The Politics Thread

[DRW50]

I see the remaining Bernie deadenders are cheering because he held the whitest rally possible in Philly, and are making yet more empty promises about youth power...the same youth who never showed up for him in 2020.

Posted and deleted by one of Bernie's cowardly team members. Their  obsession with Pete will never leave.

[DRW50]

This made me laugh...nice that something can these days...

 

[Juliajms]

It really is horrific. There are just going to be more and more women and girls made to suffer through these awful tragedies.

[DRW50]

 

[DramatistDreamer]

This is chilling but not surprising, sadly. Ever since I saw a news report that stated a poll that supposedly showed that Democrats could very well hold onto Congress, I had been wondering what Republicans and their backers would try in response. Republicans have cast aside any veneer of wanting to be for the ordinary American that they used to claim interest in helping. Now it’s about barefaced greed and naked power grabs.

The only way to counteract this is to have an effective strategy to get people to the polls and get them to vote for enough Democrats with integrity this November.

[Vee]

 

[dragonflies]

 

[DRW50]

In the last  few days I'd noticed the accounts that are often tied to ops and strictly follow narratives given to them, like Jack Pussbag or whatever his name is (who was heavily involved in pushing the Canadian trucker convoy, Pizzagate, etc.), were launching hard attacks against Fetterman, all the way to bot-heavy hashtag trends calling him Uncle Fester to outright ridiculing him for having a stroke. Given how close Trump and Oz are, and how tied they likely are to the same murky figures, I assume this is a Hail Mary after the news that McConnell was cutting him off.

You'd think Oz's campaign would let them do the dirty work, but no, clearly not:

The irony is a lot of Fetterman supporters are Bernie groupies who relished these types of attacks against Biden (and before him, Hillary). Now that Fetterman is likely seen as part of the establishment, and they are drawn to this type of aggressive trolling, I wonder if some of them will end up supporting Oz...

[DRW50]

Ron DeSantis' takeover of various school boards was a demoralizing way to start the night, but in more positive news, Pat Ryan (take that, Frank!) kept the swing seat NY-19 (Antonio Delgado resigned to become lt. governor). Various polls, including from various Democratic polls, had the Republican, media hyped Marc Malinaro, winning by 8-10%. The DCCC, stretched very  thin, didn't spend a lot of money here  (VoteVets did spend 500K). 

Ryan won in part due to rural counties not showing up as much while blue counties overperformed, but he also very  pointedly, with no apologies, ran on choice, in spite of a media ecosystem that loves to jeer Democrats who take this approach (just ask Mark Udall).

Some will say special elections don't matter, they will say  New York is not important, or that Biden narrowly won in 2020 so Ryan narrowly winning is not a big deal, but this was a seat seen as a likely pickup until not long ago. 

If this type of energy and smart campaigning can be  kept in 2022, it is still going to be very hard, especially in some states, but at least there's a chance. 

 

 

[Vee]

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I do think Dobbs has made a big difference, and the media has not wanted to acknowledge that or has tried to downplay it as much as possible. There are a handful of articles and some TV punditry indicating it has changed the dynamic of the midterms, but a lot of them still need to believe in a GOP wave for the sake of excitement and keeping the more outspoken libs in their place.

[DramatistDreamer]

The downside is that since this was a special election to fill Delgado’s vacated seat, Pat Ryan will have to run again in a few months. Hopefully he repeats.

Knowing that he will have to run again in a few months, they may be directing spending toward that campaign.

[Vee]

 

[DRW50]

The whole thing is  so confusing (made worse by the Cuomo-appointed judges nuking the original district maps). As far as I could figure out, Pat Ryan is not running for this seat in November. He is running for NY-18 (he won the primary for that last night). Josh Riley is running in November, while Molinaro is running in NY-19 again. 

With so many seats at risk I think they just didn't want to throw money at a special election. They did the same with the Texas seat that Mayra Flores won for the GOP in June (getting her endless adoring media attention that Ryan is, naturally, not getting). They did put some in once it was getting close. I'm not sure if it was a good thing in this case they didn't get as involved. 

I just hope they can keep up the momentum as the media is already bound and determined to rig a GOP landslide at all costs. 

[Juliajms]

I'm glad Biden was ready to answer that question about fairness in the loan forgiveness program. I don't really think much of the question itself, because since when are things fair? I mean, please. Some people die of starvation days after they are born, meanwhile others are born millionaires, is that fair? Was it fair that lots of elderly people died in poverty before social security passed in to law?  Should we just stop progress because it isn't "fair".

I do think he was wise to cap it at $125,000 income though. Also to make it $10,000, instead of blanket forgiveness. Plus, the number of black people with student loans is almost double that of white people so I think it address that initial inequity. You can't please everyone, but this was a decent middle ground.

[Juliajms]

This on the other hand irritates me.