Four Questions Democrats Can’t Answer

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.


Here are four questions for Democrats that have no good answers:

What are you going to do about Syria? There is no plausible way of making substantial gains in Syria without committing to a full-scale invasion. And even that might not work. Like it or not, the real answer is that none of the candidates are going to do much about Syria.

How are you going to get a Republican Congress to cooperate with you? This isn’t going to happen in any big way. It just isn’t. There are some small-ball deals to be made, and even those are going to require a lot of grinding. Unfortunately this doesn’t make a very inspiring campaign message.

How do we get Vladimir Putin to back off? The same way you get Donald Trump to stop talking: you don’t. We’re already doing nearly everything we can to pressure Putin short of going to war, and we’re winning. Putin is desperate for some kind of victory, and nothing is going to stop him from occasional military adventures that are showy and impressive on the surface but fall apart if you dig half an inch down.

Why do you want to be president? The real answer is: to preserve Obamacare and prevent a Republican from appointing the next Supreme Court justice. Any other answer is just so much blah blah blah.

This has been News You Can Use for your post-debate consideration.

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate