Some Democrats treat the House and Senate like Republicans treat our schools

[StarfishSaver]

Republicans look down on educators who are busting their hind ends trying to make the most of the meager resources they're given, tell them they suck at what they do, respond to their pleas for more help with threats that if they don't do a better job with what they have, they're going to take away even more of their resources. Then they take away those resources and point at them, saying "They're not educating your children. Why should you give any more of your hard-earned money to them?"

Some of the folks in our camp have taken a page out of the Republican playbook and are doing the same thing to House and Senate Democrats.

The Democrats are barely hanging on by their fingernails with the slimmest of a majority margin. They are doing the absolute best they can with what they have and keep telling us that in order to do more, they need a larger majority.

So, what do the naysayer do? Smack them around, call them weak and spineless, and threaten that if they don't straighten up and "get tougher," they will refuse to vote for them next time, thereby helping to take away the skinny margin they have, and let McConnell, McCarthy and the Republicans take over.

It doesn't make any more sense when Democrats do it to fellow Democrats than it does when Republicans do it to educators.

[BGBD]

1. Yup

Things aren't as easy and straightforward as many want to make them seem.

[Hekate]

2. Yes, ma'am

[pnwmom]

3. Thank you, StarfishSaver, for your consistently wise advise. n/t

[betsuni]

4. Why I find talk of FDR and Democrats having to be "transformative" like him or else annoying.

He had large majorities in Congress and a Republican Party that wasn't insane, still had to worry about being voted out if they didn't help their constituents. Nothing like the last forty years.

When Democrats have the presidency and large majorities in Congress for many years and still don't do anything, then and only then will all this stupid anti-Democratic noise make any sense at all.

[StarfishSaver]

5. So are you saying

that having the White House and a very narrow majority four months isn't enough to remake Democracy as we want it?

[betsuni]

7. Yes. I guess I'm not smart enough to understand that the only reason for the nontransformation

in a few months is due to Democrats' lack of "fighting" and their weak spines and not acting more like Republicans, not because of votes.

I'm pretty sure that if Democrats managed to get rid of the filibuster and pass lots of progressive legislature, it'd be the same old "not good enough" because capitalism was still there or something.

[ShazzieB]

6. Yes, yes, yes!

Thanks so much for posting this. It's a great counterpoint to some of the defeatist crap that gets posted around here.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

8. Great post

[mcar]

9. They never offer any concrete advice

It's just "Dems need to go to the hospital to get their spines replaced," and other nonsense like suggesting leadership throw Manchin out of the party.

[Fiendish Thingy]

10. To quote Jen Psaki, who is saying this?

While I and many others have advocated Dems playing hardball and “going to the mattresses” to pass voting rights , and the rest of Biden’s agenda, I have seen no one suggesting they or anyone else should not vote for Dems if they fail to meet one’s expectations for toughness.

[StarfishSaver]

11. You apparently haven't been paying attention

I'm certainly not going to link to the numerous posts containing those threats and warnings. But you need only read through the "Democrats ain't sh&t" threads to see them.

[Fiendish Thingy]

14. Seems to me, any post on DU advocating not voting for Democrats would be hidden, no?

Again, while I have seen numerous threads pushing for Dems to fight harder, I can’t say I have seen anyone suggesting that people shouldn’t vote for Dems because they aren’t fighting hard enough, which was the premise of your OP.

I’m on DU several times a day, and I just haven’t seen it.

I would hope that, whatever we disagree on, we all have the shared goal of electing more and better Democrats, with equal emphasis on both MORE and BETTER.

[StarfishSaver]

15. No

Most people on the board don't outright advocate for voting against Democrats. They threaten not to vote or "warn" that people won't vote for them and they'll lose control of Congress. It's right there if you look.

And my point is not limited to DU. Those threats - much more explicit - are all over Twitter, Facebook, progressive blogs, etc.

[Fiendish Thingy]

16. Of course there's anti-Dem sentiment all over the internet, your post implied it was here on DU. Nt

[StarfishSaver]

17. There's plenty of Democrat-bashing here

I'm surprised you haven't seen any of it.

[Fiendish Thingy]

18. The only Dem bashing I see in DU isn't random or generalized

It’s very specific towards Dems who are obstructing Biden’s agenda.

[StarfishSaver]

19. Obviously you've missed all of the "Democrats need to go to the hospital to get spines insterted ...

Democrats need to get tougher ... Why don't the Democrats play hardball like Republicans ..." etc. etc. Such criticisms are all over the board - and they aren't limited to calling out individual Dems who are obstructing Biden's agenda.

[SMC22307]

12. People are angry because they want Dems to be ruthless and exploit every opportunity...

like McConnell. Republican staffers seem to work 24/7 to learn and exploit every loophole available to them. The perception is that Democrats don't know them, or won't use them if they do. And that Schumer isn't ruthless enough to go up against McConnell. Mitch gets what he wants. And don't anyone say he's "afraid" -- he's survived Washington, DC since (I think) Ford and he is 100% NOT afraid. What I saw last night on Twitter is 100% praise for the Texas Democrats who stopped SB7 (for now) and tremendous condemnation for Manchin, Sinema, and Schumer. I don't see other Dems getting trashed the way those three do. People are angry b/c Stacey Abrams and her team worked their asses off to give us Georgia and the majority and we're STILL not acting like the majority party.

We heard these "it can't be done!" excuses during Obama and people are FED UP - find a way to get it done. McConnell would.

[StarfishSaver]

13. People are angry because they don't know how this works

If they think that Stacy Abrams and her troops could have done what the Texas Dems did, it's because they're ignorant and haven't bothered to take the time to understand the process. What happened in Texas couldn't happen in Georgia.

Abrams and her people did and are doing what they could do with the tools they have The Texas Dems had a different tool and they used that.

Before getting angry about who's not doing what or accusing people like Stacy Abrams of "not acting like the majority party" (fyi, they AREN'T the majority party in Georgia, so maybe that's why), they need to at least take the time to learn something about what they're talking about.

They can start with researching the rules and procedures of the respective legislative bodies they're dealing with before proclaiming the Democrats elected to and working in those bodies are doing their jobs all wrong.