Actually-it’s citizens who should be checking the facts. Virtually every American has 24/7 access to Internet research in their hands. It’s a simple matter to check the facts/veracity of claims, & read any number of opinions to educate oneself. Like “The Big Lie” & the ridiculous people who cling to it as truth because a self-motivated rich man from NY says it’s so. This is ignorance as a choice. Where we were a nation who questioned & aired issues based in facts & opinions, we’ve devolved to an ignorant mass who think decking themselves out in the flag & wearing a MAGA hat is patriotism. When real patriotism is based on the democratic precept of “question power.” They’re too damned lazy. We’ve “dumbed down” so much in our society there’s virtually no aspiration to just try to do a little better. Doubt it? Ordered at a “use the touch-menu” drive through or had your order repeated to you where they just touch pictures-90% of the time now. they screw up the order. Which isn’t the worst of it.- When you explain they messed it up-they don’t care. There’s no “learning by mistakes.” Vast numbers of Americans won’t be responsible for themselves or their decisions. They assume “someone else will fix it.”
I read not too long ago, that the average IQ in the U.S. has decreased several points, to 98. Think of the bell curve with 98 being the mid-point. What falls below & what falls above that mid-point. Critical thinking skills seem at an all time low. This suggests to me that many folks would be ok, even desire a " plug & play" life; thus in some circles choosing demagogues to run your country might have an appeal. Sad! The interesting thing about dictators & demagogues is that they tend to rule by whim. Today heads roll for someone else. Someone else's religion, someone else's political philosophy, sexuality. Tomorrow they may come for you. Very ego driven with no checks & balances. (Fragile as we've seen those " checks & balances" are of late. )
Well put. Perfect description. Didn’t know about the drop in IQ avg. 2 points doesn’t sound like much, but with IQ, it’s considerable! Sheeple who just don’t get the idea that demagogues prefer non-thinkers & if they take away someone’s else’s rights that you don’t like-LGBTQ+, etc.-your freedoms are fettered too. I keep telling all the anti-choice pols that if they truly believe what they preach, they & everyone else who claims the same would immediately get themselves sterilized. That would go far to stopping abortions…
That’s what ye olde “checks & balances” actually come down to-the flip side of every coin.
Well, I don’t know, but it may be that there’s been an increase in the last decade of people who are voting against their own best interests. Some people try to justify that observation by saying people who vote against their own interests must not understand what they’re voting for. Example-
fascism. Republicans call it authoritarianism because fascism has a negative association with Hitler & Mussolini.
But, whatever you want to call it, it’s a very oppressive, unfair and punitive form of government & it’s what republicans intend to
force on us. Fascism only works for the people in charge, like the President and members of Congress. They get rich and the rest of the population is poor. When people vote for republicans they’re voting for fascism that will remove the right to vote so we have no input on how we are governed.
How do we know that? We know it because republicans (more than democrats) are in favor of banning books, want to control the curriculum, want to control women by forcing them to give birth, won’t protect our right to vote, don’t value education, etc. Fascism is all about control.
It requires a population that isn’t highly educated
because the uneducated are easier to manipulate and control. Fascism requires the government to control all information, including what children are taught in school & banning books to control what they read. The primary purpose of fascism is to control the “masses” while exploiting them so the few richest people at the top get richer.
Bottom line is people who vote for Trump & republicans are voting for a regime that will create a fascist government & that’s not in anyone’s best interests except for the republicans who are in our government.
Well, unfortunately, “Conservatives are less intelligent than left wingers, says controversial study - and right wing politics lead people to be racist”…” Right-wingers tend to be less intelligent than left-wingers, and people with low childhood intelligence tend to grow up to have racist and anti-gay views, says a controversial new study.” https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2095549/Right-wingers-intelligent-left-wingers-says-controversial-study--conservative-politics-lead-people-racist.html It’s from 2012, but it’s underpinned by Social Psychology findings that show the same: less intelligent people tend to want someone else to make their decisions (Evangelists/Jim Jones & Guyana), and when those or a decision they make on their own go wrong, they blame anyone but themselves. Trump & his followers demonstrate this all the time. And when questioned about something like “The Big Lie,” that’s been roundly disproven-even by Repub groups, they’ll deny the facts of it. Someone commented to me recently that those conversations tend to then be driven off-topic in kind of the way the old children’s game of “I’m rubber-you’re glue” to distract and turn around the conversation to where it’s about accusations, not discussions. That trait, again, is common among the less-intelligent who tend to be more childish. Trump’s legacy. He brought them out from under their rocks & told them that gross lying & threats are “free speech,” - with no-one correcting that there are limits-albeit extremely flexible. Bottom line is that we value free speech to the point where, as a democracy we’d prefer the boundaries get pushed all the time than quashed. Trump & the far right have exploited that maximally. Amazes me that when something happens like men in balaclavas w/guns is justified as free speech, when it fits the definition of voter intimidation. Threats aren’t classified as what they are-terroristic threats. Unfortunately, a lot of that is now coming from McConnell’s long list of “anybody will do if they toe the party line” & rammed thru numerous fed judge appointments under Trump. We’re seeing that play out now. Ex: Cannon who blocked the DOJ Mara-Lago investigation. She had absolutely NO law to justify what she did-and way overstepped her jurisdiction. I’ve yet to hear of her being censured as she shod have been. They have rules too. But now it’s politics. Not laws. Not rules. Not responsibility. Not good sense. And not even common decency. And the corporate world & wealth have it just the way they want. Our electeds serve them-not us. And few challenge that status quo. Government serves them. Not we the people.
https://citizenuniversity.us/ is an organization training folks to conduct 'Civic Saturday' events, to revive the process knowledge that has been so long suppressed. My husband stepped up to serve as the Democratic election observer, to learn every minute step of ballot processing. On election day, a volunteer from the Republican side finally showed up, and expressing her well ingrained suspicions, Mike engaged her quietly with the information he got from the day of training from the week before. Suffice to say, she came away with far more confidence in the system than she rode in on. That training would be an excellent step for every voter.
Thank you! And thank your husband! I’d considered volunteering, but my health has been so iffy of late, I couldn’t have been as responsible as I’d have needed to be. I’m bookmarking the site; hopefully I can get settled down enough to do later.
I don't think that is the problem.... why are false, shady, flat out lies allowed to be aired. Americans especially the trumpster's do not care about facts therefore would not check them.
I think it is more about WHO is spreading the lie rather than the lie itself. A "personality" such as Tucker Carlson develops a following where he portrays lies as facts and then proceeds to be absolutely incredulous about the actual facts when they are presented. Many people choose to go down the rabbit hole with "their guy" instead of hearing what a person has to say UNDER OATH... THIS SCARES ME THE MOST!!!
Agree. Those people think there are still rules against media lies - but there aren’t. Carlson & others picked up where Limbaugh left off with lying & hate mongering & took it to a whole new level. Sad part is that even when you point out what a verifiably horrible “news sauce” they are with apparently rational people, they’ll argue with you. Or worse-tell you they have their preferences just like we have ours. The childish “I’m rubber & you’re glue” comebacks-as if objective fact finding is just calling names.
Well the Reagan era decision to abolish the FCC Fairness Doctrine meant that different viewpoints no longer needed to be included on radio and TV stations using the airwaves. That decision made Rush Limbaugh's career and spawned many more. Cable and the internet then spawned a completed unregulated free-for-all. I remember being initially excited about the 'democratization' of the news and 'citizen journalists.' Now many Americans have grown up on a Fox and right wing junk food diet. No wonder we are sick and divided.
The people who crowd in to see Trump-ever watch them being interviewed? Facts simply don’t interest them. As I’ve said, it pretty much always comes down to whether an individual is willing to be responsible for themselves & their choices. Trump followers are literally no different than the people who have trouble paying bills but flock to see an evangelist who’s so obviously ripping them off. Or the people who followed Jim Jones to Guyana. It’s the price they’re willing to pay to have someone else make their decisions. Being grown up is scary. If a grifter offers an option-too many people will do whatever it takes to unload that burden in someone else. Exploiters abound.
Because, and I quote, Congress make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise. You can bet that the Supreme court will find some 12th century or Tudor rationale for establishing religion..
The only way to stop a lie is by suing in civil court, and then you ,must show injury and also have the big bucks to pay the lawyers.
Beyond that-the congressionals who deny the 2020 election & supported Trump & Jan 6 mob-their oath of office is “I shall support the Constitution…”. Why can’t we the people demand they be removed for violating their oath - & some for outright sedition. Why is that big mouth hillbilly from GA still running around shouting her stupidity?
The De,Democratic party has been, till now, the loyal opposition. The opposition has been titular, pro forma, for both parties drink at the trough of corporations and the wealthy.
The Democratic party when I first voted in 1960 was called, Dixicrats, a party of blue collar and southern racists. Joe Biden was mentored by those racist senators, like Eastman and Thurmond, Eastman all but wore KKK robes to the Senate.
When LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act and his Great Society Program, there was shock among the racists in the south, then they started to re register as Republicans, the Republican party took note, and Nixon and his advisors started using dog whilstles, code, It got more refined with Reagan, whose first rally was in Philadelphia, MS just miles from where the three civil rights workers were killed and buried in a dam.
The Democratic party did not break stride, for it was still controlled by the same old foagies who had laid down with racists. Lay down with a dog, get up with fleas.
Little has changed, the Democratic party talks about equal rights, but does nothing. The Equal rights amendment can still be passed, it only needs one more state to approve it, and it had that state in 2020 but it needed the Senate to extend the cut off date, which it can do.
I will wager that you have heard nothing in the media or from the Democratic party about that.
The Democratic party slops at the trough of Wall Street, Chamber of Commerce, PhrMA, AHIP and I learned yesterday from James Carville's own lips, tha the foundations, especially the Ford Foundation, have a veto on messaging and platform, as they vetoed the Democratic party even talking about crime and how Republican policies exacerbate crime.
My in box has been overloaded the last couple of weeks with pleas for money from the Democratic Party, and the pleas were for conservatives like Hassan and Masto, only one time did a plea come in from Mandela Barnes.
Hassan voted against raising the minimum wage to $15, Masto is a buddy of Joe Manchin and was seen partying with him, along with Carper and Coons of Delaware on his Yacht, he calls a houseboat, named Almost Heaven.
Like pogo said, I've seen the enemy and it is us. The Democratic party would exorcise progressives, they do anything and everything to get rid of them. In 2020 the only losses were conservative Democrats, the progressive's held their own and picked up 2 new seats.
The Democratic party selects and backs tired old race horses like Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Terry McAuliffe,and loses. The only reason that Biden won was because 81 million people were fed up with Trump and turned out to vote. A cabbage could have beat Trump in 2020. Biden did not so much win as Trump lost, and he still can't get over the fact that he was rejected.
Meanwhile the party of the amygdala has no problem putting up fresh, angry faces, that can excite the amygdala, and the party of the pre frontal cortex thinks that people are rational actors who vote in their own economic interests.
Well regardless of what the pollsters and Wall Street want you to think, inflation was not the reason that the Republicans vote, it is the culture war,.
Because in the minds of the MAGAt crowd they fear their loss of personal power, more than their loss of spending power.
I disagree. You imply the Democrats are the opposition in name only. Yet you point out that LBJ, a Democrat, signed the Civil Right Act and ushered in “The Great Society.” Don’t forget that President Obama, another Democrat, passed the Affordable Care Act.
President Biden, whom you say was mentored by racists, named a Black & mixed race woman as his running mate & enacted the American Rescue Plan that provided cash relief directly to low- and middle-income families and cut Black child poverty by 33.3%, lifting more than 1 million Black children out of poverty.
Furthermore, Pres.Biden’s Infrastructure Law permanently authorizes the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) for the first time and elevates the agency head to the position of Under Secretary, giving the agency expanded power to support Black and other minority-owned businesses.
More than one in four Black Americans live within 3 miles of a Superfund site– a higher percentage than for Americans overall. The Infrastructure Law provides funding to clean up Superfund and brownfield sites, reclaim abandoned mine land, and cap orphaned oil and gas wells.
Biden has also directed agencies to use federal purchasing power to increase federal contracts with underserved small businesses & set a goal to increase the share of federal contracting dollars to small disadvantaged businesses by 50% by 2025— projected to assist an additional $100 billion to minority-owned businesses.
Pres.Biden directed an interagency effort to address inequity in home appraisals to combat housing discrimination. It’s led by HUD Sec. Marcia Fudge & Policy Advisor Susan Rice, who are developing policy and recommendations to redress racial bias in home appraisals.
The Biden admin is also assisting Black land owners to resolve Title issues. An estimated 60% of Black-owned land in the South is property that passed through inheritance without a will, rendering those land owners ineligible for U.S. Dept.of Agriculture (USDA) programs, including lending programs.
Those are just a few examples of what the Biden admin. has done to level the playing field for Blacks and other minorities. So I’d say it’s pretty obvious that Democrats are NOT controlled by racist old foagies now, nor were they controlled by racists during the Obama admin.
I don’t agree with every decision made by Dem leadership, but giving a couple of examples of a dem who voted against raising the minimum wage, dems who attended a party on Manchin’s boat and implying that only white dems solicit campaign donations from you isn’t even remotely convincing that democrats and republicans are the same in any way.
Excellent commentary. Reinforces why history has to reviewed in full. Don’t remember commentary about Dems being racist. I started voting Dem 40+ years ago in no small part bec their history is one of support. No matter what any Black Repub might claim about the “future of the party”-I’ve heard that repeated through the years, only to then heard of a “Tuberville” rant that’s met with silence by the party. Their history is such that I consider Blacks who vote/are Repub as betraying their culture. https://medium.com/the-new-standard/black-history-a-history-of-permanent-white-oppression-from-1619-to-2016-8bcfa38dfce Women Repubs the same. They don’t read the facts of history that the party continues. That said, I do agree the Dems have stopped listening to voters. Both parties are beholden to billions in dark money from special interests. Our congress has reached a point where those are too often the interests they serve. Nor have I ever asserted only white Dems solicit from me. Perhaps there's commentary in this thread I’ve missed. I strongly feel it’s past time to hand off to younger generations. The embedded geezer factor plus the billions is crippling our democracy.
WOW! Just WOW! THE best summary of the Dem party I have every read. On point, insightful, historically accurate & sums up what goes on w/hypocrisy (Manchin-chair of the ENERGY cmte? C’mon!!) -No matter how righteous voter objections over it-or how many times he supports the filibuster!) -But you def support my point they talk the “people” talk-but they don’t listen at all - & as you said about progressives being shunned/shut down: the party “rules” require mediocrity & sucking up. They cannot allow true leaders or the charismatic who would become good leaders. Mediocrity & “following the herd” are the rules. Was active in my late 20’s/early 30’s-worked for Bill Clinton when he was AG & just elected gov. It was clear that you weren’t welcome to state opinions or ruffle feathers. Both of which I’ve always been inclined to do-as well as question. Their party rules are Byzantine & ridiculous & designed to promote only the homogenized. You’ve hit it exactly right!
I appreciated William's party history synopsis too. I also agree that Dems continue to roll out a treadmill of familiar faces, and that many positions Democrats take aren't very progressive, yet get supported because the alternative is so much worse. Despite the tired candidate pool and positions that aren't that progressive, more of their platform helps average people than their opponents.
I remain mystified at how terrible Dems are at messaging. They are always flat-footed playing defense, often against mendacious narrative or outright lies. Dems addressed the economy without any significant Republican support. They unilaterally passed Medicare bargaining for lower cost drugs for seniors; stimulus payments to support working people during the pandemic slowdown; funding the IRS to staff up and crack down on wealthy tax evasion to reduce the deficit and expanding child tax credits for working families. POTUS turbocharged the availability and distribution of COVID vaccines, in stark comparison to TFG, as soon as he got into the building (although many anti-vaxxers opted for Ivermectin as a result of "research"). POTUS intervened in the shipping backlog crisis, communicating with shipping firms to try to unkink the supply chain. After doing all that, Dems allowed themselves to be painted as enemies of working people, jobs and the economy in attack ads and on cable news. Dems passed the first gun legislation in 30 years, admittedly a feeble attempt, but an attempt nonetheless to address the epidemic of mass casualty gun violence. Then they allowed themselves to be attacked by ads claiming they are "soft on crime" and that bail reforms they support are the things making every American unsafe and vulnerable to being murdered in their sleep. Dems passed legislation with funding to get shovel-ready, trades-centered projects going, while Republicans sat with their arms crossed, wagged their heads and voted no. Then Dems sat back idly while Republicans took credit for the same projects and funding they voted against. There are more examples but this is already too long.
It's about time the party stood up, went on offense, explicitly detailing in plain language how the things they've done help average people. Don’t wait to counterpunch against simplistic ads built on misinformation and fearmongering. Announce your accomplishments, say it simply, say it often, use catchy slogans and don’t wait until election time to alert constituents to your accomplishments. Use a bit of the Trump playbook, but know you’re actually telling the truth.
“They cannot allow true leaders or the charismatic who would become good leaders. Mediocrity & “following the herd” are the rules.”
Adrienne, I think Barack Obama was and is a charismatic and true leader. People like him don’t come along very often. He provided true leadership and it wasn’t that long ago. I do believe democrats are the party that still cares about America & all Americans. President Biden absolutely cares about all Americans as well and although it may not seem like it, he is getting us back on track. He’s just not shoving in republicans’ faces. (which we’ve gotten used to from republicans)
Every leader has flaws, but Trump was by far the most flawed American President I’m aware of. If you step back and look at the big picture, you’ll see exactly where America started “going off the rails.” It was about 40 years ago.
That was when the republican party literally created a plan to knowingly deviate from what has always been our American values: separation of church and state, making money more important than character, deliberately dumbing down the population in order to more easily deceive them, to name a few. The republicans who came up with this plan intend to rip up our Constitution and replace it and that would be a disaster.
Don’t give up on democrats. I don’t always agree with dem leadership but they are dealing with a state of affairs no one could have anticipated in the best way they can. As many have now said, we are at a crossroads. Dems need support and constructive criticism. It may seem like they aren’t open to it, but they are.
If anyone is interested in how I reached these conclusions I’m happy to provide a list of sources. Just let me know.
Agree. I’m sick of congressionals whom it’s been proven committed sedition w/Jan 6th-like that demented hillbilly Marjorie Big Mouth-who apparently aren’t even being investigated. Our own legal structure is allowing them to be above the law. It only encourages them to continue to flout the law-not to mention just plain decency.
I'm not so sure Margie Trailer Trash isn't being investigated. Wouldn't it suck for the MAGAs if a whole bunch of indictments drop now that the mid-terms are over?
It’s not the laws-it’s that when our legal institutions try to move on the criminals among us, the political pressure makes them back down. Effectively creating an elected class that’s above the law. Biden tried to set up protections for election workers who were being threatened with violence & death for them & their families. Repubs, led by opioid queen Marsha Blackburn, brought so much pressure-citing “freedom of speech,” the administration backed down. Instead of standing on laws that define such as incitement to violence & terroristic threatening. Leaving thousands of election workers twisting in the wind. The short of it is the massive dark money being poured into our government at all levels, to the point that we the people have simply lost our voice. Our government serves big money-not us.
Yes, I agree. As things stand now all republicans in Congress and some dems as well, pass legislation favorable to corporations & scapegoat the other party for legislation that fails. That’s why we can’t get legislation to rein in the cost of prescription meds, why we have a perpetual “war” over regulations for ANY industry from Wall St. to the oil & gas industry.
Healthcare insurance companies give large donations to prevent things like Medicare for all. (The republican argument that we can’t afford Medicare for all just isn’t true.) Huge campaign donations are why the GOP keeps giving tax breaks to corporations and why they pretend climate change is a hoax—They won’t do anything that might jeopardize those campaign donations from corporations. In other words, campaign donations = sanctioned bribes.
Although President Biden is addressing climate change with several projects now in the works, there’s a lot more we need to do. We’re at a point where, if republicans and democrats can’t work together on things like climate change, we could find ourselves in dire situations in just a few years. But many republicans still refuse to acknowledge climate change.
The way I see it we have no choice but to remove the incentive that drives their denial—money in the form of campaign donations. Different people will have different ideas on how to do that, but one way is to make campaign donations illegal and give candidates public money to campaign with. Each candidate would get the same amount of public money. The fec would collect receipts from expenditures to monitor spending and when the money is gone, that’s it. There’s no more.
We spend billions of dollars on campaigns.
In fact, an enormous industry has developed to facilitate it. There are campaign consultants, polling companies, videos of the candidates, commercials, branded t-shirts, coffee cups, baseball caps & other miscellaneous items with the candidate’s name. I don’t know about you, but to me it seems like a colossal waste of money. Our government should not be for sale. Policy shouldn’t be decided by people or businesses that spend the most money, but it is. We simply can’t afford to keep doing it. It should always be ‘country over party’ and ‘people over money.’
Well said! You hit the nail(s) on the head! I’m now curious about the turn out of women (prochoice). Gen Z, & student loan debtors. Read more anti-choice women would turn out to vote than pro-choice. My observation thru the years is they’ve right. Women march, demonstrate, make noise-but fall down with turning out to actually vote. I’m curious about the follow up stats. The close votes seem to support.
Campaign finance reform. Nothings gonna change as long as politicians can be bought. Seems pretty obvious to me. Nothing would have as much impact. And that's why its RARELY brought up
Exactly. And the Dems just SUCK at leadership. Biden should have been out stumping for the last MONTH at least. They have no presence on soc media-but you see the usu dreck of the GOP on there lying constantly. You can tell their leadership tells them to get on it & don’t ignore. Only a few Dem congressionals are regulars at pushing back. Dems should require quotas from congressionals-answering back & calling out the lies. Instead they do big ad buys & expect that to suffice. The leadership is far too distant from voters. Used to be the “poor party” so HAD to get out among people. So many races so close-where the hell was leadership on the stump for them? Obviously helped Fetterman! Tends to look like leadership writes them off-so the voters do too. They really suck at this.
I cannot profess to know enough about the possible laws governing these things so I really don't know whether they're being followed or not! But If there aren't certain laws that would be applicable it would be nice if they could be created! But I certainly agree there seems to be certain laws that seem to exist that are not being applied to certain individuals; a situation I TRULY HOPE gets rectified!
The laws require the investigations to maintain media silence so as not the tilt the process. The targets have a way of slipping up most tellingly, when inured with false confidence.
Because those running for office were neither indicted or convicted of any crime for Jan 6th. Being present at the capitol to protest the election and make a lot of noise is not insurrection. I am aggravated like hell over their fake election claims, but it does not make them legally ineligible to run for office.
Because the current laws don't specifically bar them from running. If they had been charged and convicted of insurrection that would be a different story. We could hang them all!
I don't know if I can do this but here is a link to follow up on your question:
Thanks Susan. That is a good link. I think criminal trespass is usually a misdemeanor but at the capitol its likely a felony. So this could affect those implicated with that behavior. But you still have to be convicted to prevent you from running for office. I had an uncle who defended Jerry Brown for being arrested at a protest rally. This was in the 70's in Mississippi. Didn't affect his political future. Then again this may be a non sequitur.
To start with Congress has no power, and the little power that they have they were afraide to use, For instance Congress has the power to arrest, not just subpoena and they used it twice in the early 20th century, but wimped out and handed the job to DOJ, which was led by a man that worked 10 times as a moderator for the Federalist Society and was vetted to SCOTUS by the most right wing extremist Senator at the time (Orrin Hatch)
Finally Trump signed EO 13957 that enabled him to embed his political appointees in DOJ, DOD, NSA, DHS, even labor as protected civil servants, which pushed out/replaced the long serving civil servants because that same EO converted them to at will.
Biden revoked EO 13957 the second day in office with EO 14002, which you would think is a good thing, but he could have used Trump's EO and precedent to cleanse the DOJ and other cabinets of Trump appointees turned civil servants. Instead he voluntarily disarmed himself, just like he did when he appointed a Republican to the Board of the USPS, thus maintaining a 50/50 Democrat Republican split, thus ensuring that Dejoy would remain Postmaster General.
I have to ask why Biden did not appoint all Democrats to get rid of Dejoy, the only conclusion I can come to is that he didn't want to fire Dejoy. Maybe because Dejoy canceled a contract for electric postal vehicles and gave it to Oshkosh in Wisconsin for gas powered vehicles and Oshkosh is the prime provider of military vehicles like the Humvee.
If keeping the Oshkosh vote was the Democratic party goal, it failed, because Ron Johnson Republican is the elected Senator.
Instead of doing the right thing, the Democrats try the old tactics, back old tired race horses, like Catherine Cortez Masto and neglect places like Florida and Texas which they surrender to the Republicans.
From the pleas that clogged my inbox, the only candidates that they cared about where the conservative Masto and the Conservative Hassan (Hassan voted against raising the minimum wage), they did not support any progressive, and in fact in primaries that support conservatives (who lose in the general) against Progressives, such as Joe Kennedy Jr which Pelosi supported against Senator Markley of Mass in 2020 primary. She did the same supporting a homophobic congressional candidate against a gay congreggional candidate in the Primary of 2020.
Both parties slop at the trough of Wall Street, PhRMA, AHIP and Chamber of Commerce. Both hate and fear true Democrats.
AS president Truman said:
If it's a choice between a genuine Republican, and a Republican in Democratic clothing, the people will choose the genuine article, every time; that is, they will take a Republican before they will a phony Democrat, and I don't want any phony Democratic candidates in this campaign." Harry S Truman, May 17 1952 trumanlibrary.org/…
At this point, it seems POSSIBLE that the Democrats will somehow retain control of the Senate (the importance of this cannot be overstated), and the feared "red tsunami" in the House will not materialize, though the Republicans will unfortunately still likely retake control (get ready for lots of impeachments and investigations, people). If the Democrat losses are limited, I must say, "Thank YOU, Gen Z voters. Thank YOU, women voters." You may have saved this country from a complete disaster of an election.
Well said. But honestly, I have to ask-DID women voters turn out? Not only did inflation overwhelm so many social issues, but I don’t see any reports of the pro-choice movement mounting a huge turn-out. Hate to criticize fellow women-but all those who matched-all those who demonstrated-I see nothing citing to them turning out en masse to vote. The entire history points to that very problem-lotta noise, not much delivery. I hope I’m wrong-but seems it’s been a big enough focus-something would be said.
From what I've read, yes, women did turn out to vote in very high numbers. I don't know what you mean by "lotta noise, not much delivery" since reproductive rights guarantees won in several states. I'm sure Judd can tell us the numbers.
Fair questions, but if not for what I believe was the "Roe v. Wade Pushback", combined with some definite "candidate quality" issues (though that didn't help the Democrats in Ohio or Nevada, unfortunately, and it may not help them in the Arizona Governor's race), I think that the underlying fundamentals of this election (an unpopular President from the party which controlled the House/Senate, high inflation, etc.), we would have seen the Republicans pick up 25-35 House seats and at least 2-3 Senate seats.
Predictions for pro-choice voters were that more anti-choice voters would turn out. I’m old enough to have watched the ERA still not be incorporated-despite the work we’ve done since the 60’s-and the work of our female ancestors for decades prior. Given that any woman who votes Repub (or Blacks or minorities-as proven by our history)-vote against their iwn interests, it still never ceases to amaze me how we can drop the ball.
They did-along w/Gen Z. The final group about whom I’m curious is LGBTQ+ & Trans. Given the GOP open attacks esp on trans youth-they’re losing as much as women-I wonder at their voting. I would hope it’s a high percentage-but I don’t see indications. Still looking.
Borders: Biden continues Trump’s policies-BUT-under Biden, apprehensions are up 330%. The influx of Cubans has been the main surge; while Mexican & most other S. American countries have fallen about 175%. 1% of Cuba’s population have fled to the US: “ U.S. authorities made more than 2.2 million migrant arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2022, higher than any year on record. Of those, about 1 million were quickly expelled to Mexico or other countries under a pandemic-era order known as Title 42. But just 2 percent of Cubans apprehended at the border were expelled in the 2022 fiscal year.” -That’s because CONGRESS HAS DIFFERENT IMMIGRATION LAWS FOR CUBANS & Venezuelans, based on being from Communist countries, they’re considered refugees. If they make it over the border, they aren’t deported. After a year, they can apply for green cards.
Drugs: Oct 4, 2022 “ Most fentanyl is seized at border crossings — **often from U.S. citizens** ...—In the period from the fourth quarter of 2018 to the end of August 2022, an average of **87 percent** of seized fentanyl was stopped at the southern border.” “https://www.washingtonpost.com › politics › 2022 › 10 › 04 › border-fentanyl-seizures-americans. - Thanks to TN’s Sen Marsha Blackburn, “ https://www.addictions.com › opiate › the-role-of-pharmaceutical-companies-in-the-opioid-epidemic
The Role of Pharmaceutical Companies in the Opioid Epidemic - Addictions
Sep 15, 2021The major players who took part in creating the opioid epidemic include: Purdue Pharma Abbott Labs Johnson & Johnson Pfizer Novartis Covidien Watson Pharmaceuticals Endo Pharmaceuticals.” Her legislation in 2014 stopped the DEA from investigating US Big Pharma & prosecute them. They flooded our streets w/opioids funneled through fly-by-night dr’s & pharmacies, using the homeless in huge prescription scam, putting millions of pills into rural & small town areas, often far outnumbering the number of people living there. Blackburn has received huge money from pharma to stop the DEA &’protect them. That’s not the border-it’s mid-America.
Student radicalization? Seriously? Give sone EXAMPLES based on FACTS. Otherwise you’re just parroting GOP propaganda & lies.
Domestic terrorism reached a zenith thanks to Trump & the far-right GOP, including congresssionals, culminating in Jan 6th attempt to overthrow our government. The left was now way involved. Call Hillbilly Marjorie Greene, Trump’s own AG, William
Barr & GOP activist Ginni Thomas-SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife who was urging Mark Meadows to stop Trump leaving the White House in a lawful transfer of power-and instead take control of thevgiv’t-treason. https://www.newsweek.com › marjorie-taylor-greene-calls-jan-6-little-riot-defends-protests-witchhunt-1725238
Marjorie Taylor Greene Calls Jan. 6 'A Little Riot' As She ... - Newsweek
Jul 16, 2022Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (Repub) has said there was a "little riot" at the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021 and defended those who attended.” She egged on the riot & in the face of overwhelming PROOF there was NO STOLEN ELECTION-according to numerous state investigations & 14 legal proceedings-continued to insist the election was stolen. This violates her congressional oath to defend & protect the Constitution of the United States, & has promoted fascism. As this election showed. Which is why the Americans LEFT stopped it
So tell me-with researched proof from credible sources-just WHERE the LEFT has endangered our country. You have it EXACTLY. BACKWARDS. If you love our country so much-use that phone in your hand & access the WORLD OF KNOWLEDGE OFFERED BY THE INTERNET-which can also educate you on where your sources lie on the political continuum & how reputable they are for facts & truth.
Marek, to have more power and facts in your writing, use standard forms of verifying your claims. For instance, track down work by a reliable news organization, or even empirical research into progress in creating a wall on the border. Then at the end of your sentence “Trump built the wall and instituted remain in Mexico” (Put a link to your source here). This is how you show your words - which are verifiably only eight words in that sentence - are backed up by a whole article or report that looks for the ground-truth of the situation you claim to know. If it is true that “By all accounts, thousands of immigration frauds are pouring across the border daily”, this is a big claim about human beings by the thousands crossing the border - surely you can view newspapers online from Nogales/Tucson, or Tijuana/San Diego, or El Paso to verify this “all accounts” idea. News organizations on the border would definitely report on such large numbers of people crossing the border. You suggest “by all accounts”, so I would put a link to several current articles because ‘by all accounts” is a broad statement that requires accountings from many newspapers or other sources (like 10 sources). Does this help?
When we finally get results from Arizona, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Georgia, I'll be able to plan next year's vacation, avoiding states that elected MAGA authoritarians and Q nutbags. I will not spend my money in any red state, where they will use it - and the power of the State - to strip away civil rights, rig the electoral system to stay in power, and terrify their residents.
Ha! I thought I was the only one who felt this way. I refuse to travel to certain states for this same reason. I don't want to be surrounded by people who think that Ron DeSantis or Ted Cruz are a good idea.
Maybe people who love Disney and Universal Parks should go to California rather than Floriduh. You still get to wear the silly ears, but you don't waste any dollars in DeSantistan.
Disney is talking about moving a couple thousand employees from Anaheim to Orlando. What do they do if a sizable percentage of those people refuse to relocate?
But Florida, especially Orlando, depends on the tourist trade. If the tourists don't come because they are sick and tired of DeSantis' bullcrap, Disney may really step up their game to fight the fascists.
Thanks Julie. We’ve got to make things happen now. And I hope we keep letting these people know that we reject their insanity. And we will not allow our country to sink deeper into Fascism. I hope everyone follows your actions!
JoAnn I think we’ll hear about those options soon. Get in touch with some LGBTQ+ groups…they know how to do it. Women have a lot of power, a lot of numbers…we’ve done it before, Talk to union members, they’ve done it!
We need to start with PUSHING BACK ON CRAZOID ELECTEDS-stop ignoring their lies & misrepresentation! Call them out. Just imagine if hillbilly queens Marsha Blackburn & Marjorie big mouth, along with McCarthy, Cotton & other liars got a million phone calls for a lie…
Welcome! I tell my family and friends that CA has a lot of problems but, after all, it is the 5th largest economy in the world and what large diverse economy doesn't have problems? It is an amazing mix of diversity, vibrant economic growth, cutting edge culture, etc. I love it here. Many of the people leaving, including family members, just can't make it here - it can be tough. For the folks boycotting Fla: come to So Cal! As Arnold's advertisement of old said "We're Open!".
Unfortunately, I'm moving to one. From MI to IN. IN isn't the worst of them, and we'll be in the Indianapolis are, which is really progressive, but still..... sucks.
I'm a transplant from Michigan to Indiana 35+ years ago. Indiana is awful - the only areas heavily D are Indianapolis/Marion Co. and the Gary area. Count up the senators and reps - it's about 8 R's to 2 D's. It takes 2 separate general assemblies which equates to 3 to 4 years calendar years - yes 3 - 4 years to amend the constitution. Indiana also does not allow referendums. Very frustrating for those of us in the minority here.
We need a coalition of people to move from the safest blue states to swingy red states. IN May not be the most swingy state, but hearts and minds can change on the ground, one voter at a time.
I understand the reasoning behind this sentiment, but I want to also point out that a lot of red states are more purple than you realize and are red in large part because of gerrymandering. Please don't generalize us all into MAGA authoritarians and Q nutbags - of course those people exist, but they exist everywhere. The mindset of boycotting entire states gets dangerously close to the mindset of letting red states just destroy themselves, which ignores the fact that the people in those states still need to be taken care of (and can't necessarily do a lot to change the redness of our state, because we've been trying to survive under it for so dang long).
I think there's a balance to be had between voting with your dollar and not completely writing off those of us in red states. If you still want to travel to a red state, one suggestion is patronizing local small businesses, especially ones that are minority or LGBTQ owned. It takes a little more work and research, but it's doable.
You're so right Sarah! And Thank You for your compassionate reply! It would be terrible to boycott entire states because of a minority of people. Perhaps there's a more targeted way to make our displeasure known?! Yours is a good one!
That's an excellent point, and it is the dilemma between not wanting to punish the people but also not wanting to give authoritarian-leaning state governments more tourism tax money so they can keep cutting property and income and business taxes for their donors (while blocking Medicare funding for those who need it most). There are local, regional, and national organizations that help elect liberal candidates, assist with abortion access, legally defend parents and teachers who run afoul of draconian "parental rights" laws, etc., and I donate to several of them. I support organizations that lobby and go to court for fair redistricting laws, to try to stop the partisan gerrymandering. We'll have to pursue many strategies to claw back our rights and throw the bums out. But if I ever find myself in a red state before then, I will look for the local small businesses you suggest, and spend my money there.
we've been trying to take a trip to Texas for several years, but I cannot support them. And now my beloved Miami is also off the books. Thank goodness for California
Hoping every sane organization planning a convention follows your advice. Certainly the American College of Obstetrics & Gynecology can pass on Dallas.
I have relatives and friends that live in Arizona. They are ALL Democrats, and they vote. Please don't give up on them, because they are trying their damnedest to turn back the crazies. However, I will say that Florida is a state I will never visit.
I moved from Oregon to AZ in September and voted for Dems by mail! People are largely very guarded here recently in even displaying their “Let’s Go Brandon” flags! The tension is there but very much under the surface! Back in Oregon, the Trumpers are much more blatant! But the election returns in Oregon and AZ are giving hope so far!
Just spend your money on local biz in Austin, San Antonio, Houston and El Paso, and skip basically every other county in between. Some lovely food in all four, y'all.
I have family in Houston I need to visit, otherwise would not go back to Texas (raised there). CA may have its issues, but as others have pointed out, it is a huge economy, diverse in population and home to some of the greatest scenic beauty in the world. The hospital where I work is literally a UN of humans from many areas of the world, different faith traditions (or none) different world views...such a tonic to the outlook of the crazy white people only, Christian nationalist republicans. I am very concerned about that segment of the political landscape...it must be very sad to be so afraid and angry at anyone who is different from you.
I agree in principle, but some powerful red states also have some ability to swing. What about the liberal enclaves like Austin, or frankly, all the major metro areas in Texas that have democratic mayors? Or my purple state, WI who is probably about to re-elect Ron Johnson but also re-elected Democrat Tony Evers. Alternatively, Democrats who have the means to work remotely should consider moving to swingy areas of the country, to make a change on the ground.
Jennifer I agree 100%. I have friends who are from Wisconsin who remember when it wasn't legislatively gerrymandered to advantage 1 party, and I hope and believe that as people move and relocate that their votes will make a difference. I just learned that 4 of my neighbors good friends have all moved to Arizona, and I know that they all voted for Democrats. We Democrats need to do better on simple, consistent messaging and highlight results for the people. This election has left me hopeful, and determined to work harder to make it last.
Agree 100%. I’ll go far out of my way to avoid neighboring Texas. After freezing & seeing their houses come down around their ears bec Repubs handed over control to private companies-they reelect Abbott. If they freeze again this winter, the hell with them. They had a clear choice.
My husband and I feel the same way. We live next door to AZ but didn't travel there when Jan Brewer was governor and we will do the same if Kari Lake scrapes out a victory this time around.
Thank you for the information. I refused to listen to any media yesterday - it was too anxiety provoking. I worked as a ballot counter in our small town instead. Didn't return home till after 11:00. The usual midterm turn out is about 600; we had 746 voters turn out. Patience, positive attitude and prayer for now.
I also work the elections in my small red town, sloooowwwly, turning more purple. We also had record turnout yesterday. Normally in a midterm we might get only 100 voters (total just over 700), yesterday had 169 by noon!
BIG THANK YOU TO ALL! I always thank every poll worker I come into contact with while voting. Tell them they’re very important in our democracy Grieves me they’re always surprised…
The red wave didn’t appear, more like a trickle. I don’t mind, but the dumbest of the dumb were the ones elected. TX, FL, OH, GA? Could they have chosen worse? Doubt it. Not wanting to vote for a dem, is one thing. Voting for someone that put themselves above their constituents is unbelievable.
I’m with you there. As a Georgian I had such hopes that Abrams would win and show or state is ready to start thinking logically. Still not sure how our state got Warnock elected but missed getting Abrams (mostly rhetorical). The only thing I see in common is both Kemp and Warnock are incumbents and we have too many “keep it as it is” folks.
It’s time for a focus on patriarchy misogyny that silences and disables women’s leadership. A refusal to take this on and often denial that misogyny exists blocks a much needed spotlight on this reality in U,S. society and politics.
Yes, women of color experience both misogyny and racism, a toxic silencing combination. White women often are viewed as privileged even while misogyny silences them. Too many losses for too many talented women who have a lot to offer.
That is probably not powering the vote for Kemp. It is probably more like little to access to accurate information. I live in KY. Because I can no longer afford the local paper, I only voted for one city commissioner instead of the 4
It's unfortunately become the standard on the right. There used to be many legitimate red candidates; now it's hard to find a handful. And their base seems to be extremely tolerant of being used and discarded, as long as they feel like they've "owned the libs" they don't care what the net result is.
I live in Ohio and worked the polls yesterday. The ‘Red Wave’ was palpable here. Thankfully, other places are hopefully saving the day. The Dems work so hard here but this is an ignorant state of Fox News watchers.
I live in a very red area of Ohio also. Here, at least, there was reason for optimism. My county went 27% for Biden in 2020 and 38% for Tim Ryan in 2022. It’ll be interesting to see if numbers changed like that elsewhere in the State.
NY Times has a county map of PA showing single-digit blue shifts in numerous counties, similar to the one you saw, and all in red and very red areas. I'm a proud Fetterman supporter who does not live in PA but has friends in the state, and family ties to State College and Huntingdon. I am extra proud of him this morning!
I am so happy about the PA results! That is the state I 'adopted' and made calls for Fetterman, and other. Also have family there. PA came through for (the) US, thank you to all who voted!!
NYT map show a GOP tilt even in Massachusetts, although obviously red wave was wavelet. . Hopefully GOP will not decide to run reasonable people next time, instead of wife beaters, Russian apologists and Erdogan surrogates, but keep up with the crazies. What happened to Charley Crist?
What happened to Charlie Crist is what happened to Val Demmings and is represented in 20 of 28 seats in the US House for MAGA Republicans. When absolute power reshapes the institutions (or degrades them sufficiently) for their gain and pursues the voters they want rather than working to represent all the people, you have Florida. The DeSantis/Trump schism’s toll on FL is going to fascinating and painful to watch.
Crist doesn't even know he is washed up. Nelson didn't either. They ran conventional campaigns - Fetterman ran a different kind of campaign. For example: Fetterman went to every county fair in PA *for four years*. Democratic strategists here wrote off Levy county, but Fetterman would have gone to a diner there.
I live in the Upper Valley- cohesive border towns of NH and Vt and vote in NH. All senators and reps here are Democrat (one Socialist). Both states have popular Republican governors. They are pragmatic, pro choice and anti Trump.. Everyone here is pretty respectful. Good model for the country?
We shouldn't kid ourselves. Democracy (or what passes for it here) is still precarious. The race to the White House in 2024 gets underway this morning.
I understand your concern. It's mine, too. BUT we didn't give in. It tells me the populous can be reached and that most people know the difference.
My guess is that by 2023, Trump will be a thing of the past. His past is catching up with him and he can't undo it. But we will have the lying, bullying, smarter candidate like my SOB of a governor DeSantis. Now, there's a guy who needs to be taken down a peg. I hope he gets burned for tricking those people into going to Martha's Vineyard.
I understand that he has been able to slip out of the lot of things. But he has broken the law so many times and bragged about how he is so smart and wonderful, which will be his downfall. The other thing he hasn't counted on was that Jan 6 is not going his way. He is USEFUL to the GOPers until he isn't and this elections shows that he just doesn't have the magic anymore.
What is likely to happen now is that DT will continue to stick his nose into politics were he isn't wanted (because he is a narcissist) and make a mess of things, such as the top secret documents that have been separated from their sleeves. Besides he just lost a ton of money on Truth Social and made enemies of his backers on another business deal gone wrong.
Obvi you've never known a NP in real life. Mark my words. NEVER underestimate a narcissistic psychopath. You have NO clue what they are capable of doing. Pay attention.
I agree Gloria. I’ve been forced to deal with narcissists for my entire life. DeSantis and Pompeo are also narcissists but they may not be as depraved as Donald Trump. Trump gets away with a lot because of his specific way of dealing with issues. I doubt Pompeo or DeSantis can duplicate that. Plus, the American public is now aware of narcissism and what it looks like.
DeSatan scares the absolute crap out of me. He’s been in government and knows how to work it, unlike the former prez, which makes him even scarier. He’s horrific.
I understand how you feel. But he has a behavioral problem--he always has to win and trash his opponent. It will continue to get him into trouble. Hence the real problem he has by “kidnapping” those refugees. When he gets too cocky, he does something stupid--like declaring voting for emergency funds as “socialism” until he needed it for Florida. The federal support, not state support, will rebuild SW Florida and whatever Nicole will do
Right now, DeSantis MAY look good, but we never know what will come his way between then and now. He looks good, but he has a BIG problem. He can't help trashing people he doesn't like. It's not going away. Just as Trump lies constantly, Ron trashes people and actually goes after them and he can't help himself. Oh, and he's good looking. That's always a problem for these guys.
Not only did the GOP have a bad night, pollsters and pundits completely missed the story, and created a narrative of a red wave that dominated the media for the past few months. This has real impacts, as it kept Democratic candidates from running, likely hurt Democratic candidates that did run, and kept the national focus off issues that really concern Americans. Especially after Kansas, it shouldn’t have been a surprise.
How do we prevent pollsters and idiotic pundits from setting the national narrative?
Of course another issue is gerrymandering, which is the main reason the GOP will likely eke out a small victory in the House.
The media is also responsible for continuing to entertain the ridiculous question of whether a candidate will accept the results of the vote. Every time they ask this question, they legitimize the lunacy a little more.
Mine too. I don't live in FL. At this point, with the mind boggling re-election of DeSantis and Cruz, I never will. The only thing I can come up with is there must be a lot of wealthy people in FL. Why else would anyone vote Republican? They do nothing for everyday people. But, CT is a wealthy blue state who re-elected mostly dems. I honestly don't understand people or politics.
Because all the nuts roll downhill to Florida. I live there and too many people watch fux news. Wealth usually comes with education. So it's not rich, or educated people causing this.
So many of these races were impacted by the propaganda of Faux News. How do we curtail that - it is horrible. I am always turning it off in the Doctors lounge. It blasts throughout our Military sites - the VA is full of it! Enough
Back in the 70s, when my parents retired to FL, they were on the Atlantic coast, which drew retirees mainly from the Northeast and leaned Democratic. The Gulf coast has drawn retirees primarily from the more conservative Midwest. I don't know the demographic or voting statistics, but I wonder if these two regions have grown differently over the decades.
We are still in a very precarious situation. The Dems won’t ever win big until they embrace getting rid of money in politics as we know it today which compromises every policy they make and the people see through it. Hence why Popular Info is so so so important. Thank you Judd
It is difficult to remove money from politics when Congress has many millionaires. We cannot pass any tax legislation on the rich until we remove the rich from our legislators
As a PA resident that was bombarded with some of the most despicable, lie-filled, dog-whistling political ads for the last 6 months, I was a ball of anxiety yesterday. If Oz and Mastriano won, what dim flame of hope for the future I have left would’ve been extinguished. So relieved to see PA pulled through. Though the county-by-county map sure reinforces that PA is “Pittsburgh on one side, Philly on the other, Kentucky in the middle”.
Pennsyl-tukcy is real. Lived there after the 2016 election and it was scary. But damn, pretty disappointing that Fettermen only won by 0.3%. I mean, I'll take it but wowww
I hear that. We were in a county south of Pittsburgh during the 2016 election. Never have I felt more alienated from my neighbors than that election cycle. Walking my dogs through a neighborhood filled with custom-made Trump signs made me equal parts angry and ill.
I have a friend originally from Lancaster, and she said the city itself isn’t as “red”. Just looked at the county’s election results site out of curiosity. Fetterman landed ~93k votes, Oz ~123k. The much tighter spread (as expected) was Shapiro with ~106k and Mastriano with ~111k. Split tickets aren’t dead yet.
City trends blue, what is sad is how the Amish are duped into voting red. The issue used is abortion and some other scare tactics. A few I know feel they have to vote R because of how the issue is presented to them. The religion is works based not Grace based. They will sacrifice a lot to feed the hungry and send doctors to places of need and many more good things but can’t get past abortion. I am speaking in generalities about them. I do know one who voted blue. There are probably more.
So sad how the GOP has weaponized religion to manipulate voters. I suspect what you say here about how many do so much good, but can’t get past abortion, rings true for a fair swath of red voters out across the country.
I have been so unimpressed with the guardian’s coverage over the last few weeks leading up to this. They have been talking in terms of red wave, reporting polls as facts (it was good to see daily beast talking about pollsters not having a clue but everyone else was talking about democrats losing badly). You never hear about inflation being caused by corporate profit increases or about the high levels of worker wage theft. So relieved to be a subscriber of Popular Information to get a more balanced view of whats happening. Would love to see something on what the amount of billionaire donations into candidates could have paid for in terms of policy implementations instead.
The fact that Chuck Grassley can still win an election at 89 makes me ill. The fact that Greg Abbott won over the human decency of Beto is disheartening. The fact that anyone in KY would vote for Rand Paul and anyone in OH would vote for JD Vance just makes me deeply sad. There were wins, but the losses really defeat me.
I phone banked on Monday to help get Gen Z voters to the polls. Thanks to today's youth! I believe they made a significant contribution yesterday. Sad and sorry for the Ohio and Utah outcomes. The better candidates in those states ran great campaigns but came up short in their blazing red states. Still, last night was hardly a red tidal wave. Hoping for Senate success when all is said and done.
I might be alone in this, but I don't think it's necessarily bad that the Republicans took the House last night. The next couple of years will be be full of MAGA talking points, political payback schemes and chaos. BUT I think it positions Democrats better moving into 2024. The GOP can't just blame everything on "the libs." They will be forced to take responsibility and will enter the election from a defensive position rather than full on attack as it will also be a referendum on their performance.
I've gotten farther and farther away from listening to "mainstream media," particularly as it pertains to politics. Even the NYTimes focuses so much on the racehorse coverage, and so little on the actual issues (election denial, neofascism, white "Christian" nationalism vs separation of church and state), I find it extremely frustrating as an educated voter, to listen/watch to the bothsides coverage. Maggie Hassan beat her challenger in NH by double digits, but she was touted as *incredibly vulnerable.* John Fetterman SHOULD have beat Oz by double digits, but the media focus on the aftereffects of his stroke was like the Hillary's emails of Pennsylvania. It made a clearcut race into something close, for no good reason. I can't even believe that Raphael Warnock, an eloquent, ethical incumbent is neck and neck with an essentially illiterate football player who is so clearly a liar, can't formulate a policy position (or probably define the word "policy") to save his life, and has NO leadership experience. I'm sure that beginning today, Ron DeSantis will be covered wall-to-wall in the media like Dump was in 2015, as the star of the Republican party, when he is so clearly unfit to be a President, and should be crushed in any state other than Florida. And all over the media today "wow, that red wave we predicted/enabled hasn't happened, I wonder why?" Ugh.
I think democrats wasted good pickup opportunities in North Carolina and Wisconsin. They are doing better in the House than expected, had they focused on crime and inflation they’d have done better but this is fine so far. One thing is certain, Trumpism isn’t the force it is thought to be, his candidates have lost every key race and only won in deep red Ohio. Lake could lose in Arizona too
No red wave is needed to muck everything up. We are still likely to get a "red tide" so about the only thing the D's can do for 2 years is vote on judges. Hopefully the red tide house will go off the rails enough to show the need for a D win in both houses and white house in 24.
Well, that’s what the MSM likes to say as well; but when one side is denying election results despite all the attempts & empty court cases, doesn’t that put them in a different category?
I didn't watch any coverage last night. I need to sleep, and didn't think getting in a car crash driving my grandchildren to school would help democracy. My great fear at this point is that Dems in close races will concede too early. FIGHT FOR EVERY VOTE AND CHALLENGE ANY DISQUALIFICATIONS. This is Dems chance to call attention to every dirty Republican trick.I shall write more postcards!
Also, the Democratic pleas for more money became insane for me.
Our country is in deep trouble when someone like Herschel Walker is neck and neck with a highly educated thoughtful civic leader. We are going to waste time with Republican vitriol
This election begins to demonstrate that the people prefer government to govern and politicians to have policies. The MAGA’s have neither. Now let’s see if the residue of the Republicans can figure that out. Even fascists have policies - albeit hateful. These MAGA’s only have a lust for power for the sake of having power.
Fascism is losing. We cannot let up. I would like to see a story on the percentage of registered r's and D's by state and the makeup of the legislature. I think the next hat trick for the R's will be to push the gerrymandering that seems to have worked in Florida to other swing states. https://gerrymander.princeton.edu/redistricting-report-card?planId=recGXGgCh8REltOnL
Totally agree, we cannot let up, and the Fascists certainly did not get the mandate they assumed they would get. so they will be more determined, they can only be dislodged peacefully by thumping them over and over again at the ballot box, and at every level of govt. Time does not wait, this is urgent business now.
Yes. Demonstrating (as simply as possible) gerrymandering changes -- perhaps in community talks -- would be helpful over next 2 years. Can we convince people that if everyone votes -- the statistical improbabilities can be overcome? At the very least -- future cases against gerrymandered maps will have more data to prove the disenfranchisement? Build the base in every county of every state.
Youth vote came out. Long hours wait of students at the University of MI. All the Dems at top of ticket won, and State houses may flip, or at least change in GOP strength. Unprecedented vote of 4.2 million in MI is a record for a midterm. Think voters are smarter and more engaged and HCR from History professor from Brown says that it's like 1884, another time of refutation of an extremist GOP!
We are still in a very precarious situation. The Dems won’t ever win big until they embrace getting rid of money in politics as we know it today which compromises every policy they make and the people see through it. Hence why Popular Info is so so so important. Thank you Judd
It's more than money. It's the fact that the Republicans fall in line behind their leaders. The Democrats have so much disagreement and in-fighting that they can't agree in anything. They are weak compared to the Republicans.
Also, outside of Obama, who is an excellent and dynamic speaker, who do the Democrats have that can energize the Party AND more importantly, the voters? They really don't have anyone.
Just a couple of thoughts from a UK expat in RSA. I've been watching your elections and you do seem to make life difficult for yourselves in the US of A.
Why does election campaigning start so soon - about two weeks after the last election? Other countries have a specified time before Election Day, six weeks in UK, IIRC!
Why are candidates allowed to pour so much cash into TV ads? You could have a limit on that (and other advertising).
But it's your country, so, your elections rules. Best of luck!
There is a beluef circulating in progressive circles, to which I subscribe, that the Democratic leadership and mainstream candidates depend too much on high-priced Washington campaign consultants and too much on TV ads and not enough on door knocking and other grassroots get out the vote activities that are largely powered by volunteers. The corollary is that if some of these volunteer groups got some more funding the Dems would end up with more votes. Judd, is this something you would research as to how the Democrats deploy their campaign cash and what kind of spending is more effective?
Hardly anyone ran on Climate Crisis and hardly any media talked about it last night, as the Cairo international conference on the topic is going on concurrently. Pathetic.
I'll never understand how these elections work. The amount of anxiety and stress I've been feeling this last week, should if landed me in the hospital. "Red wave coming"- they seemed too confident. Then Michael Moore was assuring everyone "don't look at the polls-it's a blue wave" I just can't understand what happened in GA and FL TX and in Tim Ryan race OH🤯🤯. Where were the VOTERS?? How could they have not of made change? Something's not right!! How much more can DEMS do to get everyone's vote? REPUBS do nothing and they live up and vote them in. It took them 50 years to overturn ROE 🤯so they really give their voters nothing? Dems voters where are you?😭😭. No race should if been this close
That’s right Sheri! I would think the talk of taking away social security, and ending support for Ukraine would be enough to make all vote blue. Interviews I’ve listened to show that Republicans don’t even know what their leaders are suggesting for the future! put MTG in a position of power? You’ve got to be kidding!
Not only did the GOP have a bad night, pollsters and pundits completely missed the story, and created a narrative of a red wave that dominated the media for the past few months. This has real impacts, as it kept Democratic candidates from running, likely hurt Democratic candidates that did run, and kept the national focus off issues that really concern Americans. Especially after Kansas, it shouldn’t have been a surprise.
How do we prevent pollsters and idiotic pundits from setting the national narrative?
Of course another issue is gerrymandering, which is the main reason the GOP will likely eke out a small victory in the House.
I’m in IL and we’re rock solid BLUE. LOVE our Governor Pritzker. I think he’ll be short listed for the presidency, but I want him here for the next 4. He’s amazing and won easily over a trump-loving goof ball. (Trump stumped for the other guy! )😂🤣 Double losers.
I think the words that Tim Ryan spoke in conceeding to Vance should be shown over and over again to reenforce the way our system is supposed to work. He is a class act and a true hero.
I'm very relieved, having thought things might have been worse (although Simon Rosenberg and Tom Bonier were calling BS on the late "GOP surge" and the red wave narrative for a long time). But my biggest worry now is that the GOP is going to look and Florida and its heinous voter suppression tactics and roll that out in every red state--just massive, unvarnished intimidation of minority voters. I think they will also see Texas as a model in limiting the vote to the voters they prefer. This is what I think we need to be ready to start fighting as soon as we have had a nap.
In Michigan the Gen Z cohort came through. All 3 ballot measures passed, and the MI House and Senate have the potential to become blue after decades of Republican control.
Best story of the night was how the communities rallied around the students in Ann Arbor (U of M) and East Lansing (MSU) to provide them with blankets and pizza while they waited in line for hours late into the evening to vote. When polls closed there was still a 4 hour wait for those in line to get to vote.
Maybe….. maybe this can be a turning point forward for U.S. as a nation. I prefer to focus on big picture view today to see where a path forward may open. I anticipate difficult, divisive conflict, and outrageous Republican Party Trumpism in the next two years to 2024 election. Yet, prioritizing both responses to that and to rise above it are essential.
I’m for continuing to build pro-democracy peoples’ voices and power in communities and states to offset difficult times in Congress and national politics. Great work by thousands around the country - a big thanks for that hard work! Also, thanks to you, Judd. Your work helps to make all this possible.
I just want to say a huge Thank You to all who worked on the campaign! Campaigns workers are like spokes on a wheel, each one so important in performing the tasks to make our democracy work. I am humbly grateful for your efforts, dedication and time.
Ditto, refused to listen to media yesterday, my heart in my stomach. Dared to turn on my news at midnight, teary eyed through the night and this morning. Deeply grateful to the Americans that SHOWED UP. DEEPLY indebted to all candidates and/or incumbents that face viperous attacks against their persons and family in the name of upholding our Democracy.
i'm really hoping the GQP doesnt take control. Pleasantly suprised & hopeful that the Red Plague didnt take over and many election deniers & tRUMPuppets didnt win. Dems need to do more to get marginalized, older, low income voters to the polls & push for more mail in /drop off voting. or electronic web voting. my 83 yr old aunt couldnt vote because she didnt have a way to get to the polls, and the idi0t Repukes in my state sued to disallow mail in votes :-( but fortunately Dems in my state all won. However GQP voter suppression probably made a difference in other states.
1) DeSantis is the new GOP golden boy. The establishment will rally behind him--and stand aside if/when Trump is indicted.
2) Kevin McCarthy is f'd. The MAGA lunatics will make his life miserable.
3) The Democrats did well because of youth turnout. The party needs to hammer the threats to democracy (and within that, threats to Social Security and Medicare) constantly between now and the '24 election.
We’ve had two election cycles now where the polls got it wrong. It’s time to concentrate on national legislation to revise campaign financing; prohibit dark money; make gerrymandering illegal for any reason and give the power back to the people.
When legislators do not listen to their constituents because their seat has been gerrymandered to the point that voters don’t count,
The time has come for major change.
Main stream media including public radio and tv broadcasting try to make the news instead of reporting it. Social media platforms are quickly learning that embracing conspiracy theories and lies may get likes until advertisers decide their dollars can’t support such rhetoric.
I am cautiously optimistic that democracy won yesterday.
I love getting the stats on which corps have donated to specific agencies and candidates. I think we should share all over social when businesses go back on their word. Flood them with facts.
1) Poll reporting should be banned when early voting starts
2) DOJ move to indict 45 before year end
3) Media needs to get it together by acknowledging their biased reporting, erroneous projections and refocus on their role in protecting our Constitution
4) Reverse legislation that now protect social media platforms from litigation due to harmful falsehoods.
5) Dems continue their fight for the working class, for democracy, fill all federal judge openings and impeach Justice Thomas if they capture the Senate, and hire PR folks who know how to message their wins for Americans effectively and consistently. Own their message!!!
Thank you for the coverage. I'm still gripped by the sense of a country sinking into violent lies, but at least I still feel like I'm living in a disappointing, desensitized, imbalanced quasi-democracy and not just an evil crazytown. I'll cherish the small victories and smaller-than-I'd-feared losses. May the voters keep reading and the readers keep voting!
I still fail to understand how insurrectionists are permitted to run for office! How can there be no accountability for treason?
This is a question that must stay front and center! This is a very big danger!
Agreed. Media needs to do a better job of making the case factually on what are clearly lies and facism rather than both-siding this.
Actually-it’s citizens who should be checking the facts. Virtually every American has 24/7 access to Internet research in their hands. It’s a simple matter to check the facts/veracity of claims, & read any number of opinions to educate oneself. Like “The Big Lie” & the ridiculous people who cling to it as truth because a self-motivated rich man from NY says it’s so. This is ignorance as a choice. Where we were a nation who questioned & aired issues based in facts & opinions, we’ve devolved to an ignorant mass who think decking themselves out in the flag & wearing a MAGA hat is patriotism. When real patriotism is based on the democratic precept of “question power.” They’re too damned lazy. We’ve “dumbed down” so much in our society there’s virtually no aspiration to just try to do a little better. Doubt it? Ordered at a “use the touch-menu” drive through or had your order repeated to you where they just touch pictures-90% of the time now. they screw up the order. Which isn’t the worst of it.- When you explain they messed it up-they don’t care. There’s no “learning by mistakes.” Vast numbers of Americans won’t be responsible for themselves or their decisions. They assume “someone else will fix it.”
I read not too long ago, that the average IQ in the U.S. has decreased several points, to 98. Think of the bell curve with 98 being the mid-point. What falls below & what falls above that mid-point. Critical thinking skills seem at an all time low. This suggests to me that many folks would be ok, even desire a " plug & play" life; thus in some circles choosing demagogues to run your country might have an appeal. Sad! The interesting thing about dictators & demagogues is that they tend to rule by whim. Today heads roll for someone else. Someone else's religion, someone else's political philosophy, sexuality. Tomorrow they may come for you. Very ego driven with no checks & balances. (Fragile as we've seen those " checks & balances" are of late. )
The average performance on an IQ test is assigned the score of 100.
The average IQ is always 100.
If a population performs poorly on the test, the average performance is 100 and half the population is above 100 and half is below 100.
Well put. Perfect description. Didn’t know about the drop in IQ avg. 2 points doesn’t sound like much, but with IQ, it’s considerable! Sheeple who just don’t get the idea that demagogues prefer non-thinkers & if they take away someone’s else’s rights that you don’t like-LGBTQ+, etc.-your freedoms are fettered too. I keep telling all the anti-choice pols that if they truly believe what they preach, they & everyone else who claims the same would immediately get themselves sterilized. That would go far to stopping abortions…
That’s what ye olde “checks & balances” actually come down to-the flip side of every coin.
Those in power need dummies. They need young people so desperate that the Armed Services is there one choice out of poverty or a path to jail.
Why do so many people assume that the issue is "other" voter's IQ's?
Well, I don’t know, but it may be that there’s been an increase in the last decade of people who are voting against their own best interests. Some people try to justify that observation by saying people who vote against their own interests must not understand what they’re voting for. Example-
fascism. Republicans call it authoritarianism because fascism has a negative association with Hitler & Mussolini.
But, whatever you want to call it, it’s a very oppressive, unfair and punitive form of government & it’s what republicans intend to
force on us. Fascism only works for the people in charge, like the President and members of Congress. They get rich and the rest of the population is poor. When people vote for republicans they’re voting for fascism that will remove the right to vote so we have no input on how we are governed.
How do we know that? We know it because republicans (more than democrats) are in favor of banning books, want to control the curriculum, want to control women by forcing them to give birth, won’t protect our right to vote, don’t value education, etc. Fascism is all about control.
It requires a population that isn’t highly educated
because the uneducated are easier to manipulate and control. Fascism requires the government to control all information, including what children are taught in school & banning books to control what they read. The primary purpose of fascism is to control the “masses” while exploiting them so the few richest people at the top get richer.
Bottom line is people who vote for Trump & republicans are voting for a regime that will create a fascist government & that’s not in anyone’s best interests except for the republicans who are in our government.
Well, unfortunately, “Conservatives are less intelligent than left wingers, says controversial study - and right wing politics lead people to be racist”…” Right-wingers tend to be less intelligent than left-wingers, and people with low childhood intelligence tend to grow up to have racist and anti-gay views, says a controversial new study.” https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2095549/Right-wingers-intelligent-left-wingers-says-controversial-study--conservative-politics-lead-people-racist.html It’s from 2012, but it’s underpinned by Social Psychology findings that show the same: less intelligent people tend to want someone else to make their decisions (Evangelists/Jim Jones & Guyana), and when those or a decision they make on their own go wrong, they blame anyone but themselves. Trump & his followers demonstrate this all the time. And when questioned about something like “The Big Lie,” that’s been roundly disproven-even by Repub groups, they’ll deny the facts of it. Someone commented to me recently that those conversations tend to then be driven off-topic in kind of the way the old children’s game of “I’m rubber-you’re glue” to distract and turn around the conversation to where it’s about accusations, not discussions. That trait, again, is common among the less-intelligent who tend to be more childish. Trump’s legacy. He brought them out from under their rocks & told them that gross lying & threats are “free speech,” - with no-one correcting that there are limits-albeit extremely flexible. Bottom line is that we value free speech to the point where, as a democracy we’d prefer the boundaries get pushed all the time than quashed. Trump & the far right have exploited that maximally. Amazes me that when something happens like men in balaclavas w/guns is justified as free speech, when it fits the definition of voter intimidation. Threats aren’t classified as what they are-terroristic threats. Unfortunately, a lot of that is now coming from McConnell’s long list of “anybody will do if they toe the party line” & rammed thru numerous fed judge appointments under Trump. We’re seeing that play out now. Ex: Cannon who blocked the DOJ Mara-Lago investigation. She had absolutely NO law to justify what she did-and way overstepped her jurisdiction. I’ve yet to hear of her being censured as she shod have been. They have rules too. But now it’s politics. Not laws. Not rules. Not responsibility. Not good sense. And not even common decency. And the corporate world & wealth have it just the way they want. Our electeds serve them-not us. And few challenge that status quo. Government serves them. Not we the people.
https://citizenuniversity.us/ is an organization training folks to conduct 'Civic Saturday' events, to revive the process knowledge that has been so long suppressed. My husband stepped up to serve as the Democratic election observer, to learn every minute step of ballot processing. On election day, a volunteer from the Republican side finally showed up, and expressing her well ingrained suspicions, Mike engaged her quietly with the information he got from the day of training from the week before. Suffice to say, she came away with far more confidence in the system than she rode in on. That training would be an excellent step for every voter.
Thank you! And thank your husband! I’d considered volunteering, but my health has been so iffy of late, I couldn’t have been as responsible as I’d have needed to be. I’m bookmarking the site; hopefully I can get settled down enough to do later.
I don't think that is the problem.... why are false, shady, flat out lies allowed to be aired. Americans especially the trumpster's do not care about facts therefore would not check them.
I think it is more about WHO is spreading the lie rather than the lie itself. A "personality" such as Tucker Carlson develops a following where he portrays lies as facts and then proceeds to be absolutely incredulous about the actual facts when they are presented. Many people choose to go down the rabbit hole with "their guy" instead of hearing what a person has to say UNDER OATH... THIS SCARES ME THE MOST!!!
Agree. Those people think there are still rules against media lies - but there aren’t. Carlson & others picked up where Limbaugh left off with lying & hate mongering & took it to a whole new level. Sad part is that even when you point out what a verifiably horrible “news sauce” they are with apparently rational people, they’ll argue with you. Or worse-tell you they have their preferences just like we have ours. The childish “I’m rubber & you’re glue” comebacks-as if objective fact finding is just calling names.
Well the Reagan era decision to abolish the FCC Fairness Doctrine meant that different viewpoints no longer needed to be included on radio and TV stations using the airwaves. That decision made Rush Limbaugh's career and spawned many more. Cable and the internet then spawned a completed unregulated free-for-all. I remember being initially excited about the 'democratization' of the news and 'citizen journalists.' Now many Americans have grown up on a Fox and right wing junk food diet. No wonder we are sick and divided.
Point well made!
The people who crowd in to see Trump-ever watch them being interviewed? Facts simply don’t interest them. As I’ve said, it pretty much always comes down to whether an individual is willing to be responsible for themselves & their choices. Trump followers are literally no different than the people who have trouble paying bills but flock to see an evangelist who’s so obviously ripping them off. Or the people who followed Jim Jones to Guyana. It’s the price they’re willing to pay to have someone else make their decisions. Being grown up is scary. If a grifter offers an option-too many people will do whatever it takes to unload that burden in someone else. Exploiters abound.
Well said ...
Why are lies allowed to be aired?
Because, and I quote, Congress make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise. You can bet that the Supreme court will find some 12th century or Tudor rationale for establishing religion..
The only way to stop a lie is by suing in civil court, and then you ,must show injury and also have the big bucks to pay the lawyers.
Beyond that-the congressionals who deny the 2020 election & supported Trump & Jan 6 mob-their oath of office is “I shall support the Constitution…”. Why can’t we the people demand they be removed for violating their oath - & some for outright sedition. Why is that big mouth hillbilly from GA still running around shouting her stupidity?
The De,Democratic party has been, till now, the loyal opposition. The opposition has been titular, pro forma, for both parties drink at the trough of corporations and the wealthy.
The Democratic party when I first voted in 1960 was called, Dixicrats, a party of blue collar and southern racists. Joe Biden was mentored by those racist senators, like Eastman and Thurmond, Eastman all but wore KKK robes to the Senate.
When LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act and his Great Society Program, there was shock among the racists in the south, then they started to re register as Republicans, the Republican party took note, and Nixon and his advisors started using dog whilstles, code, It got more refined with Reagan, whose first rally was in Philadelphia, MS just miles from where the three civil rights workers were killed and buried in a dam.
The Democratic party did not break stride, for it was still controlled by the same old foagies who had laid down with racists. Lay down with a dog, get up with fleas.
Little has changed, the Democratic party talks about equal rights, but does nothing. The Equal rights amendment can still be passed, it only needs one more state to approve it, and it had that state in 2020 but it needed the Senate to extend the cut off date, which it can do.
I will wager that you have heard nothing in the media or from the Democratic party about that.
The Democratic party slops at the trough of Wall Street, Chamber of Commerce, PhrMA, AHIP and I learned yesterday from James Carville's own lips, tha the foundations, especially the Ford Foundation, have a veto on messaging and platform, as they vetoed the Democratic party even talking about crime and how Republican policies exacerbate crime.
My in box has been overloaded the last couple of weeks with pleas for money from the Democratic Party, and the pleas were for conservatives like Hassan and Masto, only one time did a plea come in from Mandela Barnes.
Hassan voted against raising the minimum wage to $15, Masto is a buddy of Joe Manchin and was seen partying with him, along with Carper and Coons of Delaware on his Yacht, he calls a houseboat, named Almost Heaven.
Like pogo said, I've seen the enemy and it is us. The Democratic party would exorcise progressives, they do anything and everything to get rid of them. In 2020 the only losses were conservative Democrats, the progressive's held their own and picked up 2 new seats.
The Democratic party selects and backs tired old race horses like Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Terry McAuliffe,and loses. The only reason that Biden won was because 81 million people were fed up with Trump and turned out to vote. A cabbage could have beat Trump in 2020. Biden did not so much win as Trump lost, and he still can't get over the fact that he was rejected.
Meanwhile the party of the amygdala has no problem putting up fresh, angry faces, that can excite the amygdala, and the party of the pre frontal cortex thinks that people are rational actors who vote in their own economic interests.
Well regardless of what the pollsters and Wall Street want you to think, inflation was not the reason that the Republicans vote, it is the culture war,.
Because in the minds of the MAGAt crowd they fear their loss of personal power, more than their loss of spending power.
I disagree. You imply the Democrats are the opposition in name only. Yet you point out that LBJ, a Democrat, signed the Civil Right Act and ushered in “The Great Society.” Don’t forget that President Obama, another Democrat, passed the Affordable Care Act.
President Biden, whom you say was mentored by racists, named a Black & mixed race woman as his running mate & enacted the American Rescue Plan that provided cash relief directly to low- and middle-income families and cut Black child poverty by 33.3%, lifting more than 1 million Black children out of poverty.
Furthermore, Pres.Biden’s Infrastructure Law permanently authorizes the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) for the first time and elevates the agency head to the position of Under Secretary, giving the agency expanded power to support Black and other minority-owned businesses.
More than one in four Black Americans live within 3 miles of a Superfund site– a higher percentage than for Americans overall. The Infrastructure Law provides funding to clean up Superfund and brownfield sites, reclaim abandoned mine land, and cap orphaned oil and gas wells.
Biden has also directed agencies to use federal purchasing power to increase federal contracts with underserved small businesses & set a goal to increase the share of federal contracting dollars to small disadvantaged businesses by 50% by 2025— projected to assist an additional $100 billion to minority-owned businesses.
Pres.Biden directed an interagency effort to address inequity in home appraisals to combat housing discrimination. It’s led by HUD Sec. Marcia Fudge & Policy Advisor Susan Rice, who are developing policy and recommendations to redress racial bias in home appraisals.
The Biden admin is also assisting Black land owners to resolve Title issues. An estimated 60% of Black-owned land in the South is property that passed through inheritance without a will, rendering those land owners ineligible for U.S. Dept.of Agriculture (USDA) programs, including lending programs.
Those are just a few examples of what the Biden admin. has done to level the playing field for Blacks and other minorities. So I’d say it’s pretty obvious that Democrats are NOT controlled by racist old foagies now, nor were they controlled by racists during the Obama admin.
I don’t agree with every decision made by Dem leadership, but giving a couple of examples of a dem who voted against raising the minimum wage, dems who attended a party on Manchin’s boat and implying that only white dems solicit campaign donations from you isn’t even remotely convincing that democrats and republicans are the same in any way.
Excellent commentary. Reinforces why history has to reviewed in full. Don’t remember commentary about Dems being racist. I started voting Dem 40+ years ago in no small part bec their history is one of support. No matter what any Black Repub might claim about the “future of the party”-I’ve heard that repeated through the years, only to then heard of a “Tuberville” rant that’s met with silence by the party. Their history is such that I consider Blacks who vote/are Repub as betraying their culture. https://medium.com/the-new-standard/black-history-a-history-of-permanent-white-oppression-from-1619-to-2016-8bcfa38dfce Women Repubs the same. They don’t read the facts of history that the party continues. That said, I do agree the Dems have stopped listening to voters. Both parties are beholden to billions in dark money from special interests. Our congress has reached a point where those are too often the interests they serve. Nor have I ever asserted only white Dems solicit from me. Perhaps there's commentary in this thread I’ve missed. I strongly feel it’s past time to hand off to younger generations. The embedded geezer factor plus the billions is crippling our democracy.
WOW! Just WOW! THE best summary of the Dem party I have every read. On point, insightful, historically accurate & sums up what goes on w/hypocrisy (Manchin-chair of the ENERGY cmte? C’mon!!) -No matter how righteous voter objections over it-or how many times he supports the filibuster!) -But you def support my point they talk the “people” talk-but they don’t listen at all - & as you said about progressives being shunned/shut down: the party “rules” require mediocrity & sucking up. They cannot allow true leaders or the charismatic who would become good leaders. Mediocrity & “following the herd” are the rules. Was active in my late 20’s/early 30’s-worked for Bill Clinton when he was AG & just elected gov. It was clear that you weren’t welcome to state opinions or ruffle feathers. Both of which I’ve always been inclined to do-as well as question. Their party rules are Byzantine & ridiculous & designed to promote only the homogenized. You’ve hit it exactly right!
I appreciated William's party history synopsis too. I also agree that Dems continue to roll out a treadmill of familiar faces, and that many positions Democrats take aren't very progressive, yet get supported because the alternative is so much worse. Despite the tired candidate pool and positions that aren't that progressive, more of their platform helps average people than their opponents.
I remain mystified at how terrible Dems are at messaging. They are always flat-footed playing defense, often against mendacious narrative or outright lies. Dems addressed the economy without any significant Republican support. They unilaterally passed Medicare bargaining for lower cost drugs for seniors; stimulus payments to support working people during the pandemic slowdown; funding the IRS to staff up and crack down on wealthy tax evasion to reduce the deficit and expanding child tax credits for working families. POTUS turbocharged the availability and distribution of COVID vaccines, in stark comparison to TFG, as soon as he got into the building (although many anti-vaxxers opted for Ivermectin as a result of "research"). POTUS intervened in the shipping backlog crisis, communicating with shipping firms to try to unkink the supply chain. After doing all that, Dems allowed themselves to be painted as enemies of working people, jobs and the economy in attack ads and on cable news. Dems passed the first gun legislation in 30 years, admittedly a feeble attempt, but an attempt nonetheless to address the epidemic of mass casualty gun violence. Then they allowed themselves to be attacked by ads claiming they are "soft on crime" and that bail reforms they support are the things making every American unsafe and vulnerable to being murdered in their sleep. Dems passed legislation with funding to get shovel-ready, trades-centered projects going, while Republicans sat with their arms crossed, wagged their heads and voted no. Then Dems sat back idly while Republicans took credit for the same projects and funding they voted against. There are more examples but this is already too long.
It's about time the party stood up, went on offense, explicitly detailing in plain language how the things they've done help average people. Don’t wait to counterpunch against simplistic ads built on misinformation and fearmongering. Announce your accomplishments, say it simply, say it often, use catchy slogans and don’t wait until election time to alert constituents to your accomplishments. Use a bit of the Trump playbook, but know you’re actually telling the truth.
“They cannot allow true leaders or the charismatic who would become good leaders. Mediocrity & “following the herd” are the rules.”
Adrienne, I think Barack Obama was and is a charismatic and true leader. People like him don’t come along very often. He provided true leadership and it wasn’t that long ago. I do believe democrats are the party that still cares about America & all Americans. President Biden absolutely cares about all Americans as well and although it may not seem like it, he is getting us back on track. He’s just not shoving in republicans’ faces. (which we’ve gotten used to from republicans)
Every leader has flaws, but Trump was by far the most flawed American President I’m aware of. If you step back and look at the big picture, you’ll see exactly where America started “going off the rails.” It was about 40 years ago.
That was when the republican party literally created a plan to knowingly deviate from what has always been our American values: separation of church and state, making money more important than character, deliberately dumbing down the population in order to more easily deceive them, to name a few. The republicans who came up with this plan intend to rip up our Constitution and replace it and that would be a disaster.
Don’t give up on democrats. I don’t always agree with dem leadership but they are dealing with a state of affairs no one could have anticipated in the best way they can. As many have now said, we are at a crossroads. Dems need support and constructive criticism. It may seem like they aren’t open to it, but they are.
If anyone is interested in how I reached these conclusions I’m happy to provide a list of sources. Just let me know.
Agree. I’m sick of congressionals whom it’s been proven committed sedition w/Jan 6th-like that demented hillbilly Marjorie Big Mouth-who apparently aren’t even being investigated. Our own legal structure is allowing them to be above the law. It only encourages them to continue to flout the law-not to mention just plain decency.
I'm not so sure Margie Trailer Trash isn't being investigated. Wouldn't it suck for the MAGAs if a whole bunch of indictments drop now that the mid-terms are over?
That would restore so much of my faith!
My dream come true! HaHaHa!!!
All in good time, my pretty. All in good time.
Yes. It's insane! There's something very wrong with the laws ...
It’s not the laws-it’s that when our legal institutions try to move on the criminals among us, the political pressure makes them back down. Effectively creating an elected class that’s above the law. Biden tried to set up protections for election workers who were being threatened with violence & death for them & their families. Repubs, led by opioid queen Marsha Blackburn, brought so much pressure-citing “freedom of speech,” the administration backed down. Instead of standing on laws that define such as incitement to violence & terroristic threatening. Leaving thousands of election workers twisting in the wind. The short of it is the massive dark money being poured into our government at all levels, to the point that we the people have simply lost our voice. Our government serves big money-not us.
Yes, I agree. As things stand now all republicans in Congress and some dems as well, pass legislation favorable to corporations & scapegoat the other party for legislation that fails. That’s why we can’t get legislation to rein in the cost of prescription meds, why we have a perpetual “war” over regulations for ANY industry from Wall St. to the oil & gas industry.
Healthcare insurance companies give large donations to prevent things like Medicare for all. (The republican argument that we can’t afford Medicare for all just isn’t true.) Huge campaign donations are why the GOP keeps giving tax breaks to corporations and why they pretend climate change is a hoax—They won’t do anything that might jeopardize those campaign donations from corporations. In other words, campaign donations = sanctioned bribes.
Although President Biden is addressing climate change with several projects now in the works, there’s a lot more we need to do. We’re at a point where, if republicans and democrats can’t work together on things like climate change, we could find ourselves in dire situations in just a few years. But many republicans still refuse to acknowledge climate change.
The way I see it we have no choice but to remove the incentive that drives their denial—money in the form of campaign donations. Different people will have different ideas on how to do that, but one way is to make campaign donations illegal and give candidates public money to campaign with. Each candidate would get the same amount of public money. The fec would collect receipts from expenditures to monitor spending and when the money is gone, that’s it. There’s no more.
We spend billions of dollars on campaigns.
In fact, an enormous industry has developed to facilitate it. There are campaign consultants, polling companies, videos of the candidates, commercials, branded t-shirts, coffee cups, baseball caps & other miscellaneous items with the candidate’s name. I don’t know about you, but to me it seems like a colossal waste of money. Our government should not be for sale. Policy shouldn’t be decided by people or businesses that spend the most money, but it is. We simply can’t afford to keep doing it. It should always be ‘country over party’ and ‘people over money.’
Well said! You hit the nail(s) on the head! I’m now curious about the turn out of women (prochoice). Gen Z, & student loan debtors. Read more anti-choice women would turn out to vote than pro-choice. My observation thru the years is they’ve right. Women march, demonstrate, make noise-but fall down with turning out to actually vote. I’m curious about the follow up stats. The close votes seem to support.
Campaign finance reform. Nothings gonna change as long as politicians can be bought. Seems pretty obvious to me. Nothing would have as much impact. And that's why its RARELY brought up
Yes!!! Absolutely!
I think the criminals in power are the true criminals.
Exactly. And the Dems just SUCK at leadership. Biden should have been out stumping for the last MONTH at least. They have no presence on soc media-but you see the usu dreck of the GOP on there lying constantly. You can tell their leadership tells them to get on it & don’t ignore. Only a few Dem congressionals are regulars at pushing back. Dems should require quotas from congressionals-answering back & calling out the lies. Instead they do big ad buys & expect that to suffice. The leadership is far too distant from voters. Used to be the “poor party” so HAD to get out among people. So many races so close-where the hell was leadership on the stump for them? Obviously helped Fetterman! Tends to look like leadership writes them off-so the voters do too. They really suck at this.
Not so much the laws as the people refusing to apply them.
I cannot profess to know enough about the possible laws governing these things so I really don't know whether they're being followed or not! But If there aren't certain laws that would be applicable it would be nice if they could be created! But I certainly agree there seems to be certain laws that seem to exist that are not being applied to certain individuals; a situation I TRULY HOPE gets rectified!
The laws require the investigations to maintain media silence so as not the tilt the process. The targets have a way of slipping up most tellingly, when inured with false confidence.
Absolutely agree.
Because those running for office were neither indicted or convicted of any crime for Jan 6th. Being present at the capitol to protest the election and make a lot of noise is not insurrection. I am aggravated like hell over their fake election claims, but it does not make them legally ineligible to run for office.
Unfortunately true! BUT it SHOULD!
EXACTLLY.
I agree the bar should be very high. I am happy they took MTG to court for it and accept that she was not found to meet the bar.
That’s where we fight. At the polls. In the courts. Our institutions can work if we support them.
This election clearly shows that the most extreme candidates in the most important positions lost and people took it seriously enough.
True. A vote is a sort of boycott where applicable!
I agree 100%
Because the current laws don't specifically bar them from running. If they had been charged and convicted of insurrection that would be a different story. We could hang them all!
I don't know if I can do this but here is a link to follow up on your question:
https://www.politifact.com/article/2021/dec/03/how-many-newly-elected-officials-and-congressional/
Thanks Susan. That is a good link. I think criminal trespass is usually a misdemeanor but at the capitol its likely a felony. So this could affect those implicated with that behavior. But you still have to be convicted to prevent you from running for office. I had an uncle who defended Jerry Brown for being arrested at a protest rally. This was in the 70's in Mississippi. Didn't affect his political future. Then again this may be a non sequitur.
To start with Congress has no power, and the little power that they have they were afraide to use, For instance Congress has the power to arrest, not just subpoena and they used it twice in the early 20th century, but wimped out and handed the job to DOJ, which was led by a man that worked 10 times as a moderator for the Federalist Society and was vetted to SCOTUS by the most right wing extremist Senator at the time (Orrin Hatch)
Finally Trump signed EO 13957 that enabled him to embed his political appointees in DOJ, DOD, NSA, DHS, even labor as protected civil servants, which pushed out/replaced the long serving civil servants because that same EO converted them to at will.
Biden revoked EO 13957 the second day in office with EO 14002, which you would think is a good thing, but he could have used Trump's EO and precedent to cleanse the DOJ and other cabinets of Trump appointees turned civil servants. Instead he voluntarily disarmed himself, just like he did when he appointed a Republican to the Board of the USPS, thus maintaining a 50/50 Democrat Republican split, thus ensuring that Dejoy would remain Postmaster General.
I have to ask why Biden did not appoint all Democrats to get rid of Dejoy, the only conclusion I can come to is that he didn't want to fire Dejoy. Maybe because Dejoy canceled a contract for electric postal vehicles and gave it to Oshkosh in Wisconsin for gas powered vehicles and Oshkosh is the prime provider of military vehicles like the Humvee.
If keeping the Oshkosh vote was the Democratic party goal, it failed, because Ron Johnson Republican is the elected Senator.
Instead of doing the right thing, the Democrats try the old tactics, back old tired race horses, like Catherine Cortez Masto and neglect places like Florida and Texas which they surrender to the Republicans.
From the pleas that clogged my inbox, the only candidates that they cared about where the conservative Masto and the Conservative Hassan (Hassan voted against raising the minimum wage), they did not support any progressive, and in fact in primaries that support conservatives (who lose in the general) against Progressives, such as Joe Kennedy Jr which Pelosi supported against Senator Markley of Mass in 2020 primary. She did the same supporting a homophobic congressional candidate against a gay congreggional candidate in the Primary of 2020.
Both parties slop at the trough of Wall Street, PhRMA, AHIP and Chamber of Commerce. Both hate and fear true Democrats.
AS president Truman said:
If it's a choice between a genuine Republican, and a Republican in Democratic clothing, the people will choose the genuine article, every time; that is, they will take a Republican before they will a phony Democrat, and I don't want any phony Democratic candidates in this campaign." Harry S Truman, May 17 1952 trumanlibrary.org/…
At this point, it seems POSSIBLE that the Democrats will somehow retain control of the Senate (the importance of this cannot be overstated), and the feared "red tsunami" in the House will not materialize, though the Republicans will unfortunately still likely retake control (get ready for lots of impeachments and investigations, people). If the Democrat losses are limited, I must say, "Thank YOU, Gen Z voters. Thank YOU, women voters." You may have saved this country from a complete disaster of an election.
Well said. But honestly, I have to ask-DID women voters turn out? Not only did inflation overwhelm so many social issues, but I don’t see any reports of the pro-choice movement mounting a huge turn-out. Hate to criticize fellow women-but all those who matched-all those who demonstrated-I see nothing citing to them turning out en masse to vote. The entire history points to that very problem-lotta noise, not much delivery. I hope I’m wrong-but seems it’s been a big enough focus-something would be said.
The decisive pushback earlier in (red) Kansas now also happened in (red) Kentucky, and Wisconsin.
From what I've read, yes, women did turn out to vote in very high numbers. I don't know what you mean by "lotta noise, not much delivery" since reproductive rights guarantees won in several states. I'm sure Judd can tell us the numbers.
Thanks!! You’re right! Found it just awhile ago! WOO HOO!!
Fair questions, but if not for what I believe was the "Roe v. Wade Pushback", combined with some definite "candidate quality" issues (though that didn't help the Democrats in Ohio or Nevada, unfortunately, and it may not help them in the Arizona Governor's race), I think that the underlying fundamentals of this election (an unpopular President from the party which controlled the House/Senate, high inflation, etc.), we would have seen the Republicans pick up 25-35 House seats and at least 2-3 Senate seats.
Predictions for pro-choice voters were that more anti-choice voters would turn out. I’m old enough to have watched the ERA still not be incorporated-despite the work we’ve done since the 60’s-and the work of our female ancestors for decades prior. Given that any woman who votes Repub (or Blacks or minorities-as proven by our history)-vote against their iwn interests, it still never ceases to amaze me how we can drop the ball.
I think pro-choice women DID turn out and that is the reason there was no red wave.
They did-along w/Gen Z. The final group about whom I’m curious is LGBTQ+ & Trans. Given the GOP open attacks esp on trans youth-they’re losing as much as women-I wonder at their voting. I would hope it’s a high percentage-but I don’t see indications. Still looking.
And a tip of the hat to little Sammy from Trenton for inspiring so many.
Who? I'm from NJ and have no idea who that is.
Justice Alito.
OH! Big fat ugly Samuel.... (sorry)
I shoulda been more Jersey in that characterization. Yours sings. As a lifer (Red Bank/Manasquan) I hang my head in shame.
Borders: Biden continues Trump’s policies-BUT-under Biden, apprehensions are up 330%. The influx of Cubans has been the main surge; while Mexican & most other S. American countries have fallen about 175%. 1% of Cuba’s population have fled to the US: “ U.S. authorities made more than 2.2 million migrant arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2022, higher than any year on record. Of those, about 1 million were quickly expelled to Mexico or other countries under a pandemic-era order known as Title 42. But just 2 percent of Cubans apprehended at the border were expelled in the 2022 fiscal year.” -That’s because CONGRESS HAS DIFFERENT IMMIGRATION LAWS FOR CUBANS & Venezuelans, based on being from Communist countries, they’re considered refugees. If they make it over the border, they aren’t deported. After a year, they can apply for green cards.
Drugs: Oct 4, 2022 “ Most fentanyl is seized at border crossings — **often from U.S. citizens** ...—In the period from the fourth quarter of 2018 to the end of August 2022, an average of **87 percent** of seized fentanyl was stopped at the southern border.” “https://www.washingtonpost.com › politics › 2022 › 10 › 04 › border-fentanyl-seizures-americans. - Thanks to TN’s Sen Marsha Blackburn, “ https://www.addictions.com › opiate › the-role-of-pharmaceutical-companies-in-the-opioid-epidemic
The Role of Pharmaceutical Companies in the Opioid Epidemic - Addictions
Sep 15, 2021The major players who took part in creating the opioid epidemic include: Purdue Pharma Abbott Labs Johnson & Johnson Pfizer Novartis Covidien Watson Pharmaceuticals Endo Pharmaceuticals.” Her legislation in 2014 stopped the DEA from investigating US Big Pharma & prosecute them. They flooded our streets w/opioids funneled through fly-by-night dr’s & pharmacies, using the homeless in huge prescription scam, putting millions of pills into rural & small town areas, often far outnumbering the number of people living there. Blackburn has received huge money from pharma to stop the DEA &’protect them. That’s not the border-it’s mid-America.
Student radicalization? Seriously? Give sone EXAMPLES based on FACTS. Otherwise you’re just parroting GOP propaganda & lies.
Domestic terrorism reached a zenith thanks to Trump & the far-right GOP, including congresssionals, culminating in Jan 6th attempt to overthrow our government. The left was now way involved. Call Hillbilly Marjorie Greene, Trump’s own AG, William
Barr & GOP activist Ginni Thomas-SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife who was urging Mark Meadows to stop Trump leaving the White House in a lawful transfer of power-and instead take control of thevgiv’t-treason. https://www.newsweek.com › marjorie-taylor-greene-calls-jan-6-little-riot-defends-protests-witchhunt-1725238
Marjorie Taylor Greene Calls Jan. 6 'A Little Riot' As She ... - Newsweek
Jul 16, 2022Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (Repub) has said there was a "little riot" at the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021 and defended those who attended.” She egged on the riot & in the face of overwhelming PROOF there was NO STOLEN ELECTION-according to numerous state investigations & 14 legal proceedings-continued to insist the election was stolen. This violates her congressional oath to defend & protect the Constitution of the United States, & has promoted fascism. As this election showed. Which is why the Americans LEFT stopped it
So tell me-with researched proof from credible sources-just WHERE the LEFT has endangered our country. You have it EXACTLY. BACKWARDS. If you love our country so much-use that phone in your hand & access the WORLD OF KNOWLEDGE OFFERED BY THE INTERNET-which can also educate you on where your sources lie on the political continuum & how reputable they are for facts & truth.
Marek, to have more power and facts in your writing, use standard forms of verifying your claims. For instance, track down work by a reliable news organization, or even empirical research into progress in creating a wall on the border. Then at the end of your sentence “Trump built the wall and instituted remain in Mexico” (Put a link to your source here). This is how you show your words - which are verifiably only eight words in that sentence - are backed up by a whole article or report that looks for the ground-truth of the situation you claim to know. If it is true that “By all accounts, thousands of immigration frauds are pouring across the border daily”, this is a big claim about human beings by the thousands crossing the border - surely you can view newspapers online from Nogales/Tucson, or Tijuana/San Diego, or El Paso to verify this “all accounts” idea. News organizations on the border would definitely report on such large numbers of people crossing the border. You suggest “by all accounts”, so I would put a link to several current articles because ‘by all accounts” is a broad statement that requires accountings from many newspapers or other sources (like 10 sources). Does this help?
When we finally get results from Arizona, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Georgia, I'll be able to plan next year's vacation, avoiding states that elected MAGA authoritarians and Q nutbags. I will not spend my money in any red state, where they will use it - and the power of the State - to strip away civil rights, rig the electoral system to stay in power, and terrify their residents.
Ha! I thought I was the only one who felt this way. I refuse to travel to certain states for this same reason. I don't want to be surrounded by people who think that Ron DeSantis or Ted Cruz are a good idea.
Agree - maybe Disney should move
With the way DeSantis has abused them, they absolutely should move.
Maybe people who love Disney and Universal Parks should go to California rather than Floriduh. You still get to wear the silly ears, but you don't waste any dollars in DeSantistan.
There’s an idea!
And take loads of money they bring to that state with them.
Moving is easier said than done. Although climate Change may accomplish the deed. https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/possible-tropical-system-headed-for-florida-during-last-month-of-hurricane-season-morales/2901636/ That said, Disney has a much longer perspective than any of the temporary employees in office.
Disney is talking about moving a couple thousand employees from Anaheim to Orlando. What do they do if a sizable percentage of those people refuse to relocate?
DISNEY isn’t the problem except for their low wages. DeSantis is the problem.
Orlando was a sleepy little town prior to Disney.
But Florida, especially Orlando, depends on the tourist trade. If the tourists don't come because they are sick and tired of DeSantis' bullcrap, Disney may really step up their game to fight the fascists.
Exactly why I’m heading to CA this year instead of FL or Tx!
Thanks Julie. We’ve got to make things happen now. And I hope we keep letting these people know that we reject their insanity. And we will not allow our country to sink deeper into Fascism. I hope everyone follows your actions!
How CAN we start a nationwide boycott???
JoAnn I think we’ll hear about those options soon. Get in touch with some LGBTQ+ groups…they know how to do it. Women have a lot of power, a lot of numbers…we’ve done it before, Talk to union members, they’ve done it!
Thank you. Ii will!
We need to start with PUSHING BACK ON CRAZOID ELECTEDS-stop ignoring their lies & misrepresentation! Call them out. Just imagine if hillbilly queens Marsha Blackburn & Marjorie big mouth, along with McCarthy, Cotton & other liars got a million phone calls for a lie…
Senate: 202-224-3121 House: 202-224-3121.
they can't be the same number...
What a great idea!
Welcome! I tell my family and friends that CA has a lot of problems but, after all, it is the 5th largest economy in the world and what large diverse economy doesn't have problems? It is an amazing mix of diversity, vibrant economic growth, cutting edge culture, etc. I love it here. Many of the people leaving, including family members, just can't make it here - it can be tough. For the folks boycotting Fla: come to So Cal! As Arnold's advertisement of old said "We're Open!".
Be sure to take I-80! Southern route is WAY too Red. But even then, may have to use an old-fashioned map to still avoid some places like NV!
Not sure why you'd want to avoid Nevada. https://www.nevadacurrent.com/2022/11/10/with-question-1-nevada-passes-most-inclusive-states-equal-rights-amendment-in-nation/
Sunset & Fire, that’s my thought Get the list of red states and Boycott, Boycott! That means no trip to Disney.
Same for me. There are many states I won’t be visiting as long as state governments are red.
Me too. It's nice to know that I'm not alone in this.
Unfortunately, I'm moving to one. From MI to IN. IN isn't the worst of them, and we'll be in the Indianapolis are, which is really progressive, but still..... sucks.
I'm a transplant from Michigan to Indiana 35+ years ago. Indiana is awful - the only areas heavily D are Indianapolis/Marion Co. and the Gary area. Count up the senators and reps - it's about 8 R's to 2 D's. It takes 2 separate general assemblies which equates to 3 to 4 years calendar years - yes 3 - 4 years to amend the constitution. Indiana also does not allow referendums. Very frustrating for those of us in the minority here.
I'm sorry 😞 I live in Indiana and unfortunately the rest of the state gives R's total control over what happens here. It's bad.
We need a coalition of people to move from the safest blue states to swingy red states. IN May not be the most swingy state, but hearts and minds can change on the ground, one voter at a time.
I understand the reasoning behind this sentiment, but I want to also point out that a lot of red states are more purple than you realize and are red in large part because of gerrymandering. Please don't generalize us all into MAGA authoritarians and Q nutbags - of course those people exist, but they exist everywhere. The mindset of boycotting entire states gets dangerously close to the mindset of letting red states just destroy themselves, which ignores the fact that the people in those states still need to be taken care of (and can't necessarily do a lot to change the redness of our state, because we've been trying to survive under it for so dang long).
I think there's a balance to be had between voting with your dollar and not completely writing off those of us in red states. If you still want to travel to a red state, one suggestion is patronizing local small businesses, especially ones that are minority or LGBTQ owned. It takes a little more work and research, but it's doable.
You're so right Sarah! And Thank You for your compassionate reply! It would be terrible to boycott entire states because of a minority of people. Perhaps there's a more targeted way to make our displeasure known?! Yours is a good one!
That's an excellent point, and it is the dilemma between not wanting to punish the people but also not wanting to give authoritarian-leaning state governments more tourism tax money so they can keep cutting property and income and business taxes for their donors (while blocking Medicare funding for those who need it most). There are local, regional, and national organizations that help elect liberal candidates, assist with abortion access, legally defend parents and teachers who run afoul of draconian "parental rights" laws, etc., and I donate to several of them. I support organizations that lobby and go to court for fair redistricting laws, to try to stop the partisan gerrymandering. We'll have to pursue many strategies to claw back our rights and throw the bums out. But if I ever find myself in a red state before then, I will look for the local small businesses you suggest, and spend my money there.
Excellent point, you're right. We should probably do as much to empower the blue pockets so they can keep fighting the good fight!
West Texas, here we come!
A nationwide boycott would be a good idea!
we've been trying to take a trip to Texas for several years, but I cannot support them. And now my beloved Miami is also off the books. Thank goodness for California
Hoping every sane organization planning a convention follows your advice. Certainly the American College of Obstetrics & Gynecology can pass on Dallas.
I have relatives and friends that live in Arizona. They are ALL Democrats, and they vote. Please don't give up on them, because they are trying their damnedest to turn back the crazies. However, I will say that Florida is a state I will never visit.
I moved from Oregon to AZ in September and voted for Dems by mail! People are largely very guarded here recently in even displaying their “Let’s Go Brandon” flags! The tension is there but very much under the surface! Back in Oregon, the Trumpers are much more blatant! But the election returns in Oregon and AZ are giving hope so far!
God Bless them!
Just spend your money on local biz in Austin, San Antonio, Houston and El Paso, and skip basically every other county in between. Some lovely food in all four, y'all.
I have family in Houston I need to visit, otherwise would not go back to Texas (raised there). CA may have its issues, but as others have pointed out, it is a huge economy, diverse in population and home to some of the greatest scenic beauty in the world. The hospital where I work is literally a UN of humans from many areas of the world, different faith traditions (or none) different world views...such a tonic to the outlook of the crazy white people only, Christian nationalist republicans. I am very concerned about that segment of the political landscape...it must be very sad to be so afraid and angry at anyone who is different from you.
Lived in San Antonio for awhile many years ago. It was delicious!
same here
I agree in principle, but some powerful red states also have some ability to swing. What about the liberal enclaves like Austin, or frankly, all the major metro areas in Texas that have democratic mayors? Or my purple state, WI who is probably about to re-elect Ron Johnson but also re-elected Democrat Tony Evers. Alternatively, Democrats who have the means to work remotely should consider moving to swingy areas of the country, to make a change on the ground.
Jennifer I agree 100%. I have friends who are from Wisconsin who remember when it wasn't legislatively gerrymandered to advantage 1 party, and I hope and believe that as people move and relocate that their votes will make a difference. I just learned that 4 of my neighbors good friends have all moved to Arizona, and I know that they all voted for Democrats. We Democrats need to do better on simple, consistent messaging and highlight results for the people. This election has left me hopeful, and determined to work harder to make it last.
Agree 100%. I’ll go far out of my way to avoid neighboring Texas. After freezing & seeing their houses come down around their ears bec Repubs handed over control to private companies-they reelect Abbott. If they freeze again this winter, the hell with them. They had a clear choice.
My husband and I feel the same way. We live next door to AZ but didn't travel there when Jan Brewer was governor and we will do the same if Kari Lake scrapes out a victory this time around.
Thank you for the information. I refused to listen to any media yesterday - it was too anxiety provoking. I worked as a ballot counter in our small town instead. Didn't return home till after 11:00. The usual midterm turn out is about 600; we had 746 voters turn out. Patience, positive attitude and prayer for now.
Ditto - worked polls in very red area - had more turnout than 2020 presidential
Thank you!
I also work the elections in my small red town, sloooowwwly, turning more purple. We also had record turnout yesterday. Normally in a midterm we might get only 100 voters (total just over 700), yesterday had 169 by noon!
And thank you and all the rest of you who worked hard to keep the process fair and civil.
Our little polling place with 4 election judges checking folks in saw 1350 yesterday. I am def taking the day off today!
BIG THANK YOU TO ALL! I always thank every poll worker I come into contact with while voting. Tell them they’re very important in our democracy Grieves me they’re always surprised…
Thank you!
Thank you for your work.
I didn't listen either, avoided all election results till this am. Not so bad as it might have been.
Thank you for your poll work!
Same here Sarah. No news until results are in.
Me too!
I also worked the election in my small, red town. I heard that the line was out the door all day.
As a bonus, I worked closing so I got home at 11 and was too dead tired to watch polls.
Thank you and all of the people with you who made sure we had fair and civil elections.
Thanks for helping with the election!
The red wave didn’t appear, more like a trickle. I don’t mind, but the dumbest of the dumb were the ones elected. TX, FL, OH, GA? Could they have chosen worse? Doubt it. Not wanting to vote for a dem, is one thing. Voting for someone that put themselves above their constituents is unbelievable.
I’m with you there. As a Georgian I had such hopes that Abrams would win and show or state is ready to start thinking logically. Still not sure how our state got Warnock elected but missed getting Abrams (mostly rhetorical). The only thing I see in common is both Kemp and Warnock are incumbents and we have too many “keep it as it is” folks.
It’s time for a focus on patriarchy misogyny that silences and disables women’s leadership. A refusal to take this on and often denial that misogyny exists blocks a much needed spotlight on this reality in U,S. society and politics.
100%. Especially when applied to Black women who give wso much to uphold any semblance of democracy, and still get stepped on and disregarded.
Yes, women of color experience both misogyny and racism, a toxic silencing combination. White women often are viewed as privileged even while misogyny silences them. Too many losses for too many talented women who have a lot to offer.
how is Walker so competitive-- this should have been a slam dunk for Warnock? I think Walker has CTE.
I agree. The Republicans used him like a rented mule, and he took the bait. Very sad.
That is probably not powering the vote for Kemp. It is probably more like little to access to accurate information. I live in KY. Because I can no longer afford the local paper, I only voted for one city commissioner instead of the 4
It's unfortunately become the standard on the right. There used to be many legitimate red candidates; now it's hard to find a handful. And their base seems to be extremely tolerant of being used and discarded, as long as they feel like they've "owned the libs" they don't care what the net result is.
Sad, isn’t it?
I live in Ohio and worked the polls yesterday. The ‘Red Wave’ was palpable here. Thankfully, other places are hopefully saving the day. The Dems work so hard here but this is an ignorant state of Fox News watchers.
Yes, to elect the hypocrite JD Vance over a jewel like Tim Ryan proves what you say. Shame on OH!
Unreal on this one!
Thanks for working the polls! Sorry about your neighbors!!
I live in a very red area of Ohio also. Here, at least, there was reason for optimism. My county went 27% for Biden in 2020 and 38% for Tim Ryan in 2022. It’ll be interesting to see if numbers changed like that elsewhere in the State.
NY Times has a county map of PA showing single-digit blue shifts in numerous counties, similar to the one you saw, and all in red and very red areas. I'm a proud Fetterman supporter who does not live in PA but has friends in the state, and family ties to State College and Huntingdon. I am extra proud of him this morning!
I am so happy about the PA results! That is the state I 'adopted' and made calls for Fetterman, and other. Also have family there. PA came through for (the) US, thank you to all who voted!!
NYT map show a GOP tilt even in Massachusetts, although obviously red wave was wavelet. . Hopefully GOP will not decide to run reasonable people next time, instead of wife beaters, Russian apologists and Erdogan surrogates, but keep up with the crazies. What happened to Charley Crist?
What happened to Charlie Crist is what happened to Val Demmings and is represented in 20 of 28 seats in the US House for MAGA Republicans. When absolute power reshapes the institutions (or degrades them sufficiently) for their gain and pursues the voters they want rather than working to represent all the people, you have Florida. The DeSantis/Trump schism’s toll on FL is going to fascinating and painful to watch.
Charlie Crist is a washed-up Republican and unappealing. . There is a reason Fetterman won and Crist lost, those types are lousy candidates.
Had Dems nominated Conor Lamb, they would have lost in PA too.
Crist doesn't even know he is washed up. Nelson didn't either. They ran conventional campaigns - Fetterman ran a different kind of campaign. For example: Fetterman went to every county fair in PA *for four years*. Democratic strategists here wrote off Levy county, but Fetterman would have gone to a diner there.
Deathsantis will be more cocky now.
Mega gerrymandering. It does not help that Crist if a former Republican!
he will be my new senator-- hated GOP SHILL TOOMEY!
The same here in PA. Yuk.
Thank you for doing what you did in Ohio. Got to keep plugging.
Just keep clearing away their BS, Judd. You’re the best.
I live in the Upper Valley- cohesive border towns of NH and Vt and vote in NH. All senators and reps here are Democrat (one Socialist). Both states have popular Republican governors. They are pragmatic, pro choice and anti Trump.. Everyone here is pretty respectful. Good model for the country?
We shouldn't kid ourselves. Democracy (or what passes for it here) is still precarious. The race to the White House in 2024 gets underway this morning.
I understand your concern. It's mine, too. BUT we didn't give in. It tells me the populous can be reached and that most people know the difference.
My guess is that by 2023, Trump will be a thing of the past. His past is catching up with him and he can't undo it. But we will have the lying, bullying, smarter candidate like my SOB of a governor DeSantis. Now, there's a guy who needs to be taken down a peg. I hope he gets burned for tricking those people into going to Martha's Vineyard.
Re Trump, NEVER underestimate a narcissistic psychopath. Never.
I understand that he has been able to slip out of the lot of things. But he has broken the law so many times and bragged about how he is so smart and wonderful, which will be his downfall. The other thing he hasn't counted on was that Jan 6 is not going his way. He is USEFUL to the GOPers until he isn't and this elections shows that he just doesn't have the magic anymore.
What is likely to happen now is that DT will continue to stick his nose into politics were he isn't wanted (because he is a narcissist) and make a mess of things, such as the top secret documents that have been separated from their sleeves. Besides he just lost a ton of money on Truth Social and made enemies of his backers on another business deal gone wrong.
Obvi you've never known a NP in real life. Mark my words. NEVER underestimate a narcissistic psychopath. You have NO clue what they are capable of doing. Pay attention.
I agree Gloria. I’ve been forced to deal with narcissists for my entire life. DeSantis and Pompeo are also narcissists but they may not be as depraved as Donald Trump. Trump gets away with a lot because of his specific way of dealing with issues. I doubt Pompeo or DeSantis can duplicate that. Plus, the American public is now aware of narcissism and what it looks like.
A snake won't ever act like a rabbit. It is what it is.
Good advice!
Good advice!
Good advice!
DeSatan scares the absolute crap out of me. He’s been in government and knows how to work it, unlike the former prez, which makes him even scarier. He’s horrific.
I understand how you feel. But he has a behavioral problem--he always has to win and trash his opponent. It will continue to get him into trouble. Hence the real problem he has by “kidnapping” those refugees. When he gets too cocky, he does something stupid--like declaring voting for emergency funds as “socialism” until he needed it for Florida. The federal support, not state support, will rebuild SW Florida and whatever Nicole will do
I agree with your assessment. But he seems to me to be exactly what the MAGAts love…?
Right now, DeSantis MAY look good, but we never know what will come his way between then and now. He looks good, but he has a BIG problem. He can't help trashing people he doesn't like. It's not going away. Just as Trump lies constantly, Ron trashes people and actually goes after them and he can't help himself. Oh, and he's good looking. That's always a problem for these guys.
I do not know where you get that Ron is good looking. I think he looks like a tractor trailer truck ran over his face!
Trump is like a turd that won't flush
Not only did the GOP have a bad night, pollsters and pundits completely missed the story, and created a narrative of a red wave that dominated the media for the past few months. This has real impacts, as it kept Democratic candidates from running, likely hurt Democratic candidates that did run, and kept the national focus off issues that really concern Americans. Especially after Kansas, it shouldn’t have been a surprise.
How do we prevent pollsters and idiotic pundits from setting the national narrative?
Of course another issue is gerrymandering, which is the main reason the GOP will likely eke out a small victory in the House.
The media is also responsible for continuing to entertain the ridiculous question of whether a candidate will accept the results of the vote. Every time they ask this question, they legitimize the lunacy a little more.
Exactly. The main reason the GOP picked up House seats is gerrymandering.
Really agree with this. The polls were not reflective of anything but how hard genuine, accurate polling is or how pollsters skew results.
we tanked in Florida, reelecting De Santis and Rubio. It continues to boggle my mind.
sorry for your state being overrun with such corrupt, hypocritical repukes :-(
Mine too. I don't live in FL. At this point, with the mind boggling re-election of DeSantis and Cruz, I never will. The only thing I can come up with is there must be a lot of wealthy people in FL. Why else would anyone vote Republican? They do nothing for everyday people. But, CT is a wealthy blue state who re-elected mostly dems. I honestly don't understand people or politics.
unfortunately a lot of older, confused, bigoted, racist repugnicans have migrated to FL from other states :-(
Agree
Why else would anyone vote Republican? I live in a rural (red) area. These people are not rich or smart, well, a few are rich.
Because all the nuts roll downhill to Florida. I live there and too many people watch fux news. Wealth usually comes with education. So it's not rich, or educated people causing this.
So many of these races were impacted by the propaganda of Faux News. How do we curtail that - it is horrible. I am always turning it off in the Doctors lounge. It blasts throughout our Military sites - the VA is full of it! Enough
I see your point. It's hard to believe so many Floridians want to live under DeSantis rule. People are nuts. Sorry they made FL their home.
CT shifted red a bit too. George Logan is a nice guy but refused to say he wouldn’r back Trump/McCarthy. Hard to believe he is so close to Haynes
Back in the 70s, when my parents retired to FL, they were on the Atlantic coast, which drew retirees mainly from the Northeast and leaned Democratic. The Gulf coast has drawn retirees primarily from the more conservative Midwest. I don't know the demographic or voting statistics, but I wonder if these two regions have grown differently over the decades.
JHenry, A true F-up in Florida.
Yes, but wholly expected, sadly.
In PA, many college kids took trains, busses and drove home and did not sit out.
I'm so happy Fetterman won. I don't even live in PA, but I like him. I wish we had more politicians like him.
Thank God for Fetterman!
A friend of mine son "rode the rails" Subways to register people to vote several times a week.
We are still in a very precarious situation. The Dems won’t ever win big until they embrace getting rid of money in politics as we know it today which compromises every policy they make and the people see through it. Hence why Popular Info is so so so important. Thank you Judd
It is difficult to remove money from politics when Congress has many millionaires. We cannot pass any tax legislation on the rich until we remove the rich from our legislators
Yes, there is a conflict of interest there. We need to pass laws and regulations that further limit and track campaign contributions.
Yeah, the constant bombardment of money request is despicable. Like we have to buy democracy.
As a PA resident that was bombarded with some of the most despicable, lie-filled, dog-whistling political ads for the last 6 months, I was a ball of anxiety yesterday. If Oz and Mastriano won, what dim flame of hope for the future I have left would’ve been extinguished. So relieved to see PA pulled through. Though the county-by-county map sure reinforces that PA is “Pittsburgh on one side, Philly on the other, Kentucky in the middle”.
Pennsyl-tukcy is real. Lived there after the 2016 election and it was scary. But damn, pretty disappointing that Fettermen only won by 0.3%. I mean, I'll take it but wowww
I hear that. We were in a county south of Pittsburgh during the 2016 election. Never have I felt more alienated from my neighbors than that election cycle. Walking my dogs through a neighborhood filled with custom-made Trump signs made me equal parts angry and ill.
As a child I thought the whole state was like Philly. It isn't.
Still a lot of Shapiro and Fetterman signs - Hollister too - in red (and naive Amish) Lancaster.
I have a friend originally from Lancaster, and she said the city itself isn’t as “red”. Just looked at the county’s election results site out of curiosity. Fetterman landed ~93k votes, Oz ~123k. The much tighter spread (as expected) was Shapiro with ~106k and Mastriano with ~111k. Split tickets aren’t dead yet.
City trends blue, what is sad is how the Amish are duped into voting red. The issue used is abortion and some other scare tactics. A few I know feel they have to vote R because of how the issue is presented to them. The religion is works based not Grace based. They will sacrifice a lot to feed the hungry and send doctors to places of need and many more good things but can’t get past abortion. I am speaking in generalities about them. I do know one who voted blue. There are probably more.
So sad how the GOP has weaponized religion to manipulate voters. I suspect what you say here about how many do so much good, but can’t get past abortion, rings true for a fair swath of red voters out across the country.
Yes!
me too-- OZ ekkkk!!!! My cousins are so upset OZ/Mostriano lost & that tells you all you need to know about them.
I have been so unimpressed with the guardian’s coverage over the last few weeks leading up to this. They have been talking in terms of red wave, reporting polls as facts (it was good to see daily beast talking about pollsters not having a clue but everyone else was talking about democrats losing badly). You never hear about inflation being caused by corporate profit increases or about the high levels of worker wage theft. So relieved to be a subscriber of Popular Information to get a more balanced view of whats happening. Would love to see something on what the amount of billionaire donations into candidates could have paid for in terms of policy implementations instead.
yes, I do too
The fact that Chuck Grassley can still win an election at 89 makes me ill. The fact that Greg Abbott won over the human decency of Beto is disheartening. The fact that anyone in KY would vote for Rand Paul and anyone in OH would vote for JD Vance just makes me deeply sad. There were wins, but the losses really defeat me.
Amen. Ohio is really turning into…something.
I phone banked on Monday to help get Gen Z voters to the polls. Thanks to today's youth! I believe they made a significant contribution yesterday. Sad and sorry for the Ohio and Utah outcomes. The better candidates in those states ran great campaigns but came up short in their blazing red states. Still, last night was hardly a red tidal wave. Hoping for Senate success when all is said and done.
Awesome on your phone-banking, thank you.
I might be alone in this, but I don't think it's necessarily bad that the Republicans took the House last night. The next couple of years will be be full of MAGA talking points, political payback schemes and chaos. BUT I think it positions Democrats better moving into 2024. The GOP can't just blame everything on "the libs." They will be forced to take responsibility and will enter the election from a defensive position rather than full on attack as it will also be a referendum on their performance.
FOX NEWS & RW media will absolve themselves/ GOP of any responsibility & BLAME THE DEMS-- they call them "demonic" DEMS now.
I like that approach. Hope it’s a good prediction. Of course, they’ll lie, so what they actually DO won’t bother them much.
Agree!
Watching closely in hope that democracy wins the Senate and remaining governorship races
I've gotten farther and farther away from listening to "mainstream media," particularly as it pertains to politics. Even the NYTimes focuses so much on the racehorse coverage, and so little on the actual issues (election denial, neofascism, white "Christian" nationalism vs separation of church and state), I find it extremely frustrating as an educated voter, to listen/watch to the bothsides coverage. Maggie Hassan beat her challenger in NH by double digits, but she was touted as *incredibly vulnerable.* John Fetterman SHOULD have beat Oz by double digits, but the media focus on the aftereffects of his stroke was like the Hillary's emails of Pennsylvania. It made a clearcut race into something close, for no good reason. I can't even believe that Raphael Warnock, an eloquent, ethical incumbent is neck and neck with an essentially illiterate football player who is so clearly a liar, can't formulate a policy position (or probably define the word "policy") to save his life, and has NO leadership experience. I'm sure that beginning today, Ron DeSantis will be covered wall-to-wall in the media like Dump was in 2015, as the star of the Republican party, when he is so clearly unfit to be a President, and should be crushed in any state other than Florida. And all over the media today "wow, that red wave we predicted/enabled hasn't happened, I wonder why?" Ugh.
I think democrats wasted good pickup opportunities in North Carolina and Wisconsin. They are doing better in the House than expected, had they focused on crime and inflation they’d have done better but this is fine so far. One thing is certain, Trumpism isn’t the force it is thought to be, his candidates have lost every key race and only won in deep red Ohio. Lake could lose in Arizona too
so true. keeping my fingers crossed that fake, fascist Lake loses in AZ.
Dems ahead down ballot in Arizona too that’s gonna be key.
I think Mandela could win — lots of absentee ballots, and they’re way more likely be for him.
I hope and pray, Ron Johnson is awful
And Mandela is GREAT!!!!!
He is indeed.
No red wave is needed to muck everything up. We are still likely to get a "red tide" so about the only thing the D's can do for 2 years is vote on judges. Hopefully the red tide house will go off the rails enough to show the need for a D win in both houses and white house in 24.
Yes, as shown over the last 2 yrs. How can 1/2 our fellow Americans be so ignorant and gullible?
They are not any more so than most of the D's.
Well, that’s what the MSM likes to say as well; but when one side is denying election results despite all the attempts & empty court cases, doesn’t that put them in a different category?
It does.
Nope, not 50% as you reference. 3-10% hard core idiots- no doubt. Others following the crowd - you bet. No doubt also 3-10% nut jobs on the D side.
I didn't watch any coverage last night. I need to sleep, and didn't think getting in a car crash driving my grandchildren to school would help democracy. My great fear at this point is that Dems in close races will concede too early. FIGHT FOR EVERY VOTE AND CHALLENGE ANY DISQUALIFICATIONS. This is Dems chance to call attention to every dirty Republican trick.I shall write more postcards!
Also, the Democratic pleas for more money became insane for me.
yeah, the Dem money pleas were disgusting and abusive
Oh good. Now another two years of bombast by trump. In the words of Selina Meyer, "God I hate this country."
Our country is in deep trouble when someone like Herschel Walker is neck and neck with a highly educated thoughtful civic leader. We are going to waste time with Republican vitriol
This election begins to demonstrate that the people prefer government to govern and politicians to have policies. The MAGA’s have neither. Now let’s see if the residue of the Republicans can figure that out. Even fascists have policies - albeit hateful. These MAGA’s only have a lust for power for the sake of having power.
Fascism is losing. We cannot let up. I would like to see a story on the percentage of registered r's and D's by state and the makeup of the legislature. I think the next hat trick for the R's will be to push the gerrymandering that seems to have worked in Florida to other swing states. https://gerrymander.princeton.edu/redistricting-report-card?planId=recGXGgCh8REltOnL
Totally agree, we cannot let up, and the Fascists certainly did not get the mandate they assumed they would get. so they will be more determined, they can only be dislodged peacefully by thumping them over and over again at the ballot box, and at every level of govt. Time does not wait, this is urgent business now.
they've done it here in WI, and it has a lot to do with how Ron Johnson beat Mandela Barnes
Yes. Demonstrating (as simply as possible) gerrymandering changes -- perhaps in community talks -- would be helpful over next 2 years. Can we convince people that if everyone votes -- the statistical improbabilities can be overcome? At the very least -- future cases against gerrymandered maps will have more data to prove the disenfranchisement? Build the base in every county of every state.
Youth vote came out. Long hours wait of students at the University of MI. All the Dems at top of ticket won, and State houses may flip, or at least change in GOP strength. Unprecedented vote of 4.2 million in MI is a record for a midterm. Think voters are smarter and more engaged and HCR from History professor from Brown says that it's like 1884, another time of refutation of an extremist GOP!
We are still in a very precarious situation. The Dems won’t ever win big until they embrace getting rid of money in politics as we know it today which compromises every policy they make and the people see through it. Hence why Popular Info is so so so important. Thank you Judd
It's more than money. It's the fact that the Republicans fall in line behind their leaders. The Democrats have so much disagreement and in-fighting that they can't agree in anything. They are weak compared to the Republicans.
Also, outside of Obama, who is an excellent and dynamic speaker, who do the Democrats have that can energize the Party AND more importantly, the voters? They really don't have anyone.
Only one who comes to mind for me is Gavin Newsom
I'm an Ohioan. I am praying that Vance will regain control of his brain that he lent to Trump during his campaign...
dont hold your breath...vance is a tRUMPuppet, hypocrite &flip flopper. seems to be just out for themselves, fame, $$$, like all the GQP
Just a couple of thoughts from a UK expat in RSA. I've been watching your elections and you do seem to make life difficult for yourselves in the US of A.
Why does election campaigning start so soon - about two weeks after the last election? Other countries have a specified time before Election Day, six weeks in UK, IIRC!
Why are candidates allowed to pour so much cash into TV ads? You could have a limit on that (and other advertising).
But it's your country, so, your elections rules. Best of luck!
There is a beluef circulating in progressive circles, to which I subscribe, that the Democratic leadership and mainstream candidates depend too much on high-priced Washington campaign consultants and too much on TV ads and not enough on door knocking and other grassroots get out the vote activities that are largely powered by volunteers. The corollary is that if some of these volunteer groups got some more funding the Dems would end up with more votes. Judd, is this something you would research as to how the Democrats deploy their campaign cash and what kind of spending is more effective?
Most disappointed by Stacy Abrams losing. She deserves better.
Hardly anyone ran on Climate Crisis and hardly any media talked about it last night, as the Cairo international conference on the topic is going on concurrently. Pathetic.
I'll never understand how these elections work. The amount of anxiety and stress I've been feeling this last week, should if landed me in the hospital. "Red wave coming"- they seemed too confident. Then Michael Moore was assuring everyone "don't look at the polls-it's a blue wave" I just can't understand what happened in GA and FL TX and in Tim Ryan race OH🤯🤯. Where were the VOTERS?? How could they have not of made change? Something's not right!! How much more can DEMS do to get everyone's vote? REPUBS do nothing and they live up and vote them in. It took them 50 years to overturn ROE 🤯so they really give their voters nothing? Dems voters where are you?😭😭. No race should if been this close
That’s right Sheri! I would think the talk of taking away social security, and ending support for Ukraine would be enough to make all vote blue. Interviews I’ve listened to show that Republicans don’t even know what their leaders are suggesting for the future! put MTG in a position of power? You’ve got to be kidding!
I wonder about gerrymandering there and in Wisconsin
Not only did the GOP have a bad night, pollsters and pundits completely missed the story, and created a narrative of a red wave that dominated the media for the past few months. This has real impacts, as it kept Democratic candidates from running, likely hurt Democratic candidates that did run, and kept the national focus off issues that really concern Americans. Especially after Kansas, it shouldn’t have been a surprise.
How do we prevent pollsters and idiotic pundits from setting the national narrative?
Of course another issue is gerrymandering, which is the main reason the GOP will likely eke out a small victory in the House.
I’m just thrilled that I can continue to reside in PA and don’t have to find a state without a Theofascist administration in charge.
Paula L 😂 The little things in life!
I’m in IL and we’re rock solid BLUE. LOVE our Governor Pritzker. I think he’ll be short listed for the presidency, but I want him here for the next 4. He’s amazing and won easily over a trump-loving goof ball. (Trump stumped for the other guy! )😂🤣 Double losers.
I think the words that Tim Ryan spoke in conceeding to Vance should be shown over and over again to reenforce the way our system is supposed to work. He is a class act and a true hero.
Yes, I contributed to Tim. I think he has a good chance in 2024, for President!
I'm very relieved, having thought things might have been worse (although Simon Rosenberg and Tom Bonier were calling BS on the late "GOP surge" and the red wave narrative for a long time). But my biggest worry now is that the GOP is going to look and Florida and its heinous voter suppression tactics and roll that out in every red state--just massive, unvarnished intimidation of minority voters. I think they will also see Texas as a model in limiting the vote to the voters they prefer. This is what I think we need to be ready to start fighting as soon as we have had a nap.
In Michigan the Gen Z cohort came through. All 3 ballot measures passed, and the MI House and Senate have the potential to become blue after decades of Republican control.
Best story of the night was how the communities rallied around the students in Ann Arbor (U of M) and East Lansing (MSU) to provide them with blankets and pizza while they waited in line for hours late into the evening to vote. When polls closed there was still a 4 hour wait for those in line to get to vote.
Maybe….. maybe this can be a turning point forward for U.S. as a nation. I prefer to focus on big picture view today to see where a path forward may open. I anticipate difficult, divisive conflict, and outrageous Republican Party Trumpism in the next two years to 2024 election. Yet, prioritizing both responses to that and to rise above it are essential.
I’m for continuing to build pro-democracy peoples’ voices and power in communities and states to offset difficult times in Congress and national politics. Great work by thousands around the country - a big thanks for that hard work! Also, thanks to you, Judd. Your work helps to make all this possible.
I just want to say a huge Thank You to all who worked on the campaign! Campaigns workers are like spokes on a wheel, each one so important in performing the tasks to make our democracy work. I am humbly grateful for your efforts, dedication and time.
Ditto, refused to listen to media yesterday, my heart in my stomach. Dared to turn on my news at midnight, teary eyed through the night and this morning. Deeply grateful to the Americans that SHOWED UP. DEEPLY indebted to all candidates and/or incumbents that face viperous attacks against their persons and family in the name of upholding our Democracy.
i'm really hoping the GQP doesnt take control. Pleasantly suprised & hopeful that the Red Plague didnt take over and many election deniers & tRUMPuppets didnt win. Dems need to do more to get marginalized, older, low income voters to the polls & push for more mail in /drop off voting. or electronic web voting. my 83 yr old aunt couldnt vote because she didnt have a way to get to the polls, and the idi0t Repukes in my state sued to disallow mail in votes :-( but fortunately Dems in my state all won. However GQP voter suppression probably made a difference in other states.
If the current trend continues, ‘last night’ does bode well for ‘24.
1) DeSantis is the new GOP golden boy. The establishment will rally behind him--and stand aside if/when Trump is indicted.
2) Kevin McCarthy is f'd. The MAGA lunatics will make his life miserable.
3) The Democrats did well because of youth turnout. The party needs to hammer the threats to democracy (and within that, threats to Social Security and Medicare) constantly between now and the '24 election.
We’ve had two election cycles now where the polls got it wrong. It’s time to concentrate on national legislation to revise campaign financing; prohibit dark money; make gerrymandering illegal for any reason and give the power back to the people.
When legislators do not listen to their constituents because their seat has been gerrymandered to the point that voters don’t count,
The time has come for major change.
Main stream media including public radio and tv broadcasting try to make the news instead of reporting it. Social media platforms are quickly learning that embracing conspiracy theories and lies may get likes until advertisers decide their dollars can’t support such rhetoric.
I am cautiously optimistic that democracy won yesterday.
I love getting the stats on which corps have donated to specific agencies and candidates. I think we should share all over social when businesses go back on their word. Flood them with facts.
1) Poll reporting should be banned when early voting starts
2) DOJ move to indict 45 before year end
3) Media needs to get it together by acknowledging their biased reporting, erroneous projections and refocus on their role in protecting our Constitution
4) Reverse legislation that now protect social media platforms from litigation due to harmful falsehoods.
5) Dems continue their fight for the working class, for democracy, fill all federal judge openings and impeach Justice Thomas if they capture the Senate, and hire PR folks who know how to message their wins for Americans effectively and consistently. Own their message!!!
Thank you for the coverage. I'm still gripped by the sense of a country sinking into violent lies, but at least I still feel like I'm living in a disappointing, desensitized, imbalanced quasi-democracy and not just an evil crazytown. I'll cherish the small victories and smaller-than-I'd-feared losses. May the voters keep reading and the readers keep voting!