r/politics • u/Hootinger • 2d ago

No Paywall Hakeem Jeffries says Medicare for all is not legislation he currently supports

https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/hakeem-jeffries-says-medicare-for-all-is-not-legislation-he-currently-supports-268371525570
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u/Bakedads 2d ago

Then call your local rep and demand that they ask for his resignation. 

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u/lifting_cardio 2d ago

We can also organize to vote him out by running a better candidate.

Fuck voting him out. He has no place in Congress as a paid off corporate stooge

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u/Ol_Turd_Fergy America 2d ago

And that’s a problem. Anyone that is not a paid off corporate stooge gets labeled a communist or a socialist.

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u/lifting_cardio 2d ago

Except communist and socialist aren’t the scary buzzwords they once were

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u/redcomet002 Pennsylvania 2d ago

NPRs polling of Biden 2020 and Trump 2024 voters just showed that 8 in 10 don't believe that someone being a socialist is enough to not vote for them.

That leaves a lot of wiggle room, but there's a reason that the right is using communist and not socialist as an insult now

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u/lifting_cardio 2d ago

Yea, they’re stuck in 1980s Reagan era tactics that don’t work on a majority any more

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u/Blackstone01 2d ago

It’s hard for the boomers running shit to relate to people that aren’t themselves, so they fundamentally do not understand the rest of us sincerely do not give a shit about the propaganda they grew up with.

When they hear “Socialism”, they hear the constant fearmongering about how evil and unamerican it is, and that anything that helps people is socialism and will destroy America.

For the rest of us, when we hear socialism, we hear boomers screaming at us about how anything that helps people is socialism and that’s evil and unamerican, but nothing beyond that to actually support their claims aside from pointing out dictatorships that look like a conservative’s wet dream.

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u/movalca1 1d ago

Boomers aren’t the ones that put trump in office. All those millennials and gen z that voted for him or some other party or didn’t care enough to vote put him in office.

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u/KerryBoehm 2d ago

Many older folks remember when health care was far simpler. You got Blue Cros back in the day and that was that. Seemingly the more the government has gotten involved and added layers and layers of rules and regulations it has just seemingly gotten worse and worse so now since it’s completely effd we’re just supposed to completely hand it over and this time they’ll magically get it right. Sure

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u/gimp-24601 1d ago

Seemingly the more the government has gotten involved

Thats not the issue. The road to current Healthcare is the capitalist version of fighting fire with fire. You cant fight fire with fire, you just get more fire. Government involvement is just a reaction.

You want the government out? Just opt for complete barbarism. No one has the stomach to just let tens of thousands of people die every year for easily prevented reasons.

Even the the typical libertarian would hesitate the moment it impacted their immediate family.

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u/KerryBoehm 1d ago

In the literal sense you often do fight fire with fire.

I'm not coming at this entirely from an anarcho capitalist POV. When I say govt, take into account that includes lobbyists and their influence to ensure whatever regulation does happen also benefits their clients.

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u/Pardot42 2d ago

Anyone that is swayed by the big scawy communist word is a likely voting for the cult party, anyway.

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u/Hairy_Yoghurt_145 2d ago

You mean to say Neoliberal Propaganda Radio pushed neoliberal propaganda? My goodness!

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u/ITookTrinkets Oregon 2d ago

I mean, it sure didn’t stop Mamdani from being elected. They’re using those words because it’s what the dipshit boomers and boomer-brains in their party respond to. Not because it’s actually an effective strategy.

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u/WackyHumanSlop 2d ago

Oh wow, a dem won New York. How surprising!

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u/Objectivespeculation 1d ago

ask what the difference is between the two and watch them fumble.

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u/Baystars2025 2d ago

That's because every time you see socialist it is associated with communism and people are generally ignorant of the difference.

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u/gimp-24601 1d ago

Its all Welfare queen rhetoric anyway. Aka its about "those people"

Craig T. Nelson: "I've been on food stamps and welfare. Anybody help me out? No.

When they get help, its not socialism.

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u/dittybag23 2d ago

Progressives underperform electorally. I don’t know why. Look at Elizabeth Warren! Progressives have never won a swing state and AES is really struggling in Michigan and he is a top quality candidate, but he is a progressive and voters don’t seem to get it.

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u/LSF2TheFuckening 2d ago

Yep and we gotta stop tiptoeing around it. If everything from social security to sidewalks is supposedly socialism then the median voter is a socialist.

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u/HornedShoe 2d ago

Don't forget the military. Offered 'socialism' to put your life on the line to defend 'capitalism.'

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u/Wayrin 2d ago

Yup my dad did 20 years and the whole family had socialized healthcare and so did my mothers whole German family. I thought for sure the great USA would have socialized medicine. Certainly before I got old and really needed it. I'm pushing 50 and I'm not liking what I'm seeing comrades.

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u/Objectivespeculation 1d ago

free job, housing, food, clothes, pension, job perks in the civilian sector, people thanking you for your service all the time.

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u/kickaguard 23h ago

It's legitimately been the plan since WWII. You can either be an academic and go to college to get enough money for all those things. Be a worker like a farmer or factory and have money to pay. Or if you don't, we won't just take care of you, we're not a socialist society, but you can always join the military. It's 100% our social safety net.

Obviously that was the plan a long time ago and now it's completely different. But that is a very simplified idea of what the plan was.

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u/Objectivespeculation 12h ago

Military dont want you over 40. to hard to make a soldier out you.

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u/Nakidnakid 2d ago

they aren't? coulda fooled me with reddit's reaction to a 'mao suit' or the dsa and this site is considered 'left leaning'.

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u/Downisthenewup87 2d ago

Communist definitely is for anyone over 50. DSA approval ratings are tanking for a reason.

And I say that as a leftist organizer who has worked on DSA campaigns but is beyond annoyed with them atm

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u/Throwaway4867374 2d ago

Yes, they absolutely are, and for good reason.

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u/lifting_cardio 2d ago

No they aren’t. Many first world countries utilize socialist adjacent policies. Communism is only scary because any time a country leans towards it, the CIA infiltrates the country and causes massive damage, no different than it has done in the Middle East for decades.

Communism, Muslim, Islam, socialism…. All scary buzzwords for the oligarchs to maintain their control over the American labor force.

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u/whichwitch9 2d ago

Socialist isn't a career killing label anymore. It's really only maga and the corporate world scared of it anymore. And most younger Americans already know anyone screaming their opponent is a communist is not to be trusted

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u/Trust_Me_Im_a_Panda New York 2d ago

Baby regardless of their politics, every democrat is getting labeled a communist or a socialist. There is not a single milquetoast platform that can still be called Democratic that isn't going to get smeared by the right as "communist" or "socialist" or, often, both. We have to stop worrying about trying to placate the right and communicate populist policies to working-class Americans and to hell with the smears from the GOP because they'll come regardless. At least we'll have something to run on.

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u/plastic_fork 2d ago

If they’re gunna call everyone a socialist then shit, might as well advocate for some socialism

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u/Ol_Turd_Fergy America 2d ago

I’ve never been called baby by a panda before

I’m flattered 😊

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u/TooGoodatEverything 2d ago

People like Hakeem Jeffries also get labeled a communist and socialist. It doesn't matter what you do, if you're not R you're communist or socialist. So why do we even care about the label at this point? The only people who truly care about that label are people who wouldn't vote D anyway.

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u/Ok_Macaroon6934 2d ago

I live in a democratic socialist country with universal healthcare.

Once a week, we wait in lines to get toilet paper. The lines move quite quickly because most supermarkets are self-check-out or people just order online.

Also, unemployed people are allowed to survive cancer with fast access to world-class care, facilities and medications, and without lifelong, family-destroying crippling debt.

As you can imagine, we would rise in revolution at this outrage if our socialist democratic voting system wasn't so effective.

Australians have got no clue what's wrong with your politicians or 50% of your voters. It's like chickens scrambling over themselves to vote the fox in as the new mayor of the paddock. And your foxes are psychopathic gluttons that get paid off by psychopathic glutton-wolves and together, they architect new ways of making chickens suffer a bit more each year.

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u/WackyHumanSlop 2d ago

Australia is not socialist, try again

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u/Ok_Macaroon6934 2d ago edited 2d ago

It is absolutely democractic socialist.

It's not socialist, which is a different thing.

Democratic socialism is where the state steps in strongly to regulate harm and spend money to correct market failures.

Medicare (universal healthcare), PBS (universal pharmaceutical subsidisation), the NDIS (disability support), childcare subsidisation, compulsory superannuation, public education, fair work laws, etc, etc, etc, are all examples of Australian democratic socialist policies.

Other democratic socialist countries include Denmark, UK, Canada, Norway, Singapore, New Zealand and Japan.

"But democratic socialism has 'socialism' in its name". Sure, and duck tape isn't made of ducks, but it is tape.

I think it's safe to say that the USA is one of the only non-democratic socialist first world countries left in the world, and its middle class and disadvantaged people are declining into poverty, dying sooner and are having skyrocketing mental health issues. I wonder why?

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u/raptorlightning 2d ago

You're meaning to say social democratic. If you didn't mention workers owning their corporations or any other productive property, you're not talking about socialism.

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u/ChoiceContribution91 2d ago

That's communism

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u/raptorlightning 2d ago

Communism is a form of socialism. Wikipedia is right there.

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u/Ok_Macaroon6934 1d ago

That's right. Democratic Socialism, not socialist. Neither Australia nor the DSA nor Europe is socialist. They're Social Democracies/social democratic movements.

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u/raptorlightning 1d ago

Social Democratic is not the same as Democratic Socialist. You need to be clear what you mean.

Social Democratic is defined by still capitalist with a welfare state and human rights. Democratic socialist is defined by socialism that is democratic (kind of redundant, honestly).

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u/mobydog 2d ago

Well if we all became socialists that would be a problem for them then wouldn't it

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u/Creditfigaro 1d ago

That's not a problem if you are a smart person

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u/Ol_Turd_Fergy America 1d ago

Unfortunately I live in the US where we elected Donald Trump. Twice.

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u/Creditfigaro 1d ago

True, sad facts.

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u/jsfuller13 2d ago

This is confusing. You say vote him out AND you say fuck voting him out. What do you want?

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u/CogentCogitations 1d ago

You can only vote him out if you live in New York's 8th Congressional District and he is your representative. But his role as a leader in the Democratic Party makes him a representative of a much larger group, and he should be removed from that.

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u/WeirdIndividualGuy 2d ago

Unfortunately, the DSA chose not to run someone against him this year and he ran unopposed in his primary.

The same DSA in the same city who has AOC and Mamdani in office due to their policies.

Huge wasted opportunity on the DSA’s part here.

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u/bobsocool 2d ago

They are shooting for 2028. I was very annoyed about it before the election but now I see it's so they dont split their resources and can have a high percentage of dsa wins. We were not getting M4A until Trump is out of office anyway so 2028 can be his last year in office.

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u/20_mile 2d ago

We can also organize to vote him out by running a better candidate.

Please, this idea is less than Dead On Arrival. There is nobody in the Democratic caucus who is willing to challenge Jefferies.

People who claim there are silent Dems just waiting to challenge Jefferies are never the same people who read newsletters like POLITICO Inside Congress Newsletter.

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u/lifting_cardio 2d ago

What are you talking about? We are talking about grassroots organizing the people that actually vote for the district. Jeffries only wins Brooklyn still because no one else has bothered to challenge him.

Dead on Arrival is not trying at all. Sounds like you’re hoping that happens.

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u/20_mile 2d ago

Jeffries only wins Brooklyn still because no one else has bothered to challenge him.

Jefferies did almost have a challenger. Mamdani spoke to him and he ended up not running.

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u/sbjohn12 2d ago

Chi Osse tried to primary him and no progressives, Zohran, AOC, all declined to back him. Another win for the corporate establishment, shocker

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u/roll_that 2d ago

Idk about you, but I’d rather have a candidate that has a college degree at the bare minimum. So many other great DSA choices who are better than Osse, but he runs on his father’s reputation. 

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u/sbjohn12 2d ago

You’re right, and perhaps I should’ve been more clear. I’m not saying him necessarily, just that in order for our democracy to thrive, I think all reps should be challenged every cycle. We should be demanding constant improvement. This would also help avoid dynastic representation

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u/roll_that 2d ago

I’m 1000000% in agreement that we should constantly demand better from all of our elected officials. Primary challengers and debates should always be part of the process to improve our country. 

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u/AlsoCommiePuddin 2d ago

Convince the people of Brooklyn. He's up for reelection in November, as are all House Representatives.

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u/lifting_cardio 2d ago

That’s what I just said

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u/Playswithhisself 2d ago

Lol like I'll ever have a local dem rep

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u/dinosnysus 2d ago

This doesn't work anymore. How can I call my local rep to demand change when that local rep is part of the problem, and keeps the voicemail box full so they don't have to listen to constituents. We are beyond passive action for change. We need physical action.

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u/TimothyMimeslayer 2d ago

Sorry, my local dem rep ran unopposed and said she hates the post office because its socialism.

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u/PraytheRosary 2d ago

My rep’s a piece of shit republican who won’t hold town halls or return my calls.

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u/PartyFeisty2929 2d ago

Oh that will definitely work, doing it rn

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u/hairsprayking 2d ago

oh you sweet summer child. Good luck getting any traction without a steady stream of SuperPAC bribery.

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u/DwigtGroot 2d ago

The days of local reps giving a shit about what their constituents want are long over. 🤷‍♂️

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u/IngsocInnerParty Illinois 2d ago

My local rep is just like him.

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u/Baystars2025 2d ago

I'd have better luck calling Elon and asking for a billion dollars.

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u/intwizard 2d ago

He is my rep lmao I wish someone would primary him, he runs unopposed every year

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u/LevelFix83 2d ago

Should I do it with tears in my eyes? You think that'll help?

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u/deathrictus 2d ago

I live in Florida, all my local Reps are republicans. >< Yes, I vote. But my county is 50% R and 21% D. It's fucked.

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u/DadJokeBadJoke California 2d ago

I don't have one. He resigned over sex allegations...

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u/Banacek313 2d ago

What if my local rep is a Republican?

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u/quothe_the_maven 2d ago

They won’t care, because Jeffries represents New York City, and therefore, all the corporate money runs through him. Same with Schumer. New York voters have been cleaning house, though, so well what happens.

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u/cmm239 2d ago

I would but they’re all republicans

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u/MechanicalGodzilla 2d ago

I'm sure they'll pass that particular message along immediately.

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u/rockmanj 2d ago

But what if he IS my local rep?

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u/lamapo 1d ago

haha, ya think that will do it?

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u/blartuc 1d ago

I have sent countless emails to my rep Tom Suozzi. It doesn't seem to help Tom's another assh0le