AlterNet: 'Show them what mean really is': Influencer calls on Dems to start bullying MAGA

[Dennis Donovan]

AlterNet - 'Show them what mean really is': Influencer calls on Dems to start bullying MAGA



After losing the White House and both chambers of Congress to President-elect Donald Trump and his MAGA movement, one social media influencer is hoping that Democrats will abandon civility and get in the trenches.

TikTok creator Suzanne Lambert — a 33 year-old political consultant who lives in northern Virginia — recently told the Washington Post that she believes the current political moment requires Democrats to embrace being mean to their political opponents. She called herself a "Regina George liberal," in reference to the character from the 2004 film Mean Girls. Lambert frequently goes viral in her roasts of Trump supporters, and is hoping other Democratic voters will follow suit during the second Trump administration.

"I think that the narrative of ‘don’t stoop to their level’ benefits exactly one side," Lambert told the Post. “And I’m kind of like, well, if I don’t stoop, they’re not going to be able to hear me.”

Lambert fondly recalled when Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz (Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate) called Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance "weird" during the 2024 campaign cycle. Although the Harris campaign didn't lean into Walz's attack, Lambert said it felt like "one of the only times where Democrats felt human, in terms of how they talk."

"We were like, finally,” Lambert said. “Can we call these people out? For how we see them?”

/snip

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. "TikTok creator Suzanne Lambert ..."

So she's unemployed.

And good morning.

[JHB]

18. Every freelancer is unemployed between gigs, and they do things to keep their name out there

Also, unless you understand Tik Tok monetization (I certainly don't), don't be so quick to be dismissive about "TikTok creator". Any time I've read an article or a post about the subject, my one consistent reaction has been "That little shit is making HOW much?" "Content creator" can be a gig all on its own.

[newdeal2]

31. At least she's not charging a billion dollars for bad political consulting advice

She's not begging us for donations, even if you think her advice is wrong.

[MiHale]

2. We have to go low...the lower the better...otherwise...

We get accused of ‘talking down’ to them. Gotta get on the same plane (level).

[JI7]

3. It doesn't work for Democrats becsuse we are more diverse

it works for Republicans becsuse they are mainly a white xtian hetero party and it's about appealing to this group and their resentments.

[kkmarie]

26. I agree

I keep thinking about the podcasts that are calling for the Democrats to fight, get in the gutter and brawl just like the magas. But we are different and inclusive. We really don't have it in us. Hillary R. Clinton said half of trumpfucks supporters are in the "basket of deplorables" everyone lost their shit. How dare she name call!
We can't fight against the oligarchs (the main media sources). Not one ever reported any of the great accomplishments of the Biden administration. Hell, when inflation was starting to come down, they were still reporting we were heading for a recession, every singleday for 4 years. And it was the day after the election it was finally being reported about the hundreds of millions of poultry destroyed because of bird flu causing the price of eggs to increase.
We, the left, are going to need to be there for when all this shit hits the fan and help everyone that's impacted by Project 2025.
My opinion of course.

[Celerity]

33. Exactly, as we will always have 'go along' centrists who come on and kneecap the more aggressive (especially if they are

progressive) Democrats.

Yesterday I saw the ex US House FL Dem Stephanie Murphy (she of the conservative Dem trifecta, Blue Dog leader, Problem Solver, New Democrat Coalition, a relentless progressive basher, and a sometimes Pelosi attacker) come on MSNBC and have a go at Democrats for not all coming together and supporting the 'reasonable' (her words, not mine) Laken Riley Act en masse. That stance is nothing new for her, after meeting with President Trump in September 2017, Murphy said that she and fellow Democrats could work with him, and she then voted for (also horrid) anti-immigrant Kate's Law:

Stephanie Murphy and Val Demings just voted for an incredibly terrible anti-immigration bill

https://www.orlandoweekly.com/news/stephanie-murphy-and-val-demings-just-voted-for-an-incredibly-terrible-anti-immigration-bill-5350132

In that MSNBC spot yesterday, she especially singled out the progressives, her apparently eternal enemies.



She did, to give her credit, serve on the J6 Committee, but she clearly has a lot a disgust still for many members of our caucus.

[Scrivener7]

4. I only have one in-your-face magat in my life.

A sibling, and our relationship has cooled but I would be there if he needed me. But for a decade, he couldn't have a conversation without inserting some political insult and insisting it was a joke. No one played, no one engaged, but he did it in every conversation.

The last time he did it, I verbally slapped it down. Haven't heard from him since. He's been doing it for nearly a decade but he gets called on it once, and he can't handle it.

It will pass, but damn. They're thin skinned.

[malaise]

5. She is correct

You cannot walk into this BS politely. Fight back and expose ignorance, racism, misogyny and fascism.

[mahina]

6. We should bluntly call out the behavior without making it worse

There’s no need to attack people personally because we’ need to come together as a people with our eyes on a better future one day. We know already we can’t win without others one day. Not today and the future if you make enemies out of everybody, it’s harder if not impossible to ever get over this.

[paleotn]

8. Umm, we ain't coming together.

Wish for it all you want, ain't happening. Seriously, do you want to unite in kumbaya with Christian nationalists? Not happening.

[slightlv]

15. Thank you for echoing my thoughts! Nt

[msfiddlestix]

20. actually, there is a need to get personal. it's been needed for a very long time

[TheBlackAdder]

7. Supposedly there's a campaign to delete all things Twitter & Meta, yet keep their user accounts active.

My kids are saying that they keep their accounts, but delete the apps from all of their devices to cause the stock to drop.

[2naSalit]

9. Also keeps...

Others from coopting your acct. from what I've heard.

[TheBlackAdder]

11. Yep, I keep my Twitter account defined, but stopped using it years ago.

[paleotn]

10. We've tried the alternative. It doesn't work. I'm with her.

Many above are missing the point. The point isn't to trash individuals and be all mean and nasty for mean and nasty's sake, though that is a means to the end. Tough for the kumbaya crowd. I get that. Instead, it's trashing a way of thinking. An identity. It's the same thing R's did to the word Liberal over last several decades. Hell, it got so bad with Liberal that many started calling themselves "progressives." Mercilessly ridicule maga to the point that few want to be identified with it. Until it become a pejorative in popular parlance. We can do that. We're smarter and funnier than they are and the raw material is already there. Mango Mussolini will help us endlessly with that. Just as he always has.

[ColinC]

12. What would be our "Lets Go Brandon"

[yardwork]

17. Biden handled that brilliantly with Dark Brandon.

We need more of that.

[Beck23]

13. Telling MAGAs...

they are mean and stupid won't work because that's a badge of honor for them.

[msfiddlestix]

22. the mean part is a badge of honor, the stupid part get sunder their skin real quick.

and I'm not talking about college degrees.

[JHB]

14. "No. No. When they go low, we kick them." - Eric Holder Jr., former US AG, 2018

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/10/politics/eric-holder-republicans-when-they-go-low/index.html


Holder had the right of it back then.

Stop counting on their better nature.

When they complain about liberals looking down their noses at them and thinking they're stupid, tell them to stop proving us right.

[JanMichael]

24. If someone is trying to eliminate you they can be kicked when they are down too.

Don't let up which seems to be what we do whenever we win. Kick them while they are down.

[yardwork]

16. Kamala should have stuck with the "weird" approach and escalated.

We don't have to be mean but we do have to stop sane-washing their lies.

[Peregrine Took]

19. Sarcasm and ridicule work very well, too. n/t

[mac56]

21. "They go low, we go high."

We go high, they win elections.

[dweller]

23. Need the T shirt

And bumper sticker





✌🏻

[Martin Eden]

25. That's bad advice.

There is nothing positive to be gained by being mean. The only thing this will accomplish besides temporary satisfaction is to increase the bitterness that divides Americans.

That is EXACTLY what the oligarchs and fascists foster and depend on -- having The People at each other's throats instead of working together for our common interests.

I know many will say that ship has already sailed, but not everyone who voted for the orange creature is die-hard MAGA. Millions have been deceived by the Gish Gallop of lies which go viral on social media, while fact-checking is ineffective or being abandoned. Some of these people voted for Obama and/or Biden in 2020.

While there is no good excuse for ignorance and gullibility, people do change their minds (especially those not immersed in politics). Anti-incumbency is a growing trend for dissatisfied voters, and I'd wager the impact of Trump’s policies will cause harm and increase dissatisfaction before the 2026 midterms.

That dissatisfaction is our best hope for a first step in defeating the fascist oligarchy. Engendering personal animosity among persons we'd like to persuade is unhelpful, to say the least.

It also adds to our own negative feelings, as I found out yesterday.

I live in Chicagoland. One of my group texts has two longtime friends who are softball teammates, also hiking companions. Two of us are Democrats, Bears fans. The Republican is a Packers fan.

Yesterday the Republican Packers fan shared an image of Joe Biden as "The Bears New Head Coach." With the inauguration just days away, I was triggered. Venting my grief and anger, I responded with this:

No decent human being who is well informed and reasonably intelligent would EVER vote for Donald Trump -- especially if they consider themself a Christian or a patriot who reveres the United States Constitution.

Needless to say, the exchange got ugly. My Democratic friend did not engage, except to defend him as a good person. He and I have been teammates and good friends since 1980, and now he's upset with me.

I regret not calming down before my first text, and now I feel terrible.

[LuvJoesPartner]

27. Kudos to you!!

Never feel bad for speaking the truth!!

[CrispyQ]

29. I read Trump is planning a mass deportation raid in Chicago on Tuesday to kick off the revenge tour.

I don't advocate being mean like the original commentary did, but we need to do something different. When they go low, we go high, has not served us well.

[Martin Eden]

32. Defeating the lies won't be easy, but we have to make our message loud, clear, and repetitive

Joe Biden had a very accomplished presidency with an economic recovery far greater than expectations, but millions of voters heard a different nessage repeated over and over again.

We have to beat them at this game, even though the oligarchs increasingly own the media.

[sop]

28. Democratic "mean" doesn't receive the same corporate media attention as Republican "mean."

Corporate media turned often violent conservative grievance into a "grassroots populist political movement." When progressives become aggressive they're likened to "terrorists" and "communists."

[CrispyQ]

30. This is true & a huge part of the problem.

I not a strategist but the dems better hire someone who is...stat!