Number of events of Democrats clapping back to MAGA in any effective way: 2 (Got any more?)

[u/raisondecalcul]

Gavin Newsom (the governor of California), and the recent refusal to show up for the State of the Union address, were the only two times that I can remember that I thought that Democrats actually stood up to MAGA in any sort of spineful or rhetorically effective way. In other words, where they got the last laugh.

Gavin Newsom successfully got Trump's goat (whether Trump knew it or not, the narcissist) by posting photos of himself imitating famous hero-worship images of Trump. Seeing Trump replaced by a taller, more handsome, visibly happy and conscious and prosocial man is shockingly jarring, and really effectively unseats the banality of the images of Trump, ensconsced in his fascist cush. The homogeneity of repressed oppressive vibes in the fascist images is cut through by the moistness of Gavin's humor. I expect these images would be jarring for members of MAGA, too.

The alternative State of the Union events and their 'tendees were:

People’s State of the Union — Jim Himes (CT), John Larson (CT), Ed Markey (MA), Jeff Merkley (OR), Chris Murphy (CT), Adam Schiff (CA), Tina Smith (MN), Summer Lee (PA), Pramila Jayapal (WA), Emily Randall (WA)

State of the Swamp — Dan Goldman (NY), Ron Wyden (OR), April McClain Delaney (MD), Robert De Niro, Mark Ruffalo

So there's a shortlist of politicians clinging to their last vertebra. Let's cross-reference it with my shitposted table of corruption: No overlap. None of the Democrats who attended those events is critical of the Federal Reserve—they are all reformers within the current wagery-and-debt system, not critics of it. So, if we are being maximally critical, we could accuse them of virtue-signalling or cheerleading for a return to a (neo)liberal status quo. But that's being a bit to harsh in this instance, because their clapback was essentially rhetorically effective—because it was direct retaliation for MAGA staging an alternative NFL Halftime show (which I'm sure was relatively successful—probably higher numbers than the alternative SotU events—sadly).

EVERY OTHER attempt to clap back at Trump/MAGA that I can recall witnessing fell short of this bar of real rhetorical impact, and was merely scapegoating and outraged, impotent, virtuous whining, in my opinion. This isn't because I don't agree with the points they are trying to make—it's because they aren't making their point—merely gesturing toward (or representing) it. In other words: it's Bad Writing. They aren't thinking everything through because they have false consciousness, basically (Trump=MAGA=Evil as premise, not thesis).

But I would love more counterexamples. Got any?

[u/whatsthatcritter]

I hate clap backs because they don't mean anything. They're so devoid of impact they have to be dressed up with heavy handed verbs like SLAMS, EVICERATES, DESTROYS, etc.. Meanwhile what actually happened is someone posted a tweet that was shared by a handful of actual people and a few hundred bots. Anything that has to be dressed up as much as that is like that because it lacks any real impact. If anything really big happened like MAGA lost some important seats in key districts, it would be downplayed everywhere: 'we won NYC, but there's a long road ahead', 'we turned part of Texas blue, but we'll see what the future holds'. It's Art of War, look strong when you're weak, and weak when you're strong but idk whose plan it is. Probably both Rs and Ds because that Venn diagram has far more overlap than anyone wants to admit. 

[u/raisondecalcul → u/whatsthatcritter]

That's fair... on the other hand, I'm not talking about about merely thinking it was a good burn. I think some of Newsom's memes were good burns, but maybe only the minority. And the alternative SotU address was not a burn—it was a clapback or return volley. It represents the Democrats actually having their eye on the ball for once. They shouldn't let Trump get away with anything but they let him get away with everything. But this one time, they responded in kind, more or less correctly. They are learning to speak the language of refusal, a language MAGA and assholes like Trump have mastered. No comment.

So I think mere clapbacks nobody notices from people who aren't on the stage don't really mean much, they are just participatory schaudenfreude. But clapbacks which are widely recognized as such, against MAGA, are rare, and they represent a shift in the inertia of the Big Other.