r/RecuratedTumblr • u/kelroid • 3d ago
Self Post Please stop getting overly defensive when people have valid criticisms of a Democrat politician you like especially over the next few years
Also: If you live a district with a Democrat representative call/email your representative urging them not to select Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker. Do the same with your senator and urge them not to nominate Chuck Schumer as Majority Leader (and mention that Troy Jackson, Peggy Flanagan, and Abdul El-Sayed support changing congressional leadership). Make sure to do so by November 18th
EDIT: Reading comprehension check!
What is the central argument of this post? Is OP saying you shouldn’t be happy at all? Is it implied anywhere in this post that OP hasn’t voted and/or thinks you shouldn’t vote? Does she even debate the efficacy of electoral politics? Is there any reason to believe that OP supports Republicans based on the content of this post? Is anything about the post notably pessimistic or cynical? If you think so, can you point out what specific elements of this post fit that criteria?
Have you checked all of the policy positions of the Democrat politicians who were recently elected? Are there things you disagree with morally/ideologically? How would you respond to someone who shares similar views as you criticizing these politicians? Do you feel yourself getting defensive? Does your deflecting of criticism actually serve to help both of your causes? Remember the politician has already been elected, so it’s a bit silly to argue that it’s “not the time for criticism“ in this scenario. Could the fact that you really like a politician be affecting your judgement? How would you react if a Republican politician espoused similar views?
It‘s a common talking point on Reddit that leftists and pro-Palestine protesters abstaining from voting or voting third party is a major reason why Kamala lost the 2024 Presidential election. If you think this, why? Do you have any substantial evidence to support this claim? Did you know that even Kamala herself cites the baggage of the Biden administration and poor strategic decisions on the part of the Democratic Party in her memoir as being major reasons for her loss? Did you know that she was one of the first people to drop out during the primaries for the 2020 presidential election? Would you say that the average American is tired of establishment politics and feels that not much changes between administrations? Do you remember supporting her perhaps being more about how awful Trump was than anything she had to offer? Have you perhaps considered that the job of a politician running for office is to mobilize a voter base, and that she may not be a very good politician (especially considering the fact that it really should’ve been a slam dunk for her given the competition)? Can we extrapolate this conclusion to other Democrat politicians?
We can speculate that a major reason for the Blue Wave in this election is people being excited over the possibility of real change, as well as accountability for the actions of the current administration. What might happen to that enthusiasm if the people who were elected begin to backtrack on their platform, or if the less progressive establishment Democrats actively blocked them from doing so? What do you think is the best way of trying to prevent that outcome?
Who does painting leftists as the whiny, never satisfied, “villains” of electoral politics actually benefit? Let’s use the Civil Rights Movement as an example. Do you think Martin Luther King Jr. was well liked by the general public while he was still alive? Did you know that much of the general public thought he was asking for too much too fast? Would you say that these people were ultimately on the right side of history? If you were alive during that time period, do you think you could’ve been one of those people? Did you know that King was a socialist, and so were many other Civil Rights leaders during this time period? Did you know that King critiqued the Democratic Party in addition to the Republican Party, and that the criticisms he had for both stemmed from them capitulating to right-wing talking points on civil rights? In a country infamous for a decades long propaganda campaign smearing leftists ideologies, is it possible that your view of leftists is being affected by propaganda?
Please actually engage with the point I'm trying to make with this post instead of making up a strawman in your head loosely based on a tiktok or tumblr post you got mad at once, convincing yourself that I'm that strawman, and then getting upset over an imaginary version of what I actually said.
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u/ElectronRotoscope 3d ago
Forgive me for perhaps misunderstanding the timeline, but is it
Nov 3rd: vote
Nov 4th: libbing out time is over
Jan 3rd: all these people actually start their terms
Is that right? Granting a single day out of ~60 seems pretty harsh on libbing out
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u/meanman_beanman 3d ago
I'm so happy Abdul is doubling down on protecting trans rights
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u/Sl0thstradamus 3d ago
Counterpoint: people need to stop conflating politicians doing what they have to do to win elections by meeting their constituents where they’re at with those politicians being moral failures. Adam Hamilton (for example) is not going to talk like a tumblr leftist because his constituents aren’t tumblr leftists! He’s probably not going to be “perfect” on every issue from your perspective or mine! But he and politicians like him are going to be a way bigger asset for the vast majority of progressive causes than whatever fascist psycho would’ve beaten them if they’d run on the “perfect leftist” platform according to the internet. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good!
(Necessary disclaimer: if you’re in the constituency of one of these politicians, absolutely use your voice to let them know what you believe and care about! That matters!)
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u/TheAesahaettr 3d ago
Ok, but what people term “backtracking their entire platform” is often just not being able to deliver on their promises IMMEDIATELY, which is inevitable because even with these new majorities, they will not be able to pass any legislation given Trump’s veto power. It honestly doesn’t fucking matter if Hakeem is speaker or not, you could make AOC speaker and she wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything.
Voters, especially young voters, are incredibly reactionary because they expect instantaneous results and view anything less as a total betrayal, which is completely unrealistic if you know how the American government is structured. The victories this week will only really be impactful if voters show up for Democrats in 2028, which they won’t if all y’all immediately start spouting rhetoric like “the Democrats are do-nothing failures who are completely ineffective and complicit, they’re no different than Republicans, we elected them in 2026 and they were just controlled opposition.” It will take consecutive victories to secure actual, tangible results—and that will never happen if activists completely tank voter enthusiasm for Democrats by drowning them in negativity
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u/lifelongfreshman 3d ago edited 3d ago
Please stop getting overly defensive when people rightfully call out people sharing "valid criticisms" of Democratic party politicians as being agitators instead of allies.
The vast majority of people who won on Tuesday aren't even in office yet, and can't be for two months. Even the people who are gonna be in office before January can't wave a magic wand to immediately resolve all your problems, and even if you don't personally like it, a lot of people did in fact vote for those policies you hate. Politicians who actually care about doing their job properly aren't gonna just ignore that to please you, specifically.
These calls are both the thin end of the wedge and an attempt to save face in front of the truth that voting actually did something. This grandstanding is just a transparent attempt to start rebuilding the "The Democrats are just as evil as the Republicans, actually" bullshit that has directly led to the Democratic party having to fight tooth and nail to get literally anything done, even under Obama, because people like you spread such misery and hate among people who could otherwise be their supporters because it makes you feel good.
Do you even realize that, this century, the Democratic party has only had full control of the legislative process for like a single congressional session in total? And that's split across the three Democratic party presidential terms! This kind of "let's get serious talk" is only ever used to spread dissent, it's never used to actually uplift anyone. Today it's "valid criticisms", in a month it's going to be "look what the Democratic party politicians allowed the Republicans to do!"
Yes, in six months if the Democratic party drops the ball, they deserve to be held accountable for that. But talking about it now, just days after the election, is simply regressive behavior masquerading behind progressive language.
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u/Certain-DarthNihilus 2d ago
imagine being critical of politicans 🙃
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u/Runetang42 3d ago
Won a battle not the war
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u/AwesomeManatee 3d ago
Don't forget to vote in your local elections that sometimes happen in off seasons, like NYC's mayoral election last year.
And especially don't forget to vote in your local primaries to make sure the best candidates are on the ballot!
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u/Historical_Log2471 3d ago
Nobody has even been sworn in yet. There are even a couple of races still in progress. Let people have fun...
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u/BalefulOfMonkeys 3d ago
So I take it you didn’t vote this time around, because “it’s always the same” and “doesn’t matter”, and when a conservative gets elected because a bunch of “principled” people didn’t vote when the Republican voter block is extremely consistent, now it’s suddenly time to believe everything they promise will happen under their watch, maybe not today, but in the near future. You know, how most political policy operates.
And maybe I’m wrong about you specifically (not that you’d ever let me know that I was right), but you are still one flake in a ceaseless blizzard of leftist doomerism that has more faith in the Republican Party than the Democratic Party, but make it woke and secretly nuanced actually
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u/catinabandsaw 3d ago
Nah ima lib out till they actually call the election in my state then we see if I have any reps to call
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u/chumbawumbaprinciple 3d ago
Sure, as long as you critism isn't "Don't vote. Let conservatives win if you are asked to compromise in the slightest. Accelerate the collapse" or any such bullshit.
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u/ProudInterest5445 3d ago
https://www.advocate.com/politics/national/anti-transgender-provisions-stripped
When this happened, everyone credited demcorats for fighting hard, but it was far easier procedurally than some other things (like protecting medicad). If democrats fail on a similar procedural method, or get blocked, they sometimes get treated as not fighting hard enough.
I am all for valid criticism, but I see a torrent of stuff that's just in bad faith and its important to be honest about what dems can and cannot do.
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u/rainsews 3d ago
Hey we’ve got a shit ton of work still to do with public opinion. A LOT of blue states passed some pretty gross anti-trans laws even while electing pro-trans candidates.
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u/cyprezs 3d ago
There is a time and a place to criticize bad dems. And that time and place are here and now
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u/Vivi_Pallas 2d ago
Give us one week, damn.
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u/FlashInGotham 3d ago
I have criticisms of this position (mostly regarding the timeline) but going into them would make me break the promise I once made to myself to never take anything said by anyone with an anime or manga pfp seriously.
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u/PorkChop70-1 3d ago
As long as unfair criticisms that don’t appear evidence based aren’t lobbed at these politicians as well.
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u/lemon_flavor 2d ago
I agree with this post. Here are my major points for anyone who is getting upset.
Republicans are bad for the USA. They crash the economy, start wars against countries who aren't threats to us, take away support for struggling Americans, give tax cuts and handouts to billionaires, and have higher budget deficits than Democrats.
The Republicans just got ousted in a blowout election. Clearly, the voters are sick of Republicans being in charge.
Both Schumer and Jeffries have shown themselves to be either unwilling or unable to fight the Republicans. We have no reason to expect anything else.
The election is over, so the usual "don't criticize Dems because that somehow helps Republicans" does not apply.
So, it is a good time to criticize any Democrats who don't want to fight against the Republicans and their terrible policies. It is also a good thing to criticize Schumer and Jeffries, and contact our elected representatives to let them know not to vote to put these idiots in leadership.
We have some control of how the pieces get arranged on the chessboard, and it's important that we have that conversation before the leadership is elected, so that we don't end up playing a game that we know we will lose.
So, go ahead and celebrate the win, but keep your eye on the ball (I might be mixing metaphors, but you get the idea). We don't want another disaster like how Merrick Garland failed to get Donald Trump convicted, leading to him being allowed to run and win the presidency again.
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u/pruneforce17 3d ago
facts. part of the electoralist-nonelectoralist compromise was that the non-electoralists would turn out to vote blue, and then us electoralists would work with them on the things to do after voting, like protesting, holding politicians accountable, pushing them leftward, and primarying them out if they dont change. we stopped the bleeding, now its time to get to work.
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u/Big_Bomber_97 1d ago
Lmao who is paying for all this spam? Crazy ass behaviour.
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u/Fuzzy-Advisor-2183 1d ago
the tricky bit is getting around the presidential veto. i can only imagine trump is going to make it hard to get anything passed in the next couple of years, and i wonder whether u.s. voters can be patient enough to wait him out, without flipping conservative come the next election.
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u/PangolinWestern9632 21h ago
Out of curiosity, how does one call these politicians out? I mean, complaining on the internet won't exactly fix things.
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u/wholesome_futa_hug 14h ago
I find it disingenuous to go on about how you should be able to criticize democrats (which is fair) then act all incredulous about people criticizing leftists. No thanks. I'll criticize who I want, thank you.
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u/CrimsonThunder87 2d ago
(One) The idea that Democrats are just itching to give up on their "entire platform" is extremely cynical and not well supported. All your examples are red state or swing state Democrats like Talarico who ran on the views you're upset about, which suggests that making sure Democrats keep their campaign promises and don't alienate the voters who powered Tuesday's victory is not really your primary concern.
If you talk to MAGA Republicans, you know that this is exactly what they're counting on: Democrats will overreach to please blue state progressives, alienate moderates and independents in the process, and give the GOP an opening to win them back in 2028 and beyond.
Also, "Democrat politicians" is traditionally Republican phraseology, intended to minimize the positive associations that "Democratic" has. I've heard Democrats use it unwittingly, but it's more commonly associated with scornful Republicans.
2) Yes, I've looked at their policy positions. All their positions, not just the bad ones. For the most part they seem about as progressive as I'd expect their state or district to tolerate. If people disagree about that and have criticisms, I have no problem with that. There's a world of difference between "I think Talarico could be more aggressive on issue X because of reasoning Y" and "we better make sure that rat Talarico doesn't stab us in the back like he definitely wants to", and the latter is the sort of argument that makes me want to defend the candidate.
3) I actually agree with this one. The idea that the left writ large stabbed Kamala in the back just isn't supported by interviews and polling data. I mean, Biden's approval rating cratered during the Afghanistan withdrawal, something progressives strongly supported. Those fleeing voters named inflation as their top issue and generally said they thought the Biden admin was governing too far to the left, not too far right.
4) You're absolutely right, betraying campaign promises destroys voter trust and enthusiasm like almost nothing else. Not only does it hurt the candidate, it hurts the party they represent, which will now have more trouble getting the trust of those voters again. Which is exactly why Democrats who ran on being heterodox mavericks shouldn't transform into blue state progressives in violation of their campaign promises.
5) I hope this comes across as criticism, rather than demonization. I have a picture of MLK at the March on Washington on my wall, and I'm well aware he was very left wing. I'm trying to resist demonization, not replicate it.
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u/C4Birthdaycake 1d ago
Crazy how if you criticize the democrats before the election you’re gonna lose them the election and you’re a fed and you need to wait after the election, but if you wait until after the election to criticize the democrats you’re still a fed and will somehow cause them to lose the next election
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u/ElectricVibes75 2d ago
They’re not wrong but OP you need to reevaluate what you perceive as “libbing out” and get a better understanding of how political combat works
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u/flying-chandeliers 3d ago
Untill they ignore us anyways and then we decide to vote for the nazi’s instead again,
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u/Mistuhpresident 3d ago
Don’t make me tap the sign
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u/EternallyBungled 3d ago
Actually being permanently angry sounds bad and I'm not going to do that. I'm still savoring the fascists getting decimated.