Rashida Tlaib refuses to stop targeting centrist Democrats: 'I can't be silent'

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Democrats may have secured the control of the house of representatives and won the presidential elections but the party seems set for a tough time ahead with the progressives including the ‘Squad’.

“We're not going to be successful if we're silencing districts like mine," said re-elected Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. "Me not being able to speak on behalf of many of my neighbours right now, many of which are Black neighbours, means me being silenced. I can't be silent.”

Ms Tlaib and the other three Democratic congresswomen collectively known as The Squad – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar – won their re-election.

The Congresswoman said they are “not interested in unity that asks people to sacrifice their freedom and their rights any longer.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/rashida-tlaib-refuses-stop-targeting-133746115.html

Holy shit. All districts aren't like yours. In some districts a moderate is the only kind of Democrat who can be elected. You may not like everything they stand for but a D by their name is what gives us the majority. We're not going to pass anything you want if we're the minority party.

It's purity bullshit that gave us Trump.

[JI7]

2. Joe Biden won more votes in those districts than They did . She needs to ask why she fell short

SHE is the one who needs to be listening to see why she did not do as well as Biden.

[WA-03 Democrat]

3. May I suggest the enemy is the Republicans?

Who is doing the murdering?

[Hortensis]

76. Not to wannabe revolutionaries. They NEED disaster and

frightened people seizing desperately at what they claim socialism offers. Restoration of reassuring stability and wellbeing under Democratic government means death to their dreams for decades. Just as it did in the 1930s.

Many of them thought throwing the nation to the anti-progressive Trump/GOP to destroy would allow them to step in and take power afterward. (I.e., the fascist RW and liberal left will take each other out and leave the nation clear for them to inherit -- just like Jews and Muslims are supposed to take each other out for the Christians. All awaiting their glorious day.)

Now, the failure of that silly but dangerous dream is why they're raging against Democrats, in their own way but with a lot in common with Trump's authoritarians. All newly afraid they won't win and all meeting it with massive additional infusions of self deception to prop themselves up.

[WA-03 Democrat]

85. Agree

2 faces of the same coin.

[Hortensis]

86. Exactly. Dems are their enemy in common.

Poor Tlaib, et al. In better times I felt sorry for zealots whose lives were an endless series of hopeless elections. Never any hope of overthrowing the will of The (foolish) People to impose their own.

I'm SO looking forward to returning to those days!

[Spazito]

4. I think the 'squad' needs to grow a thicker skin...

so they won't fall for the media's want to foster dissent and discord in the Democratic Party for ratings.

Speaker of the House Pelosi is the best example of someone who knows when to respond and when to ignore attempts to create division. She could certainly teach a master class on timing and response.

[kcr]

9. Tlaib is the worst of them

[Spazito]

11. I was shocked when she booed Hillary Clinton along with...

the audience and then laughed about it at a Bernie Sanders event. She apologized for that so I was hoping there was a lesson learned but maybe not.

[wellst0nev0ter]

95. And Hillary Clinton said nobody likes Bernie

And you expect people to stay silent?

[Spazito]

98. LOL n/t

[betsuni]

99. Bernie: "Some people say I am very hard to work with. They say I can be a real

son of a bitch. They say I can be nasty, I don't know how to get along with people. Well, maybe there's some truth to it."

"I'm not good with backslapping, I'm not good at pleasantries. If you have a birthday, I'm not going to call you up to congratulate you so you'll love me and write nice things about me. That's not what I do. Never have. I take that as a little bit of criticism, self-criticism."

Bernie agrees.

[wellst0nev0ter]

106. Sure, but I don't think I've ever

heard Bernie publicly air a personal attack against a Democrat. Correct me if I'm wrong

[betsuni]

107. You must not be familiar with Bernie Sanders!

[sheshe2]

5. Not ME. US.nt

[Dem2]

6. This strategy enables Republicans

I honestly don't get it. What's the point of targeting Democrats when, if you weaken the party, then the Republicans take over and they're a hundred times worse?

[PatSeg]

7. Exactly, well said

[Statistical]

12. Purity. The warm embrace of knowing you have kicked the impure out of your party.

The Democratic party might lose 130 seats in the house but just think how pure those that remain will be. Nothing will ever get accomplished as a semi-permanent minority party but oh the purity.

[JI7]

13. And yet they aren't so pure themselves.

[abqtommy]

8. Always remember and never forget; it was the ratfucking that gave us tRUMP.

[nycbos]

10. Her district is D+32, AOC's is D+29, Omar's D+26

Not really interested in their gripes.

[wellst0nev0ter]

96. I think that's the point

Dems representing strongly liberal districts or states have no excuse to be goop adjacent.

[gratuitous]

14. Yes, Rep. Tlaib, can't you just wait a while longer?

Not all the bigots are comfortable with you people being treated as full citizens, and we simply must respect their feelings.

[JI7]

15. lame , Many of us are black and brown people who can't stand this shit . Biden did better than her

in her district.

[Earthshine2]

31. Point not made. Many republicans voted against Trump and for down-ticket republicans.

This happened in a lot of places.

[JI7]

34. Biden won those districts in the Primary against Sanders also

ANd they are claiming they won because of certain things which Biden did not support .

[Earthshine2]

38. Where do "they" claim this?

Biden was very popular with people of color. So are members of the squad.

[JI7]

40. Biden is more popular

them passing around that thing claiming candidates that support medicare for all won while those who didn't lost.

When what it really shows is the people who won are in heavily blue districts and the ones who lost are in longtime red districts that flipped in 2018 in a blue wave.

[Earthshine2]

42. Your grammar is so bad, I can't understand your point.

The squad members are popular in their districts.

Medicare for all is popular in those districts.

Biden is also popular in those districts.

What's your point?

[marie999]

66. Take a class in English comprehension.

[Earthshine2]

90. Take a class in English comprehension ???

Where in the university curriculum is a class called "English comprehension?"

English language, check. English literature, check. English writing, check.

I've taken them all.

So now, you explain this distortion of the English language.

"Biden is more popular ... them passing around that thing claiming candidates that support medicare for all won while those who didn't lost. "

[marie999]

91. comprehension - the action or capability of understanding something

[Earthshine2]

92. I can define the words without any difficulty.

But, you seem to have a problem being germane.

You are writing nonsequitors and irrelevant responses.

You are now on my ignore list.

[marie999]

93. Yippee

[ahoysrcsm]

20. What about all the voters that are waiting on representation in Georgia?

Do their votes for a Democratic candidate not count? Why are they being silenced.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

67. I got the satire.

Just in case you are wondering if it landed at all.

[walkingman]

16. IMO nothing like a passionate Democrat. It's not easy changing the world.

[Cha]

28. The World is Changing! Joe Biden & Kamala

Harris got 77 Million Votes from all across our Country.. he did better in her District than she did in her Super Blue District

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are changing the World.

[quickesst]

17. it would be a lot better....

..... for the Democratic Party if "the squad" were grownups. 🤔

[LeftInTX]

18. The squad needs to huddle with their caucus instead of broad brushing the entire party

I'm sure there are districts that mimic theirs that they can work on. Not every district is progressive, but they might be able to find progressive district they can work on. Heck, my dist is 65% Democrat, but I think my rep likes being on the Intel Cmte, and he's also quite worried about redistricting, so he tries to tamper it down a bit.

[brooklynite]

19. I'll repeat my comment about AOC...

Show me an ability to be competitive in a district that's not D+20 and I'll be impressed.

[wellst0nev0ter]

97. Real progressives in swing districts were more competitive than centrists

Link to tweet

?s=20

The data is out there if you avoid the right-wing noise machine.

[Willto]

21. Their Districts are so Blue

We could run a bar stool with a D by it's name and win. Let me see one of these far left purity candidates flip a Republican district. Or hell even win in a district where there is a wisp of a chance for a race to go either way. Then I'll sit up and take more notice of their advice.

And it doesn't speak well for their grasp of reality that they cannot see this. Just the party's association with Bernie opened the door for the entire party to be painted as Castro loving socialists. Yeah I know that characterization was unfair but it no doubt hurt us in south Florida and cost us any chance for winning the state.

America is a center left country. Sorry that's just a fact. There is no ground swell of support out there all across American just waiting to arise when the party moves radically left. That's a fantasy.

[OnDoutside]

25. And you have 70m Americans who are in a RW echo chamber, where crazy talk from the far left

is the stuff that gets Repugs out to vote, even more so when it is distorted and then amplified.

[radius777]

22. She's correct, the Squad is unfairly demonized

mostly by GOP but also by some Dems - for being outspoken women of color.

If the media can spend all day long focusing on Trump voters in Diners in rural areas - they can spend some time on the concerns of PoC and others in urban and metro areas - who are just as American as some white people in plaid shirts.

I'm not as progressive as they are, would consider myself a 'centrist' Obama Dem - but Tlaib and the others are correct that they are not allowed to speak freely, when we have all types of white voices speaking all the garbage they want day and night.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

23. They can speak all they want. This is America. They have that right.

No one is trying to censor them. But their enemy is not moderates. It's conservatives like Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell.

As I said at the start of this thread. The purity bullshit brought us Trump.

[JonLP24]

24. I see more purity from the moderate-centrist side

You can be a progressive and even support defunding the police if that is what your constituents want just like a moderate has a right to be a moderate in a centrist district. It is the centrists that want us to STFU.

Do you even know where Tlaib is coming from? Progressives are being blamed for why moderates did poorly in their own races.

[betsuni]

29. Who do you mean by "moderate-centrist side"?

[Cha]

30. Joe Biden & Kamala Harris got 77 Million

votes Across the Country and they did better in her super Blue district than she did.

I don't know what she's complaining about.

The mods who lost their seats were in RED districts .. it's NOT the same as the "Squad's" Districts.

[JonLP24]

32. Spanberger was screaming in a conference call while Tlaib was reasoned and calm

The moderates or centrists want progressives to run as blue dogs in safe blue seats.

I recommend watching Obama's 2008 campaign documentary on HBO. Both Rashida Tlaib and Kamala Harris are in it supporting Obama's campaign. We need to capture the magic of Obama's 2008 run.

[Cha]

35. We have the "magic" of Joe Biden's 2020

campaign run & Win with Kamala Harris who has made History as the first woman VP & WOC.. with Pres Obama campaigning for his former VP.

We WON.. and all these complaints coming out from whomever while Team Biden is out there Fighting the trump Coup!

And, we still have 2 Dem Senators in Georgia to Elect!

[JonLP24]

39. It was Spanberger and others

Throwing progressives under the bus. They are also throwing BLM under the bus over "defunding" the police even though those were the largest global protests in history.

Congrats to Biden & Harris. I'm an Arizona voter in favor of progressive policies so I credit the entire coalition which includes Democratic Socialists for the victory.

Tlaib and others are just defending themselves.

[Cha]

43. Wasn't Tlaib who Booed Hillary.. that

wasn't cool.

[PatSeg]

87. Yeah, it was her

Some bells can't be unrung. We can and should have diverse opinions within our party, but there is no place for that kind of behavior.

[PatSeg]

89. P.S.

That's why we so often hear the phrase, "I respectfully disagree with my colleague". Representing your constituents in congress is a great honor and with it, comes great responsibility to act with dignity and respect.

[JI7]

37. We already have the magic with Biden and Harris Winning.

[Cha]

44. Yes.. not sure why that doesn't

register.

[OnDoutside]

79. That's just a silly statement. the moderate centrist side just want the far left to moderate their

divisive words.

For example, rather than the "Defund the police", someone who wants the same aim of stopping the amount of innocent black men being murdered and/or harassed, and that they would stop being racist assholes, could put it as

"Fund the police",

- so that they are properly trained
- so that there is a fully functioning social worker support,
- so that there is a professional recruitment service to weed out racists/white nationalist/unsuitable mentally

Surely that's offering positive solutions to people rather than ridiculous threats of "Defunding" which most people think means cutting back the police budget.

[OnDoutside]

26. What's with this "Squad" moniker anyway ? What does that achieve ?

[betsuni]

27. Us against Them.

The Them being Democrats. I have no idea what it achieves.

[Cha]

33. That's what they named themselves..

I won't say anymore about that.

[OnDoutside]

41. I'm sure the RWNJ purveyors of bullshit to the masses are grateful !

[Jamaal510]

101. From what I heard,

"The Squad" was first coined by 45 as he attacked those four Congresswomen, but then they embraced it.

[dansolo]

51. They are not demonized for being outspoken women of color

I don't like them because they do more harm than good for progressive causes. We need a Democratic majority to pass any sort of progressive legislation, yet they spend more time attacking Democrats than Republicans. Instead of helping to implement change, they actively sabotage it so they have something to complain about.

[radius777]

52. Sanders receives a fraction of the vitriol that they do,

so alot of it clearly has to do with not just their ideology and idealism - but their race and gender, and the fact that they represent urban and diverse areas.

[Spazito]

72. LOL Sanders gets criticized here as often as anyone else...

you only need to do a search to see that.

[radius777]

94. Here, maybe. But in general Sanders

is not as much of a target for the Trumpers/RW, the media, conservative Dems etc like AOC/The Squad is - who are portrayed as 'the uppity, scary other' in a way that Sanders is not.

[Cha]

109. Exactly! Mahalo for your

insight.

[OnDoutside]

81. They played it up too.

There are enough Dems in their districts to make their elections an easy ride, but 4 seats is a long way off from 218 in the House, and from 51 in the Senate. If the Democratic Party hopes to win the Senate, they need everyone pulling in the same direction.

[Earthshine2]

36. I think this article is written in such a way as to stir up trouble.

It's light on details. The crux of it seems to be:

Ms Tlaib said that if voters can “walk past blighted homes and school closures and pollution to vote for Biden-Harris, when they feel like they don't have anything else, they deserve to be heard” while expressing her dismay that she “can’t believe that people are asking them to be quiet.”

Who is asking them to be quiet?

This article is most uninformative.

[OnDoutside]

46. Which is something no one asked them to do. What they WERE asked to do, is to give an extra few

seconds to think before they provide the next RWNJ ad to be used against a Dem candidate in a Republican district. The reality is that careless talk costs Democratic seats, which will stop transformative laws, which would help their constituents.

[aidbo]

84. Who is asking them to be quiet?

Spanberger, Clyburn, McCaskill and many people on this website.

[DeminPennswoods]

45. In 2018, my newly minted Dem congressman

refused to vote for Pelosi for Speaker.

[no_hypocrisy]

47. In NJ-9, we have one of those progressive democrats.

She lost the primary to the incumbent and bitched about him through the general election instead of focusing on the republican challenger. And she's still bitching about democratic "bosses" who select candidates and fund them.

[empedocles]

48. This, from the folk who almost gave us a different Presidential nominee

How would that have worked?

[empedocles]

49. The 'Squad' is going for national recognition again - via rw media

Doom for Dems in Georgia?

[Gothmog]

50. Defund the police and socialism killed a number of candidates who shpuld had won

Socialism and defund the police are issues that kill good democrats who should had won

[Cuthbert Allgood]

70. Both of which are Republican boogy men

that will be trotted out regardless of reality. But blame the squad. Cool cool cool.

[mathematic]

80. Tlaib is LITERALLY a socialist

She's a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, an explicitly socialist organization. They are not social democrats. They do not endorse a nordic system as an end goal, only as a stepping stone to actual socialism.

So please stop with this nonsense that all these people calling for socialism don't know what socialism is and aren't really socialists.

[Gothmog]

88. You are wrong-we lost seats dues to these bogeymen

In the real world, we lost seats in the Congress and did not pick up senate seats that we should have won due to these bogeyman. Socialsm and defund the police are issues that cause the party to lose races that we should have won.

[Hekate]

103. Yes indeed. Nothing like creating memes & slogans for Dems that play right into GOP hands. nt

[Autumn]

53. She has no need or reason to be silent. She can speak her truth, that's why she was elected. nt

Last edited Fri Nov 13, 2020, 01:31 PM - Edit history (1)

[empedocles]

54. AT what cost to the Dem Novembers

[Autumn]

55. No cost. She is reaching out to her people. If she reaches another audience then it would

be on those other Democrats to reach out to their voters if they happen to decide they prefer her message over theirs. They either change, adapt or don't It's up to them. They don't get to silence her to avoid harming their message. Maybe they should consider that if she harms their support the problem is in their message to their constituency, not her. It's time to accept that politics as usual no longer work. With social media politicians have a much larger reach.

[empedocles]

56. That was the mentality that almost got us Sanders losing to and re-electing trump

That would be a cost really endangering the American democracy

[empedocles]

57. . . . and the House

[Autumn]

58. Not true. Sanders worked like crazy to get rid of Trump. It's no longer politics as usual. nt

[empedocles]

61. Sanders would have lost to trump as the Dem presidential nominee

That is a main reason Biden became the nominee. Sanders could only win marginal white Dem primaries; Dems made up of small minorities in those states.

[Autumn]

64. That's your opinion not a fact and The discussion which I addressed that you are ignoring is

Rashida Tlaib. If you want to discuss Sanders please find someone else. I'm not interested.

[empedocles]

65. Same problem

Dems hope trump and the far right will hurt republicans bad. republicans hope the squad and far left will hurt Dems bad.

[Demsrule86]

62. She will force the party to move to the right...and become even more moderate.

[Autumn]

69. I disagree. Older voters may not like it but younger voters do like what these progressives

have to say, and they reach a large audience. She was elected on what she says and she easily cruised to victory over her Democratic opponent for the second time.

[Demsrule86]

73. Not in every state. And in the near term the squad message will not help us win elections.

[Autumn]

78. In that respect Dems like Manchin aren't going to help us win us elections in other states either.

And he certainly can't help us win young progressives. The electorate is changing it's no longer politics as usual.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

71. Right. In other threads people are twisting themselves into pretzels to defend Machin

but god forbid THESE representatives speak out for their districts. If only we could figure out why there are different standards for different Dems.

[Autumn]

75. We know why Machin can speak his truth and the progressive women should shut up.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. The old he has to represent his constituency and when a woman represents her constituency.... she's hurting the party!

[LAS14]

63. I'm not sure that refusing not to express one's opinion on behalf of one's district...

.. is calling for purity. Let everyone speak for their constituents. That's the Democratic party way. nt

[empedocles]

83. The national interest in getting rid of trump is huge, like world war. The local, district interest

does not seem like it should carry the same weight/importance/etc.

[Turin_C3PO]

68. Her comment is dumb.

We can have progressives in blue districts and moderates in purple districts. We’re a big tent and can negotiate on the issues.

[Boogiemack]

74. She is helping us win the Senate, bigly.

[KG]

77. I lulz'd

again. establishment tears.

[herding cats]

100. Timing is everything.

This is deeply off.

Our people need to understand what we're up against here. We're literally (yes, still) fighting fascist while some people are now busy fighting each other. It's foolish and counterproductive at this point in history.

Winning the presidency was a battle, we're still fighting the damn war here!

[Hekate]

102. Oh dear gods. Your last paragraph says it all, Yo Mama...

Our friends on the Left are at it already.

The Honorable Congresswomen of The Squad may not realize it, but in order to get ANYTHING done, we need every single person we can get who has a (D) after their name.

My Congresswoman — well, I could wish she could put on a Superwoman cape and flap her arms and fly to the moon — but the fact is, she is the first Democrat in 30 years to be elected from the district I now live in. She’s a woman, she’s a Democrat, she’s a US armed services veteran, and she made this district happy enough to get re-elected this year.

[Cha]

104. Not sure why she doesn't know that..

or anyone else who doesn't.. especially after the Blue Wave of 2018 when we took back the House with all kinds of Dems. Moderates being the Majority.

We were able to stop all kinds of trump Hell from Happening and righteously get him Impeached.. which did not Mess with out Victory in 2020.

Congratulations getting your first Dem in your District in 30 years, and a woman, getting
reelected! That's super good news!

[betsuni]

105. +1

[Eid Ma Clack Shaw]

108. Cool, she should cross Lake Michigan and run for the senate election in WI

in 2022 and see how that pans out.

But in all seriousness, she shouldn’t be silenced. Yet instead of targeting fellow Democrats, she would be better served by spearheading an effort to get more credible, qualified left-wing representatives elected in places it is possible to do so.

This is the thing that really gets me about so-called progressives, and I speak as one who is to the left of most of them: there’s no patience. There’s never been any patience, any sustained, long term attempt to build their ranks and gradually transition into a truly powerful voter bloc.

The right is so good at getting its way and pulling election wins out of the fire because each of its component parts knows that more of what it likes will get done the longer it is in power, so it takes something extraordinary to peel them away. The GOP hasn’t always been an ideological monolith, it just feels like it because, for the most part, the party has stick together.

Incredibly, for a party with tunnel vision and a wretched desire to take the world back to the 1800s, its faithful see the big picture electorally in greater numbers than those who lean left.

It’s not because the Democrats “do nothing” that the reset button keeps getting hit by putting a shrivelled Republican hand back on the tiller, but because it’s a lot harder to keep a comparatively broad coalition together, and that task becomes so much harder when people flounce off and sit at home or vote Green in crucial elections.