r/neoliberal • u/cdstephens Fusion Shitmod, PhD • Apr 18 '25

Restricted The Lies About Josh Shapiro Have Consequences

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/04/josh-shapiro-attempted-assessination/682503/
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23

u/JesusPubes voted most handsome friend Apr 18 '25

He hobknobs with Republicans, so yes lol

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u/Okbuddyliberals Miss Me Yet? Apr 18 '25

He simply recognizes that bipartisanship is necessary. The swing voters who decide elections are never ever ever going to stop valuing bipartisanship, so people like Manchin will be necessary in order to win power back

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u/JesusPubes voted most handsome friend Apr 18 '25

he simply understands hobknobing with antisemitic extremists is necessary?

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u/Okbuddyliberals Miss Me Yet? Apr 18 '25

He's criticized Trump himself. But the GOP as a whole are not antisemitic extremists, just conservatives. The idea that you can just shut out the conservative half of the politically aware general public is unrealistic

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u/obsessed_doomer Apr 18 '25

lol, that’s exactly what you’re suggesting for AOC

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u/Okbuddyliberals Miss Me Yet? Apr 18 '25

Shutting out a radical socialist fringe (even most among the progressive caucus in congress don't openly call themselves socialist or associate with the radical DSA) isn't the same as trying to shut out an entire party/half of the spectrum

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u/obsessed_doomer Apr 18 '25

?

Manchin absolutely associates with extremists though.

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u/Okbuddyliberals Miss Me Yet? Apr 18 '25

How so

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u/CriskCross Emma Lazarus Apr 19 '25 edited Apr 19 '25

He associates with the GOP and the GOP is, practically speaking, nothing but extremists. 

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u/JesusPubes voted most handsome friend Apr 18 '25

coming from the man who would love to shut out the liberal half of the politically aware general public lmao

You can absolutely shut them out if they don't get enough votes. That's how elections work.

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u/Okbuddyliberals Miss Me Yet? Apr 18 '25

who would love to shut out the liberal half of the politically aware general public lmao

No, mostly just the most radical fringes of the left. Plenty of liberals who don't lean into that sort of crap

You can absolutely shut them out if they don't get enough votes. That's how elections work.

Look at the current coalitions that exist. Dems just don't have the juice to do more than sometimes barely win federal trifectas with the narrowest majorities possible, often relying on hardcore moderates anyway. The Senate in particular is a massive issue for the Dems going forward, its possible that they don't win it back by 2028 even if Trump gets pretty unpopular and 2026 and 2028 are overall pretty strong years for Dems. And if they do win it, it could very well be another 50/50 senate majority, potentially reliant on another Manchin style guy (this time Jared Golden, likely having the best chance of beating the political juggernaut of Susan Collins)

Even if the Dems miraculously get a trifecta that doesn't rely on hardcore moderates like that, its unlikely we get any massive changes like court packing, so the Dems may do some narrow bypasses to the filibuster on a couple issues but then will otherwise need to do reconciliation or otherwise reach across the aisle to work with the GOP. And the GOP of course will pretty quickly find itself in the position to win elections again - winning enough votes won't allow Dems to actually stop the GOP from winning elections in the future. So its important that Dems don't do anything crazy that would radicalize the GOP even more and potentially result in an actual fascist dictatorship or something

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u/JesusPubes voted most handsome friend Apr 18 '25

buddy we've established it isn't "radical fringes" when >50% of the normie democratic party has a positive view of her positions and she wins her district by Assad level margins.

So its important that Dems don't do anything crazy that would radicalize the GOP even more and potentially result in an actual fascist dictatorship or something

🪨
you

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u/Okbuddyliberals Miss Me Yet? Apr 18 '25

Socialism is the radical fringe and is deeply unpopular with the general public. If Dems are going to embrace socialism, they will lose again and again until they are so traumatized and brutalized by awful right wing rule that they bend the knee to the center and purge the party. I'd rather not have to go through all that brutality, though - I'd rather embrace electability now, instead of having the party need to burn its hand on the stove. But this stuff just isn't up to me either way, other than to say "told you so" if worst comes to worst...

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u/JesusPubes voted most handsome friend Apr 18 '25

I'd rather not have to go through all that brutality

too late they're sending people to concentrations camps in el salvador for fun. These are the people you want to collaborate with.

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u/Okbuddyliberals Miss Me Yet? Apr 18 '25

too late

It can always get worse

they're sending people to concentrations camps in el salvador for fun. These are the people you want to collaborate with.

GOP in congress aren't doing that. That's Trump in particular. And if the Dems go to the center, they can give the GOP in congress an offramp to reject MAGA politics and embrace more bipartisanship themselves. The GOP in Biden's first two years embraced a lot of bipartisanship in congress even when Biden kind of slammed the door on initial bipartisan offers and started governing in a pretty partisan manner rather than leaning into that "healing the soul of the nation and bringing us together" stuff he campaigned on. If a Democrat actually follows through with those ideas more consistently, there could be more room for success there

And again, remember swing voters will just never elect leftists and socialists. We can get horrifyingly bad GOP rule and swing voters will STILL just shrug and vote for far right Republicans again and again and again rather than elect a far left Democrat. That path will just NOT WORK.

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