Insightful. Your characterization of the 'Lucy and the football' dynamic is a precise algorithm for understanding current US politics. I'm curious about the specific internal incentives or strategic calculus that might lead those eight Democrats to consistantly capitulate, even when the party has recent electoral momentum.
I'm not a big fan of George Washington. It's hard not to be memorable if you're the first. However, when he made his farewell address and advised AGAINST Political Parties he got it exactly right. And the Lawyers (John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, among others) promptly ignored that advice, and we've had parties dominated by Lawyers ever since. (No offense, Qasim)
Now we are in a country that fails to recognize people, only two dominant political parties who do what little legislation they do for the PARTY and along PARTY LINES not to support the people, no matter how much they do identify with constituents. Adjuncts, like Working Families, must support and take offices on the local, county and state level before they can play in the national arena. We can't get rid of parties, but we must, as the voting public, make it clear that we vote for the person and their ideals and how they support US rather than the party.
My few friends are pissed at the Democratic cave in. It has been said that republicans run on democratic tickets to be voted in, and then act on behalf of their own Republican Party interests. Perhaps , this could be an example here.
Let’s not forget your own role in this. The fact there or approval rating is lower than party membership is in no small part due to the continuing discontent spewed by too many of our own people.
I think one of the most significant reasons democrats has such low approval rating is like you point out, that they're not seen as fighters. There is always democrats that doesn't hold the line. But it's never the progressives that the leadership fears. It's always the "centrists". But another reason is that mainstream media doesn't give democrats the same attention as republicans unless something like this happens. And democrats don't embrace the "theater" republicans does. See what happens when Newsom gives the American people theater. When he trolls TacoDon, even mainstream media gives him attention. When it comes to social media, democrat influencers are starting to catch up with republican influencers, despite twitter and instagrams best efforts. And Substack, Blue Sky and Youtube is the most popular places for them.
Despite the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart playing along and blaming Dem “incompetence,” historian Nate Holdren was more accurate when he wrote, “it’s closer to a boxer taking a dive because for behind-the-scenes reasons there’s more money in losing the match.”
Meh, people are always using this canard, but they're neglecting that there's ideological bifurcation among the people upset with Democratic leadership. Frankly, the activist left is mad at the Democratic Party, as are voters generally on the right. This varies from the GOP in that the most ideologically extreme Republicans are ecstatic with Trump's leadership. That's the gap. About 20% of Democrats are not happy with current Democratic leadership. But that doesn't mean they disapprove of Democratic leadership for the same reason as the Republican voters who disapprove of Democratic leadership.
It's disingenuous to compare the two. The Democratic party has currently weak leadership because it was thoroughly defeated at the polls in 2024, so it does not have any elected officials with a proven track record for a national policy. It's incumbent national platform was defeated at the ballot box, and so that makes 2026 and 2028 years in which a new platform will emerge as midterms establish new political winners and 2028 pits those emergent leaders to test them in a national level primary.
But also there's an unreasonable ask from the activist left. A Senate in which Chuck Schumer could force Shaheen and Kain to maintain the shutdown is a world in which Chuck Schumer would have the power to force Bernie Sanders to vote against Universal Healthcare. The progressive left blames leadership for not being able to force members of their coalition to abandon their own positions. That's not how leadership actually works. It's a childish conception of how democracy actually works, a bifurcation into 'for us' or 'against us' where 'us' is the ideological extreme. The GOP has rallies around this binary demand for loyalty, and what it produced was Trump. Progressive Trump is not any better (or possible, or necessary) than Progressive Joe Rogan. The absolutism is the problem, in either direction.
Right, because when forcing people to do what you want vs. someone else forcing them to do what they want have absolutely no relation to each other. Chuck Schumer should, somehow, be able to force these 8 Senators to do whatever you think he should force them to do, but not be able to force the Senators you like to do whatever he wants when you dislike the outcome. This is just childish nonsense.
It's only authoritarian fascism when they don't call themselves socialist leftists first, I guess?
I have watched this failure of the Democratic party since the Reagen years. Lobbyists and corporate donors have always owned corporate Democrats and with Citizens United, it enabled them to become even more enriched. They will do anything they can to retain their seats because it has now become their job for life. They do not work for the working families of America and spend most of their day in some office dialing for dollars or being wined and dined by lobbyists. This has been the rot and corruption of both parties with the Republicans at least being honest about who they owe their allegiance. Democrats hid behind their neoliberalism, but when someone like Bernie Sanders or someone who has real ideas for health care or equality, they quietly object because these people are challenging the nice deal, they have made to appease corporations and only talk about equality, without doing a damn thing about it. We need to trash this 2-party system or enable constituents to be able to recall their representatives at any time during their term. Reasonable democracies have a parliament in which many groups have a seat at the table for making decisions and the ability to recall or fire anyone who is not working for them.
I am so upset because Foster is my congressman. My district got redrawn and we wound up stuck with him. Before that we had Marie Newman and we were very upset when she got gerrymandered out of congress, basically. PLEASE run against foster. He's horrible and he's going to be getting an earful from me today. Thank you for always coming with receipts!
Insightful. Your characterization of the 'Lucy and the football' dynamic is a precise algorithm for understanding current US politics. I'm curious about the specific internal incentives or strategic calculus that might lead those eight Democrats to consistantly capitulate, even when the party has recent electoral momentum.
100%
Please try again to take down this MF. Your time is here and now.
I'm not a big fan of George Washington. It's hard not to be memorable if you're the first. However, when he made his farewell address and advised AGAINST Political Parties he got it exactly right. And the Lawyers (John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, among others) promptly ignored that advice, and we've had parties dominated by Lawyers ever since. (No offense, Qasim)
Now we are in a country that fails to recognize people, only two dominant political parties who do what little legislation they do for the PARTY and along PARTY LINES not to support the people, no matter how much they do identify with constituents. Adjuncts, like Working Families, must support and take offices on the local, county and state level before they can play in the national arena. We can't get rid of parties, but we must, as the voting public, make it clear that we vote for the person and their ideals and how they support US rather than the party.
Just curious: Do you have plans to primary Foster?
Not right now. But he absolutely deserves to be primaried.
Seems to me, the US has a shit party and a shit-lite party. What it doesn't have is a democratic government.
As you said before, Schumer had to have organized this. I really don’t understand why. What was the need he saw? Regardless, he must be replaced.
My few friends are pissed at the Democratic cave in. It has been said that republicans run on democratic tickets to be voted in, and then act on behalf of their own Republican Party interests. Perhaps , this could be an example here.
You are correct!! We needs to get rid of Schumer and the “Schumercrats”
We need an opposition party now
By the standards of much of the rest of the world the Democrats are a centre-right wing party 🤷🏻♀️
Let’s not forget your own role in this. The fact there or approval rating is lower than party membership is in no small part due to the continuing discontent spewed by too many of our own people.
"my own role" you say?
Apologies that I'm not in a cult, nor can I stay silent on injustice. If that's what you prefer, the MAGA party might be a better fit for you.
I think one of the most significant reasons democrats has such low approval rating is like you point out, that they're not seen as fighters. There is always democrats that doesn't hold the line. But it's never the progressives that the leadership fears. It's always the "centrists". But another reason is that mainstream media doesn't give democrats the same attention as republicans unless something like this happens. And democrats don't embrace the "theater" republicans does. See what happens when Newsom gives the American people theater. When he trolls TacoDon, even mainstream media gives him attention. When it comes to social media, democrat influencers are starting to catch up with republican influencers, despite twitter and instagrams best efforts. And Substack, Blue Sky and Youtube is the most popular places for them.
Yep. We need fighters, not folders.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/11/teetering-trump-schumer-shutdown-rotating-villain.html
Worth reading in its entirety.
Despite the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart playing along and blaming Dem “incompetence,” historian Nate Holdren was more accurate when he wrote, “it’s closer to a boxer taking a dive because for behind-the-scenes reasons there’s more money in losing the match.”
Meh, people are always using this canard, but they're neglecting that there's ideological bifurcation among the people upset with Democratic leadership. Frankly, the activist left is mad at the Democratic Party, as are voters generally on the right. This varies from the GOP in that the most ideologically extreme Republicans are ecstatic with Trump's leadership. That's the gap. About 20% of Democrats are not happy with current Democratic leadership. But that doesn't mean they disapprove of Democratic leadership for the same reason as the Republican voters who disapprove of Democratic leadership.
It's disingenuous to compare the two. The Democratic party has currently weak leadership because it was thoroughly defeated at the polls in 2024, so it does not have any elected officials with a proven track record for a national policy. It's incumbent national platform was defeated at the ballot box, and so that makes 2026 and 2028 years in which a new platform will emerge as midterms establish new political winners and 2028 pits those emergent leaders to test them in a national level primary.
But also there's an unreasonable ask from the activist left. A Senate in which Chuck Schumer could force Shaheen and Kain to maintain the shutdown is a world in which Chuck Schumer would have the power to force Bernie Sanders to vote against Universal Healthcare. The progressive left blames leadership for not being able to force members of their coalition to abandon their own positions. That's not how leadership actually works. It's a childish conception of how democracy actually works, a bifurcation into 'for us' or 'against us' where 'us' is the ideological extreme. The GOP has rallies around this binary demand for loyalty, and what it produced was Trump. Progressive Trump is not any better (or possible, or necessary) than Progressive Joe Rogan. The absolutism is the problem, in either direction.
Yes calling for universal healthcare and calling for fascism are both extremes we should reject (eye roll).
Right, because when forcing people to do what you want vs. someone else forcing them to do what they want have absolutely no relation to each other. Chuck Schumer should, somehow, be able to force these 8 Senators to do whatever you think he should force them to do, but not be able to force the Senators you like to do whatever he wants when you dislike the outcome. This is just childish nonsense.
It's only authoritarian fascism when they don't call themselves socialist leftists first, I guess?
I have watched this failure of the Democratic party since the Reagen years. Lobbyists and corporate donors have always owned corporate Democrats and with Citizens United, it enabled them to become even more enriched. They will do anything they can to retain their seats because it has now become their job for life. They do not work for the working families of America and spend most of their day in some office dialing for dollars or being wined and dined by lobbyists. This has been the rot and corruption of both parties with the Republicans at least being honest about who they owe their allegiance. Democrats hid behind their neoliberalism, but when someone like Bernie Sanders or someone who has real ideas for health care or equality, they quietly object because these people are challenging the nice deal, they have made to appease corporations and only talk about equality, without doing a damn thing about it. We need to trash this 2-party system or enable constituents to be able to recall their representatives at any time during their term. Reasonable democracies have a parliament in which many groups have a seat at the table for making decisions and the ability to recall or fire anyone who is not working for them.
I am so upset because Foster is my congressman. My district got redrawn and we wound up stuck with him. Before that we had Marie Newman and we were very upset when she got gerrymandered out of congress, basically. PLEASE run against foster. He's horrible and he's going to be getting an earful from me today. Thank you for always coming with receipts!