Democrats just won what could be their largest House majority in decades but some battle-tested centrists are already warning their party not to lose it in 2028.

Those now-emboldened Democrats, who have long competed in battleground districts, are now urging party leaders to stick to this fall’s core promises on affordability — or risk a backlash in the next election.

Privately and publicly, these Democrats are urging leaders to focus on kitchen-table issues and avoid culture-war fights they believe could divide the party and invite Republican attacks, according to nearly a dozen lawmakers and aides.

For many, that means steering clear of transgender issues and policing reform bills they fear Republicans would weaponize. They also want to avoid left-wing priorities such as ending US support for Israel or abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Several Democrats also called for restraint in the party’s oversight agenda, warning that talk of impeaching President Donald Trump or his Cabinet should not overshadow that focus.

  • Hildegard (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    10 hours ago

    Not focusing on transgender issues means restoring the status quo. Trans people were able to change gender markers on their ID cards, and play in school sports, and not be prosecuted for using public restrooms before the current trans panic.

    Restore the rights we already had. Anything less is a betrayal, and a choice to join the fascists. Refusing to restore our rights is the opposite of steering clear the issue.

  • CalemitousVariantK@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    The Republicans murdered civilians in Iran, Venezuela, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, Minnesota, and all across the US.

    They fully turned ICE into the gestapo and have used it to terrorize citizens and legal immigrants and intimidate or murder legal dissenters

    They poisoned an already unbalanced media landscape.

    They destroyed national parks and monuments up to and including the White House.

    They have openly flaunted corruption in all branches of government to criminalize abortion which certain justices deemed established law in their confirmation hearings, accept presidential emoluments from foreign nations, destroy public scientific databases and erode public institutions.

    They abandoned our allies and global commitments to create a dangerous global security and food situation for decades to come and completely zeroed out US trust and soft power.

    What is too far? What the fuck could possibly be too far? Instead, be afraid that you Democrats don’t do enough, cementing in our minds that your party is useless, which will lead to the next situation being worse than the current one.

  • NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    “C’mon, guys, this is going to effect my bottom line, we can’t be controlled opposition if we’re not controlled! Who’s going to be bribing my vote, now, the gays? Fat chance!”

  • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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    10 hours ago

    So people turn out in the recent elections with a punishing result to republicans for their shit policies, and these newly “emboldened” centrist dems somehow take home the lesson that they should shift further to the right and appease republican interests?

    (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

    Fuck it. Centrists, go ahead and cosplay as republicans just like Kamala Harris did. That way when it blows up in your faces in 2028 when no one will vote for you, at least then you won’t be able to lie to yourselves by blaming the left for your failures.

    • ButtermilkBiscuit@feddit.nl
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      13 hours ago

      Look how many centrists won in the last election lol. We should definitely listen to these fuckwits and not just primary them from the left. /s

  • resipsaloquitur@lemmy.cafe
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    13 hours ago

    Transgender rights aren’t culture war issues.

    And if you can’t even stand behind that bare-minimum plank in your platform, what the hell good are you?

    • LuceVendemiaire@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      11 hours ago

      theres actual peer reviewed studies showing that them supporting trans rights is the position that gets them exponentially more votes. At this point you have to wonder if “pragmatism” is just cover for bigotry

      • ViceroTempus@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        I mean it is. It’s also because that’s what their masters want, so it sows discord amongst the working class.

        Want to be heard? Want change? Getting organized, and getting armed is the only way it will happen. They don’t fear us more than they love money.

        We can change that.

  • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    Several Democrats also called for restraint in the party’s oversight agenda

    And thus the donor-class MAGA-lite Dems like Schumer and Jeffries reveal themselves.

    I heard a historian give their opinion the other day that accountability – openly and justly holding individuals responsible for their crimes in government – was the reason that West Germany was able to create a thriving democracy after WWII and East Germany was not. I don’t know how valid that is, but it’s a possibility, and worth thinking about.

    On the other hand, I DO know that all we got from not prosecuting J6 was a kick of the can down the road and a far worse situation domestically and internationally than anyone ever saw coming. Trump has literally destroyed the last eighty years of world order and the peace and stability and prosperity that order created. Like bin Laden, Trump was only empowered to do far more evil and in far worse ways for not being held accountable for his known crimes.

    And the idea that it’s either one or the other, the economy OR accountability, is a false dichotomy. The US federal government has been in operation for 250 years now, in one iteration or another, and has always done a great many things effectively and simultaneously with ease, including Congress. It’s not even hard. It only takes political will to set that machinery in motion.

    Only a fool believes we can’t do both, and only a liar says we shouldn’t even try.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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    11 hours ago

    Gee, maybe that’s why there are over a million signatures on a campaign to ditch those leaders. They shouldn’t listen to centrists. People are very pissed at how things are going.