OMG Brian! Except for one teeny quibble regarding Biden I could not agree more with this column. This is absolutely spot on. While I disagree with some of your takes in general, I truly believe you are in a position to speak hard truths that just might penetrate the purist? Hardline? progressive mindset. It’s one of the reasons I am a paid subscriber. I do care about what you have to say, even when it makes me exasperated.
The Times has been good about what’s to come if he’s elected. I just wish they’d treat it as hair on fire (or but her emails) because it is that serious and that scary. These people are stark raving mad and will go to the most extreme lengths to get and retain power--and punish the rest of us. It is terrifying.
Read the opening of Charlie Sykes’ column in the Bulwark today about the Trump Davidians (or The Atlantic) and the throwback to the Confederates and Lincoln’s assassination. Then think about White Christian Nationalist and Insurrectionist Maga Mike. THIS is why it matters.
It would be helpful to specifically identify which hard lefty critics you refer to in your article so readers not all that familiar with this part of the political spectrum do not confuse them with progressives who are fully committed to seeing Trump defeated no matter what other specific criticisms of Biden they might have.
I was going to comment the same thing lol. I watch a lot of leftist streamers and content creators, and they have some sway in online discourse for sure. Some of them are purely bad faith actors (Briana Taylor Joy comes to mind) who refuse to ever acknowledge Biden’s accomplishments because they’re either accelerationists or think voting for Biden means stanning capitalism. But idk if that’s who Brian is talking about. And even so, people like Vaush, while critical of Biden’s Israel response, take great care to emphasize Biden’s good policies and the importance of voting for him.
Happy to do specific citations going forward. I think of this faction as having pretty well defined boundaries these days so I (perhaps wrongly!) assumed most readers would know who I’m referring to generally.
I’m so sorry to keep beating this dead horse, but maybe it isn’t really about the economy at all. Most Americans don’t have the political savvy to articulate their innate recognition that our democracy is teetering on a cliff but Democrats are doing nothing to anchor it. They know their institutional foundations have evaporated and we’re all just sort of holding our breaths, waiting for everything--including the climate--to collapse while Biden eats ice cream and pretends everything is perfectly normal. So perhaps they can’t *classify* their disapproval of Biden, but JFC all anybody ever talks about is the economy so it must have something to do with that? I mean, does anybody ever have enough money?
The Democrats have gone out of their way to distract from the fascists at the gate which used to shock me and now terrifies me. But it’s working--witness the whole media talking about why Americans don’t understand that the economy is actually pretty good, but almost no media is talking about just how many pieces are in place in various state laws and at the federal level to accomplish the coup that failed last time.
I don’t know, I’ve been saying these things for years, and nothing changes. Maybe the fascists have to take over for Americans to stand up to the people who are killing the planet and exploiting them. I guess there’s no way to avoid the fact that the coming decades will be really awful for almost everyone.
Brian, among the horrors we need to contemplate in a Trump II, Fascist Boogaloo, administration, you noted: “no mitigating pressure of having to face voters in four years.”
Did you intentionally word that to subsume both (1) that presidents are limited to two terms and (2) the likelihood that the constitution will be a dead letter?
Haha, fair enough! Though when I *do* think about it, I still kinda believe 1) a second Trump presidency would be disaster for the constitution and everything else, and 2) he would only serve one term (or maybe I should say a small number of years) because he's old and doesn't actually like the job. Maybe that's wrong, but either way I DON'T think we can count on Trump winning and then we return to free and fair elections, even if he honors the two-terms rule.
“They can’t stop the reckless faction of the post-Bernie Sanders left that wants to destroy liberalism so Americans have to choose between reactionary Republicans and socialists. ”
How seriously big of a faction is this? I follow some pretty to the left media and I get no sense of a gathering storm here.
OMG Brian! Except for one teeny quibble regarding Biden I could not agree more with this column. This is absolutely spot on. While I disagree with some of your takes in general, I truly believe you are in a position to speak hard truths that just might penetrate the purist? Hardline? progressive mindset. It’s one of the reasons I am a paid subscriber. I do care about what you have to say, even when it makes me exasperated.
The Times has been good about what’s to come if he’s elected. I just wish they’d treat it as hair on fire (or but her emails) because it is that serious and that scary. These people are stark raving mad and will go to the most extreme lengths to get and retain power--and punish the rest of us. It is terrifying.
This comment made my day. Thank you!
Read the opening of Charlie Sykes’ column in the Bulwark today about the Trump Davidians (or The Atlantic) and the throwback to the Confederates and Lincoln’s assassination. Then think about White Christian Nationalist and Insurrectionist Maga Mike. THIS is why it matters.
One suggestion:
It would be helpful to specifically identify which hard lefty critics you refer to in your article so readers not all that familiar with this part of the political spectrum do not confuse them with progressives who are fully committed to seeing Trump defeated no matter what other specific criticisms of Biden they might have.
I was going to comment the same thing lol. I watch a lot of leftist streamers and content creators, and they have some sway in online discourse for sure. Some of them are purely bad faith actors (Briana Taylor Joy comes to mind) who refuse to ever acknowledge Biden’s accomplishments because they’re either accelerationists or think voting for Biden means stanning capitalism. But idk if that’s who Brian is talking about. And even so, people like Vaush, while critical of Biden’s Israel response, take great care to emphasize Biden’s good policies and the importance of voting for him.
Happy to do specific citations going forward. I think of this faction as having pretty well defined boundaries these days so I (perhaps wrongly!) assumed most readers would know who I’m referring to generally.
I’m so sorry to keep beating this dead horse, but maybe it isn’t really about the economy at all. Most Americans don’t have the political savvy to articulate their innate recognition that our democracy is teetering on a cliff but Democrats are doing nothing to anchor it. They know their institutional foundations have evaporated and we’re all just sort of holding our breaths, waiting for everything--including the climate--to collapse while Biden eats ice cream and pretends everything is perfectly normal. So perhaps they can’t *classify* their disapproval of Biden, but JFC all anybody ever talks about is the economy so it must have something to do with that? I mean, does anybody ever have enough money?
The Democrats have gone out of their way to distract from the fascists at the gate which used to shock me and now terrifies me. But it’s working--witness the whole media talking about why Americans don’t understand that the economy is actually pretty good, but almost no media is talking about just how many pieces are in place in various state laws and at the federal level to accomplish the coup that failed last time.
I don’t know, I’ve been saying these things for years, and nothing changes. Maybe the fascists have to take over for Americans to stand up to the people who are killing the planet and exploiting them. I guess there’s no way to avoid the fact that the coming decades will be really awful for almost everyone.
Brian, among the horrors we need to contemplate in a Trump II, Fascist Boogaloo, administration, you noted: “no mitigating pressure of having to face voters in four years.”
Did you intentionally word that to subsume both (1) that presidents are limited to two terms and (2) the likelihood that the constitution will be a dead letter?
Because ....
Haha, fair enough! Though when I *do* think about it, I still kinda believe 1) a second Trump presidency would be disaster for the constitution and everything else, and 2) he would only serve one term (or maybe I should say a small number of years) because he's old and doesn't actually like the job. Maybe that's wrong, but either way I DON'T think we can count on Trump winning and then we return to free and fair elections, even if he honors the two-terms rule.
100% - and I’m grateful for you working to mainstream that idea.
I think both because Trump has been very clear that he is above the Constitution and that he “deserves” a third term for the one that was “stolen.”
“They can’t stop the reckless faction of the post-Bernie Sanders left that wants to destroy liberalism so Americans have to choose between reactionary Republicans and socialists. ”
How seriously big of a faction is this? I follow some pretty to the left media and I get no sense of a gathering storm here.
Depends how you look at it. Relative to mainline progressives, small. Relative to the margin that decides elections, big enough!