Will be writing my reps later today and I sent a few bucks to Bernie since I figure what better way to tell a politician they’re barking up the right tree?

I know online petitions are generally cringe but if there was one backing up Bernie’s stance here and telling the Dems to get their heads out of their own asses, I’d sign it in a heartbeat. If other people feel similarly, maybe we should get the ball rolling? Best case Dems get the message, worst case we waste our time and nothing changes, right?

I finished my bottle of Laphroaig 10 on election night :⁠-⁠\

Won’t happen but even if it did, JD will be just as bad.

Biden would not have won if we weren’t also in the middle of the greatest global pandemic in a century that the incumbent Trump administration was handling terribly.

Cries in American

He would never. But Biden could go over Congress and send whatever the fuck he wants. What’s Congress gonna do, impeach him?

I think it’s common knowledge that there are significant coalitions of people who won’t turn out for the Democrats because of things like Gaza/controversial presidential nominations/general disillusionment with the party. My own Dad, a lifelong Democrat voter, likely voted for RFK Jr. this time around because he isn’t satisfied with what the Democrats are delivering and lives in a safely blue state. I don’t agree with his decision, but as with the many others like him I can’t stop him from making it.

Their propensity for approaching issues with small, incremental change is why they’re losing to a populist while their constituents are being eaten alive by runaway capitalism.

So who’s going to change? The disillusioned voters? Or the politicians running for office? Or are we just going to keep on yelling at people who aren’t listening?

Those likely wouldn’t have gotten through Congress but that’s a poor excuse to abandon the efforts entirely. Embrace those changes as part of the platform, fight for them, make the Republicans publicly oppose what the people want instead of taking the accountability for doing that yourself.

The Democrats’ insistence on working across the aisle with a coalition that has abandoned good-faith bipartisanship only cedes power to the Republicans.

Obama won in 2008 with a message of “yes we can” but since he left office the Democrats’ most consistent message to voters has been “no we can’t”.

Twist: They’re alive. And they’re angry. Choose your weapon.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that the people who believe politics no longer serves them aren’t motivated to participate in the political system.

Despite all the Biden administrations achievements, they still haven’t addressed what the left has been asking for over the last decade.

Stop supporting the war in Gaza? Nah.

Single-payer healthcare system? Nuh uh.

Housing crisis relief? If you’re good… maybe.

Courts and criminal justice reform? Lol.

Billionaire tax? Nope.

Livable minimum wage? Psh.

Legalize marijuana? Hah! No.

Sweet potatoes. Something about them made me gag. Every Thanksgiving a heaping pile of them would wind up on my plate and I’d have to power though or else face the wrath of my grandmother.

Nowadays I love them. Dunno when the switch happened.

USB-C has changed the entire game. It’s a completely different game now. It’s like Yahtzee vs Uno. Or like Call of Duty vs Microsoft Flight Simulator. Remember playing freeze tag or dodgeball? Well it’s not like that anymore. Now it’s like playing soccer.

How do you get a full-year’s pay after getting fired?

Keep yelling at those who are so tuned out that they can’t care enough to give a fuck about who’s running the country. Keep making excuses for the Democrats’ decade of mediocre complacency. I’m sure things will change.

What do you expect in this economy? Groceries aren’t the only things being hit by inflation.

Most of these accomplishments, while they do benefit the middle class, are largely invisible to the average American who’s not perpetually following politics.

Student loan forgiveness only directly affects people who go to college, an increasingly less popular/accessible career path amongst the working class. It also has restrictions and has been facing legal challenges, both of which limit its effectiveness.

Lower prescription drug costs are only really visible to people who are taking prescription drugs long-term and doesn’t prevent the healthcare system from bankrupting you in countless other ways.

The Affordable Care Act is arguably the single most significant accomplishment for the Democratic party in my millennial lifetime and if it survives to the next election cycle it will be old enough to vote in it.

As for the rest, improving infrastructure moves too slowly for people to notice in the short-term and despite the efforts to slow them we are still facing record increases to the cost of living and job insecurity.

The working class is getting desperate, people are worried about how they’re going to keep up with rising grocery prices or whether they’ll get laid off from their job when they’re living paycheck to paycheck. If you don’t own a home yet you’re likely questioning whether homeownership will ever be within reach while your landlord increases your rent for no apparent reason other than greed.

In a relative sense to the struggles the working class has been facing coming out of the pandemic, the Democrats have thrown them bones, told them the economy is great, in fact it’s the best in the world when you know for a fact you were better off before the pandemic.

Do we know tariffs and mass deportations aren’t going to make anything better? Do we know things are likely to get a lot worse? Are we the average American? The results of the election prove that we aren’t.

I would argue that he most definitely is a champion for radical change and that’s why he won. “Drain the swamp”, “Dictator on day one”, " He says it like it is" are all things that deviate dramatically from the status quo of political etiquette. Trump is willing to break political norms to get what he wants and evidently voters think his interests align with their own.

Obviously, this isn’t the kind of radical change you or I are hoping for but it certainly is radical. Meanwhile, the Dems are playing it safe in an attempt to appeal broadly and not upset too many people. And we’ve seen for the last decade that gets us at best legislation which has been gutted to the point where it does effectively nothing for the majority of Americans.