If you never went through Camp Obama go get the training the Clinton campaign is now offering. Learn these skills. pic.twitter.com/rxu2zdUVlo
— AlGiordano (@AlGiordano) May 12, 2016
Remember, organizing skills are transferable. Obama’s Organizing for America had a killer rep, and the Clinton campaign is using their playbook.
Application deadline is May 19. Link here: https://t.co/fkBQFc7epI https://t.co/7Cl0Tae4Zp
— Anna Peak (@AnnaLPeak) May 12, 2016
I know more than a few who were accepted for the OfA fellowships, including over-50 and over-60. https://t.co/q4Bme23nUa
— AlGiordano (@AlGiordano) May 12, 2016
Setting one up is beyond my pay grade, but I’m assuming there will another Balloon Juice ActBlue campaign once the primary season finally ends. If there’s a local area candidate you think deserves support, leave a comment below.
VoteRiders is making sure that no eligible citizen is denied his or her right to vote for lack of ID.
VoteRiders focuses on states with government-issued voter ID laws or that require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote. Our current priority state is Wisconsin, and we are also supporting efforts in AL, AZ, FL, GA, IN, KS, MS, NC, ND, NH, RI, SC, TN, TX, and VA…
And just for fun, #GoVote. (I personally like judge-y John Adams, but 99.995% of the population would identify that image as Bernie Sanders.)
Jeffro
Love this!
Wish I had the 15-30+ hours/week for the HFA training, but not this time, unfortunately. On a more positive note, VoteRiders, I’m in!
different-church-lady
HOW DOES SHE EXPECT TO WIN OVER SANDERS SUPPORTERS IF ALL US OLDS WON’T JUST GET OUT OF THE WAY AND DIE OFF ALREADY?
ellie
That is excellent news!
rikyrah
I won’t sign up, but I’m glad she got the picture.
This can be nothing but positive news.
Poopyman
Open thread, so lemme drop this right here:
H/T Atrios
Ohio Mom
There are 16 states targeted by Vote Riders in which voters face ID challenges. Someone who is better than I am at doing math in my head — does that come out to 32% of the 50 states? Yikes. That is a sizeable number.
different-church-lady
@Poopyman: Can hardly wait for the first reports of teachers being pepper-sprayed by students.
Schlemazel Khan
@Poopyman:
What could possibly go wrong?
Schlemazel Khan
Sooooooo . . . are these Obama camps set up in the basements of abandoned Walmarts?
Frankensteinbeck
@different-church-lady:
This is high school. The victim will be someone unpopular, and the school administration will tell the victim it’s their fault, congratulate themselves on the result they wanted, and try to keep it out of the news. It’s plausible, even likely, that there is a known (hard to keep it a secret in school) TG student and this is a message to the student body to bully the freak until they conform, commit suicide, or run away crying.
Amaranthine RBG
Help elect the first female president by becoming a “fellow”
Facepalm.
amk
@Amaranthine RBG:
fellowship noun (GROUP) :
formal a group of people or an organization with the same purpose:
Villago Delenda Est
In response to Morzer from last night, this is why Hillary will destroy the Donald, without regard to her negatives.
She’s going to GOTV.
Drumpf is doomed.
Villago Delenda Est
@Frankensteinbeck: From what I’ve read, the school administration is having this policy imposed on them by the school board, which from a bit of reading of the comments in the local paper, is not exactly on an even keel.
rikyrah
@Frankensteinbeck:
and, the student won’t be TG.
I can pretty much bet on this.
Of the first 100 cases of someone pulling the spray…
99 will NOT involve a TG teen.
And, for those 99….
SUE SUE SUE
gene108
@Poopyman:
What’s interesting about the bathroom bill is there seems to be a group of folks on the right, who are programmed to panic, when their trusted leaders or news sources start telling them to panic.
These same folks paid no mind to transgender people going to the bathroom, but now they act like there’s a evil cabal of transgender people about to storm ladies restrooms, but have thankfully been thwarted by HB2.
Same folks were freaking out about the New Black Panther Party, in Philadelphia, a couple of elections ago because Fox ran some footage 24/7 for a few days.
I cannot grock my mind around that way of thinking, but there it is.
raven
@gene108: I have a buddy that brings the Panthers up all the time.
smith
I see Harry Reid is letting his freak flag fly. Reid and Warren are demonstrating that Dems needn’t be meek and civil. We could use a lot more of this.
Rolling Along
All the volunteers in the world can’t make up for the #Twitterization of politics this election, and Trump is a Jedi Master at Twitter (and trolling the media for free publicity!)
#FreeMedia
#AllTrumpAllTheTime
Amir Khalid
@Amaranthine RBG:
In this sense of the word (a member of a group with a common purpose) a “fellow” is not necessarily a man.
Frankensteinbeck
@Villago Delenda Est:
That is a relief, actually! It reduces the likelihood of all the worst scenarios, particularly whether the pepper spray is ever used. The students will know the authorities they deal with personally aren’t trying to look the other way. It will still be a message to increase bullying, alas. If there’s a school/board disconnect, I can cross my fingers for a student body of a different social composition than the board, who will take it as incitement to protest intolerance. Not one of the likelier scenarios, but it happens and would be nice.
raven
The punk is back
Tim C.
@Villago Delenda Est: This. The number of crazy (or just plain out of touch) school boards as compared to administrations is not balanced. Most high school administrators have a fairly well-developed sense of ‘how-not-to-draw -huge-amounts-of-attention-to-political-matters.” The 2005 Dover case in PA is a good example of this. Board got a stick up their butts about “taking a stand” for Jesus. Every administrator and teacher in the district told them this was a stupid idea. Hillarity and million-dollar lawsuits ensued.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitzmiller_v._Dover_Area_School_District
gene108
@Frankensteinbeck:
I personally believe teenage boys will have pepper spray fights in the hallways until someone pokes an eye out.
Or kids, bored in class, will be trying to tag each other with pepper spray because being hit with pepper spray is more interesting than whatever the teacher is talking about.
At which point they need come up with new rules about when you can take out your pepper spray creating one more administrative nuisance for teachers to deal with.
Miss Bianca
@smith: Love it. “NFLTG” suddenly seems to be the new black with my favorite Democrats. May the fashion trend continue long and proud!
Amir Khalid
@Villago Delenda Est:
I would have thought that letting regular teenagers (never mind the testosteroniest jocks and bullies, whom you can find in any school population) bring pepper spray to school was one of those ideas too obviously bad to deserve consideration.
O. Felix Culpa
I am doing data input for Hillary in Santa Fe starting next week. I also donated to Vote Riders earlier this week. AND, my sweetie just got a job offer: full-time, with benefits!!! Coincidence? I think not. :)
Happy dance!
gwangung
@Amir Khalid: The key word here is “think.”
Miss Bianca
@O. Felix Culpa: Many congratulations and felicitations!
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@smith:
But we were all just informed in the earlier thread that Establishment Tool (TM) Reid was mean and dismissive to Progressive Hero (TM) Alan Grayson so Reid’s just doing it to ingratiate himself with the Democratic machine.
ETA: Where are all the Sanders surrogates like Sarandon and Rosario Dawson who should be going after sexist racist pig Trump, too?
amk
@O. Felix Culpa:
Congrats to you both.
O. Felix Culpa
@Miss Bianca: Thank you! Today we celebrate!
I will join the many others who have expressed delight in your nym. Margery Sharp is a longtime favorite.
Calouste
If you are shopping at Amazon, you can go to smile.amazon.com and choose VoteRiders as your designated charity. Amazon will then donate 0.5% of your eligible spending to VoteRiders. It’s not that much, but every little bit helps. And donations to VoteRiders are tax-deductible and eligible for employee matching.
indycat32
Since the big “fear” is men in girls’ bathrooms, shouldn’t the carrying of pepper spray be limited to the girls?
Frankensteinbeck
@O. Felix Culpa:
YAY I’M NOT ALONE.
hedgehog the occasional commenter
@O. Felix Culpa: Woot!
Miss Bianca
@O. Felix Culpa: Amazing how many Margery Sharp fans hang out in this joint. Or maybe it ain’t so amazing after all. Hope some of the “luck of the mice” you seem to have garnered lately will rub off on me – applying for a job I really, really desperately want.
Altho’ if I don’t get it I may go for the gusto and apply for the Camp HRC!
gwangung
@indycat32:
Teenage girls? Not sure that’s going to cut down on anything….
Glidwrith
@Miss Bianca: I, too, love the NFLTG phenomenon. However, maybe I haven’t paid enough attention, but how is this different than what Alan Grayson was initially doing? He has turned out to be quite an ass, but he was calling out the ‘Thugs and I seem to remember a lot of people saying he shouldn’t rock the boat, that we still had to work with folks across the aisle, etc.
I don’t always understand social subtleties, so I would appreciate understanding the difference.
O. Felix Culpa
@amk: Many thanks! Good jobs are sparse in New Mexico, so we’re doubly happy.
O. Felix Culpa
@Miss Bianca: Sending many good wishes your way!
Applejinx
Huzzah for get-out-the-voteness for any side remotely considered to be left wing or at least non-wingnut! People can talk about the Clinton/Dem machine but it’s worth noting that you are at least invited to join it. That counts for a lot :)
amk
@Glidwrith: The difference is Reid (and Pelosi) have been quite successful leaders in pushing the dem agenda forward while grayson has got zilch for all his showboating.
Applejinx
@Poopyman: Also works on Muslims. Keep pepper spray handy at all times, in case a Muslim comes into the bathroom and tries to fly an airplane into your TOWERING AMERICAN PENIS.
Are there black students for them to tactfully skip issuing weapons to?
Next year, uzis!
JustRuss
@smith: I used to despise Reid due to his, what seemed to me, weak support for the ACA, but ever since he released his inner honey badger he’s been pretty good.
Miss Bianca
@Glidwrith: ?? Not sure I understand what you’re driving at. The problem with Alan Grayson is that he is ALL good rhetoric, and not much else. Yeah, he gave us “just die already” and that was a righteous slam, but Alan…what have you done for us lately? Besides create ethics embarrassments and interfere with actual progressive business meetings – you know, gettin’ shit done – not much. I like my fiery rhetoric best when it is coupled with actual action – so when it’s Harry Reid or Nancy Smash! or Elizabeth Warren, I love it. Bernie Sanders and Alan Grayson…all hat, very few cattle – not so much.
ETA: I see amk got there before me. What s/he said, basically.
smith
@Glidwrith: I think you are hearing these things from different voices. I always liked Grayson’s loudmouthed opposition and supported him until it became clear how ethically scummy he is. Just because I agree with him politically, however, doesn’t mean I’ll stick with him when he displays objectionable behavior.
NonyNony
@smith:
Unlike almost every political pundit in America, Harry Reid knows exactly why the Republican Party ended up with Trump as their nominee.
Goddamn I’m going to miss Harry Reid. I never thought I’d say that, but dammit the man is good.
different-church-lady
@amk: The fact that Reid and Pelosi got things done proves those things were not progressive enough.
[nods]
Emerald
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Those in that wing of the lefties are much more interested in bashing their own side than the actual enemy. Makes them feel especially virtuous, much more so than the rest of us, doncha know.
NonyNony
@Glidwrith:
The differences are:
* Grayson was an ass to his colleagues as well as to Republicans. He likes to piss inside the tent as well as outside. If you want to see a Democratic version of Ted Cruz, it’s basically Grayson.
* Grayson’s ethical scumminess was always floating under the surface. That turned a number of folks off quickly.
* Harry Reid has personally built up years of goodwill from trying to work with the other side and being stonewalled by them.
* 8 years of unprecedented obstruction have basically given all Democrats a license to say whatever they want about Republicans as long as its true. If they’re not even going to pretend to work across the aisle, there’s no more need to pretend to be nice about them.
* Also too – Donald Trump. Donald Trump is the icing on the cake that gives everyone license to understand that you don’t need to treat the Republicans like grown up anymore.
amk
@different-church-lady: Ah, yes, the poison of compromise.
Ridnik Chrome
@Villago Delenda Est: Thank you. I am not worried at all about this election. Yes, there are a lot of stupid people in this country, but not nearly enough to elect someone like Donald Trump President. Not gonna happen. Won’t even be close…
D58826
couple of headlines
I’m glad he cleared that up
msn.com/en-us/news/politics/dan-quayle-trump-is-more-qualified-than-clinton-in-this-election/ar-BBsY…
On Huffington the headline is ‘Ryan Retreat:Great conversation with Trump’
the word retreat has more than one meaning’
huffingtonpost.com/
I think what ever faint hope that the GOP would be able to pull a rabbit out of the hat, while stuffing Trump into that hat, at the convention has pretty well died. The lemmings are all lining up at the edge of the cliff.
Frankensteinbeck
@Ridnik Chrome:
I never predict anything based on ‘people aren’t stupid enough’, but Trump has pissed off too many voting groups too badly. Numerically, he doesn’t have the base of supporters he needs, and could even cause down-ballot havoc. If he actually does forego GOTV efforts, anything becomes possible.
A Ghost To Most
@Rolling Along:
So what is your quota for the day, PissPantsCoward?
starscream
Susan Sarandon’s new movie is 8% on Rotten Tomatoes, 4.9/10 on IMDB.
A Ghost To Most
Trayvon Martin gun ‘removed from sale’
Gin & Tonic
@gwangung: Indeed. Teenage girls are way meaner than teenage boys.
Villago Delenda Est
@D58826: Mr. Potatoe head in fine form. A mind is a terrible thing to waste, you know.
ruemara
@Amaranthine RBG: You win for boneheaded comment of the day.
Jeffro
@D58826:
Not all the lemmings, and it’s just as well: if enough of them manage to avoid making a “Trump Jump” off that cliff, then they’ll be convinced that next cycle they need to nominate a true conservative…and lose again, and again, and again…
rikyrah
@O. Felix Culpa:
Sending you those positive thoughts :)
liberal
@Rolling Along: Sad!
rikyrah
@Calouste:
thanks for this. I have a few purchases for Amazon in the upcoming months, and will set this up.
ruemara
@O. Felix Culpa: Yay! May there be many more blessings this month.
rikyrah
Why Donald Trump’s tax-return defense isn’t working
05/12/16 08:00 AM—UPDATED 05/12/16 08:26 AM
By Steve Benen
Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump suggested to the Associated Press this week that he may be the first major-party nominee in the post-Watergate era not to release his tax returns. That’s touched off a fairly serious controversy, for which the candidate has no credible defense.
The presumptive Republican nominee spoke to Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren last night about his position, arguing that he’d “like to” disclose the tax documents, “hopefully before the election,” but he’s waiting for the end of an IRS audit. The problem with this excuse is that it doesn’t make sense: an IRS audit doesn’t preclude someone from sharing their returns.
Indeed, as Rachel noted on the show last night, even Richard Nixon, during his presidency, released his tax materials in the midst of an IRS audit. Trump could, if he wanted to, release these returns whenever he feels like it. For reasons he won’t explain, the GOP candidate just doesn’t want to.
But my favorite twist in this story was this quote from a prominent Trump ally. Politico reported:
Anthony Scaramucci, a New York financier who recently backed Trump, told Fox News that the real estate mogul’s reluctance is due to “the complication of the return, the fact that he’s under an audit, he feels that he doesn’t want to give out that information to the general public and have a whole nightmare situation with opposition research trying to pick holes through the return.”
Note, Scaramucci, a prominent Republican fundraiser, just this week signed on as an official member of Trump’s national finance committee. He’s not, in other words, just some outside observer; Scaramucci is a new member of Team Trump.
rikyrah
Rudy Giuliani eyed for controversial GOP ‘commission’
05/12/16 08:40 AM
By Steve Benen
As recently as December, Donald Trump announced support for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” Asked last week whether he stands by one of his most outrageous proposals, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee reiterated his support for the idea – twice.
Yesterday, however, as Rachel noted on last night’s show, Trump told Fox News the proposed ban was “only a suggestion,” adding, “It hasn’t been called for yet.” I’m not altogether sure what that means – it has been “called for,” by Trump himself – but this is apparently Trump’s way of making his more outlandish ideas sound more palatable.
Nevertheless, Trump is moving forward with ideas as to how best to implement his “suggestion.” The AP reported yesterday:
Donald Trump says he may set up a commission to study his immigration policies and his proposed ban on foreign Muslims entering the U.S. The man he may ask to lead the commission is the former New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani, who’s called Trump’s idea of a Muslim ban unconstitutional. […]
He says a commission would examine all those issues, as well as the question of letting in Syrian refugees, and it would be “possibly headed” by Giuliani, the mayor when New York was attacked on 9/11.
Aimai
@Glidwrith: no one is upset with grayson because of intemperate language. He turned out to have massive ethics violations, tried to annul a 26 year marriage that priduced five children to get out of alimony and child support, and is generally not thd kind of morally upright person you want to risk a senate seat on.
rikyrah
Hiring ‘the best people’ shouldn’t be this difficult
05/12/16 10:40 AM—UPDATED 05/12/16 10:49 AM
By Steve Benen
Donald Trump likes to boast about his ability to hire extraordinary employees. The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin joked a couple of months ago, “Donald Trump brags that as president he will hire the best people, the greatest people. They’ll be so great, you’ll be sick of great people.”
If only Trump’s claims were in any way true. In the private sector, the New York Republican struggled to hire the best people, but as a presidential candidate, he’s surrounded himself with a rather woeful team.
And the problem is arguably getting worse. Politico reported yesterday:
Donald Trump’s campaign has enlisted influential conservative economists to revise his tax package and make it more politically palatable by slashing the $10 trillion sticker price. […]
[T]he campaign last month contacted at least two prominent conservative economists – Larry Kudlow, the CNBC television host, and Stephen Moore of the Heritage Foundation and a longtime Wall Street Journal writer – to spearhead an effort to update the package.
I realize that Kudlow and Moore probably aren’t household names, but if these are the folks Team Trump is turning to, it’s a reminder as to just how bad the campaign is at choosing “the best people” for key tasks.
Aimai
@ruemara: come on , ruemara! The day is young!
Betty Cracker
@Gin & Tonic: But not nearly as rapey…
D58826
@Jeffro: Well I’m glad they are planning for the future!!
Kay (not the front-pager)
I did OFA training in 2012, and retired early (62) to work on the campaign fulltime. It was one of the most intense, rewarding experiences of my life. I would recommend it to anyone who has a couple of weeknights/weekend days. It really isn’t that hard to get in 15 hours a week. A couple3 6:00-9:00 evenings, a 10 hour Saturday or Sunday (or 5 hrs on Saturday and 5 on Sunday) is all it takes.
I have already downloaded the application for HFA and will get it in before the 19th. I did nothing but donate some money in 2004. Never again will I lose without knowing I did everything I can to get the Democrat elected.
Mike J
Campaigns aren’t the only place to volunteer. Last night Prescott informed us he;s a newly minted precinct captain for his local Democratic party. Of course he’ll be helping the presidential nominee, but he’ll also make sure his neighbors know about the downticket races where many time the voters have never even heard the names of the candidates.It’s nice to win the presidency, but it works best if we take the Senate, House, state legislature, school board and county commission.
amk
@Mike J: Hear, hear.
Major Major Major Major
@ruemara: I don’t know, I rather agree with him on the subject of pie.
rikyrah
uh huh
uh huh
……………..
The persistence of the reality gap matters
05/12/16 12:45 PM—UPDATED 05/12/16 12:56 PM
By Steve Benen
The latest national survey from Public Policy Polling included quite a few interesting tidbits, but there was one area in particular that stood out for me.
There continues to be a lot of misinformation about what has happened during Obama’s time in office. 43% of voters think the unemployment rate has increased while Obama has been President, to only 49% who correctly recognize that it has decreased. And 32% of voters think the stock market has gone down during the Obama administration, to only 52% who correctly recognize that it has gone up.
In both cases Democrats and independents are correct in their understanding of how things have changed since Obama became President, but Republicans claim by a 64/27 spread that unemployment has increased and by a 57/27 spread that the stock market has gone down.
“It’s a fact that unemployment has gone down and the stock market has gone up during the Obama administration,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “But GOP voters treat these things more as issues of opinion than issues of fact.”
Origuy
So this happened.
They were considered civilians during WWII and did not get funeral expenses covered.
D58826
Freedom Republican style
dailykos.com/
aimai
@Kay (not the front-pager): I am thinking about doing it too and I just suggested it to my 19 year old daughter who is home from college this summer and only teaching dance part time. I think she’d learn a ton and could go back to her college campus as an organizer. It would be fantastic.
aimai
@Mike J: At least here its usually a “co-ordinated campaign” with local politicians affiliating with the Presidential race and sharing volunteers, offices, and mailings. That makes a ton of sense. In fact here (in MA) there is a kind of triage that goes on with pepole in secure seats sending staff and support to people trying to get in, or up to New Hampshire on joint ventures.
Patricia Kayden
@gene108:
That’s the whole point. Why has transgender folks using the bathroom all of a sudden become such a big issue? It’s not as if transgender folks just started using public bathrooms in 2016. Conservatives are trash for targeting another vulnerable minority group to score political points and engender fear among their weak minded followers.
Shell
Saw the RNC news release about the Trump and Ryan ‘unity’ meeting. : Looks like this is the new spin. In order to save face, they’re not endorsing Trump per se; they’re just doing all they can to defeat Hillary.
Mnemosyne
@Poopyman:
Do girls (including transgirls) get to pepperspray any creepy guys who demand to see their genitals before they can go into the bathroom? Because I would fucking do that.
Patricia Kayden
@rikyrah: When you only read the Drudge Report, only watch Fox News and only listen to Glen Beck and Alex Jones, you end up with a very distorted world view. These are people who still believe that President Obama, who smokes and drinks, is a Muslim. Sigh.
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: This is true. But much of the prior discussion here was about how allowing students to carry pepper spray could lead to “outsider” kids being targeted, as opposed to actual predators. And in my experience there is a lot more bitterness and meanness toward the misfits in high school coming from girls than from boys. That’s all. I’ve raised two girls and one boy to adulthood, so I’m not just talking out of my hat.
Major Major Major Major
Hey, whatever happened to Balloon-Juice book club? Let’s do that again.
Mnemosyne
@Frankensteinbeck:
Just because this was one of my all-time favorite stories that restored my faith in humanity: I remember reading a story in the NY Times about the special high school they have for LGBT teens who were being bullied at their regular high school. One of the teachers was an Orthodox Jewish woman whose family hated that she worked there and was constantly harassing her to quit rather than teach all of those freaks and weirdos. Finally they wore her down to the point that she agreed to have a family meeting with their elderly rabbi and abide by his decision.
So they go to the meeting and explain the situation. The rabbi listens carefully and says, “So she’s teaching kids that no one else is willing to teach? What’s wrong with you people — this is a mitzvah!”
Amir Khalid
@Patricia Kayden:
I know quite a lot of Muslims who smoke, actually. Tobacco is harmful, obviously, but it’s not an intoxicant, and religious authorities differ on whether it should be considered haram or merely undesirable.
Amir Khalid
@Major Major Major Major:
As I recall, the Juicitariat scared off the last writer who took part.
Gravenstone
@Villago Delenda Est: Lovely. And to think the local god botherers only managed to get our school board to wipe out 3/4 of our English classes back in the day. All because one of them (wife of a board member) brought in a jackass revivalist fuck knob Jesus freak who proceeded to raise holy (?) hell over the courses that discussed sci-fi/fantasy/horror themed literature, or talked about mass media. Bonus points for the same asshole telling us in a compulsory school assembly that we were all Hellbound because we listened to that evil rock and roll music.
Germy
@Patricia Kayden:
Well, they think he’s a bad one.
Major Major Major Major
@Amir Khalid: I would say that’s pretty thin skin for a published author, but I know some authors and they can be pretty preening.
Maybe one of the writers in our midst!
Germy
Dean Skelos 5 years
Adam Skelos 6.5 years
How much time will they actually serve? Anybody’s guess.
Gin & Tonic
@Germy: Shelly Silver is probably saying “hey, waitaminute” right about now.
Germy
@Major Major Major Major:
theatlantic.com/ideastour/humor/thurber-excerpt.html
Germy
@Gin & Tonic: Adam Skelos is to receive inpatient mental health treatment during his jail time.
Ridnik Chrome
@Frankensteinbeck: I didn’t say “people aren’t stupid enough”. I think that for pretty much any stupid activity you can imagine, there’s someone stupid enough to do it (sort of a Rule 34 for stupidity, if you will). The problem, from Trump’s point of view, is that there aren’t enough people who are sufficiently stupid enough to vote for him. In the Republican Party, yes, but not in the general electorate.
aimai
@Patricia Kayden: Why does a dog lick its balls? Because it can. The rage-of-the-election season is always something that wasn’t a big deal, or wasn’t even noticed, until it blows up out of nowhere. Because during the last ten minutes of hate there was some more obvious target: gays, gay marriage, gay adoption, gays in the military. But all of those little causes have suddenly been cut off at the knees by the landlside adoption of gay rights laws/attitudes all over the country. So naturally the GOP had to look around for a new enemy to fight, in order to drag their voters to the polls. The most natural next step is the “T” in the LGBTQ simply because of the murkiness of the legal issues involved. If the law were settled they would be manufacturing a new enemy–one we can’t even imagine since five minutes ago that enemy wasn’t obviously any kind of problem.
Citizen_X
@Poopyman:
Always a good excuse for pepper spraying (or shooting) someone: “Who’s behind me? I dunno. OPEN FIRE!”
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
ICYMI, Stu Rothenberg posted a good column (from Tuesday) about why Hillary is the overwhelming favorite. A nice counterpoint to All Teabagger All The Time news.
Cheers,
Scott.
Mnemosyne
@Frankensteinbeck:
@Ridnik Chrome:
I think you guys are violently agreeing with each other. If the Obama coalition shows up like they did in 2008 and 2012, Trump loses. If the new Hispanic voters we’re hearing about show up as well, Trump gets crushed.
Some idiots keep whispering that African-American voters only turned out the way they did for Obama, but recent elections don’t show that. At all. It seems more like AA voters feel energized and powerful after Obama’s election (and McAuliffe’s election in VA, among others) and they’re not going to want to give that up.
gwangung
@Mnemosyne: The data seems to be showing an increase in African American voter participation since 1992, not just 2008.
Hm. Who was elected President then?
goblue72
@different-church-lady: You Boomers really just do not get it. We don’t want you all to just die off already. We just would like for once in your self-entitled Me Generation asses to shut the fuck up and listen to somebody besides yourselves for once.
rikyrah
@Mnemosyne:
Because, of course, Black people didn’t vote until Barack Obama ran for President. [/snark]
We sat out all those other elections.
Dan
@gwangung:
exactly. black voter participation rates haven’t just been because of Obama, but he did accelrate it. And Hillary’s vigorous courting of the black vote, reflected in her campaign promises, her campaign staff, and her campaign’s focus, is going to be seen as the final proof that the Dems are a multiracial coalition, and if you’re going to be successful as a national Dem politician, you have to know that, internalize it, and make it a first priority.
You can’t just come around to minority communities when you want their vote and talk about civil rights stuff you did decades ago. You have to treat minority communities as important stakeholders that help set your agenda and need to be brought to the table.
tl;dr – Modern Democratic politics *is* identity politics, and political approaches that ignore identity politics will fail.
Chyron HR
@goblue72:
Life’s tough, kid.
D58826
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Good article. He is probably correct but he did say everyone missed the core Trump support last fall So maybe everyone is missing something about Trump now. Probably not but don’t get over confident based on predictions of the future.
D58826
latest in the Obamacare legal wars:
Needless to say the WH disagrees and it will be appealed posibily all the way to SCOTUS. One more reaon for that 9th justice to be appointed by a D
huffingtonpost.com/entry/republicans-obamacare-win_us_5734b476e4b077d4d6f24f8e
and a bit on the judge
Seems to have spent a good bit of time in GOP administrations.
dcd.uscourts.gov/dcd/collyer
Gravenstone
@goblue72: Funny. I can recall at least a few instances of you, yourself uttering the phrase” die off ” in reference to boomers. Hence why people tend to bring it up whenever you show your sanctimonious puss around here. So kindly go die in the nearest available fire. kthxbai…
Chyron HR
@Gravenstone:
Hey, cut goblue some slack. When you’re 47 years old, your memory may be just as poor as his is.
Miss Bianca
@goblue72: And we would want to listen to *you*, you pleasant and delightful person, because…?
smith
@goblue72: We have Mommy and Daddy issues, do we?
chopper
@goblue72:
who is “we”? the millennials you claim to speak for even though you’re in your forties, or people of your age?
[email protected]
Gretchen Driskell in MI-7.
Amaranthine RBG
@amk: @Amir Khalid:
This is true, in the same way that a “fireman” can refer to firefighters regardless of gender, “mankind” can refer to all of humanity just men. However, careful usage would dictate that one be a bit more careful and inclusive.
You know, the sort of thing that a person who is campaigning to be the first female president might be aware of. Or at least one would hope so.
Narcissus87
Fellows are first in line to get hired. I was a fellow in one of our early states for HRC and was hired on as an organizer after two months.
Working unpaid is a negative, but you’re usually provided housing and there’s plenty of free food in most campaign offices.
Its my first time helping out a campaign. And now that we’re going up against Trump I have a new reason to wake up every day, lace up, and talk to voters.
Aimai
@Amaranthine RBG: really? I guess rikyrah was right. A whole day has gone by and your comment temains the stupidest thing on the internet.
Kay (not the front-pager)
@Dan: Correction: modern *POLITICS* is identity politics. It’s just that Democrats are more inclusive and better at it than Republicans.
J R in WV
@Ridnik Chrome:
Actually, in a two-person race, Trump’s percentage of the Republican primary voters – ~38% – isn’t even enough to win nomination. His victory is due to the fact that there were anywhere from 3 to 15 other candidates, splitting the 60% + of voters (Republican voters, also, too!) who voted against Trump.
So in a general election, even if he captures many of those Republican votes that were cast against him, he stands no chance of winning.
On the other hand, in the “reader’s vent line” feature of the local newspaper today I saw a comment to the effect of “Martha Stewart had to go to jail; why hasn’t Hillary Clinton been sent to jail yet?
So stupid, it burns, but it is still out there, rampant. That’s what could hurt us come November.