Summary
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called for Democrats to elect “brawlers” who fight for the working class to counter GOP power and oppose policies endorsed by figures like Elon Musk.
Speaking alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders in Las Vegas, she criticized Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for not filibustering a GOP spending bill and labeled the decision a “tremendous mistake.”
Ocasio-Cortez urged voters to support candidates willing to take bold stances.
She continues her “Fighting Oligarchy” tour with Sanders across Nevada, Colorado, and Arizona.
Some people under 50 yo would be good, do we have age distrubution data for the dem party?
Yes. Go primary Chuck out of office and make somebody with a fucking spine the minority leader.
Where was this brawler when genocide joe was genociding?
And DNC says it’s time to just be turtles.
Please let dnc finally clean house
Turtles is too kind. It’s more like fainting goats
Never will. We need a new party, not a new democrat
No, we need to take over the Democratic party. If you realistically want to actually win as opposed to grandstand.
And how do you propose we wrest control of the Democratic Party from its corporate overlords and put the power in the hands of the working class?
Seems about as farfetched as a new party imo, but I’d love to hear a realistic plan.
And she’s fucking right.
The boomers except for Bernie have got to go. (which does not include Nancy, she’s fucking silent generation)
We need ACTUAL young blood, not 74-years-young.
Bernie is so old that he’s a Silent Generation and not even a Boomer, however Bernie has more energy and larger backbone than most Democrats ever have had.
Yes, those things are true. And he’s the exception.
Honestly I think Bernie should go too. He deserves a good retirement after a long career of solid work. We need people in office who can run the show for the next thirty years.
The Democratic Party has been saying Bernie is too old for over 10 years and yet he’s still has more energy & competency than 95% of the lot. He absolutely deserves a good retirement but he’ll never get that.
I’m not sure the time he has left in him but, while he is up and going, he…we should be grooming his replacement. Not AOC either. Not that she wouldn’t be a good one. It’s that we could use the numbers. I wouldn’t want 2 to turn into 1. We have to have someone lined up and ready to go from the get go.
He’s doing a great job. When I say Pelosi and Schumer should go, it’s because they’re cowards at best and traitors at worst and they should be replaced by young people who are…not those things. When I say Sanders should go, it’s because he’s done a great job, he deserves a vacation and the opportunity to write his memoirs, and there should be someone younger at the ready to take the mantle.
he’s done a great job, he deserves a vacation and the opportunity to write his memoirs
There’s no vacation/retirement from social justice. All the things that riled you up and made you fight back against the ownership class are going to go on as they were. You can’t just sit back and relax. Do I think he deserves some peace and quiet? Of course. Is he going to get any? Sadly, I don’t believe so. He’s been fighting the good fight his entire life…
there should be someone younger at the ready to take the mantle.
…and that includes leading by example. Him stepping back doesn’t mean we get a younger Bernie as a replacement. He’s been doing this long enough that there should be plenty of younger Bernies, not even waiting in the wings, but in active government. But there aren’t. The closest we got is AOC. And we could use a few dozen like her.
Bernie isn’t holding anyone back. It would be odd if he was. When he goes, he’s likely to be replaced by a milquetoast neolib at best.
There’s no vacation/retirement from social justice.
He doesn’t have to fight in this way until he dies. He needs to select a successor, he needs to make sure that the next generation can continue the work, he needs to pass on what he’s learned. Lives have chapters, and he needs to be free to flip to the next one: being an elder statesman.
Do I think he deserves some peace and quiet? Of course. Is he going to get any? Sadly, I don’t believe so. He’s been fighting the good fight his entire life…
Oh, I definitely believe he’s continuing because he has to. I wish it wasn’t so.
Him stepping back doesn’t mean we get a younger Bernie as a replacement.
Certainly not. But Vermont hasn’t sent a Republican to Washington since 1989 (unless you count Jeffords in 1994 and 2000, who left the GOP in 2001), and has solidly reelected Sanders (a self-described socialist) to four terms, making it a reasonably safe seat to field a strong progressive voice for.
He’s been doing this long enough that there should be plenty of younger Bernies, not even waiting in the wings, but in active government.
Agreed. One problem with this is, of course, gerrymandering; another is that Democrats are staying in office until they’re very old. There are plenty of younger Bernies who have tried to get in the game, only to be shut out by establishment Democrats with more money, or by a Republican party that drew the maps to specifically deny leftist voices the chance to be in office.
But there aren’t. The closest we got is AOC. And we could use a few dozen like her.
…elected to replace a weak establishment Dem in a very blue state. I agree, but the systemic problems are something we need to really go after if we’re not going to do all of this over again every four years.
Bernie isn’t holding anyone back.
I don’t think he’s holding anyone back, at least not actively. I think his presence is just not encouraging the people who could replace him to get in the game.
It would be odd if he was.
Absolutely agree. He really doesn’t seem the type.
When he goes, he’s likely to be replaced by a milquetoast neolib at best.
There I disagree, but then again I know nothing about Vermont politics.
I swear to God, almost nobody said milquetoast before February 2025. Now I hear it online constantly. Sometimes people spell it right, but so often it’s “milktoast”.
Some influencer or political commentator definitely said it recently and now everyone is repeating it everywhere. I’m not complaining, it’s a great word – but it’s such a compelling example of words going viral
Must be something to do with the circles people run in. I’ve heard the word quite a bit for the past ten years or so; for example, a Star Trek podcast I listen to made a joke about a character from Deep Space Nine being milquetoast (calling him “Lt. Toast”), and they kept that joke running from 2017 through 2022 or so.
I think the very best thing we can do for Bernie, is to win the political fight and install Roosevelt Administration v3.0 into power, and get genuine reform normalized.
It would be best if he can pass on from this world, knowing he had his part in creating a far better world.
Bernie isn’t holding anyone back. It would be odd if he was. When he goes, he’s likely to be replaced by a milquetoast neolib at best.
And you don’t think that’s a bit of a failure on Bernie’s part? He’s been in office since the beginning of time and had a national progressive leadership profile for a decade and hasn’t been able to find a successor in Vermont to groom and grow in all that time?
People in America don’t recognize the house is on fire until it’s in ashes. Citizen’s United was an absolutely debilitating decision, and politicians on both sides of the aisle didn’t care because they are happy working for the oligarchs as long as they get a taste of the riches and the power. The media turned a blind eye because they’re in the same pockets.
Yes he failed to build a sustained movement of what was essentially centrist politics a century ago, but he failed mostly because the cultural, media, and political apparatus is full of people that either trash binned his message entirely or painted him as some kind of alarmist, or extremist.
I’m not talking about Bernie not succeeding in his campaigns, I’m talking about how he seemingly hasn’t put any effort into grooming a successor for his very own seat in his very own state. That’s not a media problem.
Elizabeth Warren is younger, but if she keeled over tomorrow there are multiple good politicians she’s groomed to rise up in Massachusetts. If Bernie dies (or just retires) we’re probably going to get some well funded neoliberal like the other poster said.
Honest question - does he not participate in local races? Endorsements, rallies, etc.? I’m not a local so I don’t know for sure. I would be very surprised if he does not.
Also, what does the local scene look like? Are progressive independents the norm? Or, just like the national stage, is Bernie the exception? We’re talking about someone who has overcome tremendous odds to be an outlier in a FPTP duopoly. He’s a statistical anomaly.
He’s spent his entire career leading by example. Did nobody follow? Or did they try, and run up against the same barriers that keep the status quo the status quo? These are honest questions on my part.
I’m not from Vermont so I don’t know much about local elections, but as a comparison, Warren has multiple politicians in Massachusetts she’s groomed to have national prominence that could take over for her when she leaves. I can’t think of anyone even from Vermont that’s been involved in any of his campaigns or speaking tours.
They say that because it’s just an excuse, they don’t like him and they don’t like his ideas.
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He deserves it, but he is staying alive by sheer force of patriotism and duty. I don’t think he knows how or wants to retire. Not while things are still so fucked up
Bernie should go if and only if he’s passing the torch to a suitable replacement. (or by his own choice whenever that would be)
Right, and that’s one thing I’m worried about. Because at some point, it no longer becomes his choice. The man will die someday, and if he dies in office without an appropriate successor coming up behind him, things will be quantifiably worse.
I will miss him, but it’s better to select a successor to endorse than to die in office
Yeah me too, he should be trying to find like minded talent to fill his seat. And maybe work on building the “resistance”.
He is great but he is also aging.
Nancy Pelosi does need to retire but she’s better than Chuck “Folding Chair” Schumer.
Would you rather have a 3 ton or a 4 ton elephant standing on your head?
IOW, it doesn’t matter whose worse, they BOTH need to go.
If public schools were segregated when you attended school you should step down.
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We need to elect communists and socialists from 1910 you know the ones world governments were so goddamn scared of they started multiple wars to try to eradicate the ideal as a whole. Didn’t work but they certainly tried anyway.
There’s a saying that “you can’t shoot an idea.”
Why don’t we just call a new party the free beers during football party and just snatch up all these idiots real quick to win. We win then we give some free beers out the first game then blame the right for making it illegal because they think beer is socialist so no one can have any for free to keep winning. Over and over. Meanwhile we get some healthcare and college.
You don’t have to thank me for my genius steal it and claim it was yours to begin with. You’re welcome.
This is such a great idea that I came up. Thank you, me. 😃
Either this or we seriously need to consider making anew 3rd party.
The Dems don’t have to reinvent themselves, and they don’t have to lie, cheat, steal, commit treason, and be pedophiles to beat the MAGANazis, they just have to play HARD BALL, and make the MAGANazis fight for every single inch of ground.
Yes, exactly this! This is all we ask for have a backbone, have a voice, and stand up.
Many people, especially MAGA Nazis have been misreadinng the latest polls that show dissatisfaction with the Democrats. They think that just because we’re pissed at Democrats, we must be supporting MAGAs, and nothing could be further from the truth.
The real answer is that people are pissed at Democrats for decades of being weak, spineless weenies, to the point where the worst possible version of the Republican party, the MAGA Nazis, were finally able to take over our country. But just because people are angry at Dems, doesnt mean they have accepted MAGA Nazism. They just want the Dems to finally grow spines and giant brass balls and FIGHT BACK!
But let the MAGA morons believe they are attracting the Dems to their side. I am seeing signs that some Dems are acting stronger, others will follow, and soon the polls will start rising, and then MAGAWorld will start to panic. Thats when they may get squirelly and really start trouble.
Stay Alert, America needs more Lerts.
Agreed 100%
I want AOC, Warren, Jasmine Crockett, and Buttigeg. They have been the only politicians in rank that I’ve felt have been representing. And Walz, too.
Don’t forget Bernie, he’s been going around the country holding how to fight the oligarchy rallies
Yeah 😢 It’s sad that an 83 year old is one of our strongest fighters. I believe he is also not seeking reelection.
He’s not far off my mother’s age and she’s doing great so I have that to compare to but jaaayyysus… I would not want to be fighting as hard as he is at his age. Man deserves some rest.
My grandmother is 82 and is still heavily active in her garden club, church, and spending time with all her family including me.
No. He’s been holding “please fight the oligarchy” rallies while saying little to nothing on how.
From what I’ve read, he’s being pretty clear about primarying moderate “Democrats” and voting out Republicans.
Yes, which is… Not helpful. If that worked on its own America wouldn’t be here. There are massive obstacles all over that he’s just ignoring, and it’s that part of the equation that I’d call the “how”; voting people you like into office is just the victory lap.
I mean, I’m not sure what else you expect him to say.
I don’t expect him to say anything. Don’t get me wrong the problem isn’t so much Bernie himself as it is progressives’ worship of Bernie as the new messiah of progressivism, though he’s not doing nearly enough to dispel that illusion. Now what I want him or any other progressive leader with national recognition to say is that the only hope for change will come from the streets and that the people must protest, march, strike, boycott and whatever else they can do until their demands are met. Again I’m not expecting Bernie to say this, but a time where America needs geese Americans must be willing to call a duck a duck and accept that no matter how much they squint a duck will never be a goose. This is necessary before you can search for the geese you need.
Looking at Bernie’s history, I don’t think there’s any way he would disagree with you.
Elizabeth Warren talks a big game, but she shrivels under pressure. I’d love her if she were half the person she claims to be.
Honestly, I’ll take that any day of the week. It’s far better than someone like Newsom who is actively courting right wing figureheads so he can agree with them about how bad progressives are.
The party would be so much better if we could get rid of the members that hate progressives.
I would like for them to split off from the party and start a new movement dedicated to fighting for the people. They have the influence to start a way stronger 3rd party than modern is politics has ever seen.
At bare minimum, they should band together as a new sect of the Democratic Party and establish that their ring of the party advocates for people instead of oligarchs.
Then you’ll have GOP for decades as the non-GOP vote splits between parties.
The US is solidly a two party system and you need to work within it.
They need to do a progressive takeover of the democratic party. Just like how the MAGA extremists took over the republic party
Exactly this. When the GOP had similar problems, they sparked the “Tea Party” that ended up taking over the party.
We need a “Guillotine Party” to do the same for the Democrats.
The “tea party” was never a third party. They were a faction of the republican party.
Correct. Which is how they avoided the spoiler effect.
lol I still would rather they just start a third party, but maybe I could get behind Guillotine Democrats
The third party spoiler effect tends to hand elections to the worst option on the ballot. Rebuilding an extant party accomplishes the same intent.
I agree with this. The time to split is now.
The Dems don’t just need “brawlers” but they also need people willing to get dirty. If you know pro wrestling, Eddie Guerrero at one time had a gimmick that included the slogan “I lie, I cheat, I steal” that is the mindset democratic operatives have to get into and party members have to at least accept, if they want any chance of beating the GOP.
The Dems don’t seem to understand that there is no bottom for how low the GOP will go, and that means they are going to have to get dirty and do and say things that will haunt them, but it will be for the good of the entire country and if they truly care about democracy and this country they will fall on that sword and dive head first into that mud pit.
*Sorry for the run on’s and ranting… ADHD stream of consciousness.
Personally, I think the problem the Democrats have is that they’ve become corrupt. Becoming more corrupt isn’t going to help them.
They rationalise taking bribes from corporations as “fund raising” and say that it’s the only way to win elections. Well you know who wins elections without lobbying? Bernie and AOC. Both run through publicly funded campaigns., and this is why they can represent the needs of the people and not corporations and billionaires.
All very true, it would probably take a lot of new blood coming in who would be willing to not only fight dirty but also rely on public small dollar donations.
Reject the corporate bribery, build a true grass roots machine, and ultimately reject and actively fight against the current party leadership.
New party from scratch would be easier than turning this ugly ship around.
[Narrator: “Indeed, it was not.”]
Elect me to the House or Congress and I will personally throw fists at any GOP aligned member around me.
My SO and I have joked that while I could never win a local election, if I ran, I might just be able to get within punching range of our shitty representative.
I’d toss in $20 for your campaign, and I don’t even know where you live.
Just try to livestream the smackdown, ok?
Genuine question to our American friends:
How come Bernie, AOC, Crockett etc. don’t start their own party? They can pledge to vote with the dems where it makes sense and they have enough political capital to continue getting elected. Seems like an ideal time to create a 3rd (actual alternative) party, no?
It might force the republicans to create an alt right and centre right party too which I feel would erode some of the alt right because from experience most Americans are not that alt right.
Because USA has never been a democracy in any meaningful sense.
Our first past the post +presidential election system means that a third party, particularly a splinter third party will just pull votes from the not as terrible party, strengthening the opposition parties electoral strength. Funding third parties in close races to split the opposition has been a strategy of both Republicans and Democrats.
That’s not quite the reason. The system is setup to vote on individuals. The idea of voting for party is propaganda from the parties. Third party candidates in the modern system tend to fare poorly because the districts have been made unmanageably large and require multi million dollar advertising budgets. Which is money that comes from the party and party endorsed fundraising.
Because it leaves open the potential for a Democrat v. Republican v. New Party election (at whatever level, not just presidency) and that’s likely to improve Republican chances. Where the progressive candidates are strong it’s better for them to beat the centrist in a one on one then take on the Republican with their center-left voters. Where they’re weak the most a three way contest does is maybe make the right win over the center.
There are many many races without real Republican challengers where a new party could challenge moderate Democrats from the left, but in those situations the Democratic primary is the real vote and you might as well just win there.
The potential is there, but I doubt it will come to that. The same potential was there for the Tea Party to spoil GOP races. Instead, the GOP became the Tea Party.
We need a Guillotine Party to drag the Democrats back to the people.
The Tea Party ran in Republican primaries. They aren’t a new party.
They aren’t a new party.
A distinction without a difference. Whether they are a new party, or a sect within the old GOP isn’t particularly relevant. The relevant part is that the GOP adopted their positions and rhetoric.
That’s the whole thing this is all about. A new party competes against the main party in general elections. Otherwise, whatever the name says, it’s just a caucus. The Democrats already have the Justice Democrats recruiting progressives to run in primaries. They also have the Working Families Party, which is closer to a real party than either the Justice Democrats or the Tea Party, but they still don’t really compete with the Democrats outside of primaries (they go “head to head” in New York, but usually to represent votes for the same candidates).
Bernie already runs as an Independent!
State laws make ballot access difficult. Every state has its own rules and most of them are meant to exclude 3rd parties. Neither Dems nor MAGAts like competition.
Because we have this stupid two party system. Its the second worst thing about our constitution (the first being the presidency)
Can’t say for sure, but I’d wager it’s because of campaign finance. Corpos fund campaigns and a pro worker 3rd party would be inherently against corporate interests. Anyone who tried to break away from the democrats would end up without any funds and new democrats would run against them with vastly more money.
It’s also worth considering that they’re probably not that popular. Most of the population are disengaged from politics and tend to just vote with the people in their communities. Text based social media tends towards a leftist bias and probably makes them seem more popular than they really are.
They kind of are in a different party: the Democratic Socialists of America isn’t on the ballot but Bernie runs as an independent who caucuses with Democrats. If Democrats wanted to, they could run a candidate against him. But to form a truly independent third party, you’d just be splitting the votes on the left.
As you get to state and national elections where much of the nation is pretty evenly divided, running as a third party all but ensures the Republican will win (even without winning a majority in most states, though a few use different systems). In essence, our system requires coalitions to be made before the election rather than after.
You could compare it to UK elections. In 2024, Labour won 33% of the votes but won 411 of 650 seats because the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, and regional parties split the rest.
If Democrats wanted to, they could run a candidate against him.
They actually couldn’t really. Bernie wins the Democratic primary in his state then just runs as an Independent. He’s the chosen representative of the Vermont Democratic Party.
I stand corrected. Everyone listen to 👆that poster.
My state (Louisiana) has a different election system — actually several and it’s currently a confusing mess — and I’m not really familiar with Vermont’s primaries.
In Louisiana, the November election is actually technically a primary. If no one gets 50%, the top two candidates (regardless of party) have a run-off in December. For various reasons over the years, some elections were changed to be more like first past the post with closed party primaries. Others weren’t. And now, it’s just a messy hodgepodge. (And to top it all off, our governor and many other elections are “off-year” so it doesn’t align with federal elections. We’re voting on Amendments on March 29th. It’s idiotic.)
Money. They wouldn’t be able to fundraise the money they need to get messages out to people. Then there’s the depressingly large number of Americans who vote by party in a system meant for voting by individual. They would lose funding and then get smashed in the elections because nobody knew the party was even there.
Thanks for the response. That’s the thing - I feel like they’re big enough personalities on their own to get elected. AOC did it initially on a shoestring is my understanding and she’s well past the point of having voter recognition.
A couple reasons.
Bernie and the Democrats are going to align 90% of the time (just like with Manchin on the other end of the spectrum). Basically, the other party is anti-America. So being pro-America makes you a de facto Democrat.
Since we don’t have Ranked Choice Voting or any other system that is conducive to multiple parties, primaries allow directionally aligned candidates to decide who is most popular to avoid splitting the vote. This isn’t necessary if a candidate has enough support for it to not matter. (Bernie is an independent in congress, but he ran as a Democrat in his presidential runs.)
Need to stop being shithead neoliberals
Yup. The DNC uses all their fight to keep progressives out, it’s pathetic.
Fuck yeah!
Meanwhile, the party leadership is thinking “maybe bigger paddles next time?”
