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Sally Doran's avatar

As always, your points, research and analysis are rational and make so much sense! Unfortunately, it seems to me that our country is going through a period where nothing makes sense.

Partisanship and demonizing en masse those in a party other than our own has been made possible by social media and the scrolling/sound byte method by which the majority of Americans get information. If we could all see our common goals are greater than our differences, that would be a great start to the solutions you share.

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Paul Friedman's avatar

For the Democrats to actually have influence, they actually have to win! And, ignoring 60% of the country and only promising "more of the same" ain't winning.

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Stephen Pao's avatar

Agree that the minority party itself always has trouble getting things done today. The issue facing the majority party right now is a budget that isn't going to pass because of the insistence on moving forward the TCJA provisions that will result in cutting Medicaid, which the majority party voters don't want. We're going to have to return to a system where Congress represents the interests of the constituents over their parties. I believe doing so will require getting money out of politics, and this is what I want to advocate for.

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Paul Friedman's avatar

Completely agree - Gerrymandering and Citizens United are two of the worst problems our political landscape faces. But given that those are currently the rules of the game, it's a shame the Dems haven't figured out how to play-to-win while the other party takes control of the Supreme Court, Senate, House and Presidency all at the same time.

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Stephen Pao's avatar

It’s true. Even when the Democrats had their own supermajority, they failed to execute on things like codifying reproductive rights. https://www.newsweek.com/barack-obama-blasted-not-codifying-roe-v-wade-democrat-failure-1719156

Unlike the Democrats who were likely not aggressive enough, Republicans risk being too aggressive now. There’s enough stuff on the plate now which really works against those that put them there. Republican legislators don’t have to (and should not) go along with acts that work against their constituents. The problem is that many fear that Elon will simply fund their opposition with the primary voters. That has to stop.

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