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Elected Democrats Know How to Fight [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-06-17
I was K-Hive all the way. For years.
I’m far from alone when I say it’s been a rough seven months. Feels like nine years. I can’t begin to imagine what it’s been like for Black women in this country.
Around here on this site, since January, I’ve been a bitter and at times vicious commenter when it comes to elected Democrats, particularly at the federal level, but also in the case of my ambitious governor here in the Golden State. Are elected Democrats to blame for the actions of sociopaths in red Klan robes pretending to be patriotic Americans? Of course not.
Are elected Democrats bad people? Of course not. At least, I hope not. “We’re not as bad as Republicans” is not how you win anymore.
The claim I often hear is that Democrats CAN’T effect any change. They’re not in power. They’re impotent.
The claim is wrong. Hakeem Jeffries, Dick Durbin, and Chuck Schumer, like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi before them, and the rest of the party’s leadership in Congress, DO know how to fight—and win. They know how to make things happen with ruthless efficiency when they ACTUALLY want something.
The proof:
When it comes to opposing anyone on the left, they come together beautifully---even if it means supporting a disgusting sexual harasser running for mayor of New York City. When the vile, hypocritical New York Times notices you preferring Andrew Cuomo, of all people, to a young leftist, it’s time to spend some time in front of the mirror.
And it was breathtaking to watch them all come together to stop the Sanders candidacy in 2020. I cheered them on myself!
There’s more:
When it comes to weapons for Benjamin Netanyahu, and urging Tiananmen-style brutality for anyone who dares disagree, Cory and the gang do not hesitate to deliver. The Niagara Falls of poisoned milk spilling out of AIPAC’s bloated teat must be too tempting to ignore.
For years I argued with leftists. I never voted for Sanders and I never voted Republican, either. Dutifully I marked my ballot D, eight times. Clinton twice, Gore, Kerry, Obama twice, Clinton, and Harris. Pragmatic, tactical choices. I preached incrementalism. I warned leftists about the Supreme Court.
What am I supposed to say to them now? When they said every election was about Blue Millionaires vs. Red Billionaires---they were right. When they said liberals only cared about saving people from COVID-19 until doing so became inconvenient, they were right. When they said it was enabling fascism to let sweet, well-intentioned dotards pass away while still clinging to office or while clinging to a seat on the high court, they were right. When they said it didn’t matter because you can’t really trust the liberals on the court to do the right thing anyway, I laughed at them. Last week, the liberals on the court voted to let a corporation strip mine land sacred to the Apache people---because yet again, it would be politically unwise to let bold action and doing what’s right get in the way of pragmatism and tactics.
Being Right isn’t predictive of victory---2012 was the last policy election at the presidential level---but at some point we have to start asking about the choices our elected leaders are making---or not making---while they are governing. What is my governor going to do about housing prices? Probably the same as what he’s done about LAPD thugs brutalizing innocent protesters — nothing at all, presumably because to do so would upset the radical centrist NIMBYs in the donor class. But, at least he says some spicy stuff sometimes that makes me smile. There’s that.
Sounding good doesn’t always translate into action. I’m not from Illinois so I don’t know if Pritzker is walking the walk. Mamdani might be a bag of hot air. At this point, why not give him a try? The police union candidates have been embarrassing, abject failures. He couldn’t possibly be worse.
For nine years we have been expecting to win because we’re Not Trump. That’s over. If I was managing a campaign, I would implore my candidate to talk about housing, taxes, and the thieves and criminals running this government and stealing our money, day after bleeding day, in a pejorative way. Can such a candidate win? Maybe not---the message would hit a little close to home in a system where serving in public office makes you a millionaire, especially if you cheat. How shameless and sanctimonious, to point to Trump’s corruption when you’re using public office to enrich yourself. How dare you.
Do not be surprised if the youth of America gives Team Blue the middle finger in November of 2026---again---after their scoldy elders tell them to give up their lattes and “get a job” once again. You want them to vote, but if they have an opinion you don’t like, they should sit down and be quiet? And if they want to protest peacefully they should have their faces smashed in by deranged police officers? That’s your message for them?
Nobody my age has a right to tell them anything, until our party actually does something besides spending three years focus grouping a little spot of debt forgiveness and then greenlighting it because we know the courts will nuke it. Young people are facing an ocean of hardship, and spinning yarn about how we had to get our toes wet crossing a bright little stream of inconveniences back in the day is gratuitously insulting.
Are you tired of losing yet? Get ready for more, unless something changes. Unless someone decides to DO something.
Congressional impotence isn’t shackles.
It’s fashion.
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