Politico: This is the new progressive Democrats strategy for warring with Trump

[Morrison71]

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/25/progressives-against-trump-00191392

Progressive Democrats wrestling with how to navigate a second Donald Trump presidency are settling on a new approach: Take his populist, working-class proposals at his word — or at least pretend to.

If he succeeds, they can take some credit for bringing him to the table. If he doesn't, they can bash him for it.
It's a change in strategy, emerging in private conversations among some liberal elected officials and operatives, that comes after years of resisting Trump ended with him returning to the White House.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in an interview that she would likely work with Trump if he pursues antitrust promises he made on the campaign trail. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said he sees himself partnering with Trump to tackle "large corporate consolidations," while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) posted on X that he "looked forward" to Trump "fulfilling his promise" to cap credit card interest rates.

Even Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the resistance icon who popularized the motto "nevertheless, she persisted" while skewering a Trump cabinet pick in 2017, is finding common cause with the president-elect.

"President Trump announced during his campaign that he intended to put a 10 percent interest rate cap on consumer credit," Warren told POLITICO. "Bring it on."

But, she added, "if he refuses to follow through on the campaign promises that would help working people, then he should be held accountable."

An aide to a progressive member of Congress, who was granted anonymity to discuss internal strategy, stated the obvious: Liberal Democrats will continue to oppose most of what Trump does "tooth and nail."

However, the person said, "For the few policy proposals that we think will help the working class, capping credit card interest rates being one of them, we'll say, 'Put up or shut up.' Because if he does, it's a great win for millions of people across this country. And if he doesn't, it exposes him as a fraud that he is."

Some of Trump's populist campaign promises fall in line with progressives' own aspirations. Those include making in vitro fertilization treatments free, ending taxes on tips and capping credit card interest rates. He has also promised for years to protect the popular programs of Social Security and Medicare. At times, he has promoted directing Medicare to negotiate drug prices.

 

[Morrison71]

Personally, I wish they would focus on Democratic voters and not Republicans/Centrists.

They don’t give a damn about the Democratic Party and centrists just vote on vibes. (Pretty much like everyone apparently).

 

[RicoSuave102954]

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/25/progressives-against-trump-00191392

Progressive Democrats wrestling with how to navigate a second Donald Trump presidency are settling on a new approach: Take his populist, working-class proposals at his word — or at least pretend to.

If he succeeds, they can take some credit for bringing him to the table. If he doesn't, they can bash him for it.
It's a change in strategy, emerging in private conversations among some liberal elected officials and operatives, that comes after years of resisting Trump ended with him returning to the White House.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in an interview that she would likely work with Trump if he pursues antitrust promises he made on the campaign trail. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said he sees himself partnering with Trump to tackle "large corporate consolidations," while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) posted on X that he "looked forward" to Trump "fulfilling his promise" to cap credit card interest rates.

Even Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the resistance icon who popularized the motto "nevertheless, she persisted" while skewering a Trump cabinet pick in 2017, is finding common cause with the president-elect.

"President Trump announced during his campaign that he intended to put a 10 percent interest rate cap on consumer credit," Warren told POLITICO. "Bring it on."

But, she added, "if he refuses to follow through on the campaign promises that would help working people, then he should be held accountable."

An aide to a progressive member of Congress, who was granted anonymity to discuss internal strategy, stated the obvious: Liberal Democrats will continue to oppose most of what Trump does "tooth and nail."

However, the person said, "For the few policy proposals that we think will help the working class, capping credit card interest rates being one of them, we'll say, 'Put up or shut up.' Because if he does, it's a great win for millions of people across this country. And if he doesn't, it exposes him as a fraud that he is."

Some of Trump's populist campaign promises fall in line with progressives' own aspirations. Those include making in vitro fertilization treatments free, ending taxes on tips and capping credit card interest rates. He has also promised for years to protect the popular programs of Social Security and Medicare. At times, he has promoted directing Medicare to negotiate drug prices.

LOL - IIRC it was Harris who was backing away from liberal policies in order to curry favor with voters. Trump will stick to working on his agenda items and whatever else he promised during the campaign might have to wait.

Speaking of waiting, time is running out on Bidens campaign promise to cure CANCER.

 

[ItsinourDNA]

I'm starting to think progressive democrat leaders are just plain bad at strategy period. It seems like a good portion of democrats are actively sabotaging the party from within.

 

[Morrison71]

I'm starting to think progressive democrat leaders are just plain bad at strategy period. It seems like a good portion of democrats are actively sabotaging the party from within.

The Dems have a harder problem than Republicans right out of the gate. They are a much bigger tent party.

They have to answer to a much more diverse voting audience.

Republicans are republicans and aren’t going to change. As you can see by the popular vote of the last two Presidential elections.

Throw in Republicans are brainwashed by right wing media, and it’s not surprising to see what happened.

But yes, The Democratic Party has to step up. They are definitely slacking and suck.

 

[BioHawk]

I don't think they are pretending. If he actually follows through with those commitments I think they will work with him. He will get something for them, for sure, but if he actually does those things then that is actually how governing is supposed to work. After losing large portions of the demographics they thought they were protecting, of course they are going to change their approach. They have to.

 

[hawkeyetraveler]

Personally, I wish they would focus on Democratic voters and not Republicans/Centrists.

They don’t give a damn about the Democratic Party and centrists just vote on vibes. (Pretty much like everyone apparently).

I think the right answer is EXACTLY opposite on this one. There aren’t enough progressives to overcome the coalition of socially conservative voters Trump compiled. The centrists were the Dems to lose and they managed to lose them. The issue isn’t that centrists vote on vibes, the issue is that the Dems don’t know how to talk to centrists (or disaffected voters of all stripes for that matter) and their policies do not resonate with them.

If Trump’s win drives the party further to the left then it will become an increasingly narrow slice of the electorate. The Dems need to wake up and pivot to the center.

 

[win1forthe]

I like how they now want to hold him accountable, ugh. He had a long list of unfulfilled promises his first four years, and I think Dems just assumed that everyone knew that because they never made that a significant issue.

 

[hawkeyetraveler]

I like how they now want to hold him accountable, ugh. He had a long list of unfulfilled promises his first four years, and I think Dems just assumed that everyone knew that because they never made that a significant issue.

I’m going to be a broken record on this: The Dems and left wing media keep reacting to every crazy thing he does or says. The media and dem pundits will spend two days in an apoplectic rage each time he spews insanity (e.g. “person woman man camera TV). Whether or not this is a deliberate strategy on Trump’s part, the result is the same…these are red herrings. These small moments of craziness don’t matter to the casual voter. But what they do is distract from the issues that actually matter.

The Dems need to stop reacting to everything, blow off the stupidity and double down on the key issues where it is obvious Trump will fail. Make the next two years a simple drumbeat with simple messages that Trump’s tariffs will cause inflation. Then when inflation happens the electorate is primed to assign blame to the person who caused it.

 

[win1forthe]

I’m going to be a broken record on this: The Dems and left wing media keep reacting to every crazy thing he does or says. The media and dem pundits will spend two days in an apoplectic rage each time he spews insanity (e.g. “person woman man camera TV). Whether or not this is a deliberate strategy on Trump’s part, the result is the same…these are red herrings. These small moments of craziness don’t matter to the casual voter. But what they do is distract from the issues that actually matter.

The Dems need to stop reacting to everything, blow off the stupidity and double down on the key issues where it is obvious Trump will fail. Make the next two years a simple drumbeat with simple messages that Trump’s tariffs will cause inflation. Then when inflation happens the electorate is primed to assign blame to the person who caused it.

I agree that too many get caught up in the minutiae, and he knows that, it’s a strategy that works for them. Of course there should be blame, but too many fall into the 24 hour news cycle, and it’s probably shorter than that now. I just found the line about the dems want to hold him accountable odd, because they had eight years to do that and didn’t.

 

[IAFB2021Champs]

The Democratic Party. The party that cares about everyone unless they lose. Fvck everyone when they don’t win.

 

[binsfeldcyhawk2]

It's a conundrum for D's. "Progressives" are pretty much the D base and also a reason they lost. It'll be interesting to see how they thread the needle moving forward.

 

[Titanhawk2]

"If he succeeds, they can take some credit for bringing him to the table." - Yes, let's just continue to be dishonest with everybody, because that's who they are

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/25/progressives-against-trump-00191392

Progressive Democrats wrestling with how to navigate a second Donald Trump presidency are settling on a new approach: Take his populist, working-class proposals at his word — or at least pretend to.

If he succeeds, they can take some credit for bringing him to the table. If he doesn't, they can bash him for it.
It's a change in strategy, emerging in private conversations among some liberal elected officials and operatives, that comes after years of resisting Trump ended with him returning to the White House.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in an interview that she would likely work with Trump if he pursues antitrust promises he made on the campaign trail. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said he sees himself partnering with Trump to tackle "large corporate consolidations," while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) posted on X that he "looked forward" to Trump "fulfilling his promise" to cap credit card interest rates.

Even Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the resistance icon who popularized the motto "nevertheless, she persisted" while skewering a Trump cabinet pick in 2017, is finding common cause with the president-elect.

"President Trump announced during his campaign that he intended to put a 10 percent interest rate cap on consumer credit," Warren told POLITICO. "Bring it on."

But, she added, "if he refuses to follow through on the campaign promises that would help working people, then he should be held accountable."

An aide to a progressive member of Congress, who was granted anonymity to discuss internal strategy, stated the obvious: Liberal Democrats will continue to oppose most of what Trump does "tooth and nail."

However, the person said, "For the few policy proposals that we think will help the working class, capping credit card interest rates being one of them, we'll say, 'Put up or shut up.' Because if he does, it's a great win for millions of people across this country. And if he doesn't, it exposes him as a fraud that he is."

Some of Trump's populist campaign promises fall in line with progressives' own aspirations. Those include making in vitro fertilization treatments free, ending taxes on tips and capping credit card interest rates. He has also promised for years to protect the popular programs of Social Security and Medicare. At times, he has promoted directing Medicare to negotiate drug prices.

It's an acceptable strategy as a first step. But it really only touches on a few issues. And I suspect most of those quoted don't actually expect Trump to try to deliver on those few issues.

The most notable thing, though, is how different it is from the McConnell and Trump strategies. Most will recall that McConnell dedicated his majorityship and his party to making sure Obama and Biden failed. Ditto with Trump as, for example, when he got the Rs in Congress to scuttle the immigration bill that would otherwise have passed with ease as a bipartisan triumph.

Don't get me wrong. Dems aren't going to give Trump and the Rs all they want without a fight. But unlike Trump and the Rs, they are willing to support what's good for the nation - not just what's good for the party and the big donors.

The drawback, of course, is if Trump does pursue these good-for-the-people changes, they will make the Rs more popular in future elections.

 

[Rifler]

It's a conundrum for D's. "Progressives" are pretty much the D base and also a reason they lost. It'll be interesting to see how they thread the needle moving forward.

They'll eventually have to cut ties with the extreme progressives, and that will be painful...

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

"Progressives" are pretty much the D base and also a reason they lost.

Not even close.

 

[fredjr82]

I'm at the point where Americans need to feel some pain for their decisions. Real pain. Hopefully that will help align them back to their interests. Bring on the

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

They'll eventually have to cut ties with the extreme progressives, and that will be painful...

If they do, maybe a lefty/green/democratic socialist 3rd party will finally replace either the Ds or Rs.

We don't need 2 corporate, neocon, neoliberal parties. This election should have made it clear that that's all we have at the moment.

 

[RonaldMexico]

Personally, I wish they would focus on Democratic voters and not Republicans/Centrists.

Just curious, what specifically does this look like?

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

I'm at the point where Americans need to feel some pain for their decisions. Real pain. Hopefully that will help align them back to their interests. Bring on the

My worry is that while we're getting a dose of pain sufficient to bring people to their senses, Trump and the oligarchs will wreak so much damage to democracy and the planet that we won't recover.

During the cold war build up of nuclear arsenals, Einstein reportedly said something to the effect that the war after WWIII would be fought with sticks and stones.

I fear that could be a metaphor for American politics after Trump.

 

[fredjr82]

My worry is that while we're getting a dose of pain sufficient to bring people to their senses, Trump and the oligarchs will wreak so much damage to democracy and the planet that we won't recover.

During the cold war build up of nuclear arsenals, Einstein reportedly said something to the effect that the war after WWIII would be fought with sticks and stones.

I fear that could be a metaphor for American politics after Trump.

He already killed 1.2 million folks with the COVID response. Maybe another million will wake some of them up? I just hope it's not anyone in my family. Those who voted for this should feel it. Unfortunately that's not how it works.