Love this 100th birthday post by VP Harris for Shirley Chisholm. Kamala knows she is walking in Shirley’s footsteps! ????
— ?? @FlyWithKamala | WHATEVER KAMALA WANTS 202X! (@flywithkamala.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 4:26 PM
Shirley Chisholm was one of my earliest political idols, and yes I am still bitter at the way she was treated by her fellow ‘establishment’ Democrats in 1972, and I guess now I can be bitter about the way Kamala Harris is being treated by all too many of our Very Serious Democratic Insiders. (Case in point: CNN’s Ronald Brownstein, at the Atlantic, just gave four Harris campaign surrogates who should’ve known better ten thousand chances to blame everyone but themselves [gift link].
Politico does its best to scare the horses in this pre-Thanksgiving story, but I’m actually looking forward to seeing what Madam Kamala does next… “Harris is telling her advisers and allies to keep her political options open”:
Kamala Harris has been lying low since her defeat in the presidential race, unwinding with family and senior aides in Hawaii before heading back to the nation’s capital.
But privately, the vice president has been instructing advisers and allies to keep her options open — whether for a possible 2028 presidential run, or even to run for governor in her home state of California in two years. As Harris has repeated in phone calls, “I am staying in the fight.”
She is expected to explore those and other possible paths forward with family members over the winter holiday season, according to five people in the Harris inner circle, who were granted anonymity to discuss internal dynamics. Her deliberations follow an extraordinary four months in which Harris went from President Joe Biden’s running mate to the top of the ticket, reenergizing Democrats before ultimately crashing on election night.
“She doesn’t have to decide if she wants to run for something again in the next six months,” said one former Harris campaign aide. “The natural thing to do would be to set up some type of entity that would give her the opportunity to travel and give speeches and preserve her political relationships.”
Most immediately, Harris and her advisers are working to define how and when she will speak out against Donald Trump and reassert her own role in the Democratic Party. Closing out her term as vice president, she’s set to preside over certifying the November election she lost to Trump, and then appear at the once-and-future president’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
“There will be a desire to hear her voice, and there won’t be a vacuum for long,” a person close to Harris said…
I insist that we re-use VP's FREEDOM rhetoric because that's what this country was supposed to be founded on
— Tony Moonbeam Returns (@moonbeamii.bsky.social) November 29, 2024 at 11:47 AM
Elizabelle
This is what makes me so very sad.
I wanted to live in President Kamala world.
We all DESERVE to live there. And then, to see the election results, and all the castigation of Biden. I am just about done with following the “news.”
I am ashamed of what this country did. Ashamed
And I would LOVE to work and vote for President Kamala in 2028. Do not learn the wrong lessons from this tragedy, abetted by our crack whore media.
Anne Laurie
Footnote: FYWP says this is my 18,000th post (which, to be fair, includes at least a thousand drafts that never reached the front page). I REGRET… well, I have some regrets, but a lot fewer than some people would like to believe.
[Insert emoji of your choice here.]
Baud
@Elizabelle:
You and me both.
Elizabelle
@Anne Laurie: Thank you for all of it, Anne Laurie.
Baud
@Anne Laurie:
You are a treasure.
zhena gogolia
@Elizabelle: I know we’re supposed to say, “You can’t love your country only when you win.” I managed that through Nixon, Reagan, both Bushes, and even Trump’s first term. But for him to be elected after everything he’s done? The country has become hard to love.
zhena gogolia
@Anne Laurie: Wow, congratulations! You are a treasure!
Elizabelle
@zhena gogolia: Agreed.
And if it’s still up, that rotating tag needs to come right the fuck down.
A lot of them probably need to be reviewed.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Love the decent minority. Let the rest fend for themselves.
different-church-lady
Why doesn't she just go away like all losing presidential candidates? Like Trump di-- wait...WereBear
I want her to run again and I will vote for her again.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Anne Laurie: Good work. That’s a hell of a lot of posts.
Elizabelle
@Baud: I agree. They want to sit on a hot stove burner? Let ’em.
We know better, and do not have to join them.
schrodingers_cat
I haven’t looked at the exit poll demographics. I am guessing that the largest demographic group came through, for Trump.
sab
@Anne Laurie: YIKES! That’s a lot, and I have thoroughly appreciated every one. Thank you so much. Lot of work there.
NotMax
@Anne Laurie
Only 18,000?
Musk cranks out that many in a day.
//
trollhattan
Phrasing!
hoytwillrise
“The natural thing to do would be to set up some type of entity that would give her the opportunity to travel and give speeches and preserve her political relationships.” — This right here is why she & the Dem leadership don’t get why they lost. She has a name & some political currency but she’s clueless as to why she lost & thinks that traveling around the country schmoozing with other party insiders will change things. It won’t. She offered nothing new from Biden & people were not willing to shrug their shoulders & vote for someone who thought everything was ok. This is a good read. https://prospect.org/politics/2024-12-02-what-is-democratic-party/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3sy0-aMCcmNHRySIiUIM_PFb3pkQFhQfdelXmKepiiWuoBUEMeWB9pWfw_aem_Ps3w2LfagsyDbT9eo765Dw
ArchTeryx
@Baud: That is exactly what I plan to do. Protect the people around me, especially those guaranteed to be targeted by a Trump pogrom. I’ll also do what I can to contribute to organizations opposing said pogrom, as long as money is worth anything. The rest of the country can go to hell.
Steve LaBonne
If she’s in the 2028 presidential primary, she’s pretty much a lock to have my vote.
WereBear
@Anne Laurie:😎
Steve LaBonne
@ArchTeryx: Same here, and my church together with other local UU churches has people and resources to really help.
NaijaGal
When the Democrats hold the presidency, house and Senate in the future (see, I’m trying not to obey in advance by assuming the fascist dictatorship attempt will ultimately fail when some of the egg price voters lose their health insurance, social security and federal jobs), is there any constitutional reason why voting can’t be made mandatory for all citizens (as I believe it is in Australia), with election day set as a paid federal holiday?
Nukular Biskits
Good evenin’, y’all!
Just curious: How many of y’all have GOP Senators who have opined on Trump’s cabinet nominations?
Both of mine are <sigh> Republican and neither have uttered a single peep.
Nukular Biskits
@Anne Laurie:
And many more to come, I hope!
CHETAN R MURTHY
@zhena gogolia: white men can say that. Sure. But when my country wants to dispossess me and my family of our rights, fuck that. Just fuck that.
Ohio Mom
@Anne Laurie: Congratulations! That is an accomplishment to be proud of.
Your words have gone out into the world and changed things, even if you don’t know or can’t imagine how. But it is true. And you most likely saved some lives with your Covid posts.
Ohio Mom
@sab: Yes, I saw that number and thought, Does that mean I have read 18,000 posts?! No wonder tne laundry is piled up.
CHETAN R MURTHY
@Ohio Mom:
@Anne Laurie: I have no doubt that your COVID posts saved lives. No doubt at all.
waspuppet
Constantly. That’s how. Republicans never go away, and they never stop, but for some reason Democrats do, and I’m sure many of them think she should go away. She should point out the failures constantly, just like Trump spent four years pointing out the imagined failures.
Could some other Democrat fill that role? Maybe. Whatever. Like I say every primary season, I’m a single-issue voter: The Republican Party is a criminal gang and the average member of that party hates America more than the average member of ISIS. That’s my issue. Whoever points that out most clearly, most consistently, and lives that conviction is who gets my vote.
Don’t go. Seriously. Not one Democrat should go. They broke the rule; let them all see how it feels.
VFX Lurker
You rock, Anne Laurie.
Californian here. SHE HAS MY VOTE.
Whatever path she chooses, SHE HAS MY VOTE.
Elizabelle
@NaijaGal: We could use people taking voting more seriously, but given the ignorant, gullible, magical thinkers and malevolent types among us:
Be careful what you wish for. I would not want to force people who fall for fake social media posts to be voting in force.
I think we are living with the aftermath of that right now.
CHETAN R MURTHY
@VFX Lurker: yer goddamn right about that!
Trivia Man
@WereBear: Sure – and in a competitive primary. I voted for her in 2020 and she is m default n 2028 until proven wrong.
Shakti
We’ll see what she does in time and what she means by “staying in the fight”. I’m sure and Joe are busily and quietly tying up whatever loose ends exist in the Biden administration in last seven weeks or so?
If you asked me about which projects Hillary Clinton has been been busy with in the last years I couldn’t really name them. Clinton Foundation stuff?
She’ll probably do things along similar lines to Clinton and the Obamas. Other than that I can’t really speculate.
*waves hands*
@zhena gogolia: I chose my citizenship and in doing so I renounced the one of my birth. I have voted in every single election, presidential and midterm for all of my adult life save the one when I was a teen. I am grieved by what it has chosen and what is about to happen. I am grieved the ideals of my country are so far from what these people value. And if the country is what people have chosen and what they decide they value, well, I need to fight it/watch it/protect myself with clear eyes instead of pretending that somehow it’s not what it is is. Or maybe I love a country that doesn’t exist and may have never existed. That’s also a possibility.
KatKapCC
@VFX Lurker:
Same and same, though I admit I’d feel a bit bad for our LG, Eleni Kounalakis, who is already running and would likely end up a distant second if Harris decided to jump in.
Splitting Image
@different-church-lady:
It’s a small thing compared to the many other things wrong with the universe, but it still pisses me off how many media jackasses insisted that Hilary Clinton was violating an ancient, sacred tradition by remaining in the public eye after her defeat in 2016 and not taking up knitting or something.
The same jackasses had nothing at all to say about the Orangeman’s four year long grievance tour after he was defeated in 2020.
cmorenc
@zhena gogolia:
Exactly. That Trump could have won after all crap he did has completely shattered at a fundamental level what for a lifetime I thought this country was and was all about. I have completely lost faith in the sort of pride this country took out of World War 2 – it’s as if I just found out that after supposedly defeating the German Nazis and then holding a corrupt autocratic Russia at bay, we are in the process of becoming them.
Steve LaBonne
@Splitting Image: This is why we have to do what we can to defund those fuckers. Don’t even give them your email address to click on a gift link- use archive.ph.
rikyrah
The Tweet that gets me is the one that says our.side was thinking about all the ways that we could help people..
They voted to hurt as many people as possible.
And have the nerve to want to be the victim when people in their lives say
Enough is enough, Muthaphucka.
Don’t call me anymore.
Steve LaBonne
@cmorenc: The way to love our country is to keep insisting on its highest ideals (if a former slave like Frederick Douglass could do that, I surely can). Never forget that those of us who try to uphold them are about half of the voting population.
The Lodger
MVP can do and thing she wants, except drop out of sight.
Shakti
@waspuppet:
Never mind feelings.
The purpose of going is to uphold a norm. Which norm is being upheld by her or Joe or any other Democrat’s attendance at this inauguration?
Does that norm still exist? What is the value of a norm only one party upholds?
IIRC, Trump did not attend Joe Biden’s inauguration. I don’t think they met in the Oval Office for photo ops in the interim period. And well, we know what happened.
She may be required to certify the votes by statute. But there’s no requirement for her to be there at the inauguration. She may feel it’s a necessary kayfabe she has to do — but for whom?
lynno
You realize any accomplishment if Shirley Chisholm has been erased from any library bullied into removing books that may have mentioned her. What the VP did pushed back on the white washing of history.
Emily68
Re: how Chisholm was treated 1972— But we (white people anyway) thought if we voted for Chisholm, Democrats would lose in a giant landslide.
Martin
So, I may have been the first cheerleader for Harris here way back when she was AG.
And I appreciate the effort here, and welcome what comes of it, I’m skeptical they’ll find it. One observation about Harris is that I think she is very good at speaking on issues that she is passionate about (civil rights, legal, etc.) and not very good at speaking (particularly extemporaneously which will be increasingly important going forward) on issues that she is not particularly passionate about – and economics is in this bucket. And while I don’t know what things will look like in 2028, I’m guessing that economically, they’ll look worse.
So while I still really like Harris, I’m not sure she’s going to be the right pick. We’ll see. 6 months ago I thought Newsom would might be a contender in 2028, and I’m much less certain of that now. I think he’s got a lot of work to do in the next 2 years.
My early money is on AOC. I think her vision of government is much more ambitious, and I think she’s much better at articulating the kind of economic restructuring that I think voters are looking for.
Emily68
@Shakti: Hillary Clinton was seriously considering skipping the 2016 inauguration but she heard Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were coming despite Mrs. Carter’s recent health issues. Clinton said she figured that meant she had to go, too.
TS
@different-church-lady:
What an idea – MVP should start her 2028 campaign on inauguration day 2025. Have rallies, sell stuff, be seen and heard everywhere. Criticise the administration from day one.
That would be something the MAGA crowd would not be expecting. They want women at home & pregnant without medical care.
Chief Oshkosh
@Martin:
I’d be happy with any of the three – Harris, Newsom, AOC. I agree that AOC may be more inspiring in 2028, but that’s just a vibe. Plus, she needs an editor – way too many words thrown out there.
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah: I was thinking this at my usual 5 AM Trump-rage-wake-up. Harris and Walz and Biden wanted power in order to help the powerless. The other side wants power in order to crush the powerless.
trollhattan
@Martin:
Guessing she runs for governor in two years, doubt she runs for president again. Prior to Trump, Nixon I believe was the last to pull off winning the presidency after losing it. The cloud hangs heavy.
I’m very sympathetic should she wave off any questions regarding her political future. The woman deserves a rest.
Martin
@Chief Oshkosh: Yeah, I agree. But I think AOC is closer to the pulse of the electorate and has some messaging work to do, where I think Harris and Newsom need to step out of where they are comfortable in terms of policy and rhetoric but are more skilled at the delivery.
I think AOC can tighten up her message – that’s a skill to acquire. I don’t think Harris and Newsom can become authentic on ideas that they don’t actually believe. Maybe they’re further down that road on their ideas than I realize, but so far I haven’t seen it.
Gloria DryGarden
@Emily68: maybe this year the Clinton’s can have a watch party with jimmy carter..
im not sure what the repercussions might be, but it’s pleasing to consider an all democrat boycott of the Jan 20 swearing in.
it can’t be fun to watch someone lie with their hand on a bible they sell to make legal fees.
Ramona
@TS: That’s why Harris should not attend the orange pustule’s inauguration! She should conduct a speech to the protesters.
KatKapCC
@Martin: If it’s not Newsom, I think he’d be an excellent choice for Secretary of State. He’s very knowledgeable about the world, has already done a lot of international politics as the governor of the 5th largest economy, very gregarious and extroverted, carries himself well, etc.
Martin
@trollhattan: 2026 governor races are going to be important tests for Democrats in terms of what the electorate is looking for. CA is tricky because we’re pretty far left of the country on a lot of economic issues, but not on anti-corporate sentiment (as home of most of the country’s highest value corporations), and not particularly good on the income inequality front. So this race may not be too informative.
sab
@Martin: You thinking AOC has better messaging than Harris? Aren’t you in Orange County CA? Aren’t you as far from AOC as Mars?
I feel that in Ohio also, but I know nothing also too.
Soprano2
@Elizabelle: Me too, Americans got taken in by a con man who said what they wanted to hear. Anyone who thinks the voters want someone to talk to them like they’re adults is delusional.
anitamargarita
@Elizabelle:
this is my feeling exactly
tam1MI
Unfortunately, she is cursed with an extra ‘X’ chromosome, which in the eyes of many voters makes her unelectable.
I have sadly come to the conclusion, after Hillary, after Kamala, that Americans just will not vote for a female President no matter how eminently qualified and charismatic they are, and I no longer wish to see talented women get broken on that wheel. In the future I will be taking the same position towards women and minority Presidential candidates that Black people did towards Black candidates – I’m not going to waste my vote on one until I see proof that they can win white voters – specifically, white male working class voters. (I live in Michigan, which has it’s primary later in the process, so a candidate will have plenty of time to prove that before I get around to voting).
Martin
@sab: I don’t think I’ve met a person under 40 that isn’t anti-corporatist and doesn’t think income inequality isn’t a big problem here in OC. And they’re half of all voters.
Even in my pretty high income city, half of all kids were on federal lunch program. Even rich cities have a full range of services that don’t pay well and where workers struggle with cost of living. Being a janitor in a city with a $1.4M median house price is pretty rough. And young people can’t afford shit here.
So yeah, AOC sells pretty hard.
KatKapCC
@tam1MI: My fear is more that the first woman president will be a Republican. I know people think their voters wouldn’t go for it, but if she performs femininity in the way they demand, if she has her Cool Girl credentials of hating abortion and laughing at sexist jokes, and if she fills her campaign with men, they very well might…especially because they know how much it would depress liberal women to have to see this barrier broken by someone we loathe. It would be the ultimate “owning the libs” moment.
sab
@Martin: Ohio young are on that same page.
Eta: But we have so many olds who vote, and the kids are too busy with their three gig jobs to vote.
waspuppet
@KatKapCC: I predicted the day after the 2016 election that the first woman president would be a Republican. I would like to be wrong, and I’ll work to prove myself wrong, but it’s one of the few predictions I’ve ever made that hasn’t blown up in my face, at least not yet. It’s sadly totally possible.
sab
@tam1MI: I said that to kay in July, and she thought I was nuts. However much I loved Kamala (and I did and still do) I did not want her at the top of this ticket. But she did come damn close. Not a Trump landslide by any definition.
KatKapCC
@waspuppet: I hope to hell it won’t happen, because I don’t know how I’d respond.
stinger
@Elizabelle: Every word.
stinger
@Anne Laurie:
Amazing! Thank you for every one of them!
mrmoshpotato
@tam1MI:
So you didn’t vote for Harris in Michigan?
dm
Lots of the post-election chatter has been on communicating with voters where they are at — podcasts, TikTok, other media I’m too old to know about. AOC has a mastery of that, plus she knows how to frame a statement and an issue. Look at what she said about Nancy Mace’s panty-sniffing resolution: characterizing it as endangering women to don’t look feminine enough.
It’s also easy to figure out where she comes from: what her principles are, what she stands for. It’s easy for her to be genuine.
But she’s pretty inexperienced, and that will be the stalking-horse for less seemly objections (sexism, racism).
tam1MI
I did, for all the good it did. :(
catclub
@Martin:
Yeah, but getting the non-voters is the real key.
They are looking for an easier way to not tie their shoes. Or tasting school paste glue.
NaijaGal
@Elizabelle: I’m assuming a future news media environment that’s not just corporation or billionaire owned, so that regular people who aren’t political junkies can actually find out what’s going on and not vote based on disinformation. I like to dream.
ETA: There were more than 70 million people who didn’t vote at all. I don’t think they are all sociopaths.
catclub
Hillary got a majority of the votes in 2016. The fucked up electoral college blocked her.
Chigail
Adding my thanks to all the others for AL’s continuing presence here.
rikyrah
One of the saddest TikTok ‘s that I watched was from an older lesbian.
The comment she was replying to was a woman saying that she was going to stick in there and fight for her teenage LGBTQIA Child.
The lesbian was like… that’s great. But, do you realize that we have already fought these battles…that they have been fought for DECADES.
Asked her if she knew the timespan between Stonewall and Obergefell ..
She was like…we have fought these battles already.
And, that she was angry that she’s about to have to fight them again.😡
rikyrah
@Chigail:
AL has saved my life.
I will forever believe that her COVID Beat saved my life several times over the past Four years.
UncleEbeneezer
@dm: Kamala seems to know much of how to do all of that as well. She just didn’t really have enough time with only 90 days until the election.
Sister Golden Bear
@rikyrah: Queer/Trans Elders are tired and pissed.
Glory b
@Martin: Then how did Trump & Republicans get the majority of young white voters?
Glory b
@dm: Then how did Trump & Republicans win a majority of young white male voters?
Glory b
@sab: Young people have never been much for voting. Ever since we counted age cohorts the young have lagged behind.
KatKapCC
@Glory b:
You answered your own question.
Martin
@Glory b: Because you’re trapped in an old bias that the GOP is the party of corporations. Polling since Covid shows that Dem and GOP voters are about even on that mark, with Dems being if anything slightly more favorable to corporations.
Trump speak out against big finance. RFK against big ag and pharma. That’s more than Biden and Harris were doing.
I don’t think Democrats realize how much they’re getting flanked on the left by the GOP on this issue. Not really with guys like Trump, but definitely by guys like Vance. And within that there’s a split between tech founders like Musk being seen favorably because he’s a ‘corporate reformist’ and the general incumbents seen in need of reform. It doesn’t entirely make sense – there’s a lot of wish fulfillment in there, but nobody is really offering up much of a competing message.
Martin
@Glory b: Weird thing about young people today – every year they get a year older. By 2028, four years worth of those voters won’t be young any longer, but they’ll probably have the same views.
Glory b
@cmorenc: Democrats haven’t won a majority of the white vote since 1965, after LBJ signed the Civil Rights &Voting Rights Acts.
Black people know the WWII generation as also being the ones who protested school integration.
Glory b
@Martin: Yeah, no.
People thought the same thing about Boomers, protesting Vietnam, marching in the streets, going to Woodstock, the love & peace generation.
Gretchen
@Anne Laurie: That’s amazing, and I’m very grateful for all your work.
mrmoshpotato
@tam1MI: You didn’t know she’d lose Michigan. Don’t beat yourself up about it. Thank you for your vote.
The electoral college should’ve died with the Confederacy.
Old School
@Anne Laurie: Happy Milestone! Looking forward to many more!
Miss Bianca
@Martin: Yeah, tell me who was the last person elected POTUS from the House? I am sure there’s been at least…one…over the course of the centuries.
Shakti
@Emily68: Then it sounds like it she was thinking it might be one of their last public appearances so she should be there to see Jimmy and Rosalyn?
FWIW, I think b/c Jimmy Carter is in hospice, he won’t come out of it to attend this Trump inauguration.
Moving is stressful, I’d give myself extra time to GTFO before the Vances move in. I don’t think they ever have a ceremonial shot of the VP flying out of Washington with past inaugurations? Although if the Bidens go and then have their leaving the white house flying away — she might feel like she needs to stay to wave them off?
I didn’t watch Trump get inaugurated the first time and I didn’t watch Harris’s concession speech and I won’t watch that horrid man take an oath of office he’s breaking within minutes.
It might actually be safer to be gone from DC by then. Y’know.
Ugh.
Martin
@Miss Bianca: Who was the last felon elected president?