On Wednesday, the US Senate will hold a vote on whether to approve the Pentagon’s request to send another $20bn in armaments to Israel, after a year in which the Biden administration has supplied billions of dollars of arms used in Israel’s devastating war on Gaza.
Among the weapons to be approved are 120mm tank rounds, high explosive mortar rounds, F-15IA fighter aircraft, and joint direct attack munitions, known as JDAMs, which are precision systems for otherwise indiscriminate or “dumb” bombs.
Separate resolutions are being brought forward for each weapon type, including its cost to US taxpayers. However, together, the initiative is known as the Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRDs).
As a result of intensive lobbying from pro-Israel groups like Aipac and the Democratic Majority For Israel, no arms transfer to Israel has been blocked.
The resolutions likely to gain the highest levels of support are expected to involve the tank rounds, which have been responsible for killing hundreds of civilians in northern Gaza in particular, and the JDAMs, which caused the death of well-known figures such as Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah in southern Lebanon, and six-year-old Hind Rajab in Gaza City.
We don’t need a new party.
We need to get the neo liberals out of leadership positions at the DNC.
We’re the party of FDR, not billionaires and fossil fuel corporations.
Changing a party from the inside when its leadership is Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton is a tough ask. When push comes to shove every democrat falls in line for the center right candidate. Including the ‘progressives’.
is it really that hard to change? I think if push came to shove, both of them would fall over, they’re octogenarians.
“Democrats” aren’t enough to win. We need the people who normally aren’t engaged, and the most common reason they give is "both parties only care about the rich’.
Dems continually moving to the right just depresses turnout and allows Republicans to win
Buddy, progressives hold their noses and show up to vote for the least worse option. Personally I’ve been doing it for decades.
Progressives aren’t the problem, they’re some of the most politically engaged people in America.
They just get blamed by the neo liberals everytime a neoliberal loses.
Because:
If the DNC wants wins elections, they need to start giving Dem voters what they want, not aiming for “slightly more than trump would do”.
Doesn’t matter that they should still vote D, the politically disengaged won’t vote unless they want the candidate to win or the incumbent out of office.
When a moderate Dem is in office, that means Republicans win the election
It’s very very important we finally learn this lesson. So I’m willing to put some time in to help you understand, even if it’s incredibly frustrating explaining this for the millionth time.
I’m willing to put the time in help.
Rewarding Democrats bad behavior is what got you into this mess.
No, neoliberals and Republicans working together to destroy campaign fundraising regulations is what led us down this path.
The wealthy just buy both parties now in the primary so they don’t have to even worry about the general.
Not holding our noses and voting for the least worse option just means the Republican wins the general. That won’t make the DNC change the type of candidate they run, they’d rather lose to a Republican and keep their positions at the DNC.
So we try to fix things in the primary by getting a progressive.
If we cant then in the general, we still vote D to mitigate the amount of damage.
Like, that’s not just what I do, it’s what literally every progressive I know in real life has been doing for decades now.
What have you been doing if not that?
By holding your nose instead of organizing around alternatives you are perpetuating the crisis.
Or as Briahna Joy Gray worded more aptly yesterday;
The irony that you can’t see she’s saying the same thing I am is too much bub
If you really think me and her are disagreeing, then me repeatedly explaining this won’t help anyone
My advice would be asking someone else for assistance, maybe how I’m explaining it is the problem. But I don’t think it is.
Edit:
So no one else has to click on a twitter link:
When election day rolled around, she still did the same as me:
Advocating for mitigating damage when that was the only other option.
When talking about next election, she says we need a better candidate. Same thing I’ve been saying.
Like, I understand that we agree, but trying to get you to understand that has been insanely frustrating
…
https://x.com/briebriejoy/status/1853879761077944576
If the goal is to remove and replace all party leadership, non-compliant party members, and administrative staff, why not just make a new party? Are you just really attached to the name on your ship of Theseus?
We need to rebuild social capital. FDR didn’t just happen by himself, he had a backing of growing labor movement, and a much more community-oriented, civically-involved America.
We have that…
Like, you don’t need to convince voters that shit is broken, everyone is well aware shit is broken.
There’s just not an option that will honestly try to fix the root problem fucking everything up:
When both parties are pro-corps and anti-worker…
The problem isn’t growing a movement of voters, it’s finding a way to get a candidate past the primary so they can win the general.
Every election there’s two fights:
Fight the DNC moderates in the primary
Fight the Republicans and the DNC moderates in the general
If we don’t win the first one, there’s a very strong chance the candidate who makes it to the general won’t be able to beat the Republican in the general. Because they’re not what the politically disengaged want.
The good news tho is that there is very very few voters who would even want to pull another PUMA and vote R in the general if a progressive makes it. Some will 100% try it. And the media will shit their pants trying to convince us it won’t work.
But it can still work just as well today as it did 16 years ago when they voted R instead of for a Black guy with a progressive campaign.
There’s very few neoliberal voters, it’s just the people running the party pretend that’s the base.
We absolutely do not have that. We have a couch-dwelling population that hasn’t been civically engaged in a meaningful way in fifty years and running. Social capital has atrophied since the 60s by every discernible metric.
Maybe with the people you spend time with.
But lots of people are putting work in, all over the country.
Just don’t expect to hear about it from the party, or any of the big media organizations owned by billionaires for the express purpose of maintaining the status quo so they can keep their ill gotten wealth.
Quick edit:
Not sure why you’re talking about the 60s like everyone was hippies…
The majority of the population back then was fighting school busing like Biden was to preserve segregation, or the ones screaming insults and throwing rocks at children for going to the school they were told to attend.
Like, it’s important to understand the present, but you can’t do that when you’re obviously confused about the past…
If you’re spending your time with a large amount of civically involved, mutual-aid-providing people in America, you’re actually in the minority.
EDIT: Because I’m talking about statistical measures of things. Not feels and vibes like you’re thinking. It’s a well-studied subject, but I know nobody believes in reading or studying anymore.
At this point it would be easier for the progressives in the party to show they don’t approve the status quo (hahahahaha) by forming a new party (even if it means giving the keys to the White House to the Republicans) instead of trying to change the existing party from the inside.
You know why it won’t happen? Because they don’t mind the status quo as long as they get elected.
FDR was the 10th wealthiest President in history, and T. Roosevelt was 4th. They were the neo-liberals of their time, even if they did some things to improve the working class.
Source
FDR was the internment camp guy, right?
Edit: Sadly I don’t find the downvotes as a Japanese American very surprising.
Progressive as long as we ignore atrocities is a weak position.
…
That’s how progress works…
When someone is talking about a progressive from literally 80 fucking years ago, hopefully there’s some stuff they did almost a century ago that modern society finds distasteful
If there isn’t, that likely just means society hasn’t made any progress in the almost century that’s gone by.
I truly hope that makes sense, if not please let me know what’s still causing confusion. This is an important point that comes up regularly, so I’m willing to put some time in to clear this up for you
like today’s democrats, fdr ignored the constructive criticisms that would have prevented such a painful episode; the democrats back then are more alike than unlike to the democrats of today.