I voted for Ruben Gallego last year. As the new junior Senator from Arizona, I had higher expectations from him after he replaced Senator Sinema. However, it's Arizona, a purplish state, so I expected him to be a moderate Democrat at some level. But this headline was just infuriating: Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego says Democrats "did this to ourselves"
At a town hall Saturday in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona encouraged the Democratic party to return to its roots as the "big tent" party.
"What happened the last election is that we got so pure, and we kept so pure that we started kicking people out of the tent," Gallego said. "It ends up there aren't enough people in the tent to win elections."
Gallego cited podcast host Joe Rogan as an example of someone "kicked out" of the tent because his message did not completely align with the party's.
"I'm sure you guys heard like, 'Oh, well, the Democrats need to have their own Joe Rogan,'" Gallego said. "We had Joe Rogan. We canceled Joe Rogan years ago. Democrats don't want to admit this. We did, and then it was, became questionable whether we should go on Joe Rogan or not. We did this to ourselves."
There is so much bullshit in there that I don't know where to begin. Democrats are the purity party? Have you looked across the aisle to see the Republican regime who is actively cleansing and purging the country to their myopic world view? Align ourselves with Joe Rogan? Fuck no. Did this to ourselves?? I can't even.
"I represent a state that has 330,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats," Gallego said. "You have to get a lot of votes, and that means we're going to have to have alliances with people that we may not agree with 100% of the time, right?"
Wrong. We don't need alliances with racists, bigots, fascists, insurrectionists, and misogynists. Does that sound too pure to you? You should be talking about these issues instead and focusing on taking down the regime, which would gladly deport you based off of your heritage and party affiliation. You're also a veteran who should be fighting for the Constitution every step of the way.
This success has fueled speculation that Gallego is considering running for president in 2028.
Good luck with that Senator Gallego. You're not reading the room when your base is angry and fearful about Trumpism, his Republican sycophants, and our fall into autocracy. You will not win a Democratic primary for president with this bullshit approach. See Governor Pritzer for some tips on how to read the room.
The pushback against Senator Gallego has begun:
Depending on whom you ask, Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona is either the future of the Democratic movement or Kyrsten Sinema 2.0, a self-serving climber willing to abandon his party, and his stated principles, for personal gain.
The first-term senator has been trying to establish his identity as a straight-talking, MAGA-friendly liberal for several months now. During last year’s campaign, he aligned himself with the Phoenix Police Department by supporting its opposition to a federal consent decree after the Justice Department found that the police force had discriminated against racial minorities for years and violated the rights of homeless people. Earlier this year, he co-sponsored the Laken Riley Act, a MAGA-fueled anti-immigration bill that some of his colleagues denounced for its potential civil rights infringements — a seeming about-face for a lawmaker who once vocally opposed racial profiling.
And he drew backlash earlier this year when he co-hosted a ritzy fundraiser with Trump-supporting venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, whose technocratic “manifesto” in 2023 was derided in The New York Times as “A Tech Overlord’s Horrifying, Silly Vision for Who Should Rule the World.”
I didn't vote for Sinema 2.0.
You can contact Senator Gallego here and share your thoughts with him.
