Writing in today's New York Times, Ben Rhodes definitely gets it:
“Democrats understandably have a hard time fathoming why Americans would put our democracy at risk, but we miss the reality that our democracy is part of what angers them. Many voters have come to associate democracy with globalization, corruption, financial capitalism, migration, forever wars and elites (like me) who talk about it as an end in itself rather than a means to redressing inequality, reining in capitalist systems that are rigged, responding to global conflict and fostering a sense of shared national identity.”
Warning..this quote originated in the NYT!!!!! Ah Ben, how old is he? Where was he when Reagan declared war on our governmental structure in 1980? "government is the problem"! declared the cheer leader in chief!
Over the next 44 years gop legislatures when in control removed regulations that have drastically increased inflation! They neutered capitalism because monopolies grew unchecked thus reducing any competition for the consumers' business. gop House groups shutdown the government once because the dems would not roll over and play dead. This brinkmanship has played out continuously since 1980 in order to cripple the policies of the sitting democratic President!
The twenty somethings, 30 somethings and most of the 40 somethings have NOT witnessed a government functioning for the well being of its citizens!!!
Rhodes litany villains, globalization (Walmart..boys and girls), corruption (Trump 34 felony convictions), financial capitalism (mega billionaire Theil...major funder of trump campaign), etc! describes exactly what the voters have PUT IN OFFICE!
MUSK, whose wealth is said to hit nearly a third of a TRILLON dollars, is in line to destroy the dreaded Administrative functions of our government!
The economy is complex; the reasons for immigration influx are complex; fostering a sense of shared national identity is complex! The education of the masses regarding these issues is boring! The explanations "makes ones head hurt"!
FEAR and HATE mongering pumped out on every conceivable media outlet MINUTE BY MINUTE created a disillusioned audience who are NOW following a convicted sex offended; a domestic terrorist (Jan6 insurrection), a person convicted of 34 counts of FRAUD; a serial cheater in marriage; and an abysmally incompetent POTUS who dithered while nearly 1,000,000 died because he failed to recognize the effects of the silent killer Covid 19!
I am a simple man who has lived a charmed life because unionization helped create a middle class in America during the 50's and 60's which allowed me to get a college education even though my Dad died when I was 19! In the 70's we saw that government worked when the paranoidal Nixon was forced to resign as President because HIGH RANKING MEMBERS OF HIS OWN PARTY told him that he would be impeached and convicted!
I've lived a charmed life because in some ways I was able to achieve more than my parents and I witnessed a functioning government! I make no claims to be a sophisticated authority in any of the Classical studies!
However, I do have the ability to recognize when someone ( election results analyst) is "putting lipstick on a pig"
I agree with you Tom for the most part. I think the economy played a large part in the loss. But I also think the segment of the population that would not vote for a woman combined with the segment that would not vote for a Black woman were a very large part. In other words, economy, misogyny and racism were - in my humble opinion- the deciding factors.
In 2016, Trump was the result of electing a Black man to the oval office. In 2024, the racism was howling loudly. This is who we are.
I tried this election cycle. Wow. Not good. Then again I live in Texas. But my original thought was correct. They're going to believe what they're going to believe regardless of facts.
I agree with you, Karen! Take a look at the figures of who voted for tRump and my head explodes! Every single one of those people - EVERY SINGLE ONE! - voted against their best interests, FFS!
Misogyny and racism had a role (probably more misogyny—-see Obama). But except for the base MAGAts I do not think it was the prime motivator. It might’ve been the straw that broke the camels back for some, but it was not the burden which stressed the camel before that straw. I understand that, emotionally, we want to call out misogyny and racism, but intellectually we need to understand that we did not give a great number of people a reason to come out and vote for Harris. Also, what can we do, from a political or policy point of view, to overcome racism and misogyny before 2026/2028? I just don’t think that’s a productive use of our resources. Additionally, our real challenge is going to be making sure there are meaningful elections in 2026/2028. Fascism is on the march, and the Trump administration and the MAGA governors are going to do everything they can to suppress the vote, to squelch debate and cower the media, and follow the Orbán playbook to create a one party state. And let us not forget that there is no longer a Republican party. There is MAGA. It is a party dedicated to Trump and his glorification. If we are going to overcome these obstacles, we must be clear that we are foursquare behind working people and consumers.
Just remember. They only have 22 months from taking office to the mid-terms.
Fortunately, Trump is lazy, ignorant, stupid, and incompetent. His true believers are ignorant, stupid, and incompetent, and you still have to flunk the IQ test to be a Republican. We can Fuck. Them. Up. using their own tools and they won't have a fucking clue what to do.
I think Kamala did give them plenty of reasons to vote for her, and I think tRump did too. I do agree though that we have to assign resources wisely and that even if we recognize the role racism and misogyny played in this election, that isn't something we can do anything about by effecting policy this term.
There are more subtle ways to begin to reset the background music though. For one, we need to start reaching into the brainwash factories to do so. I do wish Kamala had shown up on Joe Rogan. I think she could have handled it, he has a huge audience and has been known to admit he's wrong. I don't think it was a mistake not to, and I don't blame her for her decision or choice to allocate her time elsewhere. It's just that she could have done it and that's the kind of thing we'll have to start doing to get a better atmosphere going. Put Pete Buttigieg on Fox again now and then (when and if they calm down and stop calling for the execution of political enemies), working in a bit more world news to include news and human interest (nice and easy to listen to) stories from some of those several successful, peaceful and safe northern countries with female leaders to help normalize the concept of a female leader... that sort of thing.
All while encouraging our D reps while they're blocking every move the tRump administration makes, protesting as loudly (and convincingly) as we can, and shining as much light as possible on every outrage and atrocity they commit.
I’ve posted basically this same message in 2 other places today. Maybe someone who can do something about it will see it. 😁
We need a 50 state campaign that starts today. Every town in America - or at least every county - has a Democratic Party apparatus of some sort. We are obviously capable of organizing volunteers. So, we need to knock on every door in our districts between now and 2026 and figure out what people are actually thinking about shit. I’ve started working on a questionnaire type thing based on what I hear from my neighbors here in the exurbs. Polls reach no one, obviously, so the only way to gather info is to physically go out and do it. I am looking forward to my local Democratic Party meeting on Monday so I can raise some hell. Ffs, even on Election Day, the GOP had a huge table, TRUMP sign, snacks, etc. The Dems apparently couldn’t be bothered aside from the guy who was trying to unseat our Republican state house rep. The party apparatus is failing. Time for new blood.
I am in a very blue state and while we sent our entire Democratic House team back to DC this year, 2 of the 5 races here were still a slog (early on, they crushed at the end).
We need to start running candidates in EVERY RACE in this country and stop conceding in advance by not even putting up a candidate. This will also help us get the word out about what we stand for. The opportunity loss by conceding these races in advance has been huge.
And we need to fire the consultants. Focus tested messaging sucks and tbh, I feel that’s what cost us. Our turnout absolutely sucked. We need to look at folks like Jess Piper and give them larger megaphones.
Firing all the over-educated, under-intelligent, otherwise-unemployable low achieving white boys in the DC "Democratic Consultant" shops would be a great start. They haven't won shit in 40 years.
I mourn for what Howard Dean could have done for the Democratic Party with his 50-state initiative, if Rahm Emmanuel had not sequestered all Dean's money for Obama's campaign. Easy pickings today, lots of regrets tomorrow.....
I agree with you. And I might add that focusing on seven "swing states" while ignoring all the rest might have seemed the answer, if all consultants thought about was "polls" but the fact of the matter is the "polls" came as text messages and emails (at least those sent to me) and as noted by Gloria J. Maloney, were nothing but requests for donations. I would get as many as 30 a day and sometimes more. My morning ritual became deleting all the junk "polls."
So, while they sat in their offices in DC playing with "polls", none of those consultants came to my state, because they had written it off as "red"; we were literally on our own trying to GOTV with our neighbors and friends. For average people, working all day, then working after work trying to raise capital for signs and events in small towns, without adequate support from the party, which was just fine mounting huge rallies in seven states, over and over again...the message was stark. They apparently didn't see a need to GOTV in our communities, because the "polls" told them we didn't matter. As I wrote on another of TC's posts, our good and great candidates in this county lost by 100 votes or so. It didn't have to happen. But it did.
Any number of people who could do something about it will probably see this and straightaway ignore it. Much like establishing and enforcing ethical standards for Congress and the Court, those who are responsible for making the change are the same ones who benefit most from the status quo.
You're right about the 50 state approach, but that would make it too hard on the "journalists" and others who would then have to travel a lot more and actually talk to people to find out what was going on. Of course if the candidates themselves were doing that we'd answer a lot of the questions Tom raised today and probably elect some people in surprising and complacent places.
Hey! A side benefit could be improvements in local journalism!! Fuck the corporate scribblers. I follow people who write about their states on Substack and they do excellent work. More of that!
The States Newsroom is an aggregator of primarily politically focused local press operations based in state capitals. The Missouri Independent is the local one for me and they are outstanding. Some of the best subscription money I invest.
And, gee, what's the difference between Biden and Harris. Hmmm. One is a white guy and one is a Black woman. I'm over the hand wringing and putting Kamala under a microscope. I read one one guy who wrote, "did you see her eyes on the View?" Fuck that. Trump stood on a stage jacking off a microphone and no one blinked. He's ridiculed the disabled, called for violence, mimicked anyone and everyone who disagreed with him, and basically wants to burn it down. No one blinked. Kamala could have walked on water and it wouldn't have changed a damn thing. Yeah Trump won. That is a fact. But he didn't win by much. It didn't help Arab men voted for Jill Stein as a protest for Gaza. Trump said he wants Muslims out if the country so good luck to those idiots. I came from poor. We genuinely struggled. And if you had knocked on our door asking my mother how she felt, she would have slammed it in their faces. You know who loves Trump? Fucking rich people. You can drive through their neighborhood and see the Trump signs and flags. And who really, really loves Trump are white Christians. Anointed by God, you know. Biden did so much for working class people. Kamala laid out a plan to do more. But they don't give a flying fuck. And typical Democrats, it's woe is me, we didn't do enough for the working person. The working man has a hard on for Trump because he promises to hurt who they hate. As for Latinos, they genuinely think Trump won't hurt them because "they're hard working people!" HA! The list goes on and on. Hillary lost in 2016. Kamala lost in 2024. Women, my friends, don't go over with the vast public.
I agree that there is a big difference between those whose sense of the economy is that the price of eggs means they can't get a new TV and those whose sense of the economy is based on whether they will be able to afford rent and food next month. BOTH groups are going to be in for a shock, but Dems do need to sharpen their message to include the latter group. Perhaps fear of being accused of supporting the "welfare state" guided their focus on the "middle" class--I always wondered why Harris never seemed to say "Middle and Working class." A lot of working class folks are proud of that designation, and think of the "middle class" as more the people who run things they can experience, who cause them problems at the DMV, the white-collar types who are the face of the customer service that never serves.
This election wasn't just about economics. It was the Perfect Storm of racism, misogyny, misinformation, and blindness to what a good government actually DOES for the average citizen. What bothers me most is the number of people who simply didn't vote. "Someone else will take care of things" is the mindset both of the person enamored of the Strong Man AND of the person who is just too enamored with the latest reality TV or sports win to care about who governs them.
Your last paragraph may be more correct than the issue of economics. After all, Trump and the right wing kept hammering away at Harris's socialism, nay, communism because she wanted to do something about housing, grocery costs, child care and small business. Too many are plugged into entertainment and demand it in all phases of life, to the point of, my dog, having TVs in bathrooms. Trump was their ongoing hijinks show (What will he say or do next?). Stay tuned. Their attention is so droolingly rapt that they seem indifferent to their own needs and interests, if they even have any interests. Promise circuses over bread.
And finally, Harris and Walz failed to straight forwardly address the genocide in Gaza. My city, Dearborn, once reliably Democratic, went for Trump because the Dems offered no hope, must less minimal attention to the slaughter. Their despair and anger are palpable. I have no idea how the Dems get the Arab American community back unless Trump begins deporting some of them along with those from south of the border.
Trump hates Muslims as do Republicans. He has said he wants them out of the Country. Trump and Netanyahu are close. As for as Trump, he's fine with eliminating Gaza. The slaughter is just a bonus. Voting for Jill Stein was a mistake.
We keep learning. We want to be hopeful about humanity but hope also has blind spots. This doesn't mean we give up. The hate will eventually burn itself out, not without consequences. In the meantime, all of our well meaning values will be tested. The policies and plans that Kamala spoke of were not heard by the disenfranchised people who needed to hear them. They've been bombarded with lies for a long time that fuel their misplaced anger. And there are centuries of deeply held racism and sexism coupled with religious beliefs gone wrong that haven't gone away. No matter how enlightened we'd like to think we can be as individuals, we're only as good as the worst of us when it comes to the masses. We keep trying.
I'm stepping back from my participation in FB for a while until I get my 73-year old head straightened out. While my feed was "private", I'm seeing friends give up the ghost and I'm not prepared to lie down and let anyone walk all over me. If that makes me a "criminal" in our new order, then so be it!
"I submit that the majority of you reading this (and me writing it) have no fucking clue what that 65 percent of Americans think about - what they want, the life they’d like to live, the way they’d like to live it. I will also bet that if I knocked on their door and talked to them about “the issues” as I see them that we face, they would think I was from Mars. You have to have time to be able to think about something besides “do we get to stay here next month?” to be able to see saving democracy that hasn’t helped your family and demanding action be taken on climate change. Or you need to know that the job opportunity you just found in the solar panel factory is the result of what Democrats did, not the Republican congressman who voted against Chips and Science who’s standing out front of the place claiming the credit for it being there. But Democrats didn’t do that." The most succinct and straightforward explanation I've seen so far as to why the Democrats lost another winnable election against a complete a**h*** who is also a rapist and convicted felon.
Your comment on which accounts need a $25 million fillup after raising a billion answers itself: the consultant class, who will now be at pains to explain why they were right and it was those damn fool voters who messed up, need to pay rent on the office.
They were never going to let Harris become president. Since Charlie Pierce has retired the asterisk (oh, what a pity) I would love to anoint a new moniker for him TOA (The Orange Asshole). Had, by some twist, Harris would have won, the USCOTUS would have invalidated the election. They did it before, they were poised to do it again.
I love this commentary and agree with it. But then ....
I live in an upper middle-class neighborhood, in a home built in 1975 (by Las Vegas standards, that's almost ancient!). Across the street is a very pleasant couple, a casino shift boss (important and well paid but not upper class) and a nurse. They have nice cars and take vacations. They had up a sign for the republican ticket. They aren't hurting financially. He's white and she's Asian (a group you don't find republicans mocking that much, interestingly enough). So now I have to ask myself, why are they bigots? Can we get their votes? If so, how much do we have to change? It's one thing to be a French general and refuse to see that something works or doesn't work in wartime. This is something else, and I do not know the answer.
Money doesn't equate to anything other than making a part of life a bit easier. It doesn't improve thinking. It doesn't improve empathy for our fellow humans, it doesn't change racism or misogyny, it's just money.
I have been rich and I have struggled. Neither affected how I view the world or my place in it.
It occurs to me that the Party that really needs restoring is the Democrats; the post-Trump Republican Party won't exist for a while until the chaos of choosing his successor subsides.
First, I doubt that although perhaps some in the poorer neighborhoods may have not been "moved" to vote by door knockers they may have felt weren't one of them, I doubt many were convinced not to vote by them, either. I doubt it actually Hurt any... And all of the reasons that some potential voters may not have voted does not explain any of the ones who seemed like "safe" D voters and then shocked us all by voting R if exit polls are to be believed. These are all "didn't reach this person" reasons rather than "actively turned off this person" reasons. Meh stays home, it doesn't take it's vote across the street. And so many of the reasons given would be reasons not to vote for tRump either. Housing prices? He'll raise them even more and has a history of applied inequality. Low wages? His history on paying people at all, much less living wages is terrible. I could go on, but if these were the actual issues (and I'm not saying they weren't) then voters should have been running away from tRump as fast as they could IF they only knew. Which brings me back to: Exposure to true information and misogyny.
Writing in today's New York Times, Ben Rhodes definitely gets it:
“Democrats understandably have a hard time fathoming why Americans would put our democracy at risk, but we miss the reality that our democracy is part of what angers them. Many voters have come to associate democracy with globalization, corruption, financial capitalism, migration, forever wars and elites (like me) who talk about it as an end in itself rather than a means to redressing inequality, reining in capitalist systems that are rigged, responding to global conflict and fostering a sense of shared national identity.”
Hope they enjoy the new world order.
Warning..this quote originated in the NYT!!!!! Ah Ben, how old is he? Where was he when Reagan declared war on our governmental structure in 1980? "government is the problem"! declared the cheer leader in chief!
Over the next 44 years gop legislatures when in control removed regulations that have drastically increased inflation! They neutered capitalism because monopolies grew unchecked thus reducing any competition for the consumers' business. gop House groups shutdown the government once because the dems would not roll over and play dead. This brinkmanship has played out continuously since 1980 in order to cripple the policies of the sitting democratic President!
The twenty somethings, 30 somethings and most of the 40 somethings have NOT witnessed a government functioning for the well being of its citizens!!!
Rhodes litany villains, globalization (Walmart..boys and girls), corruption (Trump 34 felony convictions), financial capitalism (mega billionaire Theil...major funder of trump campaign), etc! describes exactly what the voters have PUT IN OFFICE!
MUSK, whose wealth is said to hit nearly a third of a TRILLON dollars, is in line to destroy the dreaded Administrative functions of our government!
The economy is complex; the reasons for immigration influx are complex; fostering a sense of shared national identity is complex! The education of the masses regarding these issues is boring! The explanations "makes ones head hurt"!
FEAR and HATE mongering pumped out on every conceivable media outlet MINUTE BY MINUTE created a disillusioned audience who are NOW following a convicted sex offended; a domestic terrorist (Jan6 insurrection), a person convicted of 34 counts of FRAUD; a serial cheater in marriage; and an abysmally incompetent POTUS who dithered while nearly 1,000,000 died because he failed to recognize the effects of the silent killer Covid 19!
I am a simple man who has lived a charmed life because unionization helped create a middle class in America during the 50's and 60's which allowed me to get a college education even though my Dad died when I was 19! In the 70's we saw that government worked when the paranoidal Nixon was forced to resign as President because HIGH RANKING MEMBERS OF HIS OWN PARTY told him that he would be impeached and convicted!
I've lived a charmed life because in some ways I was able to achieve more than my parents and I witnessed a functioning government! I make no claims to be a sophisticated authority in any of the Classical studies!
However, I do have the ability to recognize when someone ( election results analyst) is "putting lipstick on a pig"
I agree with you Tom for the most part. I think the economy played a large part in the loss. But I also think the segment of the population that would not vote for a woman combined with the segment that would not vote for a Black woman were a very large part. In other words, economy, misogyny and racism were - in my humble opinion- the deciding factors.
In 2016, Trump was the result of electing a Black man to the oval office. In 2024, the racism was howling loudly. This is who we are.
I agree. The misogynists and racists are beyond reaching. But the 3 percent who voted for Biden in 2020 and didn't vote in 2024 are reachable.
Ought to be reachable, but one must stretch out one's hands.
You're likely to get it cut off.
Certainly a possibility; quick reflexes come in handy, but if we don't take the risk nothing will ever change.
I tried this election cycle. Wow. Not good. Then again I live in Texas. But my original thought was correct. They're going to believe what they're going to believe regardless of facts.
The line back (way back) in the day was "my mind's made up, don't confuse me with facts." Some things don't change until the change comes from inside.
I agree with you, Karen! Take a look at the figures of who voted for tRump and my head explodes! Every single one of those people - EVERY SINGLE ONE! - voted against their best interests, FFS!
They voted for a convicted felon running to stay out of prison!
Misogyny and racism had a role (probably more misogyny—-see Obama). But except for the base MAGAts I do not think it was the prime motivator. It might’ve been the straw that broke the camels back for some, but it was not the burden which stressed the camel before that straw. I understand that, emotionally, we want to call out misogyny and racism, but intellectually we need to understand that we did not give a great number of people a reason to come out and vote for Harris. Also, what can we do, from a political or policy point of view, to overcome racism and misogyny before 2026/2028? I just don’t think that’s a productive use of our resources. Additionally, our real challenge is going to be making sure there are meaningful elections in 2026/2028. Fascism is on the march, and the Trump administration and the MAGA governors are going to do everything they can to suppress the vote, to squelch debate and cower the media, and follow the Orbán playbook to create a one party state. And let us not forget that there is no longer a Republican party. There is MAGA. It is a party dedicated to Trump and his glorification. If we are going to overcome these obstacles, we must be clear that we are foursquare behind working people and consumers.
Just remember. They only have 22 months from taking office to the mid-terms.
Fortunately, Trump is lazy, ignorant, stupid, and incompetent. His true believers are ignorant, stupid, and incompetent, and you still have to flunk the IQ test to be a Republican. We can Fuck. Them. Up. using their own tools and they won't have a fucking clue what to do.
You have nailed it,Tom! The other side threw the rule book out of the window, and we have to use those new rules to F them up, as you say!
I think Kamala did give them plenty of reasons to vote for her, and I think tRump did too. I do agree though that we have to assign resources wisely and that even if we recognize the role racism and misogyny played in this election, that isn't something we can do anything about by effecting policy this term.
There are more subtle ways to begin to reset the background music though. For one, we need to start reaching into the brainwash factories to do so. I do wish Kamala had shown up on Joe Rogan. I think she could have handled it, he has a huge audience and has been known to admit he's wrong. I don't think it was a mistake not to, and I don't blame her for her decision or choice to allocate her time elsewhere. It's just that she could have done it and that's the kind of thing we'll have to start doing to get a better atmosphere going. Put Pete Buttigieg on Fox again now and then (when and if they calm down and stop calling for the execution of political enemies), working in a bit more world news to include news and human interest (nice and easy to listen to) stories from some of those several successful, peaceful and safe northern countries with female leaders to help normalize the concept of a female leader... that sort of thing.
All while encouraging our D reps while they're blocking every move the tRump administration makes, protesting as loudly (and convincingly) as we can, and shining as much light as possible on every outrage and atrocity they commit.
F'ing autocorrect! And bad me for not catching it, Kate.
I’ve posted basically this same message in 2 other places today. Maybe someone who can do something about it will see it. 😁
We need a 50 state campaign that starts today. Every town in America - or at least every county - has a Democratic Party apparatus of some sort. We are obviously capable of organizing volunteers. So, we need to knock on every door in our districts between now and 2026 and figure out what people are actually thinking about shit. I’ve started working on a questionnaire type thing based on what I hear from my neighbors here in the exurbs. Polls reach no one, obviously, so the only way to gather info is to physically go out and do it. I am looking forward to my local Democratic Party meeting on Monday so I can raise some hell. Ffs, even on Election Day, the GOP had a huge table, TRUMP sign, snacks, etc. The Dems apparently couldn’t be bothered aside from the guy who was trying to unseat our Republican state house rep. The party apparatus is failing. Time for new blood.
I am in a very blue state and while we sent our entire Democratic House team back to DC this year, 2 of the 5 races here were still a slog (early on, they crushed at the end).
We need to start running candidates in EVERY RACE in this country and stop conceding in advance by not even putting up a candidate. This will also help us get the word out about what we stand for. The opportunity loss by conceding these races in advance has been huge.
And we need to fire the consultants. Focus tested messaging sucks and tbh, I feel that’s what cost us. Our turnout absolutely sucked. We need to look at folks like Jess Piper and give them larger megaphones.
Firing all the over-educated, under-intelligent, otherwise-unemployable low achieving white boys in the DC "Democratic Consultant" shops would be a great start. They haven't won shit in 40 years.
And how about the DNC email a survey that isn't just an excuse to ask for money? Did they even read those? Apparently not.
And for fucks sake, can we retire the Obama people once and for all????
I mourn for what Howard Dean could have done for the Democratic Party with his 50-state initiative, if Rahm Emmanuel had not sequestered all Dean's money for Obama's campaign. Easy pickings today, lots of regrets tomorrow.....
Too true.
I agree with you. And I might add that focusing on seven "swing states" while ignoring all the rest might have seemed the answer, if all consultants thought about was "polls" but the fact of the matter is the "polls" came as text messages and emails (at least those sent to me) and as noted by Gloria J. Maloney, were nothing but requests for donations. I would get as many as 30 a day and sometimes more. My morning ritual became deleting all the junk "polls."
So, while they sat in their offices in DC playing with "polls", none of those consultants came to my state, because they had written it off as "red"; we were literally on our own trying to GOTV with our neighbors and friends. For average people, working all day, then working after work trying to raise capital for signs and events in small towns, without adequate support from the party, which was just fine mounting huge rallies in seven states, over and over again...the message was stark. They apparently didn't see a need to GOTV in our communities, because the "polls" told them we didn't matter. As I wrote on another of TC's posts, our good and great candidates in this county lost by 100 votes or so. It didn't have to happen. But it did.
Any number of people who could do something about it will probably see this and straightaway ignore it. Much like establishing and enforcing ethical standards for Congress and the Court, those who are responsible for making the change are the same ones who benefit most from the status quo.
You're right about the 50 state approach, but that would make it too hard on the "journalists" and others who would then have to travel a lot more and actually talk to people to find out what was going on. Of course if the candidates themselves were doing that we'd answer a lot of the questions Tom raised today and probably elect some people in surprising and complacent places.
Hey! A side benefit could be improvements in local journalism!! Fuck the corporate scribblers. I follow people who write about their states on Substack and they do excellent work. More of that!
The States Newsroom is an aggregator of primarily politically focused local press operations based in state capitals. The Missouri Independent is the local one for me and they are outstanding. Some of the best subscription money I invest.
And, gee, what's the difference between Biden and Harris. Hmmm. One is a white guy and one is a Black woman. I'm over the hand wringing and putting Kamala under a microscope. I read one one guy who wrote, "did you see her eyes on the View?" Fuck that. Trump stood on a stage jacking off a microphone and no one blinked. He's ridiculed the disabled, called for violence, mimicked anyone and everyone who disagreed with him, and basically wants to burn it down. No one blinked. Kamala could have walked on water and it wouldn't have changed a damn thing. Yeah Trump won. That is a fact. But he didn't win by much. It didn't help Arab men voted for Jill Stein as a protest for Gaza. Trump said he wants Muslims out if the country so good luck to those idiots. I came from poor. We genuinely struggled. And if you had knocked on our door asking my mother how she felt, she would have slammed it in their faces. You know who loves Trump? Fucking rich people. You can drive through their neighborhood and see the Trump signs and flags. And who really, really loves Trump are white Christians. Anointed by God, you know. Biden did so much for working class people. Kamala laid out a plan to do more. But they don't give a flying fuck. And typical Democrats, it's woe is me, we didn't do enough for the working person. The working man has a hard on for Trump because he promises to hurt who they hate. As for Latinos, they genuinely think Trump won't hurt them because "they're hard working people!" HA! The list goes on and on. Hillary lost in 2016. Kamala lost in 2024. Women, my friends, don't go over with the vast public.
EXACTLY. Thank you, Rita.
I agree that there is a big difference between those whose sense of the economy is that the price of eggs means they can't get a new TV and those whose sense of the economy is based on whether they will be able to afford rent and food next month. BOTH groups are going to be in for a shock, but Dems do need to sharpen their message to include the latter group. Perhaps fear of being accused of supporting the "welfare state" guided their focus on the "middle" class--I always wondered why Harris never seemed to say "Middle and Working class." A lot of working class folks are proud of that designation, and think of the "middle class" as more the people who run things they can experience, who cause them problems at the DMV, the white-collar types who are the face of the customer service that never serves.
This election wasn't just about economics. It was the Perfect Storm of racism, misogyny, misinformation, and blindness to what a good government actually DOES for the average citizen. What bothers me most is the number of people who simply didn't vote. "Someone else will take care of things" is the mindset both of the person enamored of the Strong Man AND of the person who is just too enamored with the latest reality TV or sports win to care about who governs them.
Your last paragraph may be more correct than the issue of economics. After all, Trump and the right wing kept hammering away at Harris's socialism, nay, communism because she wanted to do something about housing, grocery costs, child care and small business. Too many are plugged into entertainment and demand it in all phases of life, to the point of, my dog, having TVs in bathrooms. Trump was their ongoing hijinks show (What will he say or do next?). Stay tuned. Their attention is so droolingly rapt that they seem indifferent to their own needs and interests, if they even have any interests. Promise circuses over bread.
And finally, Harris and Walz failed to straight forwardly address the genocide in Gaza. My city, Dearborn, once reliably Democratic, went for Trump because the Dems offered no hope, must less minimal attention to the slaughter. Their despair and anger are palpable. I have no idea how the Dems get the Arab American community back unless Trump begins deporting some of them along with those from south of the border.
Trump hates Muslims as do Republicans. He has said he wants them out of the Country. Trump and Netanyahu are close. As for as Trump, he's fine with eliminating Gaza. The slaughter is just a bonus. Voting for Jill Stein was a mistake.
We keep learning. We want to be hopeful about humanity but hope also has blind spots. This doesn't mean we give up. The hate will eventually burn itself out, not without consequences. In the meantime, all of our well meaning values will be tested. The policies and plans that Kamala spoke of were not heard by the disenfranchised people who needed to hear them. They've been bombarded with lies for a long time that fuel their misplaced anger. And there are centuries of deeply held racism and sexism coupled with religious beliefs gone wrong that haven't gone away. No matter how enlightened we'd like to think we can be as individuals, we're only as good as the worst of us when it comes to the masses. We keep trying.
I'm stepping back from my participation in FB for a while until I get my 73-year old head straightened out. While my feed was "private", I'm seeing friends give up the ghost and I'm not prepared to lie down and let anyone walk all over me. If that makes me a "criminal" in our new order, then so be it!
Giving up FleeceBlock is an act of sanity Richard. Just hang in here and we'll yank and pull and get that head straight. :-)
The Roman Emperors threw the Christians to the lions & the crowd roared . Bring on the gladiators.
We have 2 episodes of 1944 to catch up on today.
Thanks for all you do , TC. You are a life raft in a typhoon.
"I submit that the majority of you reading this (and me writing it) have no fucking clue what that 65 percent of Americans think about - what they want, the life they’d like to live, the way they’d like to live it. I will also bet that if I knocked on their door and talked to them about “the issues” as I see them that we face, they would think I was from Mars. You have to have time to be able to think about something besides “do we get to stay here next month?” to be able to see saving democracy that hasn’t helped your family and demanding action be taken on climate change. Or you need to know that the job opportunity you just found in the solar panel factory is the result of what Democrats did, not the Republican congressman who voted against Chips and Science who’s standing out front of the place claiming the credit for it being there. But Democrats didn’t do that." The most succinct and straightforward explanation I've seen so far as to why the Democrats lost another winnable election against a complete a**h*** who is also a rapist and convicted felon.
Your comment on which accounts need a $25 million fillup after raising a billion answers itself: the consultant class, who will now be at pains to explain why they were right and it was those damn fool voters who messed up, need to pay rent on the office.
They were never going to let Harris become president. Since Charlie Pierce has retired the asterisk (oh, what a pity) I would love to anoint a new moniker for him TOA (The Orange Asshole). Had, by some twist, Harris would have won, the USCOTUS would have invalidated the election. They did it before, they were poised to do it again.
I don’t think there has been a Civics class anywhere since Eisenhower!! 🙀
We had a mandatory civics class as high school seniors in 1975.
I took civics in 1969. It was a requirement.
I love this commentary and agree with it. But then ....
I live in an upper middle-class neighborhood, in a home built in 1975 (by Las Vegas standards, that's almost ancient!). Across the street is a very pleasant couple, a casino shift boss (important and well paid but not upper class) and a nurse. They have nice cars and take vacations. They had up a sign for the republican ticket. They aren't hurting financially. He's white and she's Asian (a group you don't find republicans mocking that much, interestingly enough). So now I have to ask myself, why are they bigots? Can we get their votes? If so, how much do we have to change? It's one thing to be a French general and refuse to see that something works or doesn't work in wartime. This is something else, and I do not know the answer.
Money doesn't equate to anything other than making a part of life a bit easier. It doesn't improve thinking. It doesn't improve empathy for our fellow humans, it doesn't change racism or misogyny, it's just money.
I have been rich and I have struggled. Neither affected how I view the world or my place in it.
It occurs to me that the Party that really needs restoring is the Democrats; the post-Trump Republican Party won't exist for a while until the chaos of choosing his successor subsides.
I blame McConnell and Garland.
Thank you Tom and all the
great comments about this.
Here in Arkansas, the
democratic party suck big
time. I had to rely on our local
university for candidate info.
I received exactly 2 requests
from the state dem party. 1 in
Jan. 24 and 1 in Oct. 24, both
for contributions. Neither
email had any info on party
candidates; 8 up and down
ballot. Every dem candidate
in the country had my phone
number! Some I'd never heard
of before. I'd block and they'd
come through on another
number. All those "Stop to
End" at bottom were useless.
Talk about being ticked off 1
with your party!
First, I doubt that although perhaps some in the poorer neighborhoods may have not been "moved" to vote by door knockers they may have felt weren't one of them, I doubt many were convinced not to vote by them, either. I doubt it actually Hurt any... And all of the reasons that some potential voters may not have voted does not explain any of the ones who seemed like "safe" D voters and then shocked us all by voting R if exit polls are to be believed. These are all "didn't reach this person" reasons rather than "actively turned off this person" reasons. Meh stays home, it doesn't take it's vote across the street. And so many of the reasons given would be reasons not to vote for tRump either. Housing prices? He'll raise them even more and has a history of applied inequality. Low wages? His history on paying people at all, much less living wages is terrible. I could go on, but if these were the actual issues (and I'm not saying they weren't) then voters should have been running away from tRump as fast as they could IF they only knew. Which brings me back to: Exposure to true information and misogyny.
Your analysis is right.