Serious questions?

[kentuck]

How much has the Democratic Party been damaged by Trump and the fascists propagandists that support him?

How much does the Democratic Party need to change? Do they need to change their message or their policies, or neither?

The root of the problem, in my opinion, is money in politics. We see where the Supreme Court decision has taken us. Elon Musk bought the White House with a $250 million donation to Trump campaign. Now he has free rein to do whatever he wants. Trump and the Republicans in Congress have given him the license to do whatever he wants.

In my opinion, money became a problem for Democrats with the technological revolution during the Clinton years. Corporations and businesses saw their profits boom exponentially. They became billionaires overnight. Unfortunately, very little of the new wealth went to the workers. It went directly to the top.

That is why we have so many billionaires in this country today. They have created a wealth disparity so great that they now threaten our democracy and our way of life. They threaten to cut or dismantle programs that we have fought to build over the last hundred years. Because they can.

They have the power and they have the wealth.

Democrats should be calling for a more balanced and fair taxation system and these billionaires should pay a lot more, much, much more, in taxes. But, unless Democrats can regain power, nothing will happen to save the working people of this country.

Is the Democratic brand too damaged to recover? Do we need new blood with a new progressive message? Or do we try to revive what is left of the Democratic Party?

[bucolic_frolic]

1. The Fed focused on growth rather than price stability or employment

The recession they fought with high interest rates, which allow an economy to clear unproductive assets, was 1982. Ever since they provide liquidity to every market downturn, every drop in GDP. The money grew our economies with products the public wanted, and they borrowed heavily to pay for it. All of which passed the money UP the income scale. Billionaires are the result. Money controls society. Business is more important than people. Economic equality is lost. All of this will continue unless there is a massive crash that parallels the Great Depression because you need tax policy changes to fix it. Raising taxes, even on the wealthy, won't often get anyone elected. The Democratic Party is operating beneath all these headwinds. We are a sideshow to alleviate what harsh realities we can, and we get no help from Republicans.

[kentuck]

2. I fear a deep recession or a longer depression.

We can see the light in the tunnel and it is coming straight at us.

We will pay a huge price as a country, if we survive, for our stupidity and foolishness. Everyone was warned. Some simply did not listen. Now, here we are.

[-misanthroptimist]

3. My opinion is there are two possibilities for a big Democratic comeback

Last edited Tue Mar 11, 2025, 01:14 PM - Edit history (1)

1. Commit fully and loudly to AOC and Bernie Sanders type policies that will help people on a day to day basis. Playing to the (largely imaginary and wholly undefined) middle has been a failure for the Party and the Nation.

OR

2. Commit fully and loudly to solving problems -with no preconceived ideology. Look at problems and all possible solutions, evaluate fairly and scientifically the effects of those possible solutions. Then choose the solution that does the best job while being consistent with the Constitution.

Just to reiterate playing to "the middle" and "Republicans bad" has failed miserably, perhaps fatally for democracy. I believe one of the two choices above just might turn this whole thing around.

[msfiddlestix]

4. are you actually observing trends and sensing momentum towards a "big comeback?

Hope is a good thing, but it requires a measure of tangible evidence signaling focused energy, drive and momentum.

not feelin' it yet, sadly.

[Celerity]

5. I feel no 'big comeback' is nigh vibes, sorry. Social media (now with rocket fuel ie AI) has skull-fucked so so many

across the globe, especially in the US.

The RW dominates the cyberspace battleground. I have seen some good, otherwise intelligent friends (far more males than females) fall into the RW ditch over the past few years, despite my (and others) heavy lifting attempts to extract them from said ditch.

It is fucking grinding me the fuck down.

Some of them have become so hostile and full of rage that we (wifey and I) have banished them from our real lives, both here in Sweden, and also back in London. I personally told an American friend that I went to uni with in London (he has long been back in the US now, he is from the SF Bay area) that our home was no longer open to him and his GF (she is RW now too) when/if they came to Stockholm again. He has went damn near full MAGAt now, and his gateway was Rogan and that other POS Jordan Peterson, plus his incel gaming online bros. Toxic AF (and he is afro-Latino, which makes it all the more saddening, plus his GF is of mixed Chinese descent).

[-misanthroptimist]

6. How much hope and momentum was there...

...before FDR came up with the New Deal? My memory is that things were pretty grim with little to no expectation that things would improve any time soon.

Hope and momentum are built.