Thank you for the thoughtful response and I am frankly a bit star struck my comment was called out, even we have disagreements on the margins. I think you however are mistaken about James Carville, who is pissed at Buttigieg for not calling Biden to drop out earlier. I recall Carville was with Bill Kristol months before the infamous debate and wanted Biden to move aside for a real primary.
Amazing post. Way to lead by example, restating your position with greater nuance. When you say that Trump’s “return” was “inevitable,” do you mean that he was destined to win the election by Biden’s failure? I agree that Biden’s decision was disastrous, but it’s unclear that Kamala was destined to lose. She lost by only 230,000 votes in the Blue Wall.
And many votes, as we find out now, we thrown out by dirty tactics of the Republican party. I think disenfranchised black votes is a concern, robo calls to discourage voters to go out to vote, claims of bad voter registrations, gerrymandering, overall low voter turnout, etc. worked in favor of Trump's reelection. I wouldn't say he won by any means though.
I agree with you on this one, Gary. We cannot have a political class who lie and gaslight us for months if not years, and then when the entire house of cards falls, they act as though we're being unreasonable for demanding accountability. This is an albatross around the neck of anyone who backed Biden to the hilt until it became unsustainable, and they should really have to work to earn trust again.
I agree with you on this one, Gary. We cannot have a political class who lie and gaslight us for months if not years, and then when the entire house of cards falls, they act as though we're being unreasonable for demanding accountability. This is an albatross around the neck of anyone who backed Biden to the hilt until it became unsustainable, and they should really have to work to earn trust again.
All this is very well, but at his worst, Biden never spit out a word salad in response to any press questions, unlike the orange one who has yet to give any intelligible answer to any question from the media. Biden ran the country well. The Gaza bit was a minor disaster, however.
Republican voters are living their lives in a self-reinforcing echo chamber of Trump-captured elected leaders who appear on Trump-approval seeking infotainment media outlets where their grievances for the disdain hurled their way by liberals and Democrats are constantly stoked.
Spot on. Our current political situation has devolved into the fascists vs. the feeble. Unfortunately, the feeble enable and empower the fascists despite performative acts like 25 hour speeches or “strongly worded letters” because there is no substantive follow-up regarding solutions for people in the real world. Voters respond to the perceived “leadership” of authoritarianism because the Blue MAGA alternatives merely lip service presented by little old people shaking their fists in the air. We need those who speak truth to power, forcefully and with conviction, regardless of party affiliation.
We can’t write off a host of well meaning and qualified Democrats like Hakeem Jeffries just because they didn’t speak up soon enough. To do that is to turn the country over to the know nothings who are currently in charge. I refuse to do that.
I would like to go back to protesting without violence. I think we need to mix it up a little and have some humor. No violence is the best, but constant anger??? A group of prostesters stand for 5 to 10 minutes laughing aloud - seemily at nothing, but reading a placard that says "Laugh for Joy" with a statement like Tiller/Mrump -Maga Clowns. You might say do it yourself, fair enough, but I use the age card. You are also better at media. Keep up the good work. Robin
IMHO this discussion is a misdirected distraction, totally counterproductive with respect to fighting what we are up against. Is there anyone on this string that doesn't think the US and the world would be much better off if Joe were in the White House right now instead of the Orange Bozo? How can anyone spend a minute dwelling on Joe's alleged "decline" in the face of Bozo's obvious dementia?
Of course we can worry Joe's shortcomings to death. There were plenty of them, no question.
One of the many toxic results of this discussion is that you are echoing and reinforcing MAGA talking points, most of them straight out false propaganda manufactured by AI bots in Mosow.
Joe's record, as is universally acknowledged in the real world, is one of the best in modern history. His accomplishments while in office are incredible. Focus on that and move on.
Dwelling on this subject is part of the problem. It reeks of the "circular firing squad" mentality
that plagues the Democratic party. Take a lesson from Mamdani. Nothing could be further from his approach.
I could go on. Build on the good things Joe accomplished and move on to constructive discussions of what to do next. "There is no pony."
IMHO this discussion is a misdirected distraction, totally counterproductive with respect to fighting what we are up against. Is there anyone on this string that doesn't think the US and the world would be much better off if Joe were in the White House right now instead of the Orange Bozo? How can anyone spend a minute dwelling on Joe's alleged "decline" in the face of Bozo's obvious dementia?
Of course we can worry Joe's shortcomings to death. There were plenty of them, no question.
One of the many toxic results of this discussion is that you are echoing and reinforcing MAGA talking points, most of them straight out false propaganda manufactured by AI bots in Mosow.
Joe's record, as is universally acknowledged in the real world, is one of the best in modern history. His accomplishments while in office are incredible. Focus on that and move on.
Dwelling on this subject is part of the problem. It reeks of the "circular firing squad" mentality
that plagues the Democratic party. Take a lesson from Mamdani. Nothing could be further from his approach.
I could go on. Build on the good things Joe accomplished and move on to constructive discussions of what to do next. "There is no pony."
One thing I’d like the folks who didn’t raise concern about Biden’s decline to realize is how much harm that hubris has done to regular people. We are permanently impaired by Trump 2.0 and yes, if you’re amongst the leaders in the Democratic Party you DO have responsibility for running a winning candidate.
Unless the Democratic Party learns that they need to adopt a messaging strategy that mirrors that of the GOP they will never gain the upper hand again. Designate many spokespersons who blitz every type of media outlet every damn day. Each one MUST, with one voice, use the exact same talking points and they MUST REPEAT THE SAME MESSAGE OVER AND OVER AND OVER. I mean word for word. Do you remember the “Death Panel” rhetoric spewing from the mouth of every GOP congressperson in every TV appearance, on every podcast, and in every speech? It was effective at limiting the ACA. They nearly killed it with that one outrageous lie. I’m proposing the Dems adopt the same media strategy as the GOP. Except our communication will be the truth where the GOP lies like it breathes. We must counter every lie with the truth EVERY DAMN TIME OVER EVERY DAMN ISSUE and not just on the Sunday shows. To be effective the Dem message must be repeated ad infinitum. (remember Benghazi?) EVERY Democrat MUST talk about what the GOP is doing to the country. Why won’t the Democrats learn from the successful messaging the GOP employs? Do they think they’ll become as tainted as the GOP? Get over it! Dems can speak the truth and use the same repetitive tactics, the exact same verbiage all across the party and get better results because they are being truthful. I am sick at heart that the Dems are proving to be feckless in the fight of our lives. Put away your “broad tent so we couldn’t all possibly speak the same truths in one voice” bullshit. The GOP is deliberately destroying our country and Dems, to preserve proper decorum and some imagined superiority in doing so, in effect are neutering themselves before they can do anything effective to counter what the GOP is accomplishing. The Republican Party has been using this same strategy since Bill Clinton was elected. They have managed to keep the Democrats perpetually in a defensive mode against the GOP lies. We MUST take back the offensive position.
Democrats gave us Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the ACA. The GOP gave us the Great Depression, the Great Recession, the Jan 6 terrorist attack and people needlessly dying by the hundreds of thousands from the pandemic. The lives lost are a direct result of Donald Trump’s lies, and the GOP’s complicity. These are obvious talking points NEVER heard coming out of Democrats mouth.
I am begging any Democrat that will listen to stop the naval gazing, wake up and do the media blitzing necessary to meet this time in history. The internet and social media has opened countless opportunities for communication and Democrats, like petulant children, refuse to see and use its potential. Wake the fuck up! Get younger people elected that can navigate this new landscape effectively PLEASE! Before there’s no possible way to return our country to sanity. Right now Dems are, in fact, choosing ineffective strategies and we’ll all watch the country go down in flames if they refuse to adopt effective messaging strategies. I am almost as pissed at Dems as I am the GOP.
I’d like to see the media report on Trump’s gibberish half as much as Biden’s decline. Trump is unable to maintain any train of thought that isn’t a grievance, revenge plot or idea summed up in two words-“tariffs good” “immigrants bad.”
Thank you for the thoughtful response and I am frankly a bit star struck my comment was called out, even we have disagreements on the margins. I think you however are mistaken about James Carville, who is pissed at Buttigieg for not calling Biden to drop out earlier. I recall Carville was with Bill Kristol months before the infamous debate and wanted Biden to move aside for a real primary.
You are correct. We have edited the sentence to remove the mention of James Carville.
And apologies to Mr. Carville for the mischaracterization!
Thank you for the quick correction. Carville caught a lot of hate at the time.
Amazing post. Way to lead by example, restating your position with greater nuance. When you say that Trump’s “return” was “inevitable,” do you mean that he was destined to win the election by Biden’s failure? I agree that Biden’s decision was disastrous, but it’s unclear that Kamala was destined to lose. She lost by only 230,000 votes in the Blue Wall.
And many votes, as we find out now, we thrown out by dirty tactics of the Republican party. I think disenfranchised black votes is a concern, robo calls to discourage voters to go out to vote, claims of bad voter registrations, gerrymandering, overall low voter turnout, etc. worked in favor of Trump's reelection. I wouldn't say he won by any means though.
I agree with you on this one, Gary. We cannot have a political class who lie and gaslight us for months if not years, and then when the entire house of cards falls, they act as though we're being unreasonable for demanding accountability. This is an albatross around the neck of anyone who backed Biden to the hilt until it became unsustainable, and they should really have to work to earn trust again.
I agree with you on this one, Gary. We cannot have a political class who lie and gaslight us for months if not years, and then when the entire house of cards falls, they act as though we're being unreasonable for demanding accountability. This is an albatross around the neck of anyone who backed Biden to the hilt until it became unsustainable, and they should really have to work to earn trust again.
and yet the political class who lie and gaslight and are Republicans rather than Democrats continue to get a pass... go figure
All this is very well, but at his worst, Biden never spit out a word salad in response to any press questions, unlike the orange one who has yet to give any intelligible answer to any question from the media. Biden ran the country well. The Gaza bit was a minor disaster, however.
Done!
Mr. Kasparov, Chris Cilizza chronicled in his "So What" Substack the collective effort by the Democratic Powers That Be to destroy the "too old" basis and political viability of Rep. Dean Phillips who was the only conventionally qualified Primary opponent for Joe Biden's renomination for a second term. "Not only does every Democratic elected official owe Dean Phillips an apology, but the fact that he hasn’t gotten many (any?) speaks to the fact that the party still doesn’t get how much damage it did to its brand with the Biden age/health cover-up." https://chriscillizza.substack.com/p/democrats-owe-dean-phillips-a-giant?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1301210&post_id=164575618&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=cqkgb&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Political analysis is disingenuous and harmful without pointing out first, middle and last: Republicans control the media.
Republicans control the media.
Republicans control the media.
Republicans control the media.
Republicans control the media.
Republican voters are living their lives in a self-reinforcing echo chamber of Trump-captured elected leaders who appear on Trump-approval seeking infotainment media outlets where their grievances for the disdain hurled their way by liberals and Democrats are constantly stoked.
Republicans control the House and Senate!
You’re right. The problem is that if the are two parties who can’t be trusted to tell the truth, who can be trusted to?
Greenfield the two party system and move to multiparty first past the post.
Or better still, proportional or IRV/STV voting.
Spot on. Our current political situation has devolved into the fascists vs. the feeble. Unfortunately, the feeble enable and empower the fascists despite performative acts like 25 hour speeches or “strongly worded letters” because there is no substantive follow-up regarding solutions for people in the real world. Voters respond to the perceived “leadership” of authoritarianism because the Blue MAGA alternatives merely lip service presented by little old people shaking their fists in the air. We need those who speak truth to power, forcefully and with conviction, regardless of party affiliation.
We can’t write off a host of well meaning and qualified Democrats like Hakeem Jeffries just because they didn’t speak up soon enough. To do that is to turn the country over to the know nothings who are currently in charge. I refuse to do that.
No, we should write off Democrats like Hakeem Jeffries because they knowingly meet with ICC war criminals like Yoav Gallant. We deserve a politician who isn't complicit in genocide. https://x.com/AndrewSolender/status/1805708821324521763?lang=en
I would like to go back to protesting without violence. I think we need to mix it up a little and have some humor. No violence is the best, but constant anger??? A group of prostesters stand for 5 to 10 minutes laughing aloud - seemily at nothing, but reading a placard that says "Laugh for Joy" with a statement like Tiller/Mrump -Maga Clowns. You might say do it yourself, fair enough, but I use the age card. You are also better at media. Keep up the good work. Robin
IMHO this discussion is a misdirected distraction, totally counterproductive with respect to fighting what we are up against. Is there anyone on this string that doesn't think the US and the world would be much better off if Joe were in the White House right now instead of the Orange Bozo? How can anyone spend a minute dwelling on Joe's alleged "decline" in the face of Bozo's obvious dementia?
Of course we can worry Joe's shortcomings to death. There were plenty of them, no question.
One of the many toxic results of this discussion is that you are echoing and reinforcing MAGA talking points, most of them straight out false propaganda manufactured by AI bots in Mosow.
Joe's record, as is universally acknowledged in the real world, is one of the best in modern history. His accomplishments while in office are incredible. Focus on that and move on.
Dwelling on this subject is part of the problem. It reeks of the "circular firing squad" mentality
that plagues the Democratic party. Take a lesson from Mamdani. Nothing could be further from his approach.
I could go on. Build on the good things Joe accomplished and move on to constructive discussions of what to do next. "There is no pony."
IMHO this discussion is a misdirected distraction, totally counterproductive with respect to fighting what we are up against. Is there anyone on this string that doesn't think the US and the world would be much better off if Joe were in the White House right now instead of the Orange Bozo? How can anyone spend a minute dwelling on Joe's alleged "decline" in the face of Bozo's obvious dementia?
Of course we can worry Joe's shortcomings to death. There were plenty of them, no question.
One of the many toxic results of this discussion is that you are echoing and reinforcing MAGA talking points, most of them straight out false propaganda manufactured by AI bots in Mosow.
Joe's record, as is universally acknowledged in the real world, is one of the best in modern history. His accomplishments while in office are incredible. Focus on that and move on.
Dwelling on this subject is part of the problem. It reeks of the "circular firing squad" mentality
that plagues the Democratic party. Take a lesson from Mamdani. Nothing could be further from his approach.
I could go on. Build on the good things Joe accomplished and move on to constructive discussions of what to do next. "There is no pony."
One thing I’d like the folks who didn’t raise concern about Biden’s decline to realize is how much harm that hubris has done to regular people. We are permanently impaired by Trump 2.0 and yes, if you’re amongst the leaders in the Democratic Party you DO have responsibility for running a winning candidate.
Unless the Democratic Party learns that they need to adopt a messaging strategy that mirrors that of the GOP they will never gain the upper hand again. Designate many spokespersons who blitz every type of media outlet every damn day. Each one MUST, with one voice, use the exact same talking points and they MUST REPEAT THE SAME MESSAGE OVER AND OVER AND OVER. I mean word for word. Do you remember the “Death Panel” rhetoric spewing from the mouth of every GOP congressperson in every TV appearance, on every podcast, and in every speech? It was effective at limiting the ACA. They nearly killed it with that one outrageous lie. I’m proposing the Dems adopt the same media strategy as the GOP. Except our communication will be the truth where the GOP lies like it breathes. We must counter every lie with the truth EVERY DAMN TIME OVER EVERY DAMN ISSUE and not just on the Sunday shows. To be effective the Dem message must be repeated ad infinitum. (remember Benghazi?) EVERY Democrat MUST talk about what the GOP is doing to the country. Why won’t the Democrats learn from the successful messaging the GOP employs? Do they think they’ll become as tainted as the GOP? Get over it! Dems can speak the truth and use the same repetitive tactics, the exact same verbiage all across the party and get better results because they are being truthful. I am sick at heart that the Dems are proving to be feckless in the fight of our lives. Put away your “broad tent so we couldn’t all possibly speak the same truths in one voice” bullshit. The GOP is deliberately destroying our country and Dems, to preserve proper decorum and some imagined superiority in doing so, in effect are neutering themselves before they can do anything effective to counter what the GOP is accomplishing. The Republican Party has been using this same strategy since Bill Clinton was elected. They have managed to keep the Democrats perpetually in a defensive mode against the GOP lies. We MUST take back the offensive position.
Democrats gave us Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the ACA. The GOP gave us the Great Depression, the Great Recession, the Jan 6 terrorist attack and people needlessly dying by the hundreds of thousands from the pandemic. The lives lost are a direct result of Donald Trump’s lies, and the GOP’s complicity. These are obvious talking points NEVER heard coming out of Democrats mouth.
I am begging any Democrat that will listen to stop the naval gazing, wake up and do the media blitzing necessary to meet this time in history. The internet and social media has opened countless opportunities for communication and Democrats, like petulant children, refuse to see and use its potential. Wake the fuck up! Get younger people elected that can navigate this new landscape effectively PLEASE! Before there’s no possible way to return our country to sanity. Right now Dems are, in fact, choosing ineffective strategies and we’ll all watch the country go down in flames if they refuse to adopt effective messaging strategies. I am almost as pissed at Dems as I am the GOP.
I’d like to see the media report on Trump’s gibberish half as much as Biden’s decline. Trump is unable to maintain any train of thought that isn’t a grievance, revenge plot or idea summed up in two words-“tariffs good” “immigrants bad.”