7 Comments

Meet the shitty new Democratic candidates, same as the shitty old Democratic candidates

Expand full comment

I have seen a lot of people articulate this frustration, and only once on Twitter did I hear a practical solution, so I'm passing it along. It's too late to change the Dem ticket this year, but it's not too late to change the ticket in future years. Are your federal representatives progressive enough for you? If not, is there a progressive challenger? How about at the state level? The way we get progressives onto high-profile tickets is by electing them at lower levels so they can start having an impact, so the party understands that those policies are the popular ones to embrace. Too often those lower-profile elections get ignored, and then the party favorites keep getting re-elected (not always, as we've started to see this year!), and then in twelve years people wonder why we're nominating career politicians.

Additionally, both Biden and Harris have shown a willingness to change, adopting policies from their primary competitors. So these are our reps: let's keep pressure on them to keep moving to the left. Obama started out noncommittal on same-sex marriage and ended up endorsing it. Keep making noise. Keep holding them accountable.

Expand full comment

Uggh, rageposting leads to pronoun confusion.

Obama started out vocally endorsing same-sex marriage and then had his justice department spend tax money actively defending DOMA for half his first term. He could have pulled support for DOMA on Inauguration Day, if he'd cared to. Support for gay marraige was like 80% among Dems the entire time. In case you're wondering what Biden and Harris's 'willingness to change' is worth.

Expand full comment

"Obama started out noncommittal on same-sex marriage and ended up endorsing it."

The absolute fuck? Obama started out vocally endorsing same-sex marriage and then had his justice department spend tax money actively defending it for half his first term. He could have pulled support on Inauguration Day, if he'd cared to. Support for gay marraige was like 80% among Dems the entire time. In case you're wondering what Biden and Harris's 'willingness to change' is worth.

It costs them literally nothing to lie, and most of the time they won't even bother to do that for a leftists' vote.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_of_Marriage_Act#Obama_administration

President Barack Obama's 2008 political platform endorsed the repeal of DOMA.[55][56] On June 12, 2009, the Justice Department issued a brief defending the constitutionality of DOMA in the case of Smelt v. United States, continuing its longstanding practice of defending all federal laws challenged in court.[57] On June 15, 2009, Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese wrote an open letter to Obama that asked for actions to balance the DOJ's courtroom position: "We call on you to put your principles into action and send legislation repealing DOMA to Congress."

On February 23, 2011, Attorney General Eric Holder released a statement regarding lawsuits challenging DOMA Section 3. He wrote: "...Given that conclusion, the President has instructed the Department not to defend the statute in such cases."

You guys can hate on leftists all you want, but you absolutely do not get to re-write history.

Expand full comment

I do appreciate this, because it is a reminder about how much power and influence we do have, especially if we focus on the communities that are closest to us. The presidency and Senate are exciting, but they are not the only races that matter.

Expand full comment

"Let me stress: I very much want Donald Trump to lose and Joe Biden to win. I don’t think they are equally bad. Trump is worse. There is a lot at stake in November. Republicans must be removed from power."

"Let me stress, again: This is not some call to boycott the election. The election matters. "

If and when Biden loses in November, lets circle back around and see how much good will these olive branches to the centrist deathcult bought you.

I still see libs pissing and moaning about the Deadspin guys not voting for Hillary, because as we all know, ten or so more votes by people who live in places like NYC & DC would have made all the difference.

Expand full comment

I saw it in there, but all the "kamala is going to crush pence" fantasizing is likely going to slam into a particularly unpleasant wall at the actual VP debates.

Kamala is an objectively bad debater; she was stilted and incredibly bad on her feet at every Democratic debate, indeed her awful performances are largely what killed her primary run in the first place... And Tulsi Gabbard of all people dealt the deathblow. Kamala goes completely out to sea when handling anything even slightly unprepared, and if her prepared remarks don't land she just repeats them, like the meme of the bird stand up comedian. Awkward laughter fills the gaps.

Mike Pence, for all that he believes insane things and is personally incredibly stupid, is actually pretty good at the forms of debate. Kaine vs Pence left Kaine looking like a total incompetent inadequacy, but where it broke from reality is it left Pence looking unflappable and competent. He's a former talk radio host, he's good on his feet when peddling lies and he's pretty much unflappable.

This is not a good combo if you like Kamala, at all. Or even if you dislike Kamala, but are prone to painful fremdschämen. It is extremely unlikely to result in the kind of knockout people are imagining it will.

Expand full comment