There are growing concerns in the party that the political war is not going as planned — that the juice may not have been worth the squeeze and could, in a nightmare scenario, result in a net gain for Democrats.
And within broader GOP circles, misgivings about the strategy heightened last week after California voters overwhelmingly approved Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to redraw the state’s congressional districts in a manner that Democrats hope will flip five House seats in their direction.
Meanwhile, the Democrats have growing concerns about their nightmare scenario, that it will result in a net gain for progressives.
Since you have the right take, I’ll ask you something. Do you think it’s possible to actually “flip” the Democratic party?
Personally, I don’t think the analogy of the MAGA takeover with the Republican party works with a progressive takeover of the Democratic party. I just don’t think you can move left like that in the same way you can to the right.
Moving left fundamentally changes the main class interest of the party. Moving right does not. That’s why you’re correct in saying the worse thing that could happen to that party (from the perspective of its leadership) is a progressive takeover.
I just, don’t think it’s possible. I think what is being planned right now is working towards a Gavin Newsom presidential campaign. Which, in my opinion, is nothing more than business as usual for the Democrats.
Their focus is not on winning or doing good policy. It’s on giving left wing movements a place to be suppressed and neutralized of their momentum.
I think its a mistake that the progressive wind we have right now is not being directed as throwing that entire party in the trash.
FDR and Teddy both snuck in because the left-leaning party wanted to pay lip service, and instead got real progressive action. Like, there is precedent. And you if think shit is worse than the gilded age… I won’t disagree but I do think it could still happen.
I don’t have a lot of hope. For anything useful to survive in this country, we need progressives to take over. However, I’m afraid things would have to get much, much worse before that could happen.
I’m doing the whole peaceful, “No Kings”, protests, but unless they really, really grow, it isn’t going to go anywhere.
Despite what seems to be the case, I don’t think the right is winning solely because of racism. President Pedophile won both the first time and, bafflingly, the second time because he promised to make things better.
It was a lie, but it was a lie too many people were desperate to hear.
Giving hope is a winning strategy, but it needs to translate into results.
I’m not really hoping for the Democrats to win. I’d like to see the right (both Democrat and Republican) lose. I’d like to see a real progressive option emerge. What we need more than anything is people to run. However, the people who actually care about the people are mostly also struggling to survive.
I do think there’s a better chance of a progressive revolution in the Democratic party than there is in the Republican party. These kinds of flips have happened several times before. I’d like to see it happen again before it’s too late. However, we (the people) have to get a whole lot nastier.
I don’t think it’s the best option. But I think it’s realistic. And hey, nothing is stopping us from trying both takeover and making our own party, right?
I’m not who you responded to but I share sentiments with you both. I believed Bernie in his 2016 primary bid when he talked about reforming the Democratic Party from within. But beginning with how the rest of that primary played out, I’ve believed less and less that it’s the right plan. It was also a nice thing to hope for when we started getting a progressive coalition of Reps, including my own, but that movement seems pretty stalled too.
I’m of the opinion that it is still possible, and we might even still be moving in that direction, but the resistance from neo liberals has slowed the pace too successfully. We’re not moving fast enough and we’re consistently passing tipping points in the meantime. I’m more than ready to drop the baggage and try anew. It’s not without hardship and risks, but I legitimately don’t see the current plan as viable.
Hey Republicans, don’t worry too much. You’re dealing with Democrats. Your biggest danger is stepping aside fast enough to avoid getting hit as they collapse to the floor and assume a quivering fetal position when given any opportunity to push back against your bigoted fascist project and corrupt grifting.
The double-edged sword of gerrymandering is that you’re building seats with a 5-10pt advantage and stacking them with the most extreme right-wing primary winners you can muster. A blue-wave election decimates these suddenly-swing districts and can even topple deep red state safe districts (the Alabama senate flip in '18 being a classic example of what a big enough wave year can do).
But two years after the wave, when voter participation normalizes, Republicans reclaim all those lost seats quick enough. And when they have the State level sandbagged even more heavily (Wisconsin can go 60-pts D and still have a Republican state legislature), the Dem response to gerrymandering becomes pandering to conservatives as a matter of party doctrine.
The only way out of this in the short term is by Dems capitalizing on state majorities (in Virginia and New Jersey, for instance, the new blue majority is ripe for its own redistricting) and permanently setting districts in their favor.
Then, on a longer timeline MAKE DC A STATE YOU ASSHOLES and then get serious about broader electoral reforms.
In recent days, aides have presented Trump with three scenarios for the overall outcome of the redistricting fight, none of which include Republicans losing seats when all the maps are finalized
So, sounds to me like… trumps yes men are only bringing him scenerios where he wins. They don’t want to be like the girl who brought him unfavorable jobs numbers.
As a result basically they might slice numbers up so that in attempting to dillute democratic districts out of existance, they may instead turn all the districts competitive, and if everything swings like this last election he might lose more than he gains.
Admitted though, could go in favor for him as obviously this weeks election had one huge key detail going in it’s favor, the democrats gave the illusion they were actually fighting and standing up to trump. Which as usual they managed to completely screw it up… right after getting overwhelming evidence that “yes this is what we want!”.
