"Now is the time to build an opposition strategy." Bravo.
It is a waste of time to think the Dems have any coherent strategy to stop or even slow this coup. But right now they are our only option. The MAGA are like a brain eating amoeba and the Dems have no defense to it. From Clinton forward the Dems have favored the corporate and finance sector over just about everyone else. They certainly haven't shone mercy to people who work for a paycheck. No only have wages not risen, our buying power has drastically diminished.
The ability to put groceries on the table, to support our kids educational dreams, to access healthcare without personal financial ruin has declined significantly over the past 50 years. What used to take one paycheck to provide now takes two.
The Democrats are a part of how we got here. And the tragedy is that at this point, they appear to be the only option to the MAGA coup. One can only hope they come up with some resonating reason to vote for them.
But back to "build an opposition strategy." I see resistance, but also there are the seeds of a populist movement that speaks to the issues we all have in common: livable wages; housing; healthcare; the increasingly destructive climate crisis; clean air, water and food. And it isnt coming only from the Left. Listen to what people are yelling at congressional representatives in Town Halls. Look at the demonstrations outside the social security administration. Listen to what people are saying in PTA meetings.
The opening for a true populist movement is now. In a way, the MAGA coup has given us a gift. In spite of their rhetoric, they have "woke" people up!
Ehh….I get this feeling, 100 percent. Unfortunately it is not reality-based.
Schumer has realized that allowing the government to shut down would make the Trump/Musk coup easier.
The key point is that the specifics of a federal shutdown are barely spelled out in law. It turns out that the POTUS is pretty much the sole decider of what federal agencies/functions are considered “essential” enough to keep operating; there isn’t any official list anywhere. Congress does not make a list each time either.
The POTUS in office when there’s a shutdown decides on the fly and there are almost no legal guardrails; a 1974 law has some overall guidance which is so open-ended as to mean almost anything in practice. That law does not specify any particular agency(s) that have to stay open. This is why the “essential” list varied a lot during shutdowns during the Obama, Trump 1, and Clinton administrations and even was changed by the White House during a couple of those shutdowns.
So a shutdown (officially a “lapse in appropriations”) gives a rogue POTUS more freedom to break stuff and arbitrarily get rid of government agencies and workers, not less. There would be little if any basis for federal judges to issue injunctions or other orders contrary to Trump’s actions during a shutdown. This is why Musk for weeks has been loudly (in his online posts) hoping for a shutdown.
We didn’t know this because we haven’t previously had an administration behaving like this one. But it appears that Schumer does know it.
I was leaning towards “let it shut down” myself until learning the above facts.
That is one possible scenario. Except....the cr itself embodies MORE cuts and provides zero framework for oversight going forward. Yes the courts have held so far, But all those judgements still have to face district appeals courts and ultimately SCOTUS making it too early to count your chickens. The status quo has not stopped Trump/Musk and there are other instruments they can use to make more cuts. The CR for example RAISES funding for the militarized escalation of the alien sweeps. But the bigger question is this: when is it time to stop worrying over tactics and start building an opposition strategy? Capitulating to Trump for tactical reasons retards that greater need. You dont build opposition by staying on the defensive and voting with MAGA. Even if the damage of a shutdown is greater than a continuation that risk is worth taking as you clearly draw the battle lines and you energize those opposed. In september there will be another showdown on raising the debt ceiling. How do you build momentum for that imperative battle that would cut medicare and medicaid to fund the tax cut if you discourage your rank and file by continuing to run scared? If the Democrats do not block the debt rise they will be in the political desert for a generation or two.
The Democrats are already in the political desert, that's the only way someone as unpopular and disliked as Donald Trump could have become POTUS.
"start building an opposition strategy? ....You don't build opposition by staying on the defensive" -- agree 100 percent. When you're losing battles all over the place but don't want to surrender the war, you need some time to figure out a new strategy. Your first job in that moment is to avoid having one battle loss be so catastrophic that you end up with no army/navy/whatever to fight with anymore at all.
Schumer appears to think that right now is such a moment for his party, because shutting down the government gives Trump and Musk a completely free hand. The evidence for that view includes that Musk has been openly cheering for a shutdown for [I have been corrected by people who are still on Xwitter] actually months not weeks.
Schumer may be wrong today, certainly. But he's at least trying to navigate reality rather than assuming that past political tactics still hold, or thinking that tantrums represent effective fighting.
Even if Schumer is correct, are today's Dems actually _going_ to next reorganize around a real new strategy more meaningful than "resist"? I doubt it, after all if they were good at real-world competitive politics we wouldn't be having this conversation.
But that's doubt not certainty, and it's not a reason to just hand Trump/Musk the last remaining cards that they don't already have.
In fact, in hindsight, the historic "Populism of the left", from Obama back past any President, including Carter, has capitulated to the most far right sided, anti- 2 State thinking and controlled "continual almost auto no vote @ the UN", as old as we are. How could that lobbying and now "post Citz-United", money be absent from this action as causal? And further, how could this condition of the dem-party not have caused the tilt in power allowing Trump to, in his own seemingly comical but calculated money grubbing way, taken advantage of "anti-war peace folks" who crossed the line last November. They are still "with Schumer"- all I'm saying is, "why?".
To what extent would you believe that AIPAC, who I believe enjoys a fairly tight hold on Schiff and Schumer, could manipulate the remainder of the Dems? Strength to IDF's control of Israeli killing has, as you know, persisted since we were kids. Isn't this extremely "Putin, pro war connected funding" a very dangerous wedge, likely to be in play? And, would you expect to see Schummer have difficulty in moving the rest of the "sheep Dems", if they were to understand that likelihood?
"Now is the time to build an opposition strategy." Bravo.
It is a waste of time to think the Dems have any coherent strategy to stop or even slow this coup. But right now they are our only option. The MAGA are like a brain eating amoeba and the Dems have no defense to it. From Clinton forward the Dems have favored the corporate and finance sector over just about everyone else. They certainly haven't shone mercy to people who work for a paycheck. No only have wages not risen, our buying power has drastically diminished.
The ability to put groceries on the table, to support our kids educational dreams, to access healthcare without personal financial ruin has declined significantly over the past 50 years. What used to take one paycheck to provide now takes two.
The Democrats are a part of how we got here. And the tragedy is that at this point, they appear to be the only option to the MAGA coup. One can only hope they come up with some resonating reason to vote for them.
But back to "build an opposition strategy." I see resistance, but also there are the seeds of a populist movement that speaks to the issues we all have in common: livable wages; housing; healthcare; the increasingly destructive climate crisis; clean air, water and food. And it isnt coming only from the Left. Listen to what people are yelling at congressional representatives in Town Halls. Look at the demonstrations outside the social security administration. Listen to what people are saying in PTA meetings.
The opening for a true populist movement is now. In a way, the MAGA coup has given us a gift. In spite of their rhetoric, they have "woke" people up!
Ehh….I get this feeling, 100 percent. Unfortunately it is not reality-based.
Schumer has realized that allowing the government to shut down would make the Trump/Musk coup easier.
The key point is that the specifics of a federal shutdown are barely spelled out in law. It turns out that the POTUS is pretty much the sole decider of what federal agencies/functions are considered “essential” enough to keep operating; there isn’t any official list anywhere. Congress does not make a list each time either.
The POTUS in office when there’s a shutdown decides on the fly and there are almost no legal guardrails; a 1974 law has some overall guidance which is so open-ended as to mean almost anything in practice. That law does not specify any particular agency(s) that have to stay open. This is why the “essential” list varied a lot during shutdowns during the Obama, Trump 1, and Clinton administrations and even was changed by the White House during a couple of those shutdowns.
So a shutdown (officially a “lapse in appropriations”) gives a rogue POTUS more freedom to break stuff and arbitrarily get rid of government agencies and workers, not less. There would be little if any basis for federal judges to issue injunctions or other orders contrary to Trump’s actions during a shutdown. This is why Musk for weeks has been loudly (in his online posts) hoping for a shutdown.
We didn’t know this because we haven’t previously had an administration behaving like this one. But it appears that Schumer does know it.
I was leaning towards “let it shut down” myself until learning the above facts.
That is one possible scenario. Except....the cr itself embodies MORE cuts and provides zero framework for oversight going forward. Yes the courts have held so far, But all those judgements still have to face district appeals courts and ultimately SCOTUS making it too early to count your chickens. The status quo has not stopped Trump/Musk and there are other instruments they can use to make more cuts. The CR for example RAISES funding for the militarized escalation of the alien sweeps. But the bigger question is this: when is it time to stop worrying over tactics and start building an opposition strategy? Capitulating to Trump for tactical reasons retards that greater need. You dont build opposition by staying on the defensive and voting with MAGA. Even if the damage of a shutdown is greater than a continuation that risk is worth taking as you clearly draw the battle lines and you energize those opposed. In september there will be another showdown on raising the debt ceiling. How do you build momentum for that imperative battle that would cut medicare and medicaid to fund the tax cut if you discourage your rank and file by continuing to run scared? If the Democrats do not block the debt rise they will be in the political desert for a generation or two.
The Democrats are already in the political desert, that's the only way someone as unpopular and disliked as Donald Trump could have become POTUS.
"start building an opposition strategy? ....You don't build opposition by staying on the defensive" -- agree 100 percent. When you're losing battles all over the place but don't want to surrender the war, you need some time to figure out a new strategy. Your first job in that moment is to avoid having one battle loss be so catastrophic that you end up with no army/navy/whatever to fight with anymore at all.
Schumer appears to think that right now is such a moment for his party, because shutting down the government gives Trump and Musk a completely free hand. The evidence for that view includes that Musk has been openly cheering for a shutdown for [I have been corrected by people who are still on Xwitter] actually months not weeks.
Schumer may be wrong today, certainly. But he's at least trying to navigate reality rather than assuming that past political tactics still hold, or thinking that tantrums represent effective fighting.
Even if Schumer is correct, are today's Dems actually _going_ to next reorganize around a real new strategy more meaningful than "resist"? I doubt it, after all if they were good at real-world competitive politics we wouldn't be having this conversation.
But that's doubt not certainty, and it's not a reason to just hand Trump/Musk the last remaining cards that they don't already have.
In fact, in hindsight, the historic "Populism of the left", from Obama back past any President, including Carter, has capitulated to the most far right sided, anti- 2 State thinking and controlled "continual almost auto no vote @ the UN", as old as we are. How could that lobbying and now "post Citz-United", money be absent from this action as causal? And further, how could this condition of the dem-party not have caused the tilt in power allowing Trump to, in his own seemingly comical but calculated money grubbing way, taken advantage of "anti-war peace folks" who crossed the line last November. They are still "with Schumer"- all I'm saying is, "why?".
To what extent would you believe that AIPAC, who I believe enjoys a fairly tight hold on Schiff and Schumer, could manipulate the remainder of the Dems? Strength to IDF's control of Israeli killing has, as you know, persisted since we were kids. Isn't this extremely "Putin, pro war connected funding" a very dangerous wedge, likely to be in play? And, would you expect to see Schummer have difficulty in moving the rest of the "sheep Dems", if they were to understand that likelihood?