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Who is stepping up to take on the mantle of Democratic party leadership in Washington?
https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2025/01/what-it-looks-like-to-be-done-with.htmlMonday, for the first time that I can remember in my adult life, I did not watch the inauguration of a President. As a historian, and a civics and social studies educator, and a lifelong member of the Democratic party, I could not bring myself to sit there and watch something happen that never should have taken place, had our government worked the way the founding fathers desired. Without the level of trust that they determined, in their day, must exist in order for the constitutional democracy they designed and ratified to work, it reached a point of failure on January 20, 2025 from which it may never be able to recover.
Frankly, the level of trust required to make government work the way it was designed to work hasn't existed in Washington for a long time. There have been times, over the past eighty years, when a strong leader was able to make Congress deliver for the people, but that job has become much more difficult with each passing Presidency. And none of the problems perceived by those who voted for Trump, expecting that he will fix them, will get fixed, because as President, he has neither the authority, nor the ability, to fix the problems he convinced his supporters were the reason to vote for him.
What's disconcerting about all of this is that the man who made that rambling, disjointed, factless, vindictive, and demented speech as the newly inaugurated President of the United States won a razor thin election by relying on lies, anger, vindictiveness and revenge, and without offering any policy that would solve any of the problems he claimed he would fix. The party that offered a sound record of fixing problems that government needed to solve, and providing benefits that helped people deal with existing problems, along with long term, common sense solutions, lost, by a razor thin margin but still, a loss is a loss.
And the rest of the world wonders how it is that a country, blessed with the resources of the United States, and the freedom it has enjoyed for 235 years, would willingly put that freedom at risk to elect, of all things, a reality television star, as the political leader of the country and commander in chief of its military.
I wonder that same thing.
Frankly, the level of trust required to make government work the way it was designed to work hasn't existed in Washington for a long time. There have been times, over the past eighty years, when a strong leader was able to make Congress deliver for the people, but that job has become much more difficult with each passing Presidency. And none of the problems perceived by those who voted for Trump, expecting that he will fix them, will get fixed, because as President, he has neither the authority, nor the ability, to fix the problems he convinced his supporters were the reason to vote for him.
What's disconcerting about all of this is that the man who made that rambling, disjointed, factless, vindictive, and demented speech as the newly inaugurated President of the United States won a razor thin election by relying on lies, anger, vindictiveness and revenge, and without offering any policy that would solve any of the problems he claimed he would fix. The party that offered a sound record of fixing problems that government needed to solve, and providing benefits that helped people deal with existing problems, along with long term, common sense solutions, lost, by a razor thin margin but still, a loss is a loss.
And the rest of the world wonders how it is that a country, blessed with the resources of the United States, and the freedom it has enjoyed for 235 years, would willingly put that freedom at risk to elect, of all things, a reality television star, as the political leader of the country and commander in chief of its military.
I wonder that same thing.
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Who is stepping up to take on the mantle of Democratic party leadership in Washington? (Original Post)
lees1975
Jan 23
OP
Shipwack
(2,451 posts)1. I'm guessing that they'll do it the way the always do.
It’ll go to the oldest person who has the most years in congress.
Anyone under 60 will just have to wait for their turn.
Shipwack
(2,451 posts)2. The same way they've always done it.
It’ll go to the oldest person who has the most years in congress.
Anyone under 60 will just have to wait for their turn.