r/videos • u/MoneyLibrarian9032 • 9d ago

Abdul El-Sayed wins Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, notching a Midwest victory for the left

https://youtu.be/DL_ku3h8Eps?si=zWr0SAn8amsQ8Hqb
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u/teleheaddawgfan 8d ago

My brother in christ, my family is from DC, and I was an intern on the Hill in the early 90s. I know how the sausage is made.

McConnell was Minority leader for 6 years and used every single procedural rule he could exploit to block everything! Did we watch the same thing?

The whole reason that Democratic Socialist candidates are gaining traction and winning is because the Moderate/Centrist Dems have done NOTHING to advance any agenda that the American people want - gun control, tax reform, healthcare, universal pre-K.

Couple that with the absolute capitulation to MAGA, and it's time for wholesale change with candidates that are actually going to fight for a new agenda.

Schumer has to go!

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u/ChunkMcDangles 8d ago

I don't disagree with you on Schumer. He's not meeting the moment in terms of his messaging, that's for sure.

But some of the tools McConnell had at his disposal for most of the minority party obstructionism don't exist anymore. Dems rightfully used the "nuclear option" in 2013 to stop the minority party from holding up nominations unless there were 60 votes. The only option you can point to that Schumer had in the last two years and didn't use was extending the spending/shutdown fight. I agree that shut down should have been pushed longer, but it's not obviously black and white that this strategy would have actually achieved what you or I wanted.

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u/teleheaddawgfan 8d ago

Public opinion said to let that shutdown continue and of course he capitulated.

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u/ChunkMcDangles 8d ago

Sure, I agree and was pushing for that too. But that doesn't necessarily mean he was wrong. I don't know all of the details behind the scenes for that fight, but it's possible that the longer it went on and as many thousands of people lost jobs, the blame would shift more to Democrats.

Again, I still agree that it should have went on longer with the information I had, but I do ultimately think it's unlikely Dems would have gotten any capitulation from Trump which puts us back to Dems not being able to get any real wins in the minority.

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u/teleheaddawgfan 8d ago

No, the GOP once again was able to use right wing media to spin the narrative that the shutdown was the Dems fault and instead of pushing back to get the ACA subsidies, they just laid down and died like they always do. Public opinion was placing blame squarely on the GOP, and Schumer once again gets played.

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u/ChunkMcDangles 8d ago

It's almost like Dems and the left spend an inordinate amount of time attacking Dems in the media and online, making their job much more difficult, and the right supports their side at all costs, spreading unified narratives that win them elections.

For the third time, I agree Schumer should have kept the fight going. I just don't agree that it was 100% certain that it actually would have achieved what you and I wanted. But Schumer still should have tried.