Since the 2024 election, there has been a growing schism inside the Democratic Party over its top priorities and plans to retake Congress and the White House.
Last week Intel whom we've given 8.5 billion dollars to and loaned another 11 billion via the chips act, is laying off ten or fifteen thousand people. The chips factory we paid for that was supposed to be done now might take until 2031 to start making chips. That's the Democratic way. The CHIPS act.
Also last week Trump came to a tariff agreement with Europe. 15% to import in our direction 0% to export to them. Cost to us, nothing. Companies making stuff here rather than Europe are 15% more competitive.
It's great that some Democratic governors are responsibly running their states. That doesn't necessarily translate to the larger economy. At best they earn some respect with the wealthy, not Joe and Jane lunch bucket.
Trump is economically further left on a lot of issues than either sides of the Democratic Party. Seniors got a 6K deduction, those women giving out free samples at Costco. Deportations open up apartments for rent, and reduce labor supply, pushing down rent and wages up.
My state has a pretty good Democratic governor, nice guy too except for wolves. He's been a really good governor, would I vote for him for President over a Republican, I don't think so and I'm a Democrat. We need a new party or an extreme makeover.
Thank you for your perspective! I completely agree… I’m registered as an independent but pretty much vote republican. I’ve thought for a long time these far leftists have controlled the Democratic Party. They are ideologues not pragmatists… and this scares me.
Trump is doing a lot … not all I agree with, however, he is forcing us to deal with uncomfortable issues like immigration. Hopefully our elected officials will do something and not kick the can down the road as they have always done.
I wouldn’t be opposed to voting for a democrat with some solid common sense ideas, but I would have to trust that they could stand up to the far left. So far, not seeing this .. will see what happens
They’d be about the same in terms of competitiveness were the tariffs to be implemented today, and are less competitive at the present moment since they haven’t, because the euro just got cheaper and the dollar more expensive. You have to have measures in place to neutralize exchange rate effects if you want tariffs to work, otherwise the movement in currency valuations cancels them out. Chinese tariffs (and American ones in the 19th century) work(ed) because their developing country status and several deliberate state policies keep the yuan cheap, despite the domestic taxes on imports.
Unfortunately I am 99% certain Trump either does not understand this, or does not care. His trade strategy has always been the application of blunt instruments where precision ones are needed.
Despite her reputation for pragmatism on economic issues, Governor Laura Kelly has repeatedly advanced a gender ideology–aligned agenda, most notably through her vetoes of legislation intended to safeguard children and uphold sex-based legal distinctions.
In 2023, she vetoed SB 180, which defines male and female in state law based on biological sex for purposes including restrooms, locker rooms, and identification documents; the legislature overrode her veto, and the law is now in force.
In both 2024 and 2025, she vetoed bills—most recently SB 63 (2025)—prohibiting gender medical interventions on minors such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, surgeries, and publicly funded social transition; again, her veto was overridden, and the law took effect on July 1, 2025, with all existing treatments for minors required to cease by December 31.
In contrast, her April 2025 veto of a bill that would have allowed foster parents and agencies to decline to affirm a child’s gender identity was sustained, meaning Kansas still mandates compliance with gender-affirmation policies in state-licensed foster care.
Taken together, Kelly’s record reflects a consistent pattern of opposition to emerging sex-realist protections, even in the face of overwhelming public and legislative support for clearer biological standards and child safeguarding.
Dems don't need candidates and office-holders who are as out of touch with the public on trans issues as Laura Kelly.
No evidence whatsoever that Ds are even making progress in blue states, let alone red. In NC (which technically is blue---in 2020 it had a D registered vote advantage of 175,000) the registration numbers have shifted stunningly: now Ds only have an actual 18,000 reg lead but in active voters, Rs now are UP 93,000. PA continues to shift to Rs, with the D lead now among active voters to only 80,000 (was 1.1 million in 2016). Rs gained almost 225,000 in AZ since 2020 and continue to gain in every new report. CA, meanwhile, has lost already 3.1 million off its rolls, and based on D/R splits from recent elections, this comes to about 2 million Democrats vanished. Rs had also net gained 250,000 before those purges. Only in NV, by a few hundreds, has the D/R lead gone back and forth. (Trump won NV when Ds had a lead of 88,000).
Now, when you factor in redistricting, which is already legally required in OH early next year, and which TX is about to undertake, you're looking at around 8 more House seats shifting even without the massive changes in registrations.
In short, touting a KS gov who barely won as a model for stopping any or all of this seems a bit optimistic.
Well, it usually comes down to candidates, but Ds have more contested state seats to defend. So I wouldn't agree with that take. By the time it washes out, GOP should gain 1-2 Senate seats.
I'm a D turned independent in NC. Popular immediate former Gov. Roy Cooper (D) has just announced for US Senate. He'll be competitive, but it's not a lock by any means. His misfortune is that the GOP has run out of whack job MAGA types to run statewide. They've all been humiliated in recent cycles, and the GOP base has learned its lesson after losing the governor's race to a fairly soft D.
Cooper's likely to face a much more poised MAGA type. He might be challenged from the left, too, as the state universities and metro cores are much more radicalized and tired of compromising. The NC GOP is solidly MAGA now. They hated Tillis and want to put what they consider to be a real R in that seat.
Maybe when the hangers-on fossils of the Democratic Party's geriatric Old Guard step down and make good on the promise of a truly "Big Tent" the Democratic Party will discover its centrists and moderates far outnumber its looney Leftists. And the latter will either get it right, or be vanquished to unsuccessful third-party status.
Until that day, Democrats will remain a powerless party of unsuccessful hype and marketing manipulation.
"Until that day, Democrats will remain a powerless party of unsuccessful hype and marketing manipulation." Unlike Trump's Republicans who need to run their key policy pushes out of sight and in a hurry - most R's never read the Big Bad Bill to see all it's contradictions, debt growth, etc. Me thinks you need to look a bit more at the Republicans in the mirror.
Oh Paul, please, you almost forgot about those tarriffs that Democrats assured us would inflict so much inflationary pain on the masses, their "mostly peaceful" urban riots and Tesla torchings, the cognitively acute Biden presidency, or the Trump-Russia collusion hoax, arguably the greatest political scandal in American history.
When a political party has lost the trust and confidence of a full two-thirds of the American public, its hardly the time to suggest the other side is the one in denial.
The premise makes sense, but harder in reality. Kelly would be a Rep in many Blue States. Andy Beshear is a nepo baby handed the Governor's mansion. His father was beloved, when Conservative Dems dominated the South. Most people elected Senior Class President have more difficult races than Beshear. He is hardly battled tested. In a national race, those outside of KY, will not care about his father.
Moreover, the KY legislature runs Rep nearly 4 to 1. Beshear does not have a prayer of enacting his most Progressive policies, so he does not try. Beshear certainly has not voiced opposition to open borders, trillions in Green spending, or child transitions, the policies that cost Dems the election.
Comment of the day regarding Intel. The unemployment rate for US citizen software and computer hardware engineers hovers at 7%, the highest in decades. This is the result of deals like Intel and millions of H-1B visas, championed by some in both parties.
Marc Anderseen, Netscape founder, has spoken at length that US STEM kids are being hit with a double whammy. Colleges that accept 1/3 foreign STEM students, or more, and H-1B visa holders, handed entry level STEM jobs. H-1B visa holders are preferred, rather than US citizen STEM grads, because the visa holders never complain about wages, working conditions or sexual harassment, so they are not sent back to their countries of origins. We are eradicating US STEM grads, before they exist, which will not bode well in the future, nor does it allow other nations with STEM grads that leave, to develop.
Sloppy logic abounds here. If Trump is so pragmatic and working on behalf of the little guy - or, "Joe and Jane lunch bucket" as you call them," why did he: 1) have DOGE eliminate the Federal Financial Consumer Agency (for working families!,) 2) Push a big financial bill that will alone increase the national debt by at least $3.5 trillion over the next 10 years, by giving tax breaks mostly to the wealthiest in our society while letting the future generations carry the load for his short term economic "success," 3) Unilaterally initiate huge trade tariffs and changes to labor regulations that will negatively affect working families, 4) Do a range of policies that will increase inflation through tariffs, immigrant worker forced deportation (food, construction, etc.),
5) Stripped the collective bargaining and union rights of more than one million federal workers. 6) Major cuts to key safety net programs like Medicaid and/or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. 7) Pulled the United States out of an internationally negotiated deal that would have set a global minimum tax on large corporations.8) Pushed for continuation of tax cuts from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit the richest households - passed in Big Bill. 9) Temporarily froze the payments of more than 2,600 federal programs, such as funding for apprenticeship and job training programs and scientific research grants; Trump sought to block the spending of government dollars that have already been allocated and approved by Congress.10) Directed federal agency heads to repeal finalized regulations without giving the public the legally required opportunity to weigh in those changes.11) Slashed staffing at the IRS despite its key role in identifying high income tax cheats and keeping tax income high to avoid national debt growth (Total hypocrisy, favoring the richest over a fair tax implementation system). 12) No, Trump is a billionaire who has always supported the wealthiest classes.corporations and gave lip service to average working Americans. A con-man can only succeed if the details never get out. The above is a taste of what has already been done - guided mostly by right-wing think tanks focused on lowering regulation and taxation on large corporation and the wealthiest Americans. And through the Federalist Society trying to get more right-wing judges to support these efforts on behalf of the earthiest in America.
When progressives are told to STFU with their idiotic statements for defunding the police, or abolishing ICE, or trans guys in women's sports, or "deficit spending doesn't cause inflation". Or in other words, when pigs fly because the Democratic Party can't get its progressive kooks in order.
The larger problem in the near-term future for the domestic and international economy is Trump's mercurial policy shifts. Long-term planning becomes difficult or functionally impossible in these conditions with all its well-known and generally dire consequences.
Add to that overt corruption, crony capitalism, the emerging crypto-currency bubble, reductions in Federal support for R&D, demolition of public trust in institutions and government and the abject failure of "The Dems" to mount an effective, consistent, coherent and compelling counter-strategy and nothing augers well.
When "elites" become disenchanted (i.e., they can't get jobs) on the heels of marginal employment, disintegrating social consensus and growing feelings of insecurity, disruption and chaos are likely. As Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin (a leader of the February Revolution 1848, France) trenchantly commented, "There go the people. I must follow them because I am their leader." And that's "The Dems" in a nutshell (except they have yet to figure out what "the people" seem to want).
A red state governor might win a national election but could never get nominated. The Groups must be taken on and defeated in their urban and suburban strongholds
Last week Intel whom we've given 8.5 billion dollars to and loaned another 11 billion via the chips act, is laying off ten or fifteen thousand people. The chips factory we paid for that was supposed to be done now might take until 2031 to start making chips. That's the Democratic way. The CHIPS act.
Also last week Trump came to a tariff agreement with Europe. 15% to import in our direction 0% to export to them. Cost to us, nothing. Companies making stuff here rather than Europe are 15% more competitive.
It's great that some Democratic governors are responsibly running their states. That doesn't necessarily translate to the larger economy. At best they earn some respect with the wealthy, not Joe and Jane lunch bucket.
Trump is economically further left on a lot of issues than either sides of the Democratic Party. Seniors got a 6K deduction, those women giving out free samples at Costco. Deportations open up apartments for rent, and reduce labor supply, pushing down rent and wages up.
My state has a pretty good Democratic governor, nice guy too except for wolves. He's been a really good governor, would I vote for him for President over a Republican, I don't think so and I'm a Democrat. We need a new party or an extreme makeover.
Thank you for your perspective! I completely agree… I’m registered as an independent but pretty much vote republican. I’ve thought for a long time these far leftists have controlled the Democratic Party. They are ideologues not pragmatists… and this scares me.
Trump is doing a lot … not all I agree with, however, he is forcing us to deal with uncomfortable issues like immigration. Hopefully our elected officials will do something and not kick the can down the road as they have always done.
I wouldn’t be opposed to voting for a democrat with some solid common sense ideas, but I would have to trust that they could stand up to the far left. So far, not seeing this .. will see what happens
I clicked a 'like' for your comment, but at this point, still can't see myself agreeing w/ your last paragraph.
“Companies making stuff here rather than Europe are 15% more competitive. “
Yeah that’s not how this works.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/dollar-rises-against-major-peers-after-us-eu-trade-pact-2025-07-28/
They’d be about the same in terms of competitiveness were the tariffs to be implemented today, and are less competitive at the present moment since they haven’t, because the euro just got cheaper and the dollar more expensive. You have to have measures in place to neutralize exchange rate effects if you want tariffs to work, otherwise the movement in currency valuations cancels them out. Chinese tariffs (and American ones in the 19th century) work(ed) because their developing country status and several deliberate state policies keep the yuan cheap, despite the domestic taxes on imports.
Unfortunately I am 99% certain Trump either does not understand this, or does not care. His trade strategy has always been the application of blunt instruments where precision ones are needed.
Despite her reputation for pragmatism on economic issues, Governor Laura Kelly has repeatedly advanced a gender ideology–aligned agenda, most notably through her vetoes of legislation intended to safeguard children and uphold sex-based legal distinctions.
In 2023, she vetoed SB 180, which defines male and female in state law based on biological sex for purposes including restrooms, locker rooms, and identification documents; the legislature overrode her veto, and the law is now in force.
In both 2024 and 2025, she vetoed bills—most recently SB 63 (2025)—prohibiting gender medical interventions on minors such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, surgeries, and publicly funded social transition; again, her veto was overridden, and the law took effect on July 1, 2025, with all existing treatments for minors required to cease by December 31.
In contrast, her April 2025 veto of a bill that would have allowed foster parents and agencies to decline to affirm a child’s gender identity was sustained, meaning Kansas still mandates compliance with gender-affirmation policies in state-licensed foster care.
Taken together, Kelly’s record reflects a consistent pattern of opposition to emerging sex-realist protections, even in the face of overwhelming public and legislative support for clearer biological standards and child safeguarding.
Dems don't need candidates and office-holders who are as out of touch with the public on trans issues as Laura Kelly.
No evidence whatsoever that Ds are even making progress in blue states, let alone red. In NC (which technically is blue---in 2020 it had a D registered vote advantage of 175,000) the registration numbers have shifted stunningly: now Ds only have an actual 18,000 reg lead but in active voters, Rs now are UP 93,000. PA continues to shift to Rs, with the D lead now among active voters to only 80,000 (was 1.1 million in 2016). Rs gained almost 225,000 in AZ since 2020 and continue to gain in every new report. CA, meanwhile, has lost already 3.1 million off its rolls, and based on D/R splits from recent elections, this comes to about 2 million Democrats vanished. Rs had also net gained 250,000 before those purges. Only in NV, by a few hundreds, has the D/R lead gone back and forth. (Trump won NV when Ds had a lead of 88,000).
Now, when you factor in redistricting, which is already legally required in OH early next year, and which TX is about to undertake, you're looking at around 8 more House seats shifting even without the massive changes in registrations.
In short, touting a KS gov who barely won as a model for stopping any or all of this seems a bit optimistic.
Hard to know which statistics to believe. Headline the other day stated Rs will lose a senator race in NC. It all comes down to the candidates.
Well, it usually comes down to candidates, but Ds have more contested state seats to defend. So I wouldn't agree with that take. By the time it washes out, GOP should gain 1-2 Senate seats.
I'm a D turned independent in NC. Popular immediate former Gov. Roy Cooper (D) has just announced for US Senate. He'll be competitive, but it's not a lock by any means. His misfortune is that the GOP has run out of whack job MAGA types to run statewide. They've all been humiliated in recent cycles, and the GOP base has learned its lesson after losing the governor's race to a fairly soft D.
Cooper's likely to face a much more poised MAGA type. He might be challenged from the left, too, as the state universities and metro cores are much more radicalized and tired of compromising. The NC GOP is solidly MAGA now. They hated Tillis and want to put what they consider to be a real R in that seat.
Maybe when the hangers-on fossils of the Democratic Party's geriatric Old Guard step down and make good on the promise of a truly "Big Tent" the Democratic Party will discover its centrists and moderates far outnumber its looney Leftists. And the latter will either get it right, or be vanquished to unsuccessful third-party status.
Until that day, Democrats will remain a powerless party of unsuccessful hype and marketing manipulation.
"Until that day, Democrats will remain a powerless party of unsuccessful hype and marketing manipulation." Unlike Trump's Republicans who need to run their key policy pushes out of sight and in a hurry - most R's never read the Big Bad Bill to see all it's contradictions, debt growth, etc. Me thinks you need to look a bit more at the Republicans in the mirror.
Oh Paul, please, you almost forgot about those tarriffs that Democrats assured us would inflict so much inflationary pain on the masses, their "mostly peaceful" urban riots and Tesla torchings, the cognitively acute Biden presidency, or the Trump-Russia collusion hoax, arguably the greatest political scandal in American history.
When a political party has lost the trust and confidence of a full two-thirds of the American public, its hardly the time to suggest the other side is the one in denial.
The premise makes sense, but harder in reality. Kelly would be a Rep in many Blue States. Andy Beshear is a nepo baby handed the Governor's mansion. His father was beloved, when Conservative Dems dominated the South. Most people elected Senior Class President have more difficult races than Beshear. He is hardly battled tested. In a national race, those outside of KY, will not care about his father.
Moreover, the KY legislature runs Rep nearly 4 to 1. Beshear does not have a prayer of enacting his most Progressive policies, so he does not try. Beshear certainly has not voiced opposition to open borders, trillions in Green spending, or child transitions, the policies that cost Dems the election.
Comment of the day regarding Intel. The unemployment rate for US citizen software and computer hardware engineers hovers at 7%, the highest in decades. This is the result of deals like Intel and millions of H-1B visas, championed by some in both parties.
Marc Anderseen, Netscape founder, has spoken at length that US STEM kids are being hit with a double whammy. Colleges that accept 1/3 foreign STEM students, or more, and H-1B visa holders, handed entry level STEM jobs. H-1B visa holders are preferred, rather than US citizen STEM grads, because the visa holders never complain about wages, working conditions or sexual harassment, so they are not sent back to their countries of origins. We are eradicating US STEM grads, before they exist, which will not bode well in the future, nor does it allow other nations with STEM grads that leave, to develop.
Sloppy logic abounds here. If Trump is so pragmatic and working on behalf of the little guy - or, "Joe and Jane lunch bucket" as you call them," why did he: 1) have DOGE eliminate the Federal Financial Consumer Agency (for working families!,) 2) Push a big financial bill that will alone increase the national debt by at least $3.5 trillion over the next 10 years, by giving tax breaks mostly to the wealthiest in our society while letting the future generations carry the load for his short term economic "success," 3) Unilaterally initiate huge trade tariffs and changes to labor regulations that will negatively affect working families, 4) Do a range of policies that will increase inflation through tariffs, immigrant worker forced deportation (food, construction, etc.),
5) Stripped the collective bargaining and union rights of more than one million federal workers. 6) Major cuts to key safety net programs like Medicaid and/or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. 7) Pulled the United States out of an internationally negotiated deal that would have set a global minimum tax on large corporations.8) Pushed for continuation of tax cuts from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit the richest households - passed in Big Bill. 9) Temporarily froze the payments of more than 2,600 federal programs, such as funding for apprenticeship and job training programs and scientific research grants; Trump sought to block the spending of government dollars that have already been allocated and approved by Congress.10) Directed federal agency heads to repeal finalized regulations without giving the public the legally required opportunity to weigh in those changes.11) Slashed staffing at the IRS despite its key role in identifying high income tax cheats and keeping tax income high to avoid national debt growth (Total hypocrisy, favoring the richest over a fair tax implementation system). 12) No, Trump is a billionaire who has always supported the wealthiest classes.corporations and gave lip service to average working Americans. A con-man can only succeed if the details never get out. The above is a taste of what has already been done - guided mostly by right-wing think tanks focused on lowering regulation and taxation on large corporation and the wealthiest Americans. And through the Federalist Society trying to get more right-wing judges to support these efforts on behalf of the earthiest in America.
When progressives are told to STFU with their idiotic statements for defunding the police, or abolishing ICE, or trans guys in women's sports, or "deficit spending doesn't cause inflation". Or in other words, when pigs fly because the Democratic Party can't get its progressive kooks in order.
The larger problem in the near-term future for the domestic and international economy is Trump's mercurial policy shifts. Long-term planning becomes difficult or functionally impossible in these conditions with all its well-known and generally dire consequences.
Add to that overt corruption, crony capitalism, the emerging crypto-currency bubble, reductions in Federal support for R&D, demolition of public trust in institutions and government and the abject failure of "The Dems" to mount an effective, consistent, coherent and compelling counter-strategy and nothing augers well.
When "elites" become disenchanted (i.e., they can't get jobs) on the heels of marginal employment, disintegrating social consensus and growing feelings of insecurity, disruption and chaos are likely. As Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin (a leader of the February Revolution 1848, France) trenchantly commented, "There go the people. I must follow them because I am their leader." And that's "The Dems" in a nutshell (except they have yet to figure out what "the people" seem to want).
A red state governor might win a national election but could never get nominated. The Groups must be taken on and defeated in their urban and suburban strongholds