Demanding the party do something? Pay attention.

[bigtree]

Last edited Thu Jan 23, 2025, 12:54 PM - Edit history (1)

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries weekly presser this morning complete with visual aids

watch:

[jmbar2]

1. Starts at about 12:00 min mark

Last edited Thu Jan 23, 2025, 01:51 PM - Edit history (1)

Wow! Masterful messaging and issue framing.

- Republicans have issued a Contract Against America

- Project 25 is about making working people pay for handouts to the billionaires and corporations
- Republicans lied when they said they didn't know Project 25.

DEI is about what you know, not who you know- core American values
---Diversity = E Pluribus Unum - Out of many, one
--- Equity = Equal protection under the law is about equity
--- Inclusion = opportunity for all

Thanks BigTree!

[TheProle]

14. "---Diversity E Pluribus Unum - From One, Many "

backwards: It means: “Out of many, one.”

[jmbar2]

16. Thanks!

[Silent Type]

2. Totally agree. But we have to stop running just against trump/GOPers with how bad he is. It's true, but we ran on all

that stuff and lost on Nov 5th. Don't have the answer, but we aren't going to convert voters just griping.

[MagickMuffin]

20. We had a plan, not a concept of a plan, but a genuine plan

It wasn’t just about the gripping.

[Silent Type]

24. What was that plan? Maybe I wasn't paying attention since I was voting Democratic not matter what, but I didn't see

a plan.

I read something about $50K help for first time homeowners and VP Harris said she couldn't think of anything she'd change from Biden. I was good with that, but not enough voters were.

[bigtree]

31. you dumbed down an entire campaign to that?

...so false, on its face.

You obviously were misinformed or under-informed.

And no, I'm not going to spell out something you can take your own time to research and learn.

Why make such a specious argument without knowing, as you admit, what the actual truth is?

[Silent Type]

33. All I want is to see the Plan that you say exists. All I saw beyond what I posted was telling voters why they shouldn't

vote for trump. Although I totally agree with that sentiment, voters didn't buy it.

[MagickMuffin]

36. Educate yourself and try watching the rallies

BigTree provided DUers with a lot of the rallies, I watched several where Harris Walz gave details about our plan.

When we refuse to investigate or research anything and rely on others is asking them to do our homework.

[Silent Type]

37. So there was no succinct plan. That's the problem. The ads in my area were just trump sucks. Though true,

don’t think it attracted any votes.

[MagickMuffin]

38. Watch the campaign rallies not tv commercials

That’s your problem watching tv ads that don’t tell you anything.

Watch the rallies, otherwise you’ll be stuck in your loop of tv ads didn’t provide detailed information about our plans.

I’m now done with explaining this any further. Watch the rallies so you are informed and you quit spreading disinformation.

[bigtree]

39. not really something I'd be spending time here looking for

...when the answer to that question hasn't gone anywhere.

Look it up.

But you're barking up the wrong tree by promoting that Trump campaign meme which intended to separate the VP from her role in historic achievements in the Biden presidency.

Simply put, I 'm not playing with arguments about a campaign whose opponent was a convicted felon which insist she needed to be perfect on some point or some approach.

You're just blaming what was a perfectly reasonable and even powerful campaign by the Vice President in the THREE MONTHS she was given.

You can't make a credible strategy for the future pushing off of a campaign that was crippled by time and apathy toward the utter depravity of her rival.

People need to stop that useless and specious diversion from the shithole voters elected. Democrats who stayed home should be ashamed of themselves, not looking for excuses by tearing down an amazing woman who was given the most challenging burden in the history of Democratic campaigns, and the stupidest meddling by Democrats since McGovern/Shriver.

[angrychair]

21. Agreed

We need to go that step further and explain what it means to people, as individuals and as families. We need to connect the dots and say it very plainly.
We don't need to talk about how awful it is to deport undocumented immigrants, we need to make people understand why deporting farm workers is going to cost them more at the grocery store and impact everything from availability to food safety.
We lost trying to attack DEI, we need to explain why DEI should matter to them in their day to day lives. How it will impact them financially.

[bigtree]

26. I heard that and more

...don't know how you could have missed it.

[wnylib]

23. I think that Jeffries made a good case FOR Dem

programs that serve the middle and working classes while simultaneously making it clear that MAGA policies are destroying those programs.

[LearnedHand]

3. They fucked up their first best chance to do something

They voted in both houses to pass the Laken Riley bill. Big fucking fail. They can talk about doing something all they want, but it only counts when they ACTUALLY do something.

[bigtree]

5. 12 Democrats voted for that Act in the Senate, 48 in the House

...it's more credible to speak to the motivations and intentions of those individual Senators on that one piece of legislation, than to characterize the entire party on that vote.

When Democrats are in the majority, we make progressive progress on on issues and concerns which sustain and benefit Americans.

Moreover, the vast majority of the party remains in favor of comprehensive immigration reform, which would take this issue out of demagogue's hands and return the challenge of making our borders secure a bipartisan one again.

The failure to elect enough Democrats to do what the republicans are doing right now is the ONLY reason these politically performative votes are still occurring on immigration and other issues.

[LearnedHand]

6. It's a perception thing

NO dem should have voted for that abomination.

[Frank D. Lincoln]

15. It's not a perception thing, it's a common sense thing.

Our Democratic leaders need to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.

Especially given Trump's executive order onslaught and executive power overreach.

[orangecrush]

9. Up is down

Day is night

Thanks for helping me get used to it.

[bigtree]

13. I responded to misinforming cynicism about the party in another thread

...as posted:

We just had an election which took the power away from Democrats we elected to do much of anything legislatively.

We will see lawsuits which will likely get a good response from state and lower courts to challenges to Executive overreach. But there is a maga majority at the end of that legislative process which not only threatens enacted laws from the last Congress, but threatens to unravel established law which has stood for generations.

That's the challenge here, Confronting republicans at every opportunity with whatever we have left. Not just mocking and jeering a party without the numbers in the legislature to even block legislation with the entirety of their own membership, much less enact anything.

This challenge against the republican party and Trump has always rested on the votes of the people, and, that effort failed spectacularly to restrain them in the election we just held. No sense despairing over it; and no sense in doing anything less than expressing support for the people who are left to represent what we wanted to see in government with the votes we cast for them.

No sense in projecting republican malfeasance onto a party voters neglected to reinforce with a majority to check their opposition in the legislature or the White House.

It's just sophistry to do so, and it's counterproductive.

Ever read Charge of the Light Brigade?

Flashed all their sabres bare,
Flashed as they turned in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wondered.
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right through the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reeled from the sabre stroke
Shattered and sundered.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

We are the infantry who are supposed to bolster the cavalry we send into battle. What would we expect, other than slaughter on the front lines, without the numbers to support the action?

That's not really something so hard to comprehend, but still people persist in demanding our troops do things they're not at all equipped to do in the national legislature; then, perversely, they castigate them for the failures voters engineered for them.

Our votes in elections remain the only way to effectively confront these abominations of democracy and law which emanate from the convicted felon-in-chief and his republican henchmen. What are we going to do about that?

[SARose]

11. The House GOP's first bill of 2025 could enable a Ken Paxton power grab

By Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council

Snip

If the Senate passes the Laken Riley Act this week, the answer might not be Congress or the president. The bill, already passed in the House, would hand state attorneys general, like Ken Paxton in Texas, veto power over large swaths of federal immigration policy.

Under a provision of the bill that has gotten little attention, federal courts in places like Texas and Louisiana could hear lawsuits seeking to impose sweeping bans on all visas from countries such as India and China. State officials could also seek court orders forcing the government to deport a specific individual without the sign-off of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.

Currently, immigration authority is managed at the federal level. Giving states a veto power over thousands of decisions made every day by federal law enforcement officers and leaders will complicate immigration issues in every community and threaten to set off international incidents which could hurt U.S. interests around the globe.

Snip

More

How long before Paxton files suit? 3 2 1…

[Silent Type]

19. I think the two Democratic senators in Georgia made the right move voting for that act. It's still a rube red state.

I don't want minor shoplifters getting deported, but I think those senators had little choice if they want to stay in office. I'm hoping courts will limit abuse and insure due process.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. We must find ways to bring the consequences of Trump's EO Policies upon Republicans

and drive home the connection. Republicans are preaching self-interest for all, competition, keeping up with the Joneses, hating the other.

Democrats are in for community, cooperation, a rising tide lifting all boats from the bottom, loving thy neighbor and tolerating the least of us.

Republicans need to feel the sting and the pain of their leaders' greed and self-promotion. Republicans voters have been played.

[H2O Man]

7. But-but-but .....

the felon has been in office for four days now!

Recommended, of course,

[SCantiGOP]

8. Hard to do anything

For a lot of folks here, since their main goal seems to be to avoid all news and current events and hunker down for the next 4 years.

We need an engaged resistance now more than ever.

[maxsolomon]

10. Is it OK if a lot of us here hunker down and avoid all news and current events

for, say, 4 months, counting from November 5th 2024?

Just so we don't spend every waking moment in soul-crushing despair &/or blood-pressure-raising rage.

[SCantiGOP]

12. I imagine that is

exactly what our new Dictator hopes we will do.
It may be too late in four months. We need massive 1960s style activism and protests from the Left. We are in far more danger now than we were from Nixon and the Vietnam war.

[maxsolomon]

17. I don't believe you're going to see "massive 1960s style activism and protests from the Left".

in the next 4 months.

The danger is abstract to most. Certainly the spectre of Fascism wasn't enough for Americans to vote against that MFer.

Sorry to be a cynic.

[delisen]

18. Great to see these caucus members and hear the message

How much we fight back against the deportation madness will set the tone for all the battles to come

It helps a lot to see and hear these members of Congress explain the issues.

[bigtree]

29. the Hispanic Caucus was excellent on this

...each of them were clear and specific about the challenges and their intentions in ths Congress to try to protect and defend their Latino constituents against the hell coming for their communities.

[Oneironaut]

22. These are noncommittal press conferences with vague generalities about Trump being "bad."

I can feel the energy being vacuumed out of my body.

No calls for protests. No calls for action. No calls to do anything. Just more professor lectures to an audience of 100 people. Cool.

Thanks though OP. I hope better leaders emerge to fight Trump’s Fascist takeover. Not ones who look bored.

[bigtree]

25. they are doing what they were sent there for

...when the votes are being cast, they will ostensibly represent the people who sent them there.

What the _ else do you think they are able to do other than organize against what the majority intends to do?

I don't understand cynicism like this at all, especially when voters don't give our party the numbers they need to do more than just vote in the minority and talk.

Then we get posts ridiculing them for it. Hell, elect more Democrats if you want them to be in a position to do more than just point at what republicans are doing.

These Democrats each spelled out their own priorities for the nation in these conferences, so, I'm going to guess you didn't watch them.

You should watch each of these, and organize your own advocacy around the things they say they support. Then do more than just posit that the party out of power has some magical method to enact legislation, as if they had some fantastical way to subvert the votes of a majority of republicans.

It's not a serious argument and time shouldn't be wasted on such misinformed cynicism.

You want to protest? That couldn't be more your responsibility. The idea of someone sitting at home yelling at the Congress to organize them to protest is really something.

These people are there to legislate, and they are telling us exactly how they intend to do that job we sent them there to effect. At the very least, take heed of what they say before imposing expectations on them that they aren't in any way in a position to manage or control.

This isn't just about outside agitation. It's a challenge to effect legislative action from their seats at the table; the very purpose of protests.

My view is there are too many people criticizing our ineffective majorities and even or minorities for the consequences of the dearth of Democrats we elect. You just have to wonder what is the expected result of that failure?

I mean, one poster made this broad judgment of the party based on a vote they disagree made by a fraction of the Democrats in Congress; just like this complaint that they didn't begin their term with calls for protest outside of the institution in which they're supposed to be managing the people's business.

We really need to address our legislators where Congress actually stands, much more than where we haplessly wish it would be if we held the majority.

[betsuni]

34. THANK YOU. Exactly.

[mahina]

42. It's not designed to entertain you.

[luxpara4]

27. Weren't they supposed to already have a plan

I am very frustrated with the Democrats, they knew Trump had cheated before and they knew he was gonna cheat again. Elon and Trump told them so themselves.

[bigtree]

30. what are you talking about?

...take a minute to listen to them.

I don't agree that they don't have a 'plan' or something banal as that. They have strategies for this republican Congress which they are spelling out in these press conferences that are unfolding this week.

I'm not interested in expectations which don't factually acknowledge the minority of votes we have in either body. That's like tilting at windmills, and I'm not the squire for that fanciful quest.

[Cha]

28. TY Yes it would be Most Helpful to "Pay Attention"

[magicarpet]

32. Again,... and again,... and again Dems hold press conferences like this.

Not putting down the idea of the House Leadership press conferences ... that is exactly what the Dems need to do to get the message out.

It is the fucked up rinkey dinkey way Dems go about it. At the press conference the press people ask their questions from the audience area. The at home television viewers can not hear or can barely hear the media's questions being asked.

Have a roaving person in the room with a live microphone passing the mic to the media speakers asking questions so that their voices are amplified by the sound system. That way people at home can hear the media's questions and Hakeem Jefferies' responses.

It is so fucking rude to have a press conference where the public is denied the QUESTION portion of the question & answer news conference.
Dems want and need public paricipation in the political process especially in these perilous political times.

Do not insult political spectators who are trying to plug in and keep current with political happenings with these low rent bull shit news conferences Dem leaders call news conferences to keep the public informed and up on messaging - when only half the fucking news conferece can be heard by the public. The voices if the media reporters need to be amplified by the sound system so the public can here their questions asked.

Hand a young House page an amplified microphone. Have them roam the audience area with live microphones. Hand the microphone to the media persons asking questions. Amplify their voice so the listening audience can gear the questions at home - PERMITTING THE PUBLIC TO BE ACTIVE AND INFORMED PARTICIPANTS IN THE POLITICAL PROCESS.

(Don't mean to yell - but this is the third time I have posted this here. It is the third time I have sent email communications to Jefferies office. The fucking broken bureaucracy - we alienate the voters by doing crap like this. No wonder voters throw their arms up and say just fuck it. The Dem bureaucracy is irreparable and unresponsive. Why waste my time with these half assed news conferences ? You can only hear, make out, or guess 10% of the questions the media is asking our House Leadership. PLEASE - amplify their voices too.

[bigtree]

41. I'd guess that no one here has a thing to do with those technical issues

...give the leadership a call.

[betsuni]

35. Pay attention -- way too much to ask. The script is Democrat-bashing and shall be mindlessly followed,

not knowing the slightest thing about politics.

Demanding something one day and the opposite the next (Dems should go after Trump all the time but then that they go after Trump all the time because they have no message -- trolls loved that in 2016), mocking Democrats doing their jobs for writing stern letters or giving stern speeches while slobbering all over themselves worshipping their own fav leaders who do NOTHING but write stern letters and give stern speeches. Dreaming about '60s revolution while whining about just the right leadership to come and save them or lead them around by a ring through their nose.

My favorite stupidity is that Kamala Harris was terrible because she said on "The View" that she couldn't think of anything she'd change from the Biden administration -- Biden, the president everybody said was the new FDR. Huh?

[bigtree]

40. yeah. I couldn't see the brilliance in following the media's bait and separating this VP from historic accomplishments

...which she had helped achieve along with her boss.

The inference the press (and J.D. Vance who began taunting along with the media on this) was that there was something wrong with the Biden presidency. If people want to argue now that they're in the wrong damn place.

It's amazing how easily people fall into the media spin which intends to separate Democrats from their nominee, president, legislator, or party.

Then they want to argue that foolishness as if it's gospel, but it's just anti-Democratic party rhetoric which no one here should spend time debating; like the bull that our party doesn't speak enough to working people, as if republicans ever have.

If people want to question the value or measure of our Democrats, their focus should be redirected to the utter depravity, corruption, and malfeasance of their republican rivals.