This is Us
Ossoff: Do not invoke Congressman Lewis’ name to signal your virtue while you work to erode his legacy pic.twitter.com/ahs1f6CP3g
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 20, 2022
This is Them
This is why 52 senators voted against bringing back the talking filibuster: they want to avoid even more foot-in-mouth incidents like this one when they stand to block progressive legislation. https://t.co/g16dfmeeVB
— Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha) January 20, 2022
Think about that:
“African-Americans are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans.”
Appalling.
It really has come down to this. It’s us vs. them. It’s democracy vs. authoritarianism.
It’s taking care of people vs. grinding them down and spitting them out because all that matters is power, not people.
It’s a place of respect in the world as a symbol of democracy vs. a banana republic.
Failure is not an option. We all need to find a way to fight this every day.
⭐️
FYI: In a week or two, we’ll have a report on what a group of folks from Balloon Juice have been up to in our efforts on that front. I have also heard a few ideas from other folks after last night’s zoom with Adam Schiff.
⭐️
In the meantime, I want to say that Jon Ossoff gives me hope. I think he is a great man and I fully expect him to be president some day, assuming that our democracy does not fail first.
Balloon Juice raised a crazy amount of money for Georgia in 2020 and the runoffs, and a ridiculous amount of that was for Jon Ossoff. Money well spent.
Baud
Hmm. I wonder who Ossoff is talking about.
I hope Abrams and Warnock can pull it out in GA in November.
guachi
I suspect GA will be a loss for Democrats, though Warnock and Abrams are about as good as Ds could hope for. A poor R candidate could actually lose this one unlike in past years.
Betty Cracker
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Speaking as a resident of Georgia for 37 years, I plan to do everything in my power to make that happen.
germy
MisterDancer
Thank you for all of this! Reverend William Barber of the Moral Mondays Movement has some words, as well. Excerpt:
guachi
While words can be just bluster I really think the vote in the Senate was a good thing. The right Ds are energized by the vote to keep pushing forward. It lays down a marker going forward that, I believe, no future D candidates will cross. Either you’re for filibuster reform (for voting rights at a minimum) or you won’t win a primary.
Baud
@guachi:
Agree. Glad they voted.
guachi
My prediction for the future is we’ll see the filibuster disappear for good under Senate Majority Leader Klobuchar. She’ll announce she’s got the votes on Nicolle Wallace’s MSNBC show.
trollhattan
@germy:
There can only be one Kato.
https://youtu.be/uk_2-ib3ENc
Nelle
We’re trying to sort out our financial support of politicians. We felt a bit down – maybe hoodwinked – at some of our donations and hopes last big round. Did Amy McGrath and Jamie Harrison have the sort of chance that was proclaimed? I also really dislike the hysterical tone of the incessant requests (demand?) for money.
So we are more focused on re-electing our Democratic congresswoman (Cindy Axne) and dislodging Charles Grassley (can we get word on his participation on the procedural side of Jan. 6, 2021? and soon?). We do send money to Lauren Underwood, Ralph Warnock, and Val Demings.
Schiff wrote about how it really takes that kind of money.
germy
She’s a republican who voted against the bill that provided this funding.
germy
Because he sees enough of his wife at home?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@MisterDancer: I have a great deal of respect for William Barber, but
He’s half right. Go to Arizona. I think Biden should have a big splashy fund-raiser for Katie Hobbs and/or Mark Kelly. Invite Ruben Gallego and have staff commit an oversight in scheduling said fund-raiser on a day when they know Sinema is out of state training for a triathalon. Talk about how even Governor not-Steve Ducey thinks all the audits and recounts were a bunch of horseshit.
Go to Florida. Go to Georgia. Go to North Carolina. Go to Texas, even. Do not go to West Virginia. It is a complete and utter waste of time and resources.
zhena gogolia
I feel that McConnell said that deliberately. There’s no sense that he’s “misspeaking.” This is his position and the position of his supporters.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy: YOU VOTED AGAINST IT is trending on twitter
Hinson beat Abby Finkenauer by about 11K votes out of over 400,000. I thought it was much closer than that.
Mike in NC
Chuck Todd appears to be auditioning for Sean Hannity’s job.
trollhattan
@zhena gogolia: LGM uses a pic of McConnell receiving some award in front of a giant Confederate flag when they have a post about him. It’s a helpful reminder. I wonder if Rand Paul is looking around for an even bigger flag, to outdo him.
trollhattan
@Mike in NC:
Honestly, Chuck Todd moving to Fox would be helpful all around.
West of the Rockies
Straight up: is Adam Silverman still a frontpager?
SiubhanDuinne
@zhena gogolia:
Fully agree. That was no accident, no “inartful phrasing.” He said what he meant, and he meant what he said.
The Dangerman
It’s going to take a shock to the system. Think about the run-up to WWII and how many Folks openly supported the Nazis. The Nazi’s were against what they were against (Communism, etc).
So, the shock will have to be an AED kinda thing; American Election something or other (no, I can’t think of an appropriate D given ED has other meanings doncha know). Or the other side wins because the other side cheats. Openly. Unbelievable.
germy
ChasM
Just reading TPM about the latest “Stolen Infrastructure Award”.
Thinking it’s time to go guerilla on this and fund some stickers that say “…WHO VOTED AGAINST THESE FUNDS” in very large and bright fonts and stuck them to those billboards that go up at the infrastructure constructions sites right next to the names of each and every (R) rep in each and every district.
germy
@West of the Rockies:
Hard to be a “front pager” when you’ve parachuted behind enemy lines.
/
WaterGirl
@West of the Rockies: Yes he is.
SiubhanDuinne
@West of the Rockies:
Asked about him the other day, and WaterGirl said that John has talked to him recently. He’s still listed as a front pager. As WG said, “If Cole’s not worried, then I’m not worried.” So neither am I.
Kay
@guachi:
I do too. State Republicans feel emboldened now because they think there won’t be any recourse for anyone on voter suppression- no federal statute to sue them on – so they’ll get worse and worse. It was their response after the SCOTUS gutted section 5 and again after the SCOTUS gutted section 2.
The Senators who voted against the Voting Rights Act last night aren’t actually GOP state lawmakers. They can’t guarantee anyone anything on voting. It’s wholly at the discretion of GOP state lawmakers now, and GOP state lawmakers are further Right than GOP Senators. We’re gonna see some shit we haven’t seen in 50 years.
Betty Cracker
Adam and I still text dumb Florida things back and forth, so I know he’s okay. He’s probably busy.
MisterDancer
Rev. Barber has been doing on-the-ground efforts on voting rights for months, including prior work in WV. I’ve mentioned before: I’m not exactly eager to tell people who are putting in the work, and who have history on delivering on that work, how to point their swords.
Others may find this approach of use, and I’m not saying “no, don’t post criticisms.”
Just making clear my personal reaction to reading this, in general; this isn’t the first time I’ve said this sort of thing, and I don’t mean it as a personal attack.
Jinchi
I don’t understand why Democrats spend so much time conceding races that haven’t been run, yet. Most suspected that GA would be a loss in 2020. Especially when they went to runoff elections, where Democrats typically turn out in lower numbers. Instead, they picked up both Senate seats.
Stacey Abrams came within 30,000 votes of winning the Governors race in 2018, which was remarkable for a black woman in a Southern state running against the man who was in charge of counting the votes. I agree these will be hard fought races, but if Democrats spend their energy assuming that they’ll lose, then all we’re doing is driving down voter turnout.
Convince voters that they’ve got a solid shot at winning the state, but only if they work for it. This country is going to follow a very different path if Dems capture 2 more Senate seats than it will if they lose just one.
Let’s get people hopeful and motivated. Even the longshots are worth fighting for.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I have to say, I think the 1/6 committee is very, very good at managed leaks and timing the media
I wonder if Abbe Lowell is still the Kushners’ attorney
I can’t cut and paste the screen shot, but I think very, very few people can “storm into the outer Oval”. Mark Meadows is one of them.
Jared and Ivanka stayed away from DC that day, didn’t they? Or got out after the earlier rally?
Martin
Always has been. That ‘culture war’ that keeps getting talked about – it’s real to them. We don’t get it because we aren’t invested in preserving a specific culture, but they are committed to it.
Another Scott
@SiubhanDuinne: Yeah.
Plus, even taken on his own terms, it’s stupid and deliberately misleading.
We elect representatives and Senators based on maps, not on aggregate country-wide totals. Just look at Mississippi: 3 white guys and 1 Black guy in a state that is 39-ish% Black. And Alabama: 6 white guys and 1 Black woman in a state that is 27-ish% Black.
The system is rigged and Moscow Mitch knows it. He’s worked for decades to make sure it is increasingly rigged to help him and his minions.
Grrr…,
Scott.
Baud
@Martin:
This. We are now trying to create a specific culture centered on American Democracy, but it’s a tough slog.
Betty Cracker
@germy: Reminds me of the time Rubio tweeted a tribute to John Lewis illustrated with a photo of himself with Elijah Cummings.
Kay
The other thing the debate and vote does is make it clear to moderate and Right leaning Democrats that they aren’t going to get federal protections for voting rights with the filibuster, because they could go decades before they have a 60 seat majority in the Senate and a D President, and even then they’d need a cushion of two or three because they’re likely to have one or two Democrats, like Manchin and Sinema, who are opposed to federal protections for voting rights.
It’s get rid of the filibuster or no federal voting rights laws, ever again.
guachi
@Kay: If you support the filibuster then you don’t really support voting rights, no matter what you say.
taumaturgo
Voting rights final score:
Anti-Democracy 1 Democracy 0
Kay
Because what Manchin and Sinema say is not that Democrats need a supermajority to pass any voting rights legislation. That wouldn’t be enough for them. They say Democrats need a BIPARTISAN majority on voting rights, so even WITH 60 Manchin and Sinema would need two Republicans, which is never, ever going to happen.
Another Scott
@Kay: With respect, AFAIK we still have a 14th Amendment and Article IV Section 2 and all the rest.
The Voting Section of the DOJ is doing everything they can even with the court monkey-wrenches.
If it were easy for states to throw out the votes of the people it would have been done long ago (the VRA is less than 57 years old). Yes, we have to fight them every day, and we still have some tools to do so.
Forward!
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
@guachi:
Well, you can count. The requirements are 1. supermajority in the senate AND 2. bipartisan.
So you need 60 + D President, and they can’t all be Democrats. So even if you WERE to get to 60 Democrats, highly unlikely, you’re still short Republicans to meet the other requirement.
The requirement is designed to make success impossible. Remember- not one Republican supports the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
MazeDancer
Those two guys from Georgia doing the anchor lap in the Senate last night were dazzling.
All the Dems were wonderful. Stayed up past my bedtime to watch the voting. The whole day was like a patriot’s dream. As long as you muted the GOP.
Felanius Kootea
@Kay: I hope that this year we can make Manchin and Sinema irrelevant by electing two more Democratic senators. It won’t be easy but we have got to try.
guachi
@Kay: Exactly. When your parameters for success are impossible to meet then failure is assured.
Kay
@Felanius Kootea:
They’re irrelevant anyway. They’re not even supporting the Democrats effort on the Electoral Count Act- they’re supporting the GOP on it. There are 48 Democrats and 52 Republicans (including Manchin and Sinema). Neither of those numbers is “60”.
Kay
@guachi:
When they gutted Section 5, world-wise pundits scolded us and told us it was no big deal. After all, we had Section 2! Then they gutted Section 2.
I don’t know what it would take for these people to admit that conservatives are not believers in voting rights, but we are going to find out.
SiubhanDuinne
@Felanius Kootea:
Yes indeed. Where do you reckon the most promising flips are? I’m trying to figure out tactical donating and/or volunteering for the coming year.
Kent
It’s going to be Trump fave Hershel Walker running against Warnock isn’t it?
kindness
Do I need to admit how bad I feel having given Sinema money for her 2018 election? Won’t happen ever again.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I don’t know whether to laugh or run screaming into the streets naked and smeared with beagle poop (deep Betty Cracker reference, if you’re wondering. I have no access to beagle poop) because of course to all of this
Instead, I will finally add Tim Ryan to my list of meager but they-make-me-feel-better monthly donations, in addition to Val Demmings and Raphael Warnock. And I think I’ll add the Wisconsin Democratic Party too.
Kent
@kindness: No, you assume the generic Democrat is going to be a generic Democrat. The alternative at the time was that other horrid GOP woman.
Ksmiami
@Kay: welp the south will turn into the pre Civil war 3rd world country it’s aspired to be. Companies will not find workers and will relocate and at this point we should try and help those who can’t leave
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@MisterDancer:
and I didn’t take it that way. And I’m under no illusion that Rev Barber either reads this blog or would care about my opinion if he did. But that opinion remains unchanged. West Virginia is a bigger waste of scarce and vital resources in this cycle than Amy McGrath’s campaign was in the last one, because the results of the last cycle only emboldened them in this one
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yeah, I’m not sure Breyer should retire now. Manchin has checked out.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: hmmmm. I still like that odds of that fight heading into a mid-term. Even after the last thirty years I’m giddily optimistic that people on the left will start caring about the Supreme Court, “judges or whatever” notwithstanding
Ksmiami
@Baud: EOs all the way.. and no money for West Virginia bye
Felanius Kootea
@SiubhanDuinne: Pennsylvania and (I hope) Wisconsin. We’ll see.
taumaturgo
Corporate power doesn’t believe in a democratic voting system. This is why they run their corporate structure similar to a monarchy, the ruler (CEO) is supreme and everyone else (supervisors and line workers) are subordinated to the whims and desires of the master. Workers in America work in an authoritarian non-democratic environment, without voice or vote. The filibuster rule along with the anti majority Senate structure is the tool corporate power wishes to preserve at all cost in order to defend and protect any systemic changes to rules that would threaten their hold on political power. I know folks on this blog don’t want to hear this, but BOTH parties cater to corporate power, one does it openly, the other is caught in a bind. Democrats defend voting rights but also can’t renounce the juicy checks that flow from the same folks that wish to squash said rights. I believe that if Manchin and Sinema had announced that they were voting to suspended the filibuster for the Voting Rights Act vote, other corporatist Democrats would have come out and voted against it. This time around it was easy for the corporate lackeys to vote to suspend the rule because M & S provided coverage. It was a win-win for the donors and the corporatist democrats and per usual, the majority voters’ wishes be dammed.
Felanius Kootea
@kindness: No one should feel bad. We were all deceived. Won’t happen again. Note that she did vote the right way on impeachment and Biden judges.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@taumaturgo: do you get an extra nickel every time you use the word “corporate”, or some variant of it, in your silly screeds?
trollhattan
@Felanius Kootea: Sometimes call her half-a-loaf Sinema but the “half” is just for convenience.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Whether it’s a waste of resources depends on the goal. Sounds like Barber wants to — and wants Biden to — demonstrate that Manchin and Sinema crossed a moral line by preventing the party from protect elections and voting rights. Sounds like you want Barber and Biden to devote all efforts to electing more Dems in the upcoming cycle to make those two irrelevant.
I don’t think those two goals are necessarily at cross-purposes, and maybe both are worthy of limited time and resources. There should be consequences for fucking your own party, and sending the unmistakable message that Manchin and Sinema are outliers whose views do not represent the party may have value from a party brand perspective.
Felanius Kootea
@taumaturgo: So you’re doing everything you can to help overturn Citizens United and provide federal funding for congressional campaigns to reduce corporate influence, right?
Kay
@kindness:
I don’t think you should feel bad for giving her money. She seemed like a normal person :)
Geminid
@SiubhanDuinne: If you go by last year’s Presidential election totals, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin were both carried by Biden and seem the most likely flips. North Carolina was close, so Cherie Beasley has a good chance there. Florida and Ohio were both won by Trump by larger margins, but I think they are real possibilities. And Iowa is intriguing; Grassley is awfully old to be running for another term, and there is a story out that his intention is to win and then have his grandson appointed in his place. An unusual dynamic.
Raphael Warnock has a tough race for reelection in Georgia, and Mark Kelly also does in Arizona. Catherine Cortez-Masto might have a tough race in Nevada. Now that Sununu the Younger has passed on the New Hampshire Senate race, Maggie Hassan seems fairly safe.
sukabi
@Mike in NC: Well Hannity is about to go through some things, soooo…..
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I just wish we could stop hearing from him. The only people who believe he has any intention of passing any of BBB are pundits and DC reporters. He’s doing it to harm Biden. He wants to draw Biden back into to more months of fruitless negotation, which will fail.
He successfully blocked BBB and the Voting Rights Act. Let’s not let him destroy the whole Democratic Party as an encore.
Kent
Pennsylvania?
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: I haven’t read much about the senate races in other states, but if it’s Warnock vs. Walker, I like Warnock’s chances. Is Kelly’s opponent also a raving kook? Seems like all the Repubs in AZ are these days — the woman Trump endorsed for governor seems utterly deranged.
Baud
@Kay:
I think Biden is done with Congress, at least publicly.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: there’s been chatter about drafting Doug Ducey in AZ, I believe, to save them from a choice between a mere trumpist and a full-on Q-anon candidate. A couple of weeks ago some similar noise about Portman staving off his retirement because of Mandel vs Vance. I don’t know if the Jeebus I don’t believe in loves me enough to keep Herschel Walker in the race for ten more months
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Arizona Republicans have not picked their kook yet. Governor Ducey was thought to be a strong prospect, but the radicals hate him and he wouldn’t help Trump steal the state, and he decided to pass. Polls last fall showed Kelly leading potential challengers by 6-8 points.
Herschel Walker looks like the choice to run against Warnock. This is solely Trump’s doing. Georgia Republicans reluctantly went along, and they probably hope Walker will make inroads among Georgia’s Black voters. But Walker took a lot of hits during his football career and it shows.
Kay
@Baud:
I hope he’s done because Manchin isn’t going to do shit about anything, and he’s not very bright. The Manchin/Sinema plan for Joe Biden’s Presidency has been a disaster. If he wants a GOP moderate he can work with Mitt Romney.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Kay: She started out as a Green, for God’s sake. So she fooled me too.
zhena gogolia
@Kay: I don’t really regret giving to McGrath, Harrison, and Gideon. We tried.
MisterForkbeard
@Kay: The main thing that always struck me as “Manchin and Sinema are obviously lying” is that they never say what they’d actually like to pass.
All they do is point out “oh, there’s this one provision I don’t like” and then spend months dithering on it. When it’s finally removed, they just… pick something else. There’s no indication at all it’s in good faith or they’re actually trying to accomplish something.
Especially since they gave Manchin MONTHS to put together any kind of voting bill. He worked with senior republicans for months on it. Not one of them voted for it and yet Manchin is STILL talking about reaching some kind of mythical compromise that he (again) won’t actually articulate.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@MisterForkbeard: Manchin did put out a version of BBB he
waspretended to be willing to vote for. That’s the “December offer” he pulled today, referred to in the @Jim, Foolish Literalist: tweet I posted aboveamong other things that make it pretty much impossible to deal with Manchin and Sinema is they are both, I believe, in different was, erratic personalities. I don’t think they themselves know what they want from day to day
Ksmiami
@MisterForkbeard: let him eat lunch alone. Don’t pay any attention to him or Sinema- they are fuckers
Geminid
@zhena gogolia: McGrath, Harrison, and Gideon attracted all that money not because they were great candidates in winnable states, but because people hated McConnell, Graham and Collins. A practical example of negative partisanship. It was to be expected that the Democratic candidates would not wave off the last tens of millions. It may be a lesson to donors, though, that they should consider the principle of marginal utility
Soprano2
Just wanna say how much I hate having our stuff at work on the “cloud”. It’s all slow and constantly glitches now. That’s all. I’ve come to hate that little “working” circle with Excel with the hot hatred of 1,000 blue suns.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Geminid: I thought Gideon was actually a decent candidate, and IIRC the polls suggested the same right up to the end, when they proved to be very, very wrong; and as I said earlier, if Collins and Maine aren’t a unique situation, it’s damn close
I always thought Harrison was the longest of long shots, but I sent money in the hope, that didn’t pan out, that he would have the sort of coattails and party-building influence O’Rourke had in 2018, before he decided to run for President of Twitter.
I even sent Mike Espy a couple hundred bucks on that theory.
zhena gogolia
@Soprano2: The worst.
Tom Q
@Geminid: But there are differences. Gideon led Collins in many polls; it was honestly shocking Collins came back to win by such a margin. And Harrison was (surprisingly) near Graham in at least some polls, so you could see the impetus to try and put him over the top. It was McGrath who was a complete waste of donor money; I hate McConnell as much as the next human, but KY is hopeless at the national level, and Dems who put serious money into her race were playing with their hearts, not their heads.
Even with all that, the problem was that Trump’s army of “I don’t usually vote, but if you’re really a vindictive racist, I’ll be there” voters turned out in even better numbers than they had in 2016. We’re damn lucky the Dem turnout hit an all-time high as well, or the Senate and House might by GOP-controlled. (This is also why the elected GOPers are so in thrall to Trump, whatever polls says about his waning popularity. They know he’s right now the only one who can get those troglodytes to turn out in the numbers necessary for GOP wins.)
geg6
@Another Scott:
We have to fight them, of course. All the time, 24/7/365. However, I fear Kay is right and the DOJ can do as they wish and SCOTUS will slap them down. Does no one remember that Roberts started his career in voter suppression?
Regine Touchon
@SiubhanDuinne: Hey I’m going to do the same. Was wondering if our state groups are still meeting. Haven’t seen anything on it in the sidebars. I think @WaterGirl mentioned that we will be hearing from them soon. I am still interested in being on team Georgia. I have contacted my Alabama political friends who are tired of working to get candidates elected only for them to be blown out of the water. They are interested in putting their efforts into getting Warnock re-elected and Abrams elected. We have been successful in raising money in the past and feel we can garner support from our donor list here in East Alabama.
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Well, I think they maybe were winnable races. And the last ten million spent could have made the difference in a really close race.
Maine was a very singular contest. Few races last year were decided by ticket splitting, but both Maine’s Senate race and it’s 2nd District were won by candidates despite the Presidential vote going the other party’s way.
A similar result occured in a Nebraska district where Biden won an Electoral vote, but Republican Don Bacon won the Congressional seat. That district will be a big target for Democrats this year. Bacon was one of 13 Republican Reps to vote for the Infrastructure bill, so Trump is calling for a primary challenge.
EmanG
@Watergirl: Is there a way to contact you directly? I’m a video editor (amongst other things) and would be glad to help out if I can. Don’t know if you can see my email or not but feel free to contact me there as well.
Geminid
@kindness: Well, by helping elect Sinema you helped make Chuck Schumer Majority Leader last year, and that’s not a small thing. The Democrats have gotten a lot of good things done, just not some we really need.
WaterGirl
@Regine Touchon: Yes! We are pulling some things together right now for a post in the next couple of weeks, where we hope to bring in a lot more states and people besides the initial pilot states.
WaterGirl
@EmanG: Anyone can write to me using my nym at balloon-juice.com
I am going to try GarageBand for the audio and iMovie for the video, it sounds like the process might be pretty simple (Famous last words!)
So I’ll try that and sound the alarm if I need more help after that. thank you
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
@Tom Q: I did not mean to imply that Gideon wasn’t a good candidate, just that the reason she raised so much money was peoples’ animus towards Collins. But Maine did seem close, so my observation about negative partisanship is more applicable to McGrath’s campaign, maybe to Harrison’s. Conversely, Barbara Boullier and Steve Bullock would have raised more money, I think, if Roger Marshall and Steve Daines had been as notorious as McConnell and Graham. Not that this neccessarily made the difference.
Your point about the turnout of Trump voters is interesting. There definitely was a “Trump bump” last year, and the polls seemed to have missed it. Maybe it was poor poll design, but it could be that Trump supporters were less likely to participate. I heard stories of Trump supporters lying just to fool pollsters, too. Polling aside, a question I have is: will there be a post-trump slump in Republican voters, and how big?
Geminid
@Tom Q: Republican politicians seem to believe that only Trump can turn out those voters. And if they do not look beyond their next election, and that election is a Republican primary, those voters are crucial. The problem is that he may repel as many or more voters as he gains. I think that was the case in the last Presidential election. This year we’ll get an idea of how influential he is when he’s not on the ballot. Virginia Republicans seemed to do better without him last fall.
EmanG
@WaterGirl: Thanks! You should be able to handle both in iMovie (I haven’t worked with it much). Once you import your footage you should be able to export video & sound or sound alone. If you get stuck let me know, I’m glad to help.
Jinchi
It’s a mistake think that fundraising numbers are a zero-sum game. People donate when they are optimistic and hopeful for victory. A dollar donated to someone like McGrath, Harrison or Gideon doesn’t automatically get translated into a dollar for a more deserving candidate somewhere else.
Convince donors that there is really no hope in defeating their hated candidate and you are much more likely to convince them not to donate at all. Worst case scenario, the money spent will have helped galvanize a local party effort that might pay off in future elections. Donations to Warnock and Ossoff were gambles too. Those paid off big.
If find yourself winning every bet, it doesn’t prove you’re brilliant, it just means you weren’t pushing hard enough.
Miss Bianca
@MisterDancer:
Hey, if Rev. Barber thinks it’s worth doing, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Agree that the potential for success seems higher in AZ than WV, at this point, but…what do I know? Nuffink.
Miss Bianca
@Kay: Well…I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Sinema seemed like “a normal person”. She seemed hella quirky to me, but I figured that she was sound at bottom under all the flightiness and attention-grabbing wardrobe and titillating teases about her sexuality.
I figured…poorly.
Another Scott
@Jinchi: + eleventy billion.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Regine Touchon
@WaterGirl: Great news! Thanks.
Geminid
@Jinchi: Everything you say is true but I don’t think it contradicts what I’m saying, that: 1) people’s dislike for a candidate’s opponent drives donations, which was the case with McGrath and Harrison. That’s an observation, not a criticism. And 2) donors would do well to consider the principle of marginal utility i.e. when a Senate candidate exceeds $60 million in a state of 5 million people, it’s worth considering if a hundred dollars might do more good in another race. Of course political giving is not neccesarily a zero sum game, but for many people it is.
Generally speaking, I’m for people giving whatever they want to whomever they want. But the amount of money spent on McGrath and Harrison has been lamented enough by others here that I gave my take on the subject.
Sebastian
@ChasM:
That is a brilliant idea and cheap and effective!!