About some Congressional Democrats' frustrations with Bluesky

They should be doubling down on engagement to build deep relationships with the base instead of cutting and running

Less than 10 percent.

That was the approval rating of then Senate Majority Harry Reid in the powerhouse blogging community of DailyKos around late spring of 2008. It was during that time when folks in that community also started pining for Senator Chris Dodd to be the Democratic Senate Majority Leader because from their view point Dodd would have been a more aggressive leader than Reid.

I remember printing out that dismal approval rating from DailyKos on a piece of paper and showing that to Senator Reid in my weekly checkin with him around that time to give a clear read out about how grim it was looking for him in terms of his relations with what we thought to be a crucial part of national constituencies of the Democratic Party.

"They don't like me too much?" I remember Sen. Reid looking at this numbers with a wry smile adding, "this means we need to talk to our friends even more."

I am remembering that conversation this Memorial Day weekend as I have been reflecting on a report that came out about some Congressional Democratic staffers are giving up on engaging on Bluesky because they have become frustrated "after their bosses kept getting yelled at by Democratic users angry at their impotence."

It's weird to hear about few Democratic staffers in Congress feeling upset about getting tough feedback on Bluesky. I am not sure why they are so surprised as the Democratic base has seen the Democrats help the Republicans pass a brutal immigration bill in Laken Riley, confirm number of terrible nominees for the current regime, giving up leverage in the recent funding fight, and just recently help advance questionable crypto legislation which will further enrich the Trump family and similarly situated billionaires. I am not sure why Congressional Democratic Leadership should be expecting online version of flowers and chocolates when they come into a community filled with progressives given so many times the Democratic elected have refused to exercise what little leverage of power they have to mount an effective resistance against the current regime.

In fact when Democrats have fought like Senator Chris Van Hollen - like when he went down to El Salvador spotlight the plight of Abrego Garcia in - they have gotten wildy positive reception in the Bluesky community. Similarly Senators such as Elizabeth Warren has been able to rally the Bluesky community in her fight against crypto grifters which enabled her and her colleagues to slow down the advance of the so called GENIUS Act - the aforementioned crypto legislation enriching the Trump family - when it was all set to sail through the Senate. The reception Sen. Warren has been getting has been more than enthusiastic. Same goes for leaders such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who regularly come over to Bluesky and engage as if it were - checks notes - a community.

Can you really blame the community in Bluesky for souring on Sen. John Fetterman who guaranteed online progressives and Democrats via his email program he would "NOT be Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema"? I appreciate lot of the good work Sen. Adam Schiff has done over the years but his team shouldn’t be surprised to get a blowback in an online community of progressives when on hand he is sending out emails asking for money to take on Trump’s corruption while also voting to advance terrible crypto legislation that will enrich Trump.

Bluesky has emerged as community of professionals, academics, advocates, and citizens who are resourceful consumer of news not tethered to right-wing outlets and not subject to the toxicity of misinformation and disinformation at other places. So when Democratic leaders from Congress come to Bluesky they should come in with the mindset of engaging in conversation instead of just being in pure broadcast mode and expect kudos for that kind of one sided communication.

Going back to the story regarding Sen. Reid when he was getting hostile reception in progressive online communities, we decided to double down in our engagement with the progressive left to listen to the community, deepen the relationship to position ourselves for the long term fight. It wasn't accident that over the years Reid became a beloved figure in progressive online world. That took relentless engagement from both inside and outside the Reid operation to build relationships with both grasstops and grassroots of the progressive online world. It entailed taking hard feedback both offline and online. I personally took so much of it when it wasn't fun but at the end of the day we were able to build deeper relationships.

My plea to Congressional staffers - especially those in the position of leadership is pretty simple. Now is the time to double down. This is not easy and it was never going to be. But, if folks are really intent of steering the party out of wilderness, now is the time to build those relationships.