermath.

Spoiler alert: Jan. 7th, 2021 was too late.

I think Trump is going to separate the base from himself on his own. Most of them rely on government aid, and he's trying to kill all of it.

You wanted Dems to oppose this? Should have given them power.

When they're our elected representatives, regardless who is president, and yet they refuse to even touch the power that is bestowed in being an elected representive to.. represent..their constituency. How would the result of a presidency change the complacency we are currently witness to? Genuine question, because I dont remember a single repub shutting up over anything during Biden.

Meanwhile Hakeem Jeffries of New York has stayed absolutely silent on one of his constituents who was - without exaggeration (Associated Press) - kidnapped from his home state by ICE agents without a warrant, while holding a valid green card. That is just once example, if we needed the DNCs poster child to hold up our constitutional rights, we were fucked from the very beginning.

When the people who are elected to represent, don't do the bare minimum in that, of course we should tell them to get the hell out of the way and let someone who gives an actual shit in. You telling to not be critical of the enablers only serves to unleash the offenders, I don't understand how thats not clear.

You're misunderstand the frustration. We've been seeing Republicans bending the rules and stacking the deck for decades and have been shouting at the top of our lungs that they're not playing fair. The Democrats didn't just fail in 2024, they've been fucking up since Reagan, and all of us that have been warning this was happening feel like we were betrayed. From where I'm sitting it feels like the Democrats don't really have any ideals past getting elected. The correct response to Trump 1.0 was throwing the criminal in jail and issuing hundreds of executive orders (a la Trump's throw out so much shit they can never clean the mess doctrine) to cripple voter suppression and ensuring another quasi dictator didn't end up in office.

We needed radical leadership and we got the status quo, and frankly if speaks volumes about how disconnected liberal leadership is from their base.

I voted Harris, and even if I hadn't, I would still have an absolute right to shit on the democrats for perennially being the worst opposition, the worst election strategists, and generally competing with the Russian opposition party for being the most disappointing and ineffectual political entity in existence.

Maybe y’all should have gotten out there and voted Harris instead of being babies, you and us allies wouldn’t be dealing with an orange turd.

No. We'd be dealing with a brown turd, an extension of the silver turd, who watched us all get poorer for four years and didn't seem to find mitigating it in any meaningful way to be a priority.

You really do have to actually do something if you want people's votes.