Yes they did but they didn’t lose control of their narrative which is weak and feckless.

“give me more money and keep me in power and I promise to not do much.” and “don’t look left, they are crazy!”

Not saying it can’t be done, obviously it can but to many people saying “run for office” is like saying “build a car”.

Are there primers on how to start with a campaign for people that have the desire but not the knowledge?

What is all involved in starting and running a successful campaign?

How much time do you need to dedicate to the campaign?

What would be the personal cost for running for office?

Who do you need to hire to help you (manager, donation specialist, volunteer coordinator, etc)?

My guess to this is that the higher the office the more people and money you will need.

I’m not writing this to be contrary but to really get answers - I think more people would be more open to the idea if they could see what a campaign needs to be successful.

There is a reason the main Democratic leadership is not pushing a more left leaning agenda, they would lose. If the left got a foothold on the national conversation like maga did then the middle of the road Democrats fear they will go the way of the middle of the road Republicans and that is out of power.

My favorite phrase is:

“They have bad taste and the money to prove it.” Which is trump in a nutshell

Really you are ahead of the curve which is great!

I think one of the reasons that OWS struggled was a lack of a clear message and a lack of leadership.

But I think it finally ended with “necessary” outdoor camping laws that most cities put into place to breakup the camps. That and the moderates laughing at them instead of supporting them.

What the fuck are we supposed to do with this?

republicans remain cautious about directly confronting Musk, who spent $288 million supporting GOP candidates in 2024 and threatened to fund primary challengers against opponents.

There are systems to fund political campaigns that don’t involve kissing the boots of one billionaire. Systems that would allow these politicians to actually feel free to more closely represent their constituents. But I don’t see the current crop of politicians wanting to really work too much, they would rather sell their soul to one man and then impotently complain about it.

"You know the best strategy to counter this is to do nothing, it will burn itself out after awhile. If a few people die or get imprisoned well that’s okay as long as I don’t have to do anything difficult or will affect my portfolio and control. "

obviously I made this quote up but it is how I feel about the people in power that say they are against this administration but really are doing jack shit to support or engage the population. Sure there are some that are doing somethings and I appreciate that, but fuck man do most of the “opposition” party really not have a spine? Like what the fuck, there are millions of citizens that are genuinely scared for their life and freedom and all we are getting is crickets…

in other words Norway has “fuck you money”

So what are you doing?

Are you organizing people to go out and protest or are you just being a keyboard warrior? You know that phrase put up or shut up? Why are you not out pulling people in to a long protest? If you are why are you not taking this time to get more people in your protest? If you are not then you are no better than all these people that you’re bitching about.

You’re right this is a conversation that is going no where you’re just here to bitch and really not do anything. Later.

Yes, Americans have been pacified - though I think most western countries’ populations are to some extent. And because of that pacification they are not going to jump up and do the really difficult stuff of resistance until it starts effecting them more - this I agree with. But your argument or your complaint sounds like if Americans don’t jump from pacification to doing the hard stuff nothing else matters. It’s all or nothing in your mind.

But that isn’t how it works, small protests and boycotts on large scales do have some impact. They also demonstrate to Americans that resistance does work and possible get them to do more. If there is small successes then larger, more difficult resistance has the chance to grow and be sustained.

should these protest happen sooner and more often, sure but they didn’t and that is arguments for history - So maybe this administration will actually prompt more people to start doing more uncomfortable actions to change the country for the better?

Americans have not had to protest like this in many many decades. That is it’s been “good enough” for a large part of the population to not really do anything, so there is no system that people can tap into like in France. So thinking that you are going to get a million+ people to go into the streets and shut everything down for a few weeks isn’t realistic.

American protest opposition also has a great response to these gatherings by getting them to turn into riots so there is justification for military style responses. Which makes people on the fence hesitant. Getting people to dip their toe in the lake of resistance is the best way forward. It’s slow, it looks silly and limiting but if it works it emboldens more people to do more.

The irony is that it might then be a car with the potential to piss off two groups

I get why people don’t want to piss off some of the maga people. they do seem a bit snowflake-y and overly armed but at the same time not expressing yourself due to this fear is giving them more power than they deserve.

just makes the boycotting that much easier.

I do think all the Democrats, should take more opportunities to visit their states to make people aware of what’s going on, what they’re doing in Congress to try to stop the worst stuff happening, and what ordinary people can do to push back as well. I think members should also boost each others message because probably pages like AOC’s have a lot more viewers from a district than their own district’s House Rep.

Good they are doing some legislative opposition, but you’re right they need to be doing more to push back outside of congress.

I’ve wondered if the they started buying ads on mobile games with a quick few lines to tell people what they have done or what the republicans are doing would work?

you by-pass large media, you get a younger audience and it gets a message out there quickly.

For some reason this gif gives me nostalgia of listening to artbell.com on Netscape - Good times.

What’s crazy and I feel very shortsighted of the Democrats is that they aren’t doing this more often. There is a large population that will/would respond to this type of politicking from the “opposition”. They would generate tons of energy for more protests and put more pressure on the republicans to oppose shit.

instead we get:

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) has garnered scorn for meeting with Silicon Valley executives to “mend fences” with the powerful tech sector—where numerous CEOs have signaled support for Trump during his second term.

Ken Martin, the newly elected chair of the Democratic National Committee, said last month that the party should continue to take money from “good billionaires.”

They maybe advertising the dates on social media like bluesky and x? I’m on neither but probably a good place to look.

I’d love to get a few videos from his speeches to share with people to hopefully build more energy around this.

Very true and I’m really happy to see that it did work.

I was thinking more of removing trump and his lessor demons from power, or at least getting Congress to actually hold him accountable for his actions. That, I feel, will take a more sustained pressure from a large part of the population.