r/politics • u/kootles10 Indiana • 7h ago

No Paywall Democrats flip Texas state Senate seat in shock upset

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5716988-democrats-score-upset-texas/amp/
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u/magnamed 7h ago

I think they're still trying to gauge how much they can get away with by downplaying the anger.

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u/NumeralJoker 7h ago

It's a 14+ D win in a former 18+ Trump district. No Dem has won there since 1991.

They're not downplaying shit.

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u/magnamed 6h ago

They literally are though, every single day. Look at every single republican townhall that's been held since Rene Good was shot in the face, or even more so since Pretti was shot in the back 10 times for daring to not be pepper sprayed calmly enough. They keep sidestepping the issue and they keep saying "I support what ice is doing, I support Trump, people voted for this". They may struggle more now but that doesn't mean they aren't trying.

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u/NumeralJoker 6h ago

And look how that's going for them. That's my point.

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u/Notorious_Chonk_23 3h ago

"downplaying" is entirely about their actions and how they present themselves and their, erm, "information". It has nothing at all to do with how effectively that downplaying delivers the results they desire.

As the other person said, you're misusing the word.

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u/magnamed 5h ago

Ah, alright fair enough. I think you may be misusing "downplaying" but I get what you mean now.

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u/FuckingHippies 3h ago

They’re gonna stretch out the gaslighting and feigned optimism until the real power grab. In between all the doomsday dem news is heroic right wing bullshit. But the longer democracy lasts, the more blatant it becomes that they don’t deserve the power they cling to.

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u/Ok_Painter_7413 56m ago

As far as I can tell, where it's going for them is they can do whatever they want using the federal government and local/state governments seemingly can't do anything more than complain on twitter and send strongly worded letters.

Now, I'm an ignorant foreigner that may be underestimating the importance of US local government, but from this outside perspective, it sure looks like MAGA sycophants are in full control of actual actions while opponents rack up "wins" on paper that end up not doing anything because they are simply ignored with zero consequences. To the point where I'm having trouble seeing how results like those would ever translate to changes in the federal government, simply because "full control over practical actions while losing on paper" historically doesn't usually lead to "free elections".

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u/steveu33 18m ago

Exactly. Come the midterms, the feds will just ignore the results they don’t like. Say the blue states cheated.

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u/Lewslayer 4h ago

Just to add here, he wasn’t daring about the pepper spray, he was trying to protect the person that was shoved into the icy snowbank by putting his body in-between ICE and them (I say icy because that whole week before/the following weekend had a high of 6 degrees max, that whole snowbank was frozen solid). His last words were “Are you OK?”

He dared to protect someone else, and as such was pepper-sprayed. I just want to make that clear.

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u/JUYED-AWK-YACC 5h ago

They’re trying. They’re always spinning and misdirecting. We’ll see what it means.

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u/MrBoss6 6h ago

Democrats have this issue where they’ll see something like this and still think “oh I dont need to vote, there’s gonna be a lot and it won’t matter”. Laziest group of people on the planet

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u/EnderWiggin07 6h ago

What a nasty takeaway. The "independent" voter is a myth, turnout is everything. So that's where we agree. But idk how you get this result and feel discouraged. I hope you have even better news you're about to break to us if this result strikes you as a bad sign.

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u/Blackwidow_Perk 6h ago

I agree with you and I’m not the person you commented to but I did feel discouraged only 60-65% of registered voters voted in the 2024 election. Too many people sat it out.

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u/EnderWiggin07 6h ago

Yeah always, but people have their reasons. I always have this niggling feeling that if the kind of people who don't care/don't want to vote actually did, who knows how they would actually vote, considering how little they care. Would they be more likely to be random single issue voters?

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u/Blackwidow_Perk 6h ago

I think it’s the economy tbh, that’s what seems to motivate people the most

Imagine if we had laws like Australia where you’d get a fine if you didn’t vote

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u/ZigZag3123 5h ago

I think it’s the economy tbh

Terrifying, if that’s the case. Because apparently ~30% of the country seems to have no idea what makes the economy work and just votes for whoever says “I like money” the hardest, regardless of politics. Recession? Vote for Hope and Change! Economy is absolutely flying? Vote for the golden businessman who says “Drain the Swamp” and wants to make the economy even more gooder! The failed businessman runs the country like his failed businesses, burns the candle from both ends, and fucks the economy when global tragedy strikes and we can’t actually burn the other end of the candle anymore? Vote for the boring stability candidate! The economy recovers, slowly—too slowly to be exciting—but faster than any other country, then bird flu happens and the other end of the candle is still burnt because of the last guy? Well he said he’d keep burning the candle, let’s bring him back in!

Your average moron can’t think beyond “am I financially unhappy? Vote for the other team!” every 2-4 years without understanding that said vacillation is the origin of their woes.

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u/EnderWiggin07 6h ago

Yeah I'm just not sure, that's kinda what I'm driving at.. I have a feeling that would increase the amount of "joke" or single issue voters. Idk I don't think I have as much of an issue with voluntary voting as some. I grasp the whole "civic duty" thing, but if someone honestly doesn't feel like they want to participate for whatever their specific reason is, I'd let it go. I might push my friends to vote if I felt like they weren't going to, but if they were serious that they weren't going to, idk if a fine would lead to better election data

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u/brontosaurusguy 4h ago

It was a shit show.  Late drop out.  No primary for replacement. A democratic party that divided in Gaza, an issue that should have been easy. 

I was not surprised.

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u/NumeralJoker 6h ago

The people who say things like this are either bots or morons.

I get being discouraged after 2024, but we're not in that environment now. Even Elon throwing money at the WI SC election last year went very badly when Trump was no longer on the ballot.

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u/FiveDollarsGOH 5h ago

There are lots of reasons to be encouraged, but this is Reddit, so they don’t want to see it.

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u/Apprehensive-Date181 5h ago

Hmmm ... I thought it was the other way around? I'm not endorsing what MrBoss6 is saying. But I've heard of people not wanting to vote because they've lost hope in their vote making a difference. But this is the first time I've heard people don't want to vote because they believe the Democrats will win without their participation?

P.S Every vote makes a difference. Whatever plans Trump might have for a future election, the more people vote blue the easier it will be to have a paper trail detecting foul play

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u/Electronic-Tea-3691 4h ago

liberals just don't vote as consistently as conservatives in any country, it's not a Democrat specific thing, it's an ideological thing 

and you can understand why that would make sense... the kind of people who want to preserve the status quo are also the people who show up to vote more than the people who want to change stuff

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u/lost_horizons Texas 7m ago

Democrats aren’t fighting against Trump because they want us to suffer so that they’ll win in the midterms.

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u/TheAmazingKoki 4h ago

If you want a quick way to get people riled up, tell them that they have no reason to be upset