21 Comments
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Dian Allison's avatar

"The way I think about growing the tent..." ought to be the title of an essay unto itself. The last few paragraphs of this essay about "Crypto" deserve to be the STARTING paragraphs of your next essay! BRAVO!

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Sara Frischer's avatar

It's a Big Friday! Thank you Brian. Dian I agree- BRAVO!

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Gary Wollberg's avatar

Glad you posted the whole essay. The only business case for crypto is crime. The ability to gamble on the exchange rate of crypto is not a business case; it is simply arbitrage over rates of criminality. It is not easy buying crypto so I doubt there are legions of young men clamoring for it. I see no reason to help tech bros who aspire to be the concierge to criminals by facilitating crypto.

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BB's avatar

I am pretty sure many young men are clamoring for it. My 25 year old and most of his friends are in deep

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Jim Shilander's avatar

But that’s part of the crime thing. It feels like a get rich quick scheme pitched to people who are susceptible to those things

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BB's avatar

Yes, that’s how I view it

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Douglas's avatar

Attempting to Appeal to young guys by greenlighting crypto scam will NOT engender them to vote for Dems. the guys will just say...'see...the right wing & Elon are right that crypto is legitimate'....

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Maya J's avatar

I have a guiding principle in politics. Who makes their difficult decisions based on integrity and doing the right thing? So some decisions might appear to be politically disadvantageous in the short term, but appreciated for being the right choice in the long run.

Of course I am not a political strategist, just a voter who chooses people with integrity whose principles align with mine.

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Bill's avatar
2dEdited

Rueben Gallego… makes me miss Kyrsten Sinema.

What really fries me about this guy is remembering when he announced he was running for Sinema’s seat. He went on a local (LA) progressive radio station saying all the right things about serving the working people, not forgetting where he came from…

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Ken Kovar's avatar

He won in a state that was hard hit by the spike in immigration and that trump carried by a decent margin. I would give him time. I think he is a thoughtful politician that is able to appeal to swing voters and Hispanics. Demographics the democrats need 😎

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Bill's avatar

Hope you’re right

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Truckeeman's avatar

Jesus, no.

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Andrea Abbott's avatar

Why does all of this leave out those people who can’t afford to buy groceries let alone cryptocurrency? Who is being courted and who ignored? This is one reason I’m so disenchanted with the Dems.

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Bill's avatar

Who’s trying to cut SNAP and who’s defending it?

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Ken Kovar's avatar

The republicans are saying hold my beer. The spending bill going through congress is not aimed at making groceries affordable is it??

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Michael Roulier's avatar

Looks like the Dems are letting another opportunity to push back against Trump Corruption vanish without a fight. The media isn't going to ask any questions of Trump and Republicans if nobody is making a stink about the Crypto Criminal activity. Therefore the disengaged voters won't know anything about it and will continue to blindly pull the Red lever.

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Jerry Depew's avatar

Do we have to use the term GENIUS Act? That sounds like something only curmudgeons would oppose.

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TrackerNeil's avatar

I largely agree with this, and I'll add that I don't think crypto is moving very many votes. Most Americans don't even know what cryptocurrency is, much less have any interest in policymaking about it. Those who do care likely care *intensely*, and, like rabid-anti-abortionists, their votes aren't going to be moved by anything Democrats do or say on the topic.

I will take gentle issue with this:

"In the tent, we can disagree about edge cases, where trans rights and other rights come into conflict"

To many people, keeping sex-segregated spaces is not an "edge case"; it's the ENTIRE case. Trans activists seem to feel the same way; they characterize any attempt to keep women's sports 100% biologically female as bigotry at best, and outright genocide at worst. That kind of maximalist approach is not a good basis on which to build a big tent...on any issue.

Honestly, as with crypto, I doubt the trans issue moves tons of votes but I suspect that the voters to whom this issue is highly salient are the kinds of voters Democrats actually can win. There's no reason we can't tell the activists that, for now, a compromise position is the best they are going to get.

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bjkeefe's avatar

Really well said.

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Gaash's avatar

I don’t know about holding neocons in coalition. If these types take us into war with Iran in the Middle East, it would be very costly long term. I’m increasingly worried about how much influence Bulwark types have. Once orange monster is gone, I hope we can kick them out.

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Ken Kovar's avatar

I doubt if crypto was a real factor in the democrats loss. Inflation, immigration and .Bidens age were significantly more of a factor . But I don’t mind what Gallego is doing about it. I think reaching out to Andersen is fine. Silicon Valley will be hurt by the MAGA war on education and science and even climate change. Crypto is only a small part of the tech sector, most people in that industry will be hurt by MAGA. It’s just a matter of time 😎

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