Make billionaires great again! Which Democrat is mapping out the Ro to 2028?

[stevenkesslar]

David Axelrod made an interesting point after Trump first won in 2016.

He said he advised Obama in 2008 that, after eight years of W, America was ready for the opposite.   So he scripted Obama in part to be the anti-W.

Axelrod said he couldn't really be as objective as he might have wished in 2016, since he loves Obama and detests Trump.   But after Trump won he said he missed the reality staring him in the face.   After eight years of Obama, Trump was the perfect anti-Obama.

Arguably, Biden was the perfect anti-Trump in 2020.  And Trump was the perfect anti-Biden in 2024.   Weird shit!

Ro Khanna slams Democrats’ behavior at Trump’s joint address: ‘Not a good look’

Quote

And here’s what happens: the story should have been on President Trump. He’s talking about a balanced budget, the House Republican budget actually is adding $2.8 trillion to the deficit. We should have been talking about the Medicaid cuts. Instead, we are talking about our own behavior, and that’s a distraction from us getting out our economic message.”

Every time Ro Khanna goes out on a minor limb and takes a risk, I like what he say to say.   Partly because he is taking risks, period.  If I had to name the biggest thing wrong with the Harris/Walz campaign, it would be what Tim Walz just said.  The campaign played it way too safe.  As if they were ahead in a race that they were actually behind or at best tied in every single day.  It is time for Democrats to take risk.

Beyond that, Khanna seems to be thinking, "How can I be the anti-Trump in a way that actually appeals to people?"

My expectations for Trump 2.0 were extremely low.   So I'm kind of impressed that Trump has actually exceeded my worst expectations of just how shitty a leader he can be.  At this point, given his speed in breaking shit, some part of me feels like it is almost better to just break as much shit as he can.  Hurt as many veterans as he can.  Fuck as many seniors as he can.  Be Putin's 100 % compliant bitch every day.  And destroy every alliance that took a century to build.   About half of America, so far, is getting a daily lesson is just how scummy and disgusting and traitorous Trump can be.  And there ain't much anyone can do about it.  Yet.

Khanna seems to be one of the people trying to figure out what people might want to hear in 2028.  He is not the only one.   And I am not arguing he is the best one, or anywhere close.  But he does impress me as someone who is thinking hard and taking risks with his eye on the prize for what might work in 2028.

There's two things in particular that stand out in that article above, and in a lot of what Khanna says.

One is that he seems to have taken both the 2002 and 2024 versions of Ruy Teixeira to heart.  In 2002 Ruy and his leftie partner in crime John Judis improbably argued there was an emerging Democratic majority.  For years now, climaxing in 2024, Ruy has been arguing woke college-educated progressives are ruining this majority by losing touch with the interests of the working class.   Khanna seems to have read both books, and the weekly or so Teixeira memos on his Liberal Patriot blog.  First by talking about things like patriotism, and respect.  

The second thing that stands out is that Khanna seems willing to push hard for the economic boilerplate things that Teixeira argues, correctly I think, Democrats need to focus on:  working class economics.  I can name two things that could have won 2024 for Democrats:  1) Tax the rich a lot more, which is the single most popular Democratic policy proposal most of the time; 2) Draw blood and fight like hell to extend the child tax credits that helped tens of millions of Hispanics and Blacks and working class Whites survive inflation.  The Democrats let the tax credits die.  And probably millions of those working class voters ended up reluctantly siding with Trump in the end.

It made it easier for Trump to argue Democrats won't fight for the working class and put money in your pocket, but they will fight for prisoner sex changes at your expense.

Khanna was on Team Bernie in 2020.  He has proven adept at balancing representing rich people in Silicon Valley while he calls for pro-working class economics.  And taxing the rich a lot more to help the working class.  Now he says, correctly, we should focus like a laser on how Trump will cut Medicaid and blow up the deficit to help Elon Musk and billionaires.

Again, I'm not saying Khanna is the best one for 2028, or even close.  But he is ahead of the curve in laying out messaging and strategies Democrats better be focused on if we want to eventually end this national horror.

 

Another thing I think is a given.   After all the pain of watching Elon Musk kick veterans in the balls, slit Medicaid in the throat, and feed Tesla and SpaceX off Trump's federal slush fund tit, we'll be ready to put a pitchfork in the child abusing piece of shit by 2028.   But since we're being respectful like Khanna, I won't say Musk is a worthless child abusing piece of shit who disgusts me.  Even though he is.  I'll just say we should raise the child abusing piece of shit's taxes to fund Medicaid and veterans, and child tax credits.

 

 

 

[Suckrates]

 

And dont forget Elon is also coming for your Social Security......

 

And when there's nothing left in the govt to steal, soon he'll be resorting to THIS..........

 

[Suckrates]

 

As long as its NOT Hakeem Jeffries,  he disgusts me...... He is the OVERRATED Golden Boy, a political hack chosen simply because they couldnt find anyone better at that moment Pelosi was exiting, and wanted a candidate of Color......

Jeffries has no appeal,  he speaks like a detached ROBOT with NO connection to his audience.  A Stepford clone speaking in choppy sentences with no emotion in his eyes.

But he has been elevated to STAR by a directionless party desperately in need of Leadership.  He was the best they could do.

But they now have 4 years to do BETTER than a robotic talking head, who thinks talking with force, and his hands,  is showing AUTHORITY.   

[stevenkesslar]

5 hours ago, Suckrates said:

 

As long as its NOT Hakeem Jeffries,  he disgusts me...... He is the OVERRATED Golden Boy, a political hack chosen simply because they couldnt find anyone better at that moment Pelosi was exiting, and wanted a candidate of Color......

Jeffries has no appeal,  he speaks like a detached ROBOT with NO connection to his audience.  A Stepford clone speaking in choppy sentences with no emotion in his eyes.

But he has been elevated to STAR by a directionless party desperately in need of Leadership.  He was the best they could do.

But they now have 4 years to do BETTER than a robotic talking head, who thinks talking with force, and his hands,  is showing AUTHORITY.   

The one thing I will say in Hakeem's defense is that following Nancy Pelosi was going to be difficult if not impossible for anyone. 

If I had to name the smartest Democratic leaders of my lifetime, it would be Bill Clinton or Barack Obama or Nancy Pelosi.  I could make a great argument that she should be at the top of the list.   All three made some big fuck ups, as well.  But especially if I factor in how bad were the fucks ups versus all their successes, Nancy's ratio of success is probably better than the other two.  She is the Democrat who mostly won things.

I always had a theory as a community organizer that there is simply nothing like organizing Moms trying to protect their kids.  The non-literal phrase I have used a lot is that many Moms would slit their wrist to protect their children.  That could sound sexist or patronizing.  But having organized many Moms I just think it is a fact.  And that's not to say Dads are bad.  It is just to says Moms and Moms, and great Moms are great Moms.  So I always viewed that as part of Nancy's thing.   With Trump she has what I viewed as an appropriate instinct to protect us from this felon and rapist and predator at all costs.

It stands out now in particular, as I said in a recent post, because Nancy was 1000 % like this with Trump.  She fought him fiercely, and I think did almost everything right.  Which is to say she went for the jugular.   Harris did that one time:  in the Sept. debate, which worked great for her.  Then she drifted into pablum.  Had Harris had Pelosi's instinct of going for Trump's jugular relentlessly, which she did not, she might have eked out a narrow win rather than a narrow loss.  Coulda woulda shoulda.

But I agree with you about Hakeem.  At this point he seems to stand for nothing, and fight for nothing.   As a contrast to Ro, I read some anecdote about how Hakeem went to some meeting with Silicon Valley donors recently and talked about "mending fences".    That to me is the problem, not the solution.  Ro will say many of the richest people in the US live in my district.  And I will tell them to their face I want them to pay more taxes, now, to help the working class.  That is an actual solution, unlike Hakeem's seemingly empty rhetoric and fat cat fundraising.   In my view it was the fat cat fundraising and lobbying from Sinema and Manchin in particular that blocked Biden from doing things - like tax the rich and keep the child tax credits - that might have given more working class Moms and Dads a reason to feel in their gut that Democrats fought for them.

That said, either Ro or Hakeem are better than Trump, who is now actively planning on how to screw the working class.  He is raising prices on cars, groceries, and lots of other things working class people buy.   He is planning to cut Medicare and Medicaid they depend on.   He is firing veterans.  And working class people know it.   Which is why Trump's approval rating and consumer confidence is already trending down.

[reader]

From AP

Tesla tumbles again

Shares of Tesla slid again Monday as confidence in Elon Musk's electric car company continues to disintegrate following a post-election “Trump bump.”

Tesla shares tumbled 15.4%, to $222.15. That's the lowest Tesla shares have traded since late October, reflecting investors' newfound pessimism as the automaker's sales crater around the globe. Monday's decline, Tesla's steepest since September 2020, came with Wall Street in the midst of a sell-off caused by uncertainty over the Trump administration's trade policies.

Many analysts have attributed Tesla's sagging stock — and auto sales — to Musk's support of President Donald Trump and other far right candidates around the world.

Musk pumped $270 million into Trump's campaign heading into the 2024 election, appeared on stage with him and cheered Trump's victory over Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in November. Tesla stock soared to $479 per share by mid-December, but have since tumbled back to earth, losing 40% of their value.