The Democratic Opposition Should Look More Like Rep. Al Green
The Democratic Opposition Should Look More Like Rep. Al Green
In interrupting Donald Trump’s speech to Congress, Rep. Al Green showed more vigor in opposing the president’s undemocratic, anti-worker agenda than any other act since Inauguration Day. Democrats should emulate Green, not censure him.
Either Al Green or Anthony Weiner. I watched an old speech of him defending a bill to fund medical care for the first responders of 9/11, and he spoke with such fire and passion. He put House Republicans on blast for sitting on their hands and hiding behind procedure before voting "no". While we don't need people with his character flaws (he sent unsolicited dick pics to someone who may or may not have been a minor, I've read conflicting reports), we definitely need people with that kind of fire.
You should check out the documentary Weiner. It was made with his full permission and access. Kind of tells you everything you could want to know.
But it won't. Hakeem Jefferies will have his members wear, "How will this lower the cost of eggs?" t-shirts as they're obediently led in front of firing squads.
No way! That would be too divisive for Jefferies. Wouldn't want to offend the shooters.
Dems are completely paralyzed and need a complete overhaul they need more Al Green and less Nancy Pelosi. People like AOC are the future and their movement is being denied by the geriatric institutional Dems, people want tangible progressive policies that are denied to them by both Democrats and Republicans.
Fuck all democrats who voted to censure him.
They voted to censure Rep Tlaib for asking that the US stop helping to bomb her family members.
Democrats are fascists with a BLM sticker and a rainbow flag, and they're busy scraping off the rainbow flag.
Democrats are fascists with a BLM sticker and a rainbow flag, and they’re busy scraping off the rainbow flag.
A lot of them are like that, but not enough aren't.
Which is why we need to get dirty money out of Dem primaries, regardless of what Nancy Pelosi says.
To paraphrase Kendrick:
Few solid Dems left, but it's not enough
Here are the droids you're looking for:
Rep. Ami Bera of California
Rep. Ed Case of Hawaii
Rep. Jim Costa of California
Rep. Laura Gillen of New York
Rep. James Himes of Connecticut
Rep. Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania
Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio
Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington
Primary ALL OF THEM!
their phone should not be silent for even a moment until they make a public apology and promise to go better. which will never happen so their phones should be ringing out busy until the heat death of the universe. fucking capitulator pieces of shit.
And I thought Moskowitz was cool 😔
Shoulda smacked a Republican with his pimp cane. But I’ll take give him some grace because he’s the only Democrat that did anything besides those bitch ass signs
A better look would have been Al Greene beating someone with that cane.
Look, I'm the last one to tone police anyone, but maybe don't go all Preston Brooks.
Counterpoint: John Brown did nothing wrong.
Perhaps the orange reptile babbling at the mic and his evil little right hand "man".
If I were in that room, I would have proudly walked out along with Rep. Al Green. I feel like history is going to remember the people sitting on the sidelines in silence or waving their tiny signs around when only one man had the courage to stand up and shout down the president in defiance, and history will not be kind to them.
What Green did is basically the bare minimum I expect out of an opposition party. I mean, come on people, Serbia just pulled this shit and you're telling me 10 Democrats crossed party lines to censure a guy who called the lying fascist authoritarian a liar to his face? Show me that you have enough backbone to fight these assholes. I'm tired of waiting for Dem leadership to get their shit together and start seriously disrupting government just as ferociously as Republicans would if the roles were reversed.
It's even better if you do it one-at-a-time. If each person occupies 3 minutes, you can disrespect Mr. Orange for an hour or two easily enough.
What did this accomplish?
Sometimes you have use your fists to keep democracy alive.
Showing the voters just how much they really care about their health, well-being, and survival, ten Democrats went so far as to vote with the Republicans to censure Green: Rep. Ami Bera of California, Rep. Ed Case of Hawaii, Rep. Jim Costa of California, Rep. Laura Gillen of New York, Rep. James Himes of Connecticut, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, and Suozzi.
Any Democrat condemning Green’s protest or voting to censure him should know no peace. Their constituents should be ceaselessly demanding to know what they are doing to protect health care for the poor, working class, disabled, and elderly — and why their elected officials thought it was a good use of their time to condemn their colleague who was standing up for exactly such policies.
I couldn't agree more.
My - now daily - calls to my senators and rep now sound a lot like this:
Did the congress(man) hold up a sad little sign? Like am edge lord middle schooler? Because they need to get off their ass and be more like representative Al Green. Stop normalizing Trump's BS OR acting civilized. Resist. Do fucking something.
Seems like we're developing a list of dems who are actually worth their salt. Primary the rest.
I'm hopeful to see them push back, still worried, but hopeful.
I was dissappinted to see most of the Dems sitting in silence, with tiny protestation signs as if they were at an auction.
C'mon, make some noise, get in trouble, but do something!
Things our Representatives can do to fight back, delay and obstruct Trump's fascist agenda:
For Senate Democrats:
Weaponizing Quorum Calls: No Majority, No Business
Most of the time, Senators are not on the Senate floor. But technically, the Senate is not allowed to conduct official business unless a majority of senators (51 if all seats are filled) are present. That’s called a quorum, and it’s the foundation of Senate procedure. If a quorum isn’t present, the Senate grinds to a halt. The friendly thing to do is to NOT ask if there is a quorum - that’s how MOST business moves forward in the Senate. But Senate Democrats can use their power in the minority to call for a quorum and cause massive disruptions by constantly demanding quorum calls and even walking out to deny Republicans the ability to govern.
Blocking Unanimous Consent: Every Action Must Take the Maximum Time
Unanimous consent is the grease that keeps the Senate moving. Normally, the Senate runs on handshake deals—routine matters like scheduling votes, moving bills forward, or skipping over procedural steps all happen only if no senator objects. That’s called unanimous consent (UC)—and if even one Democrat objects, it forces the Senate to go through long, time-consuming processes to get anything done.
For House Democrats
https://indivisible.org/resource/explainer-how-house-democrats-can-delay-and-defy-trump-musk-coup
1. Procedural Hardball to Slow Down the Coup
Force roll call votes on everything—Republicans must go on record for every bad decision. Use motions to recommit to force Republicans to take difficult votes. File privileged resolutions to demand immediate consideration of issues Republicans want to avoid. Leverage parliamentary inquiries and points of order to disrupt floor proceedings and expose GOP dysfunction.2. Show Up and Fight in Committees
Put Republicans on the record about their harmful policies. Force votes when GOP members are absent to either force something through or force every Republican member to be in their seats the entire time. Make motions to subpoena officials and demand transparency. Expose MAGA extremism in real-time.3. Investigate and Expose MAGA Sabotage
Demand hearings on Trump’s and Vought’s plans to override federal spending. If Republicans refuse to hold real oversight hearings, Democrats must take matters into their own hands. That means holding shadow hearings—bringing in experts, impacted communities, and whistleblowers to expose how MAGA elites are trying to loot the government and rig the system for billionaires. These hearings should be public, media-driven, and designed to put pressure on Republicans to defend their corruption in the light of day. Publicize findings to show voters exactly how MAGA elites are trying to loot the government, and while Republicans are covering for the Trump-Musk coup, Democrats are fighting to stop it.4. Take the Fight to the Public
Host Town Halls: Update voters on how Democrats are fighting back. Adopt GOP Districts: Hold town halls in Republican-held areas to expose GOP sabotage and talk directly to their constituents. Engage Online: Mobilize voters with digital content that names names and pulls no punches.Their biggest problem is they are not willing to meet them at their level. You gotta go low like them . Its the only thing they understand. Go fight them in the mud!
Get in trouble for what?
Imagine if they all walked out and the GOP majority just started passing votes with nobody to vote against it. Right now, if every Dem is present and voting, the GOP can only miss 1 vote.
I think listening to your opponents speeches can sometimes be helpful in resisting their actions. After all, he's been telling us what his plans are since before the election and most people didn't believe him.
Lawmaker protests accomplish literally nothing except making people like you feel good. Legislatively and legally, Democrats are powerless, because YOU fuckers refused to vote for them. You say "do something" but this does NOTHING.
YOU should have done something at the fucking ballot box if you don't like what's happening.
The "powerless" opposition party in Serbia btw:
And then 10 of his “allies” voted with the fascists to censure him. I really hope they all get absolutely stomped in the next primary (assuming elections even occur and matter anymore).
But THAT might Alienate REPUBLICAN VOTERS who will NEVER EVER EVER vote Democrat! And we DONT want to Alienate THEM!
The actual reason would be that Al can't accomplish jack shit from outside of the congressional building where they escorted him. A lot of people don't seem to realize pushing a pen around on paper is the most effective form of resistance legislators can do aside from joining a mob outside, and our opponents already tested to see the effectiveness of the mob.
yeah instead they got a former cia agent to represent the party who not only praised W but also dug the grave of Reagan just to gargle the remains of his balls on camera. they have no shame; they just want to be the republican party. "the moment something bad happened I knew I had to go around the world to kill as many brown babies as possible" go fuck yourself, cunt. who even elects this people.
Luckily the United States will be irrelevant soon. They've already lost all their trade leverage as well as their military allies (in exchange for one that's been locked in a quagmire for three years in an operation that was only supposed to take three days) and their economy is in the process of collapsing. Neither Democrats nor Republicans will matter soon to anyone outside of the tiny fraction of the world's population that lives in the territory that they control.
one can only hope
What impeachment process? They don’t have the votes? You can’t convict the president without a 2/3 majority in the senate.
The dems are far too splintered. And their idea of fighting back is holding up little signs. Its like when those celebrities sang that shitty fucking song during covid. Completely clueless
There has never been Democrat opposition. They are a joke and complicit in everything Republicans do
Unfortunately.
People expect the Democratic Party to oppose authoritarian and socially regressive policies, but the Democratic Party isn't an opposition party. They do the bare minimum to look Not as Bad as the Alternative™ so they can avoid having to promise to change things that they benefit from themselves, and anything beyond that is dismissed as not worth even attempting because of hypothetical Republican stalling.
They had well-liked progressive candidates like Bernie and they went out of their way to screw him at every opportunity. And they're still going out of their way to screw over progressive members among their ranks. It's disgraceful.
Instead, the Democratic opposition is Interpretive dance, wearing pink, while holding paddle boards.
The only things the Democrats can do is performative. If ineffective performative actions are what you're demanding, then you really don't understand how bad things are.
Basically just critiquing the music the band is playing after the ship ran into an iceberg.
Why? It works for republicans. Don’t pretend that it’s worthless to try and get people fired up, especially if you have no procedural chance to do the right thing.
If nothing else, make people feel like you have their backs. Al Green did the right thing.
This isn't a Hollywood movie where one passionate speech or oen big act will make everyone start with a slow clap leading to a thunderous applause and a big happy ending.
The problem is people believe the lies of republicans because they've been on that team for their whole lives. Some big gesture by a democratic party isn't going to change their minds because the republicans they've trusted their whole lives will just say "they just did that because they're evil commies that hate our great President Trump" and that'll be the end of it. Or more likely, they won't see it at all.
The only way America can change is for people to talk to their family members and get them out of this cult. Or if they're a casual Trump supporter, just talk about the things that are happening so they're better informed about what's going on. I know that involves having extremely awkward conversations, maybe involving being the adult in a covnersation with one's parents, which is never easy. But people need to hear about politics from someone they trust, and it's not going to be the democrats because people have been conditioned not to trust them.
People who voted for Trump will either not see anything Democrats say or not believe it if they do.
What performative actions did republicans congressman do that stopped Dem’s agenda?
Of course you know you're lying, and I don't understand why. You can't think of a single non-performative act that the Democrats could do? Really? Seriously? Not one?
Come on now. At least recognize that they have some power, and say it's not enough. Then we might agree with you. But falsehoods won't get you anywhere.
It's such a weird thing for them to do. What do they get out of it? It's not like their constituents are going to say, "I'm not sure about my representative but 2 years ago they censured Al Green so I'll reelect them."
I imagine it's a lot more for their donors than their constituents.
Most of them are in Republican-ish districts so yes, their constituents actually may say something like that.
Remember, Lemmy is a ridiculous echo chamber. Bernie Sanders supporters are a small minority of the Democratic party. The overwhelming majority are centrists.
According to this post, six of the ten are in D+5 districts or better.
Only 10 out of like 214 so, honestly, you could write it off as statistical probability. Maybe they were mad that because of the interruption they had to sit there and tolerate Trump's sounds and smells that much longer.
No they should hold town halls and protest that’s all they can do. Start with a grassroots campaign and go from there.
This is the equivalent of impotently finger waggling at your bullies for being meanies, meanwhile they still never respect you and do what they want anyways, including continuing to bully you. Fucking useless limp-dick attitude.
The sad truth is that short of acting outside the law (which is...not a terrible idea at this point), Democratic lawmakers do not have the numbers to do anything at all that would have any sort of effect. That's YOUR fault, dear voters. Shoulda fucking voted in more Dems if you wanted them to do something.
Those who CAN do, do. Those who CAN'T do, meet.
Democrats stopped doing town halls years ago because they were getting the kind of backlash Republicans are getting now. I can't remember the number but I saw an article a few years ago saying Pelosi hasn't had a town hall in decades.
Give that man a longer cane!
If I were Green I'd have swung it upside the head of the Sergeant-at-arms. Wouldn't be the first time a cane was swung in the Capitol.
I agree, but I would much rather have an article stating such from any source that is not Jacobin tbh
You're saying they should all get escorted out of congress? Won't that stop us from voting against the Republican Majority? It's already such that if every Dem shows up the Republicans can miss 1 vote and pass things.