(1) if the Democrats don’t have good, robust responses to at least some of the culture war stuff, Republicans have a big enough microphone and enough levers of power that they will make every election about the culture war and the Dems will never get to make a clean case for economic populism.
(2) If Democrats spend the next year arguing that it’s the economy stupid, what do they run on in 2026 (or '28) if the economy is at least arguably doing ok. Do you really think Trump can’t get his buddies in OPEC to drop gas prices for a few weeks before the election? Are you sure that all of his tax cuts and robber barron ish isn’t going to juice the stock market for a few more years (with almost every media outlet praising the strong economy while maybe making a small mention of economic inequality)?
I’m not saying the economy isn’t important, but an economics only message is both too passive (because it relies on things that the Dems can’t really control) and it sells out and alienates people that the Dems need because it sends the message that their lives are less important than the price of a gallon of milk.
reddit seems to think this isn’t a buyout but just letting you work remotely until the fiscal year is up.
or just some ruse to insta fire you or something
well a buyout like this is what musk did with twitter right
also the shutdown is in march, so do they get paid past that anyway? all sorts of ?'s I can’t answer I didn’t get the mail cause I don’t work for feds and also I don’t trust them.
If the Dems don’t make the clean case for economic populism, it’s because they don’t want to.
This applies to your point #2 as well.
I had some people disagree with me on this, but I think one of the biggest mistakes Democrats made nationally was trying to convince everyone that the economy is good. It isn’t. The standard of living is getting worse for 90+% and everyone knows it. Trump used this and blamed it on immigrants. Obviously that was bullshit, but it gave people a rational and an enemy to be mad at.
Democrats can do the same thing. Who to be mad at is pretty fucking clear: Rich people.
When people think you’re speaking to them economically, they won’t care about the culture war stuff.
That’s simply not the only reason. It’s also not clear what issues are “economically populist”
Tariffs seem populist if you can sell them as a way to bring back “good American manufacturing jobs” but potentially bad if it raises prices for stuff that Americans buy and can’t start making ourselves overnight.
Is student loan forgiveness populist assistance to middle class Americans or a handout to worthless whiners with blue hair who should’ve learn to weld instead of studying liberal arts and becoming a barista?
Is single payer healthcare a way to humanely eliminate private healthcare execs (without having to go full Luigi), or is it taking away the great insurance plan your union negotiated for you (by giving up higher wages) and replacing it with government bureaucracy.
The Dems have consistently gotten played on these issues, because almost all political issue have nuance and trade offs and winners and losers. Dems need to be able to win these economic messaging battles, but I don’t think that’s the only front they can fight on.
You might be able to show some nuance for numbers 1 and 2, but there is no other side to getting rid of the useless greedy blood sucking insurance company leeches that infect our healthcare system. It’s why virtually everyone on both the left and right cheered a CEO killing caught on camera
A Massachusetts man carrying knives and Molotov cocktails was arrested near the U.S. Capitol after he told a police officer that he planned to kill top Republican officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and House Speaker Mike Johnson, according to federal court records.
