>> "How can it possibly be that Democrats have yet again sleepwalked into yet another high-profile race for which they seem to have basically zero highly qualified and popular candidates? Is it too much to expect this party to figure out one primary field that looks inviting enough that nobody feels compelled to do write-in candidate hopium long after the filing deadlines have passed?"
I think part of what is happening with our politics is that it is really difficult and expensive for a normal person to run for office. I tried to budget out what it would take for me to quit my job or take off enough time to run for local office where I live, and I don't know how my family would make that work financially.
So, who can afford to run? Rich people. Dunning-Kruger candidates. People out of touch with the vox populi and high on their own supply. People who are willing, at minimum, to sacrifice the safety and security of their family (both financial and bodily) to roll the dice on winning.
It's not a healthy environment when it is this difficult and expensive and dangerous to run, and so we get unhealthy candidates.
>> "What Magyar did is he explained to them that the reason your hospitals and your schools are crumbling is because these guys are stealing from you. I think that was hugely impactful. "
It's embodied politics. It's shoe leather. It's getting out there. You gotta get off the algorithms, and stop setting cash on fire to run ads no one pays attention to, and ignore the Sunday shows no one watches, and go out to the places you want to represent and talk to people and show them who you are and tell them how you want to help them.
Agreed. But there's some sort of equivalent / analog for embodied politics in a larger district. Like make campaign stops in places that are getting butts kicked by Trumpist policy. The negative effects of the OBBA and the tariffs and the war are disproportionately felt in rural areas. Orban's base of support was, like Trump, also in rural areas, and Magyar won by going there and bursting the epistemic bubble of Orban's hermetically sealed grip on Hungarian media.
And look at what Republican candidates do: basically nothing. Go to rural Missouri and see if they've seen their Republican elected representatives lately. In most cases, they haven't because those people are either too scared to show up or know that there's no opposition to them, so why bother.
Get out there. Make those people show their faces. Challenge them and what they're doing. That's what's happening in Iowa right now and it's putting numbers on the board. It can be done in other red states too.
Sure sounds like she a prime candidate for a "Remember Sue Collins? She is one of our Senators, but does not come to hear or see what our problems are" campaign sign, or Three Billboards Outside Portland Maine.....
But name recognition counts for a lot among people who never pay attention to politics. They go in the voting booth and for person they think they know.
But then the media in Hungary was much more similar Russia or North Korea's. Our media for all it s faults is nowhere close to Hungary as far as political influence. All the more praise for Magyar in his campaign in overcoming this.
True, size matters. So, what is wrong with breaking it down? National campaigns are won State by State. The number of States that are reliably purple or likely purple or real "swing" States is much smaller. No, I am not advocating ignoring the projected "base" of a given candidate, but, paraphrasing Ian Fleming, "It is never too early to start winning, but it is always too early to start losing."
Hungary is the size of some states. The analogy there is easy, but our federal model has enabled insane amounts of money in politics from a top-down basis, reinforced by our two-party structure.
Don't give up, and don't give in to despair. I'm in Alabama, where Democrats have a snowball's chance in Hell of winning. Yet hard work by people, all volunteers, has recruited and continues to support candidates for every single office on this year's ballots. The candidates are ordinary people, not rich--a nurse, for example, and an IT guy. Smart people who care and scrape together money as best they can. For the first time in decades, citizens will go to the polls and see more than one or two Democrats they can vote for. They'll see Democrats all up and down the ballot. They'll have a choice! The candidates will lose. They might lose next time, too. But they're running, and they'll keep running. Good for them. Good for us.
You're right that it's not about the Sunday shows or ads. It IS about getting out there, and really connecting with people. I think, however, the fire and boldness, the willingness to have fun with one's image (e.g. Magyar leaning into the sunglasses thing) is even more important. I think most, if not all Democrats are starved for boldness (not brashness or arrogance), for relentlessly speaking truth to power, for calling out the corruption and indeed all of the BS of the current regime. For some reason the Dems seem to be frozen, like a deer in headlights, afraid of the polls and genuine authenticity (which should be redundant, but it isn't given the online/social media personas vs. actual personalities.
My Democratic Congressman is accessible. When he first ran, a friend asked me to attend a get together and it turned out to an introduction to our Democratic Congressional candidate. He was very accessible and had a lot to say. He lives near me and I do occasionally contact him about issues and he'll (an aid) get back to me. But he sends out a news emails about what he's doing. I bet if you want know your congressman its not that hard.
What's wrong with Xavier Becerra? He's got a history in California and national politics, cares about the state and has clear policy supporting housing affordability and protecting MediCal. He has been going out to public events and talking. yet nobody is considering him.
I think the thing about Magyar's campaign that may not work in the US is the fact that Hungarians intensely felt the effect of corruption on their daily lives. I don't think Americans have truly experienced that level yet. I think they are complaining about gas prices, but I don't think they have suffered the indiginity of not having a nearby hospital that can save your relative's life so that relative dies (for example). However, I think the Big Beautiful Bill results will lead to that quite soon. The question is: will Americans blame Trump's corruption? Or believe that it's "short term pain for long term gain" and a Golden Age is around the corner? I think the Hungarians dealt with Russia for so long that they know a corrupt government when they see one. Americans do not have that experience. And I fear there will always be a majority that is "okay enough" that they won't rock the boat.
I also don't think Americans are particularly troubled by corruption. Sure, we like to say that we want people to obey the law but we also have a strong culture of do whatever it takes to get ahead, and rules are for dummies. Our business culture is saturated with "find the loopholes" and "I know a guy." It takes some extraordinary levels of corruption to make the average person go, huh, maybe that's illegal. And then you have to find a jury to convict people.
I think there's a fine line between criminal corruption and savvy business practice, which is not consistently or coherently observed by anyone. I agree, but also remember that the "Biden Crime Family" and focus on Hunter Biden was essentially, allegedly, about corruption.
I just think the Democrats are less talented at getting the allegation to stick to Don Jr and Eric and Jared Kushner, than the Republicans were at going after Hunter.
Hunter's laptop story didn't stick because of corruption. It stuck because of the sex, lies and videotape stories around it. Corruption is boring. The president's son being a drug addict with naughty videos on a laptop is not. Especially when it's played on Fox News every day.
Yes, I worry that Democrats do not have what it takes to "go for the jugular" by pinning corruption directly to Trump and his family and friends in the Administration. The details and facts are all there to capitalize on, but will they do it with the determination and doggedness that has worked so successfully for Republicans? I don't want them to use nuance or innuendo - they can succeed by just using the truth. The same goes for using the inaction of Republicans to stand up to Trump while all this corruption and sleaze has been going on around them while they stick their heads in the sand and pretend it isn't happening. Tie it around their necks and make them own it.
Yeah, I have to agree. I think there is a very big dollop of "I'd do it if I could get away with it" in our culture. I think that links to the reason that working class people vote for tax breaks for the rich even though they deprive them (the working class) of benefits and services. It goes back to that idea of Americans being "temporarily embarrassed millionaires." We don't want the rules there when we finally come into our money.
Yet another consequence of our horrible civic education. People do not know what their taxes pay for. They also don't know what takes up the vast majority of the federal budget. Hint, it ain't PBS.
And yet they take clean water, paved raids in good condition and clean air for granted, because we all know those are gifts from the fairies, right?🤦♀️
We also have an electorate who largely has never known anything BUT clean water and clean air. And all of the other good things we enjoy because of regulations, which are enforced by gov employees who are paid by, yes, our taxes. The fact is Americans are incredibly spoiled and they absolutely do not know that those spoils are largely due to a massive government apparatus that regulates the consequences of a capitalist economy. Or at least a government that used to.
It doesn't help that under the Corruptor in Chief the DOJ is no longer prosecuting white collar crime. For the Dems to gain any traction the States would have to do their thing, and thankfully, some of them are.
I think that it's a mixture of what you and Kass said: we don't mind corruption provided it isn't affecting us, and unfortunately what it will take to get Americans to get off of MAGA cocaine is a bulk of typically comfortable Americans getting viscerally burned.
I think Americans ARE troubled by corrruption, most definitely when it's at the TOP! And as a business owner, I believe we DO NOT have a culture of "finding the loopholes" but one of performing the everyday chores of running a business. The expression "I know a guy" is hardly corrupting and in most cases the crux of business. Demeaning that expression is flat out wrong!
Bingo, Robin. We have a highly individualistic culture in America that celebrates doing WHATEVER it takes to win for yourself. Most other countries are on some spectrum of a collectivist culture that allows room for success with each other rather than in opposition to each other.
Also, we see corruption as a “suckers” problem and don’t tend to associate our entire system with being the sucker.
My fear is that by the time Americans feel enough pain to be upset that the Democrats will have enough power that they get the blame. Trump is out here putting his name on everything and talking about building monuments for himself, but they see that as Trump being Trump. They can't comprehend the sheer scale of his grifting.
They don’t like corruption but they’ll overlook it for other reasons. Why was Orban popular? Because he wouldn’t allow Western European style immigration, of non whites and non Christians.
This is their #1 issue and they’ll overlook a lot for it. I do not expect Magyar to suddenly change this.
You make a great point. However, I believe that all the corruption can be tied to a myriad of real world consequences for Americans. It isn't just the crypto nonsense and the Qatar plane and the true weaponization of the DOJ and the Epstein class each in a bubble. It is all connected and it has much to do with everything from the repercussions of the BBB to the Iran War. That needs to be the message loud abd clear.
I feel like we passed the Stovicon already. The economy is demonstrably worse. Everyone is paying more in health care costs.
I really don't think money is going to move the needle on as many people as economists think it will. Southern states have shown repeatedly that they don't mind taking a financial hit if it gives them the "freedom" to enact strict voter laws against minorities, get rid of free third spaces where kids and minorities hang out, and ever increase their police budgets.
Didn't work with me as a kid , when I got beaten with the " board of education " , I would bide my time and that teacher would get 2 flat tires. There's only one spare .
A way to blame liberals for the closing of rural hospitals will be found, don't worry. All we need to get those hospitals back is more tax cuts for the hyper wealthy. /s
In my sarcastic reply above about damable lefties, I was going to insert "meat-eschewing vegetable-loving" before "lefties", but I thought it was going too far. 😁
Kass, I think you're right in that we here in the USA don't yet have a good objective measure of the impact of corruption. The Hungarians could take a quick trip and see how much better Poland is, or how Romania (Heaven Forbid!) was improving. Or, go anywhere in the EU and see that things are better. I think we here have two things working against us: 1) We've been normalizing decreasing standards of living for decades (distracted by our toys, no dobut) and 2) No nearby objective measures of how things COULD be (and many American's are plenty content to remain ignorant).
Also, as noted by others, I think many American's are happy to seek out system exploits that they think will take them to the top. It's the whole "their rules" mentality. Those guys are cheating, so I can cheat too and, in fact, it's the only way to win.
That's a sad consequence of Idaho's very rigid abortion legislation. When doctors are looking over their shoulder in fear that providing medically indicated health care to a woman with an ectopic or other type of nonviolent pregnancy they will decide to relocate.
Half of America will believe it when told that the local hospital closing is directly linked to the policies of Barack Hussein Obama. So nothing will change.
In my eyes we have had a succession of corrupt governments since January 20th of 1981 , that being said most victims of it can't connect the dots so they swallow right wing claptrap and blame themselves. " it's my own fault I'm not a billionaire " . Sad but true.
CA resident here - what a shit show ! Good job Andrew, I wish everyone was writing about this nationally because it’s huge that CA can’t find a charismatic qualified non-billionaire to run for governor. I find myself saying, I swore I would never vote for a billionaire but with CA’s dumb primary rule - the 2 regardless of party who get the most votes will be in the general - I will probably vote for the Dem that leads the polls. You know they say, CA leads the country and we are doomed if this is how Dems run 2028. I’m so mad and disgusted at my party and YOU creep Eric Swalwell (who myself and friends were going to vote for).
PS - Don’t call us Cali. If you were born here, nope no and no.
If your contention is "Morning Shots headlines should be allowed to be as long as Triad headlines" you are not beefing with me, you are beefing with Sam Stein. 😂
I first heard the word Cali from a home-schooled young woman, she was so very kind. But otherwise such a dimwit. sorry, I've met others years ago much brighter and more in touch with the real world
'Cali' absolutely originated as an outsider reference to the state, more specifically by New York based rap artists. LL Cool J released a track "Goin' Back to Cali" articulating misgivings about a planned move to LA for business reasons, and Biggie Smalls joined in with his own track under the same name.
I was teaching in San Francisco then, and these tracks were popular with my students. Which makes perfect sense with the general sensibility of young people, to be rebellious enough to find it hip to join in with outside hip cultural figures dissing their home. 'Oh yeah, I understand what he's sayin' about girls here. Lol, true dat if I'm being honest.'
So it's a generational and cultural thing, methinks.
In contrast, "Frisco" has never been hip to anyone. It is not just an outsider's term, but one associated with bland middle American commercial culture framing SF as 'cutely eccentric'. Like a fast food restaurant offering a 'Frisco Burger' because it comes on sourdough bread rather than a sesame seed bun.
So IMO it's perfectly acceptable for an East Coaster like Andrew to use 'Cali', but more so especially appropriate in the context of expressing skepticism of our state's politics.
I remember when Porter and Swalwell gained prominence in 2020, and thinking California sent some top notch reps to Congress. Which they were, but apparently they were lacking in other necessary skill sets. Like not pulling the power card on your staff.
Just saying: Tom Steyer and his wife co-founded a mission-driven Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) 2 decades ago. Beneficial State Bank has spent nearly two decades serving communities abandoned by Wall Street and working to directly dismantle the legacy of redlining and disinvestment. It's built 17,000m homes so far. Since leaving his hedge fund in 2012 he's funded an enormous amount of progressive causes and Democratic candidates. He's signed the Giving Pledge. He's not a Gilded Age billionaire bro. I've met him briefly when he was running for President. He comes across as a regular authentic guy. And, he's competent! Go beyond the headlines and find out what he's about. I think you'll find him interesting and better than "hold your nose and vote for the better of all the evils".
Have you noticed all the attacks ads on Steyer now? Backed by oil and PG&E. That tells you something! When he ran for prez it was a big environmentalist and that is great for CA. Glad to hear you say good things about him.
I don't get it - what's wrong with calling it Cali. I was born here, in Cali, and born to love it, and I very much like the term. It's informal and affectionate, I think.
Oh that is one of those things we love to argue about on social media ; ) Older people like myself don’t like but I see a lot of younger people do. People my gen seem to like CA, SoCal, NorCal, NoCal. Reminds of calling SF - Frisco - people that live there hated that. Ultimately it doesn’t matter tho.
Born at Stanford hospital, and I've lived all over California my entire life, with the exception of 4 years in Colorado. Don't cal it Cali and don't call it Frisco!
Like when people say "New Joisey". Lived in both ends of the state for decades, went to school in the central part of the state, and not once have I ever heard someone who lives here say "Joisey". I hear someone say that, and violent thoughts flash across my mind. Not that I ever have followed-up on those thoughts. 😀
That's Cali for you - we adapt and welcome the new ideas coming from the youngs, don't reject them out of hand because that's not the way "things are done."
Tom Steyer and his wife co-founded a mission-driven Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). Beneficial State Bank has spent nearly two decades serving communities abandoned by Wall Street and working to directly dismantle the legacy of redlining and disinvestment. It's built 17,000 homes so far. Read his policy statements and see what he's done and doing with him wealth. He's not a GIlded Age billionaire bro.
I’m glad you said this and it’s really a big conversation to be had…so I watched Steyer interviewed by Hasan Piker (yes him!) because I knew if anyone would avoid softball questions it was Piker. I gotta say there was not one thing I disagreed with that Steyer said. The fact that he would go on Piker’s live stream for an interview and comfortably answer all of his questions (something Kamala would never have done or been able to do) for an hour was very impressive. (Sarah really needs to watch that interview or at least the interview Piker did with Jon Favs)
100%. Thank you Keith. And now people who live here, including news anchors are starting to call the Bay Area (SF Bay Area) "The Bay". Ugh! No. Sorry for straying off-topic.
TAH, I came here to speak my mind only to find you summarized my thoughts better than I could have... right down to the Cali rant. 😉 I know several people who worked for Yee and Beccera... both are more than qualified to do the job. Neither has gained traction. Perhaps a series of early debates could have helped? Although I don't think it's too much to ask for a candidate with both competence and charisma to run our state.
I have a friend who has told me the same about Becera and Yee and yet…where are they? I hear and see nothing from them and communication is so important. Love or hate Newsom, he was super smart to create a website debunking right wing attacks and outright lies regarding the Palisades and Altadena fires. I’m not feeling real confident that Beccera and Yee would do the same. Again tho - how in the world do we not have a better group of candidates? It’s just shocking.
Friend here, Becerra is picking up on his social media outreach. I'm sending him money today. I wish he were more charismatic. It's too bad that our attention spans need the jazz hands. I think Californians are dismissing him too easily because he isn't snazzy and loud, despite being the MOST qualified. Maybe, as a society, we need to learn to fall in love with the quiet steady ones. And not make up our minds right now out of fear. There is a very large Hispanic population that hopefully will be mobilized.
I believe that The Contrarian is an important independent media source which I value for reporting and insights in these troubled times. But sometimes I feel that (some) writers are Republicans first, Americans second. While I've been a Democrat for 40 years, I try to be American first, Democrat second. I also wonder frequently whether "The Opposition" column is slanted against the party you are opposed to, rather than about the one party which is opposed to the authoritarian takeover of America.
I think that in your CA Governor contest piece/harangue, instead of taking a shot like: "they seem to have basically zero highly qualified and popular candidates?" you could have dug a little deeper to at least identified the other 4 qualified challengers and mentioned their background:
* Xavier Becerra: Served as the 25th U.S. Secretary of Health and Human services from March 2021 to January 2025; previously served as the California Attorney General from January 2017 until March 2021. A real solid citizen in my experience.
* Antonio Villaraigosa: 41st Mayor of Los Angeles from 2005 to 2013; previously served as the Majority Leader from 1996 to 1998 and Speaker of the California State Assembly from 1998 to 2000.
* Betty Yee: Served as California State Controller from 2015 to 2023; previously served as a member of the California Board of Equalization from 2004 to 2015.
* Tony Thurmond: Serves as the 28th California State Superintendent of Public Instruction since 2019; he was a member of the California State Assembly from 2014 to 2018.
Also to mention that the California media market is extraordinarily expensive, which is a challenge to candidates without deep pockets.
Also, that both Republican candidates are each uniquely unqualified - Chad Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff has improperly seized ballots to try to prove out Trump's 2020 conspiracy theory, and Steve Hilton, a British conservative and former Fox personality who only became a (dual) U.S. citizen in May 2021 and said of COVID "the cure could be worse than the disease".
My overall point is that the cure for Trump and his MAGA/Republican sycophants and enablers threatening our republic is not snark, but info which might help Californians (please don't say Cali) make a good decision.
P.S. Matt Mahan is in the pocket of big Tech and AI business people who are also supporting Trump.
This is fairly typical of The Bulwark's analysis, which can lack analytical nuance of West Coast politics and can be colored by an East Coast condescension. How about bringing on staff a writer or two who has deep knowledge of the region?
Glad you brought this up again Steve. The phoenix that rose from The Weekly Standard’s ashes can and does push beyond the roots, and will hopefully continue to broaden. I’m looking forward to what Jasmine Green will share. I do not look forward to Andrew writing about CA. He lost me at “obvious bad governance” months ago. Grateful to the Bulwarkians who took the time today to shed light on Steyer, and offer perspective for those of us actually voting in the CA primary.
IMO the best critic/booster of California politics is Jon Lovett at Crooked Media. He doesn't spend a ton of time on it, but when he does he brings the heat.
Thank you for this! So many folks on all sides of the aisle love to dump on California (not Cali, ew) and lean into dumb stereotypes. Super frustrating. Hopefully voters here do some basic work to determine who these candidates are. *If anyone is thinking about Villaraigosa, please please please take a hard look at his time governing L.A. and peek past his charming personality.
Agreed, we all need to do our part as good citizens by researching the candidates to make an informed decision. California is too important to the U.S. overall (think of the great efforts of AG Rob Bonta daily to fight against Trump's outrages and protect Californians) to hand it over to the Republicans (as currently constituted).
Villaraigosa is a hard no for me, but I do like Xacier Becerra, and Mahan, as you note, is the big tech candidate — of course The Free Press is all over him as a *normie* Democrat candidate compared to the other barbarians.
I'm with Becerra at this point. Most experience, including many years in the state assembly I believe. Mahan is a definite no. Too conservative, too tight with our putrid tech bros. Steyer has no experience in public office and will not do well. He promises things he would have no power to do.
I live in Daly City, had never heard of Mahan before the other day when I caught a snatch of him talking as part of post-Swallwell campaign coverage. Nothing he said policy wise was notably offensive to my 'progressive' ears, but there was something in his language and tone that made we very wary, too much of a glib salesman vibe maybe...
Andrew was cheating by opining the Dems don't have a "competent and popular" candidate, in which "popular" is doing a lot of the work and begging the question. I agree that Becerra seems well qualified, and the fact he's not at the celebrity level to get name recognition is a sad reason to dismiss him.
If Andrew wants to criticize the CA Dem establishment, that's fair enough. If Newsome, Harris, and/or Pelosi got behind one of the remaining candidates that would address the popularity problem. Ro Khanna is on TV giving a pretty strong endorsement to Tom Steyer, and that will certainly aid in folks taking his campaign as more than a vanity project. There's also a lot of negative ads targetting him now, painting him as a secret Trumper, just-another-hedge-fund-scumbag, but they're funded by a business group obviously worried he'd be too progressive, so if they're taking him seriously enough to spend heavily to attack him... draw your own conclusions there.
Becerra's probably the best choice, least risk certainly. But I'd take Steyer over Villaraigosa or anyone backed by the $$$ going to Mahan.
Nice work here to sum up where we are at. We need to get very serious about who will govern California for the next term. You have listed the qualified candidates in their correct order. I, too, join the chorus asking for serious coverage of this very consequential state. I wonder, very often, why the middle and east of this country don't fully appreciate just how much of a contribution California makes to every single citizen's life. I lived in DC for five years (spouse at OMB and worked for a news radio station myself) and the extent to which an 'inside the beltway' approach dominates all - while understandable - totally annoying.
Bob, thank you for this comment. At this point, I think we need to vote strategically, which has been my plan since the low polling candidates refused to drop out, due to placing their egos over what's best for the state (and country). I probably like Becerra the best, but I will vote for whichever Dem is polling the highest. We cannot afford having two completely unqualified maga Republicans ending up in the final. Robert Hubbell wrote about this in last night's Today's Edition newsletter.
Thank you, Bob. I felt the same and came here to see if anyone had offered an intelligent analysis rather than the sputtering I was likely limited to. You are, as they say, but not if you’re JD, doing the Lord’s work.
As a life long Californian, and a Democratic Party member since I could vote, I agree we have a mixed bag of candidates for governor, none of whom seem up to the task. But let me also say that, while it is fair to criticize us about this, if you are really wanting to influence Californians, it will go much better if you lose the term "Cali".
Thank you Janis, I came here to object to the use of ‘Cali’ as well. I know in the greater scheme of things it may be a minor quibble, but for many if not most Californians, it feels somewhat demeaning. California or CA is not much harder to key in!
Yes, mostly areas north of Sacramento. My current State Assembly member, who was one of three Republicans running, and the least crazy of them all, frequently refers to her constituency as the "North State", which prompts me to remind her that she actually has constituents who are not technically in that region, and she should care about us as well. I live in the Tahoe area.
Tom Steyer and his wife co-founded a mission-driven Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). Beneficial State Bank has spent nearly two decades serving communities abandoned by Wall Street and working to directly dismantle the legacy of redlining and disinvestment. They've built 17,000 homes so far. He's signed the Giving Pledge. He's not a Gilded Age billionaire bro. You may want to dig a little deeper. You may find you like what you learn about him.
That is such a good point! I felt the same when I read that statement. Except instead of too stupid, it gave me the feeling he is too scheming.
A technique he follows seems to be to state a truth plainly but then turn it into a lie by switching around the roles of good and bad. Or to state a lie plainly but then stand by it as a valid assertion even if he knows it's a lie. Like he did with the dogs and cats story.
Either way he seems close enough to the truth that I can't believe he doesn't see it. Kind of like normal politician lying except taken to the extreme. That is just my impression to think he's aware though. It could well be he has been lying for so long it's become second nature and he no longer sees the irony.
With Trump, I do very much get the feeling he doesn't see the irony of his lies out of stupidity. Kind of like color-blindness, maybe he doesn't notice the difference between lies and truth in the first place. He lies so profusely, and always in such a self-centered way, that I think it gives weight to the saying that every accusation is a confession.
Demonic, satanic, child sacrificing monsters being exposed? Oh whom do you speak Donald? Even if the dates, times and places were not correct q-anon was weirdly not that far off about a cabal of sexual predators having their way with young girls. Except you, Donald, are at the heart of all the sorted stories and mysteries of what happened. Your own wife just resurrected the story last week. If any Trump card is to be played by god hopefully he or she has a sense of karmic justice.
Re: "And his response to that was not to deliver some sort of a lecture on gender norms, or to say, how dare you do this."
This.
I went to the No Kings rally in Chicago. I listened to an hour and a half of speeches by seven speakers. Y'know what the first four were? Land acknowledgement, LGBTQ+ issues, trans issues and the importance of organized labor. The last one? Well, she was a high school student who talked about the impact of armed, masked, violent, unaccountable, untrained Federal officers chucking gas grenades at little kids IN THIS CITY. She wasn't absolutely last. There was a disco funk saxophonist who played after her, but pretty much. She brought my wife to tears. Powerful. And last. Because what she was talking about was less important than all that other stuff to the organizers of that rally. She could have been first. She should have been first. But she was last. For a reason.
The organizers of that rally, prioritized what was important TO THEM, not to the crowd. Come 2028, they're going to do the same thing. They're not going to go hammer and tongs on corruption or ICE or the war or threats to free speech, at least insofar as it has anything to do with the concerns of almost everyone. No. They're going to talk about gender norms and climate and trans stuff and all the other things they're REALLY motivated by.
And all the Republicans have to do is find someone not crazy to run and they'll win again. Not a hard thing to do at all.
So, yeah, Democrats need to get their act together. Look around, Democrats. See what's actually going on out here like Magyar did in Hungary. Talk to people like they're people.
Gender norms, climate, trans stuff, and all the other things are very important.
However, I agree that the MOST important thing right now is getting the madman and his supporters away from the levers of power, and then creating a situation in which it can't happen again.
These other important things shouldn't be ignored while this is going on, of course, but part and parcel of the fixes that happen. But the primary thing is ousting the maniacs.
PLEASE, DEMOCRATS. Look to the Hungarian model. Spread the tent across the middle. Teach the fringes that the concerns of the middle have much more traction than the important issues on which they want to campaign.
But isn't that a great example? You can't give a kid a Tylenol for a headache in a public school without proper documentation, but in the Fox News Cinematic Universe, you can send little Billy off to school and he comes back a girl? How, exactly...
So a candidate needs to address this head on, like James Talerico did with the "litter boxes in schools" thing.
"Look, I'll give a million dollars to the charity of your choice if you can identify one student who was transgendered at school without his or her parents' knowledge if you agree to give the charity of my choice a million dollars if I can identify one American citizen illegally deported by Donald Trump's ICE goons. How about it, Mr. MAGA. You in?"
Call them out. Make them back it up. Remember when it was all the rage for these lunatics to go around talking about how Dearborn, MI was governed by Sharia Law? That wasn't fixed until the Mayor of Dearborn started showing up at those presentations. These people, these MAGA idiots, live in an information environment that can be entered, but it takes work to do so.
About 24 years ago I got my left hand operated on and there were delays. The waiting area had on fox
" news " , we had to wait many hours , my wife had never been exposed to propaganda like this and wanted to know how this one sided lying could be legal ? I said that saint Ronald got rid of the fairness doctrine and the sluice gates of the septic tank opened up.
Have been for years. I retired back here in 2017, reconnected with a lot of friends from my yute, immediately stopped associating due to their TDS. They're all deranged trump supporters.
So, what you are saying is that trans and non-binary people should make themselves invisible so as to not scare the Fox News crowd who is going to villify them anyway. OK.
No. I’d never presume to tell anyone to disappear. I think it would be more politically useful for everybody — including trans people — to focus on stuff that affects everybody.
There are armed thugs killing American citizens in the streets of American cities. The Vice President of the United States says those thugs have — his words— absolute immunity. None will ever face any consequences.
I’m think you can get a lot of people motivated to vote for candidates who think that’s something, certainly more than for a candidate going on and on about pronouns.
I wasn't at the last No Kings protest so I can't speak to exactly what the speaker said. But your comment hit a nerve. I have trans people in my life who very much feel like the country as a whole wants them to not exist. Using pronouns is an extremely small way that people can demonstrate their support and while Fox News will ALWAYS be outraged by it I am sad when someone who is on "our side" says that it is alienating.
No Kings by its very nature is supposed to be inclusive of all of the grievances we all have against this administration. I would argue that it is supposed to be a rally to bring together people whose top priorities are different but all are related. To denigrate particular speakers or issues by saying they aren't as important as X seems to miss the point. Yes, it is absolutely important that ICE is out of control. But it's also important that civil rights are being taken away from specific groups, that Trump's oligarchs are waging war on Labor and that Trump has threatened genocide on an entire country. All of those and more(!) issues co-exist and maybe you care more about ICE and I care more about Iran but if we each have a speaker addressing our issue at the same rally then maybe that unites us in a common cause.
The point of No Kings is that the executive branch has no right to make decisions without congress. He has no right tear down public buildings, or give insider information to family friends so they can profit, and he can't order military actions on his own. Sexual identification is not among those specific actions. If you want to make your point heard, you focus on issues that effect most people.
And it works because Republican voters are stuck in THEIR cultural grievances. The break that cycle, Democrats need to talk to THOSE people in a way that communicates that they hear their concerns and not JUST the cultural ones.
Did you make $30 million yesterday on crypto? No, but Don Jr. did. Did you get to make a real estate deal in Qatar yesterday that will bring in a billion dollars over 10 years? No? Well Jared did. Do you have personal access to a government jet, paid for at taxpayer expense to shuttle you and your friends around in? No? Well Kash Patel and Melania have that. Must have been fun hanging out and drinking with the US Olympic hockey team, eh? You didn't get to go, of course, but you got to pay for it, which is not quite as good.
Your kids want to buy a house. That's hard. Gas is expensive now, isn't it? So's car insurance. And health insurance. And rent. And you're not getting a big raise. And before you used to be able to get someone to work on your house pretty easily, but now you can't and it's a lot more expensive.
Why do you think that is?
I don't think the pitch should be 100% economic. It used to be a Republican (and conservative) given that the government works FOR US. Doesn't seem like that anymore, does it? Say something mean to a masked, armed, unidentified, Federal agent and he can kill you, just draw his weapon, shoot you and call you an effing bitch. Nothing will happen to him. The Vice President of the United States will explain to you that those people have ultimate immunity. His term. And he's right. They can do whatever they want to you, whenever they want, for whatever reason or no reason at all. They can chuck gas grenades at little kids in a Halloween Parade. They can haul old men in their underwear out into the freezing cold and "question" them for hours. They can drop blind, mentally challenged people off in empty parking lots in the middle of the night to freeze to death. It's all perfectly legal. Sound like they work for us? I don't think so, but that's America today.
Want to do something about it? I do. And the only way that happens is to vote out the people who think that stuff is completely alright.
They is PLURAL! Can't we please find a gender neutral pronoun so we don't have to bastardize the English language by using plural pronoun for individuals?
The challenge is that rally organizers are often activists and large rallies by definition involve moderate attendees. I suspect there are mentors in major cities who can help organizers focus on issues that bring in more people as you describe as a primary goal and then activists can weave in identity politics in a way that shows how they are impacted by the horrible policies of the regime...maybe in ways most of us don't see.
And the kind of nuanced approach you lay out here would have worked beautifully in Chicago. I mentioned Will's take on it above. If the first speaker at that rally would have made that speech, the whole place would have gone wild. It would have been pitch perfect for that crowd. But instead we got what we got.
All that said, I know those people worked really hard to pull off a big, successful event like that and all I did was show up, listen and march, but I still can't shake how off-key it was compared to the vibe in the crowd.
I think that's true. Our No Kings was in beach town Southern Cailfornia so upper middle class older very enthusiastic. And also Hispanic families came out.
I totally agree. But the sexual equality coalition is well organized, but small. But you are right. We need Democratic speakers who talk about where most people are, ie jobs, economy, education and housing.
Yes, people who are protesting all have different things they care about. For you, No Kings is about ICE. For many transgender people and their friends and family, No Kings ia about the anti-transgender legislation and policy being pushed by Republicans at the national, state, and local level.
If centrists like you want to organize a Protest For Only Things Swing Voters Will Care About protest and mandate everybody gets an OK from a low-info swing voter before giving their speech, I wish you well.
I clearly remember a prominent political figure associated with the phrase "big, structural change," using it as a central theme during her 2020 presidential campaign to advocate for systemic reforms to the economy and government. She argued that fundamental, rather than incremental, changes are necessary to address issues like wealth inequality and corporate influence.
Of course, she was a Harvard Law professor. Even though she grew up as a poor girl in Oklahoma, she could never overcome the obstacle of being a woman.
Your comments on the weird Dems gubernatorial race and supposed weakness of the field were interesting but overgeneralized. There is a candidate you didn’t mention who ticks all the boxes for state and federal experience who also happens to be Latino: Xavier Becerra. He was a State Assemblyman, US Congressman, California Attorney General, US Senator, and US Secretary of HHS. No one in the race is more qualified to lead our state. After Swalwell’s exit, he has been gaining momentum. Don’t sleep on the X man, Bulwarkers.
What I really want to know is why do these dopes like Swalwell think that in this day and age they can hide that behavior? Do they really believe that they can sweep everything under the rug forever and ever, amen?
That thought process alone is enough to be disqualifying, let alone actually engaging in whatever reprehensible sex pest bullshit he was up to. It ain't 1920, asshole, word is going to get around.
The fact that Swalwell was tearing into Trump over the Epstein files and using the victims as some sort of political vehicle to advance his own brand is just so disappointing. Sorry we were all duped by him. Of course, he deserves his day in court, allegations are not proof, but it is looking pretty bad for him as new victims keep coming forward. At least he had the good sense to resign from Congress and remove himself from the governor's race, something Trump would never do, obviously.
That's what boggles my mind. That Swalwell thought he could run for Governor of California and no one would bring up his behaviors? That what he did wouldn't matter? I don't know if that's hubris, stupidity, entitlement, cluelessness or all of the above.
I would say that if a man is aiming for political career, he should keep it in his pants, but sadly, getting access to females, is often the underlying reason they run for office.
Probably because he's been successful at it for years and it took the risk of being the Democratic candidate for Governor in California for it to leak.If Swallwell wanted to be a 20-term Congressperson, he could've happily continued to try to sleep with aides for his entire career.
"What I really want to know is why do these dopes like Swalwell think that in this day and age they can hide that behavior?" I will never understand that either.
'“It’s one of the most disgusting things I have seen in public life,” Vance said. “To say Erika Kirk wasn’t grieving her husband—that she was somehow complicit in his death—is preposterous and disgusting. . . . If you’re going after Erika Kirk and not the people trying to destroy the United States of America, you’re part of the problem.”'
I agree with JD. You know what else I found disgusting was this from the President of the United States:
"A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS."
Isn't that absolutely disgusting, JD?
As far as Trump posting the pic of himself with Christ, who is congratulating Trump, with tears in his eyes, on what an amazing job he's been doing, I don't imagine Trump posting that meme will do much to dissuade the new cohort of Trump voters who have begun suspecting he's the Anti-Christ.
Stayer might not be ideal, but he’s a climate champion of the highest order and tbh, we need a hell of a lot more of those right now! Good endorsement here from climate activist and founder of Third Act and 350.org, Bill Mickibben.
>> "How can it possibly be that Democrats have yet again sleepwalked into yet another high-profile race for which they seem to have basically zero highly qualified and popular candidates? Is it too much to expect this party to figure out one primary field that looks inviting enough that nobody feels compelled to do write-in candidate hopium long after the filing deadlines have passed?"
I think part of what is happening with our politics is that it is really difficult and expensive for a normal person to run for office. I tried to budget out what it would take for me to quit my job or take off enough time to run for local office where I live, and I don't know how my family would make that work financially.
So, who can afford to run? Rich people. Dunning-Kruger candidates. People out of touch with the vox populi and high on their own supply. People who are willing, at minimum, to sacrifice the safety and security of their family (both financial and bodily) to roll the dice on winning.
It's not a healthy environment when it is this difficult and expensive and dangerous to run, and so we get unhealthy candidates.
>> "What Magyar did is he explained to them that the reason your hospitals and your schools are crumbling is because these guys are stealing from you. I think that was hugely impactful. "
It's embodied politics. It's shoe leather. It's getting out there. You gotta get off the algorithms, and stop setting cash on fire to run ads no one pays attention to, and ignore the Sunday shows no one watches, and go out to the places you want to represent and talk to people and show them who you are and tell them how you want to help them.
I like the idea, but size matters. Hungary has about 10 million people. That makes running a national campaign easier in terms of shoe leather.
Agreed. But there's some sort of equivalent / analog for embodied politics in a larger district. Like make campaign stops in places that are getting butts kicked by Trumpist policy. The negative effects of the OBBA and the tariffs and the war are disproportionately felt in rural areas. Orban's base of support was, like Trump, also in rural areas, and Magyar won by going there and bursting the epistemic bubble of Orban's hermetically sealed grip on Hungarian media.
And look at what Republican candidates do: basically nothing. Go to rural Missouri and see if they've seen their Republican elected representatives lately. In most cases, they haven't because those people are either too scared to show up or know that there's no opposition to them, so why bother.
Get out there. Make those people show their faces. Challenge them and what they're doing. That's what's happening in Iowa right now and it's putting numbers on the board. It can be done in other red states too.
Here in Maine, Susan Collins hasn't held a Town Hall in 25 years.. She shows up for a Memorial Day Parade. That's about it.
Sure sounds like she a prime candidate for a "Remember Sue Collins? She is one of our Senators, but does not come to hear or see what our problems are" campaign sign, or Three Billboards Outside Portland Maine.....
But name recognition counts for a lot among people who never pay attention to politics. They go in the voting booth and for person they think they know.
Susan "I think Trump learned his lesson" Collins is way past her expiration date. Please put her out to pasture.
Actually I suspect those representatives are too busy raking in donor cash. Until we find a way to dent the dark money corruption will stay.
But then the media in Hungary was much more similar Russia or North Korea's. Our media for all it s faults is nowhere close to Hungary as far as political influence. All the more praise for Magyar in his campaign in overcoming this.
True, size matters. So, what is wrong with breaking it down? National campaigns are won State by State. The number of States that are reliably purple or likely purple or real "swing" States is much smaller. No, I am not advocating ignoring the projected "base" of a given candidate, but, paraphrasing Ian Fleming, "It is never too early to start winning, but it is always too early to start losing."
Hungary is the size of some states. The analogy there is easy, but our federal model has enabled insane amounts of money in politics from a top-down basis, reinforced by our two-party structure.
Don't give up, and don't give in to despair. I'm in Alabama, where Democrats have a snowball's chance in Hell of winning. Yet hard work by people, all volunteers, has recruited and continues to support candidates for every single office on this year's ballots. The candidates are ordinary people, not rich--a nurse, for example, and an IT guy. Smart people who care and scrape together money as best they can. For the first time in decades, citizens will go to the polls and see more than one or two Democrats they can vote for. They'll see Democrats all up and down the ballot. They'll have a choice! The candidates will lose. They might lose next time, too. But they're running, and they'll keep running. Good for them. Good for us.
Excellent!
You're right that it's not about the Sunday shows or ads. It IS about getting out there, and really connecting with people. I think, however, the fire and boldness, the willingness to have fun with one's image (e.g. Magyar leaning into the sunglasses thing) is even more important. I think most, if not all Democrats are starved for boldness (not brashness or arrogance), for relentlessly speaking truth to power, for calling out the corruption and indeed all of the BS of the current regime. For some reason the Dems seem to be frozen, like a deer in headlights, afraid of the polls and genuine authenticity (which should be redundant, but it isn't given the online/social media personas vs. actual personalities.
My Democratic Congressman is accessible. When he first ran, a friend asked me to attend a get together and it turned out to an introduction to our Democratic Congressional candidate. He was very accessible and had a lot to say. He lives near me and I do occasionally contact him about issues and he'll (an aid) get back to me. But he sends out a news emails about what he's doing. I bet if you want know your congressman its not that hard.
Mine too -- Salud Carbajal, he's great.
What's wrong with Xavier Becerra? He's got a history in California and national politics, cares about the state and has clear policy supporting housing affordability and protecting MediCal. He has been going out to public events and talking. yet nobody is considering him.
I am!
Me too. It's time the Bulwark stopped ignoring him -- he's ahead of Porter in the latest polls, yet no mention of him by the Bulwark.
Bingo. Also this plays into the corruption argument. It’s not hard to connect these dots and make a case.
Especially in California. It's an enormous media market.
I think the thing about Magyar's campaign that may not work in the US is the fact that Hungarians intensely felt the effect of corruption on their daily lives. I don't think Americans have truly experienced that level yet. I think they are complaining about gas prices, but I don't think they have suffered the indiginity of not having a nearby hospital that can save your relative's life so that relative dies (for example). However, I think the Big Beautiful Bill results will lead to that quite soon. The question is: will Americans blame Trump's corruption? Or believe that it's "short term pain for long term gain" and a Golden Age is around the corner? I think the Hungarians dealt with Russia for so long that they know a corrupt government when they see one. Americans do not have that experience. And I fear there will always be a majority that is "okay enough" that they won't rock the boat.
I also don't think Americans are particularly troubled by corruption. Sure, we like to say that we want people to obey the law but we also have a strong culture of do whatever it takes to get ahead, and rules are for dummies. Our business culture is saturated with "find the loopholes" and "I know a guy." It takes some extraordinary levels of corruption to make the average person go, huh, maybe that's illegal. And then you have to find a jury to convict people.
I think there's a fine line between criminal corruption and savvy business practice, which is not consistently or coherently observed by anyone. I agree, but also remember that the "Biden Crime Family" and focus on Hunter Biden was essentially, allegedly, about corruption.
I just think the Democrats are less talented at getting the allegation to stick to Don Jr and Eric and Jared Kushner, than the Republicans were at going after Hunter.
Hunter's laptop story didn't stick because of corruption. It stuck because of the sex, lies and videotape stories around it. Corruption is boring. The president's son being a drug addict with naughty videos on a laptop is not. Especially when it's played on Fox News every day.
Yes, I worry that Democrats do not have what it takes to "go for the jugular" by pinning corruption directly to Trump and his family and friends in the Administration. The details and facts are all there to capitalize on, but will they do it with the determination and doggedness that has worked so successfully for Republicans? I don't want them to use nuance or innuendo - they can succeed by just using the truth. The same goes for using the inaction of Republicans to stand up to Trump while all this corruption and sleaze has been going on around them while they stick their heads in the sand and pretend it isn't happening. Tie it around their necks and make them own it.
I think having a for profit national media that is afraid of Trump is problem
Yeah, I have to agree. I think there is a very big dollop of "I'd do it if I could get away with it" in our culture. I think that links to the reason that working class people vote for tax breaks for the rich even though they deprive them (the working class) of benefits and services. It goes back to that idea of Americans being "temporarily embarrassed millionaires." We don't want the rules there when we finally come into our money.
Trump is revealed to have paid very little in taxes for years. “That makes me smart”.
His fans nod in agreement.
I was thinking the same thing. He said that during a debate with Hillary. I recall that quip got a lot of laughs.
Even alot of his non fans probably nod in agreement. If there is one thing that most people on both sides agree on it is that they hate taxes.
Even when government not having proper funding smacks 'em upside their own knuckle heads....
Yet another consequence of our horrible civic education. People do not know what their taxes pay for. They also don't know what takes up the vast majority of the federal budget. Hint, it ain't PBS.
And yet they take clean water, paved raids in good condition and clean air for granted, because we all know those are gifts from the fairies, right?🤦♀️
Back to the abysmal civic education.
We also have an electorate who largely has never known anything BUT clean water and clean air. And all of the other good things we enjoy because of regulations, which are enforced by gov employees who are paid by, yes, our taxes. The fact is Americans are incredibly spoiled and they absolutely do not know that those spoils are largely due to a massive government apparatus that regulates the consequences of a capitalist economy. Or at least a government that used to.
Except its not true. The blatant lies in property values is NOT being smart. Its committing crimes. He's a criminal in all n respects.
It doesn't help that under the Corruptor in Chief the DOJ is no longer prosecuting white collar crime. For the Dems to gain any traction the States would have to do their thing, and thankfully, some of them are.
Democrats need to follow Magyar's example: stress affordability and accountability.
And expand the 'big tent' to cover voters in the middle.
Very true.
I think that it's a mixture of what you and Kass said: we don't mind corruption provided it isn't affecting us, and unfortunately what it will take to get Americans to get off of MAGA cocaine is a bulk of typically comfortable Americans getting viscerally burned.
Americans tend to have a narrow range of parochial interests. If it is outside those narrow ranges, they show little interest.
And will tolerate almost anything as long as it's not their ox getting gored....
I think Americans ARE troubled by corrruption, most definitely when it's at the TOP! And as a business owner, I believe we DO NOT have a culture of "finding the loopholes" but one of performing the everyday chores of running a business. The expression "I know a guy" is hardly corrupting and in most cases the crux of business. Demeaning that expression is flat out wrong!
Bingo, Robin. We have a highly individualistic culture in America that celebrates doing WHATEVER it takes to win for yourself. Most other countries are on some spectrum of a collectivist culture that allows room for success with each other rather than in opposition to each other.
Also, we see corruption as a “suckers” problem and don’t tend to associate our entire system with being the sucker.
My fear is that by the time Americans feel enough pain to be upset that the Democrats will have enough power that they get the blame. Trump is out here putting his name on everything and talking about building monuments for himself, but they see that as Trump being Trump. They can't comprehend the sheer scale of his grifting.
This is also my fear.
They don’t like corruption but they’ll overlook it for other reasons. Why was Orban popular? Because he wouldn’t allow Western European style immigration, of non whites and non Christians.
This is their #1 issue and they’ll overlook a lot for it. I do not expect Magyar to suddenly change this.
You make a great point. However, I believe that all the corruption can be tied to a myriad of real world consequences for Americans. It isn't just the crypto nonsense and the Qatar plane and the true weaponization of the DOJ and the Epstein class each in a bubble. It is all connected and it has much to do with everything from the repercussions of the BBB to the Iran War. That needs to be the message loud abd clear.
The Iran war is really eating into his support.
Rural hospitals are going away all over America.
Pain is the best teacher. We should try to prevent suffering, but sometimes the teacher needs to be strict.
As JVL says, we have to let them touch the stove.
I feel like we passed the Stovicon already. The economy is demonstrably worse. Everyone is paying more in health care costs.
I really don't think money is going to move the needle on as many people as economists think it will. Southern states have shown repeatedly that they don't mind taking a financial hit if it gives them the "freedom" to enact strict voter laws against minorities, get rid of free third spaces where kids and minorities hang out, and ever increase their police budgets.
The Stovicon! lol 😺😺😺
Didn't work with me as a kid , when I got beaten with the " board of education " , I would bide my time and that teacher would get 2 flat tires. There's only one spare .
😁
A way to blame liberals for the closing of rural hospitals will be found, don't worry. All we need to get those hospitals back is more tax cuts for the hyper wealthy. /s
Those damnable lefties, insisting on getting sick and needing care! They need to eat more McDonalds and drink more diet Coke!
Go back to beef tallow fries and we'll all be healthier!
Dammit, Mike but that sounds good...
I can't get past my liberal programming and regard saturated fats as healthy. I guess they're somewhat better than Trans fats.
In my sarcastic reply above about damable lefties, I was going to insert "meat-eschewing vegetable-loving" before "lefties", but I thought it was going too far. 😁
Kass, I think you're right in that we here in the USA don't yet have a good objective measure of the impact of corruption. The Hungarians could take a quick trip and see how much better Poland is, or how Romania (Heaven Forbid!) was improving. Or, go anywhere in the EU and see that things are better. I think we here have two things working against us: 1) We've been normalizing decreasing standards of living for decades (distracted by our toys, no dobut) and 2) No nearby objective measures of how things COULD be (and many American's are plenty content to remain ignorant).
Also, as noted by others, I think many American's are happy to seek out system exploits that they think will take them to the top. It's the whole "their rules" mentality. Those guys are cheating, so I can cheat too and, in fact, it's the only way to win.
In Idaho, there are no hospitals in Northern Idaho that have obstetrics.
That's a sad consequence of Idaho's very rigid abortion legislation. When doctors are looking over their shoulder in fear that providing medically indicated health care to a woman with an ectopic or other type of nonviolent pregnancy they will decide to relocate.
Friends with daughters choosing colleges now take into consideration scope of medical care available in the county/state.
That is very prudent.
Half of America will believe it when told that the local hospital closing is directly linked to the policies of Barack Hussein Obama. So nothing will change.
The hospital had to close because liberals did abortions there.
In my eyes we have had a succession of corrupt governments since January 20th of 1981 , that being said most victims of it can't connect the dots so they swallow right wing claptrap and blame themselves. " it's my own fault I'm not a billionaire " . Sad but true.
Fortunately for GOP operatives, those effects will start up in the middle of President Mark Kelly's term (or whoever you're backing next year).
CA resident here - what a shit show ! Good job Andrew, I wish everyone was writing about this nationally because it’s huge that CA can’t find a charismatic qualified non-billionaire to run for governor. I find myself saying, I swore I would never vote for a billionaire but with CA’s dumb primary rule - the 2 regardless of party who get the most votes will be in the general - I will probably vote for the Dem that leads the polls. You know they say, CA leads the country and we are doomed if this is how Dems run 2028. I’m so mad and disgusted at my party and YOU creep Eric Swalwell (who myself and friends were going to vote for).
PS - Don’t call us Cali. If you were born here, nope no and no.
Sorry about "Cali" but you gotta understand the headline-shortening pressures we email newsletter authors live under!!
Not letting you off the hook, Andrew. If The Bulwark can run this 3-line headline:
"It’s Not Enough to Defeat
Orbánism. You Have to Drive a
Stake Through Its Heart,"
then you had the room to spell out "California."
If your contention is "Morning Shots headlines should be allowed to be as long as Triad headlines" you are not beefing with me, you are beefing with Sam Stein. 😂
You could just use CA - that is ok enough!
Or even Calif. But never ever Cali
I first heard the word Cali from a home-schooled young woman, she was so very kind. But otherwise such a dimwit. sorry, I've met others years ago much brighter and more in touch with the real world
'Cali' absolutely originated as an outsider reference to the state, more specifically by New York based rap artists. LL Cool J released a track "Goin' Back to Cali" articulating misgivings about a planned move to LA for business reasons, and Biggie Smalls joined in with his own track under the same name.
I was teaching in San Francisco then, and these tracks were popular with my students. Which makes perfect sense with the general sensibility of young people, to be rebellious enough to find it hip to join in with outside hip cultural figures dissing their home. 'Oh yeah, I understand what he's sayin' about girls here. Lol, true dat if I'm being honest.'
So it's a generational and cultural thing, methinks.
In contrast, "Frisco" has never been hip to anyone. It is not just an outsider's term, but one associated with bland middle American commercial culture framing SF as 'cutely eccentric'. Like a fast food restaurant offering a 'Frisco Burger' because it comes on sourdough bread rather than a sesame seed bun.
So IMO it's perfectly acceptable for an East Coaster like Andrew to use 'Cali', but more so especially appropriate in the context of expressing skepticism of our state's politics.
I remember when Porter and Swalwell gained prominence in 2020, and thinking California sent some top notch reps to Congress. Which they were, but apparently they were lacking in other necessary skill sets. Like not pulling the power card on your staff.
Right! It wasn’t that long ago they seemed like great defenders of all CA believes in and then we got to know them. So awful!
Oh Porter - loved her once, but had to quit with the dark stuff about her sad un-leadership.
I had a pretty good opinion of Porter at the time, but the last time she was on Bill Maher (couple of years ago?), she was awful.
Maybe she was having a bad day?
Just saying: Tom Steyer and his wife co-founded a mission-driven Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) 2 decades ago. Beneficial State Bank has spent nearly two decades serving communities abandoned by Wall Street and working to directly dismantle the legacy of redlining and disinvestment. It's built 17,000m homes so far. Since leaving his hedge fund in 2012 he's funded an enormous amount of progressive causes and Democratic candidates. He's signed the Giving Pledge. He's not a Gilded Age billionaire bro. I've met him briefly when he was running for President. He comes across as a regular authentic guy. And, he's competent! Go beyond the headlines and find out what he's about. I think you'll find him interesting and better than "hold your nose and vote for the better of all the evils".
Have you noticed all the attacks ads on Steyer now? Backed by oil and PG&E. That tells you something! When he ran for prez it was a big environmentalist and that is great for CA. Glad to hear you say good things about him.
Maybe he should keep doing what he’s doing.
I don't get it - what's wrong with calling it Cali. I was born here, in Cali, and born to love it, and I very much like the term. It's informal and affectionate, I think.
Oh that is one of those things we love to argue about on social media ; ) Older people like myself don’t like but I see a lot of younger people do. People my gen seem to like CA, SoCal, NorCal, NoCal. Reminds of calling SF - Frisco - people that live there hated that. Ultimately it doesn’t matter tho.
Born at Stanford hospital, and I've lived all over California my entire life, with the exception of 4 years in Colorado. Don't cal it Cali and don't call it Frisco!
Exactly how I feel. Don’t be from out of state calling us names you guys made up!
Like when people say "New Joisey". Lived in both ends of the state for decades, went to school in the central part of the state, and not once have I ever heard someone who lives here say "Joisey". I hear someone say that, and violent thoughts flash across my mind. Not that I ever have followed-up on those thoughts. 😀
That's Cali for you - we adapt and welcome the new ideas coming from the youngs, don't reject them out of hand because that's not the way "things are done."
Third gen Los Angelina who is fine with Cali, more so used by in-staters, but I am definitely not the word police.
Can I call you Cal? :)
NorCal or SoCal are acceptable when talking about the state, but when people say Cali, it definitely carries outside vibes.
Californey for us rubes and the Beverly Hillbillies. So they loaded up the truck.......
Tom Steyer and his wife co-founded a mission-driven Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). Beneficial State Bank has spent nearly two decades serving communities abandoned by Wall Street and working to directly dismantle the legacy of redlining and disinvestment. It's built 17,000 homes so far. Read his policy statements and see what he's done and doing with him wealth. He's not a GIlded Age billionaire bro.
I’m glad you said this and it’s really a big conversation to be had…so I watched Steyer interviewed by Hasan Piker (yes him!) because I knew if anyone would avoid softball questions it was Piker. I gotta say there was not one thing I disagreed with that Steyer said. The fact that he would go on Piker’s live stream for an interview and comfortably answer all of his questions (something Kamala would never have done or been able to do) for an hour was very impressive. (Sarah really needs to watch that interview or at least the interview Piker did with Jon Favs)
100%. Thank you Keith. And now people who live here, including news anchors are starting to call the Bay Area (SF Bay Area) "The Bay". Ugh! No. Sorry for straying off-topic.
I remember when they called Candlestick park " the stick " . 🙄
Well I live down South, but ‘The Bay’ does sound weird as if one was out on the water.
Oh, you're in The Basin? :-)
Oh no, I’m out in that wasteland called the Inland Empire — after the basin and before the high and low deserts.
Cal Worthington or UC Berkeley?
I miss his dog Spot!
TAH, I came here to speak my mind only to find you summarized my thoughts better than I could have... right down to the Cali rant. 😉 I know several people who worked for Yee and Beccera... both are more than qualified to do the job. Neither has gained traction. Perhaps a series of early debates could have helped? Although I don't think it's too much to ask for a candidate with both competence and charisma to run our state.
I have a friend who has told me the same about Becera and Yee and yet…where are they? I hear and see nothing from them and communication is so important. Love or hate Newsom, he was super smart to create a website debunking right wing attacks and outright lies regarding the Palisades and Altadena fires. I’m not feeling real confident that Beccera and Yee would do the same. Again tho - how in the world do we not have a better group of candidates? It’s just shocking.
Friend here, Becerra is picking up on his social media outreach. I'm sending him money today. I wish he were more charismatic. It's too bad that our attention spans need the jazz hands. I think Californians are dismissing him too easily because he isn't snazzy and loud, despite being the MOST qualified. Maybe, as a society, we need to learn to fall in love with the quiet steady ones. And not make up our minds right now out of fear. There is a very large Hispanic population that hopefully will be mobilized.
I believe that The Contrarian is an important independent media source which I value for reporting and insights in these troubled times. But sometimes I feel that (some) writers are Republicans first, Americans second. While I've been a Democrat for 40 years, I try to be American first, Democrat second. I also wonder frequently whether "The Opposition" column is slanted against the party you are opposed to, rather than about the one party which is opposed to the authoritarian takeover of America.
I think that in your CA Governor contest piece/harangue, instead of taking a shot like: "they seem to have basically zero highly qualified and popular candidates?" you could have dug a little deeper to at least identified the other 4 qualified challengers and mentioned their background:
* Xavier Becerra: Served as the 25th U.S. Secretary of Health and Human services from March 2021 to January 2025; previously served as the California Attorney General from January 2017 until March 2021. A real solid citizen in my experience.
* Antonio Villaraigosa: 41st Mayor of Los Angeles from 2005 to 2013; previously served as the Majority Leader from 1996 to 1998 and Speaker of the California State Assembly from 1998 to 2000.
* Betty Yee: Served as California State Controller from 2015 to 2023; previously served as a member of the California Board of Equalization from 2004 to 2015.
* Tony Thurmond: Serves as the 28th California State Superintendent of Public Instruction since 2019; he was a member of the California State Assembly from 2014 to 2018.
Also to mention that the California media market is extraordinarily expensive, which is a challenge to candidates without deep pockets.
Also, that both Republican candidates are each uniquely unqualified - Chad Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff has improperly seized ballots to try to prove out Trump's 2020 conspiracy theory, and Steve Hilton, a British conservative and former Fox personality who only became a (dual) U.S. citizen in May 2021 and said of COVID "the cure could be worse than the disease".
My overall point is that the cure for Trump and his MAGA/Republican sycophants and enablers threatening our republic is not snark, but info which might help Californians (please don't say Cali) make a good decision.
P.S. Matt Mahan is in the pocket of big Tech and AI business people who are also supporting Trump.
This is fairly typical of The Bulwark's analysis, which can lack analytical nuance of West Coast politics and can be colored by an East Coast condescension. How about bringing on staff a writer or two who has deep knowledge of the region?
Hopefully, Sarah's next staffing move.
Glad you brought this up again Steve. The phoenix that rose from The Weekly Standard’s ashes can and does push beyond the roots, and will hopefully continue to broaden. I’m looking forward to what Jasmine Green will share. I do not look forward to Andrew writing about CA. He lost me at “obvious bad governance” months ago. Grateful to the Bulwarkians who took the time today to shed light on Steyer, and offer perspective for those of us actually voting in the CA primary.
IMO the best critic/booster of California politics is Jon Lovett at Crooked Media. He doesn't spend a ton of time on it, but when he does he brings the heat.
I'm available , James from pennsylsippi , I can explain maga to the educated folks . 🙄
Thank you for this! So many folks on all sides of the aisle love to dump on California (not Cali, ew) and lean into dumb stereotypes. Super frustrating. Hopefully voters here do some basic work to determine who these candidates are. *If anyone is thinking about Villaraigosa, please please please take a hard look at his time governing L.A. and peek past his charming personality.
Agreed, we all need to do our part as good citizens by researching the candidates to make an informed decision. California is too important to the U.S. overall (think of the great efforts of AG Rob Bonta daily to fight against Trump's outrages and protect Californians) to hand it over to the Republicans (as currently constituted).
It was bad enough with Reagan after all.
Yeah, no thanks on Villaraigosa.
Same, but hope that voters seek out real info rather than vibes.
Villaraigosa is a hard no for me, but I do like Xacier Becerra, and Mahan, as you note, is the big tech candidate — of course The Free Press is all over him as a *normie* Democrat candidate compared to the other barbarians.
I'm with Becerra at this point. Most experience, including many years in the state assembly I believe. Mahan is a definite no. Too conservative, too tight with our putrid tech bros. Steyer has no experience in public office and will not do well. He promises things he would have no power to do.
Becerra! All the way
I live in Daly City, had never heard of Mahan before the other day when I caught a snatch of him talking as part of post-Swallwell campaign coverage. Nothing he said policy wise was notably offensive to my 'progressive' ears, but there was something in his language and tone that made we very wary, too much of a glib salesman vibe maybe...
Andrew was cheating by opining the Dems don't have a "competent and popular" candidate, in which "popular" is doing a lot of the work and begging the question. I agree that Becerra seems well qualified, and the fact he's not at the celebrity level to get name recognition is a sad reason to dismiss him.
If Andrew wants to criticize the CA Dem establishment, that's fair enough. If Newsome, Harris, and/or Pelosi got behind one of the remaining candidates that would address the popularity problem. Ro Khanna is on TV giving a pretty strong endorsement to Tom Steyer, and that will certainly aid in folks taking his campaign as more than a vanity project. There's also a lot of negative ads targetting him now, painting him as a secret Trumper, just-another-hedge-fund-scumbag, but they're funded by a business group obviously worried he'd be too progressive, so if they're taking him seriously enough to spend heavily to attack him... draw your own conclusions there.
Becerra's probably the best choice, least risk certainly. But I'd take Steyer over Villaraigosa or anyone backed by the $$$ going to Mahan.
Nice work here to sum up where we are at. We need to get very serious about who will govern California for the next term. You have listed the qualified candidates in their correct order. I, too, join the chorus asking for serious coverage of this very consequential state. I wonder, very often, why the middle and east of this country don't fully appreciate just how much of a contribution California makes to every single citizen's life. I lived in DC for five years (spouse at OMB and worked for a news radio station myself) and the extent to which an 'inside the beltway' approach dominates all - while understandable - totally annoying.
Bob, thank you for this comment. At this point, I think we need to vote strategically, which has been my plan since the low polling candidates refused to drop out, due to placing their egos over what's best for the state (and country). I probably like Becerra the best, but I will vote for whichever Dem is polling the highest. We cannot afford having two completely unqualified maga Republicans ending up in the final. Robert Hubbell wrote about this in last night's Today's Edition newsletter.
Same here.
Thanks. Appreciate the primer.
Thank you, Bob. I felt the same and came here to see if anyone had offered an intelligent analysis rather than the sputtering I was likely limited to. You are, as they say, but not if you’re JD, doing the Lord’s work.
Damn good comment. 👍
Thank you!
I've been impressed by Xavier Becerra and think he would make a great governer
"I should have known I was tempting fate."
Don't feel bad, Andrew. Virtually everyone here tempted fate by regarding Trump's 2016 run as a ridiculous exercise of vanity.
And then the Titanic hit the iceberg. And as PA went for Trump, you could feel the icy waters swirling around one’s feet dragging us down.
I woke up and went to see my wife on the computer and she said " he is going to win. " I was sick for 3 days. 🤢
As a life long Californian, and a Democratic Party member since I could vote, I agree we have a mixed bag of candidates for governor, none of whom seem up to the task. But let me also say that, while it is fair to criticize us about this, if you are really wanting to influence Californians, it will go much better if you lose the term "Cali".
Thank you Janis, I came here to object to the use of ‘Cali’ as well. I know in the greater scheme of things it may be a minor quibble, but for many if not most Californians, it feels somewhat demeaning. California or CA is not much harder to key in!
And to many of us non-Californians, it sounds quite douchey and pretentious. Of course, I'm 74 years old. You damn kids get off of my lawn!
I'm 71 and the country went to shit when we started sparing the rod .
Like me living here in Pennsylsippi.
What’s Pennsylsippi?
The part of Pennsylvania in between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh , cue the Deliverance music . 😁
Hadn’t heard it before!
You can say Socal or Norcal, but terms like Cali and Frisco don’t fly.
But socal and norcal sound like medications .
I thought they were diet foods. 🧐
Then there is also the "North State", which I only learned about when I moved north state adjacent.
But isn’t that those remote areas such as Shasta?
Yes, mostly areas north of Sacramento. My current State Assembly member, who was one of three Republicans running, and the least crazy of them all, frequently refers to her constituency as the "North State", which prompts me to remind her that she actually has constituents who are not technically in that region, and she should care about us as well. I live in the Tahoe area.
Tom Steyer and his wife co-founded a mission-driven Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). Beneficial State Bank has spent nearly two decades serving communities abandoned by Wall Street and working to directly dismantle the legacy of redlining and disinvestment. They've built 17,000 homes so far. He's signed the Giving Pledge. He's not a Gilded Age billionaire bro. You may want to dig a little deeper. You may find you like what you learn about him.
JD: "If you’re going after Erika Kirk and not the people trying to destroy the United States of America, you’re part of the problem.”
This is actually good advice from JD, despite him being too stupid to realize the irony.
That is such a good point! I felt the same when I read that statement. Except instead of too stupid, it gave me the feeling he is too scheming.
A technique he follows seems to be to state a truth plainly but then turn it into a lie by switching around the roles of good and bad. Or to state a lie plainly but then stand by it as a valid assertion even if he knows it's a lie. Like he did with the dogs and cats story.
Either way he seems close enough to the truth that I can't believe he doesn't see it. Kind of like normal politician lying except taken to the extreme. That is just my impression to think he's aware though. It could well be he has been lying for so long it's become second nature and he no longer sees the irony.
With Trump, I do very much get the feeling he doesn't see the irony of his lies out of stupidity. Kind of like color-blindness, maybe he doesn't notice the difference between lies and truth in the first place. He lies so profusely, and always in such a self-centered way, that I think it gives weight to the saying that every accusation is a confession.
And he has never had anyone who will say, "You're lying again, Don, so shut up."
Demonic, satanic, child sacrificing monsters being exposed? Oh whom do you speak Donald? Even if the dates, times and places were not correct q-anon was weirdly not that far off about a cabal of sexual predators having their way with young girls. Except you, Donald, are at the heart of all the sorted stories and mysteries of what happened. Your own wife just resurrected the story last week. If any Trump card is to be played by god hopefully he or she has a sense of karmic justice.
Yes, by all means, the president should start calling the Strait of Hormuz the Trump Strait, that should allay the concerns about his sanity.
When does the Joint Venture to share tolls with Iran start?
Unbelievable. He is furious that didnt come up with this toll idea himself. But now he wants his cut.
Re: "And his response to that was not to deliver some sort of a lecture on gender norms, or to say, how dare you do this."
This.
I went to the No Kings rally in Chicago. I listened to an hour and a half of speeches by seven speakers. Y'know what the first four were? Land acknowledgement, LGBTQ+ issues, trans issues and the importance of organized labor. The last one? Well, she was a high school student who talked about the impact of armed, masked, violent, unaccountable, untrained Federal officers chucking gas grenades at little kids IN THIS CITY. She wasn't absolutely last. There was a disco funk saxophonist who played after her, but pretty much. She brought my wife to tears. Powerful. And last. Because what she was talking about was less important than all that other stuff to the organizers of that rally. She could have been first. She should have been first. But she was last. For a reason.
This is the problem the Democrats have. The crowd in Chicago was filled with signs about the war, ICE and various depredations of Trump. (You want to know what the crowd was about? Listen to Will Saletan's take on Trump The King. https://www.thebulwark.com/p/as-millions-protested-no-kings-trump?r=t94as&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web×tamp=37.2
The organizers of that rally, prioritized what was important TO THEM, not to the crowd. Come 2028, they're going to do the same thing. They're not going to go hammer and tongs on corruption or ICE or the war or threats to free speech, at least insofar as it has anything to do with the concerns of almost everyone. No. They're going to talk about gender norms and climate and trans stuff and all the other things they're REALLY motivated by.
And all the Republicans have to do is find someone not crazy to run and they'll win again. Not a hard thing to do at all.
So, yeah, Democrats need to get their act together. Look around, Democrats. See what's actually going on out here like Magyar did in Hungary. Talk to people like they're people.
Gender norms, climate, trans stuff, and all the other things are very important.
However, I agree that the MOST important thing right now is getting the madman and his supporters away from the levers of power, and then creating a situation in which it can't happen again.
These other important things shouldn't be ignored while this is going on, of course, but part and parcel of the fixes that happen. But the primary thing is ousting the maniacs.
PLEASE, DEMOCRATS. Look to the Hungarian model. Spread the tent across the middle. Teach the fringes that the concerns of the middle have much more traction than the important issues on which they want to campaign.
Yeah, just about everyone here in the south and midwest is traumatized that little Billy will come home from school without his Willy.
But isn't that a great example? You can't give a kid a Tylenol for a headache in a public school without proper documentation, but in the Fox News Cinematic Universe, you can send little Billy off to school and he comes back a girl? How, exactly...
So a candidate needs to address this head on, like James Talerico did with the "litter boxes in schools" thing.
"Look, I'll give a million dollars to the charity of your choice if you can identify one student who was transgendered at school without his or her parents' knowledge if you agree to give the charity of my choice a million dollars if I can identify one American citizen illegally deported by Donald Trump's ICE goons. How about it, Mr. MAGA. You in?"
Call them out. Make them back it up. Remember when it was all the rage for these lunatics to go around talking about how Dearborn, MI was governed by Sharia Law? That wasn't fixed until the Mayor of Dearborn started showing up at those presentations. These people, these MAGA idiots, live in an information environment that can be entered, but it takes work to do so.
About 24 years ago I got my left hand operated on and there were delays. The waiting area had on fox
" news " , we had to wait many hours , my wife had never been exposed to propaganda like this and wanted to know how this one sided lying could be legal ? I said that saint Ronald got rid of the fairness doctrine and the sluice gates of the septic tank opened up.
Had a similar experience in a hotel lobby last year. It was an alternative, dystopian world on TV.
That and sharia law, heah in South Crackerlina.
So now they're talking about it in South Carolina... Great.
Have been for years. I retired back here in 2017, reconnected with a lot of friends from my yute, immediately stopped associating due to their TDS. They're all deranged trump supporters.
My congressman does that. He is very effective.
Right on!
Repubs won't even need new ads. They'll just recycle the "She's not for you..." with a dubbed voice if applicable.
Exactly. The first two No Kings speakers helpfully provided their pronouns. One was “they/them.” Ready made for Fox News.
So, what you are saying is that trans and non-binary people should make themselves invisible so as to not scare the Fox News crowd who is going to villify them anyway. OK.
No. I’d never presume to tell anyone to disappear. I think it would be more politically useful for everybody — including trans people — to focus on stuff that affects everybody.
There are armed thugs killing American citizens in the streets of American cities. The Vice President of the United States says those thugs have — his words— absolute immunity. None will ever face any consequences.
I’m think you can get a lot of people motivated to vote for candidates who think that’s something, certainly more than for a candidate going on and on about pronouns.
I wasn't at the last No Kings protest so I can't speak to exactly what the speaker said. But your comment hit a nerve. I have trans people in my life who very much feel like the country as a whole wants them to not exist. Using pronouns is an extremely small way that people can demonstrate their support and while Fox News will ALWAYS be outraged by it I am sad when someone who is on "our side" says that it is alienating.
No Kings by its very nature is supposed to be inclusive of all of the grievances we all have against this administration. I would argue that it is supposed to be a rally to bring together people whose top priorities are different but all are related. To denigrate particular speakers or issues by saying they aren't as important as X seems to miss the point. Yes, it is absolutely important that ICE is out of control. But it's also important that civil rights are being taken away from specific groups, that Trump's oligarchs are waging war on Labor and that Trump has threatened genocide on an entire country. All of those and more(!) issues co-exist and maybe you care more about ICE and I care more about Iran but if we each have a speaker addressing our issue at the same rally then maybe that unites us in a common cause.
The point of No Kings is that the executive branch has no right to make decisions without congress. He has no right tear down public buildings, or give insider information to family friends so they can profit, and he can't order military actions on his own. Sexual identification is not among those specific actions. If you want to make your point heard, you focus on issues that effect most people.
I agree. That's what the Republican always say about Democrats is that they are so stuck on cultural grievances.
And it works because Republican voters are stuck in THEIR cultural grievances. The break that cycle, Democrats need to talk to THOSE people in a way that communicates that they hear their concerns and not JUST the cultural ones.
Did you make $30 million yesterday on crypto? No, but Don Jr. did. Did you get to make a real estate deal in Qatar yesterday that will bring in a billion dollars over 10 years? No? Well Jared did. Do you have personal access to a government jet, paid for at taxpayer expense to shuttle you and your friends around in? No? Well Kash Patel and Melania have that. Must have been fun hanging out and drinking with the US Olympic hockey team, eh? You didn't get to go, of course, but you got to pay for it, which is not quite as good.
Your kids want to buy a house. That's hard. Gas is expensive now, isn't it? So's car insurance. And health insurance. And rent. And you're not getting a big raise. And before you used to be able to get someone to work on your house pretty easily, but now you can't and it's a lot more expensive.
Why do you think that is?
I don't think the pitch should be 100% economic. It used to be a Republican (and conservative) given that the government works FOR US. Doesn't seem like that anymore, does it? Say something mean to a masked, armed, unidentified, Federal agent and he can kill you, just draw his weapon, shoot you and call you an effing bitch. Nothing will happen to him. The Vice President of the United States will explain to you that those people have ultimate immunity. His term. And he's right. They can do whatever they want to you, whenever they want, for whatever reason or no reason at all. They can chuck gas grenades at little kids in a Halloween Parade. They can haul old men in their underwear out into the freezing cold and "question" them for hours. They can drop blind, mentally challenged people off in empty parking lots in the middle of the night to freeze to death. It's all perfectly legal. Sound like they work for us? I don't think so, but that's America today.
Want to do something about it? I do. And the only way that happens is to vote out the people who think that stuff is completely alright.
They is PLURAL! Can't we please find a gender neutral pronoun so we don't have to bastardize the English language by using plural pronoun for individuals?
I mean, really. What a shame.
It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.
The challenge is that rally organizers are often activists and large rallies by definition involve moderate attendees. I suspect there are mentors in major cities who can help organizers focus on issues that bring in more people as you describe as a primary goal and then activists can weave in identity politics in a way that shows how they are impacted by the horrible policies of the regime...maybe in ways most of us don't see.
And the kind of nuanced approach you lay out here would have worked beautifully in Chicago. I mentioned Will's take on it above. If the first speaker at that rally would have made that speech, the whole place would have gone wild. It would have been pitch perfect for that crowd. But instead we got what we got.
All that said, I know those people worked really hard to pull off a big, successful event like that and all I did was show up, listen and march, but I still can't shake how off-key it was compared to the vibe in the crowd.
I think that's true. Our No Kings was in beach town Southern Cailfornia so upper middle class older very enthusiastic. And also Hispanic families came out.
I think the Chicago rally was a pretty broad cross-section of the population here.
I grew grew up in Chicago, Rogers Park and lived as an adult around Diversey and also in Wrigleyville. Great city 8 months out of the year.
I totally agree. But the sexual equality coalition is well organized, but small. But you are right. We need Democratic speakers who talk about where most people are, ie jobs, economy, education and housing.
Yes, people who are protesting all have different things they care about. For you, No Kings is about ICE. For many transgender people and their friends and family, No Kings ia about the anti-transgender legislation and policy being pushed by Republicans at the national, state, and local level.
If centrists like you want to organize a Protest For Only Things Swing Voters Will Care About protest and mandate everybody gets an OK from a low-info swing voter before giving their speech, I wish you well.
I clearly remember a prominent political figure associated with the phrase "big, structural change," using it as a central theme during her 2020 presidential campaign to advocate for systemic reforms to the economy and government. She argued that fundamental, rather than incremental, changes are necessary to address issues like wealth inequality and corporate influence.
Of course, she was a Harvard Law professor. Even though she grew up as a poor girl in Oklahoma, she could never overcome the obstacle of being a woman.
OF course, she was correct.
Yup.
Your comments on the weird Dems gubernatorial race and supposed weakness of the field were interesting but overgeneralized. There is a candidate you didn’t mention who ticks all the boxes for state and federal experience who also happens to be Latino: Xavier Becerra. He was a State Assemblyman, US Congressman, California Attorney General, US Senator, and US Secretary of HHS. No one in the race is more qualified to lead our state. After Swalwell’s exit, he has been gaining momentum. Don’t sleep on the X man, Bulwarkers.
Yes, and his recent mailings reminded me of his role as AG in suing the Trump administration in the first go round.
What I really want to know is why do these dopes like Swalwell think that in this day and age they can hide that behavior? Do they really believe that they can sweep everything under the rug forever and ever, amen?
That thought process alone is enough to be disqualifying, let alone actually engaging in whatever reprehensible sex pest bullshit he was up to. It ain't 1920, asshole, word is going to get around.
The fact that Swalwell was tearing into Trump over the Epstein files and using the victims as some sort of political vehicle to advance his own brand is just so disappointing. Sorry we were all duped by him. Of course, he deserves his day in court, allegations are not proof, but it is looking pretty bad for him as new victims keep coming forward. At least he had the good sense to resign from Congress and remove himself from the governor's race, something Trump would never do, obviously.
That's what boggles my mind. That Swalwell thought he could run for Governor of California and no one would bring up his behaviors? That what he did wouldn't matter? I don't know if that's hubris, stupidity, entitlement, cluelessness or all of the above.
I would say that if a man is aiming for political career, he should keep it in his pants, but sadly, getting access to females, is often the underlying reason they run for office.
Probably because he's been successful at it for years and it took the risk of being the Democratic candidate for Governor in California for it to leak.If Swallwell wanted to be a 20-term Congressperson, he could've happily continued to try to sleep with aides for his entire career.
"What I really want to know is why do these dopes like Swalwell think that in this day and age they can hide that behavior?" I will never understand that either.
'“It’s one of the most disgusting things I have seen in public life,” Vance said. “To say Erika Kirk wasn’t grieving her husband—that she was somehow complicit in his death—is preposterous and disgusting. . . . If you’re going after Erika Kirk and not the people trying to destroy the United States of America, you’re part of the problem.”'
I agree with JD. You know what else I found disgusting was this from the President of the United States:
"A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS."
Isn't that absolutely disgusting, JD?
As far as Trump posting the pic of himself with Christ, who is congratulating Trump, with tears in his eyes, on what an amazing job he's been doing, I don't imagine Trump posting that meme will do much to dissuade the new cohort of Trump voters who have begun suspecting he's the Anti-Christ.
Stayer might not be ideal, but he’s a climate champion of the highest order and tbh, we need a hell of a lot more of those right now! Good endorsement here from climate activist and founder of Third Act and 350.org, Bill Mickibben.
https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/clean-energy-needs-actual-champions
We don't NEED a D or R. We need people who believe that society is better off when people fairly choose who governs them and how they are governed.