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Some Democratic senators regret voting to confirm Kristi Noem as DHS secretary (www.nbcnews.com)

submitted 1 year ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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Some of the seven Democrats who voted for Noem say they'd now oppose her in the wake of Trump's aggressive deportation plans and last week's incident involving Sen. Alex Padilla.

Five days after Donald Trump's inauguration, seven Senate Democrats voted to confirm Kristi Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security.

Nearly 5 months later, most of them are critical of her, with some going as far as to say they regret their votes.

"I'm very disappointed. I'm very disappointed in her," Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told NBC News this week. "If I were voting on her today, I definitely wouldn't vote for her."

Freshman Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., also said he would vote differently and oppose her nomination if he could do it again.

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[-] littlewonder@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Not directing this to you, specifically, but if you're in the US and you feel similarly, please please please use this anger at this "slow" part of the political cycle to get involved in your local political scene.

This can look like uplifting people who align with your values in political organizations, volunteering in a specific candidate's campaign to get them on the primary ballot, or even running for a local office yourself (yes you, even if you don't think you're qualified).

The people doing this "unsexy" work between elections are the people who eke out actual change. They always need more support during this time, and by becoming involved, you can see the impacts of your efforts, and get the right kind of people on primary ballots.

When these people win local and state offices, they build momentum (read: fundraising) and gain political experience they can leverage to run for even higher offices.

It's still a lot of work, and it's slow, but it's the realistic, proven path to affecting politics when you're not a nepobaby, a constitutional law professor, or a D-list celebrity.

All that being said, I very much support other activism for fighting the creeping threat of total fascism in the meantime as well.

this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2025

515 points (96.9% liked)

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