General Discussion

With Harris retreating very rapidly from the spotlight it's clear she's done what she wants to do at the national level. No concession speech, no legal challenges, no resistance plan from Congress, etc. She might go pick up the governor's seat in CA as her final prize.

So who's up? Warren? Bernie? Klobuchar? Newsom? Whitmer? Michelle? Buttigieg? AOC?

AOC seems to want it the most but the party doesn't seem willing to let her have at it. All the party infrastructure and followers are here waiting to be guided and tapped for funding.

Maybe we're in stasis until the new DNC chair is elected? February 1st? That's not unreasonable, and it's not a decision that should be rushed.

https://www.newsweek.com/dnc-chair-marianne-williamson-ken-martin-2006248

We have a lot of work to do as a party on our platform.

1. We need to pick a side on Israel/Palestine. No one has ever lost picking Israel, but if we want to gamble on the Muslims we need to go all in and stop giving weapons & intelligence to Israel, and eliminate AIPAC and dual citizenship. Any half-hearted effort is foolish because Republicans have 100% chosen Israel and are reaping all the benefits of it. We are getting zero political benefit being 20% or so pro-Palestine. But with Middle East politics shifting, maybe we could reap the benefits of a new alignment that moves in opposition to Greater Israel?

2. We need to establish an inclusive but politically palatable policy on trans women in sports and bathrooms. I don't want to put on my Santorum hat and figure that one out, but it feels like the longer we don't have something we can slap back with the worse it's going to get. It was an issue that went from theoretical to common very quickly for the public. There are trans women with male genitalia in high school showers now and it's not making the biological high school women or their parents comfortable with a 100% open policy.

3. We need to either go all-in or step back w/respect to Ukraine and proxy wars. Slow rolling cash to a country infamous for having a culture of embezzlement--with the results of that culture plain to see to all in Kiev nightlife--is foolish. The money and weapons were never going to be enough to hold Russia back and here we are with the front line in a perpetual state of slow collapse. Either declare war or stop wasting cash creating Maidans.

4. Stop mocking people for being concerned over grocery prices because sToNks and home equity loans are rocking your world. Not everyone has stonks. Not everyone has a home they can tap for equity. Most people struggle to come up with $15k for health and auto insurance each year (not even considering all the new insurances like "cancer insurance&quot . There's nothing left to invest for many Americans and most can't pay the deductibles on the terrible insurance they do have, let alone fight in court to get their claim.

5. Figure out where we truly want to be on immigration and actually do something next time we have power. We started off open borders, shifted slightly closed borders at the end of 2024, and I don't know where we are now but there are a lot of new immigrants here from all over the place. They're being given quite a bit of $$ in services, and there really doesn't seem to be any game plan as to how to handle them from our side.

I'm gonna end there but frankly there is just a lot to do and I think if you really look at our country right now, it sounds like it's running great because the stock market sounds good, but when you open the hood you see a lot of very old and strained parts that could fail any moment.