Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Peak wingnut was a lie.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

“woke” is the new caravan.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Bark louder, little dog.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

T R E 4 5 O N

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2018 / The ‘Privilege’ of Voting: High & Low

The ‘Privilege’ of Voting: High & Low

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This NYMag article got a certain amount of twitter pushback (look below the fold, at the end of this post, for a sample) last week:

Roxanne Gay had a excellent rebuttal:

… We are reaping what has been sown from voter disillusionment and we will continue doing so until enough people recognize what is truly at stake when they don’t vote. A representative democracy is flawed but it is the political system we must work within, at least for the time being. We have a responsibility to participate in this democracy, even when the politicians we vote for aren’t ideal or a perfect match. Voting isn’t dating. We are not promised perfect candidates. Voting requires pragmatism and critical thinking and empathy and now, more than ever, intelligent compromise…

Every single day there is a new, terrifying, preventable tragedy fomented by a president and an administration that uses hate and entitlement as political expedience. If you remain disillusioned or apathetic in this climate, you are complicit. You think your disillusionment is more important than the very real dangers marginalized people in this country live with.

Don’t delude yourself about this. Don’t shroud your political stance in disaffected righteousness. Open your eyes and see the direct line from the people in power to their emboldened acolytes. It is cynical to believe that when we vote we are making a choice between the lesser of two evils…

.
And then there’s *this* argument:



(Rest of this excellent thread here.)

Here’s some of the pushback comments I mentioned at the top:


Reader Interactions

122Comments

  1. 1.

    Steve in the ATL

    I’ve been getting lots of texts from great D candidates such as Stacey Abrams and great non-candidates such as Kamala Harris, and then these came:

    Fact Check: Does Karen Handel support protecting those with pre-existing conditions? Get the facts here >>> https://karenhandel.com/fact/

    Hey! Why is Lucy McBath lying about Karen Handel’s position on pre-existing conditions? Get the facts >>> https://karenhandel.com/fact/

    Why I do believe that Ms. Handel is very, very touchy about being called out for her actual votes on healthcare….

    Burn in hell, Karen.

  3. 3.

    Corner Stone

    Can we herd these fucking fucks into a pool of water that randomly flushes itself? I don’t really care where it ends up.

  5. 5.

    Brachiator

    As another commenter noted, the most recent episode of The Black Guy Who Tips podcast has a magnificent rejoinder to
    all the “don’t want to vote” nonsense.

    Here is a link.

    http://www.theblackguywhotips.com/

    Also, Trump is unhinged. Too bad no one will note that his rants are increasingly insane.

    He told the Fort Wayne crowd he would one day bring the country together — but not quite yet. “I do want to eventually unite, but the fact is we are driving [Democrats] crazy,” Trump said. “Hopefully it is all going to come together one day, like a beautiful puzzle.”

    And his base just eats this shit up. I guess this is supposed to upset sane people, but it’s so over the top loopy that no one sane can take it seriously.

  7. 7.

    HeleninEire

    Haven’t seen MSNBC in 2 years and I have 2 thoughts.
    1. You all talk about how wordy Rachel is. Yes, but her words have meaning. I watched Nicole Wallace for the first time today. She got her show after I left. She is the personification of the phrase “uses 100 words when 10 will do.”

    2. Watching Lawrence right now. Ezra Klein looks HOT. Never thought of him as hot.

  8. 8.

    oldgold

    Good early news out of Iowa.

    With tonight’s new early vote numbers, Dems at 116% of their final 2014 early vote total. GOP at 98% of their final 2014 early vote total.

    Will probably pick up 2 House seats and the Governorship.

  10. 10.

    The Dangerman

    @Brachiator:

    I do want to eventually unite, but the fact is we are driving [Democrats] crazy

    I look forward to visiting his grave site after consuming much fiber.

  13. 13.

    Mary G

    I have read the first tweet’s user for quite a while and was surprised to see that her name is Erin Scafe – I always thought she owned a café. She definitely put her money where her mouth is by going to Texas in neighborhoods where when the street lights are coming on, they tell her she needs to be somewhere else.

  18. 18.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    “Well, I don’t give a shit about student interest rates if I’m not going to live past 13 more years on this planet.”

    Look, moron, it’s not going to be The Day After Tomorrow. It’s going to be a lot more gradual than that. This idiot is only 2 years older than me. I’m so ashamed. I didn’t think it was that possible to be so stupid.

  19. 19.

    Bnad

    Here’s a soundbite for the disaffected voters. Voting isn’t about choosing an end state. It’s about choosing a direction.

  21. 21.

    Mai Naem mobile

    The second most important target after Trumpov in 2020(if he’s still around) should be McConnell. Fucker needs to go down bad.
    Also too, I’ve still been getting texts from some GOP outfit. I think its aimed at the person who used to have my phone 7 years ago. Also I’ve gotten GOP flyers for the previous resident of this house. We’ve lived here for over twenty years. And from what I remember the previous residents moved to California years ago.

  27. 27.

    Kay

    Henry J. Gomez
    ‏Verified account
    @HenryJGomez
    38m38 minutes ago
    More
    Remarkable how Obamacare messaging has shifted in 8 years. Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch: “Gov Scott Walker has promised me and he has promised you that as long as he’s governor of Wisconsin, people with pre-existing conditions will always be protected.”

    Such liars. It’s amazing they didn’t pick up that this would be a big issue when Collins spent weeks lying about it months ago. That was kind of a tip-off. Democrats certainly got it. “Collins is lying about it- means it’s important- let’s all run on it” :)

  31. 31.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    good christ, trump brought that crazy traffic court judge from trumpTV up on the state at his 60 Minute Hate in Missouri. THey’re all in Cape Girardeau, home town of another serial-divorcing addlepated hate-monger with massive daddy issues.

  33. 33.

    Citizen_X

    @Brachiator:

    “Hopefully it is all going to come together one day, like a beautiful puzzle.”

    Cue the FBI guy from Silence of the Lambs: “He’s making a dress!”

    [Out of, you know, human flesh.]

  35. 35.

    cmorenc

    My 21yo nephew, a resident of Illinois, is a prime example of intentional disengagement from voting, because in a nutshell, he thinks all politics is hopelessly corrupt and it’s not worthwhile for him to vote. I had a protracted infuriating discussion with him about this last summer on an otherwise fine walk along the beach during his visit to NC. – in part for the end position described, but also in part because his more detailed supporting reasoning for it, which he thought of as jaded worldly sophistication, was actually sophomorically shallow and immature. He was impenetrably smug about his reasoning, but I bit my tongue and managed to keep calm during the conversation in vain hope of getting through to him somehow, though I did intermittently have the urge to smack him in the face with a fish.

  37. 37.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @cmorenc: jaded worldly sophistication, was actually sophomorically shallow and immature. His impenetrable smugness

    You just described three or four of the precious youths described in that NY Mag piece

  39. 39.

    Kay

    Yeah, this person, I’m sorry but this demand for certainty just seems incredibly rigid and…not workable as a way to live:

    There are things that I’m aware of where I’m certain I’m right. But for most things, although I feel strongly, it’s very probable that there’s some aspect of this that I don’t understand. Somebody provides a new avenue of thought, and it changes the way I think about something. I never felt certain enough to vote. But I’m a political-science student, and the talk of voting is really big in my circle of friends. In 2016, I almost did. Of course, I’m not a big fan of Trump, but I didn’t know if Trump was going to be a flash in the pan or — I just didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to help something that might end up being wrong.

    Just take the big leap. We really can’t guarantee you won’t ever be wrong about anything. You wonder how they get out of bed.

  40. 40.

    Mnemosyne

    @Citizen_X:

    As Amir just pointed out, wow did you swing and miss that one.

    @Amir Khalid:

    Fun fact — in the symbolism of that movie, cats are on the side of good. Right before we see the victim get abducted, her cat is meowing out the window to warn her. Clarice discovers the half-finished dress that makes her realize what the killer is doing because she follows a friendly cat in there.

  42. 42.

    NotMax

    @Adam L. Silverman

    “Let’s all agree to get together and do this again in 100 years.”

    :)

    Was it noticeable that Fort Bragg has been emptied? In total numbers, the most troops sent to the southwestern border have been deployed from there.

  43. 43.

    dmsilev

    @cmorenc:

    though I did intermittently have the urge to smack him in the face with a fish.

    A fringe benefit of the beachfront walk is that at least there wouldn’t be any question about the freshness of the fish.

  44. 44.

    HumboldtBlue

    There stands a very good chance that in many states the votes they cast will in some way be ruled out.

    They’re not going to lose tomorrow, you know that don’t you?

    The GOP is not losing the Senate and if they lose the House we’ll simply have two years of madness before the next presidential election and there will be absolutely nothing accomplished in any meaningful way to make this country better, just one more rage-inducing lie/event/slander on top of another.

    Democrats lost the statehouses in the 90’s and try as they might, earnest as they may be, the deck is stacked.

    Hell, in Georgia they aren’t even attempting to hide the perfidy.

    They have the court they want and they have the voter suppression in place. It’s going to take 50 years to begin to undo what the GOP has managed to pollute in the past 30.

  47. 47.

    LesGS

    We raised our kids to *be* voters. I mean, it was even kinda silly but fun, really. We got excited about their finally being of age to register, and it was just a family thing to guide them through that (very easy) process. We took proud pictures at the poll when they cast their first ever vote. When they were at home, we would go through and discuss our sample ballots together. While the older one (29yo) votes in a different district now, the younger one (26yo) called *me* today to co-ordinate our trip to the polls tomorrow.

    Now, the young adults in these interview are *adults* and completely responsible for their choices and opinions (as inane as I find them). But if they had been raised to personally identify as a Voter, maybe voting would just be something, as a responsible adult, they just *do*.

    Growl.

  49. 49.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Christina Wilkie @ christinawilkie
    With less than 12 hours until polls open, Rush Limbaugh is standing behind the presidential seal and telling a crowd, “Hillary Clinton colluded with Russia. Hillary Clinton rigged that election.”

    She colluded with Russia to get 100,000 in PA, MI and WI to vote for Jill Stein?

  51. 51.

    Amir Khalid

    @HumboldtBlue:
    I don’t mean to discount the seriousness of the voter suppression efforts documented so far. But it seems to me that part of the fear among some Democrats of the Republican party’s capacity to rig elections in its own favour is irrational and alarmist.

  53. 53.

    Jay

    @cmorenc: @Jim, Foolish Literalist: @Kay:

    My method is not to debate/discuss/argue with the morons, but instead saddle them by pointing out that by not engaging in their civic duty, they are not “opting out”, but instead enabling the worst things the government does and having no credit for the best things the government does.

  55. 55.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Amir Khalid:

    Donald Trump is president.

    Three years ago that was thought an irrational and alarmist idea.

    I mean, it’s not like they’ve been shy, hell, Kris Kobach is one of their stars.

  59. 59.

    jl

    Why couldn’t the magazine find six who didn’t feel like voting and six who were determined to vote?
    Or, why not a story of twelve who would vote no matter what?
    What crap.

    I will always vote because I see it as a form of self-expression. If I ever have the misfortune of running into a GOP office holder or Trump himself, I can tell them that my sorry ass added one damn vote to the nearly three million more people who voted Dem rather than GOP for president in 2016. I can look at the last digit on the number in the column for good on the TV machine and say ‘that sucker is mine!’.

    And, it goes down in history.

    I don’t understand why more people don’t vote just for that satisfaction.

  61. 61.

    Aleta

    @Kay: Possibly she has a kind of OCD (that my father was tortured by).

    Fwiw: “Doubt is not based on insufficient knowledge to make decisions. It’s a behavioral trait.” In the context of OCD, he theorizes, doubt demonstrates a “lack of confidence in one’s own memory, attention and perception necessary to reach a decision.” (Gerald Nestadt, a psych. researcher at Johns Hopkins)
    …
    In a recent study published in Comprehensive Psychiatry, Nestadt and his colleagues report an investigation of 1,182 adults with OCD who were assessed to evaluate the relationship between doubt and OCD’s clinical features. “It’s the first investigation of the clinical significance of the doubt construct in OCD,” says Nestadt.

    The findings, says Nestadt, suggest that doubt has important implications for understanding the nature of OCD. For one thing, the severity of doubt was distributed in the sample such that many cases were rated as severely burdened with doubt, whereas a sizeable proportion were rated as having no or little doubt. “This suggests that doubt may not be a core feature of all OCD cases, but rather a frequently occurring symptom of, or related to, the disorder,” says Nestadt.

    The biggest surprise, he adds, was the finding that “the more doubtful you are, the more dysfunctional you are; 80 percent of the doubters were extremely dysfunctional.” Most likely, explains Nestadt, these symptoms emerge “from a neurocognitive vulnerability in the mental life of the individual, which has a basis in neurophysiology.”
    (from the JH news site in 2017)

    kind

  63. 63.

    Amir Khalid

    @HumboldtBlue:
    My point is not that Republicans’ intentions are less than nefarious or their capability not cause for concern, but that they are not omnipotent and can be defeated by concerted effort, as seems about to happen (touch wood).

  64. 64.

    ruemara

    @Amir Khalid: You’re lucky you’re very far away. Because it’s not irrational or alarmist at all. It is a very real thing that has been going on since Reconstruction. I ain’t mad at you. I’ve been hearing this from even the very progressive here in the states. I’m just tired of people not being aware of the prices that have been paid and are still being paid for black people asking for their right to vote. I’m including a link to a propublica story so if you’re interested, you’ll see how voter suppression has been brutal, pernicious and cost people everything.

  65. 65.

    Jackie

    I’m very proud I convinced my daughter – newly moved to Florida – to vote! She added another +vote for Gillum and Nelson?????

  68. 68.

    Mike J

    @oldgold:

    With tonight’s new early vote numbers, Dems at 116% of their final 2014 early vote total. GOP at 98% of their final 2014 early vote total.

    This is not true. We are precisely one vote behind. Only you going out and voting the instant the polls open will save us. Nothing is wrapped up.

  69. 69.

    Amir Khalid

    @ruemara:
    I’m also not suggesting that voter suppression in America is not real, or has not done a great deal of harm to Americans thus victimised. I think it is important for Democrats not to falter out of fear or doubt.

  71. 71.

    Jay

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    Yup,

    But the Glen (spit) Greenwald “leftier than thou’s” believe that a Facist Government will lead to a “pure left” revolution that will overthrow the Facists and usher in a leftie utopia.

    They know about as much about history as economics.

  72. 72.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Kay: I said elsewhere when that stupid article came up that I *absolutely guarantee* every one of those people manages to handle the moral culpability of, say, using a smartphone, or, I dunno, eating food, without paralyzing themselves into total inertia. But link it to voting and suddenly they’re all philosophers puzzling over the trolley problem. Just stop being an irritating little shit and do the smallest possible act of self-government, guys.

  75. 75.

    Viva BrisVegas

    @Jay:

    Quite a few German communists in the 1930s said exactly the same thing.

    Soon there were very few German communists.

    Anyway, best of luck to you all on your road to recovery. It starts today.

  76. 76.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Heartland values

    Cheri Jacobus @ CheriJacobus
    Rep. Steve King says he hopes Supreme Court Justices Sotomayor and Kagan ‘will elope to Cuba’

  77. 77.

    Hitlesswonder

    @Brachiator: I fondly recall the media taking Obama to task for not reaching across the aisle and having Mitch over for drinks. Here they are presented with someone who admits to actively trying to divide the country and not govern for the common good, and it’s just reported as the president being the president now. The voting public and the media have learned nothing from the past, and it’s all just entertainment for too many of them. If there were a better country I could move to that would have me, I would go.

  78. 78.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Mary G:

    It’s not that I’m convinced, it’s just the latest most reliable information points in that direction.

    It’s not even my normal cynicism, I’m worried. Very worried.

  80. 80.

    ellie

    @Mai Naem mobile: I received a robocall from Ralph Reed yesterday. And I have been receiving nonstop calls from the republicans. I am so offended that they think I am a republican I can hardly stand it.

  81. 81.

    Dan B

    Articles like this make me crazy. I have friends who voted for Bernie and love Jill Stein. It does not register with them that Mike and I are afraid for the future. We’re afraid for our LGBTQ friends and our friends who are brown or black or asian. We read about the angry rightward turn in Russia and Brazil. We read about the rise of far right groups around the world. Some friends say it’s a reaction to corporate corruption and we have to stop the Democrats because they are just as bad. And they don’t like “identity politics”.

    But we have memories of Jim Crow and sodomy laws and a GOP who stalled research on AIDS. We have, and had, friends and family who were interred during WW II or who fled Europe after the war.

    We’re afraid of what will happen to us and the people we care about if chaos descends from food shortages from an out of control climate. We’re already blamed for hurricanes by crazed televangelists. What happens to cracking down on corrupt corporations during increasingly dark times?

    We’ve worked slowly for rights we thought might never come and for rights that have not yet. And these kids don’t have a clue!

  84. 84.

    eemom

    IMVHO, people need to stop drama queening about their anxiety and despair. STFU, go to bed, and vote tomorrow if you haven’t already. ?

  85. 85.

    Mike in DC

    Re Mitch McConnell: It’s called the Voting Rights Act, not the Voting Privileges Act, you evil tortoise.

  87. 87.

    Jay

    @Dan B:

    Generally, they live privledged lives immune from the consequences for now, and know no history.

    They don’t know or understand that Western Liberal Democracy was a 900 year long, hard slog of “slightly better”.

  88. 88.

    Hitlesswonder

    @Hitlesswonder: And since I can’t edit I’ll just reply to myself…

    Before anyone takes such despair to task, I’ll add that of course I’m voting tomorrow and I’ve been active and hopefully helpful in other ways as well. Since no place better than here will likely have me, I’ll have to do what I can here.

  89. 89.

    SWMBO

    @Kay: All life is a leap of faith. Sometimes you land. Sometimes you splat. Jump anyway.

    As a side note, my husband’s niece voted libertarian last time. Slowly, patiently I have woke her to the fact that things would have been much better for all of us under President Hillary Clinton. She couldn’t bring herself to vote for her because she didn’t trust her (Hillary). She’s living in deep red Arkansas and surrounded by rednecks. I introduced her to several people on Facebook and she’s found she’s not the only liberal there. I think if Hillary ran today, she would not only vote for her but campaign for her. It wasn’t that she was a disaffected voter, it’s just that her perception of how her vote matters changed. Sometimes just connecting people so they don’t feel isolated makes a world of difference. She has dumped a lot of Facebook friends that kept gaslighting her and trying to overwhelm her with their point of view. She now has friends that back her up and the empowerment has made all the difference in her.

  90. 90.

    hervevillechaislounge

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Greenwald isn’t even a left anything. He’s just a smug dick with a cockamamie mishmash of ideas.

    And Russian financing. Weird how Chelsea Manning became a lefty hero and Reality Winner has been consigned to the dustbin of history, right?

  92. 92.

    piratedan

    I think the part that is so incredibly infuriating are all of these claims that the “Democrats don’t stand for anything” when possibly as many as three clicks on Google would completely put that idiocy to bed. I sit back and try and examine that and I understand why people feel that way, it still rolls back to the media narrative….. we go out and actively engage people, drive them to websites where positions and platforms and ideas are expressed, everyone appears to love those ideas. The thing is, people are so busy having the narratives set for them by every-fucking-mainstream-media platform and all you see are GOP talking heads or sympathetic leaners and frametrs on damn near every network and the narrative and framing are all about reactions to GOP actions, to GOP taking away or taking credit for shit that they didn’t do.

    What sickens me is that we’re never given a platform to brush that shit back, to interrupt the asshats framing the discussion and speak the plain fucking truth to power regarding who believes in what and what direction we believe the country should be taking to even reach these dipshits who are too fucking lazy to even google a fucking website to find out what the Democratic Party even stands for instead of being fed endlessly the same GOP framing for every fucking issue.

  93. 93.

    gwangung

    @Jay:

    But the Glen (spit) Greenwald “leftier than thou’s” believe that a Facist Government will lead to a “pure left” revolution that will overthrow the Facists and usher in a leftie utopia.

    Hear from lots of them. They say they don’t want to support a corrupt system and so they’re waiting for a revolution. Without once realizing that, no, they DON’T want a revolution. They want the SAME system, they EXPECT it will stay the same, only with them on top.

    Cranio-rectal inversion doesn’t begin to describe this.

  94. 94.

    ruemara

    @Amir Khalid: Well, in that all I can say is black people haven’t faltered. It’s to be hoped that we will have more company in not faltering, at least for a while.

    @Dan B: Aaaannnd fuck your friends saying that Dems are just as bad. 5k Puerto Ricans would say fuck you to them, but they’re dead. Fuck their privileged, smug, willfully ignorant selves. I’m just done reaching out them, just as I’m done with Trumpers.

  95. 95.

    Mnemosyne

    @ruemara:
    @Amir Khalid:

    I think you guys are talking a bit at cross-purposes. I think Amir is saying that a fear of voter suppression should not prevent people from trying to vote tomorrow. Be prepared with voter protection phone numbers to call and know what to do if they try to refuse to give you a ballot, but don’t stay home because you’re convinced it’s hopeless to even try.

  96. 96.

    ruemara

    @Mnemosyne: I heard him. And I’m saying don’t belittle what’s going on. No one is saying stay at home, but it’s not something to be minimalized.

  97. 97.

    Jay

    @piratedan:

    “What sickens me is that we’re never given a platform to brush that shit back,”

    It’s not something you are ever “given”, unless you enact it in laws, with teeth, and enforcement.

    Faux and Sinclair were built for the money around a demographic, then they used that influence to corrupt the ReThug party, for the money.

  98. 98.

    danielx

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Rep. Steve King says he hopes Supreme Court Justices Sotomayor and Kagan ‘will elope to Cuba’

    Some people (he says piously) might hope that Steve King spontaneously bursts into flames, unfortunately that’s even more unlikely than any such elopement. Four hundred pounds of manure in a two hundred pound bag…..

  99. 99.

    Aleta

    @eemom: It wasn’t right for that person to be used in an article about people who’ve decided not to vote. I grew up with a parent tortured with that kind of doubt, and he was sick, not stupid or apathetic. It’s not a political discussion to me. I apologize for the effect of my comment.

  101. 101.

    Brachiator

    @Hitlesswonder:

    RE: the media taking Obama to task for not reaching across the aisle to Republicans.

    Yeah, this stuff can drive you crazy. Trump supporters forgive everything. And the media is often complicit.

    Jeb Bush and others told a big elaborate lie that no Republicans were ever invited to the White House until Obama’s fifth year in office. Truth is, Republicans regularly insulted Obama, even when it came to social events.

    From Politifact:

    It should be noted, though, that Obama did invite Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Jon Kyl of Arizona, along with top Republicans from the House and Democratic leaders from both chambers, to a dinner following the midterm elections that November [of 2010]. That meal-time meeting was dubbed the “Slurpee Summit” after Obama promised to serve the drinks for dessert, but Republicans declined to attend, and the dinner was canceled.

    Republicans later attended other lunches and dinners. But insulting Obama seemed to be a badge of honor.

    Links

    https://www.politifact.com/iowa/statements/2015/nov/23/jeb-bush/jeb-bush-claims-obama-didnt-host-republican-senato/

  102. 102.

    piratedan

    @terry chay: ty for reposting that Terry, it makes me think we really are looking at a blue wave despite all of the other tactics attempting to disenfranchise whoever the GOP can….

  103. 103.

    Dan B

    @Jay: There are some who seem to know history but it’s never been directly personal. They do have neighbirs who are not white and not middle class but seem to be stuck in some concept loop that gets mucked up with purity and sees the struggles of minorities as “noble”. They don’t seem to grasp the feeling of never being secure that looms just behind the “noble struggle”.

  107. 107.

    Dan B

    @SWMBO: Congrats times ten on raising your neice’s consciousness! I also know the feeling of living in Arkansas. I was there during Jim Crow. It does not seem to have improved much, except for air conditioning.

  108. 108.

    Dan B

    @ruemara: I long ago stopped trying to reach them. When the excuse for the GOP govt’s abandonment of PR is: It will only get worse until we stop corporate takeover of Dems. I’m not wasting my breath. I saw the 60s go down in flames from circular firing squad intellectual fights and crazy idealism. It’s steering in the right direction not stomping on the gas while shouting victory.

  109. 109.

    TrissicSands

    @Brachiator:

    I think the most important job of the media now is to recognize that the problem in not that Trump in violating norms or that he’s crude. The problem is that Trump is a bona fide fascist. He’s no a comic book fascist or a hyperbolic fascist; he’s a fascist i the mold of Hitler, Franco, and Mussolini.

    In his new book, How Fascism Works,” Jason Stanley, a Yale professor, lays out what fascism is.The book reads like a rehash of the last three years of Trump. Yesterday, a Washington Post commenter quoted a dictionary definition of fascism — no honest person could reasonably deny that Trump fits the definition and the definition fits Trump.

    Most of us have criticized the MSM for failing to cal Trump’s lies what they are — lies. They have slowly allowed the word to be used occasionally, but at the Post they still clearly grope for euphemisms to describe Trump’s actions and behavior. Racism becomes racial animosity. Lying is prevaricating. If they can’t come right out and call Trump a liar or a racist, when there is zero reasonable (make that possible) doubt that he is both, they by the time they can be convinced to call him a fascist (and the GOP a fascist political party), there will be laws preventing them from doing so.

    The problem that the Post and Times both have is they are still wedded to the idea that we have a two party system and both parties are largely playing by the same rules. Therefore, whenever they discuss something that is wrong with one party, they have to point out that the other party does it too. think it is entirely fair to point out, as Krugman does that Democrats are not saints. In response to those who claim that they are all crooks, I say, “Sure, Democrats commit parking violations and the occasional misdemeanor. Republicans are armed robbers, rapists, and murderers. But what is most important is to acknowledge that they are fascists in the fullest sense of the word.

  110. 110.

    Raven Onthill

    @ruemara: “Well, in that all I can say is black people haven’t faltered. It’s to be hoped that we will have more company in not faltering, at least for a while.” When I was canvassing, it was always the blacks who were ready to vote. The whites, some of them were even wrong about whether or not they’d gotten their ballot. But the black people were informed.

    And this is my biennial “Vote Puny Humans” post. If you drop by my blog there are even some links: It is a curious fact that, even among the opponents of democracy, the vote is considered important. That is why there is so much effort to persuade people not to do it, to persuade people to vote for candidates who can’t possibly win, to prop up splitter candidates, to make it difficult to get permission to vote, to revoke people’s permission to vote, to lose people’s permission to vote, to falsify the vote, to not count the vote, to claim the vote isn’t valid. Your vote counts, and your political opponents know it. That’s why they don’t want you to do it. – https://adviceunasked.blogspot.com/2018/10/vote-2018-version.html

  111. 111.

    seaboogie

    Maybe like me you voted early or by mail – or you’re headed to the polls tomorrow. If you’ve done everything you can manage, you may have canvassed or sent postcards or texts. I hope you may be taking a friend or driving someone to vote tomorrow. If you are still stressing while you wait for the returns, there is one more thing you can do: send pizza to any long lines of voters via polls.pizza.com. Their twitter handle is @pizzatothepolls. Imma donate a pie for the cause!

  113. 113.

    Adria McDowell

    How many of those “not gonna voters” are white, middle class folks?

    Yeah, exactly.

    Rod from The Black Guy Who Tips podcast had it absolutely correct. You need to go out and vote for the people who can’t. Otherwise, I will spare them no sympathy when they have to reap what they have sown, and they will eventually. I have no time for their pissy tears.

  114. 114.

    opiejeanne

    @ellie: You know our postcard project, writing them to registered Democrats to urge them to vote blue, etc?

    I got one from a Republican this week. I had no idea they were writing them too.

    I don’t know why she thinks I’m a Republican. We don’t register party preference in Washington.

  117. 117.

    Jack the Second

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    I’ve read trashy fantasy novels with better philosophical underpinnings.

    What is the most important election a person can vote in? It’s the next election. Always the next election.

  121. 121.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @HumbugBlew: This driveling whine is beneath contempt. If that’s how you really feel, maybe you should contemplate whether the CHON-&-trace-elements currently tied up in your sad sack of flesh ought not go to organisms that would make more productive use of them – say, anything above pond scum or a Rethuglican (but I repeat myself).

  122. 122.

    Boris

    Yet again, Tbogg’s words apply:

    Every year in Happy Gumdrop Fairy-Tale Land all of the sprites and elves and woodland creatures gather together to pick the Rainbow Sunshine Queen. Everyone is there: the Lollipop Guild, the Star-Twinkle Toddlers, the Sparkly Unicorns, the Cookie Baking Apple-cheeked Grandmothers, the Fluffy Bunny Bund, the Rumbly-Tumbly Pupperoos, the Snowflake Princesses, the Baby Duckies All-In-A-Row, the Laughing Babies, and the Dykes on Bikes. They have a big picnic with cupcakes and gumdrops and pudding pops, stopping only to cast their votes by throwing Magic Wishing Rocks into the Well of Laughter, Comity, and Good Intentions. Afterward they spend the rest of the night dancing and singing and waving glow sticks until dawn when they tumble sleepy-eyed into beds made of the purest and whitest goose down where they dream of angels and clouds of spun sugar.

    You don’t live there.

    Grow the fuck up.

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