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'Fractured' Democrats would actually win on issues if they'd stop losing on messaging [1]

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Date: 2025-02-12

Greg Bluestein's reporting that ⁠Democrats are "fracturing" over Trump's "hardline" immigration agenda⁠ (literally the headline) included a nugget that - to me - was the story.

"...a poll published this month by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ⁠showed⁠ that roughly 60% believe there should be a way for most people who have come to the U.S. unlawfully to “stay in the country legally if certain requirements are met.”

As Donald ⁠Trump's polling begins to take the predictable slide, ⁠Democrats seem to not realize that they still win on issues, but they definitely lose on messaging and branding.

Hell they could call on the ghost of GOP past: Ronald Reagan (who'd be branded a fire-breathing liberal by today's MAGA standards - gave amnesty to three million undocumented immigrants in 1986. Did Joe Biden even utter the "a" word? Nope. Should he have? Mmmmmaybe? I mean, if 57% of reddish-state Georgians feel there should be a way for the undocumented to "stay here" but "with conditions," you have to believe that number is at least that high if not higher, nationally.

Get this: ⁠House Democrats are "pissed" ⁠that grassroots ogranizations like Indivisible and MoveOn are applying heat on them to "do something." I get it; what can a party almost completely out of power in Washington actually do, right? Still, bellyaching about grassroots activists being active at this point seems tone deaf.

Brian Tyler Cohen ⁠went off on Elon Musk's self-serving via DOGE⁠ trying to root out "waste & fraud" while actually dismantling USAID, whose⁠ inspector general was investigating SpaceX and its Starlink terminals⁠ used in the Ukraine War front. Mere coincidence, surely.

Cohen also notes that a neutered USAID gives China room to step up globally and fill the 'humanitarian goodwill' void. You know, "soft power."

How's that benefit Elon? T⁠esla just opened a 'megapack' battery plant ⁠alongside its vehicle manufacturing faciity in Shanghai. You connect the dots.

There's also the dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau - which actually ⁠nets a positive return on investment (ROI) for taxpayers.⁠ Not exactly 'waste, fraud and abuse." Instead, from Elon and his 'Muskrats' boyband, we get noise about condoms in ̶G̶a̶z̶a̶ Mozambique - which is traced back to ⁠George W. Bush's PEPFAR program⁠ to eradicate HIV from the third world. Losing goodwill ground in the same Mozambique where ISIS has a presence seems ... shortsighted.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/12/2303114/-Fractured-Democrats-would-actually-win-on-issues-if-they-d-stop-losing-on-messaging?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

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