To win an election, you have to convince the conservatives that it is in their best interest to vote for the progressive candidate.

I disagree with you, to win an election, you need to convince voters to vote for you. That’s it. Democrats have tried to win over conservatives in at least 2024 and the start of the 2020 campaign (before Biden worked with Bernie’s campaign to run on more progressive stuff).

And they keep losing. If what everyone on Lemmy keeps saying is true, roughly 1/3rd of the country voted Dem, 1/3rd voted Rep, and 1/3rd didn’t vote. And if we’re to believe people who say “both parties” genuinely feel that way, and those people are likely to belong to the 1/3rd who don’t vote…

Why are Dems trying to win over the conservatives at all? Show the 1/3rd of the populace who doesn’t vote that you’re not both the same. No, you’re never going to get 100% voter turnout, but if 77 million (Trump’s popular vote count) is 1/3rd, that means there’s roughly 77 million people that can be won over to vote.

So the Dems need to go after them, and they need to start running on actual progressive policy and positive change for the average American. They need to stop letting Republicans control the narrative for them on their ideas and policies. Obama won on the message of Hope, Biden won on the back of Bernie’s progressive policies, and Trump has won twice now on change.

The common denominator is change, the current system isn’t working for the average American, and people aren’t going to support the status quo. We can sit here and insult Magas and conservatives and comment on how empty their brains are or how selfish they may be or ignorant or incestual or whatever. I get it, I’ve done it, but I bet you at their core, they want something in this country to change for the better.

So they gambled on Trump in 2016, and regardless of your opinion on it, Trump spent four years showing people that you can change things, you can get things done, you just have to break all the rules and norms to do it. Biden gave people hope in 2020 (plus the COVID handling by Trump) so they rebuked Trump.

After four years of the average American seeing no material improvement to their lives (that’s all I’m arguing here, not whether or not Biden actually got anything done), and the Dem candidate running on “I’m going to maintain the course,” people stayed home. They showed the Dems in 2020 that progressive policies win, and yet the Dems still tried to win over voters from the other side as opposed to winning over the roughly 77 million who stay home.

It almost feels like willful ignorance on the behalf of these so-called liberal elite. The simpler explanation, though, is probably money, and that’s why people say “both sides are the same.” It’s because money: both sides of the aisle still insider trade despite it’s unpopularity with Americans, both sides of the aisle still hold expensive campaign dinners with the wealthy elite, and both sides still accept billions of dollars in campaign funds from the oligarchs. My cousin supports Bernie with his heart of hearts, but will not vote because “both sides are the same, I want actual change.”

Progressives need to take the helm from the liberals of the DNC and get PAC and oligarch money out of their organization (which will never happen). They need to show the American people that they not only believe in change, they will get it done, and it will benefit the people. They need to ditch this air of superiority and moral enlightenment and just get things done, stop condescending to your voting base, and make your constituency feel like you hear them.

Anecdotally, my dad and I were talking the other day about the election. He supported Trump in 2016 with some enthusiasm (just because Trump wasn’t a politician and “I make more when Repubs are in office”). Him and I stopped talking for almost 2 years after the election. But the other day, he kinda surprised me by saying, “Y’know, I don’t like Trump, I think he’s an asshole, I didn’t want to vote for him… But I just can’t vote for those pompous Democrats.”

I told him how disappointed I was in the DNC, and he said he liked Kamala, but didn’t trust the Dems (I know, the irony is not lost on me). I asked him how he felt about Bernie, and surprisingly, he made a joke about how we’d all have to learn to talk with our hands if he won. But talking policy ideas, my dad supports all of Bernie’s stuff, he just thinks the Dems are out of touch with blue collar folks like himself.

He doesn’t care that you’ve written a letter condoning the breaking of precedent to the Parliamentarian, and through the process of Habeas Corpus and Secretariat, after 12 years maybe they’ll acknowledge they did wrong. Doesn’t make sense to you, right?

Well, that’s because it’s nonsense, which is basically what the average American hears whenever the Dems get on their pulpit and start finger pointing and blaming everyone but themselves about why they couldn’t get things done. The average American living paycheck to paycheck, who doesn’t have a college degree, and likely hasn’t taken a civics class since high school, doesn’t care about all of these little caveats and the intricacies of an arbitrary system of rules and norms that they created. They aren’t going to sit down and research various political theories and then do a deep dive on the various roles and powers each different tiny figurehead amongst the federal government has and does not have, rounding out the night with a hefty portion of the history and precedent surrounding constitutional law.

They’re just not, and we need to stop pretending they will, or that people will even do the bare minimum of understanding how a bill becomes a law. So run on things they understand, and then actually get them done.

But lying? Nah, look at the division Biden pardoning his son has caused on Lemmy, lying isn’t the answer. They need to run on actual, positive change, and then work to actually make it happen, not these half-assed attempts we keep getting like the ACA.

This turned into a book, but I liked your write up.

Finding out who the true allies are to the LGBTQ+ community.

Once I lose my VA disability, I’ll be priced out of existing, I won’t be able to afford my debt, mortgage, bills, and then food and such. I’d have to double my income overnight, and I have zero training or certifications or degrees beyond an AS in General Studies, so it’s not going to happen.

I’m less worried about the national guard than I am about local law enforcement across the country, Trump will give them the green light with impunity.

My biggest fear, though? They’re going to ban all LGBTQ±related healthcare using the same mechanisms as the Federal Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. “Sure, the states can choose the drinking age types of LGBTQ+ healthcare they offer in their state… They just won’t have access to federal funding if it isn’t 21 absolutely none.”

I know who you’re talking about, drag, drag has called me a racist, Trump supporting fascist who wants drag and all of drags friends dead because I had the audacity to criticize Harris and the DNC. Drag backed off that when I pointed out to drag that I’m a trans veteran who voted for Harris.

I’ve never had difficulty understanding drag, and as much as I think drag is full of hot air, I respect drag enough as a fellow human to refer to drag in drag’s preferred way. Drag is using the third person, this has been a trope in popular media for years and no one has complained about it.

Did y’all have a hard time relating to and understanding The Boulder in Avatar the Last Airbender? He refers to himself as “The Boulder” instead of his pronouns, where’s the uproar around that?

Let’s take it to real life: I googled it, pro wrestlers The Rock, The Big Guy, Santina Marella, Kanyon, and Stone Cold Steve Austin all regularly used the third person to refer to themselves. They used other pronouns as well, I’m not denying that, but you all act like this is some completely unheard of new thing that only these woke leftists are doing.

It’s respect, full stop. It’s the equivalent of someone saying their name is Rajesh and you say, “Eh, Steve is easier, I’m used to the name Steve, I can’t pronounce whatever you just said so the only way we’re equals is if I can just call you Steve.” That’s insane, y’all need to stop making excuses as to why showing respect to another individual is sooooooo hard.

And FYI, in writing this, I only had to go back and make three changes where I used an improper pronoun in when referring to drag. Again, if I can show basic respect to someone who called me a fascist nazi, why can’t y’all do it for your friends, family, and coworkers? It’s not hard, and I’m 30, so it’s not like I was brought up with zhe/zher/zhers and all this other stuff either my entire childhood, I didn’t learn what transgender was until I was in the Navy.

Edit: Drag told me I insulted drag and lied to Lemmy by defending drag here, so I’ve crossed it out and will let drag defend drag’s pronouns alone. Drag doesn’t want my help because, in drag’s own words, I’m a Nazi who purposefully misgendered drag and only wrote the above to insult and hurt drag.

Yet refuses to apologize for falsely calling me a Nazi:

But if someone asks me to refer to them a particular way, sure what not? It means more to them than it means to me.

And it costs you nothing. :)

Using someone’s preferred pronouns is a sign of mutual respect, your refusal to do so is a sign of disrespect to those around you. It’s really that simple, bud.

Do you call people Johnny when they tell you their name is John? It’s literally the same thing, they’ve explained how they’d like to be addressed, and deviating from that uninvited is just rude.

I get that they matter a lot to some people, and of course it’s super annoying (if not worse) to be referred to in the wrong way

It’s dehumanizing and disrespectful, it’s not annoying. I’ve had family members refuse to use an individual’s pronouns, but in a heartbeat correct themselves for referring to a pet by the wrong pronoun. I’ve had people go out of their way to call me “man, guy, dude, bruh” when I’m fem presenting, and I’m the only woman they’re speaking to that way while I get the “I talk like that with everyone, bruh,” excuse.

and if one group of people can try to force a change they prefer, I’m as much in my right to resist it if I don’t like it.

Correct, but then you don’t get to complain, like you are, that people get upset with you about it. You’re not free from the consequences of those around you simply because you have the right to feel differently on something like basic human respect for your fellow people.

I don’t get to complain that no one wants to have dinner with me just because they don’t like me taking food off their plates, even though I don’t agree with that societal norm.

We were taught about it, but most Americans don’t view westward expansion with the same… Reverence? Notoriety?

Like, I remember learning about it across multiple grades, but… Oregon City being the final destination, that’s not something I would probably remember a year or two later, nevermind a decade or more.

No, to the point where I’ve had a few friends and family members offer to buy me decorations (or they’ll text me of ones on sale), and I always turn them down.

Halloween, I’ll put out a pumpkin if I’m feeling frisky, but that’s about it. Christmas, I’ve considered getting a tree, and had a roommate that had a really small plastic one with two ornaments that’d we’d put out.

But they’re too expensive, they’re too much work to put up/take down (especially outside in the snow), they take up too much room both while in use and in storage, my dog would probably fuck with them or be afraid of them (Halloween), they drive electricity use and cost up, they can be stolen, they can increase fire risk, I normally live alone so it’d only be for my dog and I, the list goes on.

I tell friends/family, particularly for Christmas since many of them can’t believe I just don’t do decorations, that I draw a Christmas tree on a piece of paper and tape it to my wall every year. Costs $0.05 in ink, paper, and tape, and 5 minutes to put up and take down. Easily movable, lightweight, efficient.

Lol, sorry buddy, not something I can just… Do. There’s gotta be context/history/etc, lol, they’ve gotta earn it.

I told a cousin once I wasn’t going to be lectured on morality by a woman whose sole contribution to society was how much money she could spend at a liquor store. That whole post I wrote was honestly, according to my brother, some of the best criticism he’s read, quote, “You called her a lush without ever actually using the word, while also going up one side of her and down the other, saying everything the rest of us wanted to.” That cousin, to this day, will not interact with me at family gatherings.

I also once threw shitty advice I was given back into my boss’s face in my resignation text, to the point where he mentioned it felt “personal” when he called me to try to get me to stay. That was the resignation friends/family told me I should be a writer because, “You have a knack for telling people to go fuck themselves in a way where they thank you afterwards.”

My go to, though, when someone insults me is to usually respond, “I’ve been called worse by better.”

Are you saying the driver is wearing the seatbelt, the passenger(s) aren’t?

And how does the death result? Is it because of an accident? Are they messing/moving around in the car? Are they legally allowed to not be wearing a seatbelt in the vehicle?

There’s too many undefined variables I think for anyone to give you a solid answer.

America: our mail system is. USPS processes 23.5 million packages per day, and processes and delivers 318 million pieces of mail every day, to every single household in America, 6 days per week (7 days per week for packages).

They will throw mail sacks onto the backs of donkeys and trek them down into the Grand Canyon to deliver to tribes down there. They will deliver by bike, plane, boat, truck, car, etc. Hell, name any other organization where you could hand someone a letter and $0.62 and ask them to take it to Alaska for you, and they’d say no problem.

“Post” roads in the U.S. are named as such because they were roads built specifically for the movement of “post” across the country, and people have even argued that USPS (then the Postal Service) created the layout of the country as we know it.

And despite what many may think or know, USPS is incredibly efficient when it comes to mail and delivery compared to other countries. I remember them telling us during our orientation (I used to be a mail carrier) that back around 2013, representatives from USPS were actually flown to Germany to teach and help them start delivering 6-days per week. USPS taught Germany how to be more efficient at something 😂

Richard Cranium

Edit: someone beat me to it 😆

Currently, I’m a cabinet maker, and I was referred to my current employer by my state’s department of labor representatives. I’ve done damn near everything though: been a dishwasher, a chef (my longest held position at about 10 years), worked retail, was a pharmacy tech, delivery driver, the list goes on.

I interview well, always go in willing to admit what I don’t know but highlight what I do know, have a good attitude, and a decent sense of humor helps a lot (at least in my experience).

The thing that’s helped me find work the most has been my status as a veteran. Checking that box has opened more doors for me than anything else in my life because, to employers, it shows I’m more “mature” than those around my age, I’m dependable, learn quickly, don’t argue, and will get the work done if it needs to be done. It’s not surefire, by any means, but it has usually at least gotten me an interview with most places I’ve applied. Veteran employers like to see it because it’s something we can both relate to, and civilian employers like it because they know you learn a lot of soft skills through the military, and the maturity thing.

As an example, I was hired as a cook for a local brewery, but during the interview, the guy kept mentioning my time in the military and how he’d like me to start pushing their kitchen in a more professional direction than it currently was, despite the fact I had about 5-10 years less experience than their current supervisor and my military experience wasn’t related to cooking at all.

Not everyone has that on their resume, but it’s definitely helped me since I separated almost 10 years ago now.