I get it that the Democrats suck, I really do get that. I remember going to a Harlem Globetrotters game with my grandfather, when I was about eleven or twelve years old, and finding myself feeling sorry after a while for the Washington Generals. That is a fair summation of what it's like to be a Democratic voter.
At the very least, one should hope for a truly liberal party, or even a liberal reactionary party, the way the Republicans are now a conservative reactionary party, rather than merely a conservative one. Right now we have a clowder of lukewarm social-justice cats, who yowl at each other with great volume and vigor, but scatter when they hear Farmer Jones undoing the latch to release the hounds.
I wouldn't take this purity-pony threat too seriously; in fact, right now is the right time to lob such a threat, eighteen months out in the perpetual campaign season. Not that it matters whether such threats are made two years or two weeks before the election, unless they're made by people with money. Never forget that all this is nothing more nor less than a money game, and so the second enough big donors start wanting to do something about climate change, then you'll hear about it from all of the yowling cats at the same time.
Again, both parties deserve and need to be razed to the ground, and rebuilt on new lots. They are both fucking terrible. Chuck Schumer needs to retire about five years ago, and while Nancy Pelosi is a better politician than Schumer, her slow-walking of impeachment is a real problem. You're the Speaker of the House; if you can't at least get the majority of your own majority on board with your constitutional duty, then what are any of us doing here? Why should I vote for you again, so you can send more toothless subpoenae and letters?
At the same time, if Carli Pierson and her representational contingent want one or more years of Donald Trump, in an electoral fit of pique, then have at it, lady. Maybe she thinks she's immune in New York, from the prion disease afflicting flyover country. But like the old joke about Pennsylvania being Philly and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between, so New York State is really just NYC and Westchester and Albany, surrounded by that same Alabama-man type. You think you're not at risk of a life sentence in prison for having a miscarriage, you give Trump another five or ten years and see how that works out.
It's amazing how quickly the dystopian fantasy of The Handmaid's Tale has started to arrive in certain benighted pockets. It's real, it's happening, and you're almost certainly replacing three SCOTUS justices (Ginsburg, Breyer, and Thomas) in the next presidential term. See how well Sotomayor and Kagan are able to fend off the constant attacks on women's rights, voting rights, workers' rights, and yes, environmental policy, with a 2-7 minority, with five of those reactionary, regressive seven guaranteed to be there for the next thirty years or so.
Pierson's column really illustrates the Democrats' problem writ large, this incessant focus on the presidency above all else. The fact is, assuming they can retain the House next year, the Democrats would be infinitely better off just winning the Senate back, and grabbing just a handful of governor seats and state legislatures. Trump would then be retaining an impotent throne; he would get nothing done, and his appointments would be heavily scrutinized. He can go give his boyfriend Kim Jong Un all the DMZ handjobs he wants, but his actual ability to cause real damage will he heavily curtailed.
If the Democratic Party had any fucking clue at all, they would be figuring out a way to get rid of McConnell and Graham, and poach whatever vulnerable Senate seats they can next year. Winning the presidency back will mean nothing if those two traitors (yes, that is exactly what they are, actively subverting the interests of their country) are still in office. It may take $100 million to root those two ticks out of the dog's hide, but it will be money well-spent.
I realize that that's not as sexy or exciting as the high-stakes poker game Pierson and her ilk think they're playing, but they're way out of their depth, and their energies would be much better deployed in finding real Democratic candidates running state-level campaigns in problematic states, and giving them some publicity. Telling everyone eighteen months out that you'd rather burn it all down than vote for Old Man Biden or that meanie Kamala Harris is just showing your hand before all the cards have been turned.
At the very least, one should hope for a truly liberal party, or even a liberal reactionary party, the way the Republicans are now a conservative reactionary party, rather than merely a conservative one. Right now we have a clowder of lukewarm social-justice cats, who yowl at each other with great volume and vigor, but scatter when they hear Farmer Jones undoing the latch to release the hounds.
I wouldn't take this purity-pony threat too seriously; in fact, right now is the right time to lob such a threat, eighteen months out in the perpetual campaign season. Not that it matters whether such threats are made two years or two weeks before the election, unless they're made by people with money. Never forget that all this is nothing more nor less than a money game, and so the second enough big donors start wanting to do something about climate change, then you'll hear about it from all of the yowling cats at the same time.
Again, both parties deserve and need to be razed to the ground, and rebuilt on new lots. They are both fucking terrible. Chuck Schumer needs to retire about five years ago, and while Nancy Pelosi is a better politician than Schumer, her slow-walking of impeachment is a real problem. You're the Speaker of the House; if you can't at least get the majority of your own majority on board with your constitutional duty, then what are any of us doing here? Why should I vote for you again, so you can send more toothless subpoenae and letters?
At the same time, if Carli Pierson and her representational contingent want one or more years of Donald Trump, in an electoral fit of pique, then have at it, lady. Maybe she thinks she's immune in New York, from the prion disease afflicting flyover country. But like the old joke about Pennsylvania being Philly and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between, so New York State is really just NYC and Westchester and Albany, surrounded by that same Alabama-man type. You think you're not at risk of a life sentence in prison for having a miscarriage, you give Trump another five or ten years and see how that works out.
It's amazing how quickly the dystopian fantasy of The Handmaid's Tale has started to arrive in certain benighted pockets. It's real, it's happening, and you're almost certainly replacing three SCOTUS justices (Ginsburg, Breyer, and Thomas) in the next presidential term. See how well Sotomayor and Kagan are able to fend off the constant attacks on women's rights, voting rights, workers' rights, and yes, environmental policy, with a 2-7 minority, with five of those reactionary, regressive seven guaranteed to be there for the next thirty years or so.
Pierson's column really illustrates the Democrats' problem writ large, this incessant focus on the presidency above all else. The fact is, assuming they can retain the House next year, the Democrats would be infinitely better off just winning the Senate back, and grabbing just a handful of governor seats and state legislatures. Trump would then be retaining an impotent throne; he would get nothing done, and his appointments would be heavily scrutinized. He can go give his boyfriend Kim Jong Un all the DMZ handjobs he wants, but his actual ability to cause real damage will he heavily curtailed.
If the Democratic Party had any fucking clue at all, they would be figuring out a way to get rid of McConnell and Graham, and poach whatever vulnerable Senate seats they can next year. Winning the presidency back will mean nothing if those two traitors (yes, that is exactly what they are, actively subverting the interests of their country) are still in office. It may take $100 million to root those two ticks out of the dog's hide, but it will be money well-spent.
I realize that that's not as sexy or exciting as the high-stakes poker game Pierson and her ilk think they're playing, but they're way out of their depth, and their energies would be much better deployed in finding real Democratic candidates running state-level campaigns in problematic states, and giving them some publicity. Telling everyone eighteen months out that you'd rather burn it all down than vote for Old Man Biden or that meanie Kamala Harris is just showing your hand before all the cards have been turned.
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