House Democrats plan a first 100-days agenda if they sweep to power in midterm elections
https://apnews.com/article/midterm-elections-democrats-affordability-corruption-018019529b14a6b3bc4a343a4e17c44fOpen linkView original on lemmy.worldSyndicated from the fediverse. Read and engage on the original instance.
View original on lemmy.worldhttps://apnews.com/article/midterm-elections-democrats-affordability-corruption-018019529b14a6b3bc4a343a4e17c44fOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
75 replies
So their agenda is restore the status quo. I had hoped maybe there would be more ambition than that.
Honestly if they could just undo the damage Trump has done, I would call it a win. Part of how we got here in the first place was never fixing the illegal wars, gulags, and other abuses of power under bush and trump. If you don't fix them, they just keep building on each other, and any other initiative you succeed in building will quickly be destroyed by an ever more powerful fascist state.
If that's all they did it would be losing, hard. It would leave everything open to happen again, or likely much worse. Heads need to roll.
Well yes by undoing it I mean undoing it so it doesn't happen again. Which means heads rolling.
So just for example, on that, if that's all they try to do then they've failed. It's not enough anymore to simply reverse it, they need to actually fix it by implementing actual universal coverage via Medicare for all, or NHS, or a German SHI. They need to actually stand for something other than the old bullshit status quo to win.
I truly think a system like the German model has a chance to succeed in the US without causing so many knock-on effects that there's immediate backlash. I know Medicare For All is the catchier phrase but I'm surprised so few even mention Germany as a possible US model.
oh really so you're not going to vote dem?
me thinks you are just as much the problem here
DINOs are the problem. If we haven’t hit rock bottom enough to see that then all is lost.
we see ourselves in the mirror, restoring the status quo means billionaires stay in charge, bombings continue, innocents die
even when we sweep the house it’s not enough:
I want to see us get medicare for all, trump and his cronies in guantanamo, the supreme court reformed, gerry mandering removed, age limits, term limits, data center moratoriums, an end to war, no more super pacs, no more citizens united, billionaire wealth tax, house and senate reform, ranked choice voting
and they end the filibuster to do it
then if we wanna quit “capitalism” we continue (we should end whatever this is)
all that said, vote. vote. vote.
I want this too, trust me. But if we get medicare for all and then lose democracy, will it really be a win? The fascists will just take it away again after long enough in power.
oh i’m voting blue on my end for sure, we can’t afford to not
but we need to hold these fuckers feet to the fire when the inevitably don’t do shit
id still rather democrats in office over trumplicans any day
For the first 100 days, restoring the status quo is already going to be a tall order given they'll have opposition every step along the way. Fixing the damage needs to happen first and foremost before being able to progressing positive new change. Even if Dems somehow sweep both the house and Senate they still have to deal with Trump vetoing bills and such unless they miraculously win a super majority. They should at least be able to block his EOs and mitigate more damage though.
They can also fuck with Trump's funding.
I'd love to see them play hardball and do things like, "No budget will be passed and no money will be available for anything until ICE is abolished and disbanded" ... but I'm pretty sure they don't have the balls to even try that.
Some of them voted to fund ICE, so I don't have high hopes there.
The math on the Senate won’t get a supermajority this cycle - Dems would have to win EVERY Senate race, and even then it gets us to 66 + Fetterman. So supermajority would need to be 2028 at the earliest.
I just lost my job to AI after 20 years. Losing Affordable Care Act coverage would limit my ability to study for the exam I need to pass to get a better job in the same field. It sounds pretty damn good from here.
Timothy Snyder warned this would be one of the worst things they could do.
First 100 day agenda should include getting rid of Jeffries and Schumer, and any other of these folks that seem unable to recognize that fascism is in our midst, and lack the willingness to stand up to it.
Hey now! Didn't you hear about the strongly worded letter?? Zzzz
That's because they work for Israel & not the USA.
Well this agenda is off to a horrible start. Can't they find anyone with a shred of credibility left instead?
Fuck's sake, could you at least pretend to be in favor of Medicare for All for just a little bit? Like even if it's just a negotiating tactic to make these tax breaks happen
Y'know if we had Medicare for All we wouldn't need to worry about Medicaid or all the bullshit red state governments pull with it
I actually have no problems with the substance or message here, but I hope they're preparing to defund the military and customs enforcement respectively when Trump just ignores their votes and his supreme court Calvinballs an excuse for him, because otherwise those votes are just going to be for show
https://litigationtaskforce.house.gov/100-days-of-high-costs-chaos-and-corruption-house-democrats-deploy-tools-in-congress-to-fight-back
Took me forever to find the actual list. Nothing says 100 days of action like holding votes to force repubs to state if they want things to be transparent.
"oh no! A continuing resolution and vote of solidarity? Curses! Our nefarious fundamentalist plans are foiled again!" - How Centrists think their "actions" will be received by Conservatives
So um...Leftist here...(hi, yeah?) so refresh my memory: how did King George respond to a "strongly worded letter?" How'd that turn out? You know you can just skip that step, cause it never works, right? Like, ever?
I think this is what they HAVE done over the first 100 days not what they will do.
AKA strongly worded papers.
example: Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats are pushing back by:
As long as corporate Dems are still in leadership positions of the party, I would not trust them to practise what they preach.
I have some confidence in Ken Martin, the current DNC chair. DC consultants for the DNC seem to hate his guts, but he is partially responsible for the momentum Dems are seeing in unlikely places because the national party is not fully neglecting state races anymore, in favour of spending all the money in 'swing state races' as in recent years past.
Is it strongly worded tho?
Glasses firmly dipped.
I'm happy to see them (claim to) have an agenda. So often, in the past, it seems like winning control has come as a complete surprise to them, and they only start preparing to exert power after the swearing in. If they've learned from Project 2025 that they can start drafting agenda and legislation before election, then that's a win.
Laws still have to be signed, or at least not-vetoed by POTUS. The mad king will not give up his power willingly.
A 2/3rds majority can override his veto, but the only time Republicans cooperate with Democrats is when it’s to appoint some shitty judge or pass ICE budgets. At best I’m expecting the rest of the presidency to be a lame duck one.
I'll take a lame duck two years after the last two we've had.
Lame duck is probably the best possible scenario, what I'm terrified of is moderate Dems turning around and working with moderate Republicans to "reform" social security or send even more money to the cops and the military
They've always had an agenda but Republicans can and will filibuster anything beneficial. They even filibustered a border security bill under Biden and then sat around for weeks arguing with each other why they filibustered something that actually aligns with their own campaign promises. The only real way to pass things is via 2/3rds majority, SCOTUS decision, or budget reconciliation.
Here is a link to their most recent Final Master Platform document: LINK
Highlights:
That plan: Whine about how you can't get anything done with Trumps veto power, so you'll just have to continue to capitulate to his every whim while you fundraise on your failures...
Yup. That's what I'm expecting from our milquetoast Democratic leadership.
if their sights are on anything other than uphold the rule of law by persuing the MANY, MANY crimes and criminals, then this country is truly lost. Status quo, or forgive and forget will be even more destructive than whatever maga has done so far. it sends the signal that there will be no punishment. this how you get spoiled children and rotten government.
I’m torn. I’ve pushed my DINO rep several times about an assurance that they will be dealt with, and all I get are crickets. I really really really would rather she lose so we can replace her with a better candidate in 2028, but I also recognize (and hate) that this is once again the most important election of my lifetime. It would be nice to be able to vote FOR somebody instead of against.
That's the new "voting third party is throwing away your vote."
"The Agenda" better look like "Impeach [insert random powerful republican/Trump Sycophant]" for the first like 50 points, or it's not worth mentioning. The next 50 points better be "make DAMN sure those people get jail time" as well.
After that if they could fix this rampant inflation by smacking the lazze faire capitalists with a rolled up newspaper (like the misbehaving dogs they are) that would be peachy. (I, of course, am being hyperbolic. I mean "hit them with so many regulations and closed tax loopholes their lawyers will curl up in the fetal position and start sucking their thumbs." not ACTUALLY smacking them with news papers, but if they do anyway I won't protest.)
The legislature can and shpuld impeach and remove from office. They have no part in arrewts or criminal convictions. That's executive and judical.
Hi, I hear you like smacking people with newspapers :3?
TBF, with the collapse of local printed journalism, this is not as much a threat as it used to be.
DefeatedZoeDeschanel.gif
I'm sure Schumer is writing a list right now about why he can't do anything. Maybe he's even using Anthropic or Claude to do it.
He’ll spend the first 100 days consulting with his fictional family.
Two, strongly worded lists!
Maybe, but I'm 100% sure he's just asking Anthropic or Claude what the Bailey's think he should do.
Hakeem is secretly meeting with Jared Kushner and taking Palantir money while trying to setup an AI regulatory committee with six other Palantir Dems
Aiapac Dems are funding aipac Republicans (AIPAC funds about 60% of Dems) over DSA and actual left leaning candidates (the ones that would bring justice to the blackmailed, Israeli traitors and deliver for the working class)
Tammy duckworth has said that we should "impeach nobody" and work with the war criminals committing crimes against humanity
Peter thiel has lost faith in maga and is funding Democrats.
Democrats haven't said a peep about the installed Palantir, anduril, and other AI execs that couped the government and were installed into our military with ranks and their own autonomous killing drone unit. Lucky Palmer and his company support MOSTLY Democrats.
NONE of them (the corporate Dems in charge) Commit to abolishing ICE or cancelling their funding until massive reforms are made. They haven't committed to bringing the killers of alex pretti and Renee good to justice.
We have learned that a certifiably insane and mentally ill president CAN NEVER BE REMOVED no matter how damaging is he is to our society, country, and position in the world. They are committing war crimes and crimes against humanity with over 4000 missing people that were never given due process and ICE has been caught trafficking these people MULTIPLE TIMES. he is building a six story bunker with a medical research facility, drone airport, and AI bunker that will be surrounded by machine gun nests. Our nation's fuel supply is gone, the food system is going to collapse and is now vulnerable to cyber attacks as well as dangerous illnesses due to the gutting of all of our safety institutions and agencies.
With these existential threats, it's good to see that Democrats will "vote to have oversight" and "reinstate affordable care tax cuts". Should get us back on track quick.
Fox news is already projecting 218/219 Republican/democrat house so we are going to play the "what side am I on?" Game.
Mike johnson and the Democrats have even proven me correct when I stated that they will always be stopped by a margin, a rule, a parliamentarian that suddenly has all power, a postal board that is all powerful. Now, there is a clerk that can be fired that will allow Mike johnson to fuck with seating Democrats.
Our opposition party is run by CONTROLLED OPPOSITION
Saved ya a click. If people find more then I did please share if you will.
Narrator: And the people did give them the power, sadly once again they did nothing with it and as a direct consequence, the corruption and societal decline accelerated.
Shits being rigged 7 ways from Sunday. I'm still voting but I have little faith in "show up and vote!" doing fuckall this time around. Not because we're apathetic or complacent at this point, but because they're filthy corrupt fuckbags and are going to do anything and everything they can to retain full power and control.
Even if some kind of Blue tsunami manifests come Nov 3, and even IF Republicans reluctantly prepare for a peaceful transfer of Congress in Jan 2027, don't stop the No Kings protests, don't stop the resistance to ICE's terrorism of cities and disappearing people into detention camps, don't stop going to town halls to push back against Flock-style surveillance (including by other vendors) and AI data centres. Don't stop calling and mailing your representative. The fight still continues regardless, every step we get will be through keeping the pressure on.
I'm not sure who said it but the line "If voting made any difference, we wouldn't be allowed to do it." keeps repeating in my head as this year's election looms.
Then there's the counterpoint that says "If voting did nothing they wouldn't work so hard to prevent it."
So I admittedly just skimmed it, but how quickly are the Trump admin traitors going to be thrown in jail, and for how long? Because that is the first step to fixing all of this.
And they won’t do jack this but sit in the big chairs and look down at people. Which I suppose is better than MAGA spitting on everyone.
It only took them until 3 weeks before the election to finally get a plan together?
Okay but why did Yakety Sax pop into my head unbidden when I read that headline?
Stop acting like Jefferies controls anything...
He got elected because Jamie Harrison's DNC was willing to bankrupt any state party with reps who didn't fall in line.
Not only do neoliberals not control the DNC or Victory Fund, Martin drained that shit and gave it back to state parties, which is why we're "suddenly" flipping a shit ton of seats, we're actually trying to win majorities so anDem president can get shit down.
The neoliberal goal was always obstructing progress and siding with Republicans for the wealthy.
But the only way neoliberalism gains any ground again, is if idiots stop voting D because of billionaire propaganda
I've gotta say even normally progressive and anti-Trump MSNBC runs smack segments against Ken Martin gives me confidence that Democrats should let him cook and bring the DNC into a new chapter.
Be careful with the whole "enemy of my enemy" thing, billionaire owned media not liking him is a good sign, but it should never be the only thing to look at.
The big thing is he basically doesn't have to do anything and he understands that...
We don't want a DNC that tries to guide the party, that's been the problem for decades.
We need a DNC whose only two concerns are:
Get a Dem into the oval
Get majorities in the House and Senate
It's that fucking easy to make progress. And we could have been here ~18 years earlier if Obama had just appointed a progressive DNC chair in 09.
Good start, but time to also have a 2 year plan and start drafting Project 2029* if no Democrat has already.
The two most important questions being: "What concrete differences do Americans want to see in their lives compared to before and now?" and "How will we (extending to the whole world) create a system that prevents reactionary right-wing psycopath billionaire-funded culture war zone-flooding politics to pave the way back to fascism?".
*Project 2029 seems to be a thing, but at first glance seems like a scaled down and focused effort on a couple issues, explictly not designed to be an all-encompassing vision as the Republican version was. I don't think it goes far enough, so either it needs to have more sections added, or the Democratic Socialist and neolib organizations each start putting their thoughts in their own treatises to compare notes later.
If you don’t think this is enough get ready to send messages to your reps and hit the streets in continued protest.
If we want to see accountability and impeachment the people will need to be heard.
If we don’t use congress as a megaphone the megaphone will make whatever noises it feels like.
Let’s do this!
Day 1: lunch Day 2: do nothing Days 3-700: do nothing Day 701: send a very tense letter
"We solemnly promise to declare recess, make insider information trades, raid welfare funds, and take donor-paid-for vacations"
thunderous applause
It is easy to make plans, the issue is nobody trust Democrats ability to accomplish anything
It better not be some milquetoast bullshit. They need to go hard.
"It's time to let bygones be bygones and get back to the quiet grift."
Or…
Impeach and remove:
Expel all MAGA senators and reps from Congress.
Abolish DHS, ICE, and CBP and prosecute any who were a part of the crimes waged during Trump’s purge.
Bring to bear four amendments to the Constitution:
Prosecute all expelled Congresspeople who were complicit in the crimes of Trump.
Prosecute Trump and Vance for their crimes
Prosecute Hegseth
Release the full Epstein files to the public without doxxing victims
Expand the Supreme Court to 13 and stack it with sane, legitimate judges.
Tax Billionaires out of existence and pay down some of the national debt
Put in guardrails for AI and rein in all the major tech companies through much higher corporate tax rates and oversight
This is what you call…consequences.
And watch them recess for most of it.
Therein lies the problem. There will be enough Republicans in the Senate to block everything.
Empty that agenda basket a little and put a few eggs off to the side, just in case.
They won't. Chuds gonna chud.
They need Congress and Senate and by a meaningful amount. A few seat majority will get nothing done. Republicans will find way to flip reps, bribe a few or use procedure, lawsuits to stall everything. You need like 3/5 majority or more
Already making excuses for not even trying to do a fucking thing already I see.
It's what history shows. If you don't know how the democrats work by now you're not paying attention.