As someone who has been very critical of the vague calls for Democratic leaders to DO SOMETHING to demonstrate how Serious this is, the best defence I can imagine for them is that they need to be able to function in what's left of Congress, so options to talk are being kept open. But they are doing stunningly badly at explaining their reasoning to their base. They are either ignoring the anger or don't see it. Not sure which is worse, but they may be in for a nasty suprise in 2026 if they don't bother to engage with their base.
Yep, the nasty surprise being oops we failed to win the house and lost ground in the Senate. Which as critical as I am of the dems, will probably make things worse if it plays out that way.
Given that the people who got us into this mess (the Democrats) cannot be the people to get us out of this mess, how is it not actually hopeless? There is no opposition party. Should we hope for some liberal general to stage a coup?
Refusing to vote for a CR will only work if the leadership explains the demands -- get rid of Musk, and the illegal firings and sequestering he and the cabinet are performing -- to put the blame back on Republicans if they an to accede to these reasonable and probably popular demands.
Basically, I agree with Karpf -- the Trump/Musk actions are too outrageous to let go with just 'hope for 2026' to go on. Especially since by then we'll have 2 more years of Congress letting the Executive branch act like royalty.
Damned if they do or damned if they don’t - but the public is waking up, and my bet is that the shut down will accelerate that anger and Trump and Musk have already tipped into negative territory. It may hurt the Dems BUT if they offer an alternative vision it could help us all.
The key idea here—"If you do not fight, then there is no fight for the media to cover"—is one that feels like it should be tattooed on every Democratic strategist’s arm right now. You’re absolutely right: symbolic resistance isn't just optics, it's narrative formation. Without that visible defiance, the Overton window quietly shifts toward authoritarianism, and the public loses its sense of scale, of outrage, of what's normal.
And I’m with you: we’re well past "play it safe and wait for 2026" territory. That assumes institutions still function as intended. They don’t. The old playbook doesn’t apply when you’re up against someone gleefully shredding the rulebook.
The democrats aren't acting like feckless cowards, they are feckless cowards. (Yes I know there's like 3 exceptions thank you.) The purpose of the party is not to oppose the republicans/fascists but kill any actual left-ish politics that upset our owners. (Yes owners, they own your life if you work for wages, they own all the housing stock you need to live, and they own your healthcare since it's through your employer, and increasingly they own the farmland too.)
I'll substantiate with my own life if needed. The appeal of the Biden promise of going back to normal was of course extremely popular but what happened? My paycheck become worthless despite me making multiple job hops to try and keep up. Rent went up 50%+, housing went up 100% (officially 83% but that hides the affordable end of the market being destroyed) effectively locking me out despite making a good (literally average but the median is half the average) income for my area, and groceries went up 25% (I can blunt some of that with the garden but not all). What did the big Biden era accomplishments do? Some local solar panel installations (cool but privately owned so didn't lower my energy bill that also went up) and a massive highway widening project through a park/protected nature area that hopefully might be killed now thanks to the Musk coup. And all the good stuff with the FTC breaking up the tech giants took so long to happen now it might not at all.
I'm a long time reader and appreciate your insight so I'm trying not to be too negative but I really felt a disconnect with your optimism around Harris winning because things are mostly fine.
I hope you keep writing because I'm really going to be relying on you to make sense of the 2028 pseudo election between Newsom (but the reeducation camps will bring jobs!), Cuban (I'm the last good billionaire), and Musk (but Trump still lives inside of Grok!) circus.
Since the Dems have not made an appropriate stink about Elon up till now, and the fact that Elon wants a long shutdown, I think there best bet at the moment is to demand a one month CR instead of a 6 month one. That’s clear enough that most people can understand that Dems aren’t for a shutdown, they just want Congress to do it’s job on the budget. The actual situation is more complicated, but the average American does not do nuance.
As someone who has been very critical of the vague calls for Democratic leaders to DO SOMETHING to demonstrate how Serious this is, the best defence I can imagine for them is that they need to be able to function in what's left of Congress, so options to talk are being kept open. But they are doing stunningly badly at explaining their reasoning to their base. They are either ignoring the anger or don't see it. Not sure which is worse, but they may be in for a nasty suprise in 2026 if they don't bother to engage with their base.
Yep, the nasty surprise being oops we failed to win the house and lost ground in the Senate. Which as critical as I am of the dems, will probably make things worse if it plays out that way.
Given that the people who got us into this mess (the Democrats) cannot be the people to get us out of this mess, how is it not actually hopeless? There is no opposition party. Should we hope for some liberal general to stage a coup?
My brain hurts….
Refusing to vote for a CR will only work if the leadership explains the demands -- get rid of Musk, and the illegal firings and sequestering he and the cabinet are performing -- to put the blame back on Republicans if they an to accede to these reasonable and probably popular demands.
Basically, I agree with Karpf -- the Trump/Musk actions are too outrageous to let go with just 'hope for 2026' to go on. Especially since by then we'll have 2 more years of Congress letting the Executive branch act like royalty.
Damned if they do or damned if they don’t - but the public is waking up, and my bet is that the shut down will accelerate that anger and Trump and Musk have already tipped into negative territory. It may hurt the Dems BUT if they offer an alternative vision it could help us all.
An allegory of something very large eating itself comes to mind
The key idea here—"If you do not fight, then there is no fight for the media to cover"—is one that feels like it should be tattooed on every Democratic strategist’s arm right now. You’re absolutely right: symbolic resistance isn't just optics, it's narrative formation. Without that visible defiance, the Overton window quietly shifts toward authoritarianism, and the public loses its sense of scale, of outrage, of what's normal.
And I’m with you: we’re well past "play it safe and wait for 2026" territory. That assumes institutions still function as intended. They don’t. The old playbook doesn’t apply when you’re up against someone gleefully shredding the rulebook.
The democrats aren't acting like feckless cowards, they are feckless cowards. (Yes I know there's like 3 exceptions thank you.) The purpose of the party is not to oppose the republicans/fascists but kill any actual left-ish politics that upset our owners. (Yes owners, they own your life if you work for wages, they own all the housing stock you need to live, and they own your healthcare since it's through your employer, and increasingly they own the farmland too.)
I'll substantiate with my own life if needed. The appeal of the Biden promise of going back to normal was of course extremely popular but what happened? My paycheck become worthless despite me making multiple job hops to try and keep up. Rent went up 50%+, housing went up 100% (officially 83% but that hides the affordable end of the market being destroyed) effectively locking me out despite making a good (literally average but the median is half the average) income for my area, and groceries went up 25% (I can blunt some of that with the garden but not all). What did the big Biden era accomplishments do? Some local solar panel installations (cool but privately owned so didn't lower my energy bill that also went up) and a massive highway widening project through a park/protected nature area that hopefully might be killed now thanks to the Musk coup. And all the good stuff with the FTC breaking up the tech giants took so long to happen now it might not at all.
I'm a long time reader and appreciate your insight so I'm trying not to be too negative but I really felt a disconnect with your optimism around Harris winning because things are mostly fine.
I hope you keep writing because I'm really going to be relying on you to make sense of the 2028 pseudo election between Newsom (but the reeducation camps will bring jobs!), Cuban (I'm the last good billionaire), and Musk (but Trump still lives inside of Grok!) circus.
Since the Dems have not made an appropriate stink about Elon up till now, and the fact that Elon wants a long shutdown, I think there best bet at the moment is to demand a one month CR instead of a 6 month one. That’s clear enough that most people can understand that Dems aren’t for a shutdown, they just want Congress to do it’s job on the budget. The actual situation is more complicated, but the average American does not do nuance.