So, with the republicans officially getting a house majority, Nancy Pelosi is apparently stepping down as speaker of the house and will not be serving as house minority leader. I honestly have to say here, good riddance. Nancy Pelosi is the kind of leader who has been in office for too long. She's in her 80s and is part of that geriatric democratic leadership that has to go. I kind of wish that her family being attacked didn't happen and that this didn't likely have at least some role in this, but I am largely supportive of her stepping aside regardless. We do need new blood in there.
However, I've been hearing rumblings that the guy poised to succeed her might not be any better. Hakeem Jeffries is a name being floated by the media. And this guy is kind of questionable. To put it simply the dude fits the template of what the democratic leadership has going for it. Woke and neoliberal. He focuses a lot on racial justice issues, but then at the same time, he has a strong anti leftie streak and is being considered by the left as "as neoliberal as they come" based on comments I've seen from the peanut gallery.
That said, I'm not sure really hot on this guy. My problem with Pelosi, and much of the democratic leadership, arent the people themselves. It's their ideas. As you guys know, I'm not a fan of economic centrism OR wokeism, and while the dems will obviously push these guys to the top of their power structure for a reason (perpetuates their current values), my reason for wanting change is that we need people with different ideas. For as much potential as democrats have in the future demographically, they seem insistent on replacing 80 year old leaders with bad outdated ideas with 40 year olds with the same ideas. That's why the party is pushing for Buttigieg and Harris and now this guy for speaker. But I'm going to be honest, I don't want that. I dont care if you're 25 or 95, if your ideas suck, they suck. And while I normally consider these kinds of ideas as pushed by the old generation, the organization itself is setting itself up to perpetuate their ideals and shut out the competition in the future. Which is why I went nuts and bailed on the democrats and have been so critical on them in recent years. It's not that I actually want to be against them, but I don't like their current brand, and believe it needs to change. And the reason I support third parties is to try to force them to change. If they won't change from within, they need to be pressured from without. Unfortunately, the major source of pressure comes from the right, who are already portraying this guy as too far left based on wokeism alone.
And I'm going to be honest too. I no longer really support what the left is doing fully either. A lot of them ARE too socialist. A lot of them have outdated and harmful ideas. ideas that are also competition to my ideas. They'd push jobs programs and perpetual labor at the expense of a UBI, for example. And while they have some good top level causes like medicare for all, free college, etc., ideologically I have as many differences with them as I do with the center. if not more. At least with the center most of my MAJOR grievances are related to economics. With the left, I also have grown significant disagreements on social and foreign policy issues, being largely against wokeism, and largely against the anti American sentiment of the far left.
So idk. In a lot of ways, I aint really a fan of the far left types either. I kinda sorta have an uneasy relationship with them push comes to shove where I WILL side with them over the centrists to get support on my pet issues, but honestly, in a lot of ways many of these guys are too far left.
Still, would I rather have a squad member? Generally speaking, yes. I mean, sure the squad is arguably to my left, but they still have better ideas than the center does on a lot of core issues.
Anyway, I'm not really sure I like this guy. I could be proven wrong, but eh...a lot of mainstream dems just aren't left enough for me, even if the actual leftists are too left for me. Honestly, my politics just dont align with the democrats well in specifics, even if I largely agree with them in generalities.
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