General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy Are AOC and Bernie So Much Better at This?
Last month, as Elon Musks malevolent influence on Donald Trumps second term was coming into focus, a friend DMed me a clip of Chuck Schumer leading a protest against Musks efforts to access sensitive Treasury Department data. We will win! We will win! croaked the Senate minority leader, the crowd clearly reluctant to join this confused approximation of what impassioned resistance might look like. My friend wrote, Were all gonna die.
Being uninspired by the Democratic Party is a national pastime, but 2025 has ushered in new levels of loathing, with the partys approval rating sinking to record lows. Schumers efforts have been so limp that a group of liberal governors in January begged him to grow a spine in opposing Trumps agenda and cabinet nominees. Schumers counterpart in the House, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, has fared no better, alternating between sphinxlike nonresponses to revelations that Trump had essentially bought New York City mayor Eric Adams in a quid-pro-quo deal with the Justice Department and bizarrely menacing anti-GOP diatribes performed in sweats in empty rooms. Congressional Democrats were widely mocked for the little protest paddles they held up during Trumps State of the Union, while Representative Al Green was kicked out for a disruption that was derided as pathetic and unconvincing.
Meanwhile, California governor Gavin Newsom has started a podcast to interview conservative influencers and throw trans athletes under the bus, Representative Elissa Slotkins official rebuttal to Trumps State of the Union address was a paean to Ronald Reagan, and Connecticut senator Chris Murphy has appeared on any news outlet that will have him speaking in a very loud voice about how mad he is. It can often seem that, when it comes to opposing Trump, Democrats have no idea what to say or how to say it.
This has not been the case, however, with the two most prominent leftists in the broader Democratic tent. Bernie Sanders has spent the first month and a half of Trumps second presidency doing what youd expect Bernie Sanders to do: raging against the corrosive influence of billionaires on politics. I fear very much that under President Trump, we are not seeing a government of the people, by the people, for the people, but rather a government of the billionaire class, by the billionaire class, and for the billionaire class, the 83-year-old warned his Senate colleagues last month. He has sounded the same alarm during his Fighting Oligarchy tour, which has drawn thousands of attendees across the Midwest in recent weeks, including 2,600 people at a rally on Saturday in Altoona, Wisconsin, a town of only 10,000.
Read more: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/why-are-aoc-and-bernie-so-much-better-at-this.html

usonian
(16,478 posts)Watch how people behave.
It's "pellucidly" clear which are and which aren't.
And kudos to the others who speak for US.
Celerity
(48,622 posts)Tom Emmer (R-MN) and Ritchie Torres (D-NY) launched the Congressional Crypto Caucus as a voting block within Congress to garner support and encourage private innovation within the United States. The bipartisan initiative was launched on March 3, 2025, with the objective of addressing the growing demand for regulatory clarity and support for the cryptocurrency industry.
Rep. Torres announced to the Congressional Crypto Caucus in a post on X that the caucus will form a unified, bipartisan group to cement Americas leadership in the future of digital assets and blockchain technology. Similarly, Rep. Emmer indicated the caucuss potential to unite lawmakers behind digital asset initiatives, calling it a bloc vote in Congressa bipartisan caucus of members who are willing to mobilize to advocate for and protect open, permissionless, and private innovation in the United States.

The Congressional Crypto Caucus
The launch of the Congressional Crypto Caucus is due to tremendous growth in the cryptocurrency market. The newly launched Congressional Crypto Caucus is not the same as the one formed in 2017. The caucus was formed, according to Congressman Emmer, in response to the millions of American voters who voted for representatives that would prioritize the growth of the digital assets space.
On 2nd March 2025, United States President Donald Trump made an announcement for the establishment of a national crypto reserve. The statement increased congressional focus on digital assets as Trump indicated that the reserve will have major tokens like Bitcoin and Ethereum, along with other popular projects like XRP, Solana, and Cardano.
snip
usonian
(16,478 posts)They want ZERO regulation, and they are getting it.
The master orange money launderer "discovered" crypto as a way to launder money.
Bitcoin is the currency of hackers and human traffickers.
It is (nearly) all dirty. Pigs aim to launder the US Treasury.
Celerity
(48,622 posts)usonian
(16,478 posts)Real entrepreneurs can bootstrap or find non-oligarch money.
The biggest companies were bootstrapped. Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, others that it's too late to remember. 😁
Thirty years ago, March 1st. 1995, Craig Newmark sent out an email which would destroy the print ad industry, hence the print industry. From a server in his closet.
https://www.gardinercolin.com/p/marketplace-memo-7
need to include congresswoman Crockett also, she is not holding back, we need to see all the democrats as outspoken as these three, the leadership so far as been pathetic, and they wonder why we keep losing elections.
appmanga
(1,054 posts)...and House and Senate leaders are in competition for. It was commonplace, and probably still is, for high-dollar campaign contributors to give to both parties, or for party leaders to work to placate big money Democratic donors by not being too anti-business.
AOC and Bernie aren't beholden to those elements, and avoid being so.
And Slotkin is now in the Senate.
sheshe2
(90,425 posts)appmanga
(1,054 posts)...I'm saying: Democratic leaders are more concerned about the competition they have in getting money from donors than they are about being tough on Republicans. I'm not a huge fan of Bernie Sanders or AOC, but they're not playing the game of soft-sell because they're worried about not getting half the money a Republican gets when some big business entity wants to hedge its political bets.
Alright then.
PufPuf23
(9,332 posts)SnoopDog
(2,630 posts)SocialDemocrat61
(3,796 posts)Sanders is still an independent who refuses to become a democrat.
FoxNewsSucks
(11,012 posts)Is the issue because of Sanders' liberal progressive positions and statements or the "Official Party Postion"?
Tansy_Gold
(18,112 posts)So is Lawrence O'Donnell.
SocialDemocrat61
(3,796 posts)He is the one who refuses to join the party
sop
(13,094 posts)Tootbsb
(65 posts)We have ignored that fact to where we are. Theyre voting yes on Nazi stuff. Wild.
H2O Man
(76,350 posts)I agree with what others have said here.
msongs
(70,820 posts)disagrees with him. he's a natural and that cannot be taught IMO. glad he is on our side. Maybe he could sign up chuck as his opening act lol nt
Baitball Blogger
(49,516 posts)Nanjeanne
(5,960 posts)LostOne4Ever
(9,630 posts)While the others are still acting like the rules from 1996 still apply
Amaryllis
(10,111 posts)JMCKUSICK
(1,492 posts)And not whatever the latest consultants are spoon feeding them
FoxNewsSucks
(11,012 posts)before making statements.
I wish other elected politicians were the same.
dalton99a
(87,263 posts)Not to mention fearless and tireless
ibegurpard
(17,009 posts)You can't fake that
Prairie Gates
(4,427 posts)Whereas centrism sounds like a milquetoast slightly warmed over version of the latter.
And because people fundamentally know, despite the tens of billions spent every year to convince them otherwise, that their fight is with the capitalist class.
displacedvermoter
(3,596 posts)And not responding to a focus group?
regnaD kciN
(26,842 posts)as the scared bunny Democrats.
SSJVegeta
(92 posts)Easier to speak truth to power when you aren't restrained by said power.
betsuni
(27,636 posts)What are their names? What is the evidence of corruption?
SSJVegeta
(92 posts)
Just an FYI my post was complimenting two democrats, not putting anybody down. 🤔

SSJVegeta
(92 posts)
In case you wanted to know about other amazing Democrats:
Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey and Ayanna Pressley (my reps) ALSO do not take any corporate or foreign PAC money! Please elaborate who you are referring to, cause my Reps are awesome!!

JHB
(37,603 posts)The current situation is decades in the making, but for the most part, the leadership of the Democratic Party has dismissed people who pegged Republican goals correctly as "conspiracy theorists" to be ignored, even as Republicans proved their predictions right.
RoeVWade
(381 posts)nt*
ReRe
(11,376 posts)And it needs to be solved ASAP, because what we have is closing in on "Taxation Without Representation." The People are hurting in all kinds of ways all over this country. The dirty rich are doing absolutely wonderful with their grubby hands in our treasury; slashing and burning our government down FROM WITHIN; and a DOJ that instead of upholding the law, is literally erasing our laws! Every Democrat everywhere all over this country needs to be raising hell every time a camera is pointed in their direction. That includes in both the House and Senate and every hearing on Capitol Hill. And like Bernie & AOC and soon Tim Walz, in town meetings. These wonderful Democrats have the courage of their convictions.
Perhaps some elected officials should stop worrying about Musk primarying them and start worrying about their own constituents primarying them?
W_HAMILTON
(8,798 posts)If they are so great at what they do, surely we could point to their acolytes that have had just as much success as them doing the same thing as elected officials in purple/red areas right?
Names?
Celerity
(48,622 posts)Jeffries, Pelosi, Clyburn, Lieu, Clark, etc etc are from deep Blue districts. Schumer, Durbin, etc are from deep Blue states.