Congress nuked a multi billion dollar industry, and hardly anyone was asking for it other than a few prohibitionists and weed stock owners who felt the hemp market a threat to their non-hemp cannabis fiefdom. A complete curveball that will likely produce a 10k+ impact on employment.
https://grok.com/share/bGVnYWN5_ade36dbd-155a-4984-9ea3-662d...
If Mamdani’s victory is anything to go by it’s that the centrist Dems are toast. They will get primaried. They know this, it’s why the fall guys that voted to end the shutdown are not up for reelection during the midterms.
And, to be clear, is why Chuck Schumer is getting called to step down. It's beyond clear this was a coordinated effort orchestrated by leadership. Not only are they ineffective, but they seem to think their voting base is brain dead that such a strategy would work?
But hey, I just saw some of my fellow countrymen asking why child rape is wrong in a debate over Trump's presence in the latest Epstein files leak. So maybe I just have too much faith in people.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/17/aca-enhanced-subsidy-lapse-g...
I don't want my tax dollars wasted on subsidizing them. Give the money to someone who actually needs it.
(Of course the real problem is healthcare costs accelerating out of control. Insurance subsidies won't fix that problem. In fact they make it worse by encouraging healthcare providers and drug companies to raise prices even faster.)
Choosing to focus on healthcare subsidies instead of Congressional Republicans' lack of oversight of the President while most of the government is shut down by fiat and the President deputizes fundamentalist militias to attack and ransack blue states and cities was its own sort of own-goal as well. Turmp has shown that people want politicians that will stand up for something, even if that something is utterly horrible and self-destructive policy. Democrats must wake up to their pressing need for some spine transplants, ideally sooner rather than later.
The average American voter has the attention span of a goldfish. (Or at least, those who matter do; everyone else has already made up their mind and won't switch.) You won't get them by talking about constitutional limits of the executive branch, Trump ignoring congressional oversight, and such. Remember that there are people who googled "did biden drop out" on Nov 5, 2024.
The Democrats are in a new world. They've lost a cultural and information hegemony they had for 40 years, and thus, the playbook of the past doesn't work (for a variety of reasons).
This country is a brazen, open, corrupt oligarchy with an active distain for its people. I've genuinely lost any hope for recovery if the progressives need to completely overthrow their own party to even start resisting.
