“How’s the Democratic Party’s ground game in Pennsylvania?” I asked a friend several weeks before the 2024 presidential election. He replied optimistically that there were far more door knockers this year than in 2022.

It turned out these door knockers were just urging a vote for the Democrats without putting forth a compelling agenda attached to candidate commitments on issues that mean something to people where they live, work, and raise their families. There was no Democratic Party “Compact for the American People.” Then-President Joe Biden visited Pennsylvania, which went Republican, many times, with his most memorable message being that he grew up in Scranton.

Their aversion to building their own momentum to answer the basic questions “Whose side are you on?” and “What does the Democratic Party stand for?” remains as pathetic as it was in 2022 and 2024.

  • SnarkoPolo@lemmy.world
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    They’ll still be wagging their finger and expressing concern while they’re being beaten and hauled off to a private prison.

  • Gates9@sh.itjust.works
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    How many times does the Democratic Party leadership have to create new and inventive ways to steal defeat from the jaws of victory for it to form a clear composite picture of collaboration?

    • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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      Since trump got elected that seems to be all they have. Biden, like him or not, actually had some decent policy. Yes, yes…could have done a lot better, but it was more than “we’re not trump”.

      But since trump won? They’ve caved on pretty much everything.

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    They are already winning, they have all the campagn contributions they need. Why would they do anything different.

    Citizens United will be the death of the USA.

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        The people it benefits would have to decide to not benefit from it anymore.

        So not likely unless the alternative is even worse.

      • bagsy@lemmy.world
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        congress and the senate would have to make s new law snd the president would have to sign it.

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          Citizens United isn’t a law, it’s a Supreme Court ruling which has its (flawed) logic based on the Constitution. A law won’t cut it, because Citizens United would be used as precedent to strike it down as unconstitutional. We likely need a new Supreme Court ruling or constitutional amendment.

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            Well crap, if you are correct, then we really, truly are fukt.

            There is no way we’ll see a constitutional admendment, especially not one for the people and agaisnt big business. Not in my lifetime. Its fascism from here on out. Fuuucccckkkkkkk.

  • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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    It’s long past time for the MAGA comedy act of Schmuck & Jeffries to get the hook, and get dragged off-stage. They are 50% of the reason that Trump is president again.

    Imagine if we let Hitler off the hook, and then allowed him to take power again a few years later? These dipshits did that.

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    People have to understand that Republicans and Democrats are the same thing, its the same serpent which bites its own tail. Its controlled opposition.

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      I’m struggling to understand your ouroboros metaphor, could you elaborate? I’m not trying to be sarcastic or to tease or anything, I’m asking in earnest.

      • MadBits
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        There’s no tease in that and you’re right to ask for more information. Republican and Democratic parties, despite appearing as opposites, are actually part of a single, self-sustaining system (“controlled opposition”). Now, that doesn’t mean it’s always been that way, but infiltrating both parties during many years can set a scene for this to play out perfectly. They don’t care about laws, rulers, or anything of those sorts (they are the ones printing money and distributing power). Presidents, governors, etc are not “controlled” as in per se (or at least not all of them), but once they reach that position they are limited by the very system they are ruling, and that system is already controlled by a single “party” (to call it so) which has people on both sides. People who meet and drink at the same table, visit the same islands, do the same degeneracy, so on and so forth.

        Edit: Also a good example is AIPAC, they are funding both democrats and republicans. AIPAC could easily be the very serpent we are talking about. What’s funny is that AIPAC is basically Israels way of controlling politicians in USA, Israel which has Mossad (Funded in the same year, with common inteligence as CIA). Mossad which shares an astonishing amount of information with KGB… KGB which is Russia’s intelligence. When you draw the line at the end, they are all basically in the same boat. The very people that create false wars and send people to the meat grinder for profit.

        Russia and USA, biggest “enemies”, yet… when it comes to war, they decide to fight it in Europe or Middle East (despite USA and Russia sharing a border) and just so it happens that they fight those proxy wars exactly in countries that do not adhere to either Rothchilds banks or are in the way of Israel/USA or Russia.

        Once they have enough technology (which we develop), once they have unlocked key aspects to life, from highly advanced medicine or propulsion systems (you name it), they will massacre the masses like cattle and rule on their own over their own world.

  • ClassStruggle@lemmy.ml
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    Their purpose has never been to win but to defend the status quo and prevent leftist organizations and movements from gaining positions of political influence and power that may threaten that status quo.

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    Need to have Schummer, Jeffries and Martin removed. All democratic senate Candidates in 2026 need to be primaried, for a realistic chance of changing the democratic party.

    If we can’t do that, we should sit the election out.

    • I_Jedi@lemmy.today
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      Nuh uh. If you don’t want to vote for the big two, vote third party instead. Those guys are legitimately appreciative of every vote they get.

      • Typhoon@lemmy.ca
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        Then all the democrats lose their votes, the republicans win big, and the third party candidates are “legitimately appreciative”. Now what? This is the kind of stupid suggestion that helped Trump win.

        • NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml
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          Republicans may end up winning big anyways because people will otherwise not turn out at all and then democrat voters will blame the public for not voting even though the democrats gave them no real reason to vote.

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            Realistically the voting system in each state needs to be changed, otherwise it’s a bit of a moot point to vote third party in many instances.

            The thing is that it’s definitely something achievable to change the system. Alaska and Maine both have Ranked Choice voting. NYC has Ranked Choice voting as well.

            If groups supporting ranked choice voting, like the Equal Vote Coalition or FairVote, get more support then it becomes more than just a pipe dream, and third parties will have a legitimate chance to win without having the spoiler effect being a major disincentive.

        • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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          Then either the democrats change to appease the third party voters, or the third party keeps growing until it no longer matters what the democrats do.

          If those scenarios seem unrealistic, they are much more realistic than democrats spontaneously deciding to do a 180 and actually fix things.

          • Spacehooks@reddthat.com
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            Most messed up part is dems will change… they just chase right wing voters more cause they vote.

            • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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              I voted and encouraged others to do so.

              Harris and Clinton bent over backwards to win over the mythical “moderate republicans” and ate shit. Only reason Biden won was because of COVID.

              If the democrats can’t be pressured or reasoned with, that’s all the more reason to give up on them.

          • baronvonj@piefed.social
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            Third parties haven’t grown, though. Only 3 were on the ballot in more than 10 states in 2024, and none were all 51 states. Over 99% of state and federal legislative seats are held be either Democratic or Republican nominee. Zero current governors, with only 4 in total in the last 25 years. Not a single electoral college vote since 1968, and Perot received 18.9% of the national popular vote in 1992. Current third party candidates and voters should generally be trying to shift the Democratic party via the primaries instead, due to the stacked ballot access in most states.

            • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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              Primaries aren’t even required to be fair elections. The party can pull whatever shenanigans it wants, and there’s nothing any of us can do about it so long as third parties are ruled out.

              If the democrats decided to straight up go back to the days of deciding nominees in smoke-filled rooms with no primary process at all, then would you still say we need to vote for them unconditionally as the lesser evil? Is there any breaking point at all where you’ll reject that approach?

              Because if so, then I am simply already past that point. And if not, then you seem utterly hopeless to me. They can keep moving further and further right, removing any possibility for you to do anything about it, and you’ll keep supporting them unconditionally. I consider that a ridiculous position and it’s even more ridiculous to think the general public would accept that.

              • baronvonj@piefed.social
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                If they do away with primaries we can discuss what to do at that time, but they haven’t at this time and they’ve actually reduced the power of super delegates since 2016 (before the 2018 primaries they made it so super delegates don’t even get a vote at the convention unless the pledged delegates can’t elect a nominee in the initial round).

                I never said to unconditionally vote for the Democratic candidates to begin with so the rest of your response to this imagined position is moot.

                I’m advocating for maximizing the power of your vote in the system we currently have. If you’re living in a district in a state with any kind of ranked choice voting, absolutely vote third party if that’s where your alignment falls. Otherwise you need to accept that the winner will be either the Democratic or Republican nominee so your chance to influence that is in either of those primaries and not voting for one of them in the general means the one with whom you least align has one fewer votes to overcome to win. For your one vote against them, they need two votes to get the lead.

                Third parties just aren’t viable in districts without ranked choice, so to get ranked choice we the voters need to put candidates who support election reform in power thru the major party primaries. Which is exactly what I’m advocating for.

                • Krono@lemmy.today
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                  So your idea is that we will vote in Democrat politicians who will… Legislate themselves out of power by instituting ranked choice voting?

                  This part of your plan seems absurd on its face. I want ranked choice voting as much as you, but we need a realistic plan, and what you’re proposing is a pipe dream.

                  Voting third party is more realistic than expecting Dems to institute ranked choice.

                • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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                  I never said to unconditionally vote for the Democratic candidates to begin with so the rest of your response to this imagined position is moot.

                  Y’all always play this little game. “I didn’t say that, don’t put words in my mouth.” OK then, say unequivocally that that is not your position. Say that it’s valid to place conditions on voting democrat. Then explain what possible condition could be more valid than “no genocide.”

                  You just don’t like me rephrasing your position bluntly.

                  I’m advocating for maximizing the power of your vote in the system we currently have. If you’re living in a district in a state with any kind of ranked choice voting, absolutely vote third party if that’s where your alignment falls.

                  No, you have it completely backwards. I am going to vote according to my values and beliefs. If they give me ranked choice voting, then I will happily put them above the Republicans. Otherwise, they will acquiesce to my minimum demands or they will not get my vote.

                  Third parties just aren’t viable in districts without ranked choice, so to get ranked choice we the voters need to put candidates who support election reform in power thru the major party primaries. Which is exactly what I’m advocating for

                  Oh, you’re one of those. “My car broke down.” “Well then, just drive it to the mechanic!”

                  The problem that ranked choice is meant to address is that the current system does not provide a viable means for us to get policy enacted. Your “solution” is to keep using ineffective, broken means in the hopes that it will somehow be effective at fixing itself. If we could achieve RCV through the existing system, then we could just achieve whatever end policy we want through the existing system. The logic is incredibly backwards, putting the cart before the horse.

                  If you had an ounce of spine, then you would demand RCV, then you would say that you should only vote for those candidates who support it. And if enough people did that, perhaps it could be achievable. And I’d certainly have more respect for your position.

                  As it is, your position is simply complete, unconditional support for the democrats, and then you say some irrelevant shit about voting reform to distract from that fact. Like, “It would sure be nice if the king decided to institute democracy out of the kindness of his heart, I’ll keep supporting him either way though.” If that is false, then address my first paragraph.

          • Typhoon@lemmy.ca
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            The democrats lost and haven’t changed a thing. The third parties also haven’t changed. They still don’t stand a chance.

            And now we have blatant fascism and a mentally ill narcissistic pedophile with dementia hauling anyway anyone he dislikes in the back of a van while he builds concentration camps for anyone who angers him.

            How exactly is this better than Kamala?

            • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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              I don’t think Trump being president is better than Kamala, which is why I didn’t vote for him.

              If Kamala had won, then she would still be black bagging people to concentration camps. ICE existed before and both Biden and Kamala explicitly support it. The silver lining is that, because Trump is doing it blatantly, as you say, at least more people are aware of it and upset about it. Doing fascism while following the rules and keeping everything out of sight and out of mind is arguably worse, but it’s kind of a toss up.

              Of course, the strategies I mentioned were and are longshots, which may take a while to work if they will at all. But they have a nonzero chance of working, which is more than “vote blue no matter who” does. That is, if the goal is actually stopping fascism and not just easing into it more comfortably.

        • I_Jedi@lemmy.today
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          Unlike you, I don’t fear the end of the world. Dying isn’t as scary as it sounds.