Guardian: It's time for Democrats to go low

[RainCaster]

This is from The Guardian.

It’s time for Democrats to go low

Democrats should make the next four years of Republican governance as grueling and painful as possible

by Peter Rothpletz

What the 2024 election results made clear is that the Obama coalition is dead. If Democrats are to have any shot at reclaiming power, so too must be the niceties and mores of the Obama era.

Yes, Democrats must get mean – ruthlessly, bitterly mean. This is not to say, however, that they need merely to cast aside the former first lady’s once-famous, now-infamous messaging mantra. No, what I prescribe is not just a new approach to political discourse but a new theory of opposition party politics.

Trumpsim has corrupted America in myriad ways, but one of the most obvious is how voters now expect lawmakers and surrogates to be truly vicious cultural warriors for them. One can see manifestations of this in Congresswoman Nancy Mace’s deranged bullying of Congresswoman-elect Sarah McBride, the endless and deliberate mispronunciation of Kamala Harris’s first name, and the fact that Marjorie Taylor Greene is one of the top fundraisers in the House of Representatives.

This phenomenon also exists on the left. The coffers poured open for Jasmine Crockett following a tet-a-tet with the aforementioned Taylor Greene, during which Crockett mocked her colleague’s “bleach-blonde bad-built butch-body”. And one could argue the strongest period of the Harris-Walz campaign – at least in terms of Democratic enthusiasm – was during the “weird” and “couch” sagas of Brat summer.

There is far more to read at the link, and it's worth your time.

[intrepidity]

1. Agree. But how many will (or won't)? nt

[BannonsLiver]

6. Welp

If the fact that what we’re permitted to call Elon, Melania and Drumph are regular recurring debates on this forum is any indication that number is probably fairly low. But DU isn’t really representative of RL so who knows.

[Elessar Zappa]

58. Millennials and Gen Z in the Democratic Party seem less squeamish about doing what's necessary

than the older folks are. I’m all for younger people leading the party if the old guard won’t adapt.

[Joinfortmill]

2. I'm in. Resist. It's a goddamn war.

[Magoo48]

18. Yes, consistent resistance in the most creative ways we can come up with.

[republianmushroom]

3. Should but don't think they know how.

[keep_left]

4. The fact that this is clearly necessary is a sad commentary...

...on the country as a whole. The political system has become so polarized that we can probably expect a modern version of the Charles Sumner caning incident within a few years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caning_of_Charles_Sumner
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/James_Buchanan#.22Oh.2C_I.27m_sure_it_will_be_better_after_a_while.22

[Cirsium]

28. Why is that sad?

The alternative to the "polarization" in the 1850s was the perpetuation of slavery.

The failure to fight back is the sad commentary. We did not start the fight and it won't go away if we are nice. The question is not whether or not the country will be polarized, the question is will we fight back or will we roll over?

[keep_left]

37. Well, you're certainly right about the 1850s, and you're probably right...

...about the present time as well. I'm just rather apprehensive about the rancor in politics over the last 30 years or so--the vast majority of it coming from the far right--which arguably began with Newt Gingrich and his disciples in the mid-'90s. (There were antecedents, but Gingrich definitely brought a new kind of viciousness to politics). And now we have the spectacle of elected representatives like MTG and Nancy Mace, who make Gingrich look like Churchill.

[Cirsium]

48. It is all from the right

We shouldn't make this a "both sides" issue. The Republicans are the vandals, the destroyers. They are the source off the rancor in politics. "Rancor"is an inadequate word. Terrorism is what the Republicans are up to; extortion, bullying, persecution, cruelty, chaos and destruction.

They take advantage of our desire for peace, our tolerance, our kindness, our compassion and ramp up the threats and disruptions, the sabotage and the criminality.

There have been so many lost opportunities; Watergate, Iran-Contra, fake WMDs and Guantanamo, the 2008 crash, Trump's disastrous first term - we have had them on the ropes again and again, and we keep letting them back up.

We have kicked the can down the road for decades now hoping to avoid confrontation, hoping that things will work out, settling for small wins, celebrating moral victories and giving ourselves style points.

There is no more road remaining now.

As the Whigs discovered with the slave power, the longer you put off the inevitable confrontation, the worse it will eventually be when you finally have no choice but abject surrender or fighting back.

The Republicans are terrorists, and compromising with them or negotiating with them strengthens them and weakens us. Show them consideration or compassion and they will kick you in the teeth, every time.

If people are afraid, that is entirely understandable. These are terrifying times. We are "under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud, and pampered enemy," as Lincoln said about the slave power in 1860. But if that is the case, let's at least be honest with ourselves and with each other about that. Let's not say we are being "practical" or being "realistic," let's not say we are taking the "high road," when the truth is we are afraid of what will happen if we fight back.

[yellow dahlia]

53. Great analysis!

Thank you!

[keep_left]

57. Yeah, that's fair. It's not "both sides" at all; offhand, I can only think of one...

...person on the "left" who goes anywhere near the kind of rhetoric we all experience on a daily basis from MAGA politicians and their media apparatus. And it's been going on for at least three decades, and arguably a lot longer.

Your point about all the political scandals and criming (Iran-Contra, etc.) seems to be part of the DU zeitgeist these days, to use an overused word. It keeps coming up in discussions. Here's a post from this week.

...there are no longer any consequences for crime. And here I'm not talking about the acts of minor street thugs, I'm speaking of our highest leadership and authority figures. No matter what they are caught doing, the consequences for their actions seldom if ever arrive...

https://democraticunderground.com/100219906798#post28

[Skittles]

35. it is indeed appalling

behaving in ways that could get you fired in ANY other job.....UGH

[Maraya1969]

5. What about Nancy Macey?

[southmost]

7. that's what the rethugs want

to prove government is useless, bad, and to gift that power to the corporations and to the wealthy (because they believe they will be better at governing themselves in an invisible hand of free market way)

[Buns_of_Fire]

8. Amen and Amen again.

As I've said before, the only "reaching across the aisle" I want to see is with a 2x4.

The Marquis of Queensbury is long dead. It's time to bury him.

[progressoid]

9. Kick 'em in the balls

and other places.

[ZonkerHarris]

10. Yeah, except too many elected Democrats think they can get republicans voters to back them so they play nice

and co-operate and it gets them nothing but losing
so I'm not expecting much fight from most of them.

[Cirsium]

33. Voters, or dollars?

My Dad told me a story once about my grandfather paying the kids a penny for every dead fly they brought him. The kids quickly figured out that the more flies they let into the house, the more money they could make, so when my grandfather wasn't there they would open the doors and windows and let in more lies.

We have a small army of "allies" grifting off of this catastrophe. The more power the Republicans have, the more dire the situation, the more money there is to be made.

We "pay" the Democratic party leadership to get rid of the "flies" - the right wing. When we aren't looking, they keep letting more "flies" into the "house" - compromising with, working with, normalizing, and in general playing bipartisan footsie with the republicans and groping across the aisle.

Before the election: "The Republicans are an existential threat to the nation! Send money!"

After the election: "I think we can work with them."

[ZonkerHarris]

45. exactly

[xocetaceans]

11. It is past time for Biden's DOJ to arrest Trump for his insurrection and put him on trial for it. Replace Garland...

...and just get it done. Ceding power to a Constitutionally disqualified insurrectionist should not be what President Biden does, but Biden is still playing by rules that the other side does neither acknowledges nor respects. Lincoln did not allow the Supreme Court to interfere with ending both the Confederacy and slavery. Biden should not continue to allow both the DOJ's feckless leadership and the Supreme Court to interfere with the prosecution of Donald Trump, the insurrectionist and felon. President Biden's "warning" speech the other day was but a hollow substitute for actual leadership.

All of what happens in the next four years of this country's future are down to President Biden playing by rules which the other side does not care to respect. He just does not seem to fathom that following rules is only worthwhile if those rules are respected by all of the parties to which they apply. If the other side does not and will not respect the rules, see Abraham Lincoln's example for how matters should be addressed. If any here wonder about how the exercise of power looks, if President Biden fails to act now (and he by all signs will undoubtedly fail to act), you will see that exercise of raw power at the hands of Donald Trump, and it will not be for the benefit of our constitutional democracy or the citizens of the US.

Articles like the above article from the Guardian are merely pathetic collections of afterthoughts and vain words taking the place of actions that the Democrats should have taken long before now. Based on the twin examples of President Obama's coddling of the bankers and W's use of torture and President Biden's coddling of Donald Trump and his fellow insurrectionists, it is clear that the Democrats cannot actually muster the will to act decisively to protect the country from constitutional threats be they exploitation by financial interests, the use of torture, an illegal invasion of Iraq, or an insurrection clearly fomented by a losing GOP President. Such articles are meaningless.

[Lulu KC]

12. So you think this will happen over the weekend?

It had not crossed my mind that this would be possible, but what a finale that would be!

[Rikki Tikki Tumbo]

16. YES!!

THIS. Reinstate the Jan. 6 indictment, arrest the felon and jail him pending trial. Then, try him in D.C. court and let the chips fall where they may. The Presidency will hold until such time as there is a verdict by a jury of his D.C. peers.

Biden can do it. He has immunity while committing official acts. Justice needs to be saved and served.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

56. Unfortunately, the ruling meant the Supreme

Court Corrupts get to rule on whether the acts qualify as official. The immunity was meant for Trump & possibly other R presidents, not for Ds.

[wnylib]

30. I could not disagree with you more in your blaming Biden

and then Obama for where the US is politically today. The current situation has been several decades in coming, back to Reagan at least, but I'd say farther than that, back to the RW determination after WWII to undo all of FDR's legacy and return to the days of the robber barons. If you watch Rachel Maddow's documentary, Ultra, you will see that there were RW traitors in Congress, acting as Nazi agents, who were charged, tried, and made such a mockery of the legal system that they were not convicted.

I am all for full on political attacks on the RW authoritarian oligarchs by Dems and anyone else who wants to join us in resistance. I want to see MAGAs politically and socially destroyed so that they have no standing in American society. But I totally reject the notion that Biden or Obama are responsible for a movement on the right that began before Obama was born and when Biden was an infant.

Holding Nixon accountable when he resigned would have derailed the RW movement toward authoritarianism. So Gerald Ford has some responsibility for pardoning Nixon. But even after Watergate and Nixon's pardon, the race between Ford and Carter was close, so that's where the mind of the American public was in the 1970s. Racism and opposition to civil rights progress led to support for Reagan.

Republicans had no candidate who could have beat Hillary Clinton until a malignant narcissist with foreign backing stepped into national politics. In order to hold power, RW media and the Republican Party leaders embraced him. That's how we got where we are today.

[DENVERPOPS]

13. The leaders and voters of the dem party

continue to try and go high, while our adversary goes low......Even after what we have just witnessed, and are continuing to witness.

The Dems continue to try and go high, fighting as if we are fighting a conventional war, playing by the rules and obeying the law and constitution....... when in fact, for 45+ years, the Republicans have been using guerrilla warfare tactics.
For all of these past years, the "New" RepubliCON Party and Uber Rich RepubliCON Corporations, RepubliCON Think Tanks, and RepubliCON Oligarchs, have had the mantra: "The End Justifies The Means"......

[William769]

14. Minute men.

It worked with the red coats then, it will work against the current red coats now,

[LymphocyteLover]

15. the Dem base has been screaming this for ages now

[poli-junkie]

17. Dems need to assert themselves!

Stand up and articulate what we stand for! No more mealy-mouthed make-niceties! Shine a spotlight on how the fascists are stealing from the American people while we fight over the stupid culture war!

[Aviation Pro]

19. This right here

We need to get dirty.

[Mountain Mule]

20. We should NEVER make nice to the magats

Who are attempting to destroy the very fabric of our democracy. They long to cause the deaths and suffering of millions of Americans by getting rid of the already tattered social safety net in order to give deserving millionaires and billionaires a tax cut. It seems to me that my own days are numbered because I'm disabled and depend on a housing voucher along with a small social security check to get by. If the muskrat and his adoring maga fans get their way I'll be out on the street along with my poor sweet fur babies (my faithful catahoula hound and my two beautiful orange tiger striped kitties). None of us would survive that.

I am delighted to go low.

[maxsolomon]

21. Dems/Librulz have no counter to the Right's media ecosystem.

They've been building it for decades with endless deep pockets - 1st talk radio, then Fox, then Sinclair, then Social Media and now he-man podcasting. It reaches into the smooth brains of bazillions of Americans and doesn't let go.

Traditional newspapers and TV News are hobbled by their Journalistic standards and are essentially neutral. They're increasing irrelevant.

Dems can get "mean", but no one's going to notice because the Right controls the narrative.

[ck4829]

23. Controlling nothing means nothing to lose

[Bird Lady]

22. I'm all in.

The meaner the better. I have been known to be mean when it is called for. Right now I fantasize about things I would like to do. I just need to be given a direction.

[live love laugh]

24. The pigs have been trying to pull us down into the mud for decades.

Joining them is a slippery slope.

Literally.

[Cirsium]

34. Sure

And the slave holders were always trying to pull everyone else down into the mud with them.

Good thing we didn't fight back and join them in the mud!

Oh, wait...

[live love laugh]

36. Your analogy makes zero sense.

[Cirsium]

49. Do better

The issue is too important to settle with one liners hurled back and forth.

Explain your point, please.

[ck4829]

39. And the high ground has gotten us...?

Adapt or die, what will we choose?

[live love laugh]

40. I didn't say we shouldn't go low, but I dread the muddying

Of the political waters with a Republican media who will not fail to focus on Democrats’ bad behavior which they ignored with Republicans.

[ck4829]

42. Understandable

[AZ8theist]

25. I always thought the "When they go low, we go high" approach was idiotic.

[flvegan]

26. Agreed, but they won't.

Besides, that sweet dry powder. Driest powder ever.

[orangecrush]

27. It isn't a choice.

Unless you want to give them time to turn us into the American version of Putin's opposition.

[bucolic_frolic]

29. Yes, we need a disciplined opposition party, a shadow government

just like Trump sniped and whined for 4 years. It's how you don't become irrelevant.

[yellow dahlia]

54. Shadow Government

Timothy Snyder has been explaining its necessity right now.

[Sneederbunk]

31. Go scorched earth for next two years.

Then regain at least one house in Congress.

[yellow dahlia]

55. If that is even possible.

They control the vote and the elections - in SO many ways. How do we have a fair election?

[summer_in_TX]

59. No, states control the elections.

The feds have relatively little say in running elections.

[DJ Synikus Makisimus]

32. They don't know how.

Sorry, but the trend isn't toward confrontation, it's toward appeasement. Fetterman (1) and Coons (2) have made strong signals in this direction already. All that the rest seem able to muster is outrage; which just emboldens and entertains the fascists because it means they "own the libs." Oh, and notice please how Democrats have stopped calling the MAGAt assholes "fascists."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(1) https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143370074
(2) https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219911033

[tenderfoot]

38. I've been wanting that since 1980 - no luck as of yet

[jalan48]

41. It's time to elect some new Democrats who are capable of going low. Too many of the old guard live in the past.

[dalton99a]

43. People will choose an imperfect fighter over a perfect wimp

every time

[Blue_Tires]

44. That's the bare minimum

And we need to go more extreme than that, IMO

[SpankMe]

46. All this doesn't mean shit...

...if we can't get some of the 90M+ voters who sat out the 2024 election to fill out a fucking ballot. Does becoming assholes, like Republicans have been since Newt Gingrich, get some of those voters mobilized without driving more devoted Dems away?

Being nice and "going high" hasn't worked. Being dicks and starting a psy-op campaign, like the Republicans have been doing, is a start.

[malaise]

47. Good read

It’s way past time
Rec

[Kid Berwyn]

50. Weird and Couch was effective. So was mentioning Project 2025.

Then came Plouffe.

[awesomerwb1]

51. Odds of that happening lower than odds of me winning Powerball

[elleng]

52. ruthlessly, bitterly mean is NOT who we are.