For me, and for many other Democrats I know, Biden’s seeming indifference to the horrible suffering of Palestinian civilians is his largest Achilles heel. His position on Israel is no better than Trump’s, and the campaign’s premise that detractors on genocide in Palestine will come back into the fold because they have nowhere else to go is simply infuriating. Many Democratic constituencies are tired of being taken for granted, and abhor being lectured by the likes of Nancy Pelosi, whose ties to AIPAC and other pro-Israeli financiers have compromised her moral standing on the issue. Many in the elite media continue to underplay the importance of this issue, leaving them perplexed why Democrats are not simply rallying behind Biden. Sound familiar?
He is not indifferent to the suffering of the Palestinians, that is a flat out mistruth. The GOP and Christian groups have encouraged the worst kind of militant settlers in the WB to support Bibi. Hamas has said they will commit other 10/7 types of attacks over and over again. They have said this more than once. A ceasefire with no concessions from Hamas just means they will use the time to rearm. Hamas is and has long been a terrorist organization and too many young people refuse to understand that.
No one except the GOP likes Bibi, but that is who Biden is left to deal with. And to say his position is the same as Trump’s is just flat out ridiculous. Trump would have encouraged Bibi to all out level the entire WB and fill it with more militant settlers. I also must have missed the Muslim ban Biden imposed. But hey stay home in November since there is no difference (in their policy on this) and see what happens. But just go to try to protest something you don’t like. Be prepared to be rounded up or shot at by armed police or worse. Read all about it in Project 2025. And see just how Trump’s treatment of Palestinians is “the same.”
When he cuts off funding to UNWRA and continues supplying Israel with arms and money, that demonstrates an indifference to the suffering of Palestinians no matter how you try to justify it.
Not saying Biden is globally as bad as Trump but on Palestinian his position is not appreciably better. And you repeated the campaign talking point, if you don’t like it, leave, and see what you get, is exactly the kind of dismissal I was commenting on in the first place.
My point was if Brian is perplexed that Dems aren’t all rallying around Biden there are some clear reasons for that, like the out of touch gerontocracy controlling the Party and inconceivable support for an apartheid regime in Israel, so no one should be acting surprised this race is looking closer than it should be against a candidate as terrible as Trump.
But you are all the ones threatening to leave. And seriously what the hell do you think you will get? That is just a reality. Read Project 2025. For years people like me warned others that they had to vote because the GOP would dismantle Roe. We were poo-poohed and mocked and told never by the same people who, when it happened, screamed how did this happen? Why did the DEMS allow this to happen? As if they had no damn agency.
Brian is NOT perplexed that Dems aren’t all rallying around Biden. I understand why and think you are misguided. Tell me exactly what will happen if we call for a ceasefire right now? Do you think Bibi would stop? Nope. All it would do is make Biden look weak and play into GOP and Putin’s hands. Neither you nor I know what is happening behind the scenes. What the conversations are and what threats have been levied. None of the Arab states want the Palestinians because they worry about the stability of their own countries. You think Hamas is going to stop at their border? No way.
Stop beating up your own side or at least the people who are your allies. How about telling Hamas to end the violence and threats and to stop using innocent Palestinians as human shields? They know exactly what they are doing and brag about it.
I don't know. That kind of discounts the December Ceasefire which Hamas walked away from. And the reports that Biden's team is negotiating and nearing another ceasefire deal. As well as the humanitarian aid the Biden team has been pushing for.
I want Biden to put more room between him Netanyahu, I think the sanctions yesterday were a good step in that direction, but I do worry that it would make Netanyahu unwilling to come to the table for another ceasefire.
Pro-Palestinian Americans have to do things in a very specific and long-term order in the become politically relevant, then influential, and powerful in the United States of America.
First, they need to help preserve American democracy and freedom of speech. They, like every body else who is interesting in pushing national discourses and policies in the USA more what are coded a leftward direction and away from a rightward reactionary direction, need to stop over-concentrating where they reside in metropolitan centers and spread out to more purple states and congressional districts. They need to change the ratio of pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli or Israel-critical discourse more towards the service of American values (non-discrimination) and interests (not devoting special subsidies to rich countries with their own tax base with American unmet needs) and dual citizens (supporting the rights of American passport holders who are also Palestinians who visit or reside in WB or Gaza and getting them treating equally with dual US-Jewish Israeli nationals) and away from humanitarian/fairness/atonement obligations for peoples and national political objectives of Palestinian national organizations that Americans don't like and feel don't like them. They need to wait for more older Americans to die, and continue what they have been doing to educate younger Americans to have more favorable opinions on their issues. They need to support electoral college reform/abolition, or NPVC, while realizing it will only pass if people in favor of it amass sufficient power, filibuster-proff, under the current system - street demonstrations won't get you there. Support admission of additional, less white states, if local residents are willing, Guam, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, DC, to further reduce right-wing power and power of those sympathetic to settler colonialism. Keep discussing the moral stakes in the emergency here and now, and exposing facts, sure, but there are no shortcuts that will obtain *results* through either louder moral scolding, electoral blackmail of intermediate portions of the political spectrum, or militant/violent/public disorder disruptive actions.
Brian, your column has touched on the looming disaster for this election. All voters of sane mind have to row together in the same direction toward the greater good, to keep our canoe of liberty from falling over the cataract maw of tfg’s possible victory to our sure deaths in the rocky, boiling waters below.
We’re in the battle of our lives to save democracy, & don’t have the luxury of people using protest votes to pound home their anger about middling progress on various issues like Israel’s genocide, homo sapien’s genocide on all other beings/Earth, etc. We instead need to stave off the end of life as we know it, should tfg win by electoral college manipulation (via gerrymandering/voter-suppression/disinformation/misinformation/foreign-government-interference/etc.).
Because a victorious tfg will destroy democracy and ape his dictators pals like Putin, Xi, Orban…he’ll let them subsume the world as long as they pat him on the head. “Nice imbecile. Now go chew on your bone.”
Thank you for this piece, Brian--it captures what I've been thinking this week, which is, let's say there is a deep-state conspiracy against Trump, all the court cases are bunk, and he did none of the illegal activities that he is accused of. Give him all of that, and the obvious fact remains: he does and says horrible things that make it impossible for me to vote for him. It's all out in the open. Maybe the legal game just plays into his whole schtick. Maybe a simple campaign of highlighting his inhumanity would have done a better job of keeping him out of political power to begin with.
You mean calling all Mexicans Taoist’s wasn’t a clue? The GOP establishment called him out all through the 16 campaign but the media covered his rallies wall to wall with no commentary. That didn’t work; in fact many of his acolytes like his inhumanity. They love the threats of retribution. They want permission to attack and even kill all of us as they see as his enemies. Look at 1/6. Unfortunately, Dems have been demonized by both the right and far left for decades. And now many of those who don’t Trump either do t vote or will hold their nose and choose him because “dems are worse” or “they’re all the same.”
Yes, I agree. It is time for all Americans to ask themselves "Do I want a man to represent us who has been convicted of sexual assault, who has 91 felony charges against him, who lies constantly so no one can believe anything he says, incited an insurrection AGAINST our country/democracy, and in my mind has probably committed treason.
I worked and lived in Russia and Central Asia for about 20 years. My oldest daughter Lize was the manager of a joint venture called The Beverly Hills. The Russian partner was Moscow Mayor Yuri Lyushkov and the American partner was the American movie star Chuck Norris. Lize spoke fluent Russian and had managed bars for years both in the U.S. and in Russia. She could look at a bottle on the shelf and tell you how many shots had been poured. She loved this job, but also saw the worst traits of Americans. - including Donald Trump. The Beverly Hills was well-known for its absolute corruption, naked women, and famous faces. She often told me that among the many American movie stars to visit - Donald Trump was the worst.
This is a little off-topic but you've been raising the issue frequently lately of the Republican v. Democrat language and presentation and energy. Given the factual differences and, as you rightly note, the absolute depravity of most of the GOP at this point; the contrast is stark. So, today, your words over the last couple weeks or so led me to Yeats -- as I'm an old word geek. Two of the lines from "The Second Coming" seem particularly expressive of what you've been describing:
"The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
Supposedly, Yeats' famous lines in the poem about the turning and turning in the widening gyre and the falconer who isn't being heard by the falcon were to express his belief that everything cycles continually.
For any other word geeks out there, here's a link to the whole poem. It's one of my very favorites and never is less than definitive.
>> I would want to make sure that person knew both recent revelations about Trump, and the degree to which civil and criminal fraud is at the heart of all of his legal troubles. If he’ll defraud voters and charity donors, what makes you think he doesn’t see you as a mark as well?
I *want* to agree, but I’m just not sure that this is actually an effective persuasion strategy.
One of the things I hate most about the literature on persuasion is that it’s almost always cherrypicked small-shop campaign consultant work, not genuine psych/sociology/polling work.
Brian you NEVER miss an opportunity to bash Dems. Ever. You could have written a straight column about Joe, his achievements, and comparing them to the evil of Trump and tried to be that voice to persuade “demoralized progressives” (over what exactly? No leader can give a group of people everything they want when they don’t have large majorities in Congress).
Instead you pull the tired “Dems and Biden suck so much at everything.” If progressives were so amazing at messaging you’d win every election. Far from it. Stop whining and be the voice you want to hear instead of whinging in every column about what the Dems are doing wrong and how dumb they are. Pundits like you and your pals in the media, by your narratives, really don’t seem to get it and treat this just like every other election—one of the very things you accuse the Dems of doing. It’s frustrating and frankly, getting tiresome. (See what I did there with that generalization?)
Sure all your progressive fans will pile on me, but what are they each doing to make sure Trump doesn’t win? Hmmm? And please, go find a Maga voter and have a conversation with them, then report back on how successful you were in getting them to see the light about Trump.
“Over exactly what?” We’re very worried about fellow progressives who are aiming to protest-vote against support for an Israel that’s committing genocide.
While sympathetic*, every protest vote in a tight race risks tossing the 2024 election to TRE45ON, as I deduct from your comments you’re aware of. These protest voters have to consider what will happen if they sap the (per polls) too-thin margin between Biden & tfg.
[*FTR, I’m married to a person of Jewish heritage, and we have a Jewish daughter-in-law & in-law family we love; we’re not antisemitic but instead anti-Netanyahu/anti-Zionist/anti-genocide & pro-peace/pro-justice for those whose rights have been stripped for decades, imprisoned in their own country. We’re very unhappy with the recent baby steps the US has taken to properly rein in Israel’s madman Bibi, who’s committing brazen atrocities while our country forks over lots of our tax $$ to his country.]
I despise Bibi to my core and am appalled at the whole Christian movement to settle the West Bank to hurry up the coming of the rapture. Jimmy Carter wrote a great book on the fallacies of the RW Israeli policies; the treatment of Palestinians has been atrocious for years. I agree with all of that. But there can be no peace for Palestinians as long as Hamas exists. The whole situation is heartbreaking and the suffering almost unimaginable. Which is why we also need to change our immigration laws and put more strings on our aid to Israel. It’s all tied together.
And yes I despair of the prospective lost votes. By all means voice your displeasure, protest, but to threaten not to vote and say Biden and Trump’s policies on this issue are the same is just wrong and counterproductive to what you (general you, not you specifically) want to see happen.
He's written this piece because of frustration that many progressives are experiencing. The legal system moved and moves too slowly! tRump supporters love their cult! 26 states have republican Governors! I live in a red state that refuses to treat me as an equal citizen!
Well how about turning that frustration into action? Write postcards, canvas, text bank, donate money or even just talk to neighbors. Join a group that is helping to get Dems elected or volunteer for a campaign. Reach out to fellow Dems on your area who also feel alone and isolated. There are more of them than you think. Get in touch with your local party. They want you to feel this way. Don’t let them! We all have agency and the more of us who get involved, the stronger we are and the better you will feel.
He always bashes Dems with his criticisms of what they haven’t done lately. They say X he says they should say Y. They say Y he says you should be focused on Z. When the stakes are this high I prefer what people like the lincoln project are doing. Targeting the real enemy instead of constantly criticizing our own—criticism that only adds to the malaise.
Do you think I love every decision the Dems have ever made? No, I’ve been mad but I’ve also understood why they have done so for the most part. But that is what democracy is. Unless Dems have supermajorities you aren’t getting everything you want. It’s as simple as that. And if you go too far, you can lose the middle voters. That’s the reality of our system and American politics.
Joe Biden has a 30 percent approval rating in a great economy and after being largely successful passing his agenda. It's worth meditating on why (and no, im not here to tell you why). Either he sucks at politics or communications, is not giving the majority who voted for him what they want, or its impossible to give some of his voters what they want without pissing off the other half of his voters. Either way, these are questions to ask now, not in a postmortem when they won't do anybody except political scientists any good.
Democrats can increasingly run on a stance that says in essence: "I would like to do X like you want me to do, but Donald Trump tells his cult officials to say No. Let's get rid of him and I bet I could do X. Better yet, get rid of him AND them, and I know I could do X."
"His position on Israel is no better than Trump’s,"
The difference would be quantifiable. Trump's policy would be to permit and actively support whatever Netanyahu, and his most rightward coalition partners, and his most hawkish donors, come up with, and criminalize any expressions of dissent from this policy by anyone of any religion in the USA, Israel, or anyone who wants to do business with the American. Trump's favorite Jews are the super-rich, ultra-cocky, often ultra-old, cheering on Greater Israel ones, not more middle and professional class, younger American Jews with more mixed or skeptical views of Israeli policy or Israel in general.
With Trump as POTUS and State and DoD purged, Mideast policy becomes a "debate" between Netanyahu, his rightist and terrorist and racist coalition allies, Israel uber alles American Jewish donors, and Evangelicals over how thoroughly to "cleanse" Greater Israel of non-Jews, and every every expulsionist, eliminationist, dream and aspiration becomes thinkable and perceived as consequence free, so this escalates into actual gunpoint bombpoint disperal. murder of 2-3 million people. Trump and Pompeo and friends also have no scruple and would not be morally, nor physically deterred from nuclear murder of over 60 million Iranians for daring to act as a center of resistance of the Palestinians.
Trump would reserve any probable appeasement for Russia, China over Taiwan, and North Korea over South Korea. Since Iran lacks nukes and ICBMs, and the Israeli right would like, if available, a US supported preemptive destruction of Iran, they would encourage this thinking by a Trumplican administration.
Under Biden, it is bad, and it could get worse, but it is not headed in the direction and scale we are talking about. The blockade of Gaza has continued along with West Bank abuses, and the civilian death toll is going into the 10s of thousands, with internal displacements in the 100s of thousands, but which is enormous damage, and we can call it a genocide if we wish, but it is not changing the fundamental Palestinian character of Gaza with over 2 million Palestinians, nor making that a Jewish Israeli region, the fighting is likely to end before we top 100,000 casualties. The Biden administration, will engage in some tit for tat with Iran but will seek to avoid general war but won't, unlike Trump, use nuclear monopoly as an "I win" button on Iran, or possibly Syria.
"they have nowhere else to go is simply infuriating."
Infuriating I can fully understand, but also completely true given American institutions, broad American public opinions, however adjustable they may be at the margins, and the American Constitutional framework.
Brian, to what extent do you think educational polarization, or more specifically Democratic operatives over determined thinking about educational polarization, is the root cause for all this timidity from the Democrats?
Campaigns are terrified of alienating cross pressured working class voters, who benefit from Democratic Party economic policies but feel culturally alienated from the college educated bases cosmopolitanism - they buy into Texierias thesis about the failings of the Democratic Party even if they may find his relentless calls for hippy punching unacceptable. So they just avoid talking about anything that might get that cross pressured voter upset about soft handed poindexters telling him how to think, even if it’s telling him to think things that are both true and widely believed, like “Rapists shouldn’t be president” or “every traffic stop shouldn’t contain an implied threat of deportation just because somebody’s name ends in “-ez”.
If you listen to Sarah Longwell's focus group podcast, you hear a lot from cross-pressured voters that want to vote for Trump because they think he is better for the economy or don't like wokeness or are isolationist or whatever, but struggle because he's a scumbag. And what they say a lot is some variation of "I just wish I could hear less from Trump" which is clearly "I want to be able to vote for him without feeling bad" and Dems *should not let that happen*
One of the reasons Democrats should remind people about these things is that our “liberal” media’s main excuse for not covering them is “If it’s such a big deal, why aren’t Democrats saying anything about it? If they will, we’ll report that they’re saying that.” This of course slides over the fact that they don’t need such prompting from Republicans to repeat their talking points, but still there’s a bit of truth to it.
Brian, your analysis is spot on. I’m really glad I subscribe you don’t sugarcoat the truth and you give us some very important insights to consider. I wish you were running the DNC.
By most standards I am considered "progressive" (with a few libertarian outlier opinions). By the standards of the left in cities such as Madison, WI and Ithaca, NY (both very liberal bastions where I have lived) I am not "progressive enough."
It sucks that we are where we are. I think part of the 2016 results were that progressives did not take the trump threat as serious as they should have.
Now they want to complain about their options.
Like most others on my side of the aisle I woke up post-election in 2016 stunned. I have not stopped contemplating how it happened. I calm it the ethos of celebrity while other academics call it charisma.
Trump is not charismatic, he is repulsive.
The way I see it is that people need to stop voting against the best interest of the country. When it comes down to it-- in this case, regardless of your leanings, the idea of "the lesser of two evils' should prevail.
Could the dems have done better? Of course. They still have not learned the lesson of dirty politics. I left the party many years ago and I remain independent because of (forgive the language please) their lack of balls.
When we are all sitting here thing "Bush wasn't THAT bad" there is a problem. The goal posts have been moved so far from reality that we truly are living in Idiocracy.
Unfortunately for Biden and Dems there are a lot of issues voters (like abortion or Palestine) that vote on one or more salient issues and some on the left don't look at the bigger picture politically as a whole. Invariably Biden is better than Trump on all those issues even if he doesn't meet the bar for progress some want! That would maybe satisfy some people to help point that out. But reminding more left wing people that Trump is the worst person in America activates their "lesser of two evils" gag reflex. I don't know what persuasion tactics will work on those folks who want to burn down the whole system of government and I dunno, form small collectives with no national power in the rubble of our dead democracy? They are probably unreachable. And that's a damn shame.
For me, and for many other Democrats I know, Biden’s seeming indifference to the horrible suffering of Palestinian civilians is his largest Achilles heel. His position on Israel is no better than Trump’s, and the campaign’s premise that detractors on genocide in Palestine will come back into the fold because they have nowhere else to go is simply infuriating. Many Democratic constituencies are tired of being taken for granted, and abhor being lectured by the likes of Nancy Pelosi, whose ties to AIPAC and other pro-Israeli financiers have compromised her moral standing on the issue. Many in the elite media continue to underplay the importance of this issue, leaving them perplexed why Democrats are not simply rallying behind Biden. Sound familiar?
He is not indifferent to the suffering of the Palestinians, that is a flat out mistruth. The GOP and Christian groups have encouraged the worst kind of militant settlers in the WB to support Bibi. Hamas has said they will commit other 10/7 types of attacks over and over again. They have said this more than once. A ceasefire with no concessions from Hamas just means they will use the time to rearm. Hamas is and has long been a terrorist organization and too many young people refuse to understand that.
No one except the GOP likes Bibi, but that is who Biden is left to deal with. And to say his position is the same as Trump’s is just flat out ridiculous. Trump would have encouraged Bibi to all out level the entire WB and fill it with more militant settlers. I also must have missed the Muslim ban Biden imposed. But hey stay home in November since there is no difference (in their policy on this) and see what happens. But just go to try to protest something you don’t like. Be prepared to be rounded up or shot at by armed police or worse. Read all about it in Project 2025. And see just how Trump’s treatment of Palestinians is “the same.”
When he cuts off funding to UNWRA and continues supplying Israel with arms and money, that demonstrates an indifference to the suffering of Palestinians no matter how you try to justify it.
Not saying Biden is globally as bad as Trump but on Palestinian his position is not appreciably better. And you repeated the campaign talking point, if you don’t like it, leave, and see what you get, is exactly the kind of dismissal I was commenting on in the first place.
My point was if Brian is perplexed that Dems aren’t all rallying around Biden there are some clear reasons for that, like the out of touch gerontocracy controlling the Party and inconceivable support for an apartheid regime in Israel, so no one should be acting surprised this race is looking closer than it should be against a candidate as terrible as Trump.
But you are all the ones threatening to leave. And seriously what the hell do you think you will get? That is just a reality. Read Project 2025. For years people like me warned others that they had to vote because the GOP would dismantle Roe. We were poo-poohed and mocked and told never by the same people who, when it happened, screamed how did this happen? Why did the DEMS allow this to happen? As if they had no damn agency.
Brian is NOT perplexed that Dems aren’t all rallying around Biden. I understand why and think you are misguided. Tell me exactly what will happen if we call for a ceasefire right now? Do you think Bibi would stop? Nope. All it would do is make Biden look weak and play into GOP and Putin’s hands. Neither you nor I know what is happening behind the scenes. What the conversations are and what threats have been levied. None of the Arab states want the Palestinians because they worry about the stability of their own countries. You think Hamas is going to stop at their border? No way.
Stop beating up your own side or at least the people who are your allies. How about telling Hamas to end the violence and threats and to stop using innocent Palestinians as human shields? They know exactly what they are doing and brag about it.
I don't know. That kind of discounts the December Ceasefire which Hamas walked away from. And the reports that Biden's team is negotiating and nearing another ceasefire deal. As well as the humanitarian aid the Biden team has been pushing for.
I want Biden to put more room between him Netanyahu, I think the sanctions yesterday were a good step in that direction, but I do worry that it would make Netanyahu unwilling to come to the table for another ceasefire.
Pro-Palestinian Americans have to do things in a very specific and long-term order in the become politically relevant, then influential, and powerful in the United States of America.
First, they need to help preserve American democracy and freedom of speech. They, like every body else who is interesting in pushing national discourses and policies in the USA more what are coded a leftward direction and away from a rightward reactionary direction, need to stop over-concentrating where they reside in metropolitan centers and spread out to more purple states and congressional districts. They need to change the ratio of pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli or Israel-critical discourse more towards the service of American values (non-discrimination) and interests (not devoting special subsidies to rich countries with their own tax base with American unmet needs) and dual citizens (supporting the rights of American passport holders who are also Palestinians who visit or reside in WB or Gaza and getting them treating equally with dual US-Jewish Israeli nationals) and away from humanitarian/fairness/atonement obligations for peoples and national political objectives of Palestinian national organizations that Americans don't like and feel don't like them. They need to wait for more older Americans to die, and continue what they have been doing to educate younger Americans to have more favorable opinions on their issues. They need to support electoral college reform/abolition, or NPVC, while realizing it will only pass if people in favor of it amass sufficient power, filibuster-proff, under the current system - street demonstrations won't get you there. Support admission of additional, less white states, if local residents are willing, Guam, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, DC, to further reduce right-wing power and power of those sympathetic to settler colonialism. Keep discussing the moral stakes in the emergency here and now, and exposing facts, sure, but there are no shortcuts that will obtain *results* through either louder moral scolding, electoral blackmail of intermediate portions of the political spectrum, or militant/violent/public disorder disruptive actions.
Yes, it does!
Brian, your column has touched on the looming disaster for this election. All voters of sane mind have to row together in the same direction toward the greater good, to keep our canoe of liberty from falling over the cataract maw of tfg’s possible victory to our sure deaths in the rocky, boiling waters below.
We’re in the battle of our lives to save democracy, & don’t have the luxury of people using protest votes to pound home their anger about middling progress on various issues like Israel’s genocide, homo sapien’s genocide on all other beings/Earth, etc. We instead need to stave off the end of life as we know it, should tfg win by electoral college manipulation (via gerrymandering/voter-suppression/disinformation/misinformation/foreign-government-interference/etc.).
Because a victorious tfg will destroy democracy and ape his dictators pals like Putin, Xi, Orban…he’ll let them subsume the world as long as they pat him on the head. “Nice imbecile. Now go chew on your bone.”
Thank you for this piece, Brian--it captures what I've been thinking this week, which is, let's say there is a deep-state conspiracy against Trump, all the court cases are bunk, and he did none of the illegal activities that he is accused of. Give him all of that, and the obvious fact remains: he does and says horrible things that make it impossible for me to vote for him. It's all out in the open. Maybe the legal game just plays into his whole schtick. Maybe a simple campaign of highlighting his inhumanity would have done a better job of keeping him out of political power to begin with.
You mean calling all Mexicans Taoist’s wasn’t a clue? The GOP establishment called him out all through the 16 campaign but the media covered his rallies wall to wall with no commentary. That didn’t work; in fact many of his acolytes like his inhumanity. They love the threats of retribution. They want permission to attack and even kill all of us as they see as his enemies. Look at 1/6. Unfortunately, Dems have been demonized by both the right and far left for decades. And now many of those who don’t Trump either do t vote or will hold their nose and choose him because “dems are worse” or “they’re all the same.”
Rapists. If only they were Taoists that would be a whole other issue!
Hah, that one had me scratching my head.
Yes, I agree. It is time for all Americans to ask themselves "Do I want a man to represent us who has been convicted of sexual assault, who has 91 felony charges against him, who lies constantly so no one can believe anything he says, incited an insurrection AGAINST our country/democracy, and in my mind has probably committed treason.
I worked and lived in Russia and Central Asia for about 20 years. My oldest daughter Lize was the manager of a joint venture called The Beverly Hills. The Russian partner was Moscow Mayor Yuri Lyushkov and the American partner was the American movie star Chuck Norris. Lize spoke fluent Russian and had managed bars for years both in the U.S. and in Russia. She could look at a bottle on the shelf and tell you how many shots had been poured. She loved this job, but also saw the worst traits of Americans. - including Donald Trump. The Beverly Hills was well-known for its absolute corruption, naked women, and famous faces. She often told me that among the many American movie stars to visit - Donald Trump was the worst.
This is a little off-topic but you've been raising the issue frequently lately of the Republican v. Democrat language and presentation and energy. Given the factual differences and, as you rightly note, the absolute depravity of most of the GOP at this point; the contrast is stark. So, today, your words over the last couple weeks or so led me to Yeats -- as I'm an old word geek. Two of the lines from "The Second Coming" seem particularly expressive of what you've been describing:
"The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
Supposedly, Yeats' famous lines in the poem about the turning and turning in the widening gyre and the falconer who isn't being heard by the falcon were to express his belief that everything cycles continually.
For any other word geeks out there, here's a link to the whole poem. It's one of my very favorites and never is less than definitive.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43290/the-second-coming
>> I would want to make sure that person knew both recent revelations about Trump, and the degree to which civil and criminal fraud is at the heart of all of his legal troubles. If he’ll defraud voters and charity donors, what makes you think he doesn’t see you as a mark as well?
I *want* to agree, but I’m just not sure that this is actually an effective persuasion strategy.
One of the things I hate most about the literature on persuasion is that it’s almost always cherrypicked small-shop campaign consultant work, not genuine psych/sociology/polling work.
Brian you NEVER miss an opportunity to bash Dems. Ever. You could have written a straight column about Joe, his achievements, and comparing them to the evil of Trump and tried to be that voice to persuade “demoralized progressives” (over what exactly? No leader can give a group of people everything they want when they don’t have large majorities in Congress).
Instead you pull the tired “Dems and Biden suck so much at everything.” If progressives were so amazing at messaging you’d win every election. Far from it. Stop whining and be the voice you want to hear instead of whinging in every column about what the Dems are doing wrong and how dumb they are. Pundits like you and your pals in the media, by your narratives, really don’t seem to get it and treat this just like every other election—one of the very things you accuse the Dems of doing. It’s frustrating and frankly, getting tiresome. (See what I did there with that generalization?)
Sure all your progressive fans will pile on me, but what are they each doing to make sure Trump doesn’t win? Hmmm? And please, go find a Maga voter and have a conversation with them, then report back on how successful you were in getting them to see the light about Trump.
“Over exactly what?” We’re very worried about fellow progressives who are aiming to protest-vote against support for an Israel that’s committing genocide.
While sympathetic*, every protest vote in a tight race risks tossing the 2024 election to TRE45ON, as I deduct from your comments you’re aware of. These protest voters have to consider what will happen if they sap the (per polls) too-thin margin between Biden & tfg.
[*FTR, I’m married to a person of Jewish heritage, and we have a Jewish daughter-in-law & in-law family we love; we’re not antisemitic but instead anti-Netanyahu/anti-Zionist/anti-genocide & pro-peace/pro-justice for those whose rights have been stripped for decades, imprisoned in their own country. We’re very unhappy with the recent baby steps the US has taken to properly rein in Israel’s madman Bibi, who’s committing brazen atrocities while our country forks over lots of our tax $$ to his country.]
I despise Bibi to my core and am appalled at the whole Christian movement to settle the West Bank to hurry up the coming of the rapture. Jimmy Carter wrote a great book on the fallacies of the RW Israeli policies; the treatment of Palestinians has been atrocious for years. I agree with all of that. But there can be no peace for Palestinians as long as Hamas exists. The whole situation is heartbreaking and the suffering almost unimaginable. Which is why we also need to change our immigration laws and put more strings on our aid to Israel. It’s all tied together.
And yes I despair of the prospective lost votes. By all means voice your displeasure, protest, but to threaten not to vote and say Biden and Trump’s policies on this issue are the same is just wrong and counterproductive to what you (general you, not you specifically) want to see happen.
He's written this piece because of frustration that many progressives are experiencing. The legal system moved and moves too slowly! tRump supporters love their cult! 26 states have republican Governors! I live in a red state that refuses to treat me as an equal citizen!
Well how about turning that frustration into action? Write postcards, canvas, text bank, donate money or even just talk to neighbors. Join a group that is helping to get Dems elected or volunteer for a campaign. Reach out to fellow Dems on your area who also feel alone and isolated. There are more of them than you think. Get in touch with your local party. They want you to feel this way. Don’t let them! We all have agency and the more of us who get involved, the stronger we are and the better you will feel.
Where in the world did he “bash Dems” in his piece? This Team D Defense Squad hectoring is so tiresome and counterproductive.
He always bashes Dems with his criticisms of what they haven’t done lately. They say X he says they should say Y. They say Y he says you should be focused on Z. When the stakes are this high I prefer what people like the lincoln project are doing. Targeting the real enemy instead of constantly criticizing our own—criticism that only adds to the malaise.
Do you think I love every decision the Dems have ever made? No, I’ve been mad but I’ve also understood why they have done so for the most part. But that is what democracy is. Unless Dems have supermajorities you aren’t getting everything you want. It’s as simple as that. And if you go too far, you can lose the middle voters. That’s the reality of our system and American politics.
Joe Biden has a 30 percent approval rating in a great economy and after being largely successful passing his agenda. It's worth meditating on why (and no, im not here to tell you why). Either he sucks at politics or communications, is not giving the majority who voted for him what they want, or its impossible to give some of his voters what they want without pissing off the other half of his voters. Either way, these are questions to ask now, not in a postmortem when they won't do anybody except political scientists any good.
Democrats can increasingly run on a stance that says in essence: "I would like to do X like you want me to do, but Donald Trump tells his cult officials to say No. Let's get rid of him and I bet I could do X. Better yet, get rid of him AND them, and I know I could do X."
"His position on Israel is no better than Trump’s,"
The difference would be quantifiable. Trump's policy would be to permit and actively support whatever Netanyahu, and his most rightward coalition partners, and his most hawkish donors, come up with, and criminalize any expressions of dissent from this policy by anyone of any religion in the USA, Israel, or anyone who wants to do business with the American. Trump's favorite Jews are the super-rich, ultra-cocky, often ultra-old, cheering on Greater Israel ones, not more middle and professional class, younger American Jews with more mixed or skeptical views of Israeli policy or Israel in general.
With Trump as POTUS and State and DoD purged, Mideast policy becomes a "debate" between Netanyahu, his rightist and terrorist and racist coalition allies, Israel uber alles American Jewish donors, and Evangelicals over how thoroughly to "cleanse" Greater Israel of non-Jews, and every every expulsionist, eliminationist, dream and aspiration becomes thinkable and perceived as consequence free, so this escalates into actual gunpoint bombpoint disperal. murder of 2-3 million people. Trump and Pompeo and friends also have no scruple and would not be morally, nor physically deterred from nuclear murder of over 60 million Iranians for daring to act as a center of resistance of the Palestinians.
Trump would reserve any probable appeasement for Russia, China over Taiwan, and North Korea over South Korea. Since Iran lacks nukes and ICBMs, and the Israeli right would like, if available, a US supported preemptive destruction of Iran, they would encourage this thinking by a Trumplican administration.
Under Biden, it is bad, and it could get worse, but it is not headed in the direction and scale we are talking about. The blockade of Gaza has continued along with West Bank abuses, and the civilian death toll is going into the 10s of thousands, with internal displacements in the 100s of thousands, but which is enormous damage, and we can call it a genocide if we wish, but it is not changing the fundamental Palestinian character of Gaza with over 2 million Palestinians, nor making that a Jewish Israeli region, the fighting is likely to end before we top 100,000 casualties. The Biden administration, will engage in some tit for tat with Iran but will seek to avoid general war but won't, unlike Trump, use nuclear monopoly as an "I win" button on Iran, or possibly Syria.
"they have nowhere else to go is simply infuriating."
Infuriating I can fully understand, but also completely true given American institutions, broad American public opinions, however adjustable they may be at the margins, and the American Constitutional framework.
Brian, to what extent do you think educational polarization, or more specifically Democratic operatives over determined thinking about educational polarization, is the root cause for all this timidity from the Democrats?
Campaigns are terrified of alienating cross pressured working class voters, who benefit from Democratic Party economic policies but feel culturally alienated from the college educated bases cosmopolitanism - they buy into Texierias thesis about the failings of the Democratic Party even if they may find his relentless calls for hippy punching unacceptable. So they just avoid talking about anything that might get that cross pressured voter upset about soft handed poindexters telling him how to think, even if it’s telling him to think things that are both true and widely believed, like “Rapists shouldn’t be president” or “every traffic stop shouldn’t contain an implied threat of deportation just because somebody’s name ends in “-ez”.
If you listen to Sarah Longwell's focus group podcast, you hear a lot from cross-pressured voters that want to vote for Trump because they think he is better for the economy or don't like wokeness or are isolationist or whatever, but struggle because he's a scumbag. And what they say a lot is some variation of "I just wish I could hear less from Trump" which is clearly "I want to be able to vote for him without feeling bad" and Dems *should not let that happen*
One of the reasons Democrats should remind people about these things is that our “liberal” media’s main excuse for not covering them is “If it’s such a big deal, why aren’t Democrats saying anything about it? If they will, we’ll report that they’re saying that.” This of course slides over the fact that they don’t need such prompting from Republicans to repeat their talking points, but still there’s a bit of truth to it.
Brian, your analysis is spot on. I’m really glad I subscribe you don’t sugarcoat the truth and you give us some very important insights to consider. I wish you were running the DNC.
Keep it up, Brian.
By most standards I am considered "progressive" (with a few libertarian outlier opinions). By the standards of the left in cities such as Madison, WI and Ithaca, NY (both very liberal bastions where I have lived) I am not "progressive enough."
It sucks that we are where we are. I think part of the 2016 results were that progressives did not take the trump threat as serious as they should have.
Now they want to complain about their options.
Like most others on my side of the aisle I woke up post-election in 2016 stunned. I have not stopped contemplating how it happened. I calm it the ethos of celebrity while other academics call it charisma.
Trump is not charismatic, he is repulsive.
The way I see it is that people need to stop voting against the best interest of the country. When it comes down to it-- in this case, regardless of your leanings, the idea of "the lesser of two evils' should prevail.
Could the dems have done better? Of course. They still have not learned the lesson of dirty politics. I left the party many years ago and I remain independent because of (forgive the language please) their lack of balls.
When we are all sitting here thing "Bush wasn't THAT bad" there is a problem. The goal posts have been moved so far from reality that we truly are living in Idiocracy.
Unfortunately for Biden and Dems there are a lot of issues voters (like abortion or Palestine) that vote on one or more salient issues and some on the left don't look at the bigger picture politically as a whole. Invariably Biden is better than Trump on all those issues even if he doesn't meet the bar for progress some want! That would maybe satisfy some people to help point that out. But reminding more left wing people that Trump is the worst person in America activates their "lesser of two evils" gag reflex. I don't know what persuasion tactics will work on those folks who want to burn down the whole system of government and I dunno, form small collectives with no national power in the rubble of our dead democracy? They are probably unreachable. And that's a damn shame.