He pulled a Lyndsey Graham, or fell asleep and the body snatchers got to him.

Last edited Wed Jan 15, 2025, 03:14 PM - Edit history (1)

it's not clear cut to me how Democratic voters feel on the topic. I've had conversations with Democrats that voted for Obama, Biden, Harris that say they have little sympathy for people here illegally. If that's the feeling of even a plurality of Democrats, then supporting this will not hurt Fetterman and Gallego.

I don't think it will hurt them. They both had weak and unlikable opponents and Gallego got more votes than trump in AZ. It's disappointing because this is such a bad bill and I don't think it would hurt them to oppose it.

We’re talking about upholding the US Constitution that they all take an oath to. The problem with the right wingers is they have small minds.

How it impacts you and the ones you care about.

And revenge and retribution is not an idea. I’m getting a little too fed up with all his hate and anger. I got to take a vacation somehow.

That doesn't mean negative campaigning. It means that we should talk about health policy in terms of how it impacts your children. We talk about environmental policy in terms of the cost and disruption you will personally feel by not taking a certain action.

As for a vacation, that is a choice. It is good to choose to disconnect or be less involved at times. The politics will be there when you get back. "Caring" isn't a good reason to allow politics to impact your wellbeing.

Sorry I can't spell their names.

I am not fully informed on this particular issue, but it is time for the Democratic leaders to get everyone on the same page. The divide and conquer strategy is working for the GOP.

I could tolerate Manchin over the years. I was surprised by the Sinema. I am outraged by Fetterman. His behavior makes no sense. I’m scratching my head about Gallego.

Reagan started a movement to destroy jobs in America. NAFTA was signed by Clinton (though if memory serves me, the process began before his presidency). Since then Dems often have appeared as GOP light. Wish they were all as vigorous as Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Brown on jobs. Sadly, an opening was exploited by Trump.

I fear Dems are making the same mistake on immigration. Can’t recapture the narrative with these tactics.

Now I wonder if the only way to convince them to unify is the return their contribution requests with a note explaining my frustration rather than a check.

But just having left leaning Democrats doesn't mean we will win.

He is what the MAGA world claims to be: the defender of jobs in America. He just doesn’t demonize others to do so.

Dems need a winning strategy. Money is necessary but not sufficient to win.

"A Democrat in contact with the Hill said that Republicans who had been pushing the Laken Riley Act as a political messaging exercise did not anticipate that it would become law. 'Republicans were surprised by how many Democrats folded like cheap fucking suits.'"

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/the-fear-is-the-point


First the background. The Laken Riley Act is unprecedented in modern U.S. history. It requires the federal DHS bureaucracy to build billions of dollars in new infrastructure to cage any undocumented person *even accused* of petty theft, shoplifting, or several other property crimes.

https://bsky.app/profile/equalityalec.bsky.social/post/3lfpm5n6z4k2w

Sorry to say.

And, I mean, progressively liberal causes.

She's just the best

and the old guard is sticking with other old guard, instead of showing faith and confidence in AOC’s future.

1. no more money to groups that aggregate donations. In particular, A_ _b_ _ _ !

We donated to our in-state candidates during the primaries, and before we knew it, we received anywhere from 10 to a high of 18 requests in the email daily.

We still get 3-4 looking out to the midterms.

Here is how we will donate in the future so we can support our candidates of choice.

1. we set up another checking account in our bank to use when we want to remain anonymous.
2. we will use checks with no personal info on them.
3. requests for money via email will be reported as spam and filtered out using a specific filter.
4. I won't waste my time trying to unsubscribe in the political realm it has become a joke.
5. Unwanted USPS mail will go directly from the mail slot to the shredder slot.

We need to get rid of CITIZEN UNITED; it has corrupted and continues to corrupt our political system.

The other senator from Arizona also supports the Laken Riley Act.

Gallego isn't up for re-election for 6 years and Fetterman is 4 years
Neither is running for anything
If they're entire voting pattern is going to be based on 4 and 6 years down the road, then they're unreliable and weak

eom

I don't know if they are feeling pressure politically or actually agree. This law will be abused.

If they are guilty, deport. But a fair process needs to determine that.
And it will affect far more than illegals. Anyone who looks foreign...

So run more liars that tell people what they want to hear?

Gotcha!

eom

eom

Fetterman is a right wing Trojan Horse just like Kristen Sinema, Joe Manchin and host of others that make sure things stay suck.

...even a suspicion of being a Manchin means we need someone who is much stronger Left.

DU is basically a silo. There have been times when the outrage du jour on the forum did not translate into much outrage in the real world. This is one of them.

The Dems have to stop playing whiffle ball and start playing hardball.

of Dems voting for these kinds of laws, we need to support Progressing Dems

As well as child-sized electric chairs. Coming soon to a county near you.

It's low, pickable fruit.

Leon is the perfect shade of pastie white. More importantly, he has the green. His kind get to stay, have government contracts, and will be meddling in all manner of things. Much to all of our detriment. Tsf will let him do it.

Link to tweet

eom

There will be many other bills that are kind of written to split the Democrats on things we are not monolithic about (which is almost nothing).

....and not side with republicans.

I'm not at all thrilled with Gallego and Fetterman either, and will likely support a primary challenger against them. BUT, when it comes to the general election they're way better than anyone the GQP will nominate. Even if they don't vote with Democrats all the time they're preferable to anyone voting against us all the time.

I guess folks here must think we have 65 seats since they want to cancel 7-8 Dem senators. I don’t think the DU silo is going to like what comes down the pike when it comes to the 2028 nominee.

Support honest, truly left, Democratic Democrats.

I'd give my left nipple to have a couple of more imperfect and conservative-leaning Democrats in the Senate. Manchin, for example... as much as he's loathed and despised here, I'd absolutely LOVE to have the WV seat filled by him. He's one more "warm body" that gets us closer to having a majority.

However, I acknowledge that for certain individuals with limited foresight, prioritizing perfection may overshadow the acceptance of political realities and strategic thinking.

We don't need anymore wolves in sheep's clothing.

It is indeed short-sighted to dismiss the significant advantage of having a majority in either house of Congress, even with imperfect Democrats. This control extends to committees, appointments, and various crucial mechanisms. Any notion of relinquishing this advantage would be unwise. Perfection is unattainable, a fact well understood by those grounded in reality. Those who fail to grasp this concept risk naively surrendering power to the GOP in pursuit of idealized visions, driven by pride and unrealistic aspirations.

How has that worked out for us? Here we are, in the shit because they are so self serving and devoted to bipartisanship.

goes toward Democratic priorities, it only seems to mean "doing what Republicans want".

And the other side? They don't do any bipartisanship.

* in contests between a Democrat and a Republican or in contests where the spoiler and 3rd party candidates have ZERO chance of winning. In national and statewide races, the contest is always a binary choice. Only one of two candidates will win: the Democrat or the Republican. All the others are spoilers.

When it comes right down to it, any vote (or non-vote) that does not benefit the Democratic candidate has the net effect of benefiting the GOP candidate.

Mature and realistic voters understand and accept the reality that no candidate is perfect. They also know and understand that only ONE of the candidates is BETTER than the other. And that ONE of the candidates has values that more closely align with their own. And that ONE of the candidates will help to move the political arc closer to the goals and aspirations we seek to achieve.

However, it's sad that we must deal with impatient and angry voters who think it's better to sit-out the election (in protest) or who vote for a Green candidate (in protest) and who do nothing to help ensure the victory of the BEST of the only two candidates who will win. We have a defacto two-party system. Spoiler candidates never win national elections.

In this instance, the definition of "accepting" needs to be refined and tweaked, or a different word needs to be used entirely. For the types of impatient, immature and unrealistic voters I described above (ie: the ones who do not support Democrats) they are only benefiting the GOP with their myopic strategies. They give the GOP more power to undo progress already made and to set up roadblocks for future progress.

And then, like clockwork, these non-voters and saboteurs "blame the Democrats" because the candidate wasn't perfect or wasn't "good enough" to "earn their vote" (but in all cases the Democrat was BETTER than the Republican.)

Hysterical nonsense. Get to work supporting our one other party or you will be in this hell forever.

...or we might as well give up.

....that and thousands of deceptions and lies. And, once elected they are hard as hell to defeat because of their unity, relentless media presence and billionaire support.

What if Fetterman and/or Gallego told you that 90% of their Dem constituents want that bill passed?

In my 77 years, I've never seen a Dem candidate I agree with 100%, but I've also never seen a Rethug worthy of my vote. We must leave idealism as just parlor talk until the Rethugs have been uprooted, and I'll continue to support my Democratic candidates regardless of policy disagreements. Those issues must be settled during primaries.

JMHO.....

The philosophy of all or nothing, and NOT voting for the BEST candidate simply because they are not the PERFECT candidate is one that continues to baffle me.

The fact that most here are up in arms tells me that politically this was probably the right call.

Just having a D by his or her name just doesn't cut it.

"A Democrat who has been in constant contact with aides on the Hill said that Republicans who had been pushing the Laken Riley Act largely as a political messaging exercise did not anticipate that it would become law. “Republicans were surprised by how many Democrats folded like cheap fucking suits,” the Democrat added."

As someone on another thread put it: "Democrats are voting like Republicans to the surprise of Republicans".

It's a disgrace.

The Congressional dems rolled over playing dead and let W steal the 2000 election.

False advertising.

I guess no one told the grocer though because they are still selling them
What to do?

The amount of money non-corporate, non-rightwing orgs get is laughably miniscule. Justice Dems have contributions in the millions. The others have contributions in the...hundreds (of dollars). Major right wing groups get 10s if not hundreds of millions in donations on a regular basis.

Democrats shouldn’t waste a single penny on them.

Sorry but corporate friendly does not equal "good"

It is interesting to note that the organizations you listed in your first post are often just as strong opponents of the Democratic Party than the ones in your second list, not to mention just as disingenuous.

It’s good to hear that Democratic donors haven’t thrown their money away to those terrible organizations, that’s great news.

But with the exception of the Harris campaign, can't really do that for Democrats?

It has absolutely nothing to do with being good or bad. It has to do with who they are helping and who happens to be funding them (rich people and corporations in the case of right wing groups).

There is no equivalent left wing or Democratic org that has consistently equivalent funding. Partially because of false and misleading propaganda slandering any organization that threatens to make a dent in rivaling right wing orgs in fundraising.

If we want change, we need diverse and organic grassroots left wing orgs to take on the behemoths of unlimited right wing superpacs and corporations.

I agree we absolutely need the democrats to fight. This rolling over and trying to get along is bull. Republicans never try to get along with us. I don't understand what's wrong with Democrats. It's very disappointing and upsetting what this party has turned into.

we are lucky to have 2 senators from Arizona which was so recently Red. Kelly is supporting it too.
I strongly disagree with his vote but I prefer them to the alternative. We can't expect them to vote like they are from Massachussetts.

We put up with Manchin because we wouldn't have gotten a Dem from WVa. He gave us the majority and voted for our judges. Everyone new waht they were getting, though he lied and snookered Dems on the infrastructure bill.
Synema lied about her positions to her electorate and there's no excuse for her turn around. Kind of like the legislator in NC that switch parties and gave Republicans there a supermajoritiy. People like that should be permanently driven out of politics.

Fetterman? I don't know what is up with him. Whether he falls into Synema territory for me is still to be determined. I guess PA is officially purple now, but I expect he'll be primaried. i was really enthusiastic about him. So disappointed.

I am done donating as well. I worked hard for Fetterman - I will work twice as hard to vote him out.

Gallego, especially, should be ashamed. Anyone with brown skin will be targeted, and it won't matter if they are citizens or legal residents or not. They will be assumed to be illegal.

No donations from me.

Dems should have a list of appeasement Dems whom we should not support because our nation and democracy is more important than a few Democrats. Granted, boycott all the Republicans in the House and Senate unless they oppose the dictator felon.

Fetterman should be boycotted at this rate. He is really showing the middle finger to us. Remember how he was expecting everyone, even from outside Pennsylvania, to support him. I did too. What a fool! Now, he says he cares about Pennsylvanians who voted for Trump, Trump is not a fascist, and so on. If he thinks he is being clever, he has a thing or two coming. Come re-election, MAGAs will again go for a MAGA. He will beg Dems for funds. MAGAs are not donating or supporting him.

I was very good during this election cycle to not support or donate for Gallego. I have seen enough signs to predict Gallego will give us heartaches. He will try to appease Arizona MAGAS. Do not forget. Gallego did a very good job to not bring his popularity to help Biden or Harris.

Last edited Thu Jan 16, 2025, 01:37 PM - Edit history (1)

Roll over and play dead when a known Russian asset, a known liar, a known cheat + vote suppressing GOPers.

I still can't believe the puppet won in a free and fair fashion. And that nobody is pushing back on this fascist bullshit.

Facebook + Cambridge Analytical. Now, no fact checking, no DEI. Masculine energy.

That rightwing nut bar Musk took over Twitter and allowed rightwing extremist propaganda.

The extremist republicans run (un)Truth Social.

Billionaire at Wa Post.
Same with LA paper.

What's being done to spread truth to counter all the lies? I fear the answer is "nothing."

ON EDIT: MERRY FITZMAS!

I take that into consideration.