The most important part of this is the primaries. If we fill these seats with a bunch of Chuck Schumers/Hakeem Jeffries it won’t make a difference. If we fill them with Zohran Mamdanis, on the other hand…
Yupp, don’t let them tell you yet another “compromise” candidate, who “at least isn’t the red elephant person” is gonna cut it. They have been losing elections, they spark no enthusiasm, they are not the “safe option”.
That being said, do organise and network outside of party politics, too. Elections are an important part of everything, they to mould the status quo to some degree, and can heavily shift context of further political work - but getting beyond the structural shit that put Trump into power requires more than that. Joining (preferrably radical) unions, showing up to town halls and the likes, networking with neighbours and friends for mutual aid and emergency support, community defence organisations, civil rights orgs, etc. etc. Both informal and formal organisation is needed wherever you can.
‘They’ say that because turnout for primaries is always abysmal, so candidates who make it to generals are usually centrist.
If progressives actually voted in primaries, they’d have the options they want in generals. But usually, the vast majority who vote in primaries are older, more moderate voters.
Progressive candidates exist, but if you want them, you can’t just vote every 4 years.
Which is probably why the DNC didn’t let us have a primary for the 2024 election. They knew their status quo candidate didn’t have any juice behind her but didn’t want to open the door to that criticism.
Honestly, primaries are all that matter.
If progressives don’t win the primaries, all we have to vote for are centrists and fascists, which means more fascism.
Please, please vote in primaries and get everyone you know to vote in the primaries, too.
Meh, any Democrat is better than any Republican. The fact that Trump rages on twitter about Schumer means something hes doing is right.
Yeah but the old-school Dems won’t inspire people to get off their ass and vote.
Personally, they have and they will. I love the DNC platform, I hope soon we can give them more than 50 senate seats for the first time in over a decade.
I love their platform as well! But they are not executing. All the talk and position papers in the world mean nothing IRL if there’s no action.
Theres no action because they haven’t had more than 50 seats (including caucus) in over a decade.
So, might it be fair to say they’re losing? Perhaps because they can’t execute?
You’re mad that the people you refuse to let do the thing aren’t doing the thing?
Hahahahahahaha
Not even if the Dems had the vote. I am positive someone would block it for civility reasons.
The dems can not get out of their own way. See Zohran win in NYC.
The dems can not get out of their own way. See Zohran win in NYC.
So vote to expand the progressive side of the dem party
You mean to say our votes can override an organization that argued in court that since its a private service they could just ignore the vote of the people and pick who they wanted?
The same organization that always manages to organize and attack leftist like Zohran and Bernie but can’t find any footing against Trump?
Yep. That will work. Just gotta vote harder.
Correct, so show up. We need to vote, and we need to protest.
I really really don’t think that will change anything. People been trying to change the democrats for the better part of ten years.
Name one landmark foundational thing they have done in the last ten years thats really benefited the majority of Americans.
There isn’t one that isn’t a major concession that undercuts the original proposal.
You’re right and part of that is people like you not showing up. None voting has had the most votes in all those elections.
I am under no illusions that even if and it’s a big if the Democrats managed to take back enough seats in both the house and the Senate to actually impeach and prosecute Trump that they still won’t do it that they will be spineless and that they will offer supposed Olive branches across the aisle.
We had one guy win a primary in a mayoral race. You guys are acting as if this changes everything. It’s interesting to watch for sure and there are lessons to be learned but that does not mean that everything is changing. It’s not even guaranteed he’ll win the Mayoral race. The DNC is even considering not giving him the nomination despite him winning.
The billionaire class is already mobilizing to try and ensure this guy never gets elected. Do you think they’re going to make it any easier when he’s in office?
By all means we should engage in electoral politics but we should not be under any illusions that it will fix the system we have nor should we be under any illusion that our politicians will save us from the problem that is Donald Trump. If anything the Democrats seem more than happy to capitulate to what he wants since they’re not in the majority.
Head is so deep in the sand. Keep coping bud.
See Zohran win in NYC.
Why? The headlines on lemmy made me think that he is the good candidate.
Yes he’s wildly popular.
The DNC is considering not giving him the nomination regardless of his win of the primary.
Andrew Cuomo is running independent with his Super PAC that raised billions of dollars.
Bill Ackman is offering billions of dollars to anybody who can ensure that Zohran cannot win. Admittedly this last one’s a bit of a stretch since this dude’s also a trump supporter.
These are examples of the DNC not getting out of its own way.
The DNC is considering not giving him the nomination regardless of his win of the primary.
The Democratic National Committee does not decide State and Local nominations.
They can’t even “refuse to nominate” for congression races. The only power they have is dictating the rules for the US Presidential Nomination.
Other than the Presidency whoever wins the primary is the nominee under state laws. Otherwise they could’ve just “refuse to nominate” AOC (which they had no legal power to do btw).
Their main power is mostly just money to buy propaganda. If people can just be smarter and ignore the propaganda, they could take over easily. The only reason the establishment maintain their power is because the people allows them to keep their power.
Yes if people could ignore the propaganda the world would be a much better place.
Too bad the literal function of propaganda is to sway people’s opinions for people who don’t give a fuck about politics.
- He was running against someone that was
- famously forced out of office for corruption a few years ago
- running on a party platform that was uninspiring and brought Trump back to power in November
- He ran a really focused campaign on lowering cost of living and income inequality
- He’s smart, charming, and authentic - and that motivated a lot of people to campaign for him
- He released a fire track about how dope is grandmother is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQVsVNPkPmE
The first step is to crucify any Democrat that isn’t willing to actually fight.
before that we also need to make sure superpac backed trash don’t get past the primaries.
trump got elected twice because dnc has become infested by shills like pelosi and schumer while sabotaging progressives like bernie and aoc.
pelosi will happily support ice and any anti-working class initiative as long she gets her cut. schumer is an israeli agent who would support brining back slavery if it allows idf to murder more children.
It’s time to take our fuckin country back
Never going to happen until the mega rich (who run the country) are afraid to walk the street.
Democracy isn’t real
I laughed a bit harder than I should’ve at this
lot of trolls in .ml
It’s not like I’m hiding those comments. I didn’t delete them.
Perhaps, but fascism has no place in the 21st century at all.
Who are you responding to?
You.
You said democracy isn’t real. I said perhaps, but also that the people of the United States shouldn’t tolerate fascism as it has no place in the modern world.
Which part aren’t you understanding?
If democracy isn’t real which government do you propose?
You tell me. You’re the one who said it isn’t real.
You granted I might be right. So I asked (first) what our options are if this is the case. You’re evading the question.
In the US? Or as a concept? Because I have a few things happening in my country that are the definition of democracy.
High likelihood your country is not consequential geopolitically. That or you’re fooled.
Oh, so now democracy doesn’t exist if you’re country is “not consequential geopolitically”? Either it exists or it doesn’t.
Nice moving the goal post, no wonder I have you at -20 net downvotes organically.
I’m saying voting for class president isn’t the same as voting for the leader of a sovereign hegemon. Maybe Belgium, for example, has a “democracy” but ultimately Europe is a footstool for the United States. It can act ‘independently’ only as long as it pays tribute to the regional power. This is same for countries in Asia, the Middle East, Eurasia etc What use is your democracy if it functions within a false paradigm? The political equivalent of “playing house”.
We have a “leader of a sovereignty” with a GDP above Spain and Australia, though?
It sounds to me like you think not having a perfect democracy gets in the way of having a good one.
Both Spain and Australia are within the United States sphere of influence and that’s just two countries. There are really only a handful of countries with actual sovereignty. The US, China, Russia, India, Israel and to a far lesser degree Iran and maybe Brazil. Even if all other countries were perfectly functioning democracies they would fall under the influence of one of these hegemons. This means there are things you can’t vote for and more often than not your democracy is only tolerated and often defended by a larger power that is a democracy in name only. You are a mock congress in a civics class. Power always wins out. That’s not a political opinion it’s a fact. Votes have little to no power. Hordes of enraged peasants DO have power which is why they are placated with activities like voting. Artificial agency.
The seats that need to be taken I don’t think are sided towards the Democrats getting enough. States like Alabama have had a Democrat Senator in recent years but for it to flip from a Republican back to a Democrat seems tough with how divided and how far right some states have slid. (Nearly 65% voted for Trump there in 2024).
Kyle Sweetster may be their best shot of a democrat winning , but it’s a long ways away and who knows what could change. https://www.kyleforalabama.com/
I swear it’s always the fucking South dragging the rest of us down…
I am utterly convinced that it won’t matter, but damnit we still have to fucking try.
For all you Americans who like to complain about the democrats candidates, maybe join the party and vote on primaries. Maybe do something other than just wait around until they feed you the candidate they picked without your input. Maybe start changing up the party from within and at the entry level, by voting on primaries and volunteering for the progressive candidates that want to overthrow the party career politicians. Look at what New York did! If they had waited around and not cared about primaries, they would have gotten Cumo and complained. I hear a lot of complaining about the democrats on Lemmy, sometimes you guys blame them more than Republican. But if you don’t vote or register as a democrat then you don’t matter to them. Make yourselves heard before the actual elections
You don’t even have to join the Democratic Party to vote in their primaries.
That being said, they will absolutely move mountains to block anyone remotely socialist from gaining power. The only reason Mamdani won the primary is because NYC has ranked choice voting.
The Dems are not going to save us because their leadership is profiting from this too much. Organized resistance is the only hope we have.
Actually, Mamdani would’ve won on first past the post as well (he has 43.5% of voters choosing him as first choice). He needs a 50% threshold to advance, which is where ranked choice will come in, but he would’ve won a first past the post anyways.
So even in a first past the post scheme, people should vote in dem primaries. I think we’re all on board with changing the dem party, and it starts in the primaries.
Go vote, or get oppressed. That’s basically the options and people need to understand that. Voting doesn’t guarantee you won’t be oppressed, but not voting guarantees you will.
Would those people have voted for him in a first past the post race? Or would they have been too afraid that someone worse than Cuomo would win, so they stick with him?
Well since he was selected as their first choice, presumably they would still choose their first choice when only given one choice. Ranked choice plays a role for everyone else down ballot and for automatic runoffs. People don’t put someone as their first choice that they don’t actually want as their first choice. So yes, they would have.
Yes they do, all the time. I wanted to vote for Bernie in the 2016 election, but I actually voted for Hillary because I thought that splitting the vote would let Trump win. If we had ranked choice, I could have put Bernie on top while knowing that I wasn’t opening the door tor Trump.
Progressive Democrats are the 3rd party. That’s why establishment Dems are trying to suppress them.
The democratic party is literally designed to squelch any kind of true progressivism. They are funnel any movements into “voting blue no matter who” and make people like AOC say bullshit things like “Biden is working tirelessly for a ceasefire” which we know if bullshit after Biden aides admitted they did not.
We need to make ourselves heard, aboslutley. And waiting for the elections is a recipie for failure indeed. But you say all these things about registering for democratic primaries or canvasing or “changing the party” without realizing people who have been paying attention have been trying that for decades. The democratic party is designed to maintain the status quo, and be as big of a roadbump as possible to actual workers demands so that they can keep campaigning on being better than the GOP. We are not reforming the democratic party when its whole goal for decades is to trap people trying to demand actual reform.
We need to make demands, absolutely. But we need to throw off the shackles of thinking the prison guards are going to help us escape. We need a new party, not a new Democrat.
We need a new party, not a new Democrat.
Not happening.
As our nation descends into authoritarianism/fascism you absolutely do not have the luxury of time necessary to wait for a 3rd party to actually start doing something so they can start winning local/state elections so they can start having ANY presence AT ALL in Congress, so they can one day potentially run a presidential candidate that stands a chance.
Like, are you aware that no 3rd party has done really anything at all? NONE in Congress. NONE. They have no presence and it takes DECADES to build up a nation-wide coalition and win a presidency. Even if somehow, in a fantasy scenario, a 3rd party candidate won the presidency, they’d have ZERO support in Congress to accomplish anything.
The answer is 100% putting massive pressure on the Democrat party to change to what we want it to be. We literally witnessed the insane Republican base do exactly that to the Republican party over the last 10-20 years.
Learn from Zohran Mamdani’s win and VOTE IN THE PRIMARIES.
Sign up for mailers if you forget to vote. Sign up for mail-in ballots if you have an irregular schedule.
30/50 states have closed primaries, meaning you must be registered as a Democrat to vote in the Democratic primary. Check your state’s primary type here: https://ballotpedia.org/Primary_election_types_by_state
Then the DNC runs an “independent” in the race against you when you win your primary and the monied interests fund that person, splitting the vote against the MAGA republican who calls them both commies and wins anyway. It’s happening in NYC already with Cuomo remaining on the ballot.
Adams and the other guy are the MAGA Republicans. Cuomo running as Independent will only take votes from them. They all share the same target demographic: assholes. Adams and Cuomo are pretty much universally hated by anyone who voted Zohran
Adams and Cuomo are pretty much universally hated by anyone who voted Zohran
And what’s more, many people will simply vote for the Dem candidate, for one reason or another. For reasons good and bad - but here, ‘vote blue no matter who’ works in the favor of the progressive.
We’ll see if it’s enough, but it’s definitely a disadvantage to the dickweed fascist Cuomo.
I honestly quite afraid they are gonna rig the fuck outta the mid-terms somehow. I realize I have little to no evidence to support that, but doesn’t mean it couldn’t still happen under this regime.
2024 seemed to be rigged at the top only. That’s how we ended up with so many people voting a straight Democratic ticket, except for HitlerPig at the top, which Dems have been trying to convince us is perfectly normal, which it isn’t.
Its one thing to rig the vote in one race in seven swing states, it’s another to rig 435 Congressional races around the country. That would be nearly impossible. It would take multiple operatives in every district, and at some point, somebody would squeal.
The Senate races pose other challenges, although they only really have to identify a handful of close races, and make sure those fall to MAGA.
The MAGA Nazis can’t afford to let either chamber flip, or the Democrats will have control of investigative committees with subpoena and arrest powers. If that starts, it will end with prison terms for many.
So I’m convinced that they will “suspend” elections using Martial Law, or the Insurrection Act, or some other legal atrocity.
Can’t wait for it to be more corporate trash that pushes people into Republican arms!
Remember folks, every vote counts. We did this to ourselves.
I’ve said it before elsewhere but it needs to be heard…
It’s just wild to me continually seeing posts not understanding how this all works, and how it would play out. It’s like the people who thought China paid the tariffs…
The house is almost tied. That’s who passes bills, handles impeachments, some of the most powerful committees are, and who impeaches Presidents…
218 Republicans, 213 Democrats.
Let’s see, take New York for example.
26 representatives total, 19 Democrat and 7 Republican.
5 of those were within 2 points last time their seat was up.
People who think that New York is blue, their vote doesn’t matter, skips the votes for the House and Senate and end up losing a Blue house seat but later complain that nothing changes are literally the fucking problem.
Every. Fucking. State. Is. Like. This.
Apathetic morons who don’t realize that the president is only held accountable by the other branch of government then wave their hands around when they did jack shit to help put people in place to, are the fucking problem.
District 3 of California was lost by 24,000 votes. District 22 was lost by 3,000.
Those two seats in the house, along with the close ones in New York, Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, Washington, hell every state… Are what makes the House of Representatives or breaks it.
So, if you think that your vote for president doesn’t matter, so you skip voting and let these other seats slip, yes, you’re a fucking moron who can’t grasp basic concepts of government that are taught in 4th grade.
And don’t get me started on the State House/Senates, how they define voting laws and voting zones and engage in gerrymandering.
Every fucking vote counts.
And until the country realizes it, and starts acting on it, we’ll keep getting the shit we deserve.
House needs a simple majority, and two thirds of the Senate.
Democrats would need ~18 seats.
First, that won’t happen in 2026.
Even the best cases make it hard to win enough by 2028. Which is why impeachment is just not something we can hold out for.
Gerrymandering is part of why this is a problem, which is done at the local level, and again why every vote counts.
How could it play out? Assuming some absurdly weird upside down world just opposite of what we’re living in, this is the only path just looking at the numbers…
Again, Democrats would need to gain 18 net seats. Seats Potentially in Play (Republican Incumbents): This requires looking at seats up in upcoming cycles.
- Class 1 Seats (Up in 2026):
- Highly Competitive Targets: These would be the first priority. States where Democrats have won statewide recently or that lean only slightly Republican. Examples based on recent political history might include:
- North Carolina (Budd-R)
- Alaska (Sullivan-R) - Unique dynamics with ranked-choice voting.
- Stretch Targets: States that are more Republican but could potentially flip under exceptionally favorable conditions (like the hypothetical turnout).
- Iowa (Ernst-R)
- Montana (Daines-R) - Depends heavily on candidate matchups.
- Kentucky (McConnell-R’s seat - potential retirement changes dynamics)
- Kansas (Marshall-R)
- South Carolina (Graham-R)
- Very Difficult Targets: Solidly Republican states requiring overwhelming Democratic turnout and significant shifts among other voters.
- Texas (Cornyn-R)
- Mississippi (Wicker-R)
- Alabama (Tuberville-R)
- West Virginia (Capito-R)
- Oklahoma (Mullin-R - Special election winner)
- Wyoming (Lummis-R)
- Idaho (Risch-R)
- Arkansas (Cotton-R)
- Nebraska (Ricketts-R)
- South Dakota (Rounds-R)
- Louisiana (Cassidy-R) - Jungle primary system.
- Highly Competitive Targets: These would be the first priority. States where Democrats have won statewide recently or that lean only slightly Republican. Examples based on recent political history might include:
- Class 2 Seats (Up in 2028): (Looking further ahead)
- Highly Competitive Targets:
- Maine (Collins-R) - Often competitive, depends on matchup.
- Georgia (Perdue/Ossoff dynamic showed competitiveness, depends who holds it after '26 potentially) - Assuming GOP holds a seat here.
- Stretch Targets:
- Michigan (Peters-D currently, but listing potential GOP flips back if one happened hypothetically before 2028) - Generally leans D, but could be contested.
- New Hampshire (Shaheen-D currently) - Generally leans D, but listing potential GOP flips back.
- Very Difficult Targets: (Many solidly Republican states)
- Tennessee (Hagerty-R)
- Alaska (Murkowski-R historically, depends on dynamics)
- North Carolina (Tillis-R)
- Iowa (Grassley-R seat potentially)
- Texas (Cruz-R)
- Kentucky (Paul-R)
- And many others similar to the 2026 list (SC, AL, MS, WY, ID, NE, SD, KS, WV, OK).
- Highly Competitive Targets:
It’s going to take an absolutely historic level of pain to both drive enough people to vote MAGA out to make this change though.
The amount that’s being excused, sanewashed, and just drowned out with other absurdities…
We’re on all on this shit ride until some new wildcard comes into play.
No impeachment, no Supreme Court, no guardrail is going to change that.
Something new and unaccounted for is the only feasible catalyst.
I’m not American and I wish you guys the very best, but my expectations for the 2026 elections is on par with the elections in Russia. Every non republican candidate may end up in jail or out of a window.
- Class 1 Seats (Up in 2026):
If voting was actually a threat to totalitarians in power they wouldn’t let us do it anyway.
Have you heard of a little thing called The American Experiment?
Funny story. They actually were in on the ground floor of a new nation and they said, “We left this England place because it was totally bogus. So if we don’t get some cool rules - pronto - . . . well then we’ll just be bogus too.”
Can’t Trump just issue an executive order saying there’s no more elections, or that Democrats are a terrorist organization and just like, not let any democrats win at all? Judges can’t stop his executive orders anymore… he could just abolish congress at a whim.
States hold elections. Sure he can try to send the military, but this is nationwide Bloody Kansas going into US Civil War 2.0. Expect the democrats who live in DC to just storm the white house if they start cancelling elections.
More likely they’d to the Turkey route, and eventually the Russia method. Sham elections are better than cancelling elections (for those in power).
Why wait? The amount of people and goodwill to do this would have the same effect if the same people started striking today.
Strike. Today.
Many people would be homeless off of one missed paycheck.
Many people will be homeless with rising income inequality, the draining of social security, and fascist isolationist policy. We will all be dead when global warming goes unaddressed.
Rip the bandaid off. Act now, the longer you wait the worse the fallout will be.
Without organisation, without plans, political will, without communities, without people to implement all that, without grassroots structures, you can’t achieve shit even if you somehow convince the whole country to strike. And when you start building those, you discover that you already have pretty good mechanisms in place to achieve your political goals, you don’t even need strike.
You don’t have the bandaid that needs to be ripped, you’re having a hearth attack and you need serious medical attention.If you cant orginize a strike you cant end 30+ years of political gridlock.
Id even argue you’d have much more success with a strike because of the stratification of the political system. Raw number weild more power with a strike compared to the fractured political power of the US government.
It’s the other way around actually, if we’re talking about general strike, one that really matters. A well put together union can organise a small strike that will achieve nothing and show nothing to nobody, but spend all their resources. But there is a reason, every serious talk about a big strike with people who know what they’re talking about starts with “well, we can think of something by 2029”
And how long has the DNC been trying to amass power?
All Im saying is if you have the ability to obtain the super majority required to expel trump you have more then enough poltical support to hold a strike that will accomplish more.
If you think either of these goals are achievable without a massive change in the way people are doing politics in 2025, youre crazy. If you weren’t crazy you’d be better off having the strike tomorrow because if you are thinking the wind will still be at your back after waiting two years, you just haven’t been paying attention.
I think you fundamentally don’t understand the nature of politics (and also strikes). DNC is one of the two major political parties. They are working in the democratic system, they don’t need to do strike, they will not benefit anything from it. The strike is one of the hundreds of ways people can influence politicians from outside the system. Until the next Trump term, you still have much easier to achieve ways to do that from inside the system, the particular way America does democracy is still in place.
Whatever revolutionary things you believe will help can’t appear from nothing, it takes decades to build enough union power to even achieve something, and you’re working basically from scratch. Meanwhile, democratic process that you’re discouraging people from, is right here, existing, working albeit poorly.
It’s not enough to just elect Democrats. Ok technically Democrats would have 67 votes in the Senate if they flipped every single Republican seat, which would be just enough to convict. But that’s not happening.
Instead, there needs to be a movement by anti Trump forces from across the spectrum to primary Republicans and replace them with anti Trump candidates. That effort needs to start now.
Tfw electing Democrats is “not happening” but flipping a cult against it’s demented, corrupt, rapist leader makes way more sense.
