Annoyingly, there are still Democrats who think the correct strategy is tack to the center. Which puts me in mind of Murc at Lawyers guns and money: “There is an enormous part of the Democratic coalition that wants immigration, guns, crime, and gender issues to go the fuck away. They aren’t necessarily active monsters like the Republicans are, but they would be perfectly happy if something like Trump’s wall or ethnic cleansing actually worked, because that would remove the problem while keeping their hands clean.They resent those at the bleeding edge of the culture war for so successfully imposing their shibboleths on the party, when what they really want to do is just tinker with the system a little bit at a time to make it better without upsetting too many folks.”
Another quote from the same thread: ‘Nobody is pointing at the environment and saying “Democrats are losing elections because they support a healthy environment, and that nobody seems to be calling on Democrats to abandon environmental issues because some undefined number of Trump supporters hate environmentalists. Perhaps that’s how you try to make that sort of argument palatable, rather than admitting that you’re employing a rationale that has been consistently invoked to oppose pretty much every civil rights movement or initiative.”
And again: “Are any of the people who invoke that argument against the support of basic civil rights for trans people also on the record with the clear expression of their own support? I can’t recall encountering such a person, but I don’t want to be unfair in suggesting that, in the name of winning elections, there may be a pattern of support for antipathy toward the rights of trans people by commentators who, themselves, share that antipathy.”
From another thread (sorry, the site was down when I drafted this post): “I am pretty big on the idea that we need to pick some enemies and go after them. People see us as weak. People are benefitting from every single thing wrong with this country and they’re going to go after us for any attempt to fix those problems. Talking nice to them won’t prevent it. Decide what we’re going to fix, identify who it’s going to piss off, and then attack those people relentlessly because they’re going to attack us relentlessly. Trying to play nice with them won’t moderate those attacks, it will just mean they see us as vulnerable and attack harder.”
And again: “Make some actual choices and stick with it! It’s just a fact you can’t fix what’s broken in a way that doesn’t harm the people benefiting from the brokenness. Acknowledge this reality and move forward. But our leadership can’t do this, they seem unable to give up the idea that some result that benefits everyone is possible.”
From SF Gate: “Last month, the New York Times conducted a survey that found that nearly half of the respondents who approved of President Donald Trump “had not heard much” about anything Trump has done over his first 100 days back in office. The government-sanctioned kidnapping and false imprisonment of pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil? Nope. Trump allowing Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to gut vital departments such as the U.S. Treasury, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Social Security Administration? No idea. Tariff-fueled stock market losses? That was news to these people. ”
The author suggests Jake Tapper’s new book on Biden is part of the reason why: “Tapper, the face of an entire news organization, would like you to believe that Biden’s downfall is still news in June 2025. In fact, he’s carrying on as if it were the only news story that matters, even as masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are kidnapping people in plain sight. Even as Trump and his ghouls attempt to pass a bill that will annihilate Medicaid. Even as Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services secretary cancels vaccine research contracts that could save tens of millions of lives. While all of that wanton destruction is going on, CNN’s top anchor is busy telling the world that the “cover-up” surrounding Biden’s health is “worse than Watergate.” That’s a laughable assertion given not just Trump’s current offenses but all of the offenses he committed the LAST time he was in office.”
As multiple pundits, and me, have written, the media environment works this way, treating Dem offenses as far worse than Republican ones. Eric Purchase suggests one way to fight back: “Democrats must orchestrate activities that create drama and start attracting media attention. For example, demand that Congress hold hearings on DOGE. When Republicans refuse, Democrats should investigate on their own, including inviting Musk to to be questioned. When Musk refuses, invite DOGE insiders to come forward with information. And so on.”
Instead, some centrists are saying that given Musk and Trump feuding, we should invite Musk inside the Democratic tent rather than imposing “purity tests.” Because not allying with a massively corrupt supporter of the Felon regime is an unreasonable standard. Musk’s not objecting to the cruelty of the Republican budget bill that mights leave millions without health insurance, he wants the cuts to get worse. As Paul Krugman says, Musk believes his support for the Felon “entitles him to receive special favors from the White House — not policies he likes in general, but contracts and specific actions that benefit him personally. He even seems to have imagined that he was effectively co-president. That is, he simply assumed that U.S. policy was for sale, and thought he had bought it.
“Trump, for his part, hasn’t responded by saying “How dare you suggest such a thing?” Instead, he has threatened retaliation — again, not in the form of general policies Musk won’t like but in the form of specific actions aimed to hurt Musk’s bottom line. Steve Bannon is even calling for Musk’s deportation. The point is that both men start from the presumption that the U.S. government is an entirely corrupt enterprise, with the president in a position to hand out personal favors or engage in personal acts of vengeance.
