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Richard Murphree's avatar

I get that Shumer didn't just bring a knife to a gun fight; he brought a pair of nail clippers. He, Jefferies, and the rest of the Dem leadership are pathetic. Take a page from Donald's play book--Deny, Delay, Deflect. Boycott committee meetings so there is no quorum. Offer hundreds of amendments to bog down the process. And file lawsuits in every court in the country. Instead of throwing money at races in Red states hire investigators to dig up dirt on every member of Trump's cabinet and the GOP leadership. Then throw that dirt everywhere all the time.

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Randy Baker's avatar

This!

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Him's avatar

That’s not governance. That’s 12 year old pique.

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GS-z-14-1's avatar

Democrats were never about waging political struggle.

Democrats were always about mollifying some of Capitalism’s worst abuses and thereby making Capitalism more resilient.

Democrats chloroform genuine political struggle because:

1] Having no program of their own, they must adopt either the policies of the Top 1%, or of the 90%, and

2] As the Next 9% after the Top 1%, their own wealth and prestige is based on that of the Top 1%.

Conclusion: the working class — which is the 90% — must break permanently with the Next 9% Democrats and force their own program directly into the stream of political events.

The working class is the only force on earth which can do this.

Needed is a party with the political perspective of socialism, to conduct the strikes and struggles.

Find it at wsws.org and read it every day for this perspective.

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DiBasio Darcie's avatar

Yes, they're worse than GOP in a way. That's because they aren't opposition, they're enablers that keep the people divided so we have a hard time coming together to opposed oligarchy. The "Dems" have done exactly as the GOP, with minor diffs to keep people divided. But they knew about the 50 year plan and have been gained from it themselves: why would they want a democracy?

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GS-z-14-1's avatar

There is a growing recognition among workers and students that the Democratic party will not fight against Trump and the danger of Fascism and War. Many people are beginning to draw the correct conclusion that the Democrats are empowering Trump and the fascist gang.

It falls to the working class to develop a movement with a conscious Marxist understanding of the crisis of capitalism and the tasks of the working class to take power.

Please read carefully David North’s opening report to the Mayday rally:

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/05/05/fzuj-m05.html

Some questions for guided reading:

General Understanding:

What is the central theme of David North’s May Day 2025 speech?

What are the major threats facing the world in 2025?

What does David North mean by “fictitious capital”? How does it relate to the US economy?

Specific Issues and Arguments:

What examples does North give of the erosion of democratic rights and freedoms around the world?

What is North’s position on the conflict in Gaza and the actions of Israel and other imperialist powers?

What is the situation described concerning migrants and concentration camps?

How does North compare the current political climate to the period leading up to World War II?

How does North describe the Trump administration’s policies and actions, both domestically and internationally?

What are the economic contradictions of capitalism that North identifies as leading to war and fascism?

What does North say about the growing social inequality and the wealth of the oligarchy?

What is North’s critique of nationalism, and what does he advocate instead?

What is the role of the working class in North’s analysis, and what does he see as their potential power?

How does North view the impact of technological advancements like artificial intelligence on the class struggle?

Critical Thinking:

How does North use historical analogies to support his arguments?

Are these analogies effective?

What evidence does North provide to support his claims about the current political and economic situation? Is it convincing?

How does North’s Marxist perspective shape his analysis of current events?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of North’s proposed solutions to the problems he identifies?

How does the speech connect the issues of fascism, war, and socialism?

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DiBasio Darcie's avatar

I don't see wws doing much either, and don't care to read their stuff. I certainly wouldn't STUDY it and answer student questions! I've been in this movement against oligarchy since 1968.

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Dirk Burhans | Obi-two Kenobi's avatar

Well said. I can tell you that identity politics will never do it.

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GS-z-14-1's avatar

Identity politics for the benefit of a thin sliver of privileged minorities is served up and ambitiously marketed under the false label of a robust ‘progressive’ response to a fascistic assault on the social and democratic rights of the working class.

People who promote identity politics are opposed resolutely to any principled, sustained struggle against fascist.

Identity politics is a very ‘safe’ program that leaves corporate profits and governance essentially untouched.

Following the electoral disaster of ‘24, the reformist ‘identity’ politics people could do nothing better than to accuse great swathes of the working class they spurned as ‘racists.’

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Dirk Burhans | Obi-two Kenobi's avatar

Couldn't have said it better myself.

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Robin Liberte’'s avatar

The Democrats are feeding from the same financial funding trough as the Republicans. How can you take money from the rich and powerful (i.e., Corporations and Oligarchs) and run on a platform that taxes the rich and houses the poor? Your financial support will dry up very quickly. The SCOTUS broke our Democracy with the passage of Citizens United in 2010 and it's been dissolving ever since.

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Jacqueline Church's avatar

While I don’t disagree with much of your take, outrage at status quo is exhausting without inspiration and alternatives. What is your recommendation for a way forward? In my view, the best I can do is to work locally to build community and act to support local efforts. Drinking from the firehose is not A

Strategy.

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Cindy Madrid's avatar

It is hardtop build community when Blue MAGA attacks anyone that stays from the Astroturf party line.

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John Edward Cochran's avatar

The suggestion is that the Democratic Party should become a mirror image of the GOP. From my perspective, this would result in civil war. Democratic leadership is trying to gain control through democratic action. The majority does not support the regime. We need to get them to speak up and be heard. That would drown out the minority MAGA forces, and we could take back what is left of our country at the ballot box.

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America's Undoing's avatar

Look, I'm not saying Dems should become MAGA. I'm saying they already became Republican-lite on economics years ago, just keeping social issues to show a difference.

The problem isn't about "democratic action" vs. whatever - it's that Dems aren't offering any real alternative. They just want to go back to "normal" without admitting normal was already broken for most people.

What's the actual vision here? What are we building? When leadership talks about wanting "a strong Republican Party," that shows they fundamentally don't get it.

Our so-called democracy is already rigged with gerrymandering, voter suppression, and a primary system designed to protect incumbents. People know this. They're not stupid.

You can't just say "vote harder" without giving people something worth voting FOR. That's my whole point.

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Cindy May's avatar

I agree that peeling off disillusioned MAGA to come to our side should be the immediate goal for Dems. That happens at the local level. We all have a roll in building community. We are stuck with the current crop of Dems in Congress. Call yours and make your opinions known.

Longer term, Dems need contest every single elected position. The Dem party has committed to sending much more funding to every state, to grow the "bench", starting with school boards, county councils, etc. Check out runforsomething.org

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Penny's avatar

Isn't that exactly what they tried to do in the most recent election, by embracing Liz Cheney of all people? Do you really think that that is the path to success, given that it failed so spectacularly 6 months ago?

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Cindy May's avatar

I don’t mean turning the Dem party into Republican Lite. I think a lot of people who voted for Trump are realizing they made a big mistake. Right now, we need to try to get some of them to join us in fighting the Trump regime.

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TJF's avatar

This isn't a new phenomena, this has been going on for decades. I believe that it started in earnest as far back as Newt Gingrich in 1994 and the Contract with America. You could make a strong argument that it started with Reagan. It's all been done in the open and without any meaningful opposition from the Democratic Party. Instead, the democrats derided the Sanders campaign in 2016 to push for their chosen candidate. The result was that they lost to Trump the first time. Then in 2024 campaign, Biden, suffering from obvious dementia, was encouraged to stay in the race eliminating the ability for Democrats to hold primaries to bring out a candidate that met the day. Instead they hand picked, again, their candidate. Lost again. Now, leadership like Schumer and to a lesser degree, Jeffries, as noted in this article, remain ignorant to what's required to meet the MAGA threat head on. I'm not hopeful that the Democratic Party can or will stem this tide. Unfortunately, and I've said this for years, certainly since the Biden won and nothing meaningful was done about the MAGA threat, or the sacking of the Nations Capital, that the only way out of this involves pain, suffering and undoubtedly, violence.

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Michael Humphreys's avatar

“2026 is right around the corner. Democrats and independents across the country need to step up, wrestle control away from this incompetent, failed leadership, and rebuild a party with real vision, actual courage, and a little sanity for a change.” So who are the “New Leaders” you see? As an unaffiliated voter (desperately disappointed by the DNC since 2016) I feel that there is no single “Opposition” figure or organisation to get behind - I think if we have to wait till just 2026 we will have decades of damage to the USA by then🥲

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Dave LaPointe's avatar

Very well said, Corbin. The Dems have lacked any sense of balls, cohesion or clear message for decades. At the same time the Right has daily talking points to fuel their propaganda machine and our current administration is proof that any message works over time.

In 2025 it's disheartening that those in power who claim to have the best interest of the general populace at heart still think a letter is somehow effective. I'm sure there was a big show of the whole thing too with formal couriers and the like. Chuck was probably so proud when one of his unpaid interns finished typing it out on the govt issued Olympia...

My feeling is that Schumer and his ilk are simply hoping Trump implodes at some point and they can claim a victory for doing nothing. Literally nothing.

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America's Undoing's avatar

That seems to be the strategy. Wait it out. Expect the voters to come crawling back.

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GS-z-14-1's avatar

That was the social democrat line in the ‘30s. It was ‘after Hitler … us.’

Did that work out well or what!

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Nurse Downy's avatar

Here’s a hot take: they aren’t incompetent. They didn’t treat rules as sacred. They didn’t, not for one second, believe the parliamentarian had any power they couldn’t overcome, but the rubes bought it, so it was a win.

They utilize excuses to do the will of their big $ funders. The helpless ploy is nothing more than what they think are excuses that will fool the voting base, who they need the votes of, despite fully understanding that they work for the wealthy elites they spend the majority of their time dialing for dollars.

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Mark Hubert's avatar

Wall Street gets the lap dogs it pays for.

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Mick's avatar

Never succumbed to 'party' prejudices. Because of prejudice. Zero-sum 'games' are what no other animal on the planet plays. You win some inept, rigged and sleazy vote, you get to do whatever you want. Winner takes all. The Constitution NEVER noticed this? Sure it did. Right then and there, it lost all true credibility.

The social structure of humans has never changed. Battles for top dog, which do not guarantee any intelligence or greatness or wisdom or present/future security for the family, always end up with confusion and misery for most and certain demise at the top. Once failed, it is wash, rinse, repeat. This is the boorish playoff between 'liberal' and 'conservative.'

This weakness from both caricatures is what has driven humans into the vortex of extinction. One dog leads, with virtually no real idea whatsoever it is doing, and all the pups and mothers follow? Because of some ferocity, some reptile brain paranoia that demands, yes demands, that Id-driven fears be assuaged with nor-epinephrine addiction outcomes? Barf.

Look at the millennia of ornamentation and costuming that surrounds human pecking orders. Golden toilets, stairways, self-portraits, papal robes, yachts bigger than aircraft carriers, aircraft carriers bigger than airports, cathedrals bigger than mountains. We simply cannot see our species for what it is - delusion parading as gods. Gods never have been here, they would not waste their precious time on such pathos.

This commentary by Trent is not going to go anywhere except back into the wash, rinse, repeat cycle. It assumes that just more soap will clean up the mess, or a bigger and better machine will make us all clean and sanitary and shiny.

'murka is now being eaten by the parasites it has fostered for two centuries. We have returned to rule by the Articles of Confederation, which quickly turned all against each other. Only slaves did any real work, and Natives refused to work, choosing to die instead. Every 'murkan is now circling its wagons, if they have any wagons, which only a few do. The society is economic slavery, medical slavery, drug slavery, zero-sum sports/politics/beauty pageant/mass consumption slavery.

This is why Marx, with all his faults, and Rousseau, with too few, both eschewed 'ownership' of anything beyond what you could hang on your body. 'murka is all about possession - enslavement. You want to survive this trainwreck? Look into a clear, calm lake and see what surrounds you. Revere THAT. Be kind and intelligent with that. Perfect that. Protect that. Value that. Share that.

Eschew all politics, period. All of it is caricature, artifact, fake, delusional, dangerous, parasitic.

Find something real to love that you cannot ever own or control. Fight for that.

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America's Undoing's avatar

I understand your philosophical view that the entire political system is beyond repair. And maybe you're right - maybe all of this is ultimately futile.

But I'd rather go down trying to change things than surrender to despair. History is filled with moments when collective action created meaningful change, even against overwhelming odds.

The alternative - abandoning the political sphere entirely - just leaves the field open to those who will happily continue exploiting it. I'm not willing to do that, even if the fight is uphill.

I respect your choice to focus on what you find meaningful outside politics. We all have to find our own way to make sense of these times.

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Peace elf's avatar

This is why we need a new Constitution. Democrats can evade the rules, have even broken some of therules and norms, like when Hillary was claiming she didn't lose the election in 2016. W Bush damaged many rules with his Patriot Act. Trump latches onto those norm breaks and turns them into wild eyed acid trips. My point is this, if we can't follow the old rules, better make some new ones, ones that are fair and represent EVERYONE, because without rules, well, there's Trump making the new ones.

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Cindy May's avatar

This is what Trump wants to do... throw out the Constitution and rewrite it to make himself king. Republicans have almost enough states on board to force a new Constitutional Congress. They are in power in more states, so they want to implement their White Christian Nationalist regime nationwide. With a Constitutional Congress, I think they would be able to do it.

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Peace elf's avatar

It's actually the corporate masters who want a new Constitution. That is why we must stop them through grassroots organizing. I have said nothing short of a general strike, mass boycotts and grassroots organizing can stop them. They have no power when we do not give them our money or our labor.

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GS-z-14-1's avatar

You need a new Constitution because the United States Republic has fallen.

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James Flanagan's avatar

Exactly right. I feel for the Democrats but it was intervention-time decades ago. They're stuck in a political marriage with a drunken, abusive and mentally ill spouse and, however hard it is, at some point you call the law. You get a restraining order. You jail the fuckers if it comes to that.

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Jil Swearingen's avatar

Not to fight for their ideas or to pursue supermajorities that could transform the country. Instead, they talk about wanting "a strong Republican Party that America can be proud of." What the hell does that even mean? -- Did you mean Democratic Party here?

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NakedFear's avatar

Do you really think we will make it to November 2026?

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America's Undoing's avatar

We're sure acting like we expect to.

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Him's avatar

We made it through 1861, we will make it through this. America, and its political structure renewed its pre-1861 plantation nation status starting with Nixon’s China policy, and the Reagan years outsourcing of American labor and production—totally supported as a bipartisan policy—, but now China, is saying and acting like it doesn’t want to be the proxy plantation nation any more—-it’s a Birds Eye View I know, but pretty accurate I think.

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Marg KJ's avatar

You write a strong statement but I dislike your premise. God that be sounds terrible, yes weak

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Marg KJ's avatar

Sorry I didn’t finish and I’m on muscle relaxers so I’m out of it.

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Marg KJ's avatar

But I really don’t want to be like them. They are criminals, bully’s. Not very nice.

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Tom High's avatar

It’s not about being like them; it’s about fighting with relentless tenacity like they do.

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Him's avatar

The Republican Party is a minority party nationwide. It is fighting against change. That’s the problem. Trying to hold on against a majority is always a losing battle unless the majority can be divided, commodified, classified, and criminalized. That’s the real fear, isn’t it? That “political” option is now being seen by the majority as a ruse to keep power in the hands of a few, instead of in a democratic majority.

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Tom High's avatar

The Democratic Party is a minority party nationwide. It is, at least the establishment and those under corporate control, i.e. most elected members on the federal level, fighting against change.

Both parties #s are dwarfed by independents and the #s of eligible voters who have bailed on voting altogether.

No politics but class politics. The party that understands this, and practices it, with the according policy Rx, will build a voting coalition that will dominate for decades. At present, neither party is willing, because that would piss off the monied interest donors, corporate and private, that control the electoral process.

And we continue to circle the drain.

Both parties’ mendacious and gutless response to the Israeli genocide in Gaza and the feckless fealty to the Israeli lobby tells you all you need to know about the pervasive rot that permeates our system of government.

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