DRW50

Elsa I know best for playing Vinnie Terranova's mother on Wiseguy. I loathed her character, as she berated him at length for working with the mob, then ended up falling in love with a mobster herself, but she was a very good actress. She had a good comedy part on Tracey Takes On that I also enjoyed.

One of the problems is when any racial group is seen as a monolith or taken for granted. It's one of the reasons when I see white people on social media saying things like "black women are saving us again!" I end up cringing (I am white myself and probably no better at being tone deaf, I will admit), because it just comes across as cringey and pandering. It's another version of the 2016 stuff where a lot of people online attacked black men for not voting enough. You need better communication strategies, not trying to tell people what they should or shouldn't be doing. The Democrats were lucky that Trump's virulent racism prevented him from landing on a better strategy than having rappers shill for him. Before their coalition overreached and imploded in 2005-2006, Rove and W had a much more potent strategy. A few weeks ago I read this article about Qanon spreading in Europe, basically talking about how the reason it's so dangerous is because you can make it what you want it to be. It felt like a kick in the stomach, because that is one of the main reasons Trumpism is so dangerous, and why they are so easy to intertwine. https://www.politico.eu/article/qanon-europe-coronavirus-protests/ I saw some photo going around social media - who knows if it was real or another tedious attempt at edgelord humor - of some man's hand, which had a scrawl on it saying he had voted for Biden, but don't call him a traitor because he still believed in Qanon. That really threw me, because it just made me wonder how far this rot is going to end up going.

I agree, but then she won in 2018 with AOC and Pelosi both national figures. I think 2020 was just too much turnout. I hope she might run again.

OANN is the new Fox News. That and insane conspiracy videos and grifting circuits on Youtube - stuff like Daily Wire, Prager U, Joe Rogan. Right now there are mostly just a handful of personalities who keep the crazies happy on Fox, like Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson (many of them don't care for Sean Hannity). Once they're gone the channel is probably going to end up in some type of rebranding, I guess depending on what the Murdochs want. Whether that will be good or bad, I don't know. I have a feeling their election guy is going to end up being a scapegoat though. I don't quite trust him either, but I think he's a pretty good strategist and television presence. He manages to get the language right, which is difficult for Democrats.

I agree socialism is a terrible electoral strategy...the problem for me is that I think it doesn't really matter what Democrats do, it's still going to be hung over them, similar to how the word "liberal" was for many years. Due to hyperpartisanship and media bias, anything that anyone on the left does is thrown onto Democrats. There was breathless media hype that Minnesota and then Kenosha were 1968 moments. There were months of sustained attacks against BLM, disinformation campaigns everywhere online and on Fox News. The defunding the police suggestions were mostly from a minority of Democrats and activists and ignored or condemned by most of the party, and I think they managed to diffuse the issue overall, but it's an example of how something, somewhere, will always be used as a weapon against them - another version of death panels, Green New Deal, etc. I think the party has a lot of hard questions ahead, but I also think what they should realize - but obviously can't say out loud - is many of these races were going to be lost anyway. They let polling get to their heads. They should have focused more defensively and not fallen for the same trap many fell for in 2016 - that Trump was going to be a drag on the ticket for the GOP. A lot of Rose Twitter absolutely loathes Buttigieg. Generally that means the person is doing something right.

I'm glad to hear about Underwood, as I've seen nothing but praise for her work, even if she doesn't get the attention that the Squad or Katie Porter tend to get. Oberweis is an uber-rich moron who just runs for office anywhere and everywhere in Illinois until someone is dumb enough to vote him in. I hadn't expected the Senate (although there's still a chance), as I always had a bad feeling about ME and NC, but the loss of some of the people in the House is really dispiriting as many of them were very good reps who genuinely cared about their constituents. At least some are hanging on, and hopefully will be in good shape for 2022. I think Esper was one of the people Trump was going to fire if he won anyway. I don't think so. Paul Ryan had two huge chances and blew both of them. There's no real going back. His vision of the GOP, thin as it was, has no real place in the current party, as they can match his austerity fetish with a frenzied "OWN THE LIBS! OWN THE LIBS!!!" cocaine hysteria that he never could pull off. He'll stay on the sidelines, pontificating and practicing "serious" faces in the mirror. And skipping leg day.

I think that's why he is trying so hard to convince everyone the election was stolen from him, but I guess it's too soon to say at this point. I hope I never have to see or hear from him again.

DeVos and her war profiteering brother should be fully investigated. Sadly that is not likely. As for Trump 2024, that would be a fast way for him to get cash to help pay his debts, and to continue to be in the spotlight. Based on how obese and drugged up he seems to be, I don't think he will last to 2024, but he won't be going away anytime soon.

I think McCaskill was a very adroit politician who held on as long as she could, and I'm sorry she lost. It's just that I am always very concerned about any electoral argument that essentially says white conservative Democrats sacrificed their power so that "others" could have a chance. The image of Ma and Pa Joad being led astray because of gays, trans people, or women who don't want to be sent to prison for buying birth control is classic Republican framing, and she is being paid handsomely to spread that to millions of viewers at a time when the courts are lined with people who are more than happy to execute her vision. It's dehumanizing and dangerous. The irony is that many Bernie supporters share her view, which just shows you the toxicity of the horseshoe theory.

Looks like Perdue is under 50%, which is huge. I know a lot of people hate Ossoff, for some reason, but he'd be a very good senator and I hope he can turn things around in the runoff, along with Warnock. Runoffs don't usually go well for Democrats in Georgia, but the results show this isn't a normal year. If Stacey Abrams is involved there's a pretty good chance at something happening.

That's based on exit polling, which is unreliable and often outright dangerous. I do think that Trump expanded his support among minorities, in large part because Trumpism is a cult, not a party or ideology, and cults tend to bleed more colors. With that said, I think the immediate lunge toward lashing out at wide swathes of voters who in large part actually did support Biden and downticket Democrats is the type of peacocking and righteous outrage Olympics that helps to further splinter an already very splintered party. The New York Times pays Charles Blow to tell readers that all white gay people are untrustworthy - what are you meant to do with that? Then you have the problems with Hispanic support that were looming all year, but were ignored, yet instead of a deeper fix into these concerns I just see people saying Hispanics only support dictators, or Hispanics hate themselves, and so on. This is not the time for generalizations, but that is all social media gives you.

I remember some of the shilling from Sherman about the stimulus, although that was media-wide (GOP stooge Wolf Blitzer was especially abhorrent). His giddiness is truly pathetic and demeaning of his position, and hell, even of Politico, which does have some talented people. I saw a clip of him on Morning Joe and he and the others were smirking and giggling away over Republicans winning seats. Mika was doing her usual smirk that I am never sure is down to plastic surgery gone wrong or just the constant idea that she is better than she really is, and Joe continues to look like a sunburnt corn husk. They're both disgusting human beings who were key in getting Trump into the White House and are a great example of why MSNBC is such garbage. Anyway:

Like clockwork, the media and pundits, including one who ran on abortion to keep her seat, remind us that we need to be thrown under the bus.

After all the jeering about Biden calling a lid, Trump doing so is hilarious. It's 58K now.

The logic for Arizona with the Trump people is he was doing well with the current vote and that will mean 10-30K win in the end. We'll see whether that is true. I'm hoping Georgia may pull it out in the end, but I know that's a tall order. Whatever happens there, Stacey Abrams - who was viciously attacked for months by the horseshore brigade and Trump cultists - has more than earned a key role in the party's future.

@Khanthere's nothing wrong with feeling discouraged. As Gwyneth Alden once said, we took the armor off our hearts, and we let hope come in. The good thing is that, unlike Gwyneth, Amelia Heinle cannot actually kill us, even if some of her Y&R work suggests otherwise.

Trump is the ugly, fat face of a longstanding problem. I grew up seeing the Clinton Death List hysterics and Rush Limbaugh calling Chelsea Clinton a dog on national television. Then I had to see the 2004 campaign which ran on laws that would have meant gay couples could not even have hospital visitation rights, alongside vicious smear campaigns against Vietnam veterans, including a 2002 series of ads which would morph the faces of veterans into terrorists. And of course the Iraq invasion, which got to the point where we were so desperate to bully other countries for not supporting our warmongering that we could no longer even use the term "French fries." I think Obama's electoral success masked just how desiccated much of America is.

Sorry, didn't mean to post this right after the above as it feels like I'm trying to bring good news down. It is good news for the White House...this tweet thread is about how bad it is on the state level. The best to hope for is the gerrymanders still don't hold up enough, as they didn't in 2006 or 2018.

I have a feeling AOC won't be running again, based on her recent Vanity Fair interview. (although I don't think she will be primarying Schumer either - she would lose badly and also burn all the bridges she clearly wants to build in DC). That's a very moving clip. Thanks @Vee . One of the reasons that the right focus so much on shaming and smearing anyone who wants to talk about the sins of America is because they know that if we can never properly look back, we can't look forward. I just hope the Democrats can figure out how to connect more with the Hispanic vote, in a way beyond saying "but Julian Castro" or speaking Spanish, and without going along with those like certain Bernie supporters who spent a great deal of time and energy pitting black voters against Hispanic voters.

dp sorry

Leftists are right about a few things, one of them being that it doesn't matter how moderate a Democrat claims to be, many will still see them as a socialist. That doesn't mean I think Bernie was a better choice than Biden (I think Biden was one of the very, very, very few Democrats who could have won against Trump [if he wins]), but in places like Staten Island, Oklahoma, South Carolina, rural districts of Minnesota, etc. it wouldn't have mattered if Zombie Reagan was the House Speaker. There are some places that were going to be difficult to hold in an election year, especially against a figure like Trump who is beloved by many in these areas. I do think House Democrats bought into their own polling too much and got too overconfident, which, again, Biden's campaign people never did. Another thing I find myself agreeing with more and more with some on the left about is the establishment Democrats who are addicted to being in tears over how powerless they are. I cringed all the way through a long tweet thread a little while ago with Paul Krugman basically going on about how Biden winning was meaningless. So many people sacrificed their money, their time, their mental health, and potentially their lives to make this happen. That type of talk, especially from privileged people, makes me just say kiss my ass.

@Veethat did make me laugh. So did this: (I'm not fond of third parties but I actually do think Jorgensen helped a bit this year...)