this post was submitted on 05 May 2025
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Originally Posted By u/serious_bullet5 At 2025-05-05 02:29:05 PM | Source


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[–] UrPartnerInCrime@sh.itjust.works 31 points 3 weeks ago (11 children)

Not shown: the people who hate the left side of this photo while yelling at the right side and not doing much else.

Atleast the elephant has his side doing whatever he wants. The donkey is stuck fighting a battle with no support.

Now yall go ahead and downvote since that's the full extent of your power

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 14 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I know Republicans won’t listen to me.

I assume Democrats might.

After all, I vote in all their primaries.

Or does that mean they don’t have to care because who the hell else am I going to vote for in the general?

[–] UrPartnerInCrime@sh.itjust.works 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I was just ranting about all the independents that would rather vote 3rd party or not vote at all because "the democrats are just as bad/lazy and don't get anything done" crowd

Every time the democrats have power they use it to try to help out to most common people, yet it's all brushed under the rug all the same because it's not normally headlining news.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The democrats try.

Republicans come into office with a 130+ page manifesto and the party in lock step.

Hell, the Democratic senate whip didn’t even know someone was going to be absent and they lost a fucking lay-up vote.

My problem isn’t that the democrats try. It’s that they fail so goddamn always.

[–] UrPartnerInCrime@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

And that wraps back around to my original rant. Republicans can do anything and have full support from thier party. One wrong move and a democrat loses most of their followers.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Alternatively: Democrats don't have to follow the party line to still be considered Democrats.

Fetterman.

Manchin.

Sinema.

Lieberman.

The feckless party lets them sabotage important legislation and does absolutely nothing because "they're the best we can do."

Meanwhile any Republican who doesn't like Trump is threatened until they either lose their primary or resign out of fear for their personal safety.

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[–] Kalysta@lemm.ee 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Or maybe the Democrats have slowly shifted so far right that the left in this country no longer has any political representation outside of like 20 house seats.

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[–] Wilco@lemm.ee 20 points 3 weeks ago

You forgot to add the corporations raining down money on both sides to keep things this way.

[–] HighFructoseLowStand@lemm.ee 17 points 3 weeks ago (12 children)

I swear to God, people spend more time blaming Democrats for not fighting Republicans well enough than they do Republicans for doing things that need fighting.

[–] ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 20 points 3 weeks ago

The ire has to do with the representative government where the representatives are not representing.

Which would, in fact, prevent Republicans from doing things that need to be fought.

[–] epicstove@lemmy.ca 12 points 3 weeks ago

When representatives in democracy aren't representing. You kinda lose democracy.

[–] immutable@lemm.ee 7 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (5 children)

Well I think there’s some validity to this, but not just because “democrats bad”

We are seeing across the western world a resurgence in far right parties that are largely running on a populist sentiment that “things are bad and we were great once and let’s go back”

Why does this messaging resonate with so many? Propaganda has its role to play, but propaganda works best when there is a truth to the underlying message.

We are at the tail end of over half a century of neoliberal policy. Now I don’t use neoliberal as so many do as a pejorative, but as a descriptor. As Nancy Pelosi so eloquently stated “We're capitalists and that's just the way it is.”

Now if you enjoy your life subscription under capitalism, especially our super fun late stage capitalism, there’s lots to dislike. The right has decided that while they will wholeheartedly support the capitalist machine, they are going to go out and stump like populists, telling people that they are getting screwed over and a vote for them is a vote to end the screwing, even better, it’s a vote to screw over people you don’t like, you get to do the screwing for once!

The Democratic Party can’t seem to find a coherent message because at the end of the day, the neoliberal project they are working on is going smoothly. The fact that your rent is going up, that private companies own the prisons and all the houses, that’s the free market free marketing baby.

I think the ire is misdirected, but it comes from this gnawing feeling that while the right is awful and doing awful things the democrats aren’t articulating any real alternative. And you don’t have to believe me, I think the trump - Biden - trump pattern shows you that to a lot of Americans things didn’t get better.

Now you and I might sit here secure in the knowledge that within the neoliberal world order as established, Biden did amazingly well. Our economy the envy of the world in how we tackled inflation and had one of the softest landings. But we exist in a system that has expected catastrophic failure roughly every 7 years and we see it happening more and more often. A system that doesn’t seem capable or willing to tackle the most pressing issues that people face. And so it is cold comfort when the Democratic Party goes “yes everything sucks and is getting worse, but believe us this is the best we can do with how the system works”

It’s not super surprising that if someone comes around and says “that system is bullshit” that people are excited. It sucks major ass that the guy saying it has no idea what the system is, how to build a better system, etc. But it also sucks that the democratic party’s response is basically, “put us back in charge and we will restore this system that is hurting a lot of people and really kinda sucks ass and only benefits a few super wealthy donors”

People want someone to stand up and articulate a compelling vision for the future and then deliver on it. For everything wrong with trump, he understands that first part, and he’s unmoored by any kind of morals or ethics so he’s willing to spend hours painting in great and baffling detail just how wonderful his future is going to be. He’s so good at it that his followers don’t even mind that it never happens.

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imagine functioning as controlled opposition while not even being controlled opposition. those desk jobs are way too fucking nice

[–] Pyr0@lemm.ee 15 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

We all need to do what we can do to fight back including civil disobedience. One of the most powerful but unfortunately forgotten ways of fighting back is protesting. The powers at be don’t like it because they have no control of the information. Reddit perm banned me for being too outspoken. So here I am. Please people rise up and get loud!!!

[–] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Absolutely. Republicans aren’t afraid of losing their seats with 5M people in the streets nationwide. We need a lot more of us to scare them into dissent.

[–] wetbeardhairs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 weeks ago

Ever since Trump won I sloooooow walllllkkk everything at work. It's been great for my mental health. I can't give up my job because I have a family to feed. But I can slow down machinery at work and cause lots of inefficiencies. Fuck you, trump voting industry.

[–] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 14 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (42 children)

Are people not paying attention, or just love to blame Democrats? They’re not asking for compromises. They’re making clear demands and getting voted down. Most recently, the House Judiciary Committee voted on the deportations. Democrats insisted that citizens be exempt from deportation. Republicans voted them down. This is what happens when you have full Republican control of our government. Keep bitching about the minority party fighting for you, and this is here to stay.

You want fresh blood in the seats? Me too. Vote in the congressional midterm primaries next year. We all have a say in who sits in those seats, but only the elderly retirees show up for the vote.

[–] Soup@lemmy.world 20 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

And they’ve been sitting on their hands for years even when they did have power. They routinely allow this shit to happen and it’s a little late to say them asking if maybe US citizens could be exempt shows how great they really are. Like, they should be demanding that any deportation needs far better scrutiny, and that would right there take care of the citizen part while also protecting so many others. It’s basically the meme we’re commenting on!

They aren’t protecting the US from shit, and it fucking shows. Your country is bad and you should feel bad, not be making excuses and complaining about Democrats not getting respect for unsuccessfully doing the bare minimum and then saying “guess that’s that.”

[–] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 15 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The only time in the last 30 years that Democrats had the same control that Republicans have now, was the 111th Congress. It was considered the most productive Congress since the 89th Congress.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/111th_United_States_Congress

[–] GeeDubHayduke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

Joe Biden took office directly after J6, allowed Garland to pull pud for four years, then got the biggest fucking stick an American president has ever gotten from the SC, and handed it to Trump.

I feel the Dems can take some blame.

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[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 8 points 3 weeks ago

Democrats should have demanded the removal of most of the republican party from office via the 14th amendment. Refuse to cooperate with this illegitimate government.

[–] orcrist@lemm.ee 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You talk about blaming people but that's a waste of our time. We actually want to make things better in the future, and to do that you need to look at how we got to where we are, and it's clear that we got here by corporate Democrats caving to Republican and corporate interests. That's been going on for the past 30 years. Of course the Republicans are more to blame than the democrats, but if you can't recognize that the old Washington Democrats are largely worthless sandbags, then there's no way you're going to make things better in the future. They simply lack the values that we have, they don't actually want to make life better for the average American, and that's never going to change.

If you want to ask what more the Democrats can do, I think there are a ton of good examples. They can obstruct the process in so many ways, they can have independent press conferences, they can generate a ton of PR by creating videos for Facebook and YouTube and TikTok. They can go visit prisoners held in Central America. Just go look at what the active newer generation of Democrats are doing, go look at what Bernie Sanders does, and ask yourself why we don't have hundreds of people doing that every day. Quite simply, we don't see that in large numbers because most of those people have s***** values. Most of them are out to protect their own power and their own seat and that's it.

[–] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The Democrats had the power that Republicans have now only for two years in the last 30. The 111th Congress was the most productive Congress since the 89th. They’re not all good. Far from it. That’s what primaries are for. If people actually showed up and voted, we wouldn’t be here at all.

[–] petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Wikipedia:

In 2021, President Joe Biden issued 42 executive orders in the first 100 days of his presidency, more than any other president since Harry Truman. However, in 2025, Donald Trump became the president to issue the most executive orders in his first 100 days with 143, surpassing Franklin Roosevelt's 99.

Wouldn't it be nice if we had another FDR? A real firebrand, you know. Someone who actually wants to do something and isn't just filling a seat.

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[–] Pacattack57@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

If republicans can do it as the minority. There’s no reason democrats can’t. McConnell was great at it. Just copy his playbook.

[–] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

McConnell uses the filibuster, which the Senate could use to stop bills if any of these were bills passed in Congress. Unfortunately the only power they have against Trump’s executive orders is forcing a 15-day vote, which they’ve repeatedly done, while helping the ACLU bring these cases to the courts.

[–] EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

100% of Dems voted in favor of Trump's first 2 picks for his cabinet, despite spending hours upon hours grilling them and talking about how unfit for the jobs they are.

It was only after they started getting outraged calls in the thousands per day compared to the usual 30 that they started voting against Trump's cabinet.

Look at Schumer and Pelosi. Or the party appointing a man practically on his deathbed over fresh blood to one of the most important positions in the party. A man who had to resign 4 months later, IIRC.

The Dems only offer up any real resistance when they're forced to by us. Otherwise, they vote no, voice a few complaints, and then go about their day like it's any other.

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[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago

If you assume that Republicans will ever compromise, it makes an ass out of you and me.

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

Every single day it seems more and more that a French style revolution is the only solution

[–] mriswith@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

They're not doing anything because they are complicit. The DNC and the majority of Democrats are completely fine with fascism as long as it does not impact themselves.

It's not even a question anymore, every single House Democrat proved it recently by voting in favor of the "Take it Down" act.

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[–] vga@sopuli.xyz 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Yeah, this picture is part of the problem and not in the way you think. You absolutely do need to compromise to climb out of the shithole you're in, but the one to compromise with is obviously not the guys on the left in this picture.

The failure to compromise is exactly the thing that grows the left side of this picture.

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