General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe moment is ripe
Last edited Tue Mar 18, 2025, 02:12 PM - Edit history (1)
I think we're at a moment of critical shift in the mood of the country. People do *not* like what's going on *at all*. The only people I am hearing now supporting Donnie are the super-hardcore bigots/idiots. *everyone* I interact with, even at work (finance industry), is horrified, even people who I know are (or at least, used to be) republicans.
The moment is ripe, for the Democratic Party, for grassroots activists, and even for any rich people looking to profit off this by launching a lefty media outlet. Capture an unabashedly anti-Donnie, anti-musk, anti-dictatorship, anti-destruction of our government and our economy and our freedoms and our well-being, and you can ride that wave to great political or economic heights. And maybe, just maybe, save our country while you're at it.
There are a few truths we must shout fiercely with logic, passion, and receipts.
1. Donnie and his gang are criminals. Aside from the fact he's a convicted felon, determined by a judge to be a rapist, a repeat defamer, and found in contempt numerous times, in just the last few weeks he's violated countless laws and court orders. He has clearly demonstrated utter contempt for the rule of law and will violate ever more laws he thinks he can get away with, and at the moment, he thinks he can get away with quite a lot of that.
2. We are in a dictatorship. Stop calling him a wannabe dictator or wondering "if". We're there. He's doing whatever he wants. He's not merely breaking norms, he's outright ignoring Congress, the judiciary, and the constitution. He has all the hallmarks of a dictatorship. The *only* thing that *may* be in doubt is whether he can keep us in a dictatorship beyond his 4 years.
3. Donnie is deeply and wildly unpopular. Nine years ago, we were bombarded with the message that we needed to hear more from "real America", the ordinary people who now know as magats, as if stupid bigots never had a voice in America. Well, America is fed up with magats and we need to hear more from the vast majority of us who don't like being offended on a daily basis.
4. Bigotry is anti-American. We need to unite to counter their unity. Racists, sexists, anti-trans people, etc. united to form maga; we need to do the same to protect *all* Americans. Any time any minority group or women are attacked, we must criticize the attacks as being un-american. Don't counter the narrow attack of the day against trans people, e.g., point out that they are attacking Americans, they are attacking freedom, they are attacking *all* people who don't score perfect in their stupid privilege game, 85% of Americans can't say they are white *and* cis *and* straight *and* Christian *and* male *and* natural-born citizens, and 99.9% or Americans aren't billionaires. We need to reframe attacks on any of us as attacks on *all* of us because you know once they have made life impossible for trans people, they will move on to the next minority and so on. In truth, they're operating in parallel. But it's divide and conquer. We have to call them out on this strategy, unite, and fight back, together.
5. America didn't want this. It's not longer a matter of whether or not they cheated in the election. Maybe everything they did was legal. But through voter suppression and crazy money from musk and so on, the results of the election do not capture the will of the people. And now that we see just how much contempt they have for laws, we can look back on the election with better hindsight. It should be obvious now, if not at the time, that if they could figure out a way to cheat, they would have done so. I have no hard evidence, but the suspicion grows knowing that they certainly would have if they knew how.
6. We need to focus on reality, not the daily onslaught of propaganda. Donnie will cut out any media outlet that tells the truth, and that's fine. "Access" may have been important when a responsible administration gave real news during press conferences and select interviews. But "access" is worthless when it's all state propaganda. In a dictatorship, "access" merely means you're corrupt enough to work cooperatively with the dictator. Tell the truth and don't worry about now-worthless "access".
7. The administration is thoroughly corrupt. Virtually all his appointments reek of patronage. Most of his cabinet are unqualified billionaires who surely bought the position through outsized campaign contributions. And musk got the biggest prize of all, able to wield more power that rivals most presidents, just for being the biggest donor of all ... or maybe he did help Donnie cheat during the election. That would certainly explain a lot....
One thing is for sure, we need messages like these out, now and in volume, and to persist as long as magats are a viable force. If we don't, within 6 months, we will be at a point where we can't get anything approximating a real democracy back.
Remember, they break laws and don't believe in democracy. If we let them, they will steal 2026 and 2028 and cement us in a dictatorship for decades.

gab13by13
(28,834 posts)forgotmylogin
(7,907 posts)From https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220151492
Sen. Chris Murphy (Connecticut) Within weeks of Trumps inauguration, the Connecticut senator, not previously known as a liberal firebrand, was using terms such as red alert and constitutional crisis.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York) Other Democrats should emulate how Ocasio-Cortez dealt with Homan. She both belittled him he cant even get a MAGA attorney general to take him seriously and cast him as an authoritarian.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker Jan. 20, only hours after the inauguration, the 60-year-old governor released a statement sharply criticizing the presidents initial executive orders and correctly predicting Trump would ignore the rule of law on a number of issues
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) In many ways, the 83-year-olds Fighting Oligarchy national tour is nothing new. Sanders spent 2016 to 2020 traveling the country and bashing the wealthy in his two presidential campaigns.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz The road to authoritarianism is littered with people saying, Youre overreacting, he told the crowd in Des Moines.
Elizabeth Warren was also mentioned down thread.
We need a group scrappy like MAGA but with our good intentions to counter them. Something like MPGCA "Make Presidents Good Citizens Again"
33taw
(3,203 posts)are taking g him on in court.
CBHagman
(17,312 posts)Just after the Inauguration a wise woman I know observed that friends were suggesting that we needed a single unifying leader, and she told them not to wait for one. Now I know that's not what you were saying upthread, but her larger point is key: This is going to take a lot of people. Some of the people may even surprise you.
Lulu KC
(8,161 posts)Magoo48
(6,519 posts)Walleye
(41,402 posts)Anybody? Anybody?
unblock
(55,380 posts)Anyone with a conscience or a spine has been kicked out.
Walleye
(41,402 posts)Didn't Liz Cheney cross over? And her father Darth Vader.
Walleye
(41,402 posts)So I guess we have to win them over one at a time
the Republican Party literally crucified her and another Republican Senator that spoke up...........Every Republican witnessed it and started backing Trump even more than they had out of fear of being "taken out" like they were.......
I kept waiting for Dick Cheney to come forward and defend her, and scream about what these "so-called" Republicans were doing...........
Being the most evil, black hearted, coldest Republican EVER, he said NOTHING, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, DEFENDING HIS OWN DAUGHTER, OR CALLING OUT THESE "NEW REUBLICAN PARTY" FASCISTS............
The time for Dems to speak up and raise hell has gone by......
The time was when HWBush CABAL committed Treason to install Reagan in the White House. THEN WAS THE TIME TO RAISE HOLY HELL........
Same with the corrupted 2000 election, the corrupted 2004 Election, and definitely in the corrupted 2016 election, and without a doubt, the corrupted 2024 election......MANY here at DU noted that in the month prior to the 2024 election, Trump and many other Republican's were displaying confidence already that showed a foregone conclusion they were gonna win the election, and that they already some how KNEW they were gonna win.....the "FIX" was in, once again,......just as in many previous Presidential Elections...
The 2024 election was their "checkmate"...........Trump himself, was bragging to his Trumphumpers at Rallies,.....
"Vote for me THIS ONE LAST TIME, and you will never have to vote again"..........WTF do you think he was saying to EVERYONE with that statement?????
ButchMcMuffin
(81 posts)Liz Cheney voted for Kamala Harris and she even campaigned for her.
Dick Cheney made a short video urging people not to vote for Dumpy.
Joe Biden dropped out of the race
KPN
(16,750 posts)keepthemhonestO
(628 posts)I especially think number four is going to be very constructive.
KPN
(16,750 posts)
BonnieJW
(2,969 posts)They'll use the same method they used in 24. Eloon has it all covered. If every state doesn't get their tabulators checked out, the same thing is going to happen
dalton99a
(89,420 posts)NBachers
(18,731 posts)elocs
(24,486 posts)RANDYWILDMAN
(3,064 posts)period! Even if we have 77 million bigots/uninformed voters...we have more sane voters and their votes were not counted. They can tell any story they want about it, but the truth. No way he swept the swing states and no way he didn't have a county flip in the ENTIRE election, these are things that have happened in every election except this one, come on!
unblock
(55,380 posts)I'm in the finance industry, and I deal with plenty of republicans. They're *all* against him now. A few may have voted for him, but the tariff nonsense turned them against him.
Not to say destroying the full faith and credit of the federal government through Elon canceling payments for goods and services already rendered. That's a disaster that the media largely ignoring. They're talking about the individual cuts, without saying that companies will be wary of doing future business with a government they can no longer rely on to pay what's owed.
mountain grammy
(28,002 posts)maga congressman in CO 8th, and newest, District. It was an extremely close election and maga knows this seat is in play so they're already running ads for this creep... Democrats keep begging me for money. I probably get a dozen texts and even more emails a day but I don't see ads against this guy or against maga or trump.
There's a protest at the ICE facility in Aurora now.. I'm heading there now..
BattleRow
(1,731 posts)unblock
(55,380 posts)At the expense of real lives, sadly.
milestogo
(21,286 posts)
KPN
(16,750 posts)rustysgurl
(1,077 posts)We put a majority of what little assets we have into fixed income investments that give us a smaller return but don't put us at the mercy of a volatile market. Getting into the whys and wherefores, I shared out opinion about Trump, DOGE and everything that's happening. He popped off stating that he has to be 'apolitical' and he has clients on both sides of the aisle, then proceeds to expound on all the waste and underhanded dealings DOGE is finding and how it's going to help the country in the long run.
Seriously considering finding another investment advisor.
Baron2024
(1,492 posts)Following.
Buddyzbuddy
(1,166 posts)I would modify point 2 just a bit. I don't think he's ignoring congress so much as controlling congress. That statement implies that congress has done anything but what he has ordered our 3rd but equal branch of government to do. Although he is ignoring previous Congressional body's laws, budgets and constitutionally mandated powers.
Carry on with your good works, unblock.
unblock
(55,380 posts)He knows he can ignore congress because he's corrupted it to the point where he knows he'll never be removed from office.
Ignoring and controlling go hand in hand. The bottom line is that neither Congress the courts are currently equipped to provide effective counterbalance to Donnie's extremely radical actions.
Any way you look at it, we have an overly powerful president and much weaker legislative and judicial branches. They're meant be equal, and currently, they are not.
Buddyzbuddy
(1,166 posts)Last edited Tue Mar 18, 2025, 09:56 PM - Edit history (1)
I just wanted to point out that congress does have the power to slow down or stop some of what this administration is doing but they choose not to. They are not helpless. This congress isn't being ignored, they are complicit.. I would go so far as to say any member of the legislative branch that chooses not to exercise whatever power they have to curtail the efforts of this administration is complicit.
I agree with 99.9% of what you have stated but like most here I get so angry thinking about Congress's abdication of their responsibilities.
At least the Judicial branch is doing their job.
unblock
(55,380 posts)Power lies where ever it is exercised, or at least where the threat is seen as real and meaningful.
Dictators come in and impose a different power structure on whatever they are replacing. Congress nominally has the power to remove a president, but the actual power structure now is such that they can't. They're too afraid of the proud boys or of getting primaried. That's Donnie wielding power outside of the constitution, effectively overriding it and making congress's impeachment power a power on paper only.
It's really pathetic how Republicans in Congress are so enabling donnie as to render their own jobs meaningless.
Blue Owl
(56,659 posts)Times a wastin lets get busy
Evolve Dammit
(21,002 posts)NowsTheTime
(1,156 posts)paul91046
(30 posts)trump WILL invoke martial law. The question isn't if, it's when. What then?
paul91046
(30 posts)trump WILL invoke martial law. The question isn't if, it's when. What then?
NowsTheTime
(1,156 posts)FakeNoose
(37,845 posts)


cilla4progress
(26,371 posts)let go recently by MSNBC. Reporters of color. We need voices from outside the supremacy to give us important and needed perspective on how to do better going forward.
TBF
(35,165 posts)do you watch? I found them on bluesky and subscribe to them via substack. They're killing Rogan and the rest.
unblock
(55,380 posts)And I'm definitely liking how they are now pulling way ahead of Rogan.
oldmanlynn
(685 posts)The time is ripe, and now is the time to act if we could only get some big time set of billionaires to start up a new lefty television network or a conglomerate of different podcast and live segments some radio spots
AverageOldGuy
(2,738 posts). . . a pack or wolves led by timid rabbits.
I long for the day with a leader like FDR who said:
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-madison-square-garden-new-york-city-1
Any Democrat who made this speech today would be our President in 2028 -- if we still have elections. Sadly, there are none on the horizon with the courage of FDR.
unblock
(55,380 posts)We could indeed have a Hoover-to-fdr type of transformation of our political landscape.
If we manage to escape the Hitler parallels, that is....
pat_k
(11,426 posts)a) His bizarre obsession with Tariffs.
b) Instability. Changes his mind daily on critical plans. A strong economy needs stability in government.
c) Putting people out of work by the hundreds of thousands:
i) Directly fired tens of thousands of civil service workers; plans to fire at least 500,000 more.
ii) Illegally withholding money for programs created by law.
iii) Arbitrarily cutting off funding for science.
(iv) Indirectly putting hundreds of thousands out of work in industries that receive grants or are otherwise employed in programs passed by congress; grants and programs people were right to rely on because the executive promises to take care to execute the law, whether he likes those laws or not.
Skittles
(165,987 posts)I especially like this: "................we need to hear more from the vast majority of us who don't like being offended on a daily basis."
I AM SO SICK OF HEARING WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND TRUMP VOTERS. WE KNOW THEM ALL TOO WELL WHICH IS WHY WE FUCKING DESPISE THEM.
Response to unblock (Original post)
Rendville This message was self-deleted by its author.
Martin68
(26,147 posts)understanding of what living in a dictatorship means. Trump and his minions are doing their best to create a dictatorship. Many courts, elected representatives and officials, and ordinary citizens are resisting that attempt. The anger and dissatisfaction engendered by Trump's administration's actions could very well result in a landslide for Democrats at the midterm elections. Only when and if elections of any kind are cancelled are we "living in a dictatorship." Words matter.
unblock
(55,380 posts)First, donnie is blatantly ignoring multiple laws and multiple court orders and objections from ordinary people. He has complete contempt for democrats and any Republican who dares cross him he threatens to primary and/or get the proud boys to make death threats. He is a dictator, even if he's in the early stages where it *might* be possible to dislodge him before he (or an authoritarian Republican Party, anyway) is permanently entrenched.
Generally, people see Hitler as becoming a dictator the moment he became chancellor, though his power was not entrenched until the enabling act was passed. We're in that stage here. He's a dictator, though he has yet to fully consolidate his power.
Second, semantics aside, I think it's helpful politically for us to call him a dictator. I think that will boost resentment and outrage and protests. We've been calling him a dictator-wannabe or aspiring dictator or someone having authoritarian tendencies or such for years now, and it's not been very effective.
I think calling him a dictator, even some may disagree that that's accurate, will help light a fire under people and get them out into the streets to protest.
Martin68
(26,147 posts)Semantics are important, and we are most definitely not living under a dictatorship. I've lived in countries that were, and this is not a dictatorship. We still have elections for one, a vital distinction. Let's not cede the country to Trump without a fight. If he was a dictator, the military would be totally at a his command. I do not believe our military would back a coup.
berniesandersmittens
(12,190 posts)mucholderthandirt
(1,607 posts)misanthrope
(8,930 posts)The original version was loaded with irony.
Note there are no Black kids around Sinatra. And when the lyrics were composed, there were Japanese-American kids in internment camps.
The song's lyricist, Abel Meeropol, also penned the anti-lynching ballad, "Strange Fruit" after seeing grisly photos from an Indiana lynching. He and his wife adopted the orphaned sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg after they were executed for espionage.
unblock
(55,380 posts)Haven't a young Sinatra in forever!