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Why Are Dems Surprised? (theintercept.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago by geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml to c/usa@lemmy.ml

Donald Trump has unleashed a “flood the zone” strategy: a cascade of executive actions aimed at rapidly reshaping the federal government and the country. The scope of changes is staggering: massive reductions in the federal workforce, the dismantling of USAID, signaling departments of labor and education are next, and the firing of Justice Department prosecutors.

Amid this whirlwind, a critical question emerges: Where is the opposition? What concrete steps are Democrats taking to counter this aggressive agenda? Senior politics reporter Akela Lacy says there are some very obvious things the Democrats could be doing. “Movement people are asking the obvious question right now, which is:

Why are there any Democrats — at all — voting to confirm a single Trump nominee? That’s one of the lowest hanging pieces of fruit,” she says. The Democrats had no plan, Lacy says, despite there being “no confusion about the fact that these nominees were going to be coming up for a vote. And still there were Democrats who voted for several of Trump’s nominees.”

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[-] dx1@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Your arrogant framing that he's "ignoring" some "realistic" choice - Dem vs. Repub - is simply an idiotic restatement of the circular reasoning that, "we will only vote for the duopoly, because we will only vote for the duopoly, because we will only vote for the duopoly, [...]". This self-defeating thinking, when adopted by the general public, completely neuters the public's democratic recourse against a tyrannical system. We are not ignoring anything. We have heard this reasoning you're using, and have understood and described the problems with it, over and over again. You are ignoring the real problem - an oppressive political system that's methodically stripped any power from the people, using useful idiots like you to attack any attempt at democratic expression.

There is no legal enshrinement of the two party system. Nowhere is it written in law that only Democrats and Republicans can win elections. Ballot access, which isn't even required to win an election, is granted by petition and filing paperwork. The only thing stopping a "third party" from winning is the public's self-inflicted unwillingness to vote for them, stemming solely from partisan fear and ignorance. And, consequentially, after the support has been whittled down sufficiently, the media refuses to even cover them, compounding the problem.

this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2025
59 points (95.4% liked)

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