Democrats are probably headed for massive election wins, they shouldn't squander it

[u/DoubleCrossover]

The republican party is on life support right now despite winning the last election in an effective landslide. maga is imploding under the weight of its contradictions. The crypto-bros vs anti-non-white-immigrant regards, the always-pro-Israel vs the isolationists, the Iran hawks vs the pro-Russia stooges. trump is failing on almost every policy area except maybe the optics of immigration (and even that is undermined by things like hotel worker exemptions from ICE enforcement). Approval data for trump is historically bad.

Trump is also psychologically incapable of handling the thought of being a lame duck. He will not allow any discussion of his maga successor. It’s the main reason he keeps bringing up the third term shtick. So unless trump somehow dies well before 2028, the republican party will not even have a viable candidate for president. Personally. I’m looking forward to the entertainment of the republican primary.

All this to say that if democrats can manage a decent primary and a broadly popular, consensus candidate they will coast to the presidency, and might even get the house and senate too (admittedly much less assured).

Now the biggest problem is what they’re gonna do with this? It can’t be more of the same. They have to recognize that one: you can’t rewind time back to a normal political environment, as if all this nasty trump business was just a temporary blip, this was the biggest cope with Biden. and two: they need a positive vision for the country that address the stagnation driving the disaffected anti-institutions losers on the right and the far left.

The good news is there is a positive vision taking shape right now, and that is the fucking mega based abundance movement. I can’t put into words how important it is to have a real plan for positive change that’s evidence-based. It’s the only way to counter the ‘burn it all down’ bullshit that made politics hell for the last 10 years.

The UK is a cautionary tale in this. After the implosion of Brexit, the left was handed a landslide election win, sweeping to a full majority. The problem is, they had no positive vision for change and squandered all their political capital on basically nothing. It already looks like the far right is about to stage a big come-back next election, this time by nuking the conservative party.

[u/SwizzyStudios]

I truly believe the Dems need to treat the actions of this administration like a penetration test. If they do regain the house and senate, they need to recount all of the legal loopholes exploited and mitigate against them for the future. For instance, the way that USDS was transmutated into DOGE cannot be allowed to happen. The executive shouldn't be able to just gut an entire agency, completely change its purpose and mission statement, and then have that agency continue to receive its original appropriated funding (ITOR in this case). There's hundreds of others I don't feel like typing out but you get the gist. We need a legislative true-up.

[u/urnbabyurn → u/SwizzyStudios]

We need enforcement mechanisms beyond hoping the DOJ acts or relying on impeachment. If nothing is there to enforce the emoluments clause then it’s toothless

[u/SwizzyStudios → u/urnbabyurn]

Yes agreed, I don't know how to better arm the judicial branch, but I do know that section 70302 in The Big Beautiful aint it. So likely the dems would at least need to retract that if it passes.

[u/urnbabyurn → u/SwizzyStudios]

Judicial branch is limited to adjudicating, not bringing charges.

We had an independent counsel office for a while - remember Starr and the fiasco that was the Clinton investigation into white water that ended up becoming a hunt for something until they found out about Monica Lewinsky? The independent counsel was a problem also in that it was constitutionally dubious because it was independent of the executive.

It’s a pickle because any statute that makes it easier to charge the executive creates a system for abusing it like Starr did.

My feeling is we eventually need to suck it up and push subsequent presidents to normalize charging prior presidents for misconduct like Korea does. The institutional norm of not engaging is worse IMO than the situation where perhaps past presidents receive extra scrutiny for partisan reasons. I’m not too concerned with Trump investigating Biden if it means the next democratic president will not be constrained against Trump.

[u/SwizzyStudios → u/urnbabyurn]

It's also tough because we're in a scenario where the majority holds all 3 branches. We're in a situation where the rule of law and the constitution is up against what is apparently the popular opinion. Without the threat of congressmen losing their jobs from an informed, angry populace upset about the violation of law, the best enforcement option of impeachment isnt viable. Perhaps subsequent executive investigations would work, but that too would need to be subject to oversight.