Greg Sargent
gregsargent.bsky.social
Greg Sargent
@gregsargent.bsky.social
Politics, politics, politics
Reposted by Greg Sargent
Because that's what's happening.
JFC. Does @schumer.senate.gov not get that by caving, Democrats make it *harder,* not easier, to make the ACA subsidies expiring stick politically to Trump/GOP? This effort to shame Republicans in this context risks signaling to low-info voters that Rs are standing on conviction and Dems aren't.
November 10, 2025 at 8:48 PM
JFC. Does @schumer.senate.gov not get that by caving, Democrats make it *harder,* not easier, to make the ACA subsidies expiring stick politically to Trump/GOP? This effort to shame Republicans in this context risks signaling to low-info voters that Rs are standing on conviction and Dems aren't.
November 10, 2025 at 8:45 PM
"The Appeasement Eight gave Republicans bipartisan cover, and established another point of leverage Trump has over Congressional Dems...in a rapidly backsliding democracy, harm is happening no matter what. Therefore, preventing authoritarian consolidation is the most harm-reducing move."

Yep:
I wrote about the "Appeasement Eight" Senate Democrats getting the party to fold to Trump in the government shutdown, and why it shows that pro-democracy Americans badly need a real opposition party, full of leaders who recognize the United States isn't a normal rule of law democracy anymore.
Democrats Have to Get Out of a Normal Democracy Mindset
By folding in the government shutdown in exchange for virtually nothing, eight Democratic senators aid Trump's authoritarian takeover rather than oppose it
www.arcdigital.media
November 10, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Reposted by Greg Sargent
That old metaphor about the frog and the boiling water isn’t true: If you put a frog in a pot of water and slowly raise the heat, the frog will jump out before it gets boiled to death.
The question now is whether American journalists are smarter than frogs.
My Stop the Presses newsletter.
How news coverage eases us into tyranny
When the media act like things are normal, they don’t reassure us – they gaslight us
www.stopthepresses.news
November 10, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Reposted by Greg Sargent
Wow. This analogy for how no one ever seems to hold Trump accountable for his constant lying. Perfectly stated.
November 10, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Reposted by Greg Sargent
There’s a man running the White House with a child’s mentality.
November 10, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by Greg Sargent
Excellent discussion on today’s pod. Thanks @gregsargent.bsky.social!

Rs ignore affordability at their own peril.
Trump is now claiming "affordability" issue that caused epic GOP losses is a "con." Repubs aren't allowed to contradict the despot, so that's become GOP gospel. Meanwhile MAGA coalition is fracturing.

On the pod, Bulwark's Joe Perticone is so good in explaining this:
newrepublic.com/article/2029...
Angry Trump Snaps at Media as Brutal New Data Shows Size of GOP Losses
As Trump seethes at journalists amid the release of striking new analyses of the election, a reporter who covers Congress details how Republicans are barred from acknowledging Trump’s unpopularity—a d...
newrepublic.com
November 10, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Trump is now claiming "affordability" issue that caused epic GOP losses is a "con." Repubs aren't allowed to contradict the despot, so that's become GOP gospel. Meanwhile MAGA coalition is fracturing.

On the pod, Bulwark's Joe Perticone is so good in explaining this:
newrepublic.com/article/2029...
Angry Trump Snaps at Media as Brutal New Data Shows Size of GOP Losses
As Trump seethes at journalists amid the release of striking new analyses of the election, a reporter who covers Congress details how Republicans are barred from acknowledging Trump’s unpopularity—a d...
newrepublic.com
November 10, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Reposted by Greg Sargent
To put things just slightly differently: Congratulations, Mr. Schumer, you just made Democrats part of the bums voters are going to want to throw out in 2026, if not sooner.
Great job, @schumer.senate.gov. You've changed the story from "GOP hurting millions of Americans to please unpopular, failing, delusional despot who's destroying his party" to "Dems are too weak and divided in the face of Trump's strength to take a stand and protect Americans"
November 10, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Yep:

"Caving as they were winning the fight, and as Trump abuses power to hurt regular people (withholding SNAP benefits, canceling flights) supposedly as 'punishment' for the shutdown, sets a nightmare precedent."
Yup, and the damage isn’t so much in the story as in the proof of weakness. Trump now knows he has new torture tools to make Dems do what he wants. It’s why at least one of the 7 capitulators oughta be run out of office now, mid session. Get that number down to 6. www.offmessage.net/p/16-thought...
November 10, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Reposted by Greg Sargent
Great job, @schumer.senate.gov. You've changed the story from "GOP hurting millions of Americans to please unpopular, failing, delusional despot who's destroying his party" to "Dems are too weak and divided in the face of Trump's strength to take a stand and protect Americans"
November 10, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Great job, @schumer.senate.gov. You've changed the story from "GOP hurting millions of Americans to please unpopular, failing, delusional despot who's destroying his party" to "Dems are too weak and divided in the face of Trump's strength to take a stand and protect Americans"
November 10, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Reposted by Greg Sargent
That’s just it. In the Democratic Party, the question isn’t moderate or leftist right now. It’s whether or not a dem understands that the old political playbook for dealing with the right is obsolete.
One point worth emphasizing here: The punditry has been saying Sherrill (and Spanberger) represent the sane centrist wing of the party versus the left. Well, okay, but here Sherrill is urging more fight. Again, the results show that anti-Trump + affordability can *unite* the party. This shows how.
This is really good to see: Miki Sherrill just put out a statement sharply criticizing the Senate Dems' pending cave in the government shutdown, ripping it as "malpractice" and a betrayal of the people who are "counting on us to fight for them." Sherrill knows what drove her victory. Wake up, Dems.
November 10, 2025 at 1:59 AM
One point worth emphasizing here: The punditry has been saying Sherrill (and Spanberger) represent the sane centrist wing of the party versus the left. Well, okay, but here Sherrill is urging more fight. Again, the results show that anti-Trump + affordability can *unite* the party. This shows how.
This is really good to see: Miki Sherrill just put out a statement sharply criticizing the Senate Dems' pending cave in the government shutdown, ripping it as "malpractice" and a betrayal of the people who are "counting on us to fight for them." Sherrill knows what drove her victory. Wake up, Dems.
November 10, 2025 at 1:50 AM
Reposted by Greg Sargent
Call these Senators! www.senate.gov/senators/sen... HOLD THE LINE!!!
1 @schumer.senate.gov
2 @welch.senate.gov
3 @SenatorRosen
4 @ossoff.bsky.social
5 @SenatorBaldwin
6 @SenatorKelly
7 @SenatorPeters
8 @shaheen.senate.gov
9 @durbin.senate.gov
10 @hassan.senate.gov
11 @slotkin.senate.gov
November 10, 2025 at 1:40 AM
Reposted by Greg Sargent
Wow!
This is really good to see: Miki Sherrill just put out a statement sharply criticizing the Senate Dems' pending cave in the government shutdown, ripping it as "malpractice" and a betrayal of the people who are "counting on us to fight for them." Sherrill knows what drove her victory. Wake up, Dems.
November 10, 2025 at 1:40 AM
This is really good to see: Miki Sherrill just put out a statement sharply criticizing the Senate Dems' pending cave in the government shutdown, ripping it as "malpractice" and a betrayal of the people who are "counting on us to fight for them." Sherrill knows what drove her victory. Wake up, Dems.
November 10, 2025 at 1:38 AM
Can't prove this but my strong sense is that the factional grifters have outsized sway with certain NYT reporters
This NYT framing is ludicrously overstated. Sure, there are primaries. But if anything, the results showed a lot of Dems that there's a way to unify the factions around anti-Trump and affordability politics (as I try to argue in the piece/thread below).
November 9, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Reposted by Greg Sargent
Gee, who knew opposing a permanent, violent fascist state would be popular too?
Mamdani-Spanberger-Sherrill axis suggests outlines of an emerging Dem coalition organized around anti-Trump *and* affordability politics. This is doing serious damage to the MAGA coalition. Its success this week undermines the idea of a big Trump 2024 realignment. 7/

newrepublic.com/article/2027...
November 6, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Reposted by Greg Sargent
THIS. If anything, I'm cautiously optimistic that the Democratic Party is finally getting the hint that being a broad-base party of the centre-left that works through its differences and tensions is a lot of work but preferable to being a cynical personality cult of sadists, gangsters & grifters.
This NYT framing is ludicrously overstated. Sure, there are primaries. But if anything, the results showed a lot of Dems that there's a way to unify the factions around anti-Trump and affordability politics (as I try to argue in the piece/thread below).
November 9, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Reposted by Greg Sargent
Democrats ran a variety of candidates in 2025, who tailored campaigns to their constituents—all anti-Trump, but offering different economic specifics based on their locales.

It was a big tent approach and did well with voters everywhere. Presenting that as infighting is an effort to generate drama.
This NYT framing is ludicrously overstated. Sure, there are primaries. But if anything, the results showed a lot of Dems that there's a way to unify the factions around anti-Trump and affordability politics (as I try to argue in the piece/thread below).
November 9, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Reposted by Greg Sargent
After a week in which Dems exceeded expectations in elections, Trump's popularity continues to tank, the GOP largely abandoned the task of governing (just as Thanksgiving travel approaches), I'm a bit surprised to see many more stories highlighting weakness in the Dem than in the GOP coalition.
This NYT framing is ludicrously overstated. Sure, there are primaries. But if anything, the results showed a lot of Dems that there's a way to unify the factions around anti-Trump and affordability politics (as I try to argue in the piece/thread below).
November 9, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Yep. Has NYT devoted even *one* stand alone news analysis to the collapse of the MAGA coalition?
After a week in which Dems exceeded expectations in elections, Trump's popularity continues to tank, the GOP largely abandoned the task of governing (just as Thanksgiving travel approaches), I'm a bit surprised to see many more stories highlighting weakness in the Dem than in the GOP coalition.
This NYT framing is ludicrously overstated. Sure, there are primaries. But if anything, the results showed a lot of Dems that there's a way to unify the factions around anti-Trump and affordability politics (as I try to argue in the piece/thread below).
November 9, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Reposted by Greg Sargent
Yeah Greg is correct here.
This NYT framing is ludicrously overstated. Sure, there are primaries. But if anything, the results showed a lot of Dems that there's a way to unify the factions around anti-Trump and affordability politics (as I try to argue in the piece/thread below).
November 9, 2025 at 5:16 PM
This NYT framing is ludicrously overstated. Sure, there are primaries. But if anything, the results showed a lot of Dems that there's a way to unify the factions around anti-Trump and affordability politics (as I try to argue in the piece/thread below).
November 9, 2025 at 4:10 PM