NevermindNoMind
This is basically what Republicans did. McCain in 08, Romney in 12. The whole time conservative activists complained bitterly that they were losing elections because they were not nominating “true conservatives”. The RNC was putting their thumb on the scale to nominate squishy moderates believed to be more acceptable to the general electorate. The conservative activists, meanwhile, yelled and screamed that these squishes didn’t represent a clear vision of conservativism, they were just focused group tested sound bites in suits, trying to appeal to everyone and actually appealing to no one. Voters didn’t have a real choice, it was the uniparty kind of thing.
Then came Trump, bold no compromise vision for what his party and the country could be. Voters were willing to give something new a try. It largely sucked, so Biden a centrist squish was elected by a close margin just to restore sanity to government. Biden did do some big things, but he didn’t communicate them well over his term, voters didn’t see benefit, just more centrist squish politician talk stuff. So here comes Trump again, with a bold vision and a promise to shale things up. Voters were willing to put up with all the shit again just to have a politician willing to do something to visibly change their lives. Harris meanwhile ran safely to the centered, studiously avoided differentiating herself from Biden or staking out anything resembling a bold vision. Squish. No change, more of the same.
Dems need to stand for something, we need a vision we can offer to voters.
Probably more than that, Dems need a backbone to actually fight, and fight hard and dirty when needed. Voters are tired of gridlock and nothing changing. They elected the strongman because they figure he won’t get bogged down in political bullshit, he’ll just get shit done, even if it means breaking rules. It’s ok to break some rules if your doing it to help me, say the voters. Not to say that Dems should go all authoritarian, but they should be able to convey that they are going to do everything they can to help people, they’ll throw a few elbows of necessary, they’ll get bloodied and bruised and do what it takes to help people.
No more “but Republicans blocked us” excuses. The Dem president should personally go to the house chamber and occupy it until a vote is taken. Dems leaders should round up union memebers and storm the board rooms of corporations funding Republicans blocking economic policies. Dems should be visibly fighting for people. No more moderate squishes.
They wouldn’t even say “working class”, they would always say “middle-class”
NYT The Runup podcast had an episode following people door knocking for Harris in Philly projects. This was specifically one person’s objection to Harris “She’s always talking about the middle class, but what about me and my neighbors? We’re broke”.
Dems need to be the party of Bernie and AOC, activists on behalf of the working class, promoting policies of economic justice. Dems need to be the tough as nails union folk of the early labor movement, fighting bloody fights for workers rights against corporations and robber barrons. That’s why people voted for Trump, they want economic change and politicians actually willing to fight for it, as wrong as they are to put that energy into Trump. Right now Dems are the party of the elites, the corporations, Hollywood, the people with “In this house we believe…” signs in front of their upper middle class suburban homes - the party of economic establishment, of incremental change that at best makes a minor impact on people’s real well being. Dems are the party more concerned with using non offensive language than addressing pay inequality between workers and executives.
Dems dropped the mental of the working class fighter. Trump picked it up, but is welding it as a weapon for his own destructive aims. Until Dems take that back, with a legitimate economic agenda, with legitimate plans to help the working class, and with authentic candidates who can clearly convey to voters “I’m tough as hell, and with your help I’m going to take on those bastards” , until then we’re fucked.
The “Run Up” podcast had an episode following the Working Families Party while they were out knocking on doors for Harris in a poor projects type neighborhood. The first lady they talk to is hesitant to vote for Harris because she’s a prosecutor who jailed black men for weed. While they are talking and the canvasser is trying to convince her, her neighbor jumps in and he says something to the effect of “Harris is a woman and world leaders won’t respect her and get us in a lot of trouble”.
Is sexism/racism the reason Harris lost? No, I personally at this point think it has more to do with the Democratic party’s inability to offer solutions for working families - Dems are the center right party representing corporate interests and the elite while paying lip service to actual regular people, MAGA is viewed as the party of the common man, as bullshit as that is it’s what voters feel. I personally think the only way forward is an actual progressive platform which addresses fundamental economic unfairness in the system, and candidates who can connect to and explain that platform to regular folk of all races and demographics.
But you can’t deny that sexism/racism didn’t play a significant role in the loss.
Interesting issue. Does their belief in their right to power control? There’s that crazy lady in Canada who calls herself the queen of Canada and issues edicts and whatever every now and then (somehow connected to qanon, I don’t remember the details). Could a US official accept a “title” bestowed by her, since she claims nobility and authority?
My recollection on the emoluments issue was SCOTUS punted in the same way they did with respect to Trump’s ability to run for office after the insurrection - Congress must declare the violation, and the remedy is presumably impeachment. So the practical effect is zero, since Congress would never take this up, let alone impeach and remove. I’d love if Dems did though, it would be fun seeing Republicans defend their justice receiving nighthood from some weird ass secret society thing.
Very real. We know that we have cancer, the question is whether it’s in remission and we’ve got a chance to finally rid our body of it, or has it spread and metastisized to the point that it’s terminal. Can’t wait to find out! I’m sure I’m going to have a very productive day at work with this hanging over my head!
I’ll say, we had a guy do the scarecrow thing in a neighborhood I lived in when I was under 5yo back in the late 80s. 30 years later, the only actual memories I have of trick or treating at that age are the scarecrow guy and some shitty old guy who gave out popcorn balls. I can still picture scarecrow guy’s house and everything about the set up. Point being, congratulations on creating some core memories for a lot of kids!
Thanks for sharing this. It is a fantastic endorsement. It goes to the heart of everything wrong with the Trump Republican party in a way I haven’t seen the thousands of political commentators be able to do. It’s also just well written, a nice balance of reasoned journalism, humor, and outrage. This is probably the best thing I’ve read this election cycle.
Maybe it feels that way to you because the usual MAGA mouthpieces haven’t denounced Trump, but reality on the ground is different.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/28/trump-rally-puerto-rico-pennsylvania-fallout-00185935
“This was just like a gift from the gods,” said Victor Martinez, an Allentown resident who owns the Spanish language radio station La Mega, noting some Puerto Rican voters in the area have been on the fence about voting at all.
“If we weren’t engaged before, we’re all paying attention now,” Martinez said. He added the morning radio show he hosts was chock-full of callers Monday sounding off on the Trump rally comments, including a Puerto Rican Trump supporter who is now telling people not to vote for the former president.
Pennsylvania has about 500k people of Puerto Rican descent. In 2020, Biden won Penn by about .2 percent, around 100k votes out of about 7 million total cast.
With races this close, every vote matters. Trump just took a giant dump on a huge very prideful voting block that Harris was underperforming with, a week before the election. That’s why the Trump campaign, famous for always doubling down, took the notable rare step of rushing out a statement after the rally trying to distance Trump from the racist remarks. But Trump hasn’t actually denounced the insults and Vance went with the “can’t people take a joke” defence, so Puerto Ricans are just getting more pissed.
This shithead right wing comedian might have delivered this elections Comey “But Her Emails” letter. Single handedly tanking his god kings reelection for the lolz. Fucking ironic.
Edit to add more evidence for the skeptics:
There are signs the uproar is breaking through more generally. As Nate Silver observed yesterday , Google searches for Trump spiked to the highest point since the second assassination attempt. (And it definitely wasn’t a good sign that yesterday, more people were Googling Tony Hinchcliffe than TAYLOR SWIFT.)
On the island itself, both the Catholic archbishop and the head of the Puerto Rico Republican Party yesterday called on Trump to apologize. “It is not sufficient for your campaign to apologize,” Archbishop ROBERTO GONZALEZ wrote in a letter to Trump. “It is important that you, personally, apologize for these comments.”
From this mornings Politico Playbook, which links out to other sources.
