A thread for Democrats Only
POSTED BY: THGRRI
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 15:36
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Sullivan Wins Alaska Reelection, Bringing Republicans To 50 Senators
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Trump was ineffective and easily beaten. A future strongman won’t be.
At the moment, the Democratic Party risks celebrating Trump’s loss and moving on—an acute danger, especially because many of its constituencies, the ones that drove Trump’s loss, are understandably tired. A political nap for a few years probably looks appealing to many who opposed Trump, but the real message of this election is not that Trump lost and Democrats triumphed. It’s that a weak and untalented politician lost, while the rest of his party has completely entrenched its power over every other branch of government: the perfect setup for a talented right-wing populist to sweep into office in 2024. And make no mistake: They’re all thinking about it.
It won’t be easy to make the next Trumpist a one-term president. He will not be so clumsy or vulnerable. He will get into office less by luck than by skill. Perhaps it will be Senator Josh Hawley, who is writing a book against Big Tech because he knows that will be the next chapter in the culture wars, with social-media companies joining “fake news” as the enemy. Perhaps it will be Senator Tom Cotton, running as a law-and-order leader with a populist bent. Maybe it will be another media figure: Tucker Carlson or Joe Rogan, both men with talent and followings.
https://web.archive.org/web/20201111052005/https://www.theatlantic.com
/ideas/archive/2020/11/trump-proved-authoritarians-can-get-elected-america/617023/
It might seem strange to note that the US was lucky to get Trump, but it was, in this respect: while he is power-mad and entirely lacking in conscience and empathy, he is also impetuous and incompetent, and failed to follow a clear program. In other words, he was a hopeless wannabe dictator. He was also unfortunate: were it not for the pandemic, he might have won again. But he has blazed a trail for someone more effective: someone with Trump’s absence of moral constraint, but with a determined program and a cold, strategic mind. If Biden fails to break the political consensus, in 2024 he could open the door to a competent autocrat.
https://web.archive.org/web/20201111130322/https://www.theguardian.com
/commentisfree/2020/nov/11/us-trump-biden-president-elect
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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I don’t feel sorry for my Trump-voting neighbors
Forgive me if I don’t jump to embrace the people who wanted to ‘make liberals cry again’ and ended up disappointed
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/trump-voters-disappointed-liberal
s-democrats-sympathy-b1721498.html?utm_source=reddit.com
I was taught not to be a sore winner, but this election feels like an exception.
As I drive past what remains of the Trump front yard shrines throughout my southeastern Wisconsin community, I feel no compassion for my neighbors. They use political ideology and religion as an excuse to express unwavering support for a man who has unequivocally done more harm than good during the past four years. They voted for him despite whatever moral objections they may have had regarding his egregious behavior because conservative power and control are more important to them than American lives.
If this isn’t true, why else would they support someone who routinely demeans, degrades, and dehumanizes the most marginalized among us, discounting the lives of people of color, mocking people with disabilities, and bragging about sexual assault? Why else would they attempt to re-elect a president with no regard for the rule of law, the brave service and sacrifice of our most beloved military veterans, and the critical importance of a peaceful and cooperative transfer of democratic power?
Since Biden won the election, there have been repeated calls for “compassion” toward downcast Trump voters. Democrats should hold off from “boasting”, they say, and instead extend a hand of friendship to the people who laughed and cheered as Donald Trump Jr told them on a rally stage to “make liberals cry again”. But there have been psychological studies on what motivated people to vote for Trump, and they are well worth reading.
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It's hard to feel bad for people who are actively evil and stupid.
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Really looking forward to this. I hope he gets the death penalty for treason. I'd pay to see him fry. Put it on PPV and give all the proceeds to immigrant kids.
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More 'Dictatorship Than a Democracy': Trump Purge at Pentagon Increases Fears of Coup-in-Motion
"The purge happening at the Department of Defense, in the middle of a messy transition, should worry us all."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/11/more-dictatorship-democra
cy-trump-purge-pentagon-increases-fears-coup-motion
Fears that a possible slow-motion coup is in progress in the United States continued to grow on Wednesday, as observers sounded the alarm over President Donald Trump's decision to install "extreme Republican partisans" at the Pentagon after his firing of Defense Secretary Mark Esper resulted in resignations by numerous top officials at the department earlier this week.
The stacking of the Pentagon with Trump loyalists—combined with the president's ongoing refusal to accept his electoral defeat and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's Tuesday comment that "there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration"—has heightened concerns about the Republican Party's authoritarianism and left experts and lawmakers warning that the country is in the midst of an extremely dangerous moment.
The Guardian reported that defense experts believe "there was little the new Trump appointees could do to use their positions to the president's advantage" given that high-ranking military leaders, including General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have vowed to keep the armed forces out of the political process.
Nevertheless, others view this week's personnel changes, which amount to the appointment of pro-Trump officials to key national security roles during the interregnum, as more evidence that Trump intends to use what one current defense official called "dictator moves" to cling to power despite receiving more than five million fewer votes than President-elect Joe Biden, who—based on current results reported by the Associated Press and other outlets—won the Electoral College by a margin of 290 to 217.
Appearing on CNN Tuesday night, William Cohen, former Secretary of Defense and Republican senator, told network host Don Lemon the president's conduct is "more akin to a dictatorship than a democracy."
"It is hard to overstate just how dangerous high-level turnover at the Department of Defense is during a period of presidential transition," wrote Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, on Tuesday.
The development, he said, "should alarm all Americans."
"If this is the beginning of a trend—the president either firing or forcing out national security professionals in order to replace them with people perceived as more loyal to him—then the next 70 days will be precarious at best and downright dangerous at worst," Smith added.
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“Centrism” is an extreme ideology that sedates the public with platitudes while it hands more power to Wall Street, corporations & the ruling class—and paves the way for neofascism. It is not even the center as majority of public supports leftist policies.
https://twitter.com/ProudSocialist/status/1326556893632843778
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You Blew It, Cal Cunningham, wannabe Senator from North Carolina
Why on earth would someone risk an extramarital affair while running for a Senate seat that could determine the country’s future?
Cunningham had “run on a campaign of trust and honor,” but “he’s not been truthful to his family and to his voters and he’s not been honorable to the very uniform that he wears.”
The editorial boards of two local North Carolina newspapers agreed. A joint editorial from the Charlotte Observer and the Raleigh News & Observer stated that the papers had intended to endorse Cunningham before his affair was made public. “His lack of judgment during a race that could swing the balance of power in Washington, as well as his selfishness in taking this risk, should deeply trouble North Carolinians,” the editorial read. “We’re especially concerned about Cunningham’s response to the revelations, which may offer a glimpse into the kind of senator he’d be. … In these past two weeks, he’s avoided questions about his behavior—whether it’s part of a pattern, how it conflicts with his military obligations, and if it involved any campaign funds. That’s not accountability. It’s political strategy.”
Here is the real problem: When Cunningham took on the mantle of the Democratic nomination for the North Carolina Senate seat, he wasn’t just applying for a job. He held the entire Democratic political agenda in his hands. The Senate was up for grabs, and the North Carolina race looked like one of the party’s best shots at unseating a Republican. Trump and Senate Republicans were remaking the federal courts as partisan agents of the far right. GOP officials were deliberately facilitating the spread of a deadly pandemic. The West was burning. Arctic sea ice was failing to freeze in October for the first time on record. When it could not have been clearer how critical it was to the country and the planet’s future that Democrats take the Senate, Cunningham opted to risk another term of GOP Senate control so that he could have a little kissy-time with a woman who wasn’t his wife. In the age of rapidly accelerating climate change and its attendant famines, natural disasters, and refugee crises, it is not an exaggeration to say that Cunningham jeopardized the well-being of every person on Earth for his own fleeting moment of personal satisfaction.
https://web.archive.org/web/20201113015546/https://slate.com/news-and-
politics/2020/11/cal-cunningham-let-the-democratic-party-and-america-down.html
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Supreme Court Justice Delivers Grievance-Laden, Ultra-Partisan Speech to the Federalist Society
On Thursday night, Justice Sam Alito delivered the keynote address at this year’s Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention. The Federalist Society, a well-funded network of conservative attorneys, has come under unusual scrutiny after Donald Trump elevated scores of its members to the federal judiciary. Its leaders insist that it is a mere debate club, a nonpartisan forum for the exchange of legal ideas. But Alito abandoned any pretense of impartiality in his speech, a grievance-laden tirade against Democrats, the progressive movement, and the United States’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ironically, Alito began his address by condemning an effort by the U.S. Judicial Conference, seeking impartiality and non-partisan judges, to forbid sitting federal judges from being members of the Federalist Society.
Alito would not be abiding by the usual ethics rules, which require judges to remain impartial and avoid any appearance of bias.
Although the justice accused several Democrats senators of being unprofessional, he himself defied the basic principles of judicial conduct.
Alito took aim at five senators who filed an amicus brief in a Second Amendment case last year. The senators’ brief warned the justices that the court was becoming dangerously political. Yet Alito’s speech proved the senators’ point. At least one justice is clearly a bitter partisan out to settle scores with the left and flouting his ethical obligations.
More at https://web.archive.org/web/20201113112504/https://slate.com/news-and-
politics/2020/11/alito-federalist-society-speech-insane.html
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by reaverfan:
“Centrism” is an extreme ideology that sedates the public with platitudes while it hands more power to Wall Street, corporations & the ruling class—and paves the way for neofascism. It is not even the center as majority of public supports leftist policies.
https://twitter.com/ProudSocialist/status/1326556893632843778
Socialism is a system of social organization in which private property and the distribution of income are subject to social control. I.E., the government controls everything, the people own and control nothing is the bottom line. The government winds up with strong men running it and the economy collapses due to mismanagement and corruption.
Capitalism promotes free market conditions which creates the best economy, but centralizes resources to much so a few end up with it all. Centrists see the problem with both and work to create a more fair distribution of resources while protecting America's republic. We are the keepers of the gate.
The far left and right are the problem.
T
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