I appreciate Neera Tanden's honesty and this particular answer struck me as one of the most important ones in this interview as it is truly the way to save democracy and get through the next few years while minimizing the damage to our institutions:
"TANDEN: When you’re in opposition, your job is to add people to your coalition, not subtract them. This effort at purity-testing people—I think that’s unhealthy to learning. You have to learn from what your opposition thinks or what people in the middle think. It actually makes you worse at your job if you think everyone who disagrees with you is some kind of bad person."
i agree and followed this post id like to see the dems argue for a more social democracy hope my party if any of it is left gets taken over and supported by mark cuban types to organize the party as a constitutional conservative party in the burke vain of the past century
Neera Tanden isn’t mincing words, and thank whatever’s left of democracy for that. She’s done pretending this is politics as usual. Because it isn’t. Trump’s second term isn’t a rerun. It’s a collapse in high-definition. Law firms are kneeling, institutions are buckling, and the Democratic Party risks looking like it’s waiting for Robert’s Rules of Order to save us from fascism.
Tanden’s message? We need leaders who punch like the house is on fire. Because it is. Her call for raw honesty, real opposition, and ditching the delusion of normalcy should be stapled to every Democrat’s forehead. The performative politeness is killing us.
And Whitmer? If you walk into a burning building for funding while Trump sets fire to democracy, don’t be surprised when you’re caught on camera choking on the smoke.
We absolutely need tge Democratic party and it's members of the House and Senate to understand the moment! THE GOP IS SYSTEMATICALLY tearing our structure of government asunder. They are defying court orders EVEN THE SUPREME COURT!
DEMS NEED TO GET TOUGH, GET ORATORICLY ROUGH AND STOP PLAYING BY RULES THAT NO LONGER EXIST!
IF one party flautes the rules..then there are NO RULES. DO WHAT YOU MUST!
All the Podcasts, all the Substacks, all the commentators are laying it out perfectly. But...
WHERE ARE OUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES AND WHY AREN'T THEY STANDING UP!
There is no existential threat - it is a real, solid, terrifying reality that is not a threat any longer.
WHERE ARE THE PEOPLE WE ELECTED AND WHY AREN'T THEY STANDING UP..
Individual people get thrown out of windows and jailed for years in Russia. People "disappeared" all the time in Chile, people in North Korea get the Otto Wambier treatment, people in China already know better while the Quighers are used for organ harvesting. When individuals stand up the hammer comes down hard unless you're a newsmaker i.e. Bernie Sanders and AOC. Ever notice we don't hear from Ilhan Omar anymore.
WHERE ARE THE PEOPLE WE ELECTED AND WHY AREN'T THEY STANDING UP!
Let's ask why the Democrats did not support Al Green. Let's ask why the Democrats are not hair-on-fire screaming about somebody sent to a torture chamber country. Let's ask what the hell are we going to do when orange man just "says no" (a Nancy Reagan motto) to the useless and Republican Supreme Court. Let's ask what are we going to do with all the hate that comes out of the Confederate defeated South that fueled all this from the start and now has spread faster than the most metastasizing cancer on earth, even if we can get back the Congress.
WHERE ARE OUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES WHEN WE NEED THEM!
they will show up when we the people elect them until that day comes it is what it is how do you make the change happens whereare they who are they are they in your neighborhood
arizona got two senators a small state and people funded think about that once a republican looking for the change here
Trying to bait her with each question is an interesting way to interview someone.
So Tanden gets yanked by Manchin b/c of mean tweets and her response was to go silent for four years? Hardly in a position to tell Dems and lawyers what to do today.
The first task of every governor is to govern their state under the circumstances as they are. Trump is a non-negotiable fact with which they are required to deal. Each has a prudential duty to their states to deal with Trump as best they can and that means different strategies for all of them. It is so funny that just a few months past Whitmer was the darling of the party but now she gets mostly shade from the same people who claimed that she would have been a better choice than Harris.
I can't imagine what Whitmer was thinking, agreeing to a "private meeting" with Trump and not expecting to get sandbagged.
Did she seriously expect to get federal dollars for a Democratic stste when he's specifically targeting them, and after his past comments about her specifically?
Of course if she didn't attend that would be a pretext for refusal of funds and he'd be calling her a coward.
Voters need to understand that no offer from him to a non-loyalist is reliable and that they have to see any interchange with him in that context. They can elect a loyalist instead, but the price will go up each time. Don't take the bait.
"EGAN: It seems like there’s a fear within the party about saying the wrong thing and getting roasted online. And it’s made officials less willing to be themselves." I couldn't agree more. But that's exactly what so many pundits (cough cough) do. You criticize politicians's real personalities and then insist they be more authentic. But they *are* being themselves in many cases but we simply don't find them interesting. Your criticism of Sen. Warren being one example. She is who she is, but it's not effective today. Many politicians are earnest and even passionate but hopelessly uncool. It's often an age thing--they really are too old. So my question is, what are Dems supposed to do? Try to be who they're not while trying to be a gal/guy you'd have a beer with?
When people use the word authentic, they don't seem to know what they're talking about. Who's more being more authentic, Senator Warren, a natural egghead, when she speaks professorially, or Senator Kennedy of Louisiana, with degrees from UVA and Oxford, yes, the one in England, who somehow just picked up a thick southern drawl one day?
Apparently you misunderstood my message. I do not believe it is "fantacy; it is fact. 1. The mechanism exists to impeach Trump or remove him as incompetent to govern. The Republican Congress has the "power" to act. Many of them privately acknowledge his inadequacy and quest for authoritarian power.
2. They lack the backbone and the balls to do the right thing. Their oath of office is apparently just an eighteenth century "scrap of paper". I have given up any hope they will do anything to protect the republic and the Constitution.
understood your frustration change will come from all of us one by one and from choosing smart people to represent us not get overwhelmed by nonsense and it will come from the bottom up one local community at a time right now not to stay cool but stay calm and alert
If it was a matter of backbone or cojones I might excuse them. It is worse. I think for the majority of them they have done their cost/benefit/risk analyses and have determined this is the most prudent course to follow for their long term interests. Acceptance and collaboration with the emerging authoritarian, illiberal democracy or hybrid regime seems unavoidable to them so they are just making the most they can out of the situation.
in interviewing some of us in the grassroots movement who have been speaking the same language. It just seems to me that the leaders of the opposition come from many different entities and one of them
I appreciate Neera Tanden's honesty and this particular answer struck me as one of the most important ones in this interview as it is truly the way to save democracy and get through the next few years while minimizing the damage to our institutions:
"TANDEN: When you’re in opposition, your job is to add people to your coalition, not subtract them. This effort at purity-testing people—I think that’s unhealthy to learning. You have to learn from what your opposition thinks or what people in the middle think. It actually makes you worse at your job if you think everyone who disagrees with you is some kind of bad person."
Neera Tanden is toxic. She shouldn't be near any presidential campaign. She lost me during her years pushing cuts to "entitlements SS and Medicare.
Why is Chuck Schumer too old, but James Carville is still considered a brilliant strategist? The times they are a changing!
i agree and followed this post id like to see the dems argue for a more social democracy hope my party if any of it is left gets taken over and supported by mark cuban types to organize the party as a constitutional conservative party in the burke vain of the past century
Neera Tanden isn’t mincing words, and thank whatever’s left of democracy for that. She’s done pretending this is politics as usual. Because it isn’t. Trump’s second term isn’t a rerun. It’s a collapse in high-definition. Law firms are kneeling, institutions are buckling, and the Democratic Party risks looking like it’s waiting for Robert’s Rules of Order to save us from fascism.
Tanden’s message? We need leaders who punch like the house is on fire. Because it is. Her call for raw honesty, real opposition, and ditching the delusion of normalcy should be stapled to every Democrat’s forehead. The performative politeness is killing us.
And Whitmer? If you walk into a burning building for funding while Trump sets fire to democracy, don’t be surprised when you’re caught on camera choking on the smoke.
Ben Wikler. Right. Turns out he's what pro athletes call a "JAG"--Just Another Guy. What could be less surprising?
We absolutely need tge Democratic party and it's members of the House and Senate to understand the moment! THE GOP IS SYSTEMATICALLY tearing our structure of government asunder. They are defying court orders EVEN THE SUPREME COURT!
DEMS NEED TO GET TOUGH, GET ORATORICLY ROUGH AND STOP PLAYING BY RULES THAT NO LONGER EXIST!
IF one party flautes the rules..then there are NO RULES. DO WHAT YOU MUST!
what would your democratic party look like who stays who goes it will have to be a coalition
All the Podcasts, all the Substacks, all the commentators are laying it out perfectly. But...
WHERE ARE OUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES AND WHY AREN'T THEY STANDING UP!
There is no existential threat - it is a real, solid, terrifying reality that is not a threat any longer.
WHERE ARE THE PEOPLE WE ELECTED AND WHY AREN'T THEY STANDING UP..
Individual people get thrown out of windows and jailed for years in Russia. People "disappeared" all the time in Chile, people in North Korea get the Otto Wambier treatment, people in China already know better while the Quighers are used for organ harvesting. When individuals stand up the hammer comes down hard unless you're a newsmaker i.e. Bernie Sanders and AOC. Ever notice we don't hear from Ilhan Omar anymore.
WHERE ARE THE PEOPLE WE ELECTED AND WHY AREN'T THEY STANDING UP!
Let's ask why the Democrats did not support Al Green. Let's ask why the Democrats are not hair-on-fire screaming about somebody sent to a torture chamber country. Let's ask what the hell are we going to do when orange man just "says no" (a Nancy Reagan motto) to the useless and Republican Supreme Court. Let's ask what are we going to do with all the hate that comes out of the Confederate defeated South that fueled all this from the start and now has spread faster than the most metastasizing cancer on earth, even if we can get back the Congress.
WHERE ARE OUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES WHEN WE NEED THEM!
they will show up when we the people elect them until that day comes it is what it is how do you make the change happens whereare they who are they are they in your neighborhood
arizona got two senators a small state and people funded think about that once a republican looking for the change here
Trying to bait her with each question is an interesting way to interview someone.
So Tanden gets yanked by Manchin b/c of mean tweets and her response was to go silent for four years? Hardly in a position to tell Dems and lawyers what to do today.
GREAT INTERVIEW with Neera Tanden! Thank you!
The first task of every governor is to govern their state under the circumstances as they are. Trump is a non-negotiable fact with which they are required to deal. Each has a prudential duty to their states to deal with Trump as best they can and that means different strategies for all of them. It is so funny that just a few months past Whitmer was the darling of the party but now she gets mostly shade from the same people who claimed that she would have been a better choice than Harris.
I can't imagine what Whitmer was thinking, agreeing to a "private meeting" with Trump and not expecting to get sandbagged.
Did she seriously expect to get federal dollars for a Democratic stste when he's specifically targeting them, and after his past comments about her specifically?
Of course if she didn't attend that would be a pretext for refusal of funds and he'd be calling her a coward.
Voters need to understand that no offer from him to a non-loyalist is reliable and that they have to see any interchange with him in that context. They can elect a loyalist instead, but the price will go up each time. Don't take the bait.
i think she was looking at the big picture just suggesting how Michigan fits a new world order
"EGAN: It seems like there’s a fear within the party about saying the wrong thing and getting roasted online. And it’s made officials less willing to be themselves." I couldn't agree more. But that's exactly what so many pundits (cough cough) do. You criticize politicians's real personalities and then insist they be more authentic. But they *are* being themselves in many cases but we simply don't find them interesting. Your criticism of Sen. Warren being one example. She is who she is, but it's not effective today. Many politicians are earnest and even passionate but hopelessly uncool. It's often an age thing--they really are too old. So my question is, what are Dems supposed to do? Try to be who they're not while trying to be a gal/guy you'd have a beer with?
When people use the word authentic, they don't seem to know what they're talking about. Who's more being more authentic, Senator Warren, a natural egghead, when she speaks professorially, or Senator Kennedy of Louisiana, with degrees from UVA and Oxford, yes, the one in England, who somehow just picked up a thick southern drawl one day?
when will Americans get smarter?
Apparently you misunderstood my message. I do not believe it is "fantacy; it is fact. 1. The mechanism exists to impeach Trump or remove him as incompetent to govern. The Republican Congress has the "power" to act. Many of them privately acknowledge his inadequacy and quest for authoritarian power.
2. They lack the backbone and the balls to do the right thing. Their oath of office is apparently just an eighteenth century "scrap of paper". I have given up any hope they will do anything to protect the republic and the Constitution.
understood your frustration change will come from all of us one by one and from choosing smart people to represent us not get overwhelmed by nonsense and it will come from the bottom up one local community at a time right now not to stay cool but stay calm and alert
I agree.
If it was a matter of backbone or cojones I might excuse them. It is worse. I think for the majority of them they have done their cost/benefit/risk analyses and have determined this is the most prudent course to follow for their long term interests. Acceptance and collaboration with the emerging authoritarian, illiberal democracy or hybrid regime seems unavoidable to them so they are just making the most they can out of the situation.
in interviewing some of us in the grassroots movement who have been speaking the same language. It just seems to me that the leaders of the opposition come from many different entities and one of them
is the grassroots.
The substack live "It Needs to Be Said."
represents the voices of the grassroots, our substack is The Grassroots Connector. I'm wondering if you would be interested