Texting with Friends
NOV 06, 2026
Like a lot of you, I’ve been texting with friends about the Democratic blue wave and what it means for our immediate future. Here are a few thoughts I’ve shared with friends; I hope you share some of your own in the comments section. Thanks!
- Democrats should come out swinging. The easiest clearest position to take is to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. (Should be higher, but still.) Instead, I’m reading stuff like this (courtesy of Nick Cruse): “Democrats are consistently going on tv and explaining their plan to lower the cost of goods is expanding Obamacare subsidies. Are these people serious? That is the tax payer funded giveaway to health insurance companies that has been proven NOT to reduce the cost of healthcare, but explode healthcare profits. This is going to be a disaster.”
- The Dems have won too many seats! Now they can’t blame one senator (like Joe Manchin) or the Senate parliamentarian for nixing their efforts. (Known as the “rotating villain” tactic.) Of course, the “coolers” are already being empowered (Jeffries and Schumer) to kill real efforts at change. I hope the new Dems are full of piss and vinegar and willing to challenge their own leadership or it’ll be 2006 under Pelosi all over again.
- AIPAC and similar interests have spent a lot of money over the years “buying” Schumer and Jeffries. The prospect of challengers from the left in 2028 is unlikely to drive them to move left themselves, but even if these men should lose in a primary, golden parachutes await them. Quick check: Schumer’s received at least $516K from AIPAC (actually, triple that number), Jeffries even more: $1.58M. Big Pharma: Schumer, at least $761K. Jeffries: at least $391K just in 2025-26 from the “healthcare sector.” These donors don’t give money for free. They expect results. Which is why one way or another Israel will keep getting its weapons, and we’ll never see Medicare for All. Unless we can get this big money out of politics. It’s a system of legalized bribery and we’ve got to change it.
- Our small donations don’t drive policy changes. If money is speech, as SCOTUS said, we are almost mute as big pharma, AIPAC, etc. speak with megaphones. Our voices and concerns simply aren’t heard and addressed.
- I just signed online petitions against Jeffries and Schumer. Here’s some info from the Schumer one: He is the Senate’s top recipient of pro-Israel lobby money, and his record follows it. According to OpenSecrets, Schumer has received at least $1.7 million from pro-Israel donors, more than anyone else in the Senate. He was the first Senate Democrat to publicly oppose the Obama administration’s Iran nuclear deal, and NORPAC, a PAC AIPAC’s leadership has been known to route money through, then gave his campaign $90,000. Progressives who want the U.S. to put human rights and international law at the center of policy toward Israel and Gaza cannot count on a leader funded this way. The new senators already see it. Senators-elect Adam Hamilton (Kansas), Troy Jackson (Maine), Abdul El-Sayed (Michigan), Juliana Stratton (Illinois) and Peggy Flanagan (Minnesota) have all said they won’t support him as leader. They ran and won on new leadership. We stand with them.
- Democrats must stand on principle and enact policies that immediately help the working classes, such as a higher minimum wage, tax cuts for workers and tax increases for the rich, an affordable single-payer option for health care, and major cuts to war spending followed by true investment in U.S. infrastructure that will create more jobs than the usual spending on deadly obsolete weaponry. Half-measures and empty talk will drive voters into the arms of potentially worse Republican leaders in 2028, leaders who will be far more disciplined in implementing their fascist designs than Trump’s ever been.
Final Thought: Is it too much to ask for our politicians to speak to us like adults? I did a quick check: John F. Kennedy’s speeches were pitched at the level of a college freshman. President Trump’s speeches are typically pitched at a high school freshman level, with his rallies at a sixth- or even fourth-grade level. Aren’t we as Americans tired of being talked to like we’re ten years old? And if Trump is incapable of speaking above a sixth-grade level, maybe he’s not qualified to serve as president?
Bonus Text: AOC supports “Leader Jeffries” for Speaker of the House. Not good.
Congrats you guys voted for Blue Zionism instead of Red Zionism!
Dominique Devereaux’s Son @wondermann5
AOC said she’s backing Jeffries for Speaker.
9:20 PM · Nov 5, 2026 · 67.7K Views
