In the paragraph below, Joyce White Vance takes a generous view of some of the people who voted for the First Felon, in what I think is a pretty fair description of the people who voted for him that are potentially reachable.
If all of this is starting to make you feel hopeful, you’re not alone. It’s been difficult to watch the absence of effective opposition to Trump’s first week in office, as he ignored and openly violated the law as only someone who thinks he’s immune from all consequences can. If the people who believe in our government, our democracy, are willing to come together and hold the line, what can’t we do together?
Americans, it turns out, love their democracy. They may have voted for lower egg prices. They may have regrettaby fallen for the blather of a man who said he cared about them. They may have tuned out and ignored this last election.
Do I think that some of the people who said they voted the way they did because of the cost of eggs are actually racist or misogynist or just plain hateful, but didn’t exactly want to admit that out loud? Yes, I do! But I think there were also people who actually think the president can control a whole bunch of stuff they have no control over. And for some, the cost of eggs might have been shorthand for my rent is too fucking high and I don’t have enough money to live.
I’m sure that some of those people really love their country and either weren’t paying attention or thought concerns about fascism were overblown. Hell, some of them probably couldn’t even define fascism, so how could they see it blooming right in from of their eyes?
Joyce goes on to write:
But the federal workforce now understands the assignment and the importance of the moment. And they’re going to educate their friends, families, and neighbors in the process.
The Marxist cry, “Workers of the World, Unite,” is more than a slogan. It’s an assessment of the power workers have together in community. It was echoed in the union movement in this country at the turn of the last century and beyond, as workers understood they could improve their conditions by standing together. Last week’s now-rescinded OMB order (we discussed it last night) freezing spending directed federal agencies to abandon programs that supported “Marxism.” That part of the memo tossed political red meat to the GOP base, but it also revealed that Donald Trump is afraid of the power we wield together as citizens; he’s concerned about what might happen if Americans mobilize for democracy.
In reality, what Trump targeted with the “Marxist” label, along with “woke” and “Green New Deal,” expresses a fear of basic grassroots support for the fundamentals of democracy. Pay attention to what Trump 2.0 demonizes—if they’re afraid of Americans working together and afraid of the federal workforce, let that be a beacon that lights the way.
We’re in this together,
We truly are in this together, even though some of us are more at risk than others.
If you’re one of the folks who are most at risk, no one expects you to take a generous view. You’ve got to take care of yourselves and your peeps. But the rest of us can’t afford not to.
Here’s a word problem for you. I am one of those people who always loved math word problems, but if you weren’t, don’t worry, this one’s not too complicated.
There are 100 marbles. We have to get 52 of them in order for the world to not burn down. We have 35 already in our pocket, and they aren’t going anywhere. 35 are already safe in the pocket of the other side. 5 marbles are going to be taken off the table by evil bureaucrats removing voting rights.
Hint: We need 17 more marbles of the 30 marbles that aren’t in the pocket of either side. But 5 will be removed by the evil bureaucrats, so we really need 17 of the remaining 25.
To put it another way, we can only afford to lose 8 of the remaining 25. Those aren’t great odds.
If we aren’t willing to try for the ones who tuned out, the ones who weren’t discerning enough to see the lies, the ones who thought the best choice was turning over the table, then we are all but handing the ultimate win to the other side.
I started following politics in high school.
Even so, there was a time in my life that I read the New York Times because I believed they just stated the facts and didn’t spin the stories. Was that ever true? I have no idea, but I’m a smart person, and that’s what I believed.
Even so, there was a time when I watched all the Sunday shows and thought I was well-informed.
I followed politics for decades, and cared very much about who was elected President without paying attention to which party controlled the House and the Senate.
In 2008 I respected Tim Russert.
There was a time when I danced with a third party candidate because I thought we needed a change. I believe Betty Cracker did, too.
I wasn’t stupid. Or evil. I was young. I was probably better informed than most. But I didn’t see the whole picture.
Are we gong to write off all the future WaterGirls and Betty Crackers? Or do we want them on our side?
Old School
We want them on our side. The trouble is that these people (the people who held Democrats responsible for higher prices) by definition aren’t paying attention. The best hope for this group seems to be that the blame incumbent Republicans for high prices next time around.
Leto
What the small, sliver of hope I still have is that more people recognize this. In the Environmental Philosophy class I’m taking, we’re studying about Native philosophy versus colonial/Christian philosophy in regards to how we view the environment. The message that keeps being hammered is the interconnected relationship we all have with each other (Native philosophy). A lot of the kids really connect with it, understand it, and I hope they carry it forward. I hope that more normies get this. Big hope, I know. Hope isn’t a strategy, yeah yeah.
DebG
Thank you for the Joyce Vance clips–that’s really helpful. My Indivisible group meets this afternoon and I will share Vance’s perspective with them.
Eural Joiner
I teach a high school current events class and that really nails my experience – 17/18 year old students don’t really know what the president can or can’t do and expect him to have a lot more “magic wand” power than he does. Now just extrapolate that to a 30+ adult who never really did anything with civics beyond high school and you have a broad range of the voting public – not necessarily racist/misogynist/fascist, just woefully ignorant and uninformed.
ExPatExDem
Rich people have always had class consciousness.
It’s why they spend so much time and money getting the working class to fight against itself.
Steve LaBonne
I voted for John Anderson in 1980 and was a centrist Bill Clintonite after that. It was George W. Bush and the Iraq war that completed my political education. I definitely believe that enough people to provide solid electoral victories are going to be woken up by the inevitable disasters of the coming 4 years. I wish we could get there without the disasters, but since we won’t be able to prevent most of them, it’s on all of us to make sure the blame will be placed where it belongs.
ArchTeryx
There’s only one real problem with the math word problem analogy, and I say this as a freelance math and science tutor. (Don’t worry, it’s not my usual pendantics).
The other side has 35 marbles in their pocket, and intends to take everything on the table, AND your marbles, at gunpoint. Or just kill you and take them. THAT is the part that has a lot us vulnerable people afraid. I have a Flock full of terrified LBTGQ+ people waiting for the hammer to drop on them.
My activism for now is trying to comfort, love, and protect those people, and help them build connections with each other so that when – not if, but when – the hammer drops, we have a plan ready to go. The Black Lion I sometimes refer to is an in-joke, but it also a symbol of resistance, like the safety pins were last time around. I’m not letting my family be taken away from me except through my dead body, and that’s the truth. If I don’t defend them, I have nothing left to live for.
John S.
Excellent post, WaterGirl!
I really appreciate the nuance in your analysis, and agree emphatically with the thrust of your conclusions.
My only quibble is that we focus on low information voters or those who are registered Democrats on the sidelines.
I have come to believe that MAGA and those who are swimming in their media ecosystem are beyond redemption.
John S.
@Steve LaBonne:
That explains a lot! I kid, I kid.
One of my best friends cast his first presidential vote for Ross Perot in ‘92. I suspect his political journey is rather similar to yours.
cmorenc
A very important question for each of us is: wheneve we encounter someone face-to-face who was (or was likely) a Trump voter who is now expressing doubts or skepticism about Trump, how do we respond? Is our mode supportively persuasive of someone seeming to see the light, or more “how could you not know who / what you were voting for, asshole?” Do we go more toward good cop mode or bad cop mode in dealing with them. “Good cop/bad cop” is just a metaphor of our attitude, not that we have any power to police their thoughts.
Old Man Shadow
Not to rain on your parade, but I don’t think a lack of information or messaging from Democrats is the problem.
ArchTeryx
@ExPatExDem: They have class consciousness because there’s a whole lot more of us than there are of them, and they KNOW that if the working class ever united, they would all end up like Brian Thompson. They may have all the money, but the working class, for good or ill, has all the guns. So it’s life or death for them to keep those guns pointing at each other, and not upward.
ExPatExDem
For those talking about “I did that stickers” for anything that’s expensive currently. Some clever person is getting started already
Bollocks. My photo didn’t post. :-(
It’s Elon Musk doing his sieg heil salute with the caption “Higher egg prices? I bet you did NAZI that coming.”
RevRick
@Old School: The GOP owns every bit of it now. Make them own it. Every single chance you get. They hung inflation around Biden and Harris’ necks. Hang everything that goes wrong around theirs. Not just the Felon47 and his gang, but the GOP Congress too. Write letters to the editor that essentially carry the message, “‘Splain yourself, Lucy!”
lowtechcyclist
Totally a digression, but:
About eight or ten miles before Charlottesville as you’re heading south on U.S. 29, there used* to be a big billboard for the Woodmen of the World. Every time I passed it, I’d think, “Woodmen of the world, unite!”
For some reason, it took me years before seeing the (retrospectively) obvious followup line: “You have nothing to lose but your chainsaws.”
*For all I know, that billboard might still be there. It’s just a long time since I headed down that road.
Wyliecoat
@ExPatExDem: going to steal that tagline and make one for myself! Thanks!
RevRick
Gird up your loins, fellow Jackals! Is truth and justice on our side? Then we need to act like it.
The Democrats in DC have no power to stop whatever fuckery Felon47 has planned. They can only oppose. Wishing they would do more is futile. Instead, we need to focus on the long haul of repair and rebuild.
John S.
@ExPatExDem:
My wife shared a photo of that sticker with me the other day. It’s perfect.
Librettist
It’s the vision thing.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@cmorenc: My attitude is “you need to get to work helping to fix what you helped break, which includes the lives of a lot of people I care about.”
japa21
@RevRick: My loins are girded. Truth and justice are on our side. Unfortunately, they only matter if we, somehow, make them matter. And “somehow” is the real issue.
RevRick
@ArchTeryx: The response to death threats should be, “So you’re a murderer. Only filthy, evil, lowlife scum are murderers. Thank you for identifying yourself.”
Geminid
Magdi Jacobs, aka Mangy Jay, has recounted her experience volunteering for Ralph Nader’s presidential campaign in 2000. She was in high school and too young to vote.
It took Jacobs only a few years to realize her mistake, and since then she has become a very committed and articulate advocate for the Democratic Party.
Your marble analogy is a good one and I apply it to the 2026 midterms. We can make a real difference by retaking the House, but I think we’ll have to hold all the battleground districts we now have in addition to adding to them.
This is why I push back on various attempts here to disparage and stigmatize purple district Democrats, individually and as a group. Also, it’s why I highlight our individual Representatives whenever possible, especially the ones who have flipped red seats
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@John S.:
I always come down to that as well and can look back 20 years to see how, in many ways, the “beyond redemption” crowd hasn’t changed much. We’re not here to debate them as they’re not gonna engage us in good faith. We’re here to stop them…
While trying to better reach out and have policies that better speak to low info voters and registered Dems that look askance at aspects of the party, throw up their hands and go “why bother?”
WTFGhost
Obviously, we don’t want to lose folks who care and can be guided.
The problem that keeps hitting me, is, people are extremely cynical. Tell them Trump is a crook, they really don’t care; “wasn’t Biden a crook too?”
They’re like the dwarves in Lewis’ The Final Battle, so bitter and locked in themselves, they couldn’t look out, and see that there were good things present. And, eff the christian allegory if you want – the idea that people would lose heaven over being too doubtful bothered me, for that matter! – but think of the basis, of where they are.
Look: of all the people who should be a rampant misanthrope, I’m one of the top dogs, and even I know that love is the most wonderful, powerful thing in this world, *precisely* because I see what its lack does.
It leads to cruelty and quiet hate – the kind of hate where you wouldn’t go queer bashing, but you’re not too upset if you meet a queer basher.
And somehow, the goal is to shine a light on all that ugly, while shining a better, brighter light on something beautiful. How to do that? Beats me, I’m the guy with the broken brain.
The reason for this, is, revolutions don’t happen when things are sufficiently bad – they happen when people have hope for something better. That hope doesn’t have to be too solid, either – lots of people fought, and died, for an ephemeral idea of “freedom” in the Revolutionary War.
RevRick
@japa21: Find an issue you care about, and doing something constructive about it. Take a long haul, multi-generational view if you have to. And find your community of like-minded people in real life so you can support each other in the effort.
catclub
If you look at the elections of 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024, it is clear they are awokened for about 18 months max.
Fair Economist
Oh it can be worse than supprting a third party candidate! I used to be a libertarian. Then ENRON turned off my electricity.
People do get better. And the leopard eating faces moments of the next 4 year’s are going to educate a lot of future Fair Economists.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@japa21:
I’m basically posting this daily as we end up having commentary that dovetails perfectly into it:
Black, female, Dem in a blood red state who talks the talk and walks the walk. An example, and then some, of girding loins.
Geminid
@RevRick: Yes, we need to focus on the long haul. But I think we really need to focus on the 2026 midterms. Winning the House in 2018 was a real turning point in the fight against Trump and Trumpism, I think, and we need to make November, 2026 another inflection point.
Steve LaBonne
@RevRick: [insert plug for liberal churches here]
lowtechcyclist
@RevRick:
Opposing is all I expect. Nominees that have no business occupying the offices they’re nominated for should get ‘No’ votes from all 47 Dem Senators. Grade them the same way they’d have graded Kamala’s nominees, not on a curve.
WaterGirl
@Old Man Shadow: My sister is totally disengaged until about 45 minutes before each election.
Dems could message perfectly all day every day and it would never reach her.
catclub
@Steve LaBonne: can someone clarify in the girding loins, whether you mean the muscles around your kidneys, or your thighs? I always wonder which.
Fair Economist
I will point out there are some breathtaking learning opportunities coming. Charles Gaba calculated a couple in PA making $90K will see their ACA insurance premiums increase $33,000 next year.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Geminid:
The only way to prevent the Trumpanzees from completely ripping *all* the wiring out of the gubmint will be to win the House in 2026. Otherwise, he’ll be able to get everybody and everything in place to do just that.
The only reason Dubya was thwarted from some pretty disastrous shit regarding gutting the federal government was us retaking the House in 07. If he hadn’t been so hell-bent on going into Iraq in the first term, he would have done just that.
WaterGirl
@ExPatExDem: Only front-pagers can add images to comments, so that’s why yours didn’t show up.
NotMax
@
Damn. Wrong month to send my electric loin girder to the shop for refurbishment. Had a coupon about to expire.
//
WaterGirl
@cmorenc:
Our mode most definitely needs to be supportive, especially if we ever want them to listen to us. Which we do!
Telling someone they were an idiot or an asshole is not going to endear us to them.
I would respond with something that keeps them open to talking to me in the future. (subliminal message: we are on the same side). Like:
“I know, it’s so frustrating, he lied to everyone”
“Now we know he can’t be trusted.”
“I wonder what else he lied about.”
sixthdoctor
LAC
I do not think that anyone is willfully writing off your future versions, but the understanding that is being asked for is a two way street. That it requires listening to voices that challenge you and having humility in learning more. My 20 year old self is much different than my – ahem – older self. What I was so sure of is not the case anymore. It is not easy to admit that the learning never stops. And by the way, those voices that challenge you are on the same side.
NotMax
Ah crap. Fix.
@japa21
Damn. Wrong month to send my electric loin girder to the shop for refurbishment. Had a coupon about to expire.
//
schrodingers_cat
@LAC: Demanding grace from others that you refuse to extend yourself is a characteristic of the privileged.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
The Reductress has surpassed the Onion as political satire:
https://reductress.com/post/joy-is-an-act-of-resistance-says-white-woman-who-engages-in-no-other-acts-of-resistance/
Loin Girding = Joy!
JustRuss
Some of them are paying attention. But the people they pay attention to are lying to them.
UncleEbeneezer
Job number one, imo is making it clear to the future Watergirls, Bettys and UncleE’s (I also idiotically voted for Nader before wising up) that NO, there is nothing progressive, constructive or admirable about holding a lit match and gasoline next to the wooden structure of everything that matters and threatening to burn it all down for the sake of Gaza, Student Loans, Issue X and encouraging people not to vote, vote third party or parroting BothSides bullshit. So long as we defend that bullshit it will continue to plague us and throw elections to Fascists. The assignment was crystal fucking clear in 2024: elect Dems or else. The Naders/Steins/Cornel Wests/Mehdi Hasans etc. of the world hate the Dem Coalition and purposefully draw people away from it. It’s what they do EVERY TIME! We need to stop pretending that their bullshit is virtuous and harmless just because they cloak it in progressive, social justice language or in the name of some cause we agree with. They are not on our team.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: @RevRick:
We definitely have to focus on the midterms. IF we think in terms of 2028 it’s too late, we’re screwed.
Think building blocks.
First block:
Every single fucking special election between now and 2026.
That may get us an extra seat or two, or keep us from losing a seat or two. This positions us for 2026.
Second block:
The midterms in 2026.
If we gained ground in the House thru special elections, then we don’t have as far to go to take back the House in 2026. Or maybe the two years of pain will help us take back the House in 2026 anyway. But we can’t count one that, so every special election counts.
For the Senate in 2026. Can we get from 47 to 51 in 2026? I don’t know, maybe not, but we have to try. If we do, awesome. If we don’t, we still have to gain ground because if we gain even 1 Senate seat, it’s 48- 52. With 2 seats, it’s 49-51. Then it takes fewer R defections to keep a bill from passing. And we position ourselves in the best possible place for Senate elections in 2028.
Third block:
Presidential election, House and Senate in 2028.
Ruckus
This is not a small country, with a not all that small population. We have 50 sub governments under the federal system – called states. We basically have a two party system so there are going to be differences between what those 2 sides see as correct government/governing. We have a system that wants to give as much space (for lack of a better word) to the participants in this country because most of the systems of government when this one was founded gave most/all the power to the leaders, no matter if they were chosen or took the position by force or position of royalty. And it works because of the people, for the people and how’s that – by the people. But over the years some of that power structure has become a bit more powerful – it had to because of the shear number of people and the different sides of their views. It is still the country it was founded to be but not all the people appreciate the structure and voice of the people. And there is a hell of a lot more money involved in every aspect of living today than 200 or more yrs ago. And more structure to the concept of living because of the shear number of us living and of how we can live now. We may all still be humans but life today is a hell of a lot different, even if it is still humans living. Hell it’s a lot different in the lives of everyone alive today. Think of what citizens can do today that we could not just a few decades ago, like what we are doing here, now. Think of how things are made today that was beyond the imagination of most anyone, or how different life is – even in the lifetime of some still with us today. Our system still works but there are far more people who enjoy a far more comfortable life. Hell – there are far more people – and not all of them have anywhere near the comfort level and power of many others. The structure is still good, but some have enough money and power to abuse how things work for them – and do. It is after all – humanity.
We likely have to look at this country in a somewhat different way considering how much different life is for so many and that those with far more than enough money can still be greedy beyond any need, and how much different life can be for far more people on the other monetary side.
Geminid
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Because so many Congressional districts are gerrymander, there will be only 30 or even fewer “in play” next year. This will be like trench warfare.
My district, the Virginia 7th, will be a “must hold.” Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans’ coastal 2nd CD will be a pickup target. She was able to knock out Elaine Luria out in 2022, but her winning margin was less than 4%.
There are a lot of active and retired miltary personnel there, plus civilian federal employees. They might not like what they see over the next year and half, and a more dynamic Democrat than we ran last year could take back the 2nd. I’d like to see Elaine Luria try, but I think we’ll nominate someone good if she chooses not to.
How’s it looking for former Rep. Caraveo’s Colorado seat? That’s one I think we need to take back, and can.
Quinerly
This live statement of Trump has to be seen to be believed.
He is blaming DEI on the crash.
And speculating on what happened. “I have helicopters.” Talking about lot about “height.”
Get ready….the pilot of the helicopter or someone connected with this who is not the American pilot is going to be a DEI hire….I will make book on that.
brantl
The dumb old fuck is now on the air lying about everything he can related to the FAA.
FelonyGovt
It would be nice to figure out some way to distinguish a naive and/or undereducated persuadable (probably younger) person, and a person irrevocably infected by Fox News / MAGA brain rot, because I want the latter out of my life.
But I agree that my knee jerk reaction “if you voted for Trump fuck you, you deserve all the pain you’re going to get” is ultimately not helpful.
Steve LaBonne
Girding your loins means pulling the bottom of your long robe up between your legs and knotting it to keep it in place. Because it’s hard to fight in a robe that trails almost to the ground.
hells littlest angel
As long as it doesn’t require any effort.
H.E.Wolf
“Do something constructive” – ooh, ooh, I’ve got one! Anyone want to join me?
PostcardsToVoters.org is writing for the next several weeks, for a March 18 election: Judge Susan Crawford is running for a position on the WI Supreme Court. https://www.crawfordforwi.com/about
Sign up here:
[email protected]
WaterGirl
@LAC: Yep. There’s a big difference between challenging and attacking.
LAC
@schrodingers_cat: I see what you are saying there. But I think that it is not across the board the case. There are a lot of people that I have encountered in my life who I did not have to spend hours and hours trying for them to see that their backgrounds create blind spots. They know and are willing to hear what has to be said. And then there are people who I thought would get it, who will spout all the right platitudes and let you know who they give to and what organizations they are a part of and I might as well be speaking Mandarin Chinese when describing my experiences.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I’m unable to muster any generosity toward Trump voters.
That’s probably a sign of a character flaw on my part. Too bad.
TBone
A most excellent post, W.G.
It’s also why I linked to this the other day (Chaplin) when some of us were, shall we say, less than gracious.
He gives me chills every time. The man was a (flawed) genius.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J7GY1Xg6X20
Unite!
Harrison Wesley
I’m down with the loin girding. My loins need all the help they can get. Yeah, I know, TMI.
Torrey
@cmorenc:
With apologies for the length of this comment.
I teach rhetoric. There isn’t a single answer: everything depends on who you’re talking to. Start by showing interest and asking questions non-judgmentally (tough, I know–this stuff ain’t easy). Why did they vote for Trump? or why didn’t they vote for Harris/Walz? Then listen. It’s been said that you can’t persuade someone until you can express their side of the argument in a way that they would agree with you. I don’t necessarily think that’s 100% true, but it is important to understand where they’re coming from, particularly since Trump voters are coming from a variety of different places, from “price of eggs” to “The idea that there are trans people upends my world in a way i don’t understand and can’t express clearly.”
The question “why?” is key, if it is asked with interest rather than in a challenging tone. (That doesn’t mean it’s not a challenge; that means you’re not asking it in a “ha ha! gotcha, sucker!” kind of way.) Keep in mind that those on the other side who went with “Fuck your feeling!” weren’t persuasive, just performative.
There’s another important rhetorical technique: create a sort of mental space, if you’ll forgive the metaphor, where you and the other person are allied against a third party. You both want good healthcare; who’s keeping you from getting it? You both hate having to pay more in taxes because the billionaires aren’t paying, even though they wouldn’t miss the money, and some things just need to be paid for. (You’ll notice this technique has worked very well for the other side, although the difference is that they focus on the most vulnerable as the “other.”)
Two additional points:
First, there’s no magic bullet. It takes practice. And it doesn’t hurt to imagine such conversations ahead of time, so that you’re ready when an opportunity presents itself.
Second, don’t expect to make an instantaneous convert, although that can happen. You’ll contribute a little bit to someone’s thought process, maybe just getting them to think about things in a different way. And you won’t always know what your contribution was, although you may find out later that you made all the difference.
There are of course resources for learning to argue effectively, and there are a few tried-and-true techniques for creating arguments.
schrodingers_cat
@LAC: I agree. People surprise you. Sometimes its a good surprise, sometimes not.
zhena gogolia
@hells littlest angel: Unfortunately correct.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Geminid:
No clue and I seriously doubt anybody’s given it much thought.
Based on two elections, yeah, it’s an actual “competitive” district. One knock on Caraveo was hers was akin to a “(R) Lite” campaign. Given the nature of the district, it’s gonna take the right kind of candidate and more importantly, *campaign* to flip it. Or maybe she runs again and we simply get MM’s “car ditch” voter reaction, people vote for the (D) and she’s back in. We’ll see but I’m sure it’s a high priority target.
H.E.Wolf
Very true! Here’s a video demo from a very practical young woman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHfuvb9EIKI&t=48s
UncleEbeneezer
May I add that things like: threatening not to vote, endlessly bashing Dems and falsely equating them with the GOP etc., are not “constructive.” People need to be smart about not letting their passion for an issue they care about, suck them into behavior that actually hurts our chances in elections. And be aware that a lot of progressive organizations focussed on particular issues (I know from experience with police abolition and ICE-out-of-LA) are more focussed on punishing Dems than they are in making sure we keep Fascists out of power. Find groups/people who work on issues without constantly shitting on the Dem Party.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: There are also important state elections this year. Virginia and New Jersey will elect new Governors for open seats. All 100 House od Delegates seats will be up also. I expect New Jersey will have state legislative elections as well.
I’m really looking forward to our Governor race this year. Former Rep. Abigail Spanberger will prove to be a formidable candidate, I think. That race will draw a lot of attention.
FelonyGovt
@Torrey: Very interesting comment! I do think we will have fertile ground pointing out that billionaires, who clearly don’t care about anyone but themselves, are now running the country.
TBone
@Steve LaBonne: hence, the word girdle and the torturous device later invented to slim tummies. Then we got Spanx.
I remember my grandma struggling into her girdle for dressy occasions.
different-church-lady
OT but vital: Trump is linking DEI to the plane crash. It’s nothing but pure fascist-style propaganda at this point. NOTHING BUT. We need to call it what it is.
And when I say we, I don’t mean us here, I mean THE TIMID LITTLE CONGRESS CRITTERS SUPPOSEDLY ON THE OPPOSITION.
TBone
@different-church-lady: as Pooty giggles…
Glory b
@Old Man Shadow: To repeat myself ad nauseum, they know who we are and what we stand for. They don’t want to vote for the party with the black people in it.
Kay
No one in real on the ground organizing or in person Dem volunteer work does this- writes off entire groups – so I don’t worry about it too much. This is a purely internet thing. The Dem nominee in ’28 will do outreach to the Left, Right and Center because the thing is about addition, growing, not loyalty.
It’s a constantly moving target. Whatever target we should have hit in 2024 and didn’t is already gone and the 2028 challenge will be both new and more difficult.
John S.
@different-church-lady:
He blamed Obama, Biden, Buttigieg, DEI… pretty much anything and everyone who isn’t in his administration.
And to think, Republicans used to style themselves as the party of “personal responsibility”. LOL
Matt McIrvin
@Steve LaBonne: I had another chapter of education after that: I resolved to pay much more attention to radical left critiques of liberalism after Iraq, but then a dismaying subset of *those* voices turned out to be dupes for fascism in socialist clothing. Which is still bizarre to me.
Glory b
@UncleEbeneezer: Say it louder for the people in the back.
robtrim
Trump press conference: Lies, slurs, arrogance, disgraceful….Jesus weeps.
Belafon
@TBone: Are there any non-flawed geniuses?
p.a.
Emerson College national poll 1/30
https://emersoncollegepolling.com/january-2025-national-poll-trump-starts-term-with-49-approval-41-disapproval-rating/
Kay
@John S.:
DEI. Jesus. The white man’s all purpose excuse for their own laziness and incompetence. Trump has already spent a TON of time golfing. He works about 15 minutes a day and that’s exclusively devoted to talking to his adoring fans in media.
Subcommandante Yakbreath
Me too. Most of my science-fictional friends in and after college were libertarians. It wasn’t until I started hanging around this joint (I think I got here through Sadly No) that I started changing my views. So thanks, everybody.
Steve LaBonne
@Matt McIrvin: Yes, we should always remember that for people not used to paying attention to politics, it has never been easy to filter out all the ambient noise to get at something close to reality. And nowadays antisocial media make it harder still.
Tim C.
@Eural Joiner: As an AP Government teacher, I expereince the exact same thing. I actually use the “Green Lantern” theory of the presidency to explain how wrong that is.
Geminid
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I think the notion that Democrats who run as Moderates are “Republican Lite” is a serious impediment to Party growth. It’s often used retrospectively, to disparage Democrats when they lose, by people whose favorites never lose because they represent safe seats.
One reason I’m glad Tammy Baldwin won in Wisconsin is that if she had lost, people would be sneering at her for running a “Republican Lite” campaign. Same with Elissa Slotkin in Michigan. This kind of analysis has veneer of hard-headedness, but I think that it is actually very soft-headed.
Steve LaBonne
@John S.: They ARE the party of personal responsibility- for everyone but themselves.
pika
I just had my class read this story aloud: Octavia Butler’s “The Book of Martha.”
Kelly
Same.
Besides Iraq 2 the other enlightening moment was Bush the Lesser blowing up the deficit with tax cuts. I believed reducing the federal deficit was a worthy goal which I shared with Republicans. The brief elimination of the deficit during the Clinton Administration was my bipartisan nirvana. I have since learned many things like the federal budget isn’t like my household budget.
Jeffro
If I should ever hear from a MAGAt who’s “seen the light” about trump the lifelong con man…
…if one of them should ever have the audacity to tell me “hey, whaddya know, trump really doesn’t give a shit about anything but himself”…
…assuming I don’t stroke out right then and there…
…I plan to ask them, “so now that you know, what do you plan to do about it?”
zhena gogolia
@robtrim: Are the media shouting hostile questions at him constantly, the way they did at Biden?
WTFGhost
@Steve LaBonne: Not sure I trust that. A “girdle” is just a strap around the waist, that might hold a sidearm, or your main weapon, if it’s not one of those long-ass swords – or, so my D&D playing days say. “Girding one’s loins” might just mean “strap on your weapons belt.”
Not saying it’s wrong – I saw the cute explainer, too. Sometimes, the cute bit *is* true. I just remembered one of the standard jokes, “you *have* to buy a girdle!” for new, middle-to-high school D&D players who were still on the fence about whether girls were icky, or amazing creatures of delight, and still knew “girdle” not “Spanx”.
Steve LaBonne
@Geminid: The Democratic Party is a broad coalition. A formal parliamentary coalition would see candidates from different coalition parties winning in different kinds of constituencies. In our system that means different flavors of Democrats in different kinds of constituencies. Being on the left is no excuse for not understanding this- AOC, for example, has clearly articulated that she understands it.
Steve LaBonne
@WTFGhost: I may well be wrong, that’s just the info I happened to come across.
Harrison Wesley
I don’t know how much time and effort it’s worth pushing RCV or approval voting, but I think either of them would help prevent minor parties from playing spoilers in elections. If someone genuinely believes in the ideology they vote for, they can make their statement without helping another party that doesn’t believe in it.
WTFGhost
@John S.: I cast a protest vote for Perot, but only because I knew he couldn’t win *the election* but he might win… something.
Remember, Trump tried to run for President with the Reform Party, and lost, i.e., failed, and needed to find a party with even less informed informed voters who would align with what Trump does best: hate. Eventually, he found the Republicans.
xephyr
“I wasn’t stupid. Or evil. I was young. I was probably better informed than most. But I didn’t see the whole picture.”
(Sorry, not sure how to use the blockquote.) So yeah, that’s a great description – one I appreciate. It’s all about learning, and that takes time, experience, and willingness. My intentions throughout life have been good on the whole, but not always well directed. At 73 I’m a lot more savvy than I was. Learning should never stop…
Kay
@Steve LaBonne:
Well, but either is being on the Right, and many Right wing Democrats don’t understand it. If your vision of a big tent is no one to the Left of Bill Clinton then it’s not actually a big tent. Coalitions are about reciprocity, not deciding which group is most like the speaker and insisting that group is thus “the Democratic Party” and everyone else is disloyal.
Geminid
@Kay: Thinking about the midterms, I wonder how you appraise Marcy Kaptur’s chances for holding her seat next year. She had a close escape last November..
NotMax
@TBone
Cue Red Skelton.
;)
John S.
@Steve LaBonne:
Touché!
KSinMA
@UncleEbeneezer: THIS.
John S.
@WTFGhost:
Alas, my friend was truly enamored with Perot and the concept of a third party candidate. But he has been a solid Democrat ever since.
TBone
@Belafon: I haven’t met any! Even Einstein was kicked out of school.
https://medium.com/personal-growth/the-burden-of-intelligence-the-many-downsides-of-genius-9fcfcfb2ecd0
Jeffro
the guy who didn’t bother to have an FAA administrator in place…the guy who wasted the entire nation’s time trying to slam the brakes on federal spending, causing chaos…the guy who’s responsible for hundreds of thousands of extra Covid deaths because he didn’t want to wear a mask and smear his orange makeup…
THAT GUY is trying to blame Pete Buttigieg and DEI for this crash?
WHILE they’re still pulling bodies out of the Potomac?
fuck him, fuck MAGA, and I suuuuuure hope no Republican EVER tries to pull that “it’s too soon to talk about gun violence” right after a mass shooting, EVER again. ‘Cause clearly it’s NEVER too soon to take a tragedy and run with it for political advantage
TBone
@NotMax: hahaha!
Bupalos
I think the key to wrestling some Trump voters over to our side is simply creating more narrative space for them. Unfortunately we basically got boxed in to being the party defending the status quo. That’s why our basket of voters got whiter and wealthier, and why we lost. A lot of low-info low-loyalty Trump voters are ignorantly saying “well we have to try something, and this is something.” We have to be able to compartmentalize the destructive reality of that from the constructive theory and say they aren’t wrong for trying something.
We really need to get to a place where voting Democratic means voting for change, where Democrats are the ones saying “you’re getting screwed,” pointing at the culprits, and offering real ways to strike back. The Cheney-shaped box Trump has forced us into is not a place we can afford to stay.
WaterGirl
@xephyr: Your italics and quotation marks are fine.
But if you want to blockquote, I’ll tell you how I do it.
Cpy and paste in the sentences you quoted.
Highlight the sentences.
Click on the quotation mark (4th from the left in the line with bold and italics).
Grin and Bare
Thank you for this post, WaterGirl. I’m a public health federal contractor, and I’m pretty certain I won’t have a job in two months. Starting to look now. My federal coworkers are the hardest working, most dedicated, and most competent people I’ve ever worked with. They are my friends. This is all so aggravating and heartbreaking. But me and my family will likely be okay. There are others who are going to suffer much more. I wish I could help more. My MAGA dad has implied that I’m lazy at work because I work with the federal government, but oh well. Take care of yourselves and each other and HOLD THE MOTHERFUCKING LINE.
brendancalling
I had a conversation about exactly this topic with a friend last night. Her take was “I’d like to do that, to reach out and bring them in… but I’m so tired of explaining the same things, over and over again, to people who are old enough to know better. I’m tired. I don’t want to keep doing this.”
I’m kind of in the same boat. I told my weed guy, over and over and over again, what voting for Trump means. “Dude, you have cancer, you’ll lose your healthcare.” “I work with immigrant kids, they’re the only ones in my school that actually try.” “Latino immigrants are super conservative, very church and family oriented. And they work.” “Dude, it means my kid won’t come to the US to visit me ever again.”
And he acknowledged all that, and still voted for Trump. I’m tired. Not too tired to fight, but definitely too tired to have the same fucking conversation that I’ve already had a dozen times.
Ruckus
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Never forget that we are dealing with the entire range of humanity, from give your life for others – to nothing but absolute greed, and every human stop along that path. And that we have a country that admires freedom to be great, or a complete and utter greedy ass, and every possible stop in between. Many, many decades ago we mostly came together to make this a better place than most came from, and in doing that and in the growth of humanity, the world isn’t the same place and we aren’t the same humans. My grandparents crossed most of this country by horse drawn wagon 107 yrs ago with their one year old son. I’ve driven across this country shore to shore a couple of times, in less time that it took them to cross one state. Life changes and now faster than it used to. One hundred years ago most people made relatively pocket change to what most earn today, we can fly across the country in less time than crossing one county by horse, healthcare exists, better food exists – in abundance, but we are still human. We still have greed and most do not do physical work anywhere near what most did that century ago. Life has changed rather noticeably in the lifetime of quite a few alive today. My self included. Is life better? In some ways absolutely, in other ways very close to not at all – if for no other reason than – humanity.
Geminid
@Harrison Wesley: If preventing third party “spoilers” is the goal, California and Washington accomplish it pretty well with their “jungle” primary systems. I’m not saying we should move to jungle primaries, but it’s fact that they screen out Independent and 3rd Party candidates.
I finally realized this when I followed the several close California Congressional races last December. Close races elsewhere, like OR05, AZ06 and OH09(?) had winners who did not clear 49% because of 3rd Party and Independent candidates.
In the California contests won by Reps. Min, Whitesides, Tran and Gray, there were just two candidates and it took 50% plus a few hundred in the cases of Tran and Gray, a few thousand in the cases of Whitesides and Min.
I don’t think this was the principal motivation behind instituting jungle primary systems, but it’s a significant effect.
TBone
@pika: thank you for sharing that!
WaterGirl
@brendancalling: You explained it in very personal terms, and he still didn’t listen. Heartbreaking, That’s why he’s your former weed guy.
And I’m sorry about your kid.
The people I’m talking about are the people who weren’t paying attention, who didn’t have someone fucking spell it out for them and then still vote for the racist, rapist Felon.
Truth be told, Trump gives felons a bad name.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Old School: The other side is finding ways to target these people with their messages. We need to as well.
Josie
@Bupalos: It’s not just Trump who put us there. It’s also some Dem politicians who are backed by big donors. We need to figure out how to win elections without relying on rich donors.
ETA: WaterGirl’s idea of targeted funding is part of the answer.
Citizen Dave
Is a “loin-girding liberal” analogous to a “rock-ribbed republican” ?
sixthdoctor
Mayor Pete has responded to the Trump press conference about the DC plane crash.
Glory b
@Josie: We have the system we have. Changing it would take the Supreme Court overturning Citizens United.
Until then, don’t bring a knife to a gun fight.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@WaterGirl: I’m not sure. It’s not enough to point out he lied. In between the lies, he and his people SAID they would do this stuff. Fox lied. Right wing media lied. Influencers lied. These people need to know other information sources are more accurate than what they’re consuming.
suzanne
@Kay:
I hope this is true. The centrist side of the party makes me crazy, the progressive side makes others crazy….. but arithmetic is a baseline expectation.
NickM
I just ordered a couple hundred stickers that show Trump pointing with the text “I Did That!” I’m planning to start putting them next to the egg prices in the grocery store, plus on whatever else seems a lot more expensive lately. And soon enough on the gas pumps, too. A little bit of insurgency I can easily do, and it works — I got the idea from seeing Biden on a gas pump and the anger stuck with me a long time. If it makes a couple people think, and a couple more have higher blood pressure, it’s a win-win.
WaterGirl
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
You are so right! That should be part of the same conversation.
Josie
@Glory b:
Good point.
Elizabelle
@Grin and Bare: My thanks and thoughts are with you.
Team Felon is cutting a swath — a river?? — through operational government. Public health is so important. Hang in there as long as you can, be professional and resist the nihilism coming from above.
WaterGirl
@NickM: Where did you order from? Can you share a link?
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
Truth be told, Trump gives
felonshumanity a bad name.Humanity changes because humans change/grow/think.
Shitforbrains only thinks about himself. Now the vast majority of humans think first about themselves, it’s called survival. And absolutely survival has changed a lot and in the lifetime of humans alive today. But people like shitforbrains only think about themselves. And often have a mistaken view of who and what they are. Guess which side shitforbrains is on. This shouldn’t be a hard concept to see.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Geminid:
Agree completely.
Geminid
“Centrist side, Progressive side” analysis breaks down when I examine our 215 elected House members. When I graph them out by policy preferences, I don’t see two polarized wings resembling some dumbell shape. It’s more like a fat Bell Curve, with most members clustered either side of the center and a dozen or so outliers trailing off to either side.
The “Right” side of the Progressive Caucus and the “Left” side of the New Democrat Caucus have a lot of overlap. In their cases, caucus membership is more a matter of branding, I think, than real policy differences.
It’s true that pundits and partisans of either supposed wing want us to believe we’re somehow “stuck” with each other in an uneasy alliance of “Centrists” and “Progessives” but I do not believe this.
Elected Democrats don’t seem to either, and I think they represent the Party’s “Base” better than the pundits and partisans would have us believe.
suzanne
@Geminid:
I think you’re right in that there isn’t a whole lot of daylight between the different wings in their voting records. But I do think the quality that we are getting at when we talk about branding is really better described as making different parts of the electorate feel seen. That’s a critical part of this fight, accruing political capital from different parts of the electorate.
Miss Bianca
@WaterGirl: I’ve been joking with some of my old friends that we’re going to get a lot of practice saying our good old-fashioned Midwestern “welp…” a lot.
WTFGhost
@John S.: As have I – I confess, I didn’t think George HW was that bad. And, other than the total destruction of the rule of law, setting expectations that no Republican could ever be found guilty of anything, I don’t recall him doing anything *hideous* like W or T. Stupid, yes. But I might not have seen the other hideousness, and at the time, I didn’t think too much of the pardon.
Miss Bianca
@Steve LaBonne: I did not know this expression had an actual, literal meaning! Put that in my “TIL” file.
AWOL
Excellent piece.
I was distressed by Clinton’s failure on national healthcare in 1993, so as a young, stupid, and self-destructive young and underpaid man, I voted for that turd, Ralph Nader, in 1996 and 2000; I also flirted with CPUSA types in the nether regions of the Leftist Id called Pacifica Radio, which is a scam.
Since 2004 I’ve only voted D and joined the Democratic Party this week to ensure another asshole like Eric Adams gets the nod. I produce Leftist books, my home is a safe house for those who need it, and I participate in resistance groups.
So I’m a better as an older asshole than my younger self. And I think my rage at those who sat out the 2024 election is rage at my past self.
FelonyGovt
@WaterGirl: Hence my nym- never more accurate than now.
Miss Bianca
@sixthdoctor: Does everybody here who has a Bluesky account and links to a Bluesky account presume that everybody else here has a Bluesky account? Because most of the ones you all link to *don’t allow you to view it unless you have a Bluesky account*.
Jesus. Even the Entity Formerly Known As Twitter wasn’t as useless.
catfishncod
@suzanne: which is why, despite it being in the FTFNYT, the proposal they posted fora thorough reform of House elections — expansion resuming with the cube root law, proportional representation via multi-member districts to eliminate gerrymandering permanently, returning to Webster’s apportionment formula, bringing a multi-party system closer to practical reality — is worth a look. Not saying it’s perfect, but we need a vision that improves inclusiveness AND re-wires the system to bias towards moderation not extremism.
And for that “status quo” image problem, you can’t get better than the prospect that not only the Republican Party is broken, _so is the current incarnation of the Democratic Party_.
This is to our advantage. We remember how to build coalitions. They don’t.
ETA FTFNYT gift link. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/01/14/opinion/fix-congress-proportional-representation.html?unlocked_article_code=1.tE4.92VW.8OoF9GF-NCG0&smid=url-share
Captain C
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: As I recall, the FTFNYT’s reaction to Project 2025 was, “Well, TCFG says it’s not his so who are we to doubt him? Stop bringing it up, you peasants!”, so they were flat-out lying as well.
Geminid
@suzanne: These are not neccesarily different parts of the electorate. Just looking at reliable Democratic voters– who are what I consider “the Base”– I think the majority hold “Liberal” views on some issues and “Moderate” views on others, in various combinations. It would take a multi-circle Venn diagram to show our various policy positions.
I use “Moderate” and “Liberal” here because the other two descriptors carry a lot of emotional baggage and have become invidious for many people.
Anyway, I see Centrism as more of a political strategy applicable to a fairly narrow set of circumstances.
On the other hand, I see Progressivism as an aspiration towards progress that Moderates like Sharice Davids and Emilia Sykes share equally with Liberals like Jaime Raskin and Becca Balint.
This is why I have become much less concerned with Party ideology. I don’t care so much about “Centrism” or “Progressivism” as I do as Pragmatism, both in policies and in politics. To me, pragmatic politics are a means towards enacting pragmatic policies, and that pragmatism is what I look for in a politician.
ExPatExDem
So basically, Trump fires 100 senior FAA employees with decades of experience, disaster follows, Trump blames black people.
Did I miss anything?
ETA: Wrong thread.
NickM
@WaterGirl: “”I Did That” Funny Trump Sticker Pack” Sticker for Sale by wickedsticker | Redbubble
Citizen Alan
@Geminid: If Hillary Clinton had replaced Scalia (or hell, even if McConnell had knuckled under and let Garland onto the court), Common Cause would have gone the other way, and partisan gerrymandering would have been illegal nationwide.
Citizen Alan
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I’m way past mustering generosity. I genuinely don’t consider them to be fully human. I don’t think they have souls.
suzanne
@Geminid:
But even “the base” is not one thing, and it’s not just about policy positions. It’s not even primarily about policy positions.
For example, I went to college for approximately 800 years, and I met my husband there, and I am paying my student loans back, and will be for approximately 800 more years. Elizabeth Warren makes me feel seen as a college-y person. Kamala Harris makes me feel seen as a woman who needed an abortion. AOC makes me feel seen as an idealist. Summer Lee makes me feel seen as a Yinzer. Etc etc etc.
So “branding” is really in service to making me feel — prior to policy positions — that the big tent includes me.
catclub
@Steve LaBonne: Thanks!
Citizen Alan
One of the greatest sources of permanent shame in my life is that I voted for Nader in 2000 … in Mississippi. I knew that my vote for Gore would be completely wasted and I simply could not bring myself to vote for that ticket simply as a political gesture. And I had thought that by voting for Nader in an irrelevant state, it might help get the Greens up to the point of getting matching funds and thereby put pressure on the Dems to move Left. I still feel deeply embarrassed by naivete.
Citizen Alan
I would go No Contact, but that’s just me. I don’t want any MAGAts in my life.
Ruckus
@Captain C:
so they were flat-out lying as well.
If they told the truth, how much of their party would not vote for them? I’d bet it’s a larger amount than most of us might expect.
Sure we have gotten more and more oppositional over time but we want to move forward and they want to move backasswards. Or at least they think we have gone too far. But I also believe that the current republican party wants to go back 60-80 years and have them be the only people running things. IOW they do not want the country that all the premises I’ve seen/heard/learned in my decades, has become. A country for and by ALL the inhabitants. In all my decades I’ve seen the republican party always want to go backwards to a time when rather rich white men ran everything. But that isn’t the premise of this country. We have fought for years to get people to understand that the phrase “All men are created equal” is about humanity, not 1/2 of it, and that equal means exactly that. We still have a ways to go in this concept BTW.
gvg
@FelonyGovt: I don’t know. How about a mix? I mean if Trum and company does something that say kills a relative of yours or really seriously harms you, why shouldn’t you tell a fool that directly and clearly and then tell them to fuck off out of your life? Someone ELSE can be the sympathetic voice to teach them. This time is not like the other not paying attention mistakes and Trump was elected before and tried to overthrow the government on live TV. I think we are being a little too forgiving here. Trump and his handlers are really trying to kill Americans now. They have been talking revenge before they were elected. Voters are adults.
Sure we do have to try and win, but look at what is going to happen and is. This isn’t Nadar or Anderson, it’s a Nazi.
xephyr
@WaterGirl: Thanks : )
Ruckus
@Citizen Alan:
Most of us want some sort of unity, a population that actually likes what our founding fathers wrote for ALL of us. But this world, this humanity takes a while to actually accept and make change. And some are always going to fight any change, just as some are going to fight to make it better. But don’t forget that better in what we are discussing makes some less than what they think they are and it at least attempts to control what money can buy. And this has been going on since the inception of this country. Going on very slowly. But now we have things like this blog, communications across the country (and the world, or at least much of it) But many humans do not like change, especially many of whom are unwilling to accept the concept of this country – that we are all equal. Not just the white, wealthy, men who think they own the place. (You might easily imagine who I’m directly talking about in this comment. But this is not just about them, it’s about all of us, it’s about understanding what “All men are created equal” really means. Today. Brown, dark brown, close to the actual color white. (BTW do understand what makes our skin the color it is, is how much of two chemicals we ALL have in our bodies. The ratio of eumelanin (brown-black) to pheomelanin (yellow-red) determines skin color)
We aren’t really nearly as different as most think.
Geminid
@suzanne: What do you think of Sharice Davids?
No One of Consequence
@Watergirl – again, a great post, and bravo. Similar lived experience here. Used to love watching the Sunday shows and McLaughlin Group, even though I was a democrat since I was 6 (I wrote a letter to Jimmy Carter, who wrote back. Or at least I thought he did. I still have the letter on White House stationary). I used to have significant respect for Tim Russert. Like you, I wasn’t stupid.
These Internets. They have changed things, no? Interesting times, indeed.
-NOoC
Suzanne
@Geminid: I don’t know a great deal about her accomplishments since she’s been elected, but I am pleased that she’s managed to convincingly win re-election in Congress.
Geminid
@Suzanne: Sharice Davids is like a lot of purple district Democrats. They don’t have big national presence and they don’t try to have one. But if you follow local and state news you’ll see she is a very smart and hardworking Democrat. If Sharice Davids were in a state like Michigan or New Jersey, she might already have moved up to the Senate like fellow Class of 2018 members Andy Kim and Elissa Slotkin.
I like to study Democrats like Davids and other Democrats who flip red seats and keep them. These are the kind of politicians who will win us a majority in the next Congress, and empower the rest of our talented House Caucus.
I’ve learned that I have work at it because they get little coverage in national media. But it’s not hard work, and the House is of particular interest to me because next year’s midterms will be so important.
Grin and Bare
@Elizabelle: I appreciate that so much!
Grin and Bare
@Elizabelle: I appreciate that so much!
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Geminid:
Given our conversation earlier today, it would be instructive to compare the campaigns of Davids and Caraveo. How did they differ?
Geminid
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Demographically, I don’t think the districts are that different except Kansas City gave Davids a solid base. One obvious difference: Sharice Davids has represented her district since 2019. She had six years to show constituents her work ethic and empathy.
Caraveo was running her first reelection race and those typically are the toughest. That made it easier for Republican lies to stick.