I promised another post on Rep Greg Casar (D-TX-35), the chair of the House Progressive Caucus for the next term. (Pramila Jayapul, the current chair, is term-limited.). Casar comes from a D+21 district along I-35 between Austin and San Antonio that contains parts of both cities. He was first elected in 2022.
Here’s a piece in the Texas Tribune about Casar. It highlights his support for the homeless in Austin, and how he lost a fight an initiated measure to make camping in the city illegal. In the piece, Casar re-iterates his opposition to that initiative, and reflects on how he could have done better in the fight. Casar started as a member of the Austin city council at age 25, which is pretty impressive.
Since the big dust-up in the comments was about Casar’s stand on trans rights, based on a paraphrase in a NBC News article, I went looking for his statements on trans rights. Here’s the page from his House website on that. He’s a member of the Equality Caucus. I also found an interview shortly before the election with Casar and Hasan Piker. Here’s the whole interview [YouTube], and the portion I’m quoting starts around the 21 minute mark. The context for it is Casar’s trip to Nevada to talk with Latino construction workers there:
Casar: They have had this message where the Democratic Party isn’t focused on them, even if their Congressperson has been there for them, even if we voted for the infrastructure bills that have created the construction jobs they’re working on. So how does that propaganda break through? I think we’re going to have this challenge…where people like Gregg Abbott, my governor, pick on LGBTQ youth. Do you decide you’re not going to stand up for LGBTQ youth because you don’t want a news story that distracts from the economic issues? No, I mean you’ve gotta do the right thing — trans young people have rights, we should be able to stand up for civil rights. But then at the same time we don’t want this distraction from the core economic issues these disaffected voters care about. I think that takes the pairing of the issues and saying why is it that this guy with all this power is picking on trans middle-schoolers? Isn’t that sick? Maybe he’s doing it because he’s trying to take money out of your pockets and not have you notice. I think it’s that connection, that piece, we have to do. Because we can’t just tell people, hey, don’t worry about what you see on TV. We need to make that connection for folks.
I can see how this would get paraphrased in stories in a way that sounds like Casar might be wobbling on trans rights, especially since the media narrative of Dems running away from trans rights is something the DC press wants to promote, and some Dems have definitely helped them. It’s the kind of “dog bites man” story that they crave (because the Progressive Caucus chair who went squishy on trans rights would be big news, since that caucus has always led on LGBTQ issues). But as far as I can tell, and I looked hard, Casar is a strong advocate of LGBTQ rights.
Biden just signed the Defense Authorization Act for 2025 (NDAA), which included the first ant-LGBTQ legislation since DADT and DOMA. It bans TriCare coverage for gender-affirming care to minors. The House Progressive Caucus came out against it — the trans healthcare ban was part of the reason. Here’s the roll call. I don’t see any Progressive Caucus members voting YEA, including Casar. I don’t know why the hell Dems like Colin Allred and Yadira Caraveo, who both lost elections, felt that one of their last votes had to be for the first bill to take away LGBTQ rights since the ’90s. These kinds of votes are the issue with trans rights in the Democratic Party, not the new Progressive Caucus chair.
Steve LaBonne
I mean, that may be a difficult message to pull off, but it’s a vital one to get people to understand. Why are they working so hard to get you to hate vulnerable people? Because they want you to be distracted while they screw you over six ways from Sunday. The economic issues and the war on trans people and immigrants aren’t separate at all, they’re the two halves of the shit sandwich Republicans offer you.
Betty Cracker
Thanks for doing the legwork on Cesar, MM. For what it’s worth, I think he’s correct about pairing the issues voters care about most with criticism of rightwing attacks on trans rights.
I suspect Repubs have successfully convinced many low-info voters that Dems spend most of their time trying to expand trans rights. Those voters may not even be hostile to that goal, but they might disagree with the focus, as seen through the distorted lens of wingnut media.
Thats the message of the Trump ad that went something like “he’s for you, she’s for they/them.”
cmorenc
Next up by the GOP: a proposed constitutional amendment parallelling the third’s against forced quartering of troops in people’s homes – no one shall be required to quarter trans people in their homes, work, military, or their daughter’s sports teams.
Baud
As someone who brought this up, my concern wasn’t with what’s in his heart — it’s with his implementation strategy. This is easy to say
and hard to do. What he’s saying is nothing more or less than what Dems in general have been saying for 20 years. Maybe he can come up with the secret sauce that’s alluded everyone else, but if he’s going to try something different, there’s always going to be a concern that he will need to be less “progressive” on trans (and other social) issues to achieve his objective.
different-church-lady
Oh no, everyone’s gonna form a circle again, aren’t they?
NobodySpecial
@different-church-lady: All the usual suspects would like that. The only question is if people refuse to attempt to kick the football this time.
Texas, though, I’m pretty much writing it off electorally for another few decades.
Barbara
@Steve LaBonne: They think they can buy you off by giving you someone to punch down. That’s the way it’s been for a long time.
Baud
@Barbara: Change “think” to “know” and I agree. It’s a highly successful strategy.
ETA: Unless you were referring to Steve specifically.
Suzanne
@Betty Cracker:
Yes this.
There’s plenty of people who genuinely do not care about trans issues enough to have a position on them at all. They’re really self-interested. But their rent went up 20% last year. They care about that a lot.
Raflw
I do not understand what happened to Caraveo. She also voted for the bill that would let the government cancel a nonprofit’s 501(c)3 status on thin evidence with a lousy, unaccountable appeal process. Who is advising her in her short lame duck season? Is she angling for some Third Way bullshit sinecure?
I’m frustrated that I donated to her multiple times if this is her farewell.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Baud: We begin by running our campaign (by which I mean our effort to persuade voters that our policies are right) 24/7/365 just like Republicans.
Steve LaBonne
@Barbara: There is a reason why we call Republicans the neo-Confederate party. This is the old old Bourbon planter strategy for getting the support of poor whites while screwing them over.
satby
Soonergrunt had a lot to say about Biden’s hand being forced to sign this bill on the sky place. Can’t link because I don’t have it on my phone, but his comments were pretty understandable.
different-church-lady
@@mistermix.bsky.social: I can’t comment that much!
kindness
Sure seems as if ‘some’ are trying to imply Democrats don’t support trans rights and beat up Democrats for it. Is that like the Gaza war folk who wouldn’t vote for Biden/Kamala because they were so pro war?
Having said that, demonizing trans people is the start not the end point of what they want. I figure if they’ll go after gay marriage next. Let’s face it much of the Republican voter base doesn’t think gay people should be able to peaceably exist.
Baud
@@mistermix.bsky.social: In that, we’re in agreement. But that’s not what was said in the excerpt, which was about the content of the message rather than persistence.
Maybe he’ll find a way to make it work. But the word he used was “distraction” and I think that’s a problematic word to use to describe what he wants to do.
different-church-lady
@kindness: If you’re gonna do foot-stomping on a human face — FOREVER, you gotta start somewhere.
different-church-lady
@Baud:
At best it was a poor choice.
different-church-lady
ANNOUNCEMENT: I have decided that the world consists of only two kinds of people: those who are benignly crazy and those who are maliciously crazy.
Baud
@different-church-lady: And I don’t necessarily want to fault him for not expressing himself with 100% precision. But it’s also not as if we haven’t encountered people who have argued we should put “social” issues on a backburner in order to focus our message on “economic” issues. So I think it’s worth asking the question of how this strategy, whatever it is, is expected to play out.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Raflw:
If she thinks she can win back that district, I sorta-kinda understand (but don’t excuse) the NDAA vote, since there’s a fair amount of military spending / retirees near/in her district, but I’m at a loss to explain the other vote.
Since I was in the Denver area around the election, I saw some of her ads. I wasn’t impressed with the quality of those. Don’t know much else about her.
different-church-lady
@Baud: Even the best politicians aren’t 100% mistake free in rhetoric. The enemy has developed an astonishing ability ability to turn even the slightest error into a massive wedge. We shouldn’t help them drive it in, but we do it all too often, because we don’t resist doing our own version of click-bait.
Another Scott
@satby:
I found this soonergrunt thread but I don’t know if it’s the one you’re thinking of.
Thanks for the pointer.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
100%. I don’t write Casar of because of this interview, and would oppose anyone who would based on this. Hell, if he’s the one who breaks through to people, I’ll consider him a hero.
@mistermix.bsky.social
Here’s the quote on LGBTQ from The Texas Tribune piece linked in the post above:
This is the message, whether a word or two is different, that Casar is sending out.
p.a.
Why can’t it be as easy as repeating Niemöller’s “first they came for…” to these backsliding Dem voters?!?! It’s so fucking obvious (just to some!?!?!) that anti-trans is just the tip of the spear!?!?!
“So, you don’t think you’re on the target list?”
JFC
Baud
@@mistermix.bsky.social: That’s fine, but it honestly doesn’t sound a lot different than what I have traditionally heard Democrats say. I don’t see anything special in that content (but perhaps his delivery will be more effective.)
different-church-lady
@@mistermix.bsky.social: As I recall it, the objection last time this came up was to the idea that LGBTQ was being reduced to a utility, rather than something worthy of support in itself.
It seems to me what Cesar is trying to get at is that we need to multi-task. But it’s easier said than done, and (as we’re seeing) it’s not even easily said.
dc
My rep, Valerie Fouchee, who was accused of being a puppet of AIPAC, voted no. All the times I’ve checked on her votes, she’s done the right thing (doesn’t mean she always has, just that when I’ve checked on specific votes, she’s done the right thing). So much for the noisy “progressives” who railed against her during the primaries.
Suzanne
LOL, Sir Vivek of Dooge dropped a hilarious screed on X about how American culture venerates mediocrity and that we need to change the culture to produce more nerds.
I am enjoying the idea of all the white boy sports freaks reading that and being like, “Uhhhhh, we don’t want to go to college, we just want to make more money”.
Baud
By way of hypothetical, the Republicans propose a bill to raise the federal minimum wage but tie it to draconian anti-trans measures. I would hope the Dems would vote no, but that’s not a situation where we can go to the working class Trump voter and say the Republicans were trying to pick your pocket by distracting you.
different-church-lady
@Baud:
Yeah, that’s a hypothetical alright…
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@@mistermix.bsky.social:
Her district is one that was deliberately drawn to be competitive. She barely won when it was created.
Her ads and her general tone was Repub-Lite. There are only about 32K “civilian veterans” in a district of 740K.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
Like, most people now live in states with higher minimum wage than the federal minimum wage. The Republicans can do something pretty harmless to jam Dems. But it could be some other issue. That’s ultimately what the NDAA was, although that’s a more complicated bill than my hypo.
Mai Naem mobile ¹
@Betty Cracker: I’ve had a couple of normie liberal friends say the Dems talk too much about trans/lgbtq+ even abortion. And it is definitely not that they’re anti-trans/homophobic/anti-choicers. Their attitudes are more like ‘yes, we agree with you, please stop harping on it, got it, can we please move on?’
Professor Bigfoot
Ah, but here’s the problem— so long as the Democratic Party pushes for civil rights for all, the harder they will be pushed back on.
I keep going back to the Compromise of 1877– standing up for the rights of marginalized people in this country is a losing proposition; and Democrats will get the WWC again shortly after they dump any idea of protecting the civil rights of anyone who is not a straight white Christian man.
different-church-lady
@Professor Bigfoot: Or shortly after the Next Great Depression.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
Not even FDR could be aggressive when it came to civil rights. He did a couple of minor but notable things, but civil rights were always on the back burner.
ETA: It is said that Obama’s approval dropped and never fully recovered when he defended the Louis Gates incident, when Obama criticized the cops.
The Other Bob
Us old folks will remember when pre-Clinton Democrats supported things like tariffs to protect the U.S. manufacturing that still existed. Back then the Republican’s would scream about Democrats protectionism would destroy the economy. Oh how things have flipped.
When Clinton signed NAFTA the Democrats lost Congress for the first time in decades.
Today is a different world and widespread tariffs on products that are no longer made in America now will actually cause economic hardship. But some tariffs work and messaging can reflect that. Nobody will suffer because of Biden’s 100% tariff on Chinese made electric cars. But without it, I could see Chinese cars damaging critical manufacturing.
We can’t be as nuanced in our messaging as I wrote above, but we cannot simply slam tariffs when they are so damn popular and when used properly effective.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Is there a red state with a minimum wage higher than the federal where elected Repubs (rather than citizen ballot initiatives) raised the state rate? I don’t know for sure, but probably not?
As I understand it, the NDAA’s anti-trans provision affected healthcare coverage for gender-affirming care for minors. I think that sucks, but I also suspect the public isn’t there yet (i.e., in favor of coverage for minors), so yeah, that was a successful wedge.
It’s also super-narrow. Maybe the way to counter it is to NOT ignore the issue but ask why Governor/Senator/President Hogwallop is obsessed with restricting the decisions of a tiny percentage of the population instead of lowering the price of eggs or whatever, as Cesar suggests?
I know Dems have pushed back on Repub bullshit on the issue to some extent, but it seems like they choose to ignore it a lot too. I understand why. But maybe you have to pour resources into that fight if Repubs are.
I can’t tell you how many times i saw that Trump ad featuring Harris talking to someone at the ACLU about gender-affirming care for undocumented immigrants in prison. It practically ran on loop.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@The Other Bob:
Exactly. The EU learned the hard way and finally took steps when they saw what their lassitude was getting them:
https://www.csis.org/blogs/trustee-china-hand/slamming-brakes-eu-votes-impose-tariffs-chinese-evs
Here in the states, GM is starting delivery of the Equinox EV at the $35K trim line, making it a real game changer in our market. This time next year, they are scheduled to rollout the next-Gen Bolt which will probably be around $30K.
Sister Golden Bear
@Mai Naem mobile ¹:
I’m happy to make a deal with these folks — ensure us trans people actually have full rights, and we’ll shut up about getting them. But hey, our rights are a “distraction”…
FWIW, I’m not gonna shit all over Casar because his heart seems to be in the right place, but “distraction” was an exceedingly poor choice of words, especially given the long sordid history of Democratic strategists treating civil rights of LGBTQ+ people in exactly that way, just they’d done — and still do, looking at you, Bernie Bros — with the rights other minority groups. Often explicitly calling our rights a “distraction” from more important matters. Pepperidge Farms ain’t the only who remembers.
different-church-lady
@Baud: No, I’m not saying we get both WWC and progress. I’m saying they fuck up the economy bad enough even the WWC will come crawling back.
different-church-lady
@Mai Naem mobile ¹: The media talks about it a shit ton more than Democrats do.
Baud
@The Other Bob: Bush signed NAFTA. Legislation was passed under Clinton to ratify NAFTA, and it received more Republican support in Congress than Dem support.
Professor Bigfoot
@Mai Naem mobile ¹: I don’t mean to insult your friends; but I see their attitude as, as good as it gets from American white people.
The rights of anyone other than themselves are always of a secondary or even tertiary concern; it’s like they cannot see the interconnectedness of all our communities– or even understand how Pastor Niemöller’s apply to them, too.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Don’t know. I agree, probably not.
Last I saw, not all care. I believe the NDAA bans surgeries, but not things like puberty blockers.
Many people say Dem TV ads are a waste of money, but I note that Republicans run ads too. I don’t know what the right answer is.
Professor Bigfoot
@different-church-lady: I think in such an eventuality we’re more likely to see relatively widespread political violence before there’s any kind of political rapprochement.
They’ve been stockpiling their weapons and hawking their hatred for decades, now; this would be their reason to become the “all American heroes they think themselves to be.
Slobodan Milosevich would understand.
different-church-lady
@Professor Bigfoot: That’s nonsense: we’ll be getting the political violence even without the Next Great Depression.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Betty Cracker:
https://www.ncsl.org/labor-and-employment/state-minimum-wages
That site doesn’t say if red states implemented a state minimum wage law by ballot initiative but going down the list, most red states that have a state minimum wage that rises via some index, yup, those were passed by ballot initiative.
satby
@Another Scott: yes, that’s the one. Thanks for linking to it.
Villago Delenda Est
Yet again, my nym.
Soprano2
@different-church-lady: I find this tendency interesting in light of all the criticism I’ve heard of Harris that she was “too scripted”. The problem is Democrats can’t win in this arena – if they aren’t scripted they risk the chance of using a less-than-ideal word and being raked over the coals for it by activists and other Dems, if they’re too scripted to avoid this problem they sound wooden to the average person. TCFG doesn’t have this problem because his supporters know he lies all the time so they rarely get upset about the things he says. I think this is part of what some people mean when they say Dems shouldn’t listen to activists as much as they do.
trollhattan
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Shocked yet not surprised we still have 20 states retaining the federal minimum wage.
Nearly all of the Confederacy plus most of the Usual RS Suspects, but what the hell, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania? What’s your excuse?
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/Map_of_US_minimum_wage_by_state.svg/1920px-Map_of_US_minimum_wage_by_state.svg.png
Gaming it out a little, raising the federal minimum would impact a lot of folks, given just Texas, Georgia and North Carolina comprise 50 million+.
trollhattan
@Soprano2:
“Scripted” means not stumbling, nor lying, and certainly no wordless swaying to God Bless America while humping the flag.
Baud
@trollhattan: Sounds pretty wooden.
Another Scott
@Baud:
Horse’s mouth – Warning – 1813 page .PDF:
I don’t know if that’s the final language.
1) The prohibition is only under TriCare. But presumably most families in the military cannot afford to have multiple types of health insurance, but presumably a non-military spouse’s insurance could be used?
2) Lawyers can argue about anything, so maybe treatments that do not fit the “could result in sterilization” restriction would be approved no matter what the RWNJs think?
10 USC 1079 is the part of the US Code that talks about healthcare for minors that was modified.
To be clear, it’s yet another example of RWNJs punching down and it’s bad and will hurt people.
IANAL.
FWIW.
Best wishes,
Scott.
BlueGuitarist
@trollhattan:
There’s no excuse, but the explanation is Republicans hate workers, and in PA republicans control the state senate, in WI republicans control the state legislature, and, as in other R states, prevent raising the minimum wage, though in some states it can be done by ballot initiative.
Villago Delenda Est
The cruelty is the point.
artem1s
GOP has been doing this since forever. The Congressional Black Caucus wants a bill to help control crime in their neighborhoods? Dems pass it and when the GOP misuses the three strikes provision then Dems are painted as cops. If they don’t pass it they are both soft on crime and don’t care about keeping Black communities safe from guns and drug lords. Colin Powell and the joint chiefs encourage a passage of a bill letting gays serve in the military and the GOP sticks us with DADT and paints Dems as being pedos and bestiality friendly or not standing up for LGBTQ.
Don’t vote to hold Saddam Hussein responsible for amassing WMD and your soft on terrorism. Vote to keep him in line and you’re a War Hawk who wants to sent middle class kids to die in a foreign war. Ditto any action on Gaza or anywhere in the middle east.
Pass Obamacare or vote to extend it you’re voting for a tax give away. Vote against ACA and your stealing healthcare from senior citizens.
Doomed if you do doomed if you don’t.
Sad part is when someone like Bernie does it to stay in a race for a few more campaign donations to buy another house or when someone’s legislation history is used by Dems to knock someone like Harris or Warren or Biden out of a nomination race because they have no credentials of their own to win a race.
BlueGuitarist
@Betty Cracker:
loved your 2024 xmas ornament on blue sky!
Leto
DoD was already trying to move families out of red states into the single digit blue states that didn’t have this type of state level shit legislation, but here’s the federal Project 2025 version already in action. Part of the reason why you’re just not going to anything like even a centrist style DoD is because everything associated with it actively pushes people away. And we’re not even talking the squadron/flight/shop level bullshit members have to deal with trying to get family care for their dependents.
But at least the black mold, that Elizabeth Warren included in her military section of policy to address, wasn’t touched the last four years, and continues to be a problem for thousands of families.
Melancholy Jaques
@Betty Cracker:
Not just low-info voters. The Republican messaging to white voters since Reagan has been “Democrats care more about [people you dislike or who make you uncomfortable] than they care about you.”
Unless there is a financial collapse while they are in office, it is very easy to campaign as a Republican. Same campaign and it is all year every year.
Another Scott
Some good things get done when the RWNJs can’t figure out a way to punch down about it.
Doktor Zoom at Wonkette:
Good, good.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Melancholy Jaques
@The Other Bob:
That had more to do with the post Civil Rights Act realignment than NAFTA.
Leto
@Another Scott:
1) you’re not authorized to use any form of insurance other than Tricare at military facilities. So the family stationed in Okinawa? Germany? Even if you’re in the states, most of the enlisted spouses don’t work. They’re stay at home parents. The ones who do work are usually part time. Part of the reason they joined the military was for the cheaper/affordable healthcare. That’s one of the main recruiting points we use.
I’ve spoken about this before, but they’ve already fucked over the retirement system. The healthcare system for us has always been high on the chopping block (“you gotta pay more/your fair share” has been used since the mid-90s to justify increasing costs). They’re doing their best to shrink manpower via technology/eliminating benefits, and in the end they’re going to get the military they’ve created.
different-church-lady
@Melancholy Jaques:
The irony is: it’s true.
The reason it’s true because THEY’RE THE ONES WE NEED PROTECT FROM YOUR BIGOTRY.
Another Scott
@Leto: Thanks for the correction and elaboration.
Yes, it’s another example of them trying to break the government.
:-(
Best wishes,
Scott.
Leto
Here’s gift links to two WaPo articles I read recently:
For some Latinos, ‘prosperity gospel’ led them to Trump
After backing Trump, low-income voters hope he doesn’t slash their benefits
Both towns are here in PA (Allentown and New Castle).
different-church-lady
@Leto: Is the WaPo aware that there are 49 other states?
Betty Cracker
@Melancholy Jaques: I mentioned low-info voters because, unfortunately, those are the votes we have to chase. Neither party’s base is really gettable except under extreme circumstances and realignments. Neither is a majority either. It’s the un- or weakly-affiliated nimrods, common clay of the New West, you know, etc.
Leto
@different-church-lady: Probably not. I’m sure their US coverage should just be renamed to “Pennsylvania,” and they should change their name to the “Pennsylvania Post”: PaPo from here on out.
@Another Scott: It is. Watching it actively to the military while I served was something else. Getting people to put 1+1 together on why things like the Auto Hobby Shop program was eliminated (place where you could take your vehicle and work on it; they provided all the tools you could need, space, lifts, all for like $5 an hour which was amazing/affordable) and how Republicans/conservatives did that… I might as well have been talking to the oil filter I’d just taken off my car. /shrug
suzanne
@Leto: @different-church-lady: PA is exotic to New Yorkers! There’s still ethnic white people! And Breezewood!
Baud
Pennsylvania is the new Ohio.
Baud
Dupe
Professor Bigfoot
@different-church-lady: Point taken, and I kinda hate that you’re right.
Betty Cracker
@BlueGuitarist: Thanks! I’ll probably share it here too in an open thread sometime soon. Best ornament ever.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, South Korea’s legislature isn’t messing around. Yonhap:
Interesting times…
Best wishes,
Scott.
Sloegin
The Rs spent nearly a quarter of a billion dollars this election cycle on anti-trans ads, and also somehow simultaneously convinced voters that it was the Ds (who said nearly nothing in defense of trans rights) that *they* were the problem and talking it up too much. That’s the power of giant amounts of money and a compliant media.
Kudos to Adam Smith (an otherwise conservative D and sponsor of the defense bill) voting against it because of the rights stripped out, rotten tomatoes to Senators Murray and Cantwell for voting for it.
different-church-lady
@Professor Bigfoot: You and me both.
different-church-lady
@Sloegin: In the MAGA mind, any amount of discussion regarding the rights of an oppressed group is too much.
sab
@different-church-lady: Oh come on. You are agreeing with yourself.
I also agree, but still.
different-church-lady
@sab:
Yes, and I don’t care for it.
sab
@different-church-lady: Whst is “it”?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Leto:
Is this a slam on Biden?
Another Scott
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I don’t read it that way.
The latest version of Warren’s legislation seems to be S 5215. The text seems pretty benign, but it prevents NDAs and similar things so landlords can’t refuse to tell prospective tenants about black mold and similar issues with their properties.
It apparently died in the Armed Services Committee.
Corrections welcome.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Another Scott:
Thanks
MomSense
The only success I had on this issue when I was doing voter persuasion calls was to say that we Mainers(insert your state here) don’t care what people do in their own homes. We believe in individual liberty and privacy and the government needs to stay the hell out of it.
It’s not perfect obviously, but I’m not sure if there is a more inclusive message that would be accepted by swing voters now.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@MomSense:
Why do you assume that?
MomSense
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I’m not assuming that. Just reporting what worked in my phone calls. It was soul crushing.
Victor Matheson
The congressman’s staff reached out to me in October regarding stadium financing and whether spending a bunch of money in his district for a new arena was a good idea. I was extremely impressed with the aide I spoke with as well as just the very idea that a congresspersons office would actually be interested in getting the right information about the insanity of sports subsidies.
Jinchi
The man who signed the Afghanistan withdrawal agreement now wants to punish officers who managed the withdrawal.