I know that congress is useless, but it’s not supposed to be. That’s why I like AOC being a prominent house rep and why I think it’d be great if we could primary out these old “democrats” (that just vote with the republicans half the time anyways) and elect progressives like AOC so that congress will actually work for the people and be a check on the executive power so that we don’t have any more presidents like this in the future… if we have a future

In that ideal world, the ratchet effect would finally work in the opposite direction. Instead of the left being dragged right, we would drag the right to the left. And honestly, it wouldn’t be as hard as you might think. Think of social security. There’s a fuckton of republicans that hate new social safety nets and food stamps and shit, but you’d have to pry their social security out of their cold, dead hands. I’ve already heard plenty of republicans and even full on trumpers complaining and worrying that trump and elon are going to take away their social security. The reality is, even if they don’t like it during the election cycle, once you give them a social safety net, it’s really hard to take it away from them. So you create a new standard for them, a new bottom bar that the right can’t cross for the majority of voters. In that ideal world, we’d also strengthen education across the country because education is the first defense against fascism. As the next generations are better educated, it will become harder and harder for the right to trick them into voting against their best interests

I think AOC is awesome and I think she’d do great work as like pres/vp, but I like that she’s a representative too. She keeps the focus on congress and does a good job of showing people that it’s not just the president that matters. I’d totally vote for her if she ran for president/vp but I also would like it if she just became a congressional leader (like official minority leader or leader of a new party) for actual progressives in congress. I don’t know if that all made sense, but basically I’m trying to say that people don’t have to keep aiming higher. She does and can continue to do good work in congress and that’s just as important as presidential work

I third this motion

I will say, it’s not all republicans. And I mean this in a “there’s still the slightest sliver of hope” kind of way, bc my church is hella republican leaning, with lots of old people, and they’re all fucking pissed at Trump and Elon. Like they’re calling him King Trump (mockingly) and a lot of them have complained about Elon doing the hitler salute. And yes, they’re the idiots that voted for him and are now complaining that he’s doing exactly what he said he’d do but this is our best time to try to push them back towards “normal” republicans rather than the openly fascist ones