Guess it is worth a try though since it's about only card we have.

Recent polls.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=20670408

And if there is anything we can bet on, it's that the regime will handle this as incompetently as they have handled everything else

There is a reason support for everything he does has plummeted. Already GOP folks are talking about "missteps" in their approach to the budget deadline.

Would you stop with that old, inaccurate trope.

I'll let you look up the approval polls.

And it gets worse when you look at approval / disapproval on things like the economy or free speech.

Approve-Disapprove

39%-60% (-21) AP-NORC

38%-59% (-21) ARG

39%-56% (-17) Economist/YouGov (this week)

40%-56% (-16) Gallup

43%-56% (-13) WaPo/Ipsos

42%-55% (-13) Strength In Numbers/Verasign



And on the topic of Free Speech: 35%-55%

Last edited Thu Sep 25, 2025, 09:02 PM - Edit history (1)

then roughly a 3rd of repukes actually identify as MAGAts your 50/50 mark is way way off. If if my numbers are slightly off, your estimation is still completely out in left field.

Hope you guys are planning on running on we won in 2016, 2024.

Only about 1/3rd of ELIGIBLE voters voted for him. This is what happens when people do not participate. 75 million people make the decisions for 250 million eligible voters and 330 million people overall. Saying we are "50/50" as a country is not only wrong, it gives him more credit than he even came close to deserving. Until we can get people involved again small minorities of voters will continue to make the decisions for all of us which of course is what the R's want. They could seldom win a toy duck if we could get 65% of eligible voters to actually vote.

Just for starters, roughly seven in ten Americans qualify as Christian nationalism Rejecters or Skeptics.

Breakdown:
Christian nationalism
Skeptics (37%)
or Rejecters (30%)
Adherents (10%)
Sympathizers (20%)

And note that Adherents are a mere 10%. That is the steadfast Charlie Kirk (and all the other Christian Nationalist demagogues) supporters.

https://prri.org/research/resistance-to-christian-nationalism-in-all-50-states/

Yes, some serious work is needed to combat the cynicism, "to hell with both your houses" opting out, and demonization of "government" as some evil, alien entity, instead of what it is, OURS to shape, that has handed power to insane people by attrition. But this nation is Not 50% MAGA.

their constituents will reward them at the next election.

Something we struggle at.

The simple messages suggested by @UnmuteAlabama are a good start for emailing the Democratic Leadership. And if your U.S. Rep and either or both of your U.S. Senators are Dems, they need to hear from you too. Call, ask them if there is a coordinated communications strategy on their refusal to be complicit in implementing the MAGA Murder Budget, and if so, what are the core, simple, messages, and how can you help? If they can't articulate a simple message, challenge them to SIMPLIFY. If they aren't planning daily press conferences on the capital steps and appearances on EVERY NETWORK (including FOX), they need to step it up.

The big message. Keep it SIMPLE! Repeat the same simple things until they are sick of hearing themselves say it, and then repeat some more. ONLY then do they have a shot at breaking through.

If our Democratic electeds have a problem, it's that some of them seem to think that if they said something once in a statement or press release, that's it. Done and dusted. They have something to refer to.

Pay attention to the regular "Daily Dems Doing the Work, Making Noise and Fighting Back Day xxx" summaries, like this one:
https://ariellaelm.substack.com/p/daily-dems-doing-the-work-making-547

Frankly, it's a learning curve. Going from being legislators -- which is what most of them consider their "job" is, to using their offices to coordinate on a 24x7 Communications Operation, doesn't happen overnight.

Should they have gotten their shit together sooner? Sure. More of them should be holding more town meetings in Republican districts, holding shadow hearings. They should be rotating leadership appearances on EVERY network (including FOX). More of them should be out there raising money not just for their own next election, but for State Parties that desperately need funds to build operational infrastructure NOW to start reaching out to and actually LISTENING TO “lost” voters. The model of parachuting in in the last weeks for a specific candidate is a losing proposition.

Pretending that NONE of them is stepping up is counter-resistance disinformation. And that is something that every patriot who opposes this regime needs to f-ing STOP. Hope is the life's blood of resistance as much as lies are the life's blood of authoritarians.

You are a messenger. We ALL are. Think about what you post. Even if posting a criticism, have you bothered to dig a little deeper to find something to add that inspires hope? If not, if you care about actually winning this fight, I suggest you consider finding ways to keep your own hope alive, and find ways to make sure you call on others to do the same.

And the message is Medicaid and the gutting of it by republicans. Hammer them with it!

because of these cuts. Probably proportionally higher in rural areas would be my guess.

... like emergency room closures, entire hospital closures, seniors losing long-term care placements, long-term care facilities closing...

We don't want to overwhelm with estimates, but a few numbers to make the case that this isn't just about some "low income" people losing their health insurance. It is about ALL OF US paying the price in less care, more expensive care, and in places already failing to serve the public, new "health care deserts."

Sadly, I know it won't.

I think they needed to pick their battles. If some concessions on healthcare are extracted, and guarantees that 47 follows the law (should be unnecessary given that he is already bound by oath, but oh well) and Republicans are unwilling to scale back on the 900 billion dollar windfall to the top 1% over 10 years* in the MAGA Murder Budget, perhaps they can carve out some dollars from the ICE budget.

A gal can dream.

*While this is not an estimate that has been published by the CBO, I'm taking the estimate of the number of people in the top 1% (1.5 million) x the estimated average annual windfall for that group of 64,000 x 10 years.

We (as in me and perhaps some other intrepid reader of this post) need to connect a few dots I haven't seen connected yet to justify an unequivocal assertion.

To give extra to the already wealthy. Don't neglect the class element. Trying to craft business friendly centrist campaigns has gotten us into this mess, we ceeded the center to them by giving up progressiveness.

... and keeping the enhanced ACA subsidy can be tied to a roll back of the 900 billion windfall for the top 1% that is in the MAGA murder budget as part of the budget to fund the government for the next fiscal year.

Obviously, if concessions are won on maintaining Medicaid appropriations and extending the appropriations to continue the enhanced ACA subsidies, there would be a call for those dollars to be offset, but I think they may be leaving the tax cuts out of the argument for the moment. They can only filibuster the next budget until that budget includes things that would effectively "repeal" parts of the MAGA Murder Budget, but they aren't taking on that the entire mess that was passed.

Frankly, I think they are smart to avoid getting "lost" in the forest. They are just going after key "trees."

If they had to cut medicaid and the ACA both job creators and great lifesavers for many, than those tax cuts for tge 1% are class theft. The 1% by definition have enough. The whole Big Beutiful Scam bill is ~4.5 Trillion over 10 years. And the cuts are pushed into the later part of the decade beyond the sooner health cuts in addition to the government jobs culling. The greedy wealthy are hurting the rest of us is actually an easier sell than hey help these needy people. We need to push the serious detail that these tax cuts for the already comfortable slow the economy as they can't and dont spend their money quick and local the way most of us do. The wealthy shuffle it amonst their inbred circle trading art, extra homes, property and other luxury
items and often in far away spaces later on. Joe Public can understand tge 1% didn't need extra if it means cuts to job creating services like health care, research.

...normally address revenue (tax cuts/increases). They are focused only on approving government spending/appropriations for the upcoming fiscal year (or some shorter-term). CR's and appropriation bills require 60 votes in the Senate to be sent to the floor for a vote. That is why the Republicans now require Democratic votes to actually make the cuts in spending for the upcoming year that they included in their MAGA Murder Budget reconciliation plan.

The MAGA Murder Budget was a reconciliation package that doesn't require 60 for cloture. It addressed both revenue (tax increases/cuts) and the plan for where the revenue would go (spending/appropriations). To pass it they only needed a majority. But to actually implement the spending side -- the appropriations, they need 60. Which is why reconciliation packages are not NORMALLY shoved down the throats of the minority party. You need them to implement it.

Anyway, I just mentioned that I'm unclear about how rolling back tax cuts could be tied in because this is an appropriations showdown.

Tangerine Ceaser is going on how we want to waste money on health care for "illegal aliens". So I feel we have to counter that as the cuts are to pay for Larry Ellison to buy Tic Tok and for that ilk to take yet more. I now understand how the GOP is muscling this through and how while we have leverage the noose of the recent tax package will remain.

Last edited Thu Sep 25, 2025, 11:29 PM - Edit history (1)

Say it loud and often.

Last edited Fri Sep 26, 2025, 12:11 PM - Edit history (1)

More in a previous reply:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220675016#post25

Billionaires don’t need bigger yachts. Do MAGAs need MEDICARE and MEDICAID? Do republicans in DC have or want spines?

Last edited Fri Sep 26, 2025, 12:12 PM - Edit history (1)

I think hearing that their monthly premium will increase by 75% (on average) may ring some bells.

"This shutdown isn’t just 'government dysfunction.' It’s a health care crisis manufactured on purpose."

Yes. Yes. Yes.

==================

Aka..volunteer victim.

but I think that the Democrats should frankly let the GOP shut it down.

We have come to the rescue of the GOP too many times. The ones who voted for Trump and his resident Nazis wanted this, wanted to prove that just how bad government was, and we've tried being responsible every time, even as we've been villified for it.

People are going to get hurt, quite probably people will die. Point is that the Trump-loving MAGA party will own this, completely and totally.

If the government shuts down, all of those Trump-loving MAGA will lose their disability checks, their social security, their government funding private contracts, their farm subsidies. The Blue states in general will be able to survive, even if with reduced income. The Red states will collapse.

This is unfortunate, especially for those Democrats and independents who live in those red states, but I think it will also have several follow-on effects. I think it's going to cause a lot of state constituencies to vote the GOP out regardless of any gerrymandering. It's going to cause a general strike that I suspect will likely topple other states. It also may very well force some serious discussion about whether the US continues in its current form.

far and wide.

Things will not get better until people are really hurting. And in the meantime, we need to be reminding who is hurting them and why they are doing it.

This is a great message.

And she's doing on-the-ground work in a very Red state.

You can review previous posts from her over there on her profile page:
https://sez.us/user/UnmuteAlabama

I've suggested DU to posters like her, but so far I haven't seen her here.

And if you do check out Sez.Us, remember that it is early days over there (The interface is a work in progress, but there are some valuable/interesting "regulars." )

If you aren't familiar, here's their about page:
https://sez.us/about

while screwing their contingency and blaming Dems.

And we have the advantage. The reality we are creating is actually REALITY.

Undocumented Immigrants ARE NOT eligible for Medicaid or ACA under federal law. It is a matter of STATES RIGHTS. States who have found that it serves ALL their residents to extend coverage are doing it because they KNOW it would cost hospitals FAR MORE for emergency treatment of the uninsured (which is required in EVERY STATE).

And as far as insurance coverage for Trans People. That too is a matter of STATES RIGHTS. And in America, states that stand with American Values provide coverage for gender affirming care because they believe Each and Everyone of Us should be afforded the FREEDOM to be who we are.

Anti-MAGA people MUST stop letting trans people be tossed under the bus. There is GREAT messaging on this in Anat Shenker Osario's Freedom Over Fascism Toolkit. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s0JbXhND7-1iqABNcUNL031NQLxkLfr-USkCKGZTidI/edit?tab=t.0

All to protect this POTUS' PEDO CLUB.

That's what it boils down to...