Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Not all heroes wear capes.

The revolution will be supervised.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Readership Capture

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Readership Capture

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(Proud that I got to vote for Sen. Stabenow back when she was running for County Commissioner!)


(Actual stamps available here… maybe someone should set up a group buy, possibly as a donation project?)

Reader Interactions

234Comments

  2. 2.

    J.

    Re the Stabenow quote, this happens every time we’ve had a Republican president followed by a Democrat. The Republicans balloon the debt and crash the economy and then try to pin the blame on the Democrats, who then rescue the economy and are voted out of office only to have the Republicans trash the place again. But the MSM rarely points this out.

  5. 5.

    NotMax

    Firstest with the MOSTest?

    The researchers behind an energy system that makes it possible to capture solar energy, store it for up to eighteen years and release it when and where it is needed have now taken the system a step further. After previously demonstrating how the energy can be extracted as heat, they have now succeeded in getting the system to produce electricity, by connecting it to a thermoelectric generator. Eventually, the research – developed at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden – could lead to self-charging electronics using stored solar energy on demand.

    “This is a radically new way of generating electricity from solar energy. It means that we can use solar energy to produce electricity regardless of weather, time of day, season, or geographical location. It is a closed system that can operate without causing carbon dioxide emissions,” says research leader Kasper Moth-Poulsen, Professor at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Chalmers.

    The new technology is based on the solar energy system MOST – Molecular Solar Thermal Energy Storage Systems, developed at Chalmers University of Technology.… Source

    No free lunch law not repealed, but reading of the technique is enticing.

  7. 7.

    Joe Falco

    Good on the RBG family to support the late justice’s passion and this cultural institution. I doubt the same was done by Scalia’s family after his death though the two justices shared the same love for the opera. Maybe it was part of RBG’s will to have it done after her passing.

  14. 14.

    mrmoshpotato

    [email protected]: “There was $7 trillion in new debt just from the four years of Trump and 2.6 million jobs lost during the Trump years. But when Senator McConnell and Republican leaders come to this podium, all they do is complain that we’re not cleaning up their mess fast enough.

    Preach!  Though I see a glaring lack of “these fucking fucknuts” liberally used.

  16. 16.

    rikyrah

     
    But, CRT, REMEMBER ???

    Schuyler VanValkenburg (@VVforDelegate) tweeted at 5:43 AM on Tue, Apr 12, 2022:
    This pick makes clear that Youngkin has a privatization plan.

    One where your taxes fund two school systems; paying for both underfunded and decaying public schools and for unaccountable private and for profit schools.

    I’d rather fund public schools and make them world-class.
    (https://twitter.com/VVforDelegate/status/1513830141151137794?t=v9GhJJkhDiN-C3zMore02w&s=03)

  17. 17.

    Betty Cracker

    @satby: It was a righteous beatdown, but Schatz himself says Dems should push back more forcefully on Republican lies:

    “Democrats need to make more noise,” Sen. Brian Schatz told me. “We have to scream from the rooftops, because this is a battle for the free world now.”

    The source of the quote is a Greg Sargent column in WaPo from last week on the “loudness gap.” It’s real, IMO.

  19. 19.

    Geminid

    @NotMax: I tend not to be as pessimistic as others about the effort to reach the 2018 IPCC report’s call for a carbon neutral world economy. This may be because I look up “clean energy news” every so often. The energy storage system you comment about is one of many technical advances in this area. The clean energy transition is happening now, although It surely is in need of a strong push from our federal government.  Even so, various cabinet departments besides Energy are intently doing what they can with the funding that is available.

    Democrats need to win the next two election cycles if we are to exit this decade on a path to the 2050 goal. Polling shows substantial majorities favoring efforts to combat global warming, and people  increasingly understand that the clean energy transition is both a moneysaver and a money maker. This might be a good fit for a set of three or four top campaign issues.

  20. 20.

    Gin & Tonic

    A bit of good news – after nearly 2.5 years, my DIL has finally been able to return to the US. She flew in yesterday, and is back together with my son in NYC.

  25. 25.

    Ken

    @NotMax: Two weeks ago, I might have suspected an April Fool joke, where it’s not until paragraph 10 that they reveal the “Molecular Solar Thermal Energy Storage System” is a tree, and after 18 years (or longer) you can cut it down and burn it for heat.

  26. 26.

    dmsilev

    @NotMax:

    to capture solar energy, store it for up to eighteen years and release it when and where it is needed

    I have to point out that “grow some trees, and then burn them for fuel” accomplishes much the same thing…

  28. 28.

    Baud

     

    @Geminid:

    Democrats need to win the next two election cycles if we are to exit this decade on a path to the 2050 goal

     

    Nice try, but I’m going to wait 20 years until the Dems have earned my vote!

  30. 30.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud:

    Nice try, but I’m going to wait 20 years until the Dems have earned my vote! 

    And if they do one thing in those 20 years that I don’t like, then they’re dead to me!

  31. 31.

    bbleh

    @satby: @Betty Cracker: @O. Felix Culpa:

    Schatz’s floor speech was epic — another vivid demonstration of the Intelligence Gap — Lieu is always good, and Stabenow was exactly correct.

    But, and in line with Schatz, Dems simply don’t do well enough.  They don’t <i>coordinate</i> and they don’t attack nearly viciously enough.  They’re fighting a pack of mind-melded rabid dogs by lecturing them sternly whenever the individual mood strikes.  For all that they’re clever, on point, and even righteous, they’re one-offs, and they’re like occasional bird chips against a continually running siren.

    Dems don’t need to up their game; they need to change it.  And that will require some real discipline, something that is conspicuously lacking in the Democratic Party, as is evident by the salience of its occasional actual occurrence (see Pelosi, Nancy, Official Greatest House Speaker Maybe Ever).

  32. 32.

    WaterGirl

    @satby: Great video!

    Does anyone know if being able to block stuff for bullshit reasons part of the actual rules?  Or is this one of those “courtesy” things that we could snap our fingers and eliminate?

  34. 34.

    Geminid

    @dmsilev: If you burn trees by turning their wood into charcoal you might be on to something. Proponents of “bio-char” assert that this could be a weapon against global warming. It might turn out to be a small one, but the overall solution to the problem will be bring a multitiple set of weapons, large and small, to the fray.

    Biochar is said to have a very beneficial effect on soils. When I visit garden stores now I see small bags of “biochar” for sale at big prices.

    Scientists are putting out studies on biochar’s efficacy. One that I read found little (short term) result when the charcoal was mixed into the soil directly. But if they mixed it into compost and let the mixture sit for a while they had something good.

  35. 35.

    Xavier

    and now Sen. Manchin (!) is complaining that Biden is not fixing inflation fast enough.

  36. 36.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Betty Cracker: It occurs to me that both you and Kay live in red areas, so you don’t have local Democratic representation and presumably the local Democratic Party is weak. As a result, you’re not getting much in the way of Dem messaging.

    By way of contrast, I have nothing but Democratic representatives and the messaging is constant and clear about the issues at stake. So the problem you’re perceiving may be local/regional and limited by both personnel and resources, exacerbated by MSM willful misframing and predetermined anti-Democratic narratives.

    Sure, the Democrats can always do better, but I think that the claims I’ve read on BJ that Dem messaging ranges from nothing at all to poorly at best does not reflect reality. It’s a hard, uphill climb particularly in red areas, and I’m not sure how, without really excellent local talent, even the best messaging pierces the noise there.

  39. 39.

    Baud

    @bbleh:

    I’ve been hearing the Internet telling Dems to be stronger since the Internet became a thing.  I haven’t seen anyone demonstrate proof of concept in all that time.  Surely some savvy person would have shown us how it’s done if that were the path to success.  Even in the GOP, the lion’s share of the work is done by only a handful of people.  You never hear anything from most of their reps and Senators.

    I do agree that Dems should never waver on being proud of their accomplishments and values, and sometimes they do work to hard in trying to be or appear open-minded.

  41. 41.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Betty Cracker: There are a couple of ways that we can influence the debate (at the margins of course).  One is to complain about the Dems not doing what we want.  The other is to promote and amplify those who do.

  42. 42.

    Ken

    @Xavier: And yet he won’t support the obvious solution, nationalization of the coal and oil industries and institution of strict price controls.

  43. 43.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Of course McConnell is pushing the Democrats to clean up the mess the Republicans made when they controlled all three branches of government under Trump,  McConnell knows if the GOP retakes Congress next fall they will go back to breaking things and McConnell gets the country might not be able to take it. McConnell needs the Democrats to save America from McConnell now!

  44. 44.

    Baud

    I’ll go ahead and mention the elephant in the room.  A truly strong (“loud”) Democratic Party will be ineffective unless it is willing and able to take on the very few but very vocal anti-Dem left, and to do so with our support.

  46. 46.

    Starfish

    @Geminid: I tend to believe that we are living under oil and gas regulatory capture. If we were not, there would not be nearly as much fracking. Oil and gas has a lot of money and owns a lot of politicians.

  49. 49.

    Geminid

    @Baud: While I often find the vocal anti-Democratic “Left” maddening, I don’t think think these people have much practical impact. For one thing, they are small in number. For another, the pushback on them from committed Democrats is swift and fierce.

  50. 50.

    bbleh

    @O. Felix Culpa:  I live in a VERY red area these days, but came from very blue areas, and there’s no doubt you’re correct about local influence. And indeed at the end of the day, because people get a lot of their information from friends and from local sources, there will ALWAYS be strong local bias, in many cases too strong to overcome short of Putinesque tactics.

    The only alternative in those areas is (obviously I guess) national / regional information sources, notably including the MSM but also the centralized aspects of social media, and here (again, alas) the Dems’ efforts have been spotty and badly coordinated compared to the Republicans’.  Republicans play hardball with the media — they basically have them bullied — and they exploit  every advantage — notably the fact that MSM audiences skew older and therefore more Republican.  They dominate the political talk-shows and the panels of “experts” and commentators featured on the news.  Their messages are coordinated almost robotically — it almost doesn’t matter who appears; the message will be the message of the day, repeated faithfully (and usually angrily).  And that message is then reinforced on social media, by social media staff, surrogates, allies, and bots. Dems meanwhile take potshots from the sidelines, which are sometimes devastating but are only VERY rarely what viewers/readers take away.

    There’s nothing to be done about hardcore MAGAts: they’re in a bubble and they’re not coming out.  But for anyone who is reachable, and who is looking to outside sources to help resolve some conflict among existing biases, Dem messages are a light breeze compared to a hurricane.

  51. 51.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Agreed. I also go back to the adage that all politics are local. In my experience, getting good local politicians/candidates in front of local people makes a difference. We just held a “meet and greet” in our rural community center for all our statewide Democratic primary candidates, also attended by our US Representative and various state and county legislators. Much to our surprise, the place was standing room only. People are interested and motivated, and like it when officials come to visit. Retail politics are important and can make a difference come Election Day.

  52. 52.

    satby

    @Geminid: I wrote about biochar last fall in a garden thread. After a lot of research into why I struggled to grow stuff in the almost pure sand of South Bend that and compost were the recommended amendments to the soil. Biochar by itself is nearly sterile but water and nutrient absorbing, mixing it with compost “seeds” it with nutrients and beneficial bacteria for the soil. I see improvement already in the areas where I’ve applied it.

  55. 55.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    I think there’s more pushback than there used to be. But a candidate faced with an attack that has a little bit of traction laundered through the left can’t just ignore it.  The point of being “strong” is responding to attacks.

  59. 59.

    VOR

    @O. Felix Culpa: The problem is the Republican messaging is in lock-step. All of them, House, Senate, local reps, and candidates for dog walker, are armed with a common set of poll-tested talking points. It’s a machine. The talking points might be stupid and complete lies, but it is a machine and they are all on message.

  60. 60.

    Starfish

    @Baud: I live in an oil and gas state. There are constantly arguments about how far away from schools wells should happen and is it the school building or the school grounds. The setback rule was a thousand feet from high-density school buildings, I think it has been increased to a thousand feet from school grounds. The governor was talking about making it 2000 feet, but I am not sure if that ever happened.

  61. 61.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @bbleh:

    The Republicans have been working the refs since at least Nixon. They also own a megaphone in Fox and, indirectly, most of corporate MSM, including the talk shows that seem to have only Republicans on their invitation list. How, exactly, do you propose the Dems overcome this asymmetry?

    I’m a casual twitter participant and I see tons of good Dem twitter-messaging. But normies don’t follow that stuff and neither do people in red areas. Ultimately, I think it has to be a local fight, precinct by precinct. Which is going to be all the harder now, with systemic GQP voter suppression. But people like Stacey Abrams aren’t giving up. I take her work and that of organizations like the New Georgia Project as models.

  62. 62.

    bbleh

    @Baud: And they don’t coordinate.  The problem is not a lack of savvy politicians; the problem is that they’re all going their own ways for their own reasons, and “the” Dem message is an unintelligible babble.  Put another way, there is no Dem “brand”; rather, there are 300 individual brands, each doing well in their own markets, but lacking almost all the benefits of mutual support and national-level brand reinforcement.  It’s like, I dunno, the Association of Local Mom And Pop Restaurants, whose leadership is all-volunteer and unpaid and which issues the occasional newsletter and meets occasionally somewhere with about 5% of the membership in attendance, vs. McDonald’s.  Sure the occasional Mom And Pop will succeed, and they’re all better than McD’s, but McD’s will systematically drive hundreds of them out of business with their economies of scale.

    Now as has been observed, if Dems were as disciplined and ruthless as Republicans, they’d … be Republicans!  It won’t do us any good to have TWO Nazi Parties.  But there is an AWFUL lot of daylight between that and where Dems are today.

  63. 63.

    Geminid

     

     

    @Starfish: As long as we use oil to run our vehicles and gas to heat our homes there is going to be fracking. If you banned it tomorrow oil and gas costs would probably double.* The key is to make fossil fuels a shorter term bridge to a clean energy economy, and apply environmental regulations as strictly as possible to fracking.

    *There is an argument to be made for doubling oil and gas prices. There might be a severe recession, but groups like Extinction Rebellion argue that we’ll only save the planet through “De-Growth” anyway. It would be problematic politically, though, and if we want a sustainable planet we have to have a sustainable political program to achieve that goal.

  64. 64.

    VOR

    @bbleh: They dominate the political talk-shows and the panels of “experts” and commentators featured on the news.

    It always used to drive me nuts when our local public radio station would feature someone from a right-wing think tank as their expert for the hour. The think tanks make it easy for media bookers by having an organized list of speakers for whatever subject. This is how John McCain was always on the Sunday shows – he was easy to book. Al Franken used to say the real media bias was that they were lazy. But these days, with all the cut-backs in traditional media, they are also overloaded so the path of least resistance is attractive.

  66. 66.

    satby

    @O. Felix Culpa: I also think there’s a bit of bad faith coming from people like Greg Sargent (who I like) and other media folks complaining that Dems don’t do enough to get their message out.  Who has the most power to broadcast a message? A guy working for mass media or various elected Democrats, some of whom are unknown to their own constituents?

    But the discussion yesterday was that “Democrats aren’t doing anything” and that is patently false. Whether it’s enough, whether it should all be up to people who were elected to givern, not do PR, that’s a discussion that’s at least based in some reality.

  67. 67.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @VOR: You are never going to get Dems in lockstep on anything but broad general principles.  We have a really big tent right now, basically housing every politician who isn’t bugfuck crazy and/or corrupt.  But we don’t need lockstep, we need people who understand their communities, subscribe to our broad general principles, and can fuse the two together into a strong local message.  Then we need to support the fuck out of those people even if we differ with them on a number of details.

  68. 68.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    The Republicans have been working the refs since at least Nixon.

    which is also how long they’ve been working state and local elections. Especially in the last few years, we wait till there’s a crisis and then demand! instant executive action

  70. 70.

    Starfish

    Yesterday, I said this New York Times article about Fiona Hill is really good if you are suffering from low blood pressure.

    The first notable disruption in U.S.-Ukraine relations during Trump’s presidency came when Yovanovitch was removed from her ambassadorial post at Trump’s orders. Though she was widely respected in diplomatic circles, Yovanovitch’s ongoing efforts to root out corruption in Ukraine had put her in the cross hairs of two Soviet-born associates of Giuliani who were doing business in the country. Those associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, told Trump that Yovanovitch — who had served in the State Department going back to the Reagan administration — was critical of Trump. She soon became the target of negative pieces in the publication The Hill by John Solomon, a conservative writer with connections to Giuliani, including an allegation by Yuriy Lutsenko, the prosecutor general of Ukraine, that the ambassador had given him a “do not prosecute list” — which Lutsenko later recanted to a Ukrainian publication. The same month that he did so, April 2019, Yovanovitch was recalled from her post.

    People like John Solomon should have had to disclose their connections with the people in power on their articles or just not allowed to write for being too close to the subject matter.

  72. 72.

    Eunicecycle

    @OzarkHillbilly: Congratulations on the new grandchild! On the other topic, two of my coworkers went with a Cornell research team to look for the Ivory-billed sometime in the aughts. One swore he saw one, and he was the more skeptical of the two. But an official sighting had to have either two observers at the same time, or a picture, so it wasn’t recorded as an official sighting.

  73. 73.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I saw many Democrats (including myself, TBH), clue in to the importance of local and state elections after the 2016 debacle. We had been asleep at the wheel for decades while the Republicans conducted their long march through the institutions. We can only start from where we are, and I’ve seen successful turnarounds in some areas due to determined Democratic organizing. It’s exhausting work and not at all glamorous, unlike opining on nearly top-10,000 blogs. :)

  74. 74.

    bbleh

    @O. Felix Culpa: Of course.  “Messaging” — particularly centralized messaging — is just one aspect of effective politics.  Organization is definitely more important, and local outreach (and service!) is likewise more important.  You can’t run a district from Washington with just a Twitter feed and a bunch of hyperactive social media staff.

    But messaging — or more precisely, coordinated messaging and the establishment of a national “brand” — helps ALL these things, and other things as well (hello fundraising!).  And that happens to be the topic of discussion so ..

    And as to “working the refs,” yes, Reps have been at it a lot longer and there’s no way to make that go away instantly.  But IMO Dems could take a LOT harder line with schedulers, and adopt a LOT better internal discipline, with respect to both messaging and appearance.  “No, 25-y/o CBS scheduling assistant, Senator X will not appear with 3 Republicans; it’ll be 2 and 2 or no show, and you’ll get nobody else either, right down to the State Assembly level.”

    As to Fox, no, Dems do not have an equivalent.  We have to make up for that with OUR advantages, eg, superior numbers, sensible policies, a lack of the repulsive bigotry that characterizes all too many Republicans, both politician and activist, etc.

    Another real problem right now is that the balance of power is so narrow, and idiots like Manchin and Gottheimer hold it.  As a WV resident, I still can’t quite get my head around Manchin’s truly galaxy-class stupidity — he had a once-in-many-lifetimes opportunity, a blank check for a state that really needs it, and he managed to bobble it COMPLETELY — but you go to war with the idiots you have, not the ones you wish you had.

  76. 76.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    But we don’t need lockstep, we need people who understand their communities, subscribe to our broad general principles, and can fuse the two together into a strong local message.  Then we need to support the fuck out of those people even if we differ with them on a number of details.

    QFT.

  77. 77.

    schrodingers_cat

    Dems will continue to have “messaging” problems until a majority of white people (or at least women) decide that their well being is more important to them than preserving their white privilege

  79. 79.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @bbleh:

    “No, 25-y/o CBS scheduling assistant, Senator X will not appear with 3 Republicans; it’ll be 2 and 2 or no show, and you’ll get nobody else either, right down to the State Assembly level.”

    I’m afraid the MSM answer to that approach would then be, “You get nothing.” But I suppose it might be worth a try. The outcome wouldn’t be much different.

    ETA:

    As a WV resident, I still can’t quite get my head around Manchin’s truly galaxy-class stupidity — he had a once-in-many-lifetimes opportunity, a blank check for a state that really needs it, and he managed to bobble it COMPLETELY — but you go to war with the idiots you have, not the ones you wish you had.

    No argument there.

  80. 80.

    Geminid

    @Baud: The Ohio 11th Congressional District primary rematch between Representative Shontel Brown and former State Senator Nina Turner will be a good test of this political dynamic.

    I was interested to see that when Shontel Brown entered Congress last November, she joined both the (moderate) New Democratic Caucus and the Progressive Caucus. Her Black Caucus collegues Joyce Beatty and Lauren Underwood, on the other hand, are members of neither caucus, nor of the third “ideological” caucus, the notorious* Blue Dogs.

    *The Blue Dogs’ notoriety is limited. The Congresswoman who will defend my new Virginia 7th District, Abigail Spanberger, is a member of the Blue Dog Caucus. I think that if you took a typical 7th District Democratic voter aside and whispered, “You know Spanberger’s a Blue Dog, don’t you?” they would reply, “What’s a Blue Dog? And why are you whispering?”

  83. 83.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Geminid:

    Many eyebrows in Black Twitter have been raised about Bernie’s endorsement of this primary challenger to a perfectly fine Democratic Congresswoman.

  84. 84.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @O. Felix Culpa: I am following the various Senate races and here in WI, there are a number of good candidates running.  I am not committing to any  candidate yet, but Mandela Barnes is looking better and better to me.  Charismatic, sharp, and out doing the work throughout the state.  He was bowling in my hometown the other day.  He probably won’t win in Marathon County, but he can still pick up votes.  At the same time, I am watching PA.  I don’t really care for Fetterman, but I am not from PA and have never lived there.  If PA voters want him, they know their state better than I do.  Oh, did I mention Mandela Barnes?  People might want to check him out.

  86. 86.

    Betty Cracker

    @O. Felix Culpa: Fair point on the local party communication angle, but I’ll suggest that those of us who dwell among the red and observe the national political debate from that perch might have insights that are worth hearing.

    @Omnes Omnibus: Positive reinforcement is a sound principle for training dogs and children. I’m not completely sold on its utility as a method to shape a national communications strategy.

  87. 87.

    bbleh

    @VOR: @Omnes Omnibus:  True that “all politics is local” (as Tip O’Neill did not actually say), and you HAVE to represent your district, and Dems are indeed a “bigger tent” than Republicans, and and and.  Messaging is not the only thing, nor the most important.

    BUT (always with the buts), it is precisely the areas of commonality — both the “broad general principles” and the specific actions that follow from them (the ACA being recent Exhibit A) — that Dems CAN agree on and CAN agree to emphasize in their national appearances and at least mention in their local ones.  And most importantly, they can coordinate on these things!  When Rep. X goes on a talk show, or makes a local speech, or issues daily marching orders to his/her comm staff, it includes the Message Of The Day and the agreed-upon conjuring words of Brand Democrat without fail.  Not local adaptations of those things — local topics are a separate (and equally important!) part of the speech/message/whatever — and MOST CERTAINLY NOT any kind of apology for or disavowal of Brand Dem.  When you appear, in addition to all the other things you have to / want to say, you also say X, and you salute when you do it, full stop.  And you do this because it helps all your fellow Dems, and all your fellow Dems do it because it helps you, and we all are better off thereby.  (And if you don’t, then no more money for you, and you’d better brush up on the procedures of the District committee because we’re gonna give your slot on Appropriations to someone who plays ball, and oh sorry about that highway and that post office…)

  90. 90.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Mandela Barnes does look like an interesting candidate, especially since he’s operating from a state-level position and doing the local work. Fingers crossed that WI elects a Dem replacement to the nation’s second-dumbest Senator (Tuberville has taken that crown).

  92. 92.

    Baud

    Notwithstanding the fact that there is always room for improvement, there are zero factions within the Democratic party that are interested in being in lockstep with a central message.

  93. 93.

    Geminid

    @Elizabelle: I also tend to cringe at doom posts , but Mr. Silverman’s contain a hard kernal of truth: Republicans are willing to use radical voter suppression and election subversion to cement minority rule. He is skeptical that we can stop them.

  100. 100.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Betty Cracker:  I am also talking about what we as individuals chose to focus on.  Do we harp on the failures or promote the successes?  I call my representatives to tell them good job when they do something I like.  I thank the staffers for the work that they do.  They seem to like that.  They get beat up by troglodytes all the time.  Hearing something good sure as fuck can’t hurt.  But feel free to dismiss the idea.

  105. 105.

    MisterDancer

    @schrodingers_cat: Dems will continue to have “messaging” problems until a majority of white people (or at least women) decide that their well being is more important to them than preserving their white privilege.

    Which is some part of why I’ve stopped participating in these “messaging” circular firing squads. Well, until now, I guess (shrug)

    I will agree with Kay that there’s a lot of great work done by local/state Party activists that the National party should pick up on. I’ll add that, per Schrödinger Cat’s comment above, and WaterGirl’s efforts, there’s a LOT of orgs that we should be supporting getting the word out, about.

    Yet I can’t get behind this “how we solve messaging” convo as it’s been flowing thru this site for really years, now. It’s all about how to change things we lack the actual power to change, and limited discussion on why they are this way.

    But for those in marginalized groups? What you’re seeing today, has been the norm for a damned long time. Indeed, I suspect you can track the slow isolating of Democratic Party voices to the Party’s slow alignment to those self-same marginalized voices.

    I’m saying that the more decisions to support, say, LBGTQIA+ people, or Disabled people, or Black/Brown people — esp. when it’s about bringing them in as actual citizens, and not just the silent partners in a “big Tent” effort — the more silenced you’ll be.

    That’s why “bothsiderism” works so well. That’s why our two “wayward” Senators get so much focus and airtime, playing into the “Democrats have gone too far!” metronome in our media.

    And that’s why the old ways of playing politics aren’t working anymore, and why a lot of Democrats feel trapped.

    You want better messaging? Stop trying to have it both ways, and accept that the GOP, for better and worse, has shaped this Party and movement in toxic in a lot of people’s minds. That said “toxicity” is about propping up white supremacy, and the people who wish to be aligned to it for power and prestige — or even what they perceive as survival.

    And that you’re not going to get out of it, by just being meaner than the people who thrive on being mean.

  109. 109.

    Geminid

    @Baud: That would be Shontel Brown. Spanberger has a fairly clear field in her 7th VA primary.

    One thing I’ve noticed about my purple state is that Democrats here don’t fight a lot of the ideological battles I see more of in blue states and blue congressional districts. Republicans here, though, are very ideological in their primary fights. It’s the radicals versus what they call the “RINO’s.”

  110. 110.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: My point is neither is really a sound basis for developing a communication strategy. Positive or negative, reinforcement is a reaction not a plan.

  111. 111.

    zhena gogolia

    You’re all being distracted from the really important news.

    Jennifer Lopez Details Ben Affleck’s ‘Bubble Bath’ Proposal: ‘Tears Were Coming Down My Face’

  113. 113.

    ian

    @Geminid:

    Fun Trivia about ‘blue dogs’

    Yellow Dog Democrats was a political term applied to voters in the Southern United States who voted solely for candidates who represented the Democratic Party. The term originated in the late 19th century. These voters would allegedly “vote for a yellow dog before they would vote for any Republican“.[1][2] The term is now more generally applied to refer to any Democrat who will vote a straight party ticket under any circumstances. The South Carolina Democratic Party and Mississippi Democratic Party, among other state parties, continue to use the phrase to refer to committed members of the Democratic Party in the “Yellow Dog Club”.[3][4]

    The phrase “yellow dog” may be a reference to a breed of dog known as the Carolina Dog indigenous to the Americas, specifically the Southern United States, and not descended from Eurasian breeds

  117. 117.

    bbleh

    @SiubhanDuinne: I don’t think that’s true. IIRC, rules typically are adopted at the start of the session, but they can be changed during one, and in both cases (although it can be more complicated in the latter case), a simple majority rules.

  119. 119.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Betty Cracker: Given that I, at least, was talking about what those of us in the cheap seats can do to affect the plans, I think you are moving the goalposts.

  120. 120.

    bbleh

    @MisterDancer: I’d certainly agree with that!  I am not at ALL convinced that “meanness” is a winning message.  Right now, it happens to be the most prominent message among Republicans, because Republicans are in a primary phase (where extremes dominate) and because they are being driven generally by a small but very noisy extreme minority AND a former president who aligns with that small but very noisy minority (and also because they got nothing else — Moar Tax Cuts for Corporations is not exactly a winning slogan), but I emphatically do NOT think it aligns with the sentiments of the VAST majority of voters, and I cannot believe that it would ever be a winning strategy for a Dem.  How do you win as a Dem by being a less-Republican Republican?

    IMO what needs improvement in Dem messaging is not content but process.

  122. 122.

    Joy in FL

    I just bought a bunch of stamps from Postal Ukraine. I got 2 sheets of the warship meme and other cool stamps. Thank you for posting that link.

  127. 127.

    Kay

    @schrodingers_cat:

    If Joe Biden had higher approval just with Democratic voters he would be above 50%. That’s the difference between 50% and 41% – Democratic voters. They’re the Democratic Party. Their job is to reach Democratic voters. They maybe could reach some other voters too, I don’t know, but they have to get to 50 –  minimum performance.

  129. 129.

    Betty Cracker

    @O. Felix Culpa: Great question, and a full response would be post-sized rather than a comment, but I’ll try to be brief. Two things:

    #1: I’d like to see more of what Brian Schatz did in the clip Satby linked at #4 when he called out Hawley’s bad-faith bullshit. I think I understand why we don’t see more of that from our pols; they’re for the most part serious people who are trying to get important stuff done, and the bad-faith bullshit from Republicans is so unrelenting that they just let it pass more often than not. That contributes to what Greg Sargent called the “loudness gap” in the column where he interviewed Schatz. (Link at #17 and here.)

    I don’t think the weariness with countering wingnut lies applies solely to politicians; I know I get sick of it in my personal relationships with wingnut relatives and don’t always push back. For years I didn’t. I thought I was keeping the peace, but I’ve come to believe that’s dangerous. Remember the cliché “this is how we got Trump”? Well, this is how we got Trump, IMO.

    #2: More focus on the big picture, which is that there’s a global struggle between pluralistic democracy and ethnonationalist authoritarianism. Ukraine and Russia are having that fight in what Adam might call a “kinetic war.” But we’re embroiled in that fight here at home too, and the outcome is uncertain.

    We want democracy to win, so we need more people to be aware of the stakes and consciously choose democracy’s side. I think we could do a better job of communicating that in lots of ways. My post yesterday was one suggestion that’s linked to this broader theme.

    Oh well, so much for being brief! :-)

  130. 130.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @bbleh:

    This unified messaging you want cannot happen on the Dem side.  Not will not, can not.  We are a big tent.  We care about what works, which means a lot of disagreement.  We have utterly different voters than Republicans do.  What each Representative needs to say to get elected is different.

    Republicans do not ‘work the refs’.  This may have been true once upon a time.  For decades now the refs have not needed working.  They like Republicans, period.  They pat themselves on the back for being non-partisan when Democrats complain.

    Most importantly, it is incredibly easy for Republicans to be united in messaging because their base, nationwide, wants one thing:  hate.  An anti-lgbt message works everywhere.  “Mexicans are rapists” works everywhere.  “BLM and antifa are criminals who burned cities to the ground” works everywhere.

    Their voters want a simple message that is incredibly easy to predict.  Ours don’t.  You cannot overcome that disparity on the unified national messaging issue.  Messaging is not a hopeless issue where we can do nothing, but lockstep messaging like Republicans have?  That we cannot do and should not try because it won’t help us.

  131. 131.

    lowtechcyclist

    @O. Felix Culpa:By way of contrast, I have nothing but Democratic representatives and the messaging is constant and clear about the issues at stake.

    Through what channels do you receive this messaging? I also have a Dem Rep and 2 Dem Senators, but I really don’t get different messaging here than if I lived in Boise.

  132. 132.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    This unified messaging you want cannot happen on the Dem side.  Not will not, can not.  We are a big tent.  We care about what works, which means a lot of disagreement.  We have utterly different voters than Republicans do.  What each Representative needs to say to get elected is different.

    OK, but maybe the Dems who show up on the Sunday morning political shows can have a unified message.  Could they at least manage that much?

  134. 134.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Betty Cracker: I have to get into my day, but thank you for your reply. Ironically, Russia’s war on Ukraine might just be what “heightens the contradictions” enough for the conflict between democracy and autocracy at home to be made crystal clear.

  136. 136.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Raskin is holding oversight hearings on the GOP state book bans. It was on the regular tv news last night and again this morning. He’s opposed to book bans. No elaborate analysis on whether it will “work”, no discussion of structural impediments to standing up and saying he’s opposed to book bans- and there he is, on the the news.

  137. 137.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Frankensteinbeck: I’m pretty sure those shows will select their guests to get the disarray message they want.

    They could, you know, talk with each other and with leadership before they go on the tube.

  138. 138.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @lowtechcyclist:

    I don’t think Republicans do that.  They know what they’re going to say because it’s incredibly easy.  Repeat the most asshole thing they heard some other Republican say.  Done, successful messaging to their voters.

  140. 140.

    Baud

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    I don’t think Republicans do that.  They know what they’re going to say because it’s incredibly easy.  Repeat the most asshole thing they heard some other Republican say.  Done, successful messaging to their voters.

    Yes and no.  There is message coordination but it’s not by  GOP “leadership.”  There’s a sophisticated behind-the-scenes conservative apparatus that supports Republican messaging and media training.  (The best analogy you might be familiar with is how the Federalist Society coordinates the GOP strategy when it comes to judges).  GOP elected officials aren’t sitting together in a room and figuring this stuff out on their own.

  142. 142.

    Geminid

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yes, “skeptical” was probably not strong enough a word. I do this sometimes.

    I think I got the “hard kernel of truth” part right. Or did I?

  143. 143.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    You could have knocked me over with a feather! “That’s….impossible”

    Apparently no one told him Democrats are barred from all media.

    I keep thinking they’ll get their asses in gear and maybe they will.

  144. 144.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Baud:

    Sure, because wealthy assholes are funding it.  Then those think tanks offer their message to Republican officials who don’t give a shit about policy and all want basically the same thing.  Or they get it on Fox.  The messages the officials like get repeated by everyone who didn’t get the memo because they want to copy the latest hate fad.

    There are multiple points in that process that Democrats can’t do.

  145. 145.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Kay: I am sure Biden and his team are aware of that.

    Also, I am sure that former Federalist Society speaker and blog favorite tweeting everyday how Biden is a big meanie for not signing an executive order forgiving all current student debt has nothing to do with Biden’s approval ratings

    Also relentless negativity and hectoring must be fire winners because that’s all I hear from the populist left and their amen chorus.

    Just two weeks ago you were wondering out loud whether Ketanji Brown Jackson would be confirmed.

  146. 146.

    VeniceRiley

    @Gin & Tonic: That’s great news! I shall have a G&T in their honor later ;-)  As for me, I have jumped through what is (hopefully) my last hoop and am awaiting the portal to visa nirvana to open like magic. Then I can join my wife.

  147. 147.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Kay:

    Apparently no one told him Democrats are barred from all media.

    Or maybe Democrats say the stuff we want all the time and we don’t hear most of it so it seems unusual when we do.

  148. 148.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Ohio Democrats think part of the problem is Pelosi is essentially a lame duck leader and Biden is polling so poorly with the base so they’re rudderless. I think there’s truth to that. There was no way to fix that though- it would have been worse if she had bailed before a bad cycle.

  149. 149.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Frankensteinbeck: There are multiple points in that process that Democrats can’t do

    Look, I’m seeing legislation pass the House with only Dem votes, and then getting at least 48 Dem votes in the Senate.  So there are WIDE areas of consensus across the Dem caucus in Congress.

    I REALLY don’t understand how this can’t be turned into some unified messaging.

  150. 150.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Frankensteinbeck: Or maybe Democrats say the stuff we want all the time and we don’t hear most of it so it seems unusual when we do.

    I’m sure that’s the case, which is why I emphasize stuff like the Sunday morning political shows, and the occasional rare moments like the KBJ hearings.  Gotta take advantage of the moments when the Dems are on the tube and can’t be edited.

    ETA: It hardly matters what we say when nobody can hear us.

  151. 151.

    Kay

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    It isn’t about us.

    They don’t need to reach me. They need to reach the 20% in GA who dropped off since 2020 or the 30% in Michigan. I don’t think telling voters they’re doing it wrong is going to work.

  153. 153.

    Miss Bianca

    @schrodingers_cat: Yeah, me too. It’s almost as if rescuing the economy, getting us out of Afghanistan, COVID relief, appointing progressive judges, supporting Ukraine, and getting a lot of other shit done in the teeth of total Republican obstructionism just isn’t ENOUGH for Biden to have accomplished for whoever is allegedly responding to these fucking polls.

  154. 154.

    Baud

    @schrodingers_cat:

    @Miss Bianca:

    Republican rule has only tangentially affected me in the past, and I’m at a point in my life where it’s unlikely to materially affect my future.  I still vote Dem for the benefit of others who aren’t so lucky, but I don’t need to spend my days worrying about antivaxxers voters who won’t take easy actions to avoid harm.

  155. 155.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Kay:

    They don’t need to reach me. They need to reach the 20% in GA who dropped off since 2020 or the 30% in Michigan.

    Then they need to be talking to those constituencies about what those constituencies care about, and what we personally are hearing is meaningless and complaining that it’s not the message we want is counterproductive.

    I don’t think telling voters they’re doing it wrong is going to work.

    I have no idea how you think I said this.  I swear we are not having the same conversations.

    @lowtechcyclist:

    I REALLY don’t understand how this can’t be turned into some unified messaging.

    Because in a big tent party the politician in Georgia and the politician in Michigan are never going to agree about the specific message their constituents most need to hear, for the good reason that those constituencies want/need a different message.  Republicans don’t have that problem.  They can grab whatever is the current fifteen minute hate and run with it, and be told they’re geniuses at messaging even when it blows up in their face.

  158. 158.

    Geminid

    @Kay: I have a hunch that Speaker Pelosi and the other top leaders will step aside after the upcoming election. The likely replacements are Hakeem Jeffries (NY) as Speaker, Katherine Clark (MA) as Majority Leader, and Joyce Beatty (OH) as Whip. But I think Pelosi will hold her cards close and not start any controversy over her caucus’ future leadership during the campaign..

    Of course, Democrats may be in the Minority in the next Congress. But regardless, I think Pelosi has her mind made up.

  160. 160.

    Kay

    @James E Powell:

    In one of the interviews with AA voters in GA the voter said she “hears from Abrams and Warnock” (unlike Biden) and so supports them “100%’.

    I knew Abrams was great at voter contact but good for Warnock. He’ll need every vote.

  161. 161.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: I am working with my Town Democratic Committee and being active in local D politics, helping with registering voters and other such non-glamorous work. Better than spending my time here at the Blog of  White Angst.

  163. 163.

    James E Powell

    @bbleh:

    Messaging is not the only thing, nor the most important.

    Over the years on this blog, we have had many discussions & arguments about messaging, what it is, how important it is, etc. When I say messaging I mean a combination of branding and messaging that consistently promotes the brand.

    Branding is the most important thing because once it’ established, it is almost impervious to events or personalities.

    Republican is a brand not a set of policies. They have an incredible brand – a lovemark – that is so strong they get people to vote for them even when those people disagree with their policies. Or, in a famous case, they just disbelieve the policies.

    Democrats do not have that because they haven’t built it. It takes years.

  164. 164.

    O. Felix Culpa

    It appears that it’s not just the GQP and the MSM that have a predetermined negative narrative about how the Dems are not doing “it” right. Just for fun, here are a few Dems whose messages have been cited with approval on this here blog:

    Booker, Klobuchar, Stabenow, Whitehouse, Schiff, Raskin, Schatz, Psaki, Biden, Harris, Buttigieg, Haaland, Abrams, Warnock, Pelosi.

    I’m drawing from memory, so I’m sure there are more, but we’ve got over a dozen in this quick list. I wonder if there’s a mysterious “it” out there that either these folks or some undetermined number of these folks are not achieving.

  165. 165.

    Soprano2

    @O. Felix Culpa: It is hard to gage how things are going for Democrats when you live in a 65%+ MAGA area with a Republican governor and a Republican supermajority in both chambers of the state legislature, where all but one state office is held by a Republican and both Senate seats are held by Republicans (and Josh Hawley is one of them!). It seems like everything is going terrible for them from where I sit, although my rep is the state House minority leader and she does a good job on social media getting their message out. The only thing I can take solace from is that the more insane Conservative Caucus (who don’t think regular Republicans are conservative enough!) has gummed up the works on a lot of things this year.

  166. 166.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    She can’t say it but I agree. If she said she was done there would be an absolute “sinking ship” media feeding frenzy, but she’s done. But it contributes to the sense of rudderlessness because they of course all know she’s done. There was probably no good time to do it.

  167. 167.

    satby

    @Frankensteinbeck:  I swear we are not having the same conversations.

    Nope, we aren’t.

    @O. Felix Culpa: It appears that it’s not just the GQP and the MSM that have a predetermined negative narrative about how the Dems are not doing “it” right.

    And yes. The narrative must be adhered to. Alternative information not available for incorporation. This discussion never advances because one of the primary drivers brings it back to square one every day. (yes, talking about you Kay).

  168. 168.

    Geminid

    @Kay: Also there will be a fight over new leadership, if only among observers. It will be good to limit it to the few weeks between the general election and the caucus elections later in November.

  169. 169.

    James E Powell

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    I get that you are hearing “Democrats are doing it wrong!”

    What I’m hearing is “Everything’s fine. Nothing else can be done.”

    We Democrats have to get together on this because we should be way more popular than we are with voters.

  171. 171.

    Geminid

    @James E Powell: Unlike many here including myself, this commentor is “doing it” and brings a doer’s perspective to the conversation. I try to learn from their comments.

  173. 173.

    Betty Cracker

    @Geminid: Good point. The incumbents have been in office so long I’ve forgotten what it was like to have an open field and competition for the top jobs, even if the named successors are heavily favored. Could be some wild cards in play, who knows?

  175. 175.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: I think those three will have no trouble winning a majority of the Caucus. The contest among Twitter warriors and Substack soldiers will be a small Chicamauga, though.

  177. 177.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @James E Powell:

    We Democrats have to get together on this because we should be way more popular than we are with voters.

    Should we? the party in power always gets unwarranted credit for good times, and unwarranted blame for bad. This was true when things were somewhat less polarized. Things kinda suck right now, from inflation to Covid to Ukraine, and even people who know better kinda feel like there’s more Biden/ the government/ Democrats/ “they” can and should be doing. Some people insist on feeling that in spite of what they know.

    and outside our hyper-engaged political world, a lot of people, maybe most, don’t think about politics much beyond “just fix it already”

  179. 179.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Hakeem Jeffries is in the Progressive Caucus (some lefties will grumble that he is a PINO). I don’t know about Clark. Joyce Beatty does not belong to any of the three ideological caucuses. She is Chairman of the Black Caucus, though.

  180. 180.

    Miss Bianca

    @Kay: Gee, I get “Team Joe” emails. I don’t remember even signing up for them. If I’m getting them, other people must be too.

  181. 181.

    schrodingers_cat

    Beto O Rourke is out there in Texas doing yeoman’s work. He is pretty great on social media too. Pointing out daily the awful policies of Abbott.

    But you won’t hear a peep about him on here. Because he doesn’t whine relentlessly about Biden unlike your “progressive” look at me heroes.

  182. 182.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    Thanks.  Having a Progressive Caucus member as the front runner for Speaker should help mitigate comcerns from that flank of the caucus.  Open question whether the moderates will feel left out.

  184. 184.

    Anyway

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Voting harder in a blue state may feel good but doesn’t do anything to counter the many structural blocks to voting and counting enacted by red and purple states.

    Color me worried about those.

  185. 185.

    Kay

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Oh, please. I know full well I’m a minority on this blog on this. It is my view that no rational person could look at these numbers and continue to insist it’s going great. I think it’s delusional.

  186. 186.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Anyway: Voting harder in a blue state may feel good but doesn’t do anything to counter the many structural blocks to voting and counting enacted by red and purple states.

    We have several competitive statewide races this November including the governor’s race. And during the last election cycle our members did canvassing in PA, upstate NY and NH

    Also blue states are not blue by magic it takes work to keep them that way. It was the blue state AGs who kept the worst of the Orange One’s Executive Orders from seeing the light of day.

  187. 187.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Kay: Who is saying that? I do think that the relentless negativity coming from the left flank has something to do with numbers that you so gleefully cite.

    Elected Ds have to fight a three front war.

    Left flank of the true “progressives”, who are not progressives at all but leftwing populist ideologues

    The mainstream media

    And the RWNJs of the Republican party and their media machine.

    Also we need to celebrate the successes of the Biden administration. He has done a great job despite the many obstacles before him in little over a year. Talking about that is not being delusional.

  188. 188.

    Kay

    @Miss Bianca:

    Bianca no one reads campaign emails. If Warnock and Abrams are reaching that voter (and they are- she said so) it’s not through auto-generated emails. Do you read them?

    Biden says this himself. He appears to attribute it to covid, which is certainly possible, but he doesn’t DENY it or insist it’s some problem with the voter. It’s not the end of the world. It’s a problem and it has to be addressed. They’ll either address it or they won’t. Do I know whether it will give them 1.5 points in CD 8? No. But it’s the business they’re in. They know damn well they’re in trouble. I would truly worry about them just as rational actors if they didn’t.

  189. 189.

    Geminid

    @Baud: I doubt if moderates will feel left out. Jeffries seems like he would be an effective leader, and effectiveness is what moderates in the 94 member New Democratic Coalition want. Anyway, they have way more in common than differences with the 95 Progressive Caucus members. The 19 current Blue Dogs are from purple districts and they will be glad just to be in the next Congress. There were 25 of tbem in the last Congress. Losses included Kenra Horn (OK), Joe Cunninham,

  190. 190.

    Betty Cracker

    @Geminid: Small Chickamauga, ha, that’s good! Well, wherever the gavel lands, the next speaker will have some big damn shoes to fill. I like Jeffries fine as a member, but I don’t know if he’s temperamentally up to the task that awaits him as speaker. He’ll have an entirely different style than Pelosi for sure. I hope it works.

  191. 191.

    Kay

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I don’t think you fix problems by positive thinking or force of will. I think you fix problems by looking at them and fixing them. Agreed! Voters suck! But this is the army you have. There’s no alternate set of voters to replace them.

  192. 192.

    Kay

    @Miss Bianca:

    The good news is Warnock and the incumbent governor of Michigan are close to 50, so respectively 10 and 20 points ahead of Biden. They’re holding their base.

  193. 193.

    satby

    @Kay: you have to learn the difference between monitoring (I’m not) and disagreeing and calling bad faith in argument (I am).

    It’s an easy distinction for one who isn’t attempting to gaslight the discussion.

    AND NO ONE has argued that things are going great. You just claim that’s what we’re saying so you can be the brave iconoclast telling truth to power the readers of a blog.

  194. 194.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @schrodingers_cat: O’Rourke had a long segment on the O’Donnell program last night. I was multi-tasking, but it sounded like he’s focusing on Texas issues and what Abbott is doing, a reset from his days of running for President of Twitter. I hope it works

  196. 196.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: I was interested to see that Jeffries had only served 3 terms before he was voted Caucus Chairman. He must have impressed his peers and leaders to have been elevated after six years.

    Jeffries is hyper-articulate, and can give a cogent three paragraph response to a reporter’s question, or deliver an eloquent speech like his nomination of Pelosi as ” the Once and Future Speaker” in January 2019.

    Jeffries is good at  short-form social media like Twitter, and can be formidable in committee. One of the high points of my February was watching Jeffries take freshman Republican Burgess Owens of Utah to the woodshed. That was a thing of beauty.

  197. 197.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Kay: I am looking at the problems in the eye. We disagree with the problems and the potential solutions. As an immigrant who became a citizen four and a half years ago, I know what we are up against. I don’t think I survived in your world for over 25 plus years by being a woolly headed idiot.

    I don’t think you fix problems by positive thinking or force of will. I think you fix problems by looking at them and fixing them. Agreed! Voters suck! But this is the army you have. There’s no alternate set of voters to replace them.

    You continue misrepresenting what I am saying, it is like talking to the table to paraphrase Barney Frank. So I will just stop.

  199. 199.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I saw on Twitter that Hakeem Jefferies said that Democrats should ignore the Republican messaging that they’re all pedophiles and child rapists (!) and instead talk about kitchen table issues voters care about. Talk about an idiotic idea……

  201. 201.

    Betty Cracker

    @Geminid: Jeffries is terrific with the press and speaks well, and IMO, he’ll be an upgrade over Pelosi in that sense. She’s terrific at herding cats, but she’s not a particularly great small-s speaker.

    Pelosi’s instincts for when to be patient and tolerant of dissent and when to bring the hammer down will be hard to match. She can be in the eye of a hurricane but still see the big picture, and that’s rare. We will miss her.

  202. 202.

    Geminid

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: O’Rourke is a charismatic politician, but he got his start in local organizing. I learned about this when I read the Wikipedia entry for Veronica Escober, who now holds O’Rourke’s House seat.

    After a liberal El Paso mayor was defeated around 2002, Escobar, the mayor’s communications chief, got together with activist Suzie Bird, attorney Steve Gomez, and businessman Beto O’Rourke. They planned to change the political structure in El Paso and surrounding Paso county, and they succeeded.

    By 2013 O’Rourke was Congressman, and Escobar became the powerful El Paso County Judge. Gomez and Byrd also won local office. The four were known locally as “the Progressives.”

    So O’Rourke has a good base of knowledge in political organizing and he knows how to work collaboratively, which is a very important skill.

  203. 203.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Soprano2: I don’t know how you message that kind of insanity. A year ago, I think, I heard a reporter explaining Q-Anon who felt the need to say, “You feel a little crazy even explaining this, but this is what they’re saying.” How is this spreading? How are people so, not just stupid, but insane?

    (now someone will explain to me how it’s Dems’ fault for not speaking to their base, or something)

  204. 204.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Geminid:

    So O’Rourke has a good base of knowledge in political organizing and he knows how to work collaboratively, which is a very important skill.

    no question he’s got skills, but like a few other (mostly) smart, savvy, talented politicians, I think he got a little… distracted by some of his coverage and applause, and twitter, around 2018

  206. 206.

    Geminid

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: There was a lot of uncertainty about Democrat’s Presidential prospects going into the 2020 and O’Rourke thought he might be “the One.” It turned out OK, though. He avoided a race for Cornyn’s Senate seat, and came to this Governor race rested and ready.

    Now O’Rourke is doing what he knows best: organizing on the local and state level. Like Stacey Abrams, he is going after the right job. Georgians and Texans alike need good Governors, and Abrams and O’Rourke can be great ones.

  207. 207.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Kay: I see. We’ve now moved from “the Dems aren’t messaging” to “the Dems aren’t doing the right [unspecified] kind of messaging on the right [unspecified] platform.”

    FYI, Team Joe emails aren’t simply campaign emails, they’re informative updates about Democratic accomplishments and goals. They’re just one of many forms of WH political outreach, including regular Zoom meetings with various Democratic interest groups (open to the public), focusing on women’s, Black, AAPI, and LGBTQ+ issues, to name just a few. But I’m just a simple Democratic organizer who has helped win campaigns and signed myself up to get info from various Democratic outlets, so what do I know.

    ETA: A lot of the WH messages, including the Team Joe emails, are sent precisely to help local Dems get the message out. So, a “unified” messaging support system, if you will, to help amplify what needs to be communicated.

  208. 208.

    tam1MI

    @Kay: don’t think you fix problems by positive thinking or force of will. I think you fix problems by looking at them and fixing them.

    Agreed. And your proposed action plan for the problems you see is…?

    Other than constantly whining about them on a blog and doing nothing yourself to address them, that is.

  209. 209.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Soprano2: I hear you. I grew up in a red area and a dear friend lives in Joplin, so I know how bad and disheartening the right-wing onslaught can be. I’m impressed with her–and your– fortitude.

  210. 210.

    bbleh

    @James E Powell: Absolutely concur, and that’s why I mentioned “brand” several times.  “Brand Republican” is well-established: pretty much any Republican OR Democrat can describe it.  “Brand Democrat” doesn’t exist.  There are principles that I think the large majority of Democrats would agree on IF that discussion were had, but … it hasn’t been.

    This is basically the fault of Dem political leadership.  Voters don’t self-evolve brand consciousness any more than, say, customers of a chain restaurant do.  As you say, it takes years of work to define the brand and get it into people’s heads.  And Dems dropped the ball on that DECADES ago.

    @Frankensteinbeck:  I do NOT agree that there can be no such thing as coordinated messaging about a brand, and about more particular day-to-day talking points and policies.  Coordinated messaging does NOT mean “lockstep” repetition of EXACTLY the same speech.  As mentioned (frequently), a politician has to be able to appeal to, and represent, his/her own district, and what’s crucial in one district is completely nonexistent in another.  But there ARE points of commonality, there ARE policies that pretty much the entire caucus supports (if it’s a real flash-point for you, you probably can get away with not bringing it up, as long as you don’t oppose it), and there CAN be an easily articulated Dem brand.

    Republicans do indeed march in lock-step — much like the Fascists many of their political and opinion leaders have become.  But Dems have gone too far in the other direction — everyone for him/herself! Dumbsh!t Joe Manchin and Corporate Bit O’ Fluff Kyrsten Sinema being the prime examples  — and everyone in the party is suffering because of it.

  211. 211.

    Soprano2

    Interesting follow-up story about the woman who was arrested and then released for an alleged “self-abortion”. The prosecutor who brought the charges is a Democrat in a heavily-Democratic county where lots of Catholics are concerned about abortion and many women get the two-step abortion pills from Mexico. Lots more nuance here than implied by previous reporting.  It’s a WaPo link.

  212. 212.

    Soprano2

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think it’s the “X-Files-Ation” of some people. Whole movies and TV shows are dedicated to the idea that there is a secret cabal who actually runs everything and hides the truth, so I guess these people feel like there must be some kind of secret cabal or something underneath the surface that explains the way they feel or what they think is happening. These kinds of crazy theories appeal to these people, who feel that they are “insiders” who are “in the know” when others aren’t. Lots of studies have shown that constant exposure to propaganda can convince people it’s true, so when they go down the YouTube Q rabbit hole it’s not surprising they end up believing it.

  213. 213.

    MisterDancer

    @Soprano2: Lots more nuance here than implied by previous reporting.

    Agreed. I saw this mentioned on Twitter. And I’ll be first to say I got pulled into the fear factor that was generated with this arrest.

    Thanks for reminding that follow-up is important.

  214. 214.

    Geminid

    @Soprano2: I think that spurious murder charge was made in Starr County, which is part of the 28th Congressional District. There is some political shift happening in this Rio Grande Valley area, and the county may not be so heavily Democratic now. Republicans  have high hopes of flipping that district this November.

    Candidates are yet to be determined. Casey Garcia and Ms. Whitten, the Republican’s 2020 nominee, face each other in a May runoff, On the Democratic side, incumbent Henry Cuellar will face Jessica  Cisneros after a close March primary.

  216. 216.

    Brachiator

    @Soprano2:

    I saw on Twitter that Hakeem Jefferies said that Democrats should ignore the Republican messaging that they’re all pedophiles and child rapists (!) and instead talk about kitchen table issues voters care about. Talk about an idiotic idea……

    You don’t have to totally ignore it, but you don’t have to play into it at all.

    Biden neutralized Trump’s attacks by briefly pointing out how stupid this crap was, dismissing it, dipping on Trump (“get serious, man”) and then getting on to his own points.

    The GOP should be easy damn targets.

    “The GOP keep trying to distract you with lies, conspiracies and nonsense. They haven’t done a damn thing for you. They don’t even listen to you. They only pay attention to their big money corporate donors.  And they GOP keep opposing good programs that help the American people. Here’s what we are doing, here’s what we will keep doing….”

    And my new favorite.

    “Republicans and their friends in the media lie to you about inflation. The Republicans tell you that putting more profits in the hands of rich shareholders is good for the economy, but putting more money in the hands of hard working people is bad and causes inflation. That doesn’t make sense. We are going to keep the economy growing, we are going to increase more jobs, and we are going to make sure that working people and families get more money. We are going to increase the minimum wage. We are going to raise families out of poverty. We are going to make sure that working families can pay for child care to help them keep their jobs.”

  217. 217.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Inflation adds to voters’ frustrations in a key congressional district
    Lisa Palmer feels like she spends $100 at the grocery store but walks out with only $70 worth of food.
    “Everything’s gone up,” she said as she carried a bag of groceries in the parking lot at Meijer, a regional supermarket chain based in Michigan.
    “I don’t blame any one person,” she said. “But yes, I blame the White House and Congress. That is their job to make America work if it’s not working. It’s so broken now … we’re just floundering.”

    Just fix it, already. The Normie political credo.

  219. 219.

    Brachiator

    @Kay:

    Biden has dropped 20 points with AA voters. 40 points with AA voters under 35. They have a problem.

    I guess. While I don’t discount this poll, I discount it’s significance. And though the following is supposedly based on interviews with people polled, I flat out don’t believe this part:

    Interviews with voters suggest the reasons behind Biden’s lagging approval ratings among Black voters — and the overall electorate — vary. They include his failure to overcome Republican filibusters of voting rights legislation, his handling of the pullout of troops in Afghanistan and an inability to deliver on campaign promises such as reducing student loan debt.

    This sounds like more of the conventional wisdom of Beltway hack journalism.

    Also, there are only about 4 black people who will vote Republican because they “blame Biden for not being able to overcome Republican filibusters of voting rights legislation.”

    And stuff like this is more hopeful.

    However, frustration with Biden doesn’t appear to have weakened Black support for Democratic candidates on the ballot, including gubernatorial hopeful Stacey Abrams and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock.

    Democrats need congressional and local candidates who are out there working for the people. And Biden needs to support them and drive home the message that he can get things done when he has a clear majority.

    Polls can help give you helpful information. And when they are closer to an election and more focused they can be strongly predictive. But otherwise, there is no point in unduly worrying about them, especially when they may have biases that distort voter sentiment.

    Also, polls may tell you that voters have been misinformed about important issues and policies.

  220. 220.

    germy

    RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – An elections board in a North Carolina county has removed Mark Meadows, a former chief of staff to President Donald Trump, from its list of registered voters after documents showed he lived in Virginia and voted in the 2021 election in that state.

    Questions arose about Mark Meadows last month, when North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein’s office asked the State Bureau of Investigation to look into Meadows’ voter registration in Macon County in western North Carolina.

  221. 221.

    Kay

    @tam1MI:

    Well, I do some things. I do about 2 hours a week with a county Democratic committee. I’m on the committee this year as an “at large”. I’ve been doing local Democratic work for about 25 years. I’ve been the treasurer for a statehouse campaign and a state Party and national Party delegate.

    But none of that means you have to agree with my opinions. I’m just speaking for myself.  That’s just specifically addressing your assertion that I don’t do anything. Some people do more than me, others do less.

  223. 223.

    Ksmiami

     

    @bbleh: time for bitch slap politics- The GOP wants you poor, sick and dead and your rights mean nothing to them. Let’s not go back to the 1850s ppl

  227. 227.

    Geminid

    @Brachiator: I think the polls have their most definite value when they show trend, as in poll over like poll. I’ll be interested to see the results of this outfit’s next poll, which ought to be soon, and compare them to the earlier one.

  228. 228.

    Geminid

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: That’s an important endorsement. A number of Progressive Caucus members endorsed Turner last time, but they may have been relieved when she lost.

    I sure was. I think Turner would be worth 10 Boeberts to the Republicans.

  229. 229.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Soprano2: Just for my 2c having talked to these people on Facebook and twitter their  thinking is just mush. I’ve seen them contradict themselves in the same sentence like Trump does. Just as example I asked one guy if science on Covid doesn’t work then explain why San Francisco, whose population followed the science, managed to have a lower death rate than the upper midwest, who population didn’t. The conspiracist response when he realized he couldn’t, was simply to appropriate my point and claim that it was the Upper Midwest that was filled with liberal dupes of the conspiracy.

    These kinds of crazy theories appeal to these people, who feel that they are “insiders” who are “in the know” when others aren’t.

    I think you are right, the driving force is to be one of the cool kids.

  230. 230.

    tam1MI

    @Kay: Well, I do some things. I do about 2 hours a week with a county Democratic committee. I’m on the committee this year as an “at large”. I’ve been doing local Democratic work for about 25 years. I’ve been the treasurer for a statehouse campaign and a state Party and national Party delegate.

    Well, then, it seems as though you are well positioned to pitch some of the ideas you have for how to address the problems you have identified to your local party and maybe even get them implemented at that level. I suggest you do so.

  232. 232.

    Brachiator

    @Geminid: 

    I think the polls have their most definite value when they show trend, as in poll over like poll. I’ll be interested to see the results of this outfit’s next poll, which ought to be soon, and compare them to the earlier one.

    Some polls may have some value to political strategists. They are otherwise generally useless to lay people and are not “news.”

    Is approval rating a proxy for voter election intent? I don’t know, and neither does anyone else, especially this far from a presidential election. Does it provide mid-term worries? Maybe.

    But either way, an individual poll doesn’t tell you much. Nor does any trend. Except maybe when you get closer to an actual election.

    Also, a voter may disapprove of Biden but would still vote for him if the election was held today. And of course, the election is not held today.

    The detail of interviews indicate that the poll takers were hit with leading questions, or were asked about stuff that indicates that they are misinformed or accept at face value the crappy news stories that spew daily. This is not good, but can be dealt with. So again, polls have some value, but not as much as people think.

    I suppose that a relentless series of negative polls would be very bad, but even this might depend on whether Biden was getting bills passed or still faced GOP opposition.

  233. 233.

    Geminid

    @Brachiator: Another kind of poll matches potential candidates in far off races, like a recent poll pitting Biden against Trump, Pence, or Desantis. Despite low approval numbers Biden’s lead over these potential challengers was  outside the margin of error.This said something. At least I think it did.

    But as for polls meaning less than “people think” I think you may underestimate other people’s ability to read polls critically.

    When it comes to trends becoming more important in the period close to elections, I agree. That is a actually when I start paying close attention to polls, and hone in on trends month over month, and week over week where possible.

  234. 234.

    Jacel

    Is Putin yet coarsening the GWB Iraq playbook this way?  “Schools in the Ukraine needed painting very badly, so we had no choice but to send in the Russian army to do that for the children.”

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