Newsom definitely isn't gaining primary voters on this one and I hope that primary voters see platforming a nazi propagandist as disqualifying for 2028. It's one thing if he wants to have conservatives on, another to have pure disinformation merchants.
I agree that this won't endear Newsom to the far-left of the Democratic Party, but as we have seen in the past three or four election cycles, the far-left doesn't usually get its way anyhow. Hillary Clinton didn't have the far left, and neither did Joe Biden, and they both managed to become the Democratic nominee.
In addition, there is a method to this madness. In his talk with Kirk, Newsom opposed the inclusion of trans women in women's sports, thus distancing himself from an issue that some see as determinative in Kamala Harris' 2024 loss. (I'm not sure I myself agree with that assessment, but the perception is out there.) So I think Newsom is taking a position that he thinks will hurt him a bit in a primary, but will insulate him from some attacks in the general.
Will it work? Hard to say...2028 is a long way off, and I don't know what gender politics will look like by then.
As a democratic primary voter Im fine with him having Kirk on. The whole idea of "platforming" is ridiculous nonsense. Kirk has his own giant platform much larger than anything Newsome is doing. This episode actually made me more likely to vote for Newsome.
Slotkin is my senator and she voted for some on the cabinet nominees and the Laken Riley Act. Her vm was full for weeks and it took visiting her office to begin to receive responses to any call/email. She’s better than the R alternative, Mike Rogers, but it’s infuriating to see such a waste of a good Senate seat.
Slotkin's response left me if not cold then slightly below room temperature. Then I heard Justin Trudeau's comments about the tariffs ("Your government is doing this to you ... Your government has chosen to put American jobs at risk ... How do Americans feel about jettisoning one’s friends and allies in favor of a country that has never wished Americans well and continues to act in ways that harm the global economy and specifically the American economy and American values and principles?) and I thought the D's could learn something from him about how to communicate.
Amen to that, Henry. I also heard the response by another Canadian leader who nailed it, in a way that our Democratic leaders should, consistently and uniformly. Playing nice, or diplomatically is no longer an option.
Mine too and the lack of responsiveness - the fact that she doesn't yet have a phone number for her Detroit office!!!!! - is infuriating. I called before her speech to ask her to please have some fire in the belly when making her response. Nope. Instead we get subtle digs at Democrats - the folks who donated to her and organized for her and voted for her - while she yearns for the days of the Reagan Democrats. Agree that she was a better choice than Mike Rogers but she's a real disappointment. I hope she has a strong primary opponent in 2030.
Newsom could have had anyone on his podcast as his first guest. The fact that he chose Charlie fucking Kirk at least shows the rest of us that he is officially on the *unserious people* side of the Democratic Party ledger along with Jeffries, Schumer and the rest of the DC “leadership”.
Thank you for your post! Newsom disgusts me - joining the Right on punching down and marginalizing further the most marginalized is lazy and cruel. Democrats need to move beyond the narrative that trans issues lost the election. How many pod guests need to say it before Dems embrace it - be authentic, know your constituents and their needs (not their dislikes), go out and fight. Moving to the middle/right is not the answer to becoming compelling candidates. I cannot imagine any young person (or any person?) wanting to listen to Newsom's podcast and hopefully this is the first nail in the coffin of him fading into irrelevancy.
The left doesn't seem to have quite come to understand in the same way that the right has that the Overton window is there to be dragged about and wrestled. There were a few decades when someone could always yell 'commie' and it seemed to have permanently lowered the water level in the pool, and delimited the scope of what party leadership could even imagining offering to voters and it means that I've never seen, outside of a few sparks like AOC, what seems to be a pretty straightforward muscularity in defending pretty damn easy to defend things. You want to shake Charlie Kirk's hand or something, fine, whatever, the boxers can touch gloves. But to imagine that you would bring the machine inside the house without the express purpose of lighting its ass up like a Christmas tree just boggles.
Democrats seem weak because they let themselves be pushed by activists into adopting politically toxic positions. This is arguably a more damaging weakness than letting GOP rhetorical idiocy like “Democrat Party” slide. Sanders wanted them to become a working-class party in 2016, but by 2020 he had been bullied into adopting all the IDpol craziness.
Funny that Trump won on identity politics. Nobody does it better. From starting the birther movement, to Mexicans are rapists, to Haitians eat cats and dogs. He’s hands down the IDpol-in-chief. The problem for Dems isn’t IDpol, it’s insincerity. They don’t truly stand for something other than civility. Democrats are little Reagan to the GOPs big Reagan. That’s not gonna cut it.
Just want to highlight that this bit from a bygone Yglesias:
"To call someone by something other than the name he wishes to be called by is rude. To make a mistake is forgivable, but to persist -- deliberately -- in declining to use your adversary's proper name is rude and insulting. It's not a big deal unless you take standing up for yourself to be a big deal."
Is right at the heart of trans dignity, the substantive issue on which Newsom gave away the most (including his own reputation as a bold defender of LGBTQ+ equality).
Trans issues matter to this moment not only on the substance. For queer and trans people, our very existence in the world requires that we demand dignity from those who don't want to give it. There's a lesson in here for all opponents of the Trump regime. You want to beat a fascist? Take trans and queer people as your inspiration.
I just saw the quotes about girls' sports. Did he say anything else? I couldn't be more of an ally for queer rights and dignity and everyone just being a decent person. But it's actually a fact that going through puberty biologically as a boy is, on average, a very big advantage athletically, no matter how much muscle one loses when switching hormones. We on the left shouldn't try to cast factual statements as hostile. That just gives the folks who are in fact hateful and hostile a wedge with which to lever human rights into the same bucket of things to dismiss because the left insists false things are true.
Slick G essentially did the same thing Walz did in the VP debate who did the same thing that all Dems do: treat the republicans as though they have valid views that they disagree with.
This ain't real. Not since Newt Gingerich rolled in and created the "contract with America," or when Reagan decided that Roger Ailes and Lee Atwater were just the guys to bring him power.
Entertaining a scumbag like Charlie Kirk isn't going to win you voters. Reaching over the aisle is just a myth and should be treated as such. Bring them on a podcast and belittle them. They'd do it to you. Force them to eat shit!
Playing patty cake with someone wielding a machete is only going to get your hand chopped off.
One of these Democratic leaders needs to stoop cowering under the attacks of these self serving vicious Maga politicians and let them have it.
Everyone , except the sold out republicans , saw Trumps speech for what it was , more devious threats and assurances that he’ll be right beside Putin
, in terrorizing the people of this country and the world.
The clamor equally about DOGE and Musks terrorism . As well, that regarding the ‘convent quiet Mother Superior ‘demeanor of the Democrats as the world around all of us gets burned down .
I think the Democrats believe their safety is in acceptance of this gross misconduct.
Democrats are afraid of standing up for themselves because they’re afraid that trading insults with Republicans can be more easily turned into Democrats insulting ordinary Americans people.
A Republican says “Transsexuals are all perverts that should be locked up and Democrats are enabling them” and they’ve directly insulted 0.5% America. A Democrat responds by saying “My opponent is an ignorant bigot” and 20% of Americans will understand that to mean “All churchgoers and people who didn’t go to college are worthless morons”.
People resent presumed meritocratic superiority much more than they resent other people’s wealth. This means the party of plutocrats will always have the upper hand against a party of meritocrats.
Good point. We need to be honest about the difficulties here. But also, this is a democracy. Democrats must claim to be representing the majority. Do they? If so, they shouldn’t be afraid of it. I think Trump has taken many positions that are loathsome to a majority of Americans. But he enthralls a minority and also shows that he is willing to fight his opposition.
Democrats fear, in their heart of hearts, that the soul of America is rotten and the American people have to be browbeaten, tricked, or sufficiently bloodied by their own self inflicted wounds before they will do the right thing. That fear ( which is the source of both Woke rejection of America and the ugly centrist pandering of, for example Gavin Newsome on Trans rights) is deeply embedded the party and drives the cowardice Brian describes.
That doesn’t really ring true to me. I think your references to “the soul of America” and “the American people” are question-begging. The most vocal activists in the party have identified a vision of moral progress and they see certain groups—or, to pay deference to your argument, “forces”—as standing opposed to that progress. But there has always been a pretty vast gulf between leftist activists and the representatives of the party with political power. Only a minority even of the activists would lay claim to a view that the “soul of America” is corrupt, and I don’t really see that translating into much that’s politically concrete.
If you get into left of center politics, you probably do so because you are more egalitarian and cosmopolitan than the average person. Same way that if you get into right wing politics you are (or at least used to be) more enthusiastic about self discipline and sexual propriety than the average person.
This means that the highly involved in left of center politics, from AOC to Chuck Schumer, are “out of touch” with the public. They are painfully aware that they are, and that drives a lot of weird behavior, from the contempt and rejection of “Amerikkka” from campus activists to the anxious flopsweat pandering of centrists.
One real structural advantage of the modern Right is that it is absolutely confident that everyone is just as big of a selfish, petty asshole as they are, and so they all walk with their heads held high.
Well, while I am no fan of Newsom, there is one thing he did NOT let slide, and that is the issue of women’s sports. On that issue, the keynote of all Democrats has been cowardice. “At” me if you want, but two-thirds of Democrats are in accord with what Newsom is saying, and now what needs to happen is to follow through, which does NOT mean caving to the current administration. Here is what I recommend: Convene a meeting with the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group. The Working Group is a serious, knowledgeable group, including Martina Navratilova, that has been working on these issues for years and has addressed and proposed solutions to every issue anyone can name. The Working Group knows how to resolve this with fairness and compassion for all. This cannot be punted to the local level, because the fundamental problem is Title IX itself, which has been misinterpreted, I am sorry to say, by the Democrats. The only way out of this is through. For anyone here who wants to get this issue behind us so we can all start rowing together again, call your Senators and tell them to convene this meeting ASAP. https://womenssportspolicy.org/
They don't care about women's sports Susan. It's a way for them to be bigots in public that you find acceptable. The Olympics has had rules for trans athletes since 2006, it's not a problem.
From my vantage point, Dems are maddeningly silent on trans issues and voters are hearing what the GOP *says* the Democratic position on trans issues is. Because Democrats and liberals are feckless cowards who won't take a stand on anything unless it has been polled and focus-group tested.
If the Death Star appeared above our heads, Dem leadership would wring their hands over how swing voters in Pennsylvania probably mined the ore that went into building it and how they can't come out too harshly against it because it would be alienating to key constituencies.
We have had trans athletes forever (and had 8 trans women athletes in the NCAA last year.) This doesn’t need a working group. Our national political leaders should be focused on issues like addressing the cost of living, growing the economy, addressing climate change and resisting Russian aggression.
The ancient Adlai Stevenson joke has never been more relevant:
ENTHUSIAST: "Adlai, you have the support of every thinking person in America!!!"
STEVENSON: "OK, but how do I get a majority?"
A minority of Americans spend time thinking about politics; the majority have other interests - like financial survival. We may WISH that they would make the connection between the two, but wishing has never worked.
Given the choice between two candidates or two parties, most people will go with the one that seems stronger - that's just basic human-ape behavior and if you don't like it, go find another planet to live on.
Notice how Bernie commands respect because he always speaks strongly and without compromise. You don't have to agree with him, but you can't help respecting him.
Likewise - the Tea Party that became MAGA that took over the GOP - a lot of people disagree with part or even most of their policy positions but go along with it because they project a winning image.
Democrats have to do that, if they want to win. Joe Biden was an excellent implementer of policy but a failed campaigner ... and most Democratic leaders are doing the same. Holding up paddles when Trump insulted them looks weak, and who wants to trust a weak leader?
The failure of Democrats to walk out when Greene was thrown out was political incompetence.
Jan 7th 2021 Dems got together with Reps on the floors of the house and Senate and did nothing to their fellow members who they knew were part of planning the riots. Nothing beyond a few things and grumbles.
These idiots aided a coup and knowingly put your life and your democracy at risk and all you can muster is some non-specific shaming? Weak. There are no real men in Congress. A few people should've been bloodied up to demonstrate the deadly seriousness that you have about defending democracy, or at least arrested and detained.
Dumb but useful in a debate where "Democrat Party" is tossed around?
Refer to the Republican opponent as a member of the "Ic" [Ick"] party. Refer to Republican "ick"policies, or "ick" statements---e.g., their "ick" attitudes toward women, or Ick Chairman Jim Jordan, Ick President Trump, etc., etc. If challenged by the moderators, simply explain that "Our opponents have stolen the "ic" from 'Democratic Party,' so I assume they wanted to use it to describe themselves. I am just honoring their wish."
I've spent more time than I care to think about on the question of how to respond to "democrat party" (always pronounced sneeringly with a lower case d). Republic party doesn't really do it. So I've decided to simply say the plutocrat party. But sadly there's too much affection for "our" plutocrats in Democratic Party leadership/consultancy.
I agree with everything here except… Gavin mentioned that his 13-year-old son was listening to Charlie Kirk. I think he genuinely wanted to understand what’s going on with his young son. further I think he has a legitimate concern for the situation of his daughters and other girls who wanna play team sports without having to have boys competing against them. We are losing female athletes to the Republican Party over this issue. He is right to break with the Democratic Party in my opinion and the Democratic Party needs to understand the needs of female athletes if it pretends to care about women. I’ve never liked Newsom, but in this situation, a broken clock once in a while is on time!
I forget who said it, but the quote is something like “A liberal is someone so “fair-minded”
that they won’t take their own side in an argument.”
It's been attributed to the poet Robert Frost. https://maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/maverick_philosopher/2021/02/attributed-to-robert-frost.html
Newsom definitely isn't gaining primary voters on this one and I hope that primary voters see platforming a nazi propagandist as disqualifying for 2028. It's one thing if he wants to have conservatives on, another to have pure disinformation merchants.
I agree that this won't endear Newsom to the far-left of the Democratic Party, but as we have seen in the past three or four election cycles, the far-left doesn't usually get its way anyhow. Hillary Clinton didn't have the far left, and neither did Joe Biden, and they both managed to become the Democratic nominee.
In addition, there is a method to this madness. In his talk with Kirk, Newsom opposed the inclusion of trans women in women's sports, thus distancing himself from an issue that some see as determinative in Kamala Harris' 2024 loss. (I'm not sure I myself agree with that assessment, but the perception is out there.) So I think Newsom is taking a position that he thinks will hurt him a bit in a primary, but will insulate him from some attacks in the general.
Will it work? Hard to say...2028 is a long way off, and I don't know what gender politics will look like by then.
So are you saying that moderate Democrats are perfectly fine with him platforming a neo Nazi, allowing him to spews lies and vitriol? I’m not.
I don't know how an interview with Charlie Kirk will play for Newsome in 2028, although I imagine most Democrats won't remember it.
As a democratic primary voter Im fine with him having Kirk on. The whole idea of "platforming" is ridiculous nonsense. Kirk has his own giant platform much larger than anything Newsome is doing. This episode actually made me more likely to vote for Newsome.
Why does it make you more likely?
Slotkin is my senator and she voted for some on the cabinet nominees and the Laken Riley Act. Her vm was full for weeks and it took visiting her office to begin to receive responses to any call/email. She’s better than the R alternative, Mike Rogers, but it’s infuriating to see such a waste of a good Senate seat.
Slotkin's response left me if not cold then slightly below room temperature. Then I heard Justin Trudeau's comments about the tariffs ("Your government is doing this to you ... Your government has chosen to put American jobs at risk ... How do Americans feel about jettisoning one’s friends and allies in favor of a country that has never wished Americans well and continues to act in ways that harm the global economy and specifically the American economy and American values and principles?) and I thought the D's could learn something from him about how to communicate.
Amen to that, Henry. I also heard the response by another Canadian leader who nailed it, in a way that our Democratic leaders should, consistently and uniformly. Playing nice, or diplomatically is no longer an option.
Mine too and the lack of responsiveness - the fact that she doesn't yet have a phone number for her Detroit office!!!!! - is infuriating. I called before her speech to ask her to please have some fire in the belly when making her response. Nope. Instead we get subtle digs at Democrats - the folks who donated to her and organized for her and voted for her - while she yearns for the days of the Reagan Democrats. Agree that she was a better choice than Mike Rogers but she's a real disappointment. I hope she has a strong primary opponent in 2030.
Solidarity, Sister!
Newsom could have had anyone on his podcast as his first guest. The fact that he chose Charlie fucking Kirk at least shows the rest of us that he is officially on the *unserious people* side of the Democratic Party ledger along with Jeffries, Schumer and the rest of the DC “leadership”.
Thank you for your post! Newsom disgusts me - joining the Right on punching down and marginalizing further the most marginalized is lazy and cruel. Democrats need to move beyond the narrative that trans issues lost the election. How many pod guests need to say it before Dems embrace it - be authentic, know your constituents and their needs (not their dislikes), go out and fight. Moving to the middle/right is not the answer to becoming compelling candidates. I cannot imagine any young person (or any person?) wanting to listen to Newsom's podcast and hopefully this is the first nail in the coffin of him fading into irrelevancy.
The left doesn't seem to have quite come to understand in the same way that the right has that the Overton window is there to be dragged about and wrestled. There were a few decades when someone could always yell 'commie' and it seemed to have permanently lowered the water level in the pool, and delimited the scope of what party leadership could even imagining offering to voters and it means that I've never seen, outside of a few sparks like AOC, what seems to be a pretty straightforward muscularity in defending pretty damn easy to defend things. You want to shake Charlie Kirk's hand or something, fine, whatever, the boxers can touch gloves. But to imagine that you would bring the machine inside the house without the express purpose of lighting its ass up like a Christmas tree just boggles.
Democrats seem weak because they let themselves be pushed by activists into adopting politically toxic positions. This is arguably a more damaging weakness than letting GOP rhetorical idiocy like “Democrat Party” slide. Sanders wanted them to become a working-class party in 2016, but by 2020 he had been bullied into adopting all the IDpol craziness.
Funny that Trump won on identity politics. Nobody does it better. From starting the birther movement, to Mexicans are rapists, to Haitians eat cats and dogs. He’s hands down the IDpol-in-chief. The problem for Dems isn’t IDpol, it’s insincerity. They don’t truly stand for something other than civility. Democrats are little Reagan to the GOPs big Reagan. That’s not gonna cut it.
But it turns out that banning the 8 trans women athletes in the country isn’t solving inflation or housing affordability.
Just want to highlight that this bit from a bygone Yglesias:
"To call someone by something other than the name he wishes to be called by is rude. To make a mistake is forgivable, but to persist -- deliberately -- in declining to use your adversary's proper name is rude and insulting. It's not a big deal unless you take standing up for yourself to be a big deal."
Is right at the heart of trans dignity, the substantive issue on which Newsom gave away the most (including his own reputation as a bold defender of LGBTQ+ equality).
Trans issues matter to this moment not only on the substance. For queer and trans people, our very existence in the world requires that we demand dignity from those who don't want to give it. There's a lesson in here for all opponents of the Trump regime. You want to beat a fascist? Take trans and queer people as your inspiration.
I just saw the quotes about girls' sports. Did he say anything else? I couldn't be more of an ally for queer rights and dignity and everyone just being a decent person. But it's actually a fact that going through puberty biologically as a boy is, on average, a very big advantage athletically, no matter how much muscle one loses when switching hormones. We on the left shouldn't try to cast factual statements as hostile. That just gives the folks who are in fact hateful and hostile a wedge with which to lever human rights into the same bucket of things to dismiss because the left insists false things are true.
Slick G essentially did the same thing Walz did in the VP debate who did the same thing that all Dems do: treat the republicans as though they have valid views that they disagree with.
This ain't real. Not since Newt Gingerich rolled in and created the "contract with America," or when Reagan decided that Roger Ailes and Lee Atwater were just the guys to bring him power.
Entertaining a scumbag like Charlie Kirk isn't going to win you voters. Reaching over the aisle is just a myth and should be treated as such. Bring them on a podcast and belittle them. They'd do it to you. Force them to eat shit!
Playing patty cake with someone wielding a machete is only going to get your hand chopped off.
Just ridiculous.
One of these Democratic leaders needs to stoop cowering under the attacks of these self serving vicious Maga politicians and let them have it.
Everyone , except the sold out republicans , saw Trumps speech for what it was , more devious threats and assurances that he’ll be right beside Putin
, in terrorizing the people of this country and the world.
The clamor equally about DOGE and Musks terrorism . As well, that regarding the ‘convent quiet Mother Superior ‘demeanor of the Democrats as the world around all of us gets burned down .
I think the Democrats believe their safety is in acceptance of this gross misconduct.
Someone needs to tell them it’s not.
The terrorism is right out in front of us .
It should certainly elicit a condemning response.
Democrats are afraid of standing up for themselves because they’re afraid that trading insults with Republicans can be more easily turned into Democrats insulting ordinary Americans people.
A Republican says “Transsexuals are all perverts that should be locked up and Democrats are enabling them” and they’ve directly insulted 0.5% America. A Democrat responds by saying “My opponent is an ignorant bigot” and 20% of Americans will understand that to mean “All churchgoers and people who didn’t go to college are worthless morons”.
People resent presumed meritocratic superiority much more than they resent other people’s wealth. This means the party of plutocrats will always have the upper hand against a party of meritocrats.
Good point. We need to be honest about the difficulties here. But also, this is a democracy. Democrats must claim to be representing the majority. Do they? If so, they shouldn’t be afraid of it. I think Trump has taken many positions that are loathsome to a majority of Americans. But he enthralls a minority and also shows that he is willing to fight his opposition.
Democrats fear, in their heart of hearts, that the soul of America is rotten and the American people have to be browbeaten, tricked, or sufficiently bloodied by their own self inflicted wounds before they will do the right thing. That fear ( which is the source of both Woke rejection of America and the ugly centrist pandering of, for example Gavin Newsome on Trans rights) is deeply embedded the party and drives the cowardice Brian describes.
That doesn’t really ring true to me. I think your references to “the soul of America” and “the American people” are question-begging. The most vocal activists in the party have identified a vision of moral progress and they see certain groups—or, to pay deference to your argument, “forces”—as standing opposed to that progress. But there has always been a pretty vast gulf between leftist activists and the representatives of the party with political power. Only a minority even of the activists would lay claim to a view that the “soul of America” is corrupt, and I don’t really see that translating into much that’s politically concrete.
Okay. Let me rephrase this.
If you get into left of center politics, you probably do so because you are more egalitarian and cosmopolitan than the average person. Same way that if you get into right wing politics you are (or at least used to be) more enthusiastic about self discipline and sexual propriety than the average person.
This means that the highly involved in left of center politics, from AOC to Chuck Schumer, are “out of touch” with the public. They are painfully aware that they are, and that drives a lot of weird behavior, from the contempt and rejection of “Amerikkka” from campus activists to the anxious flopsweat pandering of centrists.
One real structural advantage of the modern Right is that it is absolutely confident that everyone is just as big of a selfish, petty asshole as they are, and so they all walk with their heads held high.
One
Well, while I am no fan of Newsom, there is one thing he did NOT let slide, and that is the issue of women’s sports. On that issue, the keynote of all Democrats has been cowardice. “At” me if you want, but two-thirds of Democrats are in accord with what Newsom is saying, and now what needs to happen is to follow through, which does NOT mean caving to the current administration. Here is what I recommend: Convene a meeting with the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group. The Working Group is a serious, knowledgeable group, including Martina Navratilova, that has been working on these issues for years and has addressed and proposed solutions to every issue anyone can name. The Working Group knows how to resolve this with fairness and compassion for all. This cannot be punted to the local level, because the fundamental problem is Title IX itself, which has been misinterpreted, I am sorry to say, by the Democrats. The only way out of this is through. For anyone here who wants to get this issue behind us so we can all start rowing together again, call your Senators and tell them to convene this meeting ASAP. https://womenssportspolicy.org/
They don't care about women's sports Susan. It's a way for them to be bigots in public that you find acceptable. The Olympics has had rules for trans athletes since 2006, it's not a problem.
You're either gullible or a bigot yourself.
You’re in a bubble and need to get out of it.
From my vantage point, Dems are maddeningly silent on trans issues and voters are hearing what the GOP *says* the Democratic position on trans issues is. Because Democrats and liberals are feckless cowards who won't take a stand on anything unless it has been polled and focus-group tested.
If the Death Star appeared above our heads, Dem leadership would wring their hands over how swing voters in Pennsylvania probably mined the ore that went into building it and how they can't come out too harshly against it because it would be alienating to key constituencies.
We have had trans athletes forever (and had 8 trans women athletes in the NCAA last year.) This doesn’t need a working group. Our national political leaders should be focused on issues like addressing the cost of living, growing the economy, addressing climate change and resisting Russian aggression.
The ancient Adlai Stevenson joke has never been more relevant:
ENTHUSIAST: "Adlai, you have the support of every thinking person in America!!!"
STEVENSON: "OK, but how do I get a majority?"
A minority of Americans spend time thinking about politics; the majority have other interests - like financial survival. We may WISH that they would make the connection between the two, but wishing has never worked.
Given the choice between two candidates or two parties, most people will go with the one that seems stronger - that's just basic human-ape behavior and if you don't like it, go find another planet to live on.
Notice how Bernie commands respect because he always speaks strongly and without compromise. You don't have to agree with him, but you can't help respecting him.
Likewise - the Tea Party that became MAGA that took over the GOP - a lot of people disagree with part or even most of their policy positions but go along with it because they project a winning image.
Democrats have to do that, if they want to win. Joe Biden was an excellent implementer of policy but a failed campaigner ... and most Democratic leaders are doing the same. Holding up paddles when Trump insulted them looks weak, and who wants to trust a weak leader?
The failure of Democrats to walk out when Greene was thrown out was political incompetence.
Jan 7th 2021 Dems got together with Reps on the floors of the house and Senate and did nothing to their fellow members who they knew were part of planning the riots. Nothing beyond a few things and grumbles.
These idiots aided a coup and knowingly put your life and your democracy at risk and all you can muster is some non-specific shaming? Weak. There are no real men in Congress. A few people should've been bloodied up to demonstrate the deadly seriousness that you have about defending democracy, or at least arrested and detained.
Dumb but useful in a debate where "Democrat Party" is tossed around?
Refer to the Republican opponent as a member of the "Ic" [Ick"] party. Refer to Republican "ick"policies, or "ick" statements---e.g., their "ick" attitudes toward women, or Ick Chairman Jim Jordan, Ick President Trump, etc., etc. If challenged by the moderators, simply explain that "Our opponents have stolen the "ic" from 'Democratic Party,' so I assume they wanted to use it to describe themselves. I am just honoring their wish."
I've spent more time than I care to think about on the question of how to respond to "democrat party" (always pronounced sneeringly with a lower case d). Republic party doesn't really do it. So I've decided to simply say the plutocrat party. But sadly there's too much affection for "our" plutocrats in Democratic Party leadership/consultancy.
I agree with everything here except… Gavin mentioned that his 13-year-old son was listening to Charlie Kirk. I think he genuinely wanted to understand what’s going on with his young son. further I think he has a legitimate concern for the situation of his daughters and other girls who wanna play team sports without having to have boys competing against them. We are losing female athletes to the Republican Party over this issue. He is right to break with the Democratic Party in my opinion and the Democratic Party needs to understand the needs of female athletes if it pretends to care about women. I’ve never liked Newsom, but in this situation, a broken clock once in a while is on time!