Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This fight is for everything.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

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

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

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

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

He really is that stupid.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

The words do not have to be perfect.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / How’s This For Inspiration?

How’s This For Inspiration?

by | 125 Comments

This post is in: , ,

How’s this for inspiration?  In Florida!

Teen Vogue  (once again, actual journalism!)

School walkouts  at more than 300 Florida college and high school campuses.

Walkout 2 Learn’s day of action is multipronged, but the heart of the event will be the school walkouts taking place at 12 p.m. on more than 300 Florida college and high school campuses, the coalition says.

In lieu of taking a quintessential college spring-break trip, a group of youth organizers with Walkout 2 Learn went to Sarasota, Florida, for a weeklong brain dump before the group’s upcoming day of action. From morning to night, the 12 youth activists sorted through data from Florida high schools, Instagram pages, and other social media accounts hoping to identify young Floridians eager to help their cause: a youth-led demonstration on Friday, April 21, to call out state lawmakers for their attacks on student rights.

Florida’s Republican-led state legislature and governor have passed multiple pieces of legislation that censor conversations in the classroom about gender, sexuality, and race, stripping rights from the very students the state’s schools are meant to serve.

“We cannot stop these hateful bills from becoming law,” Zander Moricz, the 19-year-old executive director and founder of Walkout 2 Learn, tells Teen Vogue. “They are ignoring us. They are not dealing with our perspectives.” So young people are pushing back with a day of walkouts and protests in response to Governor DeSantis’s agenda for students and schools, which includes the legislation dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law, the “Individual Freedom Act” (previously known as the “Stop W.O.K.E. Act”), attempts to ban AP African American studies in schools, and efforts to pull funding for diversity programs at state colleges. The Social Equity through Education Alliance (SEE) brought together a coalition of youth organizations from across the state and united a coalition of organizations on the ground in the lead up to Walkout 2 Learn.

The kids are better than alright.

How's This For Inspiration? 1

Reader Interactions

125Comments

  4. 4.

    Butch

    I’ve been reading about the GOP’s coming “demographic winter” since sometime before dirt was invented.  I’m starting to hope it could actually happen.

  5. 5.

    Baud

    @Butch: I’ve learned not to get my hopes up. I just support people doing good things and keep my fingers crossed it’s enough.

  6. 6.

    Cacti

    While I’ve always found Millennials consistently annoying, the Zoomers are a pretty good bunch. Less grandiose more practical. Probably a result of being raised by X’ers.

  7. 7.

    Trivia Man

    I’ve been telling the young people I know the same message for years – The country is already under your control. You just have to turn out to vote and TAKE it. I am hopeful that the turnout % is going up for younger voters. If they had turned out at the same rate as 65+, and voted in the same R/D mix as the actual turnout, it would have been Democratic blowouts in 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022.

    The WI supreme court race had some very encouraging results in that age group, particularly in college towns. It is my hope that the success will breed success and build their confidence that they do indeed control the levers of power. If they turn out.

  9. 9.

    Kay

    @Trivia Man:

    18 to 29 turnout is up compared to prior generations at their age. They had 36% turnout in MI in 2022. That’s the highest I’ve ever seen for that age group. It’s been stuck at around 15-20 for decades – since the 1970s.

    I think it’s one of the reasons Democrats are paying more attention to them.

  11. 11.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Butch: Just because people have been anticipating something for a long time doesn’t mean it won’t happen.  White People have been lamenting the loss of majority status and whining about being replaced for a very long time (at least a century, even more if we go back to Chinese Exclusion Act), because it has been very clear that it will happen and it will change things drastically for US politics.  Racial demographic numbers have changed drastically even since 2010.  It’s happening, it’s real and it has the GOP rightfully scared shitless.  It’s not a magic solution to all of our problems, but it is real and it is the future and will be here very soon.  I’m glad to see young people engaged and the Dem Party working to get their votes.  They ARE the future and we’d be fools to ignore them.

  12. 12.

    Eric S.

    In HS the graduating class 2 years ahead of me organized a protest against perceived authoritarianism. On the appointed day they, the Senior class, dress all in black and at the appointed time stood and turned their backs on the school pep rally. Yes, we are Gen X.

     

    Today’s kids are better than alright.

  13. 13.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: My wife has never seen The Sting.  We started it one night but realized we weren’t really in the mood for that genre.  Need to go back to it, as I love that movie so much.  Though one challenge is that that is definitely the kind of film that could be hard to follow after too much weed, lol.

  14. 14.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Instead, Redford wriggles his way into a card game on the train while the mark is en route.

    Newman wriggled his way into the game (payed a conductor to get him into it). Redford played his unassuming underling who goes to collect the money Robert Shaw lost in the card game and told Shaw Newman won by cheating. Thus he set the hook into the mark.

  17. 17.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    I think it’s the fact that GOP policies are now affecting them in tangible ways. It has a way of focusing the mind. The reason turn out was up on the 1970s.was Vietnam.

  18. 18.

    prostratedragon

    Did this get much coverage? I saw very little last night but a few moments of film on MSNBC. (Though this might be the only kind of momentum Little White Boots down in Tallahassee can generate his own self.)

  19. 19.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I love that movie, I must have watched it a hundred times or more. Redford and Newman were a great team and anytime they are on the screen together is movie magic.

  22. 22.

    prostratedragon

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:  Interesting point in your post.

    As for knowing the twist, if the story is well put together it won’t be just one-and-done, there will be ways to get pleasure or thoughts from it repeatedly.

  23. 23.

    WaterGirl

    I’ll be putting up a post soon (-ish) on the Youth turnout in Wisconsin, and I have a gleam in my eye about how we might be able to help replicate that in Nevada for 2024.

    I’m kind of thinking that for the 2023-24 election cycle, I’d like to add a focus on Youth to the communities we already focus on – Hispanic, AA, Native, disenfranchised, etc.

    It’s different, but since youth are now majority AA, Hispanic, Asian, Native, etc, I think that fits pretty well with our current focus.  Or at least it doesn’t not fit.

    Happy to hear thoughts on that, if anyone has any. :-)

  27. 27.

    narya

    @OzarkHillbilly: Did you read Richard Russo’s novella that is obviously about Redford and Newman, though they have different names? It pokes at Redford. Also, highly recommend “Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman.” Newman was better at racing than people realize, and I knew he was near the end when he went to Lime Rock for a final run around the track.

  30. 30.

    BlueGuitarist

    Graydon Carter:

    the Fox-Dominion case ended like a sexual liaison with Trump—with gasps, an abrupt ending, and a check being written.”

  35. 35.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @narya: Did you read Richard Russo’s novella that is obviously about Redford and Newman, though they have different names?

    No, I haven’t. Do you remember the title? Russo is a favorite of mine. Anything he wrote is worth a read.

  41. 41.

    narya

    @OzarkHillbilly: The collection is called “Trajectory.” Also, to my extreme pleasure, a THIRD “Fools” novel is coming out in July!! I absolutely loved Newman in “Nobody’s Fool”–he embodied Sully so thoroughly, and Jessica Tandy did likewise with Beryl Peoples. And, for that matter, Bruce Willis and Melanie Griffith were great in that, too, though I’m usually meh about them. I was disappointed that Ruth never made it into the movie.

  44. 44.

    Steeplejack

    I’ve got my rage on already this morning! CNN: “Details about multimillion-dollar stock holding concealed in abortion pill judge’s financial disclosures.”

    In his 2020 and 2021 annual disclosures, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk wrote that he held between $5 million and $25 million in “common stock” of a company—a significant majority of the judge’s personal wealth. The name of the company he held stock in is redacted, despite the fact that federal law only allows redactions of information that could “endanger” a judge or their family member.

    CNN obtained a previous financial disclosure for Kacsmaryk—which is not available online—from 2017, when he was a judicial nominee.

    On that unredacted form, Kacsmaryk reported owning about $2.9 million in stock in the Florida-based supermarket company Publix. It’s not clear whether that’s the same holding as the redacted stock, although Publix’s share price had significantly increased by 2020 and 2021 and the company is no longer listed on his more recent disclosures.

    It appears to be stock left to him by Grandma, who had a long career at Publix, but who knows?

    Where my rage comes in: Kacsmaryk worked for a “conservative religious freedom advocacy group” before joining the bench and apparently doesn’t need the salary or the lifetime job security. So it seems like he might be a religious zealot who was embedded into his solo jurisdiction to be an activist judge. Hey, just asking questions, you know?

    In recent years, he has become a significant legal thorn in the side of the Biden administration, issuing sweeping rulings and nationwide injunctions on issues like immigration and protections for LGBTQ workers, even before his abortion ruling this month.

  45. 45.

    Nora

    @prostratedragon: Actually, I’d say knowing the twist makes a rewatch/reread even better: you can watch how the work sets the twist up earlier, and enjoy all the ironies more.

  49. 49.

    WaterGirl

    @opiejeanne: Prostratedragon was asking if the 300+ school walkouts – the focus of the post up top – got much play in the media.

    I replied that I had wondered the same thing, and that I had originally included a question to that effect in the post, but that I had removed the question just before I posted it.

  51. 51.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @BlueGuitarist: Unfortunately, we don’t have TV so no Lasso for me.

     

    @narya: Thanx, I’ll have to get it. “Nobody’s Fool” is a favorite of mine, was just looking at it on my shelf and thinking, “I’m ready to read it again.” And you know what? I had no idea it got made into a movie. Doesn’t surprise me, the early ’90s were a rather turbulent time for me.

  55. 55.

    kindness

    Reminds me of the Vietnam era.  The kids were the ones with their butts on the line in being sent over there.  So they got loud and in media’s face about their thoughts.  It took a while but eventually the middle aged & older came around to understanding the kids were right.  Of course at the same time it totally pissed off the ‘Bomb them back to the stone age’ (future Fox viewers) crowd.  But that crowd lives for nothing more than pushing their grievance on others (just like current Fox viewers).  Such is life, eh?

  57. 57.

    WaterGirl

    @Another Scott: Oh, i don’t think he was mad at all.  He was drinking his milkshake and not-quite-smirking, clearly enjoying himself and enjoying the fact that the other side doesn’t appreciate his successes.

  58. 58.

    narya

    @OzarkHillbilly: It’s a great movie. I also really liked the second book, “Everybody’s Fool.” (The one due out in July is “Somebody’s Fool.”) I pick up “Nobody’s Fool” regularly and just randomly read from it. HBO also did a mini-series based on “Empire Falls,” with Newman and Joanne Woodward in it. Even though “Empire” won the Pulitzer, I still think “Nobody’s” is the best.

    ETA: Russo also wrote the screenplay for a Newman/Hackman/Sarandon movie, “Twilight.”

  59. 59.

    Steeplejack

    @WaterGirl:

    I’ve got plenty of fuel.

    The Guardian: “Feinstein absence blocks push for supreme court chief Thomas testimony.”

    Asked if he would subpoena the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court for testimony over corruption allegations against the conservative justice Clarence Thomas, the chair of the Senate judiciary committee made clear his frustration with a continued absence from the panel that has left Democrats unable to make such a move.

    “It takes a majority,” Dick Durbin of Illinois said on Thursday. “I don’t have a majority.”

  60. 60.

    opiejeanne

    @Another Scott: It’s not Biden who’s mad. He’s drinking his milkshake and for some reason it pisses off RW nut jobs. Pictures of him with ice cream has the same message, telling RWers to stay mad because he’s just going to enjoy himself.

  64. 64.

    trollhattan

    @Steeplejack: He’s like a cartoon-character judge at the same time he’s an actual judge with lifetime appoint and evidently an entire toolshed of axes to grind.

  66. 66.

    John S.

    My daughter is 12, and she has noticed the huge difference in schools here in WA vs. the ones back in FL. We spoke about it last night at dinner.

    Why couldn’t we talk about gay people? Why didn’t they teach about the Native Americans? Why were there less books for us to read?

    So many questions, only one answer. Florida has turned into a seriously fucked up place thanks to one little man. One of the many reasons we moved to WA last year.

    ETA: They are currently reading Refugee by Alan Gratz, and she is really enjoying it. There are quite a few refugee kids in her school, and it has opened her up to that reality. It is of course one of the books that is currently banned in FL.

  67. 67.

    Betty

    I hope these walkouts start causing the ridiculous Florida legislature to feel some pain. You can understand the DeSantis motivation, but the legislature is just inexcusable. As for Kacsmaryk, how can Murkoski say she was blindsided when she knew where he worked?. Republicans! Bah!

  71. 71.

    prostratedragon

    @Nora:  Absolutely! If I have a hunch something might be good I’ll watch it casually the first time, just let it flow by. Then I start knowing what to pay attention to.

  72. 72.

    Miss Bianca

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: One of my all-time favorite movies, made a HUGE impression on 10-year-old Miss Bianca! Ran at my local movie house continuously for over a year, can you imagine such a thing now? – Must have seen it at least a dozen times back in the day!

  74. 74.

    West of the Rockies

    Ive been wondering… does anyone here think a politician like DeSantis ever has someone (an advisor, colleague, spouse) tell them directly:  “You are not likeable.   You come across as mean/petty/arrogant.  You need to work on your charisma.”

    I happily recall a protester a few feet from Cruz tell him, “You’re a terrible person.   And you look like a fish!”

    I hope it stung.

  76. 76.

    narya

    @OzarkHillbilly: I read “Nobody’s Fool” before I read the first ones (Mohawk and the others), because my dad told me about it. You can almost see him honing his craft in those early novels. Have you read any of John Sayles’ novels? I have his last two on my list. My criterion for movies and books is “a good story, well-told,” and Sayles is good in both media.

  77. 77.

    sab

    @schrodingers_cat: Pencils mostly since erasible. Some pens. Charcoal scares me. It is for free spirits. I need more control than that

    I almost said no favorites because I buy what I can find in my boondocks, but I do buy faber castell when I can find it.

  78. 78.

    Almost Retired

    @WaterGirl:  Yep, the Yutes are motivated.  No one can say politics doesn’t affect their daily life.  Nevada seems like a great place to target youth turnout — a lot of domestic in-migration, heavy well-organized unionization in the service sector and a not insubstantial student population.

    I made my son register to vote in Arizona when he was in college, where his vote was more important than choosing between two great Democrats in Los Angeles.  Lots of California kids at UNLV whose votes would be better cast in Nevada.  Republicans understand this, which is why they’re trying to make it harder for students to register and vote on campus.

  79. 79.

    John S.

    @Steeplejack: You missed some of the best parts in the article!

    John Cornyn of Texas said: “I would not recommend that the chief accept his invitation because it would be a circus.”

    Josh Hawley of Missouri said Durbin was trying to “turn the screws” on Roberts and claimed the situation was “inching toward” a constitutional crisis.

    LOL

    Even while Gym Jordan runs his little kangaroo court to protect Trump without any legitimacy whatsoever. The balls on these assholes!

  80. 80.

    mrmoshpotato

    @WaterGirl: 🤦‍♂️I still can’t believe the morons didn’t go “Oops.  We fucked up.” and call off their stupid press conference.

    Nope!  They went ahead and made further asses of themselves.

  82. 82.

    Kay

    @Delk:

    I did, thank you. I was really pleased. It’s especially gratifying to me that they’re tanking in MI WI and PA because (as you know) we endured 4 years of media telling us those states were all Trumpsters.

    You’ll notice they haven’t made any trips from NY to Pennsylvania to diners since Trump started losing. The heartland is once again ignored :)

  85. 85.

    Ruckus

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    It has been happening for decades, this change.

    Not sure 100% but I believe that it started after WWII. A lot of families had children after the youngish men came home from the war (which was when my sister and I were born) and there was a noticeable change in most of the country. Attitudes changed, science was growing, education started to change and getting past ABC and 2+2. Voting patterns and demographic changes were showing up, manufacturing changed to things like more cars, more freedom, education had a lot more to teach and did. And politics became more about better rather than the status quo. I was too young to understand it then but looking back it was a ground swell, of democracy had won, things could be better for all, not just the few with money. It was noticeable, looking back now. And it never stopped in most parts of the country. The growth of the places that it did show up today in those places. Los Angeles County is more populated now than 40 states, back then it was orange groves and countryside. I recall that over half the kids I knew growing up were not from CA. And CA wasn’t the only place that this happened. Travel was something that hadn’t happened as much because it wasn’t all that easy prior. Cars had gotten better and cheaper. My family had two cars, mom drove an end of the war Ford 4 dr that was olive drab. Factories that had produced war goods switched to making things that people wanted, housing boomed. My dad moved the family into a new house while mom was having me. One of my friends growing up was a Japanese girl who live down the street. It was a new world, a growing, vital, far less divided public than money and not. At least where I lived, in a big city area. The rural areas, not so much. They seemed to almost fight any change. Sound familiar?

  86. 86.

    Eolirin

    @Steeplejack: I really hope she can get back soon, we need to be able to move things forward. If this is just a very brief stall we can handle it but if it goes on for months we have a real problem.

  87. 87.

    Eunicecycle

    @mrmoshpotato: that’s because there isn’t a brain between all of them. They act on impulse and then demand that we admit they were right all along! “We always meant this grubby landscaping place! You just assumed it was the Four Seasons hotel!”

  89. 89.

    Ruckus

    @Baud:

    the difference between the parties is more stark now

    Yes it is, way, way more. My take is that current day republicans want things the way it was before WWII, even though few of them were even born. They want those in charge to be IN CHARGE. (And them!) And everyone else to be subservient.

  90. 90.

    Trivia Man

    @WaterGirl: Great idea, I agree that the groups are converging. Plus, THEY are the ones most affected by any decisions made and laws passed today. Seems only fair to get them involved in the decision making since they have to live with it.

  91. 91.

    Bex

    @narya: Also recommend The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man, Newman’s memoir.  There are some behind-the-scenes stories about The Sting and other movies he starred in.

  96. 96.

    Miss Bianca

    @M31: The soundtrack to The Sting is the first LP I ever bought with my own allowance. And yeah…it totally fueled my taste for Scott Joplin in particular and ragtime/Dixieland jazz in general.

  97. 97.

    James E Powell

    @Steeplejack:

    “It takes a majority,” Dick Durbin of Illinois said on Thursday. “I don’t have a majority.”

    Well, United States Senator Durbin, I guess you’re just a totally powerless person, no different from any other common man.

    Think, senator, what would Republicans do?

  98. 98.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @NotMax:  the hair dye incident was at a prior news conference!  You’d think they’d have learned, but noooooo.

  99. 99.

    Ruckus

    @Kay:

    Yes Nixon. The world was changing, not changed. In the way of the old world – before WWII and a lot faster. But it takes time to get big things up to speed, notice that some haven’t gotten up to speed in over 7 decades. And likely never will. Such is life. We don’t need everyone to be up to warp speed but it would be nicer if more could. It seems the kids are far faster than quite a few middle aged-old farts, and that is a very good thing.

  101. 101.

    H.E.Wolf

    @WaterGirl:”I’m kind of thinking that for the 2023-24 election cycle, I’d like to add a focus on Youth to the communities we already focus on – Hispanic, AA, Native, disenfranchised, etc. […]

    Happy to hear thoughts on that, if anyone has any. :-)”​

     The first Ballon Juice Zoom with Voces de la Frontera was notable for having several speakers under 30 (3 of whom were young women of high-school or college-age). It made a big – and favorable – impression on me.

  102. 102.

    Another Scott

    @James E Powell: Made me look.

    BloombergLaw.com (from March 15):

    Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told reporters on Tuesday that he hopes Feinstein is back soon. She could be a key vote for both Delaney and Bjelkengren in the committee, where Democrats hold a one-seat majority.

    Nominees need a simple majority to advance with a favorable recommendation to the floor. Tie votes in committee could advance in the last Congress under a Senate power-sharing agreement between the evenly divided parties. But that’s no longer the case with Democrats holding an outright majority.

    (As I read that, nominees don’t get a vote on the floor unless they get a favorable vote from the committee under the existing rules.)

    Politics is slow.

    We need more Democrats in the Senate. And those Democrats need to change the Senate rules so that a majority can actually govern.

    (Yeah, doing so would make it risky if the monsters ever regain power. But that’s always the risk in a democracy – the people have to pay attention and keep the monsters out by voting for sensible people.)

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  103. 103.

    Roger Moore

    @Butch: ​
    I think this are actually moving toward demographic winter for the GOP, but it’s not nearly as fast as people were predicting. The biggest reason is that the GOP is doing their best to rig things so the Democrats advantage with the population doesn’t turn into an advantage in government. They’re gerrymandering like crazy to keep control even as they can’t win an overall majority, and they’re using voter suppression to keep the demographic groups unfavorable to them from voting. If it weren’t for those things (and the natural gerrymandering of the Senate) the reckoning would have come already.

  105. 105.

    Shalimar

    @M31: My step-dad was born in 1930 and grew up in Biloxi/Mobile.  There was a big New Orleans Jazz revival in the late ’40s to early ’50s when all of the aging musicians from 40+ years earlier made records documenting the old music.  That along with ragtime is what he grew up listening to, so I heard a lot of it too when I was growing up.  Fun music.

  106. 106.

    Geminid

    @Roger Moore: I think that reckoning can come by the end of this decade. That’s one reason (among many) I attach so much importance to next year’s Presidential election. I think if Democrats win this one, we’ll win the next 2 or 3.

  108. 108.

    kalakal

    @Betty Cracker: Here in Pinellas I know there were protests at USF in St. Pete and at Largo High. There’ll have been others. Students are getting much more vocal, rejecting the GQP crap, and it’s great.

  109. 109.

    cope

    @John S.: At the end of last year, my daughter and her family moved from Central Florida to Vermont and my wife and I moved from FL to western Colorado.  Two families of my daughter’s friends from FL have already visited them in Vermont to house hunt.  It’s anecdotal, yes, but it shows that people will react.  The grandkids love their new schools and living in Vermont.

    I feel somewhat bad not staying in Florida to keep voting for folks who never win elections but I was not a native and the desert and mountains have always soothed my soul.

  110. 110.

    Geminid

    @kalakal: Have you listened to Jelly Roll Morton? He was a contemporary of Joplin, although his career lasted longer. Morton’s salad days were playing in New Orleans “clubs ” from around 1904 to 1915, but he kept playing at a high level for decades after.

    There is a Smithsonian compilation of Morton’s recordings. I was introduced to it by my Atlanta friend. Warren is really into jazz piano, and he rates Morton highly, I think with good reason.

  111. 111.

    Jackie

    @John S.: I’m happy for you and your daughter!

    Sadly, too many Floridian kids won’t even realize their education is under par until they move out of state – and many never will.

  112. 112.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Another Scott:

    We need more Democrats in the Senate. And those Democrats need to change the Senate rules so that a majority can actually govern.

    Are we all ready to get excited about saving Joe Manchin?

    Gov. Jim Justice is planning to launch a long-awaited campaign against Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) next week, handing Republicans a well-funded and popular recruit in their best opportunity to flip a Senate seat.
    He will make his announcement on Thursday evening at The Greenbrier, his luxury resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., according to an invitation to the event obtained by POLITICO. A GOP strategist close to Justice confirmed the details. Thursday is also the governor’s 72nd birthday.

  114. 114.

    Another Scott

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Meh.  WV is about +40 GQP.  If Manchin wins, great, if not it won’t be a surprise.  (I would think he would retire/not run if it looks like he’s going to lose.  Why go through the hassle?)

    Manchin only has his outsized power because the Democratic caucus isn’t big enough (and because of the stupid Senate rules).  If there were 65 Democrats in the Senate, Manchin would be irrelevant.

    Even if the GQP takes the Senate for the next 10 years, as some doomers say is baked in, we have to keep pushing and win where we can.  (I don’t believe it’s baked in.)

    We’re a big diverse country.  Politics is slow, but it can change quickly if helped along by motivated people.

    I don’t think we’ll be short of motivation in the next few cycles.  (Remember the “Red Wave” that was going to wash us all away in November 2020??)

    The future isn’t written yet.

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  115. 115.

    Geminid

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I don’t think Manchin would mind being replaced by Jim Justice. I would, because Justice would sit in the Republican Senate caucus.

    Manchin spoke well of Justice when comparing him to Rep. Mooney, the other competitor for the Republican nomination. Justice is out to help West Virginians, Manchin said, while Mooney is out for himself.

  116. 116.

    kalakal

    @Geminid: Another statistic that is terrifying them is the drop off in christianity. More particularly the drop off in membership of evangelicals such as Southern Baptists. They used to gloat that they were growing while. Catholics, Episcopalians etc were declining. In the last few years they’ve been letting their bigot flags fly and as a result their membership is cratering. They couldn’t alienate young people faster if they tried

  118. 118.

    WaterGirl

    @Betty Cracker: So local papers covered it, that’s good.

    Is it all local papers in FL?  Or is there some state-wide paper, also?

    Guessing that the national press – NYT or WP – may not have carried it?

  119. 119.

    jinchi

    @Butch:

    I’ve been reading about the GOP’s coming “demographic winter” since sometime before dirt was invented.

    We’ve already seeing it.

    Republicans have been underperforming for a while now. Thats why they spend so much time on gerrymandering and criminalizing voting. And they’ve motivated record youth turnout against them, with their repressive culture war.

    In any normal cycle they would have won the presidency House and Senate in 2020 and held several governorships that have gone to Dems.

  120. 120.

    Trivia Man

    @kindness: Reminds me of the Vietnam era. The kids were the ones with their butts on the line in being sent over there.

    It is also significant that large numbers of women were also protesting – THEY had no danger of being drafted. A fantastic illustration that even if it doesn’t hurt ME it is still OK to help those it WILL affect.

    The current fight for trans rights is a case in point – if only trans people protest then it is a tiny and invisible protest. Allies MUST join them and provide visible support and strength.

  121. 121.

    Citizen Alan

    @Roger Moore: When that book came out– The Coming Democratic Majority, or whatever it was called– I pointed out at the time that the republicans could delay that Icoming democratic majority if they were to bring back Is jim crow. And they could delay it for a very long time indeed if they were to turn america into an apartheid state.

  122. 122.

    James E Powell

    @Another Scott:

    We need more Democrats in the Senate. And those Democrats need to change the Senate rules so that a majority can actually govern.

    In between those two sentences, we need Democrats in the Senate who agree that the rules need to be changed. The one-sided blue slip policy is just one example of our people putting chains around themselves.

  123. 123.

    GibberJack

    @Kay: Didn’t Nixon sign into law a number of environmental laws? The EPA, Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act? The first Earth Day was while he was president.

    I wonder how many more of today’s young people would vote GOP if it were as pro-environment now as it was then.

Comments are closed.