Honestly his strategy is to turn out his racist and sexist base. It may be appalling to all of us, but see how many MAGAs are now part of verifying the election, poll watchers, making lists of people to go after when their pre becomes President again.
Also it started one of the stupidest fights I’ve seen on threads between Black people and I’m disappointed as hell this morning. Kamala Harris is Black and South Asian. She doesn’t have to push out one for the other and it’s baffling we’re still baffled by biracial people.
On the VP stakes, I am rooting for Tim Walz. I don’t care about people’s stances on Israel, I do care that Shapiro settled a harassment case for one of his aides and it’s a bad look full stop. And you know the media will use that to hit at Kamala over and and over. The media will use it to show see the Democrats don’t really care about women.
I was listening to a Pod Save episode about a focus group of black women (I believe it was done before Biden dropped out) expressing concern about Harris being the nominee, because they feared the attacks she'd face as a black woman. I honestly think Harris can take whatever attacks the media throws at her. She shouldn't HAVE to, but she can. So to me it almost sounded like, these women were more afraid of their own trauma being triggered by these attacks on Harris, and my heart absolutely broke for them that they had to take that into consideration when deciding if they wanted her to be the nominee.
I just realized I feel the exact same way about Shapiro. Knowing that he'll be the subject of attacks on both sides, which I'm sure he'd handle with aplomb. But to paraphrase and borrow a common social media saying: Josh Shapiro won't see the ugly things you say about him online. But your Jewish friends will.
After yesterday's shit show I want 3 weeks of non stop coverage, I want it to be wall to wall questioning his fitness to serve. I want it to be endless questions about his mental acuity, about his age. I want his big donors to write op-eds that he needs to end his reelection bid. I want all pundits and podcasts to spend hours talking about how he can't win. How he is unfit because of age and racism and 34 felony convictions and abortion. Because if the press was willing to do that to a kind, fair, decent man that is Biden, then they should have zero issues with giving the same treatment to a racist pos felon.
Also Trump doubled down and showed a picture of Kamala with her Indian family in saris. So yeah he learned nothing and his base is just eating it up. I did kind of chuckle about Tommy Tuberville being yeah I’m not getting into that whole thing. So even he has sense about this. And got to love Trump ignoring Johnson’s comments to not talk about Kamala’s race.
Trump is definitely the kind of guy who goes "I wasn't going to do that*, but since you told me not to, NOW I'M GOING TO." Just an absolute mental toddler.
Honestly I think Rev. Sharpton was right, he went to that conference to show look I talked any kind of way to those blacks and put them in their place. That asshole was triumphant at his rally last night.
That's exactly what I said yesterday, and I got called cynical. I am with you (from an earlier comment) in loving this place, but it is definitely a bubble. I live in Trump country and work in a conservative industry with super MAGA people. I hear how they talk. And I grew up around "respectable" white people who really do believe that they believe racism is wrong and raise their kids to treat everyone equally, and I hear how they talk -- it's not overt like the MAGAs, but it's just as evident ("so angry", "I just think that was uncalled for", "no respect", etc.).
It’s also awful only three Republicans condemned him. No one is demanding he step down. And I’m side eyeing Nancy Pelosi revealing in a book she was told about Trump’s mental health by his doctors. I’m sorry why was that not said out loud?
Amen. "She’s not trying to parse her own identity to appease a group of white men who aren’t going to vote for her anyway." That's because she knows damn well who she is.
It goes back to the old adage, "If you're explaining, you're losing." There's a large percentage of the country that are racist and sexist. No amount of explaining your mixed-race heritage is gonna make them say "Oh, I get it." You're not gonna win their votes under those terms.
But if you talk to them about something that actually matters, you might.
* "Likewise, he’s called Doug Emhoff — the second gentleman — a “crappy Jew,” and just last night, he called Chuck Schumer “a member of Hamas.” "
WTHFJC??
He's cracked. He's been not-right-in-the-head since at least 2016, but he's gone yet one more level down the parking ramp of offensive nuts this week. Because he insulted everyone with an African ancestor earlier in the day though, this one will be drowned out.
* Polls in August - oh, what happened to the glory days of 'no general election stuff until after labor day'? I feel like an old sweet summer child.
A RANT - ignore me if you want:
Folks are worn with politics, and I ain't just talkin' about recently or since the convicted felon came on the scene. The extension of the campaign seasons to longer and longer calendars are a terrible arms race. The problem is that it benefits 3 powerful actors: professional campaign people; the news media; and the party of division and hate (the GOP). It used to be campaign people had to get government or staff jobs in the off-years, now they consult all year round making the bigger bucks. The news media always wants easy eyeballs, and political campaigns are easy stories + all that advertising $$. Last of all, anyone who doesn't want people engaged want to drown people in politics so most people check out. The well-meaning unfortunately can't ignore the bad actors so they have to respond, feeding the cycle. When the election day comes, its a race not of who can turn out more of their voters, but who can get enough voters to stay home.
It has also trickled down into the local elections. Part of it is early voting, where I did not have to campaign for school committee until really September, you need to be ready to go now. I don't have endless funds to send mailers, so I need to walk the city and knock on doors. With voting starting October it means everything starts now. And City Council people have been fundraising since May. Its exhausting mentally and physically. And add in a full time job and a family and it is a lot. I would love a 60 or 90 day election cycle.
In the UK the campaign doesn't get going until the election is called, so it's generally 5 or 6 weeks and let me tell you, that seems too long to most people.
Y'know, I'm >almost< at a place of not worrying again. The universe in its extreme messiness seems to be giving us what we need, in the time that it is needed to push through to victory. I'm a little mad at myself for not trusting more because I could have saved myself a ton of heartache. That's not to say that anything is assured, but man, who would have thought we'd be here right now, with this level of enthusiasm, with this level of fundraising, not to mention the dark "gift" that is Vance.
I am worried about the post election shenanigans and am crossing all fingers and toes that every legal scholar and attorney of note (especially attorneys like Ben Ginsberg who are republican, but support democracy and know Trump is crazy) has been consulted and they have multiple and evolving plans ready to go.
Finally, I trust that this will work itself out, but I REALLY need Black folks to see through what Trump did yesterday. He WANTS the infighting. He WANTS to turn Black people against Harris. He doesn't care about Black people and getting their vote, but if he can deter us from voting for her, he'll take that win. We already seem to moving away from it in the wake of Biden's success in freeing prisoners. Also, I need to know what Joy Reid said to the NABJ folks, but I'll have to be satisfied that she said AT LEAST as much as she did on her show yesterday. And she did read them.
Exactly! I grew up light skinned in PA. I had a lot of my darker skinned relatives saying I wasn’t really black. Of course I was, but the issues around colorism and biracial black people is till a hot topic that too many are terrible at discussing. I try not to because there’s so much things on both of those discussions that are true and real. I just need us to quit arguing whether she’s Black cause her father is from Jamaica amongst ourselves.
I'll admit that I had only heard that Shapiro condemned the college protestors and wanted to turn police on them. That had me soured on him full stop. But after Dustin's article, I actually went digging and in the words of Crazy Ex GirlFriend (the best show you should watch) "The situation is a lot more nuanced then that."
I don't love the settling lawsuit for employee thing, but if that's all they have on him, a lawsuit that didn't even INVOLVE Shapiro's own behavior, just that of a staffer, then I'd agree he's a solid pick. My number one is still Walz, but Shapiro has officially unseated Kelly as my number two pick.
Also, it's totally going to be Shapiro right? She's announcing IN PA. She wouldn't go to PA to announce and NOT pick the insanely popular governor who is a top contender for the spot.
On that prisoner exchange: Joe Biden is grateful the immense suffering of four hostages has ended. Felony Face is criticizing it as a "bad deal" when he knows no details, because he "never made a bad deal." Not one word of concern for the people who were brought home. He cannot help but center himself in every story and then lie about his own involvement.
I'm just now reading HCR this morning (Hey Dustin, good job using this platform - it helps remind me to read Ms. Cox Richardson more regularly too), and the Convicted Felon and National Disgrace has definitely entered his gish gallop, or flood-the-field-with-shit, phase. So many offensive things in 24 hours . .
And what he said about the folks who were injured or died in the assassination attempt was appalling (reported on HuffPo):
Donald Trump drew fierce criticism for making a crass comment about the wife of Corey Comperatore, the former fire chief who was killed by gunfire while trying to shield his family during the attempt on the former president’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania, last month.
Trump claimed during a rally speech in Harrisburg on Wednesday that a friend of his had presented Helen Comperatore, Corey’s wife, with a check for $1 million and that crowdfunding efforts were now in the millions.
“But you know what?” Trump said to supporters. “Corey’s wife said, ‘I’d rather have my husband.’”
“Isn’t that good?” Trump continued. “I know a lot of wives that would not say that, I’m sorry. They would not say that.”
Replying to my own comment to add that he said this crap on exactly the two-year anniversary of my beloved husband's untimely death. Super fuck you, Trump.
POTUS press conference ended on a mic drop moment and the WH pool continues to embarrass themselves. Called Trump President Trump (corrected) but asking Biden what does he say to Trump when he says he could have done this without having to give up anything?
In the last few days I’ve been so euphoric and happy and I’ve started thinking let’s swing for the fences and go for Pete B for VP. Trump and his hapless weird VP are desperately trying to drag us back to some kind of 1950’s world where women and poc knew their place and straight white guys ruled the world. Donold’s desperate attempt to go back to his greatest hits-Obama birtherism bs and Clinton was a nasty women-is gross and tired and distasteful. I want this to be a electoral slaughter and I want to only see trump’s name linked with courtroom appearances and jail sentencing. #wearenotgoingback
The assurances that announcing the VP pick in Philly doesn't mean that it's Shapiro has the same feel of Vance getting extra security after the assassination attempt 'but that doesn't mean that he's Trump's pick!' about it. It's almost certainly him. And while the voucher thing gives me extreme pause (please if anyone knows of an under reported reason that it's a good thing, actually, let me know) he does pretty much guarantee PA in an election where we are very much counting on it so I'm just going to bury that shit in the back of my brain.
I mean, they can say that we shouldn't read anything into the VP being announced in Philly, but just on a superficial and elementary school level, it would feel mean to announce someone else on Shapiro's home turf. We'll se in a few days.
The Trump plan has nothing to do with the election. They plan on exploiting the process. I fully believe that the plan is to gum up the works with corrupt election officials, false electors, misinformation and lies and endless lawsuits. All they really need to do is prevent certification, and the election goes back to state legs, which will all vote along party lines. And, even though if they do that it will likely look shady as hell, they have convinced a good chunk of the country that the election was stolen in 2020, so this is just payback. They will refuse to acknowledge it, because Dems didn't in 2020-who cares if there wasn't actually any fraud in 2020? Somebody's uncle's cousin saw a poll worker in 31 flavors last night and they had a whole box of ballots!! OMG!!!
They are going to cheat, and I really hope the DNC, the Harris campaign, the Pod Save boys and everyone else is ready to call them on it, and prevent it. Trumper are not going to play by the rules. Roger Stone has already stolen one election and he came damn close to a second. Enough.
trump/MAGA might think they have this in the bag via loyalist electors and creating chaos in November. I've read some disturbing things about that recently.
I think they can and should. I think the Pajiba bubble doesn't understand how much of a big deal Gaza is to the youth vote...they will not just abstain from voting but will actively protest against voting, encouraging others in their cohort to do the same via tiktok etc. They are vocal and they are activated and have huge followings. They do not see human rights in Gaza as less important as their rights here in the U.S. and would rather see it all burn down here than support even a hint of someone they see as coming down on protesters against genocide. They know the majority of protesters are not pro-Hamas and see these strong statements couched as against pro-Hamas as a smokescreen to condemnation of all the protesters (majority of whom are not pro Hamas). Bottom line, they are closely watching if U.S. reinstates aid for Gaza, continues to sell arms to Israel, if folks are donating time and money to help Gaza refugees, if candidates are condemning the violence there in strong words and promises of action.
I feel like most people in the US are sick to death of the Middle East conflict, and would rather just try to ignore it and let the Harris wave carry them. But the atrocities are still going on, and now - following the slew of assassinations that took place over the last few days - things are about to explode in unprecedented ways, with the US probably getting dragged in even deeper. I don’t really care about my own country, anymore - Israel is a dream that went horribly wrong - but if we fuck up the elections for the Democrats and usher Drumpf back in the consequences for the whole world will be horrifying.
Except the youth vote is not sick to death of the Middle East conflict and do not want to ignore it. I can not stress this enough. For them, it's new. For them, it's living through their first genocide where they feel complicit as Americans because the US stopped sending humanitarian aid to Gaza and supplies arms to Israel. I think if one is not involved with the youth on an everyday basis, they don't realize how serious it is. Generally: They hate Biden. They hate Trump. They want it all to burn down if nothing is done to save the people of Gaza. They see it as THE issue of their lifetimes.
It is not just the "youth vote". It is huge numbers of all kinds of people. Shapiro smeared the protesters, compaing them to the KKK. WTF? Dustin's description of him, using Massachusetts' Auchincloss as a reference, is way off base.
Harris needs to distance herself from Biden's position on the mideast; thoughts and prayers about Palestinian suffering are not going to do it. Americans do not want more tax dollars going to Israel, especially after its recent assassination splurge. People fear, very rightly, that the US is getting dragged into a regional war.
Honestly his strategy is to turn out his racist and sexist base. It may be appalling to all of us, but see how many MAGAs are now part of verifying the election, poll watchers, making lists of people to go after when their pre becomes President again.
Also it started one of the stupidest fights I’ve seen on threads between Black people and I’m disappointed as hell this morning. Kamala Harris is Black and South Asian. She doesn’t have to push out one for the other and it’s baffling we’re still baffled by biracial people.
On the VP stakes, I am rooting for Tim Walz. I don’t care about people’s stances on Israel, I do care that Shapiro settled a harassment case for one of his aides and it’s a bad look full stop. And you know the media will use that to hit at Kamala over and and over. The media will use it to show see the Democrats don’t really care about women.
I was listening to a Pod Save episode about a focus group of black women (I believe it was done before Biden dropped out) expressing concern about Harris being the nominee, because they feared the attacks she'd face as a black woman. I honestly think Harris can take whatever attacks the media throws at her. She shouldn't HAVE to, but she can. So to me it almost sounded like, these women were more afraid of their own trauma being triggered by these attacks on Harris, and my heart absolutely broke for them that they had to take that into consideration when deciding if they wanted her to be the nominee.
I just realized I feel the exact same way about Shapiro. Knowing that he'll be the subject of attacks on both sides, which I'm sure he'd handle with aplomb. But to paraphrase and borrow a common social media saying: Josh Shapiro won't see the ugly things you say about him online. But your Jewish friends will.
That’s what is happening with a lot of black women this morning. The whole thing is triggering. And I’m sorry for you too. That sucks.
I feel the same way, Rachel.
After yesterday's shit show I want 3 weeks of non stop coverage, I want it to be wall to wall questioning his fitness to serve. I want it to be endless questions about his mental acuity, about his age. I want his big donors to write op-eds that he needs to end his reelection bid. I want all pundits and podcasts to spend hours talking about how he can't win. How he is unfit because of age and racism and 34 felony convictions and abortion. Because if the press was willing to do that to a kind, fair, decent man that is Biden, then they should have zero issues with giving the same treatment to a racist pos felon.
Same. And yet the media won’t and can’t do it.
except not. A not-insane R may be harder to beat.
Also Trump doubled down and showed a picture of Kamala with her Indian family in saris. So yeah he learned nothing and his base is just eating it up. I did kind of chuckle about Tommy Tuberville being yeah I’m not getting into that whole thing. So even he has sense about this. And got to love Trump ignoring Johnson’s comments to not talk about Kamala’s race.
Trump is definitely the kind of guy who goes "I wasn't going to do that*, but since you told me not to, NOW I'M GOING TO." Just an absolute mental toddler.
(*I mean, he WAS going to. Racists gonna racist.)
Honestly I think Rev. Sharpton was right, he went to that conference to show look I talked any kind of way to those blacks and put them in their place. That asshole was triumphant at his rally last night.
That's exactly what I said yesterday, and I got called cynical. I am with you (from an earlier comment) in loving this place, but it is definitely a bubble. I live in Trump country and work in a conservative industry with super MAGA people. I hear how they talk. And I grew up around "respectable" white people who really do believe that they believe racism is wrong and raise their kids to treat everyone equally, and I hear how they talk -- it's not overt like the MAGAs, but it's just as evident ("so angry", "I just think that was uncalled for", "no respect", etc.).
Exactly. I don’t think that many people get how low key racist people are.
He's also the one who looked at the eclipse after being told not to, so that tracks.
Has Trump not seen JD Vance's wedding pictures?...
I still don’t think he fully knows who Vance is.
Same.
I bet you he has no idea he’s married to an Indian woman.
When even one of the dumbest senators has the sense to stay out of it, should tell the Trump crew something....
It’s also awful only three Republicans condemned him. No one is demanding he step down. And I’m side eyeing Nancy Pelosi revealing in a book she was told about Trump’s mental health by his doctors. I’m sorry why was that not said out loud?
Harris is absolutely right to ignore these playground taunts because they don't need to be dignified with a response.
“Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.”
Amen. "She’s not trying to parse her own identity to appease a group of white men who aren’t going to vote for her anyway." That's because she knows damn well who she is.
It goes back to the old adage, "If you're explaining, you're losing." There's a large percentage of the country that are racist and sexist. No amount of explaining your mixed-race heritage is gonna make them say "Oh, I get it." You're not gonna win their votes under those terms.
But if you talk to them about something that actually matters, you might.
* "Likewise, he’s called Doug Emhoff — the second gentleman — a “crappy Jew,” and just last night, he called Chuck Schumer “a member of Hamas.” "
WTHFJC??
He's cracked. He's been not-right-in-the-head since at least 2016, but he's gone yet one more level down the parking ramp of offensive nuts this week. Because he insulted everyone with an African ancestor earlier in the day though, this one will be drowned out.
* Polls in August - oh, what happened to the glory days of 'no general election stuff until after labor day'? I feel like an old sweet summer child.
A RANT - ignore me if you want:
Folks are worn with politics, and I ain't just talkin' about recently or since the convicted felon came on the scene. The extension of the campaign seasons to longer and longer calendars are a terrible arms race. The problem is that it benefits 3 powerful actors: professional campaign people; the news media; and the party of division and hate (the GOP). It used to be campaign people had to get government or staff jobs in the off-years, now they consult all year round making the bigger bucks. The news media always wants easy eyeballs, and political campaigns are easy stories + all that advertising $$. Last of all, anyone who doesn't want people engaged want to drown people in politics so most people check out. The well-meaning unfortunately can't ignore the bad actors so they have to respond, feeding the cycle. When the election day comes, its a race not of who can turn out more of their voters, but who can get enough voters to stay home.
It has also trickled down into the local elections. Part of it is early voting, where I did not have to campaign for school committee until really September, you need to be ready to go now. I don't have endless funds to send mailers, so I need to walk the city and knock on doors. With voting starting October it means everything starts now. And City Council people have been fundraising since May. Its exhausting mentally and physically. And add in a full time job and a family and it is a lot. I would love a 60 or 90 day election cycle.
He's always been a vindictive bully, but I'm with you - he's cracking up and lashing out a lot more recently.
In the UK the campaign doesn't get going until the election is called, so it's generally 5 or 6 weeks and let me tell you, that seems too long to most people.
Yep. Applause.
Y'know, I'm >almost< at a place of not worrying again. The universe in its extreme messiness seems to be giving us what we need, in the time that it is needed to push through to victory. I'm a little mad at myself for not trusting more because I could have saved myself a ton of heartache. That's not to say that anything is assured, but man, who would have thought we'd be here right now, with this level of enthusiasm, with this level of fundraising, not to mention the dark "gift" that is Vance.
I am worried about the post election shenanigans and am crossing all fingers and toes that every legal scholar and attorney of note (especially attorneys like Ben Ginsberg who are republican, but support democracy and know Trump is crazy) has been consulted and they have multiple and evolving plans ready to go.
Finally, I trust that this will work itself out, but I REALLY need Black folks to see through what Trump did yesterday. He WANTS the infighting. He WANTS to turn Black people against Harris. He doesn't care about Black people and getting their vote, but if he can deter us from voting for her, he'll take that win. We already seem to moving away from it in the wake of Biden's success in freeing prisoners. Also, I need to know what Joy Reid said to the NABJ folks, but I'll have to be satisfied that she said AT LEAST as much as she did on her show yesterday. And she did read them.
Exactly! I grew up light skinned in PA. I had a lot of my darker skinned relatives saying I wasn’t really black. Of course I was, but the issues around colorism and biracial black people is till a hot topic that too many are terrible at discussing. I try not to because there’s so much things on both of those discussions that are true and real. I just need us to quit arguing whether she’s Black cause her father is from Jamaica amongst ourselves.
I'll admit that I had only heard that Shapiro condemned the college protestors and wanted to turn police on them. That had me soured on him full stop. But after Dustin's article, I actually went digging and in the words of Crazy Ex GirlFriend (the best show you should watch) "The situation is a lot more nuanced then that."
I don't love the settling lawsuit for employee thing, but if that's all they have on him, a lawsuit that didn't even INVOLVE Shapiro's own behavior, just that of a staffer, then I'd agree he's a solid pick. My number one is still Walz, but Shapiro has officially unseated Kelly as my number two pick.
Also, it's totally going to be Shapiro right? She's announcing IN PA. She wouldn't go to PA to announce and NOT pick the insanely popular governor who is a top contender for the spot.
I really don't think Shapiro is a good pick. The online left will find whatever excuse to not vote if she picks him.
On that prisoner exchange: Joe Biden is grateful the immense suffering of four hostages has ended. Felony Face is criticizing it as a "bad deal" when he knows no details, because he "never made a bad deal." Not one word of concern for the people who were brought home. He cannot help but center himself in every story and then lie about his own involvement.
"Felony Face" made me chuckle.
I'm just now reading HCR this morning (Hey Dustin, good job using this platform - it helps remind me to read Ms. Cox Richardson more regularly too), and the Convicted Felon and National Disgrace has definitely entered his gish gallop, or flood-the-field-with-shit, phase. So many offensive things in 24 hours . .
And what he said about the folks who were injured or died in the assassination attempt was appalling (reported on HuffPo):
Donald Trump drew fierce criticism for making a crass comment about the wife of Corey Comperatore, the former fire chief who was killed by gunfire while trying to shield his family during the attempt on the former president’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania, last month.
Trump claimed during a rally speech in Harrisburg on Wednesday that a friend of his had presented Helen Comperatore, Corey’s wife, with a check for $1 million and that crowdfunding efforts were now in the millions.
“But you know what?” Trump said to supporters. “Corey’s wife said, ‘I’d rather have my husband.’”
“Isn’t that good?” Trump continued. “I know a lot of wives that would not say that, I’m sorry. They would not say that.”
The audience lapped up the comment and laughed.
Replying to my own comment to add that he said this crap on exactly the two-year anniversary of my beloved husband's untimely death. Super fuck you, Trump.
If he wasn't so dangerous he'd be pitiable - he so clearly has absolutely no understanding of relationships as anything but zero-sum transactions.
Also, I'm so sorry for your loss and hope you're doing okay.
+1 to this! Enjoying the digest and your insights, Dustin!
POTUS press conference ended on a mic drop moment and the WH pool continues to embarrass themselves. Called Trump President Trump (corrected) but asking Biden what does he say to Trump when he says he could have done this without having to give up anything?
In the last few days I’ve been so euphoric and happy and I’ve started thinking let’s swing for the fences and go for Pete B for VP. Trump and his hapless weird VP are desperately trying to drag us back to some kind of 1950’s world where women and poc knew their place and straight white guys ruled the world. Donold’s desperate attempt to go back to his greatest hits-Obama birtherism bs and Clinton was a nasty women-is gross and tired and distasteful. I want this to be a electoral slaughter and I want to only see trump’s name linked with courtroom appearances and jail sentencing. #wearenotgoingback
The assurances that announcing the VP pick in Philly doesn't mean that it's Shapiro has the same feel of Vance getting extra security after the assassination attempt 'but that doesn't mean that he's Trump's pick!' about it. It's almost certainly him. And while the voucher thing gives me extreme pause (please if anyone knows of an under reported reason that it's a good thing, actually, let me know) he does pretty much guarantee PA in an election where we are very much counting on it so I'm just going to bury that shit in the back of my brain.
I mean, they can say that we shouldn't read anything into the VP being announced in Philly, but just on a superficial and elementary school level, it would feel mean to announce someone else on Shapiro's home turf. We'll se in a few days.
I don’t think they would do it there cause it would be too easy but who knows.
The Trump plan has nothing to do with the election. They plan on exploiting the process. I fully believe that the plan is to gum up the works with corrupt election officials, false electors, misinformation and lies and endless lawsuits. All they really need to do is prevent certification, and the election goes back to state legs, which will all vote along party lines. And, even though if they do that it will likely look shady as hell, they have convinced a good chunk of the country that the election was stolen in 2020, so this is just payback. They will refuse to acknowledge it, because Dems didn't in 2020-who cares if there wasn't actually any fraud in 2020? Somebody's uncle's cousin saw a poll worker in 31 flavors last night and they had a whole box of ballots!! OMG!!!
They are going to cheat, and I really hope the DNC, the Harris campaign, the Pod Save boys and everyone else is ready to call them on it, and prevent it. Trumper are not going to play by the rules. Roger Stone has already stolen one election and he came damn close to a second. Enough.
trump/MAGA might think they have this in the bag via loyalist electors and creating chaos in November. I've read some disturbing things about that recently.
Do we not think that Biden and Shapiro can deliver PA for Harris even without Shapiro on the ticket? I think maybe they can?
I think they can and should. I think the Pajiba bubble doesn't understand how much of a big deal Gaza is to the youth vote...they will not just abstain from voting but will actively protest against voting, encouraging others in their cohort to do the same via tiktok etc. They are vocal and they are activated and have huge followings. They do not see human rights in Gaza as less important as their rights here in the U.S. and would rather see it all burn down here than support even a hint of someone they see as coming down on protesters against genocide. They know the majority of protesters are not pro-Hamas and see these strong statements couched as against pro-Hamas as a smokescreen to condemnation of all the protesters (majority of whom are not pro Hamas). Bottom line, they are closely watching if U.S. reinstates aid for Gaza, continues to sell arms to Israel, if folks are donating time and money to help Gaza refugees, if candidates are condemning the violence there in strong words and promises of action.
I feel like most people in the US are sick to death of the Middle East conflict, and would rather just try to ignore it and let the Harris wave carry them. But the atrocities are still going on, and now - following the slew of assassinations that took place over the last few days - things are about to explode in unprecedented ways, with the US probably getting dragged in even deeper. I don’t really care about my own country, anymore - Israel is a dream that went horribly wrong - but if we fuck up the elections for the Democrats and usher Drumpf back in the consequences for the whole world will be horrifying.
Except the youth vote is not sick to death of the Middle East conflict and do not want to ignore it. I can not stress this enough. For them, it's new. For them, it's living through their first genocide where they feel complicit as Americans because the US stopped sending humanitarian aid to Gaza and supplies arms to Israel. I think if one is not involved with the youth on an everyday basis, they don't realize how serious it is. Generally: They hate Biden. They hate Trump. They want it all to burn down if nothing is done to save the people of Gaza. They see it as THE issue of their lifetimes.
All to say that I agree with you. Most people don't want to think about it and they underestimate how fired up the youth vote is about this.
It is not just the "youth vote". It is huge numbers of all kinds of people. Shapiro smeared the protesters, compaing them to the KKK. WTF? Dustin's description of him, using Massachusetts' Auchincloss as a reference, is way off base.
Harris needs to distance herself from Biden's position on the mideast; thoughts and prayers about Palestinian suffering are not going to do it. Americans do not want more tax dollars going to Israel, especially after its recent assassination splurge. People fear, very rightly, that the US is getting dragged into a regional war.
Harris needs to pick anyone but Shapiro for VP.