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Hanfei Wang's avatar

Had he still been in office, the smart play is for him to not be the one that does so. It would be someone for whom going on such a crusade, *while having a reputation for moderate politics*, would not be a net negative. Cory Booker is one example. The problem with Slotkin isn't her policies, but rather her temperament. Same with Gretch - her Pennsylvania counterpart Josh has been showing a stronger temperament, especially in regards to tariffs, while arguably being even closer to the center in terms of policy stances. I'd say when Tim Ryan was in office, he was good at doing both cultural moderation and hard-hitting rhetoric against Vance, which cut the margin down to 5 points despite Ohio being a R+8 state on top of it being the Biden midterm.

That said, there's a big difference between compromising on policy and compromising on fascism. It is not "compromising on fascism" to want a stronger border policy. It is not "compromising on fascism" to take the L on trans women in sports. That's actually democracy, in fact. It's what the people want, by overwhelming margins. What the Dems absolutely cannot compromise on is making sure that everyone knows that Trump is shredding all semblances of the rule of law, arresting people with impunity and putting them in Bukele's CECOT, defying the Supreme Court, abusing his authority as president to institute tariffs that are a direct hit on most Americans' pocketbook, firing federal employees that do critical work, withholding funding for medical research (and frame it as such, not "federal grants to universities"), and believing himself to be king. All of these are unpopular and good opportunities for Dems!

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