If Dems frame their opposition to Trump in ways that center a defense of one or more of those institutions - they are playing right into this hands. Those voters want - and have wanted for a very long time - an articulation of how to change "the system" so it works for them "again."

And "the system" equals both the state and the institutions that uphold and defend the system - elite universities and big corporations, the media and bureaucracy, and the immigrants that Trump constantly alleges are part of the plan to continue a system that hurts the white, working class.

From my point of view, it’s less about states and more about the DC based groups. They’re pushing messaging that centers Musk and DOGE - a fundraising strategy that appeals to their base - but almost ignoring Medicaid, which is visceral to a far greater number of people. It’s a losing strategy.

I don’t agree. The budget fight is THE fight. They are not separate fights. Elon needs his cuts to be codified and if we fight his terms by arguing in favor of general government spending he’ll win.

I completely disagree. When you have no legislative power, all you have is the force of public opinion. Spending time “educating” people about what you think they should care about instead of working together on the things you already agree on is a losing strategy.

That's my point. Why waste time educating people about DOGE/Elon when enough people ALREADY agree with you about the healthcare cuts? It's all one big fight and the professional advocates/party people are focusing on the most difficult to win aspect of it - and will lose everything in the process.

My point is not that regular working people don't relate to Medicaid - most people on Medicaid are working people - it's that most progressional progressives and professional Democrats can't wrap their heads around Medicaid and how important it is because they've rarely if ever known people on it.

Here's just the latest example of non-partisan polling indicating that the public is split on the cuts to the federal government: www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-e...

I completely agree that what DOGE is doing is catastrophic, but non-partisan polling shows that it is not overwhelmingly opposed the way that the cuts to the ACA and Medicaid are. As a matter of strategy - why focus on the issue with the least support?

The Medicaid - not Medicare - cuts have been a goal of the GOP elite long before DOGE was ever conceived. Of course the DOGE cuts are visceral to the employees directly impacted, but far more people will be directly impacted by Medicaid cuts. Professional progressives just don’t identify with them.