[malshe]

I'm not at all surprised to learn that Republican politicians royally screwed their constituents. I was going to say maybe these people will vote better next time just to read that Colorado governor is commuting the sentence of Tina Peters. Democratic leadership is so freaking weak it's unbelievable. With one party full of grifters and the other with full of weaklings, we need to abolish this two-party system.

[ChadNauseam]

Does the commutation of Tina Peters' sentence have anything at all to do with this situation?

[alsetmusic]

"Colorado’s Democratic governor commutes ex-election clerk Tina Peters’ sentence after Trump pressure"[0]

I'd say it has nothing to do with the article but a lot to do with the context of OP's post.

0. https://apnews.com/article/tina-peters-polis-colorado-clemen...

[selimthegrim]

Louisiana had a Democratic governor from 2016-2024.

[Forgeties79]

This is missing enormous amounts of context.

JBE came in before Trump made it a sin to vote Democrat in Louisiana and after Jindall (2 term republican) did such a horrific job that the GOP couldn’t recover no matter who they ran. He also faced possibly one of the worst candidates in history in Rispone for his second term. He was one of the last blue dog democrats, had decades of great reputation built up, and had no problem being extremely cozy with oil/gas. He walked a very thin line super confidently and basically was a 1990 Democrat. It didn’t hurt that he basically saw him nothing but success during both of his tenures. He was an incredibly capable governor.

Frankly he’s an anomaly. They won’t have Democrat Governor for decades just like WV won’t have a democrat senator again for a long time since Manchin left.

Keep in mind Louisiana has had a Republican legislature for literally decades now, a super majority years-running currently. The current state is the result of Republican policies and it’s a red fortress for the foreseeable future, especially with the changes they made to primaries and voting, coupled with the recent SCOTUS ruling on gerrymandering. No matter what happens in the coming midterms, I guarantee you the legislature will remain a super major majority for the Republicans. It is a cartel state now where they literally remove positions when Democrats win, as New Orleans learned with their court clerk who was recently elected.

Louisiana is THE Republican state and offers too few electoral votes for the Democrats to pay attention to it. And every year they stay away from it the deeper entrenched Republicans become as they pass more and more laws of favoring their ability to keep their seats. The current legal landscape is so dire it’s an understatement to call it an uphill battle for non-republicans.

[selimthegrim]

You’re missing the killshot that JBE delivered when a question came up about Vitter being faithful to his wife during the debate on live TV and the fact that formerly the governor appointed the speaker of the house in Louisiana, but when Edwards was elected, that power was taken away

[Forgeties79]

Yeah unfortunately that was a big trend for a while. Republican legislatures/governors stripping powers on the way out. Wisconsin had a pretty notorious moment there with Walker

[alsetmusic]

I couldn't agree more. What voters want is progressive policies (healthcare, housing, childcare, taxing mega-corps, etc). Dems are absolutely allergic to anything of the sort. The funny thing is that a lot of people voting on the other side want these things too. It's just that in a vacuum, they also want revenge for society changing without them enough to vote for that when it's dangled in front of them.

I was listening to a podcast recently talking about how if Dems ran on a platform of, "we're going to abolish all the BS from this admin and do the trials correctly and put these crooks in jail," they'd have tons of support (and I agree). But tepid positions and weak statements with no real plan to do anything (other than preserve the status quo) has become the party's playbook. No wonder it's failing.

[malshe]

I recently read “What’s the matter with Kansas” by Thomas Frank. It was eye-opening. One things he mentioned is that as both Democratic and Republican parties aligned on economic issues (I.e., Democrats started working for rich), social issues became distinguishing factors and gained prominence.

[tstrimple]

The choice unfortunately often boils down to choosing between blatant psychopathy or completely useless platitudes. Yes. A vote for Democrats results in less harm. But Democrats are never actually willing to address the problems. Democrats would rather reach across the aisle than actually help people as has been proven out ever since my very first eligible vote for Obama. Some Democrats promise "Hope and Change" but won't bother to fight for it. Many Republicans promise to hurt the people you hate and often try to follow through on it. Both sides aren't the same, but neither side will fix anything.

[tzs]

> Democrats would rather reach across the aisle than actually help people as has been proven out ever since my very first eligible vote for Obama.

Obama: Affordable Care Act; allowed LGBTQ+ to openly serve in the military; American Recovery and Reinvestment act supported a lot of infrastructure improvement; Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; JCPOA; A whole bunch of action on climate change.

Biden: Inflation Reduction Act which provided large investments to fight climate change; CHIPS and Science Act; codified federal protection of same sex and interracial marriage; Rejoined the Paris Agreement.

[malshe]

100%. Obama squandered people's mandate...twice. I wish more mainstream (i.e., non socialist) Democratic politicians had strong convictions like Mamdani.

[_DeadFred_]

Yeah, I mean other than my family having insurance coverage for pre-existing conditions. And having years of insurance. And therefor much better quality of life then/now. Obama has what, a few weeks of actual mandate majority power.

Mamdani is basically doing the same thing other Dems do, only the Internet lefties give him the benefit of the doubt/kudos instead of the piling on they give Dems. Abigail Spanberger has been insanely effective yet gets zero of the kudos Mamdani gets because she's just a Dem.

[malshe]

Obama promised change, remember? We were in the worst financial crisis of the modern times and what changed exactly after Obama took over? How many bankers went to the prison? In his 2012 book, Neil Barofsky wrote that Obama appeared to care far more about the Wall Street [1]. Obama also completely ignored the Bush administration lies which led to Iraq invasion. Nobody got punished. During his presidency the senate Democrats were asleep at the wheel, not filling many vacant positions for federal judges, which McConnell later exploited. Overall, Obama's presidency was a lot of talk but no concrete action. It's just because his was sandwiched between two even worse presidencies -- Bush's and Trump's -- he comes out ahead.

1. Bailout: An Inside Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street

[delfinom]

Obama did get a lot done, the biggest problem was congress. The dems in congress are basically an entire seniority driven power structure where the 70+ year old dinosaurs hold complete control. They are the biggest ones resistant to change.

The president can only do so much without laws backing it.

[gizajob]

Don’t worry, if you take a step back it’s been a one party system for decades already.

[alsetmusic]

While this is true with regard to both parties being in the pocket of large corporations, and although it's true that Dems basically don't want any real meaningful reform, Dems don't actively target and try to hurt minority groups like LGBTQ+ people or non-white non-christians. They are indifferent to the people rather than out to eliminate them. Pretending otherwise is a bad-faith lie or an inability to recognize reality.

[_DeadFred_]

Spouting this bs to create indifference lost us the right to chose, made the LGBTQ+ community unsafe, ruined the lives of what hundred of thousands of immigrants to the country, killed USAID, caused many to loose their affordable healthcare plans. Gutted the voter rights act and lost Black representing voting districts in the south just this month. Destroyed our research institutions. Destroyed our public health institutions. Gutted our government oversite of industry such as the FDA.

But yeah, sure. If you aren't female, LGBTQ+, Black, an immigrant, a scientist, someone who needs medical care, someone who eats food, or someone conducting research, they might seem the same.