The Venezuela Social Media Situation

Why Saturday was the worst day for disinfo

This weekend was tough. Venezuela threw us all for a loop, which was by design. Trump chose the very end of the Congressional vacation, which also happened to be the deadline the DoJ had to tell Congress what was redacted from the Epstein files.

He wanted it to be complicated for Dems to get back to DC and he wanted us to stop talking about Epstein. This was all intentional.

He also wanted the Dems to be the ones who got the blame, and guess what, he got that too. I have been a political content creator for a few years now, and, without a doubt, Saturday was the worst single day I have ever seen in terms of the spreading of disinformation on the left.

So, let’s have a little chat, shall we?

1. Hakeem Jeffries does not, yet, have the power to open the House. Chuck Schumer does not, yet, have the power to open the Senate. The Speaker has the power to open the House and the majority leader has the power to open the Senate. That’s it. There is no magic wand Leader Jeffries could wave to change that reality. If you want Jeffries to have that power, he needs to be Speaker. Which means we need to win the majority back in November.

2. Since the Democrats are in the minority, they have limited power. Their powers include:

   1. Unofficial hearings (they cannot subpoena anyone to show up) and they have been doing DOZENS of them.

   2. Introducing bills, but that does not mean they will get to the floor, though, in the House, they have a better chance with a discharge petition, which, they have been using.

   3. Using the power of their letterhead. Yes, the “strongly worded letters” are a HUGE part of their power, and it is power. It is the power of a paper trail, the power of tying their name to a certain demand, the power of informing us of something we might not have known about, and the power of making an actual difference. I have posted so many times, at this point, of these letters changing the situation. They do work.

   4. Messaging. Yes, making noise, writing statements, and press conferences are some of their most impactful powers. But the only way they can be impactful is if your automatic response isn’t “DO SOMETHING” anytime they try to message about anything ever.

3. Every time I see anyone come up with anything they want Dems to be doing, it’s something they have already been doing, but no one paid attention the last time. For instance, do you know the last time the Dems held a press conference on the steps of the Capitol?

   If you said “when Booker and Jeffries did that sit in,” you would be wrong. No, it was actually December 18, the last day before Winter vacation. But it didn’t get covered by pretty much anyone, (I am guilty of not covering it either) so no one knew.

   So when you demand that they stand on the steps of the Capitol and denounce Trump’s actions with Venezuela, my first thought is, “It’s not like you’re even going to notice when they do.”

4. Why weren’t they in DC this weekend, well, first off, what I just said above, but also, they didn’t plan to be. Half of the job is in DC but the other half is in the district. There are a lot of natural disasters right now, especially in California, so a lot of Reps and Senators are having to focus on Venezuela AND something that is currently life and death for their constituents specifically. Not to mention, flights are being canceled, and especially the ones that are in HI, for example, there is no non-stop to DC, it’s a very hard itinerary to plan last minute. And, a lot of them have families. If you didn’t plan to have someone take care of your kids, or your ailing parent, that’s not an easy thing to do last minute. Remember, they are humans too.

5. If you want them to have all the powers, they have to be in the majority. This means we can’t do what happened in 2024. It means we have to vote for the Dem every single time. It means we have to donate to the DNC and the Dems we like. It means even if our favorite Dem doesn’t win the primary we have to vote for whoever the Dem is in the general. And it means voting in every single election no matter how small or when it happens in the year.

6. And finally, we can’t wait for Congress to do all the things we want done. Most of the things you want them to do, they literally can’t in the minority, but some of them are also our job. Messaging is as much on them as it is on us.

   1. Organize protests and go to them, not just the big ones, any one you can fit into your schedule, or if you can’t, make signs. And don’t just protest in the city center, make your location meaningful, in front of your elected’s office perhaps?

   2. Call your elected officials, yes, ESPECIALLY the Republicans. Be annoying. Without your calls, I promise you, they genuinely think that either what they’re doing is popular with their constituents, I mean, you did elect them, or their constituents just don’t care. Make sure they know otherwise.

      And with Dems, YES your calls do get them to push the boundaries more than they might otherwise.

I saw hundreds of posts on Saturday and I could count the ones that blamed Republicans on my hands. Don’t give Republicans power by helping them blame us. They KNOW we do their work for them, so let’s just….stop.

If you see someone blaming Democrats more than they blame Republicans don’t interact with them, just block or just press not interested. The more we engage the more the algorithms will promote their content. Saturday was awful but let’s make it a wake up call. They showed their hands so let’s be smarter next time. And for the record, with the Tim Walz announcement, next time is very much today. If your feed is filled with anti Walz content that’s from all the same people who blamed Dems for Venezuela two days ago. Don’t let them win the messaging wars again.

And remember, our votes and our voices are our superpower, but ONLY when we use them!