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Top Democrat seems sour after Mamdani-backed candidates oust House incumbents (www.huffpost.com)
submitted 3 months ago* by to c/politics@lemmy.world
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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) says New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is going to have to smooth things over with congressional Democrats after backing several progressive candidates who ousted incumbents during Tuesday’s primary elections.

Asked if Mamdani’s endorsements were making him “enemies” with Democrats in Washington, D.C., Jeffries told CNN that he and Mamdani “strongly” disagreed over his primary picks ahead of Election Day.

Now, according to Jeffries, the mayor has serious “work to do in terms of the conversations that he’s going to have with members of Congress moving forward.”

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[–] 113 points 3 months ago (22 children)

he has to apologize for being aligned with what voters want? isn't that, as political scientists call it, the whole fucking point of democracy?

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  • [–] 5 points 3 months ago (19 children)

    You of course know that america isn't really a democracy. It's a republic by design. And of course what it is in reality is a whole nuther something.

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  • [–] 12 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    This dumbass "republic not democracy" take has got to die already.

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  • [–] 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    It's true. When people say democracy, they usually mean direct democracy. That ain't what we got. We have a representative democracy, often called a republic. And even at that, the party establishment control who we can even vote for. So we only get to choose from the representatives they give us for the most part.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    A republic is a type of democracy. Specifically, it's a representative democracy.

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  • [–] -2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    When people say democracy, they usually mean direct democracy.
    And even at that, the party establishment control who we can even vote for. So we only get to choose from the representatives they give us for the most part.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago* (1 child)

    When people say democracy, they usually mean direct democracy.

    This just isn't true. The majority of democracies around the world today are representative democracies, and people colloquially refer to them simply as democracies.

    And even at that, the party establishment control who we can even vote for. So we only get to choose from the representatives they give us for the most part.

    That's partly true to varying degrees depending on what country you're referring to, but it also isn't that simple. The methods the establishment uses to control who gets party nominations are mostly indirect (i.e. media manipulating the narrative, PACs and dark money to campaigns, etc.). I think you're being overly cynical - which is fair - but we have more power than you think we do, we're just not very good at using it. Cynicism itself is one of the ways that the establishment controls who gets elected.

    In short: the establishment has a stranglehold on democracy not because our democracies are fake (flawed, maybe even rigged a bit, sure, but not fake), but because they have us out-organized.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago

    I agree that nearly no countries are direct democracies. But most people don't really know the difference. Just look how many people assume trump was the choice of the majority of americans. They don't know what the elctoral college even does. They think that they are in a direct democrqcy, though they don't know the name.

    Cynicisim itself does not mean one doesn't participate in the process. I onow how it work, I know how badly the cards are stacked against me, but I vote anyway. And I read up on the local elections to make an informed decision. But I know that of the few who do vote, the majority don't spend much time reading up on cadadites.

    And the establishment wins not because it is better organized, but because it has contol of more money.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago (8 children)

    It is a democracy, just a shitty type of one. There's a bunch of different types and only like one is direct representation where every citizen votes on every issue and every time humans have tried that, they get real particular about what qualifies as citizen so it's all more or less the same. Anyway, if you're past high school you should probably retire that line of thinking because it's reductive, useless, and actually false.

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  • [–] -1 points 3 months ago (6 children)

    When people say democracy, they usually mean direct democracy. That ain't what we got. We have a representative democracy, often called a republic. And even at that, the party establishment control who we can even vote for. So we only get to choose from the representatives they give us for the most part. So what we have is the illusion of choice.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (5 children)

    Nowhere in the world has that form of direct democracy.

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  • [–] 0 points 3 months ago (4 children)

    Hm, you should maybe google that before you say it.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (3 children)

    Provide example. Because there's no place that has a complete direct democracy with every citizen voting on every piece of legislation like you say.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (2 children)

    You put added words that I didn't say. Nice try. The specifics you picked out tell me you already know the answer. Good job googling. Clearly you also know your are wrong, so now you are trying to change the statement to fit your interpretation of what I said. Fancy.

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  • [–] 0 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Direct democracy means every citizen votes on every thing. You're the one that said direct democracy. It's not my fault you don't know what the words you're using actually mean. You should work on that.

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