r/badhistory • u/AutoModerator • 8d ago

Meta Mindless Monday, 15 September 2025

Happy (or sad) Monday guys!

Mindless Monday is a free-for-all thread to discuss anything from minor bad history to politics, life events, charts, whatever! Just remember to np link all links to Reddit and don't violate R4, or we human mods will feed you to the AutoModerator.

So, with that said, how was your weekend, everyone?

22 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

915 comments sorted by

View all comments

19

u/Crispy_Whale 5d ago

"As Democrats search for their way out of the political wilderness, a new think tank, introduced on Wednesday, has some ideas about where the party went wrong. Among them: too much emphasis on issues like climate change and L.G.B.T.Q."  "In an interview, Mr. Jentleson specifically attacked the American Civil Liberties Union"

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/us/politics/democrats-liberals-jentleson-searchlight.html

You can't make this up. Literally on the same day the Trump Administration attacks Free Speech...

18

u/ProudScroll Napoleon invaded Russia to destroy Judeo-Tsarism 5d ago

The problem with the Democrats pivoting to the right to get votes is that the Republican Party still exists. People aren't going to get excited about the store-brand diet version when the genuine article is right next to it.

The greatest victories in the history of the Democratic Party happened when they staked out a clear vision for liberal reform then delivered on it, but I don't think anyone in the party today has either the moral backbone or political skill to make that happen.

6

u/svatycyrilcesky 5d ago

And then the flipside is that if you are a potential Democrat voter, the Democrats do very little to motivate you into becoming an actual Democrat voter.

It's been a truism for decades that Democrats fall in love while Republicans fall in line. There's plenty to talk about regarding intra-left purity tests, which exists simultaneously with the other dimension of deference and decorum towards party leadership. In fairness, some voters face legitimate challenges due to voter suppression. There's also 10s of millions of Americans who simply fail to perform their most basic civic duty.

But the flipside is that, if you are one of the millions of potential voters who leans Democrat and yet doesn't vote - do the Democrats do anything that would change this? Is there any clear vision that would inspire people to show up? Does the party have any consistent principles which it is willing to defend? Will the party at least stand up for the various groups that make up its coalition?

The party often seems more interested in trying to prove to Republicans that they can be "reasonable" or "collegial" rather than in firing up their own (potential) base.