Post by NewOrleans on Sept 4, 2021 10:01:28 GMT -5
we are in a coup. Not the violent kind, although that happened recently and will happen again. But starting with Merrick Garland— the courts, the gerrymandering, the voter suppression laws, CRT bans— every Republican move now is part of a coup. We are a failed democracy, one in name only. We were jubilant over Biden’s election and GA senate seats, but we remain in danger of… everything, as TX has shown. They will try everything and anything to seize and consolidate power. I’m scared. I’m as scared as I was in 2016. I don’t think I will ever stop being scared because the radicalized Republican Party also won’t stop.
You think we're in a coup, NOW? Girl, no. We've been here for the last twelve years, when the Tea Party got its hooks into the GOP. One could say this started back with the Moral Majority. This isn't even new shit. Liberal white people are just cluing in that they are being impacted.
You think we're in a coup, NOW? Girl, no. We've been here for the last twelve years, when the Tea Party got its hooks into the GOP. One could say this started back with the Moral Majority. This isn't even new shit. Liberal white people are just cluing in that they are being impacted.
I'm salty about everything.
Obligatory fuck Reagan with a side of "doesn't anyone remember Newt Gingrich?"
You think we're in a coup, NOW? Girl, no. We've been here for the last twelve years, when the Tea Party got its hooks into the GOP. One could say this started back with the Moral Majority. This isn't even new shit. Liberal white people are just cluing in that they are being impacted.
I'm salty about everything.
Ok but now we are terrorizing educators through FOIA or fining them personally if they make white people uncomfortable in history class and weaponizing a virus and deputizing people to track women so I’d say we’ve reached a new level.
Post by goldengirlz on Sept 4, 2021 14:04:37 GMT -5
Everyone’s right. Republicans started laying the groundwork for this sort of insidious coup — the not-violent kind, the type that has the backing of the highest levels of government — decades ago. This couldn’t have — and didn’t— happen overnight. But it’s exactly what they’ve been plotting all along.
I have to believe it’s not hopeless (naive coping mechanism, maybe), but I can understand why it does feel that way. Too many people turned a blind eye for too long, and now it’s a not-so-secret thing, but even in the best case scenario, people (especially historically-marginalized people) are going to be harmed and it’s going to take a while to come out of this.
Finally learn the lesson of Obama's first 2 years when Dems controlled all branches that bipartisanship is horseshit and do not attempt for it for the foreseeable future.
And the Dems are completely unwilling to do what is necessary to save us.
And what is that?
Right? Ending the filibuster is only useful if we have a majority to enact the kind of change we need to see to improve things and we don’t.
Nanci Pelosi is a god, but even she can’t do much with a three vote margin. We need at least 2 more Senate seats. We can’t even pass a decent budget bill for fuck’s sake, nevermind anything remotely controversial.
Blowing up the entire filibuster when we don’t have the votes to back that move is a shit idea. Talk is cheap, we need to win more elections.
Right? Ending the filibuster is only useful if we have a majority to enact the kind of change we need to see to improve things and we don’t.
Nanci Pelosi is a god, but even she can’t do much with a three vote margin. We need at least 2 more Senate seats. We can’t even pass a decent budget bill for fuck’s sake, nevermind anything remotely controversial.
Blowing up the entire filibuster when we don’t have the votes to back that move is a shit idea. Talk is cheap, we need to win more elections.
Which brings us back to gerrymandering and voter suppression and the aforementioned coup
Right? Ending the filibuster is only useful if we have a majority to enact the kind of change we need to see to improve things and we don’t.
Nanci Pelosi is a god, but even she can’t do much with a three vote margin. We need at least 2 more Senate seats. We can’t even pass a decent budget bill for fuck’s sake, nevermind anything remotely controversial.
Blowing up the entire filibuster when we don’t have the votes to back that move is a shit idea. Talk is cheap, we need to win more elections.
Which brings us back to gerrymandering and voter suppression and the aforementioned coup
I don’t deny there is a coup but Dems can’t end gerrymandering and voter suppression in Congress without a bigger margin. Remember how desolate I was about the small margins we won in 2020? This is why. Some of the Dems are worse than useless. This whole “fix it!” message to Congressional leadership is absurdity. That’s the thing about coups, the people “in power” are usually powerless to stop them.
We also need to put up decent candidates. Not some shitty white bro with a D by his name that is “moderate” anyway.
Push hard at the local level. Push hard at the low levels. Push hard at the mid levels.
And then, hopefully in a few years, we actually CAN have decent margins and unfuck the repugnant mark on our everything.
Also, that’s supposed to be repub, but AC changed it so I’m leaving that one.
This is where it happens. Yes yes yes. I know it looks like lack of trying but please believe that on most of these issues Congress would love to do more. They are working miracles with the people we gave them to work with but they can only threaten and cajole so much. Right now the moderate members of the Dem caucus need us a lot less than we need them and everyone knows it.
I’m also fully ready to admit that you probably can’t truly fight a coup using institutional politics, so instead of getting on the backs of Congress to do more with less what are we gonna do about the actual revolution?
You think we're in a coup, NOW? Girl, no. We've been here for the last twelve years, when the Tea Party got its hooks into the GOP. One could say this started back with the Moral Majority. This isn't even new shit. Liberal white people are just cluing in that they are being impacted.
I'm salty about everything.
Obligatory fuck Reagan with a side of "doesn't anyone remember Newt Gingrich?"
Ha, I always give insidious credit where it is due to Reagan. And I am well aware of how the groundwork started far earlier (far earlier than Reagan— see Buchanan architecting ways to prevent majority influence starting in the 60’s). But I think it has all come to fruition now.
Obligatory fuck Reagan with a side of "doesn't anyone remember Newt Gingrich?"
Ha, I always give insidious credit where it is due to Reagan. And I am well aware of how the groundwork started far earlier (far earlier than Reagan— see Buchanan architecting ways to prevent majority influence starting in the 60’s). But I think it has all come to fruition now.
Yes, Nixon might have been disgraced (although 20% still supported him, which sounds familiar), but Buchanan showed the southern strategy worked. And ever since they’ve been leaning into it at a grassroots level - stacking school boards, running anyone they can in a primary, etc. We’ve got 40+ years to overcome of this strategy, but we’ve got to start somewhere. It feels like punishment to encourage someone to run for school boards right now, but if you know anyone sane who might be up for it, do it.
Finally learn the lesson of Obama's first 2 years when Dems controlled all branches that bipartisanship is horseshit and do not attempt for it for the foreseeable future.
I mean, they keep passing bills through reconciliation and doing a crap ton of executive orders. I am not excusing Congress and Manchin can still kiss the entirety of my ass, but I see Biden, Pelosi, and Schumer giving it their all. The problem is there aren't enough Ds in the House or the Senate or state houses to make enough of a difference enough of the time.
Yes, it's gerrymandering. Yes it's voter suppression. But that is the hand we're presently dealt. One of the reasons Stacey Abrams walks on water for me is that she sees all of that and STILL fights rather than giving up. And she's not--by far--the only one. It's the same reason Biden was my 3rd choice after Warren and Harris. My hope for myself every day is to try to keep going with that same clear-eyed determination. We may be in a shitstorm, but surrendering to something is what makes the coup happen.
Post by sofamonkey on Sept 5, 2021 18:38:34 GMT -5
Y’all. Find your local emerge branch & help them. They promote WOC and women in general for elected positions. One of my very good friends helps with the WA one, and I call and I do what I can for our state. There are so many states. Elect women.
Sorry if I’m preaching to the choir here: If you live in a red area: do not assume you’re alone. I canvass in red areas and people always want to know “am I the only liberal here?” Obviously I don’t give out confidential info, but they never, ever are. It’s not just you. Reach out to local groups, you might not ever be a majority, but you’ll be enough to make an impact.
Really, even if it’s just starting a FB group. @the_Jen started one right after the election and it’s been a way for liberals to share info about what’s happening at the local level, which is a great start.
Sorry if I’m preaching to the choir here: If you live in a red area: do not assume you’re alone. I canvass in red areas and people always want to know “am I the only liberal here?” Obviously I don’t give out confidential info, but they never, ever are. It’s not just you. Reach out to local groups, you might not ever be a majority, but you’ll be enough to make an impact.
Really, even if it’s just starting a FB group. @the_Jen started one right after the election and it’s been a way for liberals to share info about what’s happening at the local level, which is a great start.
That reminds me of being a young mil spouse overseas. People would eventually come out to us (their phrase) that they were, gasp, feminist. Or liberal. If we could manage being liberal atheists in a military community, then anyone can manage in their red towns.
I do acknowledge there are places where there are real consequences. Military is one of them. But we still managed to find our people. And after a number of years, conservative coworkers sought us out for legitimate respectful debate.
Sorry if I’m preaching to the choir here: If you live in a red area: do not assume you’re alone. I canvass in red areas and people always want to know “am I the only liberal here?” Obviously I don’t give out confidential info, but they never, ever are. It’s not just you. Reach out to local groups, you might not ever be a majority, but you’ll be enough to make an impact.
Really, even if it’s just starting a FB group. @the_Jen started one right after the election and it’s been a way for liberals to share info about what’s happening at the local level, which is a great start.
That reminds me of being a young mil spouse overseas. People would eventually come out to us (their phrase) that they were, gasp, feminist. Or liberal. If we could manage being liberal atheists in a military community, then anyone can manage in their red towns.
I do acknowledge there are places where there are real consequences. Military is one of them. But we still managed to find our people. And after a number of years, conservative coworkers sought us out for legitimate respectful debate.
Gah... I _still_ remember a discussion in the battalion FRG about the "Christmas Party". That I had to keep reminding people was a "Winter Holiday Party", because there were a whole dang lot of holidays that fell between Thanksgiving and the New Year, and it was offensive that they couldn't bring themselves to acknowledge any of them. And then began listing off a bunch of them from a sampling of different religions... Finally getting to the point that the date they were trying to use was a high holy day for one faith, and that the mandatory fun event they were planning would interrupt observations of it. (they were trying to hold the Christmas Party on the winter solstice) I got a sort of gaping mouth response as one person flipped thru their daily planner, mystified, mumbling "those holidays aren't shown in here..."
I was a bit of an oddball all around, though, so I think folks took it in stride that the objections came from me. I was a good 5-8 years older than the normal age for someone married to a person in my husband's rank/position. And, we were in Korea, and I was working full time, telecommuting, for a company back in the US...). We also didn't have kids. It all made me a bit... strange... in the military spouse world.
Post by basilosaurus on Sept 6, 2021 12:46:35 GMT -5
I get it, audette. No kids made us extremely strange even in our mid 20s. Most of my friends were newly commissioned since we were shut out of our age/rank world due to that.
And, yeah, I ran into the Christmas party nonsense, too. Especially galling was the squadron commander saying the prayer before dinner at one. At least during those times you could look around the room and see the few other folks not bowing heads. We'd acknowledge each other with a small nod. lol.
Sorry to derail, NewOrleans. Have you seen the bitch mcconnell meme circulating? I don't like it. He's bad on his own. Why do we have to add him as a woman to make him supposedly worse? Grrr
Sorry if I’m preaching to the choir here: If you live in a red area: do not assume you’re alone. I canvass in red areas and people always want to know “am I the only liberal here?” Obviously I don’t give out confidential info, but they never, ever are. It’s not just you. Reach out to local groups, you might not ever be a majority, but you’ll be enough to make an impact.
Really, even if it’s just starting a FB group. @the_Jen started one right after the election and it’s been a way for liberals to share info about what’s happening at the local level, which is a great start.
I live in a red area and we’ll never ever outpace the Qanon/MAGA crowd. The state Democratic Party does very little in these parts. In a small town it’s tough to push back for many reasons. We had a great congressional candidate who checked all the boxes who still couldn’t win in a year where Whitmer, Nessel, and Benson swept our statewide races. The small local group I am involved with, we pretty much tread water. We provide info to each other but guns and abortion are so ingrained in what people vote for up here, it feels hopeless. These people would vote for a ham sandwich if it had a R next to it. I save my angst for state and National races because local is banging your head against a wall.
This sounds like my area too. I remember our first local parade, there was a state rep candidate that was running a "family values" campaign. Pro-guns, anti-choice. I assumed it was the R candidate. Nope, that was the D candidate! She didn't win. People around here complain all day about our national house rep but still vote for him every time because he's R. I've thought about getting involved in something but I never feel like there's a point. As long as they think Ds are going to take away their guns, they will never vote D. There are several people around here with 45 flags, bumper stickers, etc. IDK how to ever get through to them.
Sorry if I’m preaching to the choir here: If you live in a red area: do not assume you’re alone. I canvass in red areas and people always want to know “am I the only liberal here?” Obviously I don’t give out confidential info, but they never, ever are. It’s not just you. Reach out to local groups, you might not ever be a majority, but you’ll be enough to make an impact.
Really, even if it’s just starting a FB group. @the_Jen started one right after the election and it’s been a way for liberals to share info about what’s happening at the local level, which is a great start.
I live in a red area and we’ll never ever outpace the Qanon/MAGA crowd. The state Democratic Party does very little in these parts. In a small town it’s tough to push back for many reasons. We had a great congressional candidate who checked all the boxes who still couldn’t win in a year where Whitmer, Nessel, and Benson swept our statewide races. The small local group I am involved with, we pretty much tread water. We provide info to each other but guns and abortion are so ingrained in what people vote for up here, it feels hopeless. These people would vote for a ham sandwich if it had a R next to it. I save my angst for state and National races because local is banging your head against a wall.
Yeah, I don’t want to overstate it. I grew up in a very red area. You’re not going to win elections. But I think a combination of feeling covid isolation and re-watching the Good Place has me thinking a lot about the power of people coming together. None of us need to be alone with this.