This sort of thing isn’t helpful. You do what you can while you can. You assume there will be an election until there isn’t. I know what you’re saying, but unless you have a better option, all it’s going to do is depress turnout just like it did in 2024.

Oh, by no means am I saying that people in your circles are dumb for not using “milquetoast,” I’m just saying that the things that are popular in one sphere aren’t necessarily popular in another.

Incidentally, he and AOC having this roadshow that’s traveling to red areas in particular is in part doing that job of tearing down obstacles all over. He’s not lazily telling other people to do it, he’s just doing it and showing how.

I hope they keep the full-court press going for the entire election cycle. I think it’ll be most powerful during the primary campaign when they’ve put in the work leading up to it; and since their votes in Washington aren’t super effective most of the time, I think this is probably the best use of their time.

Looking at Bernie’s history, I don’t think there’s any way he would disagree with you.

Right, and that’s one thing I’m worried about. Because at some point, it no longer becomes his choice. The man will die someday, and if he dies in office without an appropriate successor coming up behind him, things will be quantifiably worse.

Must be something to do with the circles people run in. I’ve heard the word quite a bit for the past ten years or so; for example, a Star Trek podcast I listen to made a joke about a character from Deep Space Nine being milquetoast (calling him “Lt. Toast”), and they kept that joke running from 2017 through 2022 or so.

There’s no vacation/retirement from social justice.

He doesn’t have to fight in this way until he dies. He needs to select a successor, he needs to make sure that the next generation can continue the work, he needs to pass on what he’s learned. Lives have chapters, and he needs to be free to flip to the next one: being an elder statesman.

Do I think he deserves some peace and quiet? Of course. Is he going to get any? Sadly, I don’t believe so. He’s been fighting the good fight his entire life…

Oh, I definitely believe he’s continuing because he has to. I wish it wasn’t so.

Him stepping back doesn’t mean we get a younger Bernie as a replacement.

Certainly not. But Vermont hasn’t sent a Republican to Washington since 1989 (unless you count Jeffords in 1994 and 2000, who left the GOP in 2001), and has solidly reelected Sanders (a self-described socialist) to four terms, making it a reasonably safe seat to field a strong progressive voice for.

He’s been doing this long enough that there should be plenty of younger Bernies, not even waiting in the wings, but in active government.

Agreed. One problem with this is, of course, gerrymandering; another is that Democrats are staying in office until they’re very old. There are plenty of younger Bernies who have tried to get in the game, only to be shut out by establishment Democrats with more money, or by a Republican party that drew the maps to specifically deny leftist voices the chance to be in office.

But there aren’t. The closest we got is AOC. And we could use a few dozen like her.

…elected to replace a weak establishment Dem in a very blue state. I agree, but the systemic problems are something we need to really go after if we’re not going to do all of this over again every four years.

Bernie isn’t holding anyone back.

I don’t think he’s holding anyone back, at least not actively. I think his presence is just not encouraging the people who could replace him to get in the game.

It would be odd if he was.

Absolutely agree. He really doesn’t seem the type.

When he goes, he’s likely to be replaced by a milquetoast neolib at best.

There I disagree, but then again I know nothing about Vermont politics.

I mean, I’m not sure what else you expect him to say.

He’s doing a great job. When I say Pelosi and Schumer should go, it’s because they’re cowards at best and traitors at worst and they should be replaced by young people who are…not those things. When I say Sanders should go, it’s because he’s done a great job, he deserves a vacation and the opportunity to write his memoirs, and there should be someone younger at the ready to take the mantle.

Honestly I think Bernie should go too. He deserves a good retirement after a long career of solid work. We need people in office who can run the show for the next thirty years.

From what I’ve read, he’s being pretty clear about primarying moderate “Democrats” and voting out Republicans.

Especially when the recession starts in earnest.

Back during the Great Depression (maybe we should start calling it the “first Great Depression,” unfortunately), the shantytowns that homeless people started putting together near sources of aid were dubbed “Hoovervilles,” after US president Herbert Hoover, whose policies and lackluster response to crises were largely seen as the reason for the Depression.

I betcha the next Hoovervilles will be called Trump Towers.

I have also not voted for a Republican since 2016, though I had already made up my mind about Trump by then and cast my first vote for a Democrat for president that year.

And let me tell you…in the almost-decade since then, I’ve been so radicalized against the GOP I supported full-throatedly for the first 30 years of my life; and mostly because the folks I counted as friends literally threatened my family when I spoke out against Trump.

Since then, and seeing the lies ooze out of the GOP machine in support of Trump, I’ve reflected on the stuff I used to believe and realized just how much of the Republican platform has required lies in order to function. I’m so jaded against Conservatism now that I can’t even stomach the fact that I campaigned for Dubya anymore–because he laid the groundwork for this idiocy.

Anyway, a big part of that has been realizing that the vast majority of Democrats aren’t the evil masterminds that the Conservative political punditry machine told me they were, but instead feckless frauds, well-meaning-at-best.

Schumer knows what he’s doing, yes. But I don’t think he’s choosing the lesser of two evils. I don’t think he’s made any of these choices with any real rational consideration or thought. I think he’s just trying to ride the fraud out to the bitter end, and saying that he “trusted” Republicans is just the latest way to save face and keep the fraud going a little bit longer.

Obviously he didn’t, based on his actions last week.

Where was this underdeveloped, misshapen spine when you ruled that he had immunity for all official actions, John?

On both sides, seems like. Trump regrets Roberts, Roberts regrets Trump.

His economic disapproval numbers are at 54%. That’s something that a sane president would be terrified about, because that’s the sort of thing that starts revolutions.

Pebbleyeet on Lemmy?

He’s literally a Markov chain. The word he says next depends solely on the word that was just said. There’s no context retained, no previous information referenced, and if he goes for too many tokens, the first ones start falling out of his head.