Congressional Democrats are marching in lockstep into the fourth week of a government shutdown, even as lawmakers brace for what could be the most painful point yet — a cutoff in federal food aid for more than 40 million people.
But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are signaling that there will be no change in strategy: Democrats won’t provide the votes to reopen the government unless their demands over health care are met. And they’re increasingly hammering President Donald Trump for his failure to sit down to negotiate with Democrats, while instead embarking on his second foreign trip so far during the shutdown.
“This is all Trump,” a visibly frustrated Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont told CNN. “Trump’s not engaged. Republicans won’t negotiate,” Welch said, arguing that Trump’s trip to Asia this week as “an indication of how he could care less.”
People are civil
Americans are and have been, considering what happened over the past year, extremely civil
I wonder what will be left of said civility once 42 million of them have missed two meals in a row…
Honestly? Probably blame the wrong people and keep voting R.
Yep. Hordes of people will blame the democrats for not giving in.
Next year they’d be blaming them for increased healthcare costs.
Dealing with Republicans is almost always a heads I win tails you lose situation, where the fault always falls on either immigrants or democrats.
They’d attack their neighbors unfortunately
I mean this is pretty simple for Democrats.
Americans decided to tell Democrats to go fuck themselves after Biden had a legislatively successful presidency in which he tried (and in many cases succeeded) to pass a ton of legislation to help Americans. Not to mention all the historical data proving how much better Democrats are for average Americans than Republicans.
It was a slap in the face from the ignorant American electorate.
So now Democrats just have to sit back and let Americans find out what happens when they abandon Democrats and put all their eggs in the Republican basket. Let them suffer until they learn the error of their ways…or don’t. Cuz this is America and it’s pretty stupid so there may not be any lessons learned.
They really don’t have to do anything. And shouldn’t.
Just let it all burn.
Keep it shut down until we start striking and rioting
Yup.
It’s inevitable anyway. Let’s just cut to the chase. No sense putting band-aids on it and putting it off for a little while. System will still be inherently broken and eventually lead to strikes/riots anyway. Might as well get 'er started.
I’m still confused about why the democrats are actually doing the right thing here
Because what do they have to lose? Johnson is ramming every negative policy through with every legitimate and dirty method out there. The basic government institutions that support our society are being dismantled or sold off to the highest oligarch with crony capitalism. Open corruption by trump in pardoning obvious unapologetic criminals that promise trump fealty or lick the boot. trump is literally tearing down the White House (thats something we only allow Canada to do historically). Johnson refuses to seat a Democratically elected Democrat representative for over a month.
What do Democratic lawmakers have to lose at this point?
Because even rich people are losing money under Trump.
Isn’t Donvict off in Asia doing the double-jerkoff dance?
Seriously, I wish the Democrats were running ads showing the contrast - show the food banks running out of food, while this asshole tells everyone he is focused on destroying the east wing so he can put in a fucking ballroom and flitting off to Asia to dance the night away.
https://bsky.app/profile/abraham.bsky.social/post/3m44siauvas2b
If I were running the DNC, there would be Democratic Party sponsored food relief banks across the country right now that specifically welcomed anyone regardless of party affiliation.
Along with the food, there could be voter registration and links to runforsomething.net
This is honestly genius so of course the DNC won’t do it.
The DNC is so spineless it’s amazing they are at least not caving on the budget. Let’s hope they carry this fight to the end.
If they would only have that much balls. Hell here in WNC there were hunting parties trying go after FEMA last year. I don’t know if the MAGA rural meth-heads would have enough class to even thanks the people helping them.
Pretty sure that would violate laws against “buying” votes, but what the hell are Republicans going to do? Shutting them down would look bad even to their voters.
Kat Abu is running for Congress in Illinois and running a campaign based on doing good community service with campaign donations. She claimed she checked it all out and it’s perfectly legal. I think as long as it’s not limited by party or in exchange for a voting promise it’s fine.
https://www.goodnewsinstead.com/culture/gen-z-candidate-uses-campaign-funds-to-feed-those-in-need
Do stupid shit like the Republicans do, like “oh we are unaffiliated and just like to set up our booths here because of the foot traffic”. They juke and jive our entire justice system with 5 year old tactics but everyone else is scared to look improper.
Honestly that’s the part of this suggestion I’m not sure about, but regardless of whether that part’s cool, Dems should be setting up food distribution in places that are going to be the worst hit by this.
Eh. Lot of Americans already benefit from Democrat created social systems but then turn around and demonize socialism and refuse to vote for Democrats.
So you’d just end up feeding a bunch of ignorant, thankless Trump supporters that will continue voting Republican despite being starved by them.
They’re giving all the money the neoliberals stole from state parties, back to state parties:
Total DNC investment for 2025 elections surpasses $7 million
Today, two weeks from Election Day, the DNC announced a new $500k investment into the New Jersey, Virginia, and Pennsylvania Democratic coordinated campaigns to help “get out the vote” ahead of the critical New Jersey and Virginia Gubernatorial elections, along with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court retention elections. This new investment is in addition to the DNC’s $3 million investment in the Virginia Democratic Coordinated Campaign, $3 million investment in the New Jersey Democratic Coordinated Campaign, and the six-figure investment in the Pennsylvania Democratic Coordinated Campaign.
It’s insane to me that people want the DNC to be a point of consolidated power, almost immediately after we won a 30 year to take it back to where it used to be.
Consolidating all the power in the DNC, just makes it easier for the wealthy to control it all if we get stuck with a neoliberal chair again.
Like, they’ve fucked shit up so bad for so long, a lot of voters don’t understand that a bottom up power structure is the foundation of a party that represents the average voter. So people really just won’t stop arguing against their own best interest like you are…
I’m not sure what you think I’m arguing?
That you want a strong DNC where all the money/power is consolidated with them and a single chairperson controls the purse…
I mean, technically you didn’t say anything though, you just quoted someone else post verbatim and don’t seem to have even understood what they’re saying.
What do you think that meant?
My primary interest is in pressuring large organizations with resources to provide food for people cut off from snap benefits. Using it politically is a means to convince the DNC to put resources towards it, though my assumption is that the central DNC will actually do fuckall and it will be small local organizations that decide it’s worth the effort.
Oh ok.
So you’re not planning ahead.
Luckily we can see from Minnesota that planning more than a week ahead of time pays off. And that’s the direction the DNC is moving: planning ahead and distributing power in case we lose the DNC to neoliberals again.
It would be great if you “pressured” organizations that can do something and should do something instead of random organizations that are actually fixing themselves…
But considering your “pressure” is reposting social media comments to Lemmy, well, it doesn’t really matter if what you’re doing is right or not.
Feel free to “go after” Taco Bell for discontinuing the McDonald’s dollar menu if you want as well, people probably won’t get as upset even tho it’s just as illogical. But politics is an important topic these days
Did it ever occur to you that you don’t know anything about the person you are talking down to and that it might be more effective to engage in a minimal level of politeness?
Unwarranted hostility is his whole deal
Christ almighty.
With allies like you, who needs enemies.
Yeah, bro…
Obviously we should just do easy things that don’t matter instead of productive things that are difficult.
Who cares if it’s effective as long as you get a quick dopamine hit.
Feel free to go boycott Target about Exon mobile.
That’s a good idea! Call your local McDonalds and get them to restart the dollar menu. Or, even better: donate money to your foodbanks. They prefer cash instead of pantry items, but I’m sure they’ll accept anything you’re willing to give!
I don’t get why like most of the rest of the world this doesn’t cause an election. America needs some modernization to it’s rules so that a king can’t happen again. But it won’t if the dems get in they’ll say some pretty words about healing and won’t change anything.
“Look forward, not backwards…yadda yadda something about Marquess of Queensbury rules…”
Meanwhile, the conservatives are building a machine to not only punch below the belt, but to crush the testicles of their enemies to dust in violation of all the rules. The media, “centrists” and not a few “leftists”, pointing at both of them: “see! both sides!”
Variable elections are usually more of a feature of parliamentary democracy. Congressional democracies typically have scheduled elections; both Brazil and Mexico have scheduled elections similar to the USA.
Federal elections here are on a set schedule, there’s no concept of a “snap” election here. The closest thing is if a Congressional seat goes vacant, they need to schedule a special election just for that seat before it can be filled.
In theory, we prevent kings here by allocating distinct powers to distinct branches of government. The problem occurs when those branches stop using the oversight powers the Constitution gives them. The American President can rule like a king – if Congress and the Courts let him.
Not passing a budget doesn’t cause elections anywhere. Modern democracies have solutions to keep government running without a new budget (some sort of default minimal budget or just previous budget begin prolonged). What causes elections are non-confidence votes. Those are usually lost when coalitions collapse and ruling party can’t secure 50% of votes anymore.
I don’t think this take is fully thought out.
Their system is monumentally slow.
For important decisions, they need a super majority in the senate and a majority in the house, and the presidency, and then they need to word it extremely carefully to not have it monkeys paw’d by the supreme Court.
They haven’t had an actionable super majority for over a quarter century.
The reason they appear not to do much is because without bipartisan support or all the things I just mentioned they can basically only change how money is spent and taxes (only sorta IIRC).
Basically, your comment hurts everyone by encouraging voter apathy due to pushing ideas that aren’t compatible with the reality of their slow system.
Is the DNC filled with center right people who love a lot of the bad things in place? Yes.
Are there still absolutely positive changes they would make given the opportunity? Also yes.
Is it possible to change the party through primaries and local politics? Also yes.
Anyhow, my point is, it needs to be considered the system they’re working in before loose accusations are thrown at them.
Finally, we here in Canada could literally have proportional representation right now, giving everyone’s vote equal weighting and giving us true choice and increased leverage over politicians, but we don’t, despite having a majority liberal government and so what I am saying, is having the supposed left leaning party win (or in their case less right), still doesn’t garunteed results, but it does garunteed you won’t ramp up the very real discrimination and crony corruption like you see when right wing governments win.
It matters, even if choices are mid is the point.
But it won’t if the dems get in they’ll say some pretty words about healing and won’t change anything.
You’re confusing the small neoliberal faction with the whole party…
Something billionaires put a lot of money into. Them and the media conglomerates they own would rather depress Dem turnout and lose the general, because a neoliberal can’t win the fair primary we’ll have next time.
I know it’s probably not intentional, but please stop spreading neoliberal propaganda.
Now is the time to be pushing people to vote in the next Dem primaries, not pretending that it’s hopeless. Depressed turnout is the only way billionaires get someone they want like Newsom or Pritzker, and if they go on to win the general, they’ll appoint a biased neoliberal to chair the DNC again.
Please pay attention, we can’t afford widespread ignorance in the face of fascism
You probably also think you say Gif the right way!
People are about to starve and this guy is out here arguing grammar.
That’s a good point. But also “I could care less” is WRONG, so…
I get it. There’s a lot of misused phrases that frustrate me too. “Irregardless”, “Hold the fort.” “All intensive purposes.” “We have the Epstein Files” “There are no Epstein files.” “There are Epstein files, but it’s only Democrats in them.” “You can’t have the Epstein files.”
Yes those are all the worst things possible
Meh, I’ve typically just heard it as ‘I could care less… but not by much’ in my head so no need for the pedantic corrections.
Maybe it’s just me, but I’m starting to think none of them care about the people within the borders of the US.
Okay neither side is great but one side is holding out to provide healthcare to Americans. You can see how they’re not the same.
Yeah, I get that — and I actually agree one side talks a lot more about helping people. But here’s the thing: you can be outwardly altruistic and still be a cunt.
Both parties survive on the same donor ecosystem. The difference isn’t who they take money from — it’s the story they tell about it afterward. One wraps it in compassion, the other in capitalism, but the cash spends the same.
Take healthcare — the Affordable Care Act was written with heavy input from insurance and pharma lobbyists to make sure private industry stayed in control. So yeah, it expanded coverage, but it also locked in the same profit system. That’s not a revolution; that’s a maintenance plan.
So when people say “they’re not the same,” I think of the system as a bird — one wing blue, one wing red. They flap in different directions, but they’re attached to the same body, and that bird just keeps flying higher and higher on corporate air currents.
I’m not saying there’s no difference in ideals or rhetoric, but if both wings answer to the same flight plan — the same donors, the same industries — then arguing which wing is nobler misses the point. The problem isn’t the feathers; it’s the bird.
Don’t talk like that, the “they’re not the same” people will come for you.
I think we got them. These are my most downvoted comments. Just so much winning I can’t stand it. I only make the best comments. They are perfect. Everyone says it.
To he fair, one wears red, the other blue. It’s like a knock-off version of bloods vs crips at this point.
Bloods and Crips brought to you by BlackRock in conjunction with Pfizer.
Maybe they’re all in cahoots, starve out the impoverished and disenfranchised
Alternatively this type of bothsiderism while one side is literally disappearing marginalized people off the streets and doing who knows what with them, while doing corruption on a scale never seen, only hurts all that you believe in and encourages apathy.
You’re actually a fool if you think the Democrats care about you. Democrats are just Republicans in blue coats with Pride pins. Don’t be fooled. They both worship the God that is money.
This is what a 12 year old thinks is deep.
Actual adults read voting records, look at policy differences, look at the people a party is catering to, and understand that life is not fairytales and fluffy floating cakes.
Whether a politician does or doesnt care is irrelevant.
Whether they are the closest available vessel to get you closer to your goals and to keep the people around you safe is what does.
You’re thinking with your heart. I think I need to spell this out so: The heart has no brain cells.
There is an extremely obvious difference between the fourth reich and boring neoliberals. If you can’t recognize that, you are either being disingenuous or can’t get a handle of your emotions over the fact that getting the perfect party you want is impossible, and getting a party close to what you want will take a very long amount of time, requiring a lot of consistency, supporting mid candidates, and will be unfun and boring.
