Oliver Willis: I watched Democrats comply with Bush in 2001. All we got for it is death and destruction.

[Dennis Donovan]

Oliver Willis
‪@owillis.bsky.social‬
I watched Democrats comply with Bush in 2001. All we got for it is death and destruction. Right now the party is on a worse road.
December 11, 2024 at 6:26 AM

https://bsky.app/profile/owillis.bsky.social/post/3lcznj3oxuk2b

[JI7]

1. The election was in 2000. People got what they voted for

That's even more true now.

[Dennis Donovan]

5. They voted for Al Gore and got George W Bush

Had they finished the recount, the outcome would've been different.

[JI7]

6. Yes, it was close enough becsuse Gore was attacked from all sides

And people said Bush was not so bad becsuse he was the same as Gore.

[markodochartaigh]

15. Although far closer than it should have been,

the selection in 2000 was ultimately decided by voter disenfranchisement which enabled only 9 votes to count, 5 of which selected Bush the Second.


https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/how-the-2000-election-in-florida-led-to-a-new-wave-of-voter-disenfranchisement/

[Farmer-Rick]

23. Yup, and illegal voter purges helped W win Florida

The ACLU won a case against Florida due to voter disenfranchisement in the 2000 election. Where Choicepoint made a really bad, error filled list of minorities from more impoverished areas and claimed they were all felons. Florida then purged all those eligible voters from their rolls. Most on the purged list were never notified and were turned away at the polls

So Florida purged their voter roles of a lot of minorities who would have voted for Gore and who were turned away at the polls.

That's how Republicans win elections.

[Evolve Dammit]

21. Delusional idiots

[Uncle Joe]

29. No one attacked Al Gore's credibility more relentlessly than the corporate media.

"Al Gore claimed to have invented the Internet" instead of actually giving him credit for his profound legislative achievements, the corporate media trashed him, and they gave Bush an opening by demeaning the critical importance of the Presidency with bs propaganda as in "who would you rather have a beer with? etc. etc.

That was 24/7 corporate media propaganda, it didn't come from the left or the right.

The oligarch owned corporate media did that for the same reason that Zeus got pissed at Prometheus for stealing fire from Olympus and giving it to humans.

It was all about power and the corporate media saw the democratization of information via the Internet as a threat to their bottom lines, and power of influence, and that's why to this day the oligarchs are trying to buy it up when they see a threat as in Musk buying Twitter.

[Swede]

2. Trump and his band of malignant cretins will shit on the floors of government and smear it all over the country.

nt

[JI7]

3. They already did and people voted for it.

[Swede]

4. The sequel will be worse.

nt

[Think. Again.]

7. I've known it a mistake...

...for Dem elected officials to pretend rightwingers were just innocent people with "opposing" views on how to best run the country. They are not "friends across the isle". They are national enemies who's only goal is to exploit any position they get for their own excessive benefit.

It was also a major mistake for the public to believe that obvious B.S.

[rampartd]

8. i protested the war and the patriot act and the rest

and was reviled by many fellow democrats for it.

the anthrax attacks were aimed at the press and democratic senators but the fbi could never connect the dots.

no, we did not push back hard enough.

"weapons of mass destruction" ny times

"you are either with us or you are with the terraists" g w bush

[Cosmocat]

10. Prime example of the republican lunacy

that this country relentlessly indulges.

I could roll out similar examples all day long.

[erodriguez]

9. Don't obey in advance

[Meowmee]

11. Some d who are kissing orange psycho's ring

And calling for his pardon need to understand this. Appeasing a psychopath fascist does not work. It only emboldens them. And it won’t spare you their wrath.

[Javaman]

12. as I have long said, we live in a cartoon democracy. it appears like one, but it's so completely fucked up now

it's a joke.

[LymphocyteLover]

13. I generally like Oliver's commentary but I'm not sure what he's referring to here

with Dems being on a worse road

[Dennis Donovan]

14. Dems are part of the total electorate, and we're *all* fucked. n/t

[LymphocyteLover]

16. Sure, but that does't seem to be what he's saying... he's referring to compliance

[Dennis Donovan]

18. He's warning against our party complying with the incoming administration, GOP is largely complying

But, I think you questioned whether our party is on a worse road now than in 2001? I think he would've better described the situation had he said "country" instead of just our party.

Yes, we're in much deeper shit now than in 2001.

[LymphocyteLover]

25. Yes, although I think the better analogy is 2004, when GWB and the GOP got

full control of the govt, then screwed the pooch and then Dems won the House in 2006 and the presidency in 2008

[pimpbot]

19. To me he is referring to dem leadership

I'm afraid people like Schumer will talk some mealy mouth BS and say they need to vote with republicans "for the good of the country".

That didn't work during Bush and it sure isn't the correct course of action now. Its time to fight with fire. GOP love to shut gov't down, so can we. Force the media to talk about whatever crazy plan they are trying to ramrod through congress. We need OFFENSE, not defense.

Since we control ZERO parts of government right now, our only offense is to gum things up the best we can. Refuse to vote for anything they propose. You know they will be attaching terrible legislation to funding bills. No more reaching across the aisle. If they want our votes, THEY can reach across.

The problem I see is that many of our leaders also are funded by the money class. Its the only way to get elected/stay elected these days. The money class is going to apply pressure to "go along" with the plan. We will see what happens.

[LymphocyteLover]

24. Generally agree but we control some of the govt right now

[SunSeeker]

17. We must play hardball. Let Trump hang himself. And, we must really up our messaging.

Blue collar workers simply did not know Biden’s accomplishments. We must reach them, because Fox is definitely reaching them.

[moniss]

20. I have over the years gone back and forth

on my feelings about views from OW. Given the stuff from Fetterman and some other stuff I think great concern is certainly warranted and OW making reference to how it went in 2001 is very on point for today.

[LiberalArkie]

22. Yes, but a lot of upscale Democrats made a hell of a lot of money during the 8 years. In todays America, that is what is

important isn't it?

[Kid Berwyn]

28. THIS seems to me to be the central problem facing us as Democrats.

We believe, in a democracy, government's role is to make life better for ALL.

The rich already have a party. And a Congress. And the Judiciary. And soon the Executive. Again.

[Docreed2003]

26. I don't completely disagree

I can't fathom how we just spent over a year telling voters that Trump and his ilk are an existential threat to democracy, only to turn around and have some on our side single willingness to compromise or suggesting that we should bridge differences. It just doesn't compute to me and I'm sure I won't compute for most voters either.

[republianmushroom]

27. Yup

[Hassler]

30. I've supported Biden up to the election of Dementia Don Old.

But inviting him to the WH, and going to the inauguration really piss me off. For four years we were told by Dems how horrible he would be for the nation. Now, it's "let's uphold norms." So which is it?