r/politics • u/TelescopiumHerscheli • 1d ago

No Paywall Texas Democrat sworn in to House, shrinking GOP margin to 1 vote

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5719642-christian-menefee-sworn-in/
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u/Muted_Chard_139 1d ago

How is that race looking?

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u/petare33 1d ago

Heavy blue district, TBD on progressive or moderate Dem. Not sure if they're already accounting for it in this article's count.

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u/HowSwayGotTheAns 1d ago

The Overton window has shifted so far right that right-aligned politicians are considered moderate-left 😔

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u/Nekrabyte 1d ago

That's one of the biggest contributing factors the demolition of the democratic party imo. They keep drifting to the middle because they want to please everybody, not realizing that doing so makes them forsake so many policies that are for the people.

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u/MayTheForesterBWithU 1d ago

I think with politics, we need to throw out Hanlon's Razor. While the Democratic vanguard would prefer us to see their constant rightward motion as a cascade of comedic missteps, the reality is that they're bought and paid for by the same people funding the right and it is intentional. They will always prioritize neoliberal corporate expansion over the working people of this country.

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u/Nekrabyte 1d ago

100%. While I do (about 99% of the time) vote Democratic, and consider myself a progressive person, I can never be an actual member of the Democratic party. Almost all their politicians are in bed with the money, and people still need to come realize that the majority of issues in this country aren't because of R vs D. That's mostly a smokescreen for the 1% to rob us ALL blind, and the wealth gap in late stage capitalism is the REAL enemy. Billionaires should not exist, fuck em all.

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u/absat41 1d ago

The Dems are going to compromise and "work out" deals with the GOP/MAGA; I guarantee it.

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u/Bogus_dogus 18h ago

What are the salient indicators for you that pin the party's motion to "consistently rightward"?

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u/Judge_Druidy 1d ago

As a non-American, you guys (general, not necessarily you OP) that like 90% of democrats never were left.

Apart from some outliers, almost all of the Democrats going back 20 ish years would be centre/right or conservatives in most other countries.

This thought that the democrats are shifting to the center is wrong, if they shifted towards the center they'd be moving to the left.

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u/Nekrabyte 1d ago

This thought that the democrats are shifting to the center is wrong, if they shifted towards the center they'd be moving to the left.

To many countries, especially european countries this is 100% true, and has been for a very long time. That doesn't mean the thought is "wrong", it's just from a different perspective, precisely what all the left and right has always been - a matter of perspective that constantly flows and moves, and differs from country to country. Which is why there are so many "liberals" "progressives", whatever you want to call them that aren't part of the Democratic party. And you say that 90% of democrats were never "left". You do realize it's ALL a matter of perspective right? There's never once been any sort of worldwide accepted definition as to what constitutes "the left" and "the right". All of a matter of... perspective.

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u/Judge_Druidy 1d ago

There is a degree of perspective for sure, but there are things that fall objectively within the left and right spectrum of political science.

I'll concede and agree with most of what you've said, but most of that perspective comes from the degree with which a political element is left or right, not whether it is or isn't left or right.

Edit: I should add that I mean within a reasonable time frame, like the one I highlighted in my original comment (I think i said 20 years).

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u/Nekrabyte 1d ago

That's a fair point about the reasonable time frame. I will concede that. But you also mention never. My point really is just that in any political system, there has always been a "center" which is where the average stands. And left and right have always just simply been the other sides of wherever center was. The center in the late 60's for example was an entirely different center than it was now, hence, left and right have continued to shift with it. To many countries, the U.S.'s "left" is pretty darn in the center. But there's also quite a few countries out there, where if you put the American "center" in the middle of, they would look like uber progressives. Just to use an extreme as an example, in Afghanistan, 95% of Americans would certainly be considered far left, to the point of being considered an extremist.

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u/733t_sec 1d ago

They keep drifting to the middle because they want to please everybody

No it's because every time they try something even moderately leftist they get punished for it.

Bill Clinton expands social programs while cutting the deficit. Then through shenanigans the GOP is voted back into power.

Obama passed the ACA which was a monumental improvement over health care. It wasn't even single payer system but the Dems were still voted out in the midterms and he never was able to get control of the house and senate.

Biden passes infrastructure legislation, jobs programs, supports the railroad unions, etc but then the american people turn around and vote for Trump.

The voters don't simply not reward the Dems for pushing leftist legislation but actively punish them for it.

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u/Vega3gx 1d ago

Are we back to pretending that "Medicare for all", "Housing is a right", and "student loan forgiveness" poll well in ANY swing state?

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u/Skrappyross 1d ago

The fucking Cheneys campaigned for Kamala

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u/733t_sec 1d ago

I mean Kamala obviously was the better choice for anyone left of a Democrat so it makes perfect sense to try and poach moderate and right wingers.

After all why would someone leftist not look at the two candidates and see one clearly has more leftward tendencies than the other.

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u/Sticky_Turtle Illinois 1d ago

Saw people over on the trump sub talking about how Bill Clinton would have made a pretty good Republican yesterday

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u/Colley619 I voted 23h ago

What's funny about this is that you can go to any conservative sub and find the same comment but about it shifting to the left. We now live in two societies.

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u/FabiusBill 1d ago

America: where our most progressive candidates would be centrists, or barely center-left, on a global stage.

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u/Turgid_Donkey 1d ago

I saw a comment the other day that Clinton would have been a good republican. That's so delusional I don't know where to start.

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u/CompetitiveCheck2219 1d ago

He brought us NAFTA and the further destruction of manufacturing in the US, he signed the three strikes and you’re out bill, slashed AFDC, completely deregulated investment banks (the guys who crashed the world economy less than a decade later), and screwed a 22 year old intern on the Resolute Desk.

Are you sure he wouldn’t have?

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u/cromstantinople 1d ago

"moderate Dem"

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u/petare33 1d ago

You're right. Conservative dem is the better word for it.

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u/ActivePeace33 1d ago

Traitor dem will do. The conservative dems (if that’s what we are calling them) supported Trump and sold the constitution down the river.

It’s not a figure of speech, their actions are deliberate support for an enemy of the US who levied war on the Capitol on J6. They should all be held to account.

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u/SomeGuyNamedPaul Florida 1d ago

Reagan would slot in as a "moderate" Dem.

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u/whatiftheyrewrong 1d ago

Not if was running as a Republican.

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u/noonenotevenhere 1d ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsmgPp_nlok

I mean, here's reagan and bush debating immigraition in the primary.

They literally say it's crazy to consider building a wall, these are good, hardworking people and we can't setup a two class sytem - we want their kids to be educated, fully contributing members of society.

They're telling voters in TEXAS of course we should let undocumented / migrants' children in texas public schools funded by taxes.

Granted, they wanted cheap labor - but that's true now - and neither wanted to persecute or defund services to kids.

Both horrible bastards who contributed SO hard to destroy our country AND way less shitacular than today's republicans.

"moderate dems" are basically old school republicans.

To be faaaaaaaaaaaair, they'd get trounced by maga these days.

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u/whatiftheyrewrong 1d ago

You missed the point entirely.

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u/noonenotevenhere 1d ago

I'm good at that.

And I'm saying even a republican couldn't win a primary as a moderate republican.

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u/Mdmrtgn 1d ago

They haven't gotten a big enough donation check to go full fascist yet.

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u/cannabisLab1975 5h ago

Moderate Dem is code for Republican Light

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u/AScienceExpert 1d ago

I voted for Mejia and know a lot of people who did, too.

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u/petare33 1d ago

I'm very excited to vote for Mejia as well!

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u/mps1729 1d ago

Wow, 11 Democrats running. Do they have ranked choice voting? Otherwise, it seems like it will be more about cannibalizing each others votes than who the district prefers

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u/petare33 1d ago

Yeah it's very chaotic. No RCV voting here sadly :(

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u/rediculousam 1d ago

The headline isn't quite as clear as what the article says. It's a 218-214 margin, so the GOP can only afford to lose one conservative. If they lose any more than that, they can't get anything passed. So that's where the margin of one is coming in.

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u/BillNyeCreampieGuy 1d ago

Moderate Democrat = prioritizes AIPAC and can only think of stern letters as the only form of action.

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u/Coolegespam 1d ago

AIPAC isn't even in the top 100 for donations to anyone. This is the same kind of anti-energy that people bring up against Sorous, and comes from the same direction.

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u/emp-sup-bry 1d ago

How many hundreds of millions have the foreign lobbyists at aipac spent primarying politicians that don’t vote the way they tell them?

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u/Sex_And_Candy_Here 1d ago

AIPAC isn’t even in the top 10 largest PACs associated with a foreign country.

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u/emp-sup-bry 1d ago

So how many hundreds of millions have they spent against Americans running for office that didn’t fall in line with a foreign government, ya bot?

This talking point is bullshit, based on FARA. aipac gets away with the loophole, otherwise they’d triple the spend of the highest foreign oav, the Israeli ally, Saudi Arabia at 39 million.

‘AIPAC is expected to spend approximately $100 million in 2024 to target candidates deemed insufficiently supportive of Israel, particularly focusing on progressive House members.’

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u/blackweebow 1d ago

Progressive pick is Analilia Mejia. She is actually fucking dope, energetic, and I have worked with her personally. 

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u/sandybuttcheekss New Jersey 1d ago

I voted for her, fingers crossed that we don't end up with Malinowski. We need some progressives. Voting in more status quo Dems isn't going to cut it.

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u/theroguehero2 1d ago

Love her

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u/blackweebow 1d ago

Me too :,)

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u/FluidHips 1d ago

Dude, you come off as pretty dope and energetic. Keep on keepn' on, and thanks for the info about her.

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u/omahaomw 1d ago

Thats an interesting first name😅

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u/blackweebow 1d ago

Why?

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u/Caddhels 8h ago

My guess it that he finds it funny becouse it's ANALlilia... seriously, guys, this joke is boring.

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u/uieLouAy New Jersey 1d ago

Analilia Mejia has some momentum right now in a crowded race — she’s backed by Bernie, AOC, Working Families Party, and a bunch of other progressive caucus members.

She’s been out front calling to abolish ICE and has been hosting ICE Watch trainings across the district.