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I have been thinking about the idea of AZ not having a Lt Governor for some time. I live here and it has never made sense to me as we had a string of governors "removed" from office in the not to distant past to be replaced by the Secretary of State from the opposing party. I have really thought about the consequences of Lake and Fontes (PLEASE not Finchem!!) wins. Lake doesn't give a crap about Arizona-- it is all about her, the spotlight, and her political climbing. She would dump the Governor job in a NY minute to be a running mate with trump. That would be a great victory for AZ as her MAGA hold on the state would take an exit, stage left, and leave the job to Fontes who is an amazingly level-headed person who has actually held public office before, conducts himself in a civil manner, and would do what is best for AZ as opposed to himself. I know, that is a novel idea in AZ politics, but I believe he has read, grasped the intent, and would follow both the US and AZ Constitutions. And, let's face it... anything would be better than Trump in drag, the Emperess of Trollism, the Krazy Kari who sees herself as the Queen. Even Fox News (local Channel 10) was happy when she left!

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I don't know about Kari Lake but I'm having one helluva lot of fun this morning! Suck it, MAGA.

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One Democratic candidate I have seen and heard in Arizona who is very strong, powerful and stunningly charismatic is Adrian Fontes who ran for AZ secretary of state - the office that has overall responsibility for elections in Arizona - an un-glamorous but important office. Fontes is an antidote to the moral nihilism of the "Republican" party and the lack of energy and vision that now plagues the Democratic party. I hope we see him again as a candidate for a higher office. Having him as the keynote speaker at the next DNC would be a smart move.

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founding
Nov 9, 2022·edited Nov 9, 2022

Fun is what fun does and it varies. Kari Lake and Trump's rallies are all about fun-- the fun of fantasizing about smashing people in the mouth, kicking their rib cages in, tearing out their eyeballs, and inflicting suffering which the victim is helpless to avoid and cannot reciprocate. And unless interrupted at some point leads to the fun of dressing up in uniforms, building concentration camps, imprisoning victims, and even implementing final solutions.

Yes, lots of fun. So much fun, I'm just going to die laughing.

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DeSantis announced in his acceptance speech that "Florida is where "woke" goes to die!" This, as well as his assuming the mantel of God's anointed savior (Messiah) I think we can see the outlines and shape of things to come.

Apparently he only read the first half of Barry Goldwater's convention speech. "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice!" That sentence was joined with the idea that "Moderation in the pursuit of Justice is no virtue!".

And what is "woke" but a search for justice and the recognition that justice must be pursued and that pursuit recognizes and "sees" the barriers to that pursuit? Obviously "wokeness" is an offense to those with no conscience, for whom cruelty to "the out group" is the greatest demonstration of their will to power. The future of Florida will be, to paraphrase Orwell, If you want a picture of the future, imagine a CHRISTIAN boot stamping on a human face—for ever.'

So far the 2024 DeSantis campaign slogan is "Make America Florida!"

But Florida is where justice goes to die.

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The unwoke will not appreciate what an unleashed DeSantis does when they don't support his every move. Florida deserves him. Hispanic voters are unfortunately trading a left wing socialist/communist autocrat for a right wing fascist autocrat. Hopefully it won't take them long to learn there is no difference. They get screwed either way.

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Wonder if Kari is celebrating now.

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"basking in the serotonin rush that comes from voicing their shared resentments and loathings. "

That is such a good and depressingly accurate line, Tim.

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Except I think it's more likely norepinephrine and dopamine, but point taken!

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I can't get over the visual of the Comet Ping Pong shooter at this event. I don't want to know how many guns there were.

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Posobiec wasn't the shooter. The shooter, I believe is still in prison. The guy at the rally is just a promoter of the nonsense conspiracy theory. He's also collaborated with white nationalists and neo-Nazis.

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Well, Tim may very well be right. Am I being a "buzzkill" to see this as a sign of America's decadence? Ultimately someone has to entertain us if we're to get really motivated to put them in office?

Then again, throw this onto the pile of armchair QB criticisms of what the Democrats do wrong. They don't have fun. But then they don't pay attention to the Very Serious Concerns of the long suffering people who vote for Republicans for some other reason than sticking it to the libs. They need to start addressing the complaints of blue collar Americans, like Tim Ryan has been doing in his race that he's probably going to lose to a pudgy, disingenuous Ivy Leaguer who won his nomination by taking back everything he ever said about Glorious Leader.

They need to start talking like normal people - forget all this stuff about abortion and democracy and the environment and meet the people where they are on matters like about how inspirational the Unabomber is or how China take all our good air and their bad air got to go somewhere. Oh, or how the 2020 election was stolen! That's a big hit — just don't go talking people's ears off about how it *wasn't* stolen, because voters are so much more focused on kitchen table issues, like whatever mean names Mean Joe Malarkey calls the MAGA base.

Also, make sure not to support any policies that might have arguably contributed to a random act of crime or two; the obvious exception being the semi-quarterly mass slaughter of schoolchildren, churchgoers, or recreational gatherers, which — fun fact — is all about the very serious (not too serious of course!) issue of mental health care, and has nothing to do with the availability of AR-15s at Wal-Mart.

Oh, and also, stop telling voters about the things you've done for them in the past to address their Very Serious Concerns — they'd totally rather hear you talk about what the other guys haven't done but you are for sure gonna do, like "vote against inflation". And definitely be careful not to give voters the impression you care about people who aren't them, like their kids out of college, or that you want to make anyone's life better than that of the people who came before them 20 years ago. Americans want change, not progress. Also, we have to learn to relate to people different than us, as long as those people aren't whiny coastal Social Justice types.

Look I know I'm being reductionist here and conflating Trump's base with the allegedly gettable moderate Independents. There's a lot of wisdom that I'm eliding here to make a point. Because goddamn if it doesn't feel like Democrats are the ones constantly having to navigate a dizzying array of conflicting criticism about the imperfections in their "message" while Republicans get to win elections by having fun.

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Lol. This is delicious. It’s so good that it makes my head hurt because it is soooo true.

Still chucking...

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"Democrats would have vastly more success with messaging if only they would direct their message to specifically me and my concerns, although I opposed them my entire political life until recently, and it's political malpractice that they can't" – a take I no longer bother to read all the way through.

Thanks for the roundup.

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author

...there is literally nothing in this article about what would appeal to me or my concerns.

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It's not you.

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Tim: You write: "it’s hard to imagine her leaving the governorship to Democrat Adrian Fontes, should Fontes win and become the sitting Secretary of State." Is it really so hard to imagine? She wouldn't have to give up her position if she's the VP nominee. She would only leave the Governor's position if she's the VP nominee and Trump wins. Since she is so much like Trump, why would she give a fuck about anything other than herself? Trump certainly wouldn't. I think she would abandon Arizona to a Democrat governor in a heartbeat if it meant her personal advancement to be the VP and next in line for the presidency after Trump. I don't think you are being cynical enough! LOL

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Today, Tuesday November 8, 2022, we woke up to the news that the $2 Billion Powerball lottery was not drawn as scheduled due to some alleged state technology issue. Later in the day, the problem was fixed, the drawing was held, albeit several hours late, and a winning ticket was announced.

12 Hours later on this same day, despite being told well in advance that vote counts will delayed 2-3 days due to democratically passed and challenged state laws, the Maga jackholes will become incensed-- ready to riot and take up arms claiming voter fraud and end of days conspiracies. Not one of them will even think to question the legitimacy of the $2 Billion Powerball drawing. They'll just say, "Oh well, better luck next time."

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I'm just kind of struggling with the disconnect between the steady stream of pessimism that comes out of the Bulwark (which I agree with because I think it's true) and the criticism that Dems should be more "fun."

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Also MORE fun when it is LOL vs OMG

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If I may make an observation: the modern american voter sees politics as bloodsport. It is not simply a place to advance careers or talk about big issues. Politics is entertainment. But Americans like their entertainers in this arena to be fighters; they want people who are aggressive and go after their opponents. How they do this varies. But the right and left voter want leaders who will fight for their issues, or just fight at all, really. Nothing is worse than a leader who seems passive.

Post 9/11, all our presidents have been fighters for something. Bush claimed he was a fighter against John Kerry, a man with purple hearts. Obama fought for change. Trump fought for resentment. Biden fought against Trump's seeming madness. But they fought for SOMETHING. This plays out in races we see where Democrats are the furthest ahead: Fetterman fights directly, after all. He makes no bones about being aggressive towards Oz and makes his barbs clear and obvious. There's no apology from him.

To use a historical analogy, in Byzantium, the chariot races were divided into teams, and those teams were extremely political. The two biggest, the blues and greens, each represented political factions, to the point that they had violent enforcers to go after each other in the streets. The emperors often were members of the various teams and gave them patronage. The political arena was as much fought in the chariot arena as it was the emperor's throne room.

Humans have not changed much. We want leaders that fight for something. We want to see them fight each other, to see candidates bloody each other's noses. Most of this is not physical; but we like to see arguments. Some say this is the reality tv-ification of everything, and maybe they're right. But we like to see our politicians express passion and anger and act as lightning rods for our issues.

The media in the center and on the left doesn't like this, but the right wing media grasps this innately. They are always stoking their base, always being aggressive, always making their leaders out as warriors fighting the fight of the base. Now, that might not be the case. But that doesn't really matter, because it's about making the people who vote think you're performing in your role as gladiator in chief.

The democrats need to learn that they need to be fighters; they need to stop apologizing and worrying about civility and instead focus on being passionate and direct. They need to take the fight to the GOP, and they need to not apologize for it.

Especially because, with all the attempts to not seem radical, people still think that they are the same as the GOP. So obviously, the attempts to be demure and non-threatening aren't working. It can't, in an age when people want their leaders to fight.

To put it another way, if you care about lowering inflation, fight the other candidate! If you care about healthcare, fight for it! If you care about democracy, fight for it! Trade barbs! Bloody the other candidate in ads and debates! You can't simply keep your head down and expect to win, because voters want to see candidates draw blood from each other.

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Well the real problem then is simply that Democrats refuse to lie, slander or operate in fact free reality. Until Democrats can learn to lie they will lose.

The blood sport/entertainment aspect has a long history. Sports was a colonialist project in the 19th and 20th century helping to subjugate and pacify millions. Even the deadliest political riots of the ancient world sometimes found expression as antagonism between teams. It was a way for the powerless to assert their opinion in strongly authoritarian empires.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nika_riots#Causes

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Put another way, Democrats need to practice zero-sum judo and go after GOP candidates hard.

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I agree with most of this but Obama fought without barbs or bloodying the other candidate or drawing blood. Today’s candidates can do that too because the people they’re fighting aren’t real fighters - they’re clowns. They’re like the villains in every Scooby Doo show. All Dems need to do is to pull off the mask and show people what’s underneath.

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People, in general, hate weakness. Even perceived weakness. When Katie Hobbs refused to debate Lake, I knew it was over. The only person who could have beat Lake was someone who was as pugnacious as her

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Totally agree with you. But here is the funny thing: my guess is that there is a very significant chance that Trump will refuse to debate in the 2024 Presidential race. And his supporters will love him even more for it and take it as an alpha male "sticking it to the man" move.

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I think the better term for what is needed is ‘passion’ rather than ‘fun.’

Passion is infectious, thereby getting more people on board, and can result in fun, which obviously everyone likes, but in the long run is much more substantive and productive than ‘fun’.

And hate is a form of passion, hence the energy on the right.

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“The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.”

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"Anger is an energy" - John Lydon

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