I don’t have anything big to post about, just a comment about the post-Labor Day election.
We’re all political junkies here. That means, in general, we are out of touch with how the “average” voter (the common clay of the West, if you will) is perceiving the election.
I just looked at Kamala Harris’ and Tim Walz’ various TikTok feeds, and even factoring in how confusing (to me) TikTok is, it’s clear that the content they choose to share there is less (volume) than, and curated differently than, the content they share on Xitter. So what the “average” youngs are consuming versus what I consume is a mystery. Similarly, apparently battleground states are being inundated with mailers, and I’m sure at least Harris/Walz have bought a lot of TV time, so, again, what the “average” olds are seeing is another mystery, since I don’t watch broadcast/cable TV and don’t have a mailbox in a battleground state.
Acknowledging that I, a smart politics knower in my own head, don’t know shit about the most important segment of voters in this election is difficult, but I’m not alone. The demands for “more interviews” and “more press conferences” by the DC media is just their demand to be relevant in an election where their importance is diminished to a level unimaginable when The Boys on the Bus was written in 1972. The voters that Harris/Walz need to get are not watching the DC media, and they’re not reading this blog. I hope to respond to that fact with a little more dignity than the NYT, WaPo and CNN, but we’ll see.
Baud
It’s why they’re so confused.
Nukular Biskits
<flyby post>
Excellent observation.
BritinChicago
I simply cannot fathom the mind of someone who is undecided. I suppose I have a little more understanding of someone who might not vote but might be persuaded to (and to vote for MVP). But overall I have no faith in my ability to predict what’s going to happen. Do I have any more faith in anyone else’s? I suppose really savvy pollsters might have some idea, but I’m dubious.
Bobby Thomson
Trump is carpet bombing my mailbox with lies about how he will protect Social Security and Medicare. I’m deeply offended on several levels.
hrprogressive
Having taken a big sabbatical from virtually all social media in the last year and a half for personal reasons…
I’ll simply note the following:
1) The absolute groundswell of enthusiasm on Reddit, of all places, was immediately noticeable in the wake of The Switch. Younger voters in general who had been doomcasting for ages about “Biden/Trump 2” and how shitty everything has been going since the pandemic and so forth…appear to be unabashedly excited to vote for Harris/Walz. “oh we back now, hell yeah” was a common refrain I saw on r/GenZ in the immediate aftermath of the swap.
2) TikTok is an app I think is generally a cancer on our society, but the fact that Kamala’s team seems adept at using it is likely a phenomenal thing, as it appears to be “the app du jour” for The Youngs.
3) I’ve seen a number of Harris Campaign ads on TV here in Virginia, and I’m going to suspect it’s a higher volume in NC, which is flirting with swapping back to Blue for the first time since 2008. The Trump Enthusiasm from 2020 and 2016 is much more muted, so far, but we’ll see if that changes.
4) Facebook (yes, I know) would have been where I would have pegged what all my “normie” friends are up to w/r/t Today’s Politics, as those who aren’t openly left of center might have something to say about it, but also might not. Haven’t been on in a while and don’t have the bandwidth to turn it back on yet.
5) For whatever it’s worth, Kamala’s social media game in general seems to be spot on. As I’ve mentioned before, we’re a “meme-level society” now, and she and her team seem to understand this. Joe did too, with the embrace of Dark Brandon, but there’s something that feels even more “modern” about Harris/Walz’s game.
6) I truly cannot fathom that there really are as many “undecided” / “swing” voters as all the MSM outlets that desperately need/want “a horserace” tell us there are. Convicted Felon Donald Trump is a massively known quantity after a decade, and Harris has enough of a resume for people to have an opinion of her, too. With Project 2025 getting a ton of exposure, and the Harris’ campaign rallying cry of “We’re Not Going Back”, it’s getting pretty clear what the stakes are.
Now, if only we could break through the “both sides suck equally” bubble a little better, maybe we’d make progress.
I continue to feel less dreadful that this country won’t fuck it up in 2 months with Harris/Walz at the helm now.
Not “zero dread” but “exponentially less dread”, at least.
Steve LaBonne
@BritinChicago: I keep reading that there actually are very few genuinely undecided voters. Which would mean that registering new voters and GOTV is the real ballgame.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@BritinChicago: I don’t believe I know what will happen either. As you say, once I take in that at least 45% of the voters will vote for Trump, I realize reality is defying me.
BR
I’ve been thinking that it would be worth finding as many young candidates Dems are running downballot in swing states and sending some money their way — I’d like to make an ActBlue fundraiser for such candidates because I think they may know how to get young people to turn out better than other candidates do. Anyone have any favorites that should be on such a list?
catclub
what is the present status of the US law forcing ByteDance to disgorge TikTOK to stay in the US?
My guesses are: deadline has not arrived. Stuck in the courts wrangling over terms.
A Ghost to Most
Anytime I want to know the MAGAt zeitgeist, I talk to my relatives. I’m up on the current cult nuances. But life is too short for that.
HumboldtBlue
I love the media strategy we are seeing. As has been repeatedly pointed out, traditional media has been caught out, exposed, and now they are being gone around by folks who recognize social media and its influence (and inlfuencers), and it’s working. They’re gonna reach folks in their 20s and 30s, add in the stars — Meghan Thee, Swift, Grande etc. — and you’ve gotten a message along with the encouragement to vote out to them, It’s important.
On another completely unrelated note. The Phillies are currently playing the Braves in a four-game series, with the finale tonight. Last night I was on Reddit Phillies, and we were basking in the win and making fun of the Braves and Atlanta (where the Braves don’t even play, they’re in Cobb County) and one commenter mentioned Gen. Sherman’s march to the sea and this exchange happened.
It brought the house down and was a hard punch to the gut, cuz it’s true. 1985, MOVE
Sure Lurkalot
Yesterday, Kristof had a FTFNYT op-ed about rural support of Trump because of their belief? faith? assumption? (delusion) that he sympathizes with and has policies to address their plight in terms of closed factories, gun suicides and drug addiction. So, I don’t think it’s just BJers who reside in a feedback loop.
Many of Biden’s policies have addressed issues of despair far better than anyone in 50 years. Their guy had no more interest solving their problems now than when he could. Beat that trope into the ground, FTFNYT, that rural hate is caused by “elites” ignoring their woes and not that a good lot of them are racist assholes.
catclub
and some large fraction of people eligible to vote ( 25%? 35%) will not even vote.
Like someone said, how can you figure out undecided voters? and I add non-voters.
Damien
Kamala and Keanu are the same age, and literally EVERYONE loves Keanu. I think Dems are going to have to embrace the “young candidates/elder advisers” dynamic and make a smooth transition out of Boomer-dominated politics.
catclub
Really? is there a missing snark tag? I am a gullible old person.
Ishiyama
I sometimes watch clips from The Breakfast Club, when politicians, activists, and cultural influencers are featured. I am frequently enlightened about points of view and events of which I otherwise never would have heard.
lowtechcyclist
@Damien:
Technically, Kamala is a Boomer, born on October 20, 1964. But of course (a) she comes across as much younger than she is, and (b) 1946-1964 is the demographic definition of the Baby Boom years, but culturally those early 1960s kids (I’m married to one) are really more part of Gen X.
MomSense
@lowtechcyclist:
Gen X used to be defined as starting in 1960 and I think that is more accurate.
Anoniminous
Fat Boy Fred Luntz two weeks ago:
Doubt much has changed.
Big Mango
I am a political junkie and a sportsball junkie too. I run across some folks who aren’t into politics. I run across some folks who aren’t into sportsball. I run across some folks who aren’t into either. The last group go thru life blissfully ignorant.
hrprogressive
@catclub:
I don’t know, but my feelings on TikTok have only about 25% to do with the security risks of using the app itself and 75% to do with the fact that an endless loop of algorithmically-derived short-form content has done, and is doing, substantial damage to the mental health of its userbase.
The term “brain rot” is not just a snappy euphemism for poor quality content, I think it’s legitimately doing damage to people who binge this app all day and night long.
But, again, if the kids are gonna be on it all day, a savvy campaign is gonna meme it up and join them, at least.
realbtl
The author of The Boys on the Bus (Tim Crouse?) described the current press 50+ years ago.
Starfish
@BritinChicago: I don’t think truly undecided voters exist this election. There may be disengaged voters who don’t think voting matters that much or think they have other more important things to do. But I think the reason these panels of “undecided” voters consist of extremely stupid people and Republicans (who may also fall into that first category) is because this category is not real this year, and the press needs to quit fetishizing it
Anoniminous
@Sure Lurkalot:
We can go for the ignorant hick bigoted rural white vote which we’re never, ever, going to get XOR maximize urban black vote which are already part of the Democratic coalition and we can get.
Geminid
@BR: Out West, Gabe Vasquez (NM03) just turned 40 years old, and Marie Gluesencamp Perez (WA03) is 34 (I think). Both races are in the tossup range.
There is a very promising newcomer in the VA10th, 37 year-old state Senator Suhas Subramanyam, but that Northern Virginia district is fairly safe now.
BritinChicago
@Steve LaBonne: That seems plausible to me (but what do I know?). I’ve heard that the best way to get out the vote is for undecideds (or apathetics) to hear from people they know—but I’m pretty sure I don’t know anyone who’s in either of those categories. Nor to I think I know anyone who will vote for TCFG. (Yes, I do lead a sheltered life, and am mostly happy to do so!)
BritinChicago
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yes, that damn reality! But we must face it, unlike certain persons/parties I could name, and try to cope or adapt.
Baud
I stopped worrying about young people when they became the majority. They’ll either use that power or they won’t.
hrprogressive
@Starfish:
I do believe there are a lot of people out there of the “What have either of the major parties done for me lately? I make too little, everything costs too much, and all politicians lie, so fuckem, I don’t bother voting” mentality.
While I / we of the Political Junkie mindset could write reams about how GOP policies hurt them and Dem policies help them, or, at least, help others like them, there’s a level of cynicism baked in that, frankly, I at least understand how they arrived there, even if I don’t understand why they can’t/won’t be swayed by actual info.
I don’t know that this bloc of people is large enough to be a problem this year, especially with the injection of a much younger (comparatively) ticket on the Dem side, and, hey, that whole “Woman of Color as first POTUS” has definitely motivated a lot, lot, lot of younger voters who were much closer to the category I just described above when their choice was Biden, but aren’t any longer now that it’s Kamala Harris.
Josie
My youngest son is a sportsball junkie and frequents a blog of others like him. He reports that many of the commenters are pretty dialed in politically and are supportive of Kamala. I was sort of surprised to hear this.
BritinChicago
@Anoniminous: That sounds good to me, and I hope it’s true. (Maybe some of the young men who are undecided can be persuaded to the right course of action by the young women? When I was a young man I was certainly pretty persuadable, and even now….)
Baud
@Josie:
👍
pacem appellant
I live in CA, in the Bay Area. I am the farthest from swing-status as possible. So the fact that my official Harris yard sign and bumper sticker haven’t arrived (and probably never will), is fine. I hope, though, that they are prioritizing shipments to NV, AZ, WI, PA, and MI instead.
Mart
@realbtl: Think the definitive novel on the 72 election is “Fear and Loathing in the Campaign Trail” by Hunter S. Thompson.
lowtechcyclist
@MomSense:
Gotta admit, I’d never heard that before. I agree that it would be more accurate though.
The Baby Boom has been defined as 1946-1964 since well before it became a cultural touchstone, and it’s always bugged me that when they started coming up with different generations that were defined from a cultural standpoint, everyone kept on defining the Boomers as 1946-64. So I’ve always felt that culturally, the Boomer generation ought to be regarded as ending earlier than 1964, but I’ve never seen it defined that way.
trollhattan
@pacem appellant: Hah, showed you!
Back in 2008 I wanted an Obama sign for our California yard, in part simply to say “fuck you Bush, worst president in history!”
First, had a devil of a time locating a campaign storefront and the couple times I tried going, nobody was there. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
AM in NC
My 21-y-o registered Democrat son, and the young adult children of my friends (also registered Democrats) are being bombarded with mailers lying about scary Kamala and lying about awesome DonOld. They are all paid for by the NC GOP.
I am THRILLED that they are wasting their money on mailers about Social Security to young registered Democrats.
eclare
@Ishiyama:
I was genuinely confused until it hit me that The Breakfast Club is also the name of a podcast. Older Gen-Xer here, and I saw the movie in high school. Big impact on anyone my age.
StephenS
I read but never comment, because I have nothing of value to contribute. But as a HS teacher, I have a couple of students who point out the Harris/Walz TikTok videos to me. Apparently they’re “fire” and on one occasion, “straight facts.” I’m in a purple area, represented by a Dem in Congress and Senate, but Rs in the state legislature. So, maybe a good sign? \_(ツ)_/¯
Lapassionara
I saw a statistic several weeks ago that indicated some percentage of voters blame Biden for Roe v. Wade being overturned since he was President when it happened. Maybe 8 to 10 or so.
I hope an effort is being made to reach these people and educate them. To the extent Dems have over performed in elections since 2020, I think Dobbs has been the key.
trollhattan
@Bobby Thomson: Jesus, standard Republican lie going back at least to Goldwater. Wait, did Medicare exist in ’64? Okay, just in case at least to Nixon, but I’m confident Goldwater wanted to axe Social Security. Socialism is right there in the name.
trollhattan
@Lapassionara:
Right up there with Obama being asleep at the switch for 9/11.
Baud
@Lapassionara:
If nothing else, tell them that Biden isn’t running.
wjca
If you think about it, “both sides suck equally” pretty much defines today’s undecided voter. Habing somebody “new” heading the ticket provides an opening to break into the bubble.
wenchacha
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/08/31/colonial-williamsburg-american-history-culture-wars-00176182
It’s Politico, so there is that, but it’s an interesting piece. I like the idea that Williamsburg has become a safe place to learn some of the hard lessons about the history of our country.
SatanicPanic
@Starfish: Being undecided about whether to vote is a kind of undecided. I think our side mostly got those people back after Harris got the nomination. But there’s still people upset about Gaza. The other side I don’t know, probably Trump being an asshole is as usual causing some Republicans some anxiety.
BR
@Geminid:
Thanks. I am trying to make the list right now but only with the presidential swing states. I’ll post a draft ActBlue link here when I have an initial list ready.
karen marie
I went through the drive-thru at my local donut shop this morning. The young woman at the window is too young to vote, so I asked about her parents. She said they probably won’t vote. She said Trump can’t deport them because they’re citizens. I told her Trump doesn’t care, he’s going to round up everyone who isn’t white and let them fight it from a detention camp.
I don’t think people understand, thanks to corporate media’s normalizing and softening the edges of the things Trump’s plans.
Just this morning NPR – having forgotten their big story about Trump and Arlington – played part of his ad made at the cemetery, presenting it as if it were legitimate. I had to turn off the radio so I didn’t crash my car.
H.E.Wolf
I’ve unsubscribed my mom’s email account from 130 organizations, and counting – although, happily, she’s only on Democratic mailing lists.
Let me know if you’d like me to come over and unsubscribe you from all of yours. :)
Damien
@catclub: No snark here: Keanu is hitting the big 6-0 TOMORROW. Wild, right?
And also, no snark, everyone loves Keanu. He knows Kung Fu.
Ishiyama
@eclare: I, on the other hand, never saw the movie.
brantl
@A Ghost to Most: my sympathies, I have Republican in-laws, who watch Faux News.
@Anoniminous: Do you mean Frank Luntz?
Matt McIrvin
@hrprogressive:
There are and there always have been. And they think it makes them smart.
The YouTuber “Mr. Beat” (not Mr. Beast), a history teacher who does a lot of videos about political history, did a video a while back about why people don’t vote. He certainly wanted everyone to vote, and made a strong pitch for it, but was empathetic with people who are too disgruntled at the big parties to think it’s worthwhile (he’s cagey about his own political tendencies, but if you read between the lines they seem kind of Bernie-esque).
So he got a lot of comments from committed non-voters praising him for his kindness. It struck me that a *lot* of them specifically cited an old George Carlin routine, in which Carlin strongly disparaged voting. (Unlike the many spurious Carlin quotes that go around, this one’s real–I looked it up to make sure.) The gist of it was that, yeah, politicians are all bought and paid for and lie all the time, but the only reason they’re like that is that morons like us keep voting for them–we need to stop voting for them and endorsing the broken system and at least we won’t be wasting our time. The central catchphrase was an inversion of the old saying that if you don’t vote, you have no right to complain–Carlin said “if you DO vote, you have no right to complain.”
I think it was from the 1990s or thereabouts, and it struck me as a very 1990s kind of attitude, a response to a period when even the liberal party had moved to the right and was trying to deemphasize differences. I also think Carlin may not have had a sense of just how bad it can get.
JWR
From NBC:
Maybe we could start with a one, two, three strikes your out sort of deal? Of course getting trusted enforcers in place will be another can of worms.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
The statement “Moral people must vote Republican” was a totally righteous position to take in 1860.
frosty
@lowtechcyclist: I saw this awhile ago to define the late Boomers.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Jones
My personal definition of a Boomer is anyone who could be drafted during Vietnam. The draft ended in 1973 when an 18 year old would have been born in 1955. Pretty close to the Gen Jones definition of 1954.
Starfish
@hrprogressive: I think there are a lot of young dudes in the
category, but there are probably a lot of young women in the “I hope you enjoy never getting laid again, my man” category.
Betty
@BR: If you are on X, Bluesky or Threads, you should check out Charles Gaba who has details on a great many races. He does Dem fundraising.
Starfish
@SatanicPanic: That is an undecided, but it is a different kind of undecided than people in their 30s-50s who are stupid.
I would like to see panels of young voters. Are you registered to vote? When did you register? Will this be your first election? How hard was it to register? Did you register in your home state or the state your college is in (if you are college educated)?
With the Gaza stuff, a bad thing happened. Do you remember the couple who wanted their son returned at the DNC? Their son was executed by Hamas very recently because Israel refuses to sign on to the ceasefire.
JWR
@Matt McIrvin: Yeah, “voting just encourages them”. That’s an argument I dealt with back in the 1990’s. I heard it from a dear friend who’s quite intelligent, especially about the history of politics, but I’m afraid he’s still stuck in that particular “not gonna vote” rut.
kalakal
@Matt McIrvin:
The line I remember back in the UK was “If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal/ban it”
It was arrant nonsense then and remains so now
I usually respond with “That’s what they want you to think”
Baud
@kalakal:
It’s true in the US, and that’s exactly what Republicans are trying to do.
encephalopath
While watching football yesterday there were a bunch of anti-Harris ads that were “The most liberal Senator from the liberal San Francisco and did we mention liberal?”
No idea if that still works as a pejorative, but that’s what they’re running with.
kalakal
@Baud: Which neatly destroys their “There’s no point in voting” argument
Baud
@kalakal:
They’ll invent a replacement argument.
Other MJS
@Matt McIrvin: From what I see on Facebook, a lot of Trumpers imagine Carlin would be on their side.
I also feel that the later Carlin got way too impressed with his own cynicism.
TBone
@Damien: I love Keanu.
eclare
@Damien:
Plus from what I hear someone killed his dog!
Note: I haven’t seen any of the John Wick movies, but he was very good in Something’s Gotta Give, and he seems like a good guy.
BR
@Geminid:
I’ve made a list with young candidates in AZ, GA, and MI so far — here’s the draft ActBlue. Everyone here is welcome to tell me names to add:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/youngswingdemcandidates
I’m working off of Ballotpedia, going through every state house / senate race and looking for young candidates who are actually running a campaign.
David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch
If that was true, why aren’t they demanding interviews with both candidates.
At some point, the double standard in coverage is demonstrable.
BR
@BR:
I’m going through NV, NC, PA, and WI downballot races next, but that might be later today, and will add those when I do.
trollhattan
@JWR:
“Get on the ethics bus.”
“Nope, got my RV right here.”
kalakal
@Baud: Something to do with emails I expect
WaterGirl
@StephenS: Welcome to commenting!
danielx
You could hardly do it with less. Sally Quinn is spinning in her grave at the thought of all these influencer interlopers and she’s not even dead yet.
WaterGirl
@StephenS: Now that I’ve read your comment, I can say:
Lurk less, comment more. :-)
Baud
@kalakal:
That’s why mainstream media exists.
Baud
@StephenS:
You’ll fit right in.
WaterGirl
@Betty: Charles Gaba seems to have every close race one his list, making no effort to distinguish between candidates who may be rolling in money and those who aren’t.
Two rabbits
@BR: I looked at your ActBlue link. I was hoping to see the candidates listed with their state included. Would it be possible to get that info – either on that page, or as a comment here?
(yes, I’m lazy!)
Oh, is this Federal candidates, or are you included State offices too?
Thanks for your efforts!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Well, I’ve seen a couple of ads on the BBS I dial into with my 1200-baud modem.
Seriously, I’ve only seen a couple of ads on YouTube, which is probably my main mechanism for consuming entertainment. Don’t regularly stream any other programming at the moment.
And as I think about it, my snail mail mailbox has not yet been inundated with literature from, well, anybody. Requests for money from the DCCC and Emily’s List. But not from any campaigns. Not to the extent I’ve seen in other years.
Maybe the Democratic operations are sophisticated enough to figure out that I’m one of the “would walk across broken glass through a lake of acid to vote straight Dem” so they don’t need to waste money persuading me about anything. The one thing I need to know is what local issues / offices are on the ballot and who the county party is endorsing.
Eunicecycle
@danielx: I was reading your comment and thought, “Sally Quinn is dead?” before I got to the end!
Baud
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Probably. They leave me alone too.
Princess
I find the polls completely unfathomable. AZ and NV are basically ties, much as I’d expect. Some of the same polls that show that show senate Dems way way ahead of their gop opponents. Make this make sense. Who are the Trump-Gallego and Trump-Rosen voters? It’s not race — Gallegonis Latino. It’s not misogyny — Rosen is a woman. The only thing I can think is that a lot of voters really really like Trump. They just do, and nothing will shake them.
trollhattan
@Eunicecycle:
when Quinn the Eskimo gets here
Ev’rybody’s gonna wanna doze
SatanicPanic
@Starfish: I like that idea
hrprogressive
@StephenS:
This is kind of what I was referring to when I saw all the Gen Z folks legitimately hoot and holler about how good Harris becoming the nominee was, and how Walz being her VP was a slam dunk.
If the kids are telling you the Harris/Walz memes are “fire”, to the extent those kids are inclined to use their franchise, they are much more likely to do it now than they probably were before The Switch.
@wjca:
Yes, I have seen a lot of online commentary about how Harris is such a breath of fresh air (paraphrasing) that people are legitimately excited to go vote for her.
@Matt McIrvin:
George Carlin had a very salient point about “It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it” when he said that.
Yes, there are a lot of Democrats for whom that doesn’t apply.
However, there are plenty of others for whom they certainly have the wealth, power, and status to fall into that Big Club mentality, and, yeah.
I understand that there’s a lot of nuance and what he said does not apply 100% of the time, but he spoke to a very real animus towards those in power who don’t actively use it to make the lives of citizens better but have no problem enriching themselves and their friends, and to the extent that jaded cynicism about voting still persists, I do get it, 1000%.
What I don’t support is all the online “real leftists” who really are just accelerationists who want to burn everything down in the hopes that some glorious American Marxism will be built upon the ashes of whatever gets torn down, and those are deeply unserious people who I don’t bother giving the time of day to.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Damien: During the DNC speeches by the Obamas, I was thinking about how they’re kind of the Mom and Dad of the party now, proudly handing over the leadership reins to the “new generation” of Kamala and Tim.
Then I thought… they aren’t really that much older than Kamala and Tim, are they? And that led to discovering this:
Kamala Harris, born 10/20/64
Tim Walz, born 4/6/64
Michelle Obama, born 1/17/64
Barack Obama, born 8/4/61
Suzanne
I have been wearing my KAMALA hat out and about, and I am so enjoying the interactions it provokes.
Yesterday was my favorite one. I was with Spawn the Youngest and SuzMom at the mall, getting Spawn’s soccer gear. It took forever, and we got hungry and ran to the food court for lunch. The young man behind the counter at Noodles and Company leaned over after we ordered and said in a hushed voice, “I just have to tell you, I love your hat. I am so excited for this election!”. We had a nice conversation. It did my heart good to see a young white dude so psyched for Harris.
Baud
@Suzanne:
👍
trollhattan
I realize Bibi doesn’t give a shit but Israelis are fed up. Some of them.
Harrison Wesley
@trollhattan: And the way he ignored Hurricane Katrina.
BR
@Two rabbits:
Ah, good point. So the candidates are listed on the right side if you choose “customize amounts” — I will copy that list over to the main text once I finish the list.
These are all state level races — state house/assembly and state senate.
trollhattan
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Obama the first president younger than I and wow, did that trend get reversed quick.
November we’re back to 50:50. I’m for the kid.
trollhattan
@Harrison Wesley: Heh. “Katrina was Obama’s Katrina.”
SatanicPanic
@Other MJS: cynicism is a weird thing. It often looks like skepticism, which is a good trait to cultivate. But reflectively pooping on any possibility of anything working out is not healthy or logical
jackmac
I just spent several hours today driving through Grundy County, Illinois on a beautiful early fall afternoon. I like driving on country roads, observing the changing of the seasons as field corn and soybeans start to turn and delicious, fresh sweet corn is available at the multitude of farmers markets or roadside stands.
I also wanted to check out political enthusiasm in this ruby red county (Trump won 62 percent of the vote in 2020). I saw exactly one Harris sign and for Kennedy. There was enthusiasm among Trump’s apparent super fans with about a dozen houses decked out with flags and banners and the “Fuck Your Feelings” sentiments. But smaller, simple Trump signs were far fewer to find (and the once popular anti-Gov. J.B. “Pritzker sucks” have all but disappeared).
Signs, of course, do not vote and my observations are hardly a harbinger of what’s going to happen in this county. What’s certain is that Illinois is safely blue and Dems will romp while Grundy (and other rural, small town) counties here will fall to Trump, but perhaps by smaller margins reflecting dissatisfaction and maybe a return to sanity among GOPers.
We’ll see in November.
Baud
@SatanicPanic:
Agree.
Matt McIrvin
@kalakal: Often falsely attributed to Emma Goldman, if I recall correctly (but for most of her life it WAS illegal for her to vote).
Damien
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Yep, I hear a lot of my GenZ friends calling them “mom and dad Obama.”
Or sometimes if they’re feeling spicy “daddy Barack.” They are all in for this thing with Kamala too, so I think the youth is gonna make a big difference this time around
RevRick
@catclub: Many, if not most, undecided voters have what we would consider a strange assortment of values and policy preferences. They may be pro-choice about abortion, but also be vehemently opposed to immigration. They may be angry about inflation, but also strongly supportive of federal spending increases for child care. What happens is they literally decide, going with their gut, in the voting booth.
The truth is that most politics is tribal. And much of what decides what tribe one belongs to are matters of race, class and gender. Claiming anything more verges on arrogance.
SuzieC
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I’m one of those Dems too but I am getting inundated with fundraising pleas.
About the youth—my 30 something son gets his news from TikTok and Reddit. He is often very well-informed and every time I mention an issue, he already knows about it and has an opinion. He tells me that Harris/Walz has a very savvy TikTok presence. He also reported that JD Vance was a disaster on TikTok. He opened an account and posted once, only to be overwhelmed with an onslaught of memes about couches and dolphins. He’s never been back. Now, whenever anyone posts something about a couch, the comments will be along the lines of “Oh, that’s a cute one. JD will love that.” Maybe TikTok causes brain rot but if the kids are using it to ridicule JD Vance I am there for t.
Princess
@trollhattan: All the universities in Israel are joining the strike tomorrow. What’s wild to me, watching the complicity of American uni presidents, is how publicly vocal very senior uni admins (provosts and presidents) are against the Netanyahu regime. I’ve seen people I know say things on social media that would get you immediately fired in the US.
StephenS
@WaterGirl: wow, thank you. That means a lot. This community is pretty awesome.
JWR
In criticizing the media’s obsessive horse race political coverage, Risen says that if Trump’s moral, ethical and criminal behavior doesn’t show up in their Holy schmoly polls, to which they’re completely addicted, then the press is not going to cover this or that particular story.
NeenerNeener
@RevRick: Somewhere today I saw an announcement that Black female democrats in Texas are becoming republicans because they object to transgender kids. The “Mind your own business” message obviously isn’t getting through there.
Bill Arnold
@trollhattan:
When talking about general budget matters (or social security/medicare), “all options are on the table” is GOP-speak for cutting social security and/or medicare, since at least the GW Bush administration, when GWB deliberately touched the third rail, even said so, and got shocked.
And that’s why I was willing to dedicate as many words as I did in the State of the Union to what used to be the third rail of American politics, Social Security.
Now, it’s one thing to define the problem; it’s another thing to be a part of the solution. And I have an obligation as the President not just to define the problem, but to encourage dialogue by putting out some ideas of my own. I stood up in front of the Congress and said, in order to truly fix it, in order to have a permanent solution, all options are on the table, except for running up payroll taxes.
Cheez Whiz
@Steve LaBonne: that all depends on how you define “undecided”. The legendary undecided/swing/independent/uncommitted voters are mostly uninterested. In old politics Steve speak, they aren’t paying attention before Labor Day. Most of them may have picked a side, but the truly oblivious among them may be persuadable. Which is why, once again, our next 4 years will be decided by a handful of voters in a handful of states.
hrprogressive
@JWR:
He’s not wrong, but even this framing I think misses the forest for the trees.
The media actively wants Trump to win because their shareholder owners want it.
It’s not so much “both sidesing” as it is “deliberately lying so as to put their thumbs on the scale for a preferred outcome”.
Grumpy Old Railroader
This just thrills me. I cannot be the only one that tosses political mailings straight into the paper recycle box without ever knowing who it is from or what is the subject. My paper recycle box is a physical spam filter.
If I was the benevolent dictator, I would have USPS place a recycle box for paper next to every USPS cluster mail box so one could toss all the junk straight into the recycle box. USPS could actually make money off recycling the stuff they just got paid to deliver
Baud
@Bill Arnold:
Heh. So almost all options are on the table.
RandomMonster
I was born in ‘64, too, and I consider myself part of Gen X.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: Maybe not every candidate. Last I saw, Gaba was excluding two Democrats from his list of close close races: Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA03) and Jared Golden (ME02).
That is Gaba’s s right and he has his reasons, but I think he should at least mention them if he is presenting a list of candidates in close races. He could tell people why he is not raising funds for these Democrats and let them make up their own minds.
Jacel
@eclare: I’m a mid-range Boomer, and my first thought about “The Breakfast Club” is the long-running national morning radio show with Don McNeill.
Baud
Via reddit, new front in the culture war
Nora
@RandomMonster: I was born in 1959 and I don’t consider myself a boomer. My private definition is someone who could have attended Woodstock on their own. Those of us who were only 10 years old at the time (or younger) would not qualify.
Baud
Via reddit, new front in the culture war
(my first comment disappeared)
Baud
Via reddit, new front in the culture war.
JWR
@hrprogressive: I’ve only listened to the first half of the interview, so he might get to that juicy bit later on. But I’m right there with you on the interests of the shareholders, which interests shall not be ignored.
RandomMonster
I have a similar criteria. By the time I came of age, AIDS was already a concern. My experience of early adulthood was certainly different than those who experienced the era of free love.
lowtechcyclist
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
1200 baud?! Heavens, isn’t one Baud more than enough?? :-0
No One of Consequence
FSM, Hollowed Be Thy Manicotti, I dearly hope this election is a blow out. Real Reagan obliterates Mondale levels of spank.I want several-seat-cushion on control of BOTH houses. Then I want Supreme Court Reform AND expansion to a seat for every circuit. I want choice enshrined, while we’re at it, throw in an amendment that President DOES NOT equal King in ANY legal capacity. I want another layer of bricks on the wall between Church and State. I want term limits on all political and judicial governmental positions to be limited to somewhere between 12 and 16 years. No exceptions. THEN, I want IRON-FUGGIN-CLAD anti-lobbying laws put in place that make any governmental lobbying efforts FELON-LEVEL ILLEAGAL for 25 years post-service.I want 503c’s banned. I want the money removed from politics. I want the IRS properly staffed, and I want a top marginal tax rate of 50% AT LEAST. I want a Peace Dividend and military budgets to take a haircut consistently over time. Invest that in education and infrastructure. Clobber the Pubs with their lack of willingness to INVEST IN AMERICA. Money where mouths exist and all that.I am hoping, with fervent brow, that MVP has a bigger set than any Prez in recent history and uses them to lay waste to the farcical state of affairs with our governance, priorities and power. Both internally, and externally.Ukraine should be given everything they need to do the job required. Taiwan should be given everything we think they might need in advance, because resupply once the excrement hits the fan blades will be a shite sight more difficult. Russia and China can both eat a proverbial bag. China needs our markets, and Russia is hollowing itself out with Putin’s latest folly. What hasn’t been ripped off by the oligarchs yet, anyway. Fug ’em. Let’s stop the half-measures crap and lay down some sizable chips.We’re the leaders of the free world, let’s start acting like it.My $0.02 anyway.-NOoC
(Edited to add upon re-read, I have no idea what to do about Israel/Palestine. Palestinians need their own state, with a port and an airport. As much independent utility capacity as possible. Israeli’s deserve security and dignity. I am beginning to think that the patience of the Israeli’s with their own government is coming to an end, and they may very well take matters into their own hands. Bibi needs to go the way of all blood-gargling sociopaths.)
The Pale Scot
We had this discussion couou didn’t ple of years ago me thinks. I said that if you didn’t have a drivers license during the ’72 oil crisis you weren’t a boomer. Somebody responded that the cut off was if you weren’t exposed to draft and Vietnam you weren’t a boomer.
kalakal
@RandomMonster: Born in ’60, I don’t consider myself a boomer but then I didn’t grow up in the US, nor in a Western country for that matter. I get the idea of shared cultural/economic etc experiences but Boomer etc is a very US Centric idea, certainly when talking about 70 years ago
Laura
We are high in the mountains of western North Carolina, a little blue dot in a red/purple state. Last week we received four, yes four, mailers from Trump, lying about the Harris/Walz record. The postcards are pretty heavy handed and they darken her face so she looks really black, the same way they used to do with Obama. I don’t think it’s going to work; we are admittedly old but everyone we know locally is voting a straight Democratic ticket and the primary salient issue is abortion.
Baud
@Laura: 👍
Mr. Bemused Senior
@No One of Consequence: and a pony.
jonas
@eclare: Lol! Same here!
p.a.
I was born in ’59 and have all the expected touchpoints, but my parents were born in ’17 & ’18, so I got maybe a bit of a diff perspective at home. I reuse ‘tin’ foil when possible & wash & reuse plastic utensils.😳 So I don’t know where I fall, almost early boomer maybe? Not GenX. Isn’t gen X the “RonnieRayguns beat the USSR” generation? Pffft.
kalakal
@lowtechcyclist:
Pants manufacturers despair
One of the Many Jens
@Geminid: He did announce why, awhile back. I believe it was because in the aftermath of Biden’s debate, both said they were considering not voting for him in November. (I didn’t read them saying that, but both are eejits, so it wouldn’t surprise me. Both are, to me, definitely in the hold nose before you pull the lever category…but they’re better than the R, so ya just gotta go ahead and do it!)
lowtechcyclist
@Nora:
I’m a 1954 kid, right smack in the middle of the (demographic) Baby Boom. But there’s no way I could have gotten to Woodstock on my own. Not any money to speak of, no connections to anyone who was going, and no clue how to get there even if I’d had those resources.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
With all the talk of massive mailers here, it strikes a cord in a parallel manner with local stuff.
Mailers seem to be the new way dark money can flood people with crap ala what folks have described above. We’ve seen it here in local elections, loophole exploited so that everything happens out of state to include where the mailers originate.
My point is that it enables dark money to literally flood everybody’s mailboxes. We get them from school privatization groups as well under titles like “Coloradans for School Choice” or some right-wing messaging approach.
At least on the local level, it can work but really depends on candidate/issue. Thus, I’m wondering about those here who are getting bombarded with crap for the Orange Fart Cloud if that’s what all the “outsourcing” we’ve read about on their voting efforts.
GOTV for us will be key. I beat that point like a cheap rug.
No One of Consequence
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
Not really, I don’t have the facilities. That said, the list isn’t what I expect, but rather what I want. I’m of the opinion, further inaction on some particular fronts in our current state of affairs will have increasingly dire effects if left unresolved, and more costly resolutions if delayed.
For example, are you willing to roll the dice that in roughly 4.5 years, should the Pubs take control again, but this time with a non-OompaLoompa who isn’t as dumb as a sack of hair, BUT WITH the powers of a President as currently interpreted by the Supremes?
Consolidation of capital nationally/globally?
Climate change?
etc.
lowtechcyclist
I’d say ‘off topic’ but there is no topic, so: I just got my box of 100 VAAC postcards! I can get to work on them tomorrow – maybe even tonight if I’ve got the energy. I should be able to get a batch of them into the mail on Tuesday.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@lowtechcyclist:
I’m a 1957 kid. The hippies and Woodstock generation were the older brothers and sisters of my friends.
My youngest sister was born in 1965 and I always felt it was an arbitrary and artificial distinction that she’s the only one of my siblings that is not considered a Boomer. But:
Matt McIrvin
@Princess:
It could still be race and gender. The Presidency is special in Americans’ eyes, like electing a King. They may have less tolerance for putting people who look different in that role.
wjca
A better definition, especially considering the origin of the term, would be: Soneone (born after 1945) whose parents were old enough to fight in WW II (call it age 18 in 1945). So, a fuzzy end in the early 1960s.
sdhays
@Laura: I guess Trump has been satisfied that she is, indeed, black.
Baud
@sdhays:
Heh.
Jay
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/elderly-fascist-golfer-calls-violent
Tom Q
@RandomMonster: Swear to god, when I was growing up (born in 1952), every reference I heard to Baby Boomers was centered on those born 1945-55 (the definition used in that Generation Jones article). I really don’t know when it was expanded all the way to 1964.
As many here are saying, it never made any sense in terms of nomenclature (for people born after 1953, the war they were post- was Korea, not WWII), culturally (if the Beatles weren’t an integral part of your life, how could you be a boomer? — and, for anyone born in 1964, you were only 6 when the Beatles broke up), or even generationally: someone born in 1945 could have easily given birth to someone born in 1963-4. How can literally two generations be part of the same generation? It makes no sense.And, in terms of politics, people born from 1960 came of voting age just at the time Jimmy Carter was (however wrongly) seen as feckless and Reagan viewed as a tower of strength. That age cohort is the strongest GOP-voting part of the electorate except for the over-80s. It’s annoyed me for some time that the true Boomers (1945-55) have been lumped with them and blamed for GOP dominance.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@No One of Consequence: just in case you have any doubt: you don’t have to convince me
[ETA, this is my “and a pony” reference. Also this]
wjca
I don’t know about ads. But it seems like my YouTube was flooded for several weeks with Obama soliciting donations for the Harris campaign. Replaced, the past week or so, by Harris doing the same thing for herself.
Maybe my YouTube profile (mostly music) says “potential donor” rather than “potential voter”….
Baud
@wjca: I get them too. Algorithms, man.
Anyway
on average I get 2-3 text blegs for donations from KH and other D-aligned groups — don’t know how they got my number. I’ve received texts from almost every D Sen candidate and many house candidates— I send STOP for each one but it’s ann-o-ying. Blech.
Hoodie
We’ve received several anti-Harris Trump mailers over the last few weeks. The funny thing is that they usually show up tattered with large portions ripped off. Seems to be a pretty indiscriminate mailing because we’re registered Dems in a very liberal neighborhood, very near the state GOP HQ (you’d assume they’d know better). I wonder how much Trump’s campaign is wasting on third party grifters distributing such things.
wjca
If you are going to talk about generations, you first need to define your term.
For example, do you look at people starting when they are physiologically able to have children? That gets you generations maybe 15 years long. Or do you look based on when do (did) they typically start having kids? Which gives you a moving target, currently something approaching 30 years long.
Geminid
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Someone distinguished between Boomers as defined demographically and Boomers as defined culturally. I was reminded of this a few minutes ago when an announcer on all-news WTOP described today as the first day of “Meteorological Fall” and noted that September 22 will be the start of “Astronomical Fall.” Naturally, I prefer the meteorological definition.
BR
I’m working my way through the young swing state downballot candidates — now 6 out of the 7 swing states included:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/youngswingdemcandidates
I just need to add Wisconsin. If you want to see the names, click “customize” on the right.
Any suggestions of names welcome.
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: Ruben Gallego outperforming Harris may be a matter of how very bad a candidate Scary Kari Lake is.
Matt McIrvin
@Tom Q: Similarly, when people first started talking about “Generation X” it was pretty clear they were talking about people my age or maybe a bit older, people struggling to enter the job market during the early-90s recession. I think Coupland’s novel that popularized the term was about people a bit older than me, born in the early to mid-Sixties.
Now I’m one of the oldest GenXers, and Coupland’s characters would probably be classified as young Boomers.
Misterpuff
@Tom Q: The problem was the terminology “The Baby Boom”: the post-war baby boom did start in ’46 and stretched until the mid-Sixties, the demographic bulge due to the increased birthrate indeed grew and subsided in that span. I was born at the end of ’56 which is the peak of the boom, but I never felt I was a Boomer. And in fact, the naming of this generation was focused on the early leading edge of this boom and the name was nicked from the event of the Boom and they became The Boomers, but it meant ’46 – ’54, not the whole thing.
Now 50 – 60 years later, people look at the population numbers and assume the term encompasses all of the babies born in the boom times, but it just ain’t so.
Matt McIrvin
(One of the things that always struck me about Barack Obama was that a lot of his attitudes about society and policy seemed, for better or worse, closer to mine than any previous President’s and I suspected that was generational. So I always thought of him as attitudinally a GenXer, if one of lower than usual cynicism. But he was still a Boomer according to demographers.)
frosty
@Grumpy Old Railroader: I just got back to PA from a Road Trip and faced three months of mail. I had a couple of letters from Bob Casey and a couple from Joe Biden. Nothing from Harris. Nothing from Trump. Possibly because we’re in the deep red part of the state.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
I believe I kicked that off. :-)
I’ve got my own personal definition of the beginning and end of summer. I’m a cutoffs-and-t-shirt guy in the summer, jeans and flannel in the cold months, and varying mixtures in between.
‘Summer’ is, AFAIAC, the time of year when, when I get up in the morning, I automatically pull on cutoffs and t-shirt. And ‘automatically’ is the key word: if I have to consider whether to wear cutoffs or jeans, it’s still spring, or just turned to fall, even if I ultimately decide cutoffs are OK for the day.
This year, summer here in Calvert County started somewhere around June 8 or 9. End date TBD.
pieceofpeace
@pacem appellant: I’m also in Bay Area, south of SF, and have seen a total of 3 small signs, all for same local running locally.
The whirr of multiple helicopters, then followed up with a proliferation of police motorcycles accompanying multiple cars with national and state politicos tells of an election year.
They’re not here to address the public, they’re here for the big bucks of the wealthy. I’m an observor, no bucks to spare.
Ixnay
@trollhattan: dose, as in drop acid.
Darkrose
@wenchacha: That was an excellent piece—thank you for sharing!
Mark von Wisco
Here is Wisconsin, it feels like we’re getting carpet bombed with ads. It happens every 4 years. In the week before Election Day, almost every ad will be political.
Mark’s Bubbie
@Princess: Re: NV & AZ — Tim Miller (“The Bulwark”) thinks it may be that Kamala is still recovering from Joe B’s low numbers — “She has room to grow.” I love Joe but his pride cost us.
Matt McIrvin
@Geminid: It’s always seemed more sensible to me to define the equinoxes and solstices as the *middles* of the “astronomical” seasons, rather than the boundaries. Shouldn’t Midsummer Day be the middle of summer? But that’s not how anyone counts it. The hottest and coldest parts of the years around here do seem to come after the solstices, so it makes sense for the meteorological seasons to be later than that.
We seem to have a cultural tradition of summer conceptually stretching from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend, but most places that I and my kid have gone to school, the school year ends a bit after Memorial Day and begins a bit before Labor Day, so it’s not exactly summer vacation.
RevRick
@Tom Q: The Baby Boomers were defined as children born in the postwar period from 1946 to 1964. But we were so classed, not as a cultural phenomenon initially, but as the group with the common experience of having parents who fucked a lot. Period. We were both a product and cause of postwar prosperity. Age of marriage fell to an all-time low. With Europe and Japan struggling to recover from WW2, the US was the economic colossus, as it shifted into high gear as a consumer economy.
Long term birth trends had been in steep decline for generations and with us came a huge reversal. That came to a screeching halt with the advent of the Pill. Initially, the Gen Xers were referred to as the Baby Bust generation.
Us Baby Boomers were shaped by strong cultural shifts. For one, we were raised by much more permissive parents compared to the Silent generation, who by the way, were the ones who made the 60s, the 60s. I distinctly remember a senior high youth group meeting at church when the youth pastor, a Silent generation guy, showed us a film on dating, that was clearly made in the late 40s, early 50s, and all us high schoolers laughed hysterically.
RevRick
@Matt McIrvin: The meteorological seasons begin three weeks before the start of calendar one. Meteorological winter is December, January and February, Spring is March, April and May, and so forth. This definition probably coincides with the “feel” of the seasons in the New York metropolitan area.
RevRick
@Mark von Wisco: Pennsylvania sends its regards. We used to be grouped with Florida and Ohio, but now you and Michigan matter.
Citizen Alan
@MomSense: My RWNJ sister was born in 1960 and I was born in 1968. She is a Boomer. I categorically refuse to share an age cohort with her.
Citizen Alan
@danielx:
Dammit. I didn’t read your sentence about the Sally Q all the way through and got excited about the thought of her being dead.