this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2024
362 points (97.4% liked)

politics

19143 readers
3042 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Bethany Mandel, the controversial right-wing pundit, home-schooling advocate, and prolific social media poster, is running for county school board — as a Democrat.

Though the school board race in deep-blue Montgomery County, Maryland, is technically nonpartisan, Mandel’s campaign published a graphic on Tuesday listing her as a Democrat. The move quickly raised eyebrows online, and prompted a community note on X (formerly Twitter) stating, “Bethany Mandel has identified as a Republican numerous times on her personal Twitter account.”

Those who know Mandel recognize her for writing molten-hot takes and far-right political commentary. The most infamous was a column, published in the wake of the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, titled “We Need to Start Befriending Neo Nazis.” (Mandel is Jewish.) Her content can be cringey, like her column defending Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ wife: “If Casey DeSantis is a Karen, she’s our Karen.” She’s posted dehumanizing rhetoric, too. “Not nuking these fucking animals is the only restraint I expect and that’s only because the cloud would hurt Israelis,” she’s written about Palestinians.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Dkarma 112 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] BrianTheeBiscuiteer 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I can't count the number of times a Democratic candidate has tried this shit in a deep red district. As soon as I hear about it happening, then... y'know... one time.

[–] Chocrates 12 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Didn't Kyrsten Sinema basically do this?

[–] Floppybutton 11 points 9 months ago

Yes, basically. But she did hold office as a dem for a term before she flipped. Though she was basically Joe Manchin in horn-rims and a skirt, at best.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 9 months ago

No thank you.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This needs to not be legal.

[–] BrianTheeBiscuiteer 29 points 9 months ago (2 children)

As a condition of running for a nonpartisan office I think you should be forbidden to claim association with any political party.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Which party a school board member was a part of was incredibly impactful during the pandemic and directly influenced what actions were taken to protect the students. 'non partisan' is a myth in this day and age.

[–] Godnroc 4 points 9 months ago

People should not be required to pick between teams and should instead be able to choose their opinion on individual issues. Parties just remove middle ground and force voters to cluster together. What if you were against an issue that your party championed? Doesn't matter, you either need to get on board or change teams.

Killing the political party seems like it would be in the people's best interest.

[–] Jimmyeatsausage 8 points 9 months ago

For lots of local offices, there can almost no information about the candidates...but I've found that if you take 5 mintes to search facebook, the extremists are pretty good about outing themselves...especially if you take the time to learn a few dog whistles.

[–] aseriesoftubes 34 points 9 months ago

Attention seeker seeks attention.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

"We Need to Start Befriending Neo Nazis.” (Mandel is Jewish.)

“Not nuking these fucking animals is the only restraint I expect and that’s only because the cloud would hurt Israelis,” she’s written about Palestinians.

Oh hey, looks like you already started making those friends. What a worthless cunt.

[–] CharlesDarwin 23 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I wonder if she figured out what "woke" is yet?

[–] UnderpantsWeevil 8 points 9 months ago

Conservatism is the opposite of whatever liberals stand for, updated daily.

[–] f4f4f4f4f4f4f4f4 22 points 9 months ago

“Playing along with delusions isn’t a kindness to those suffering from other psychological conditions.”

Yet, you worship Donald Trump. Curious!

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (4 children)

School boards have political parties?

[–] Pohl 25 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Homey this is America in the 21st century. Hamburgers have political parties.

[–] Donjuanme 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

My previous favorite hamburger is 2 faced. In my state they have no mask restrictions, in other states they operate in they prohibit masks under any condition. Now I spend a bit (4x as much as I used to spend, 2x as much as current prices) more at a local place, and my burger looks like one you'd see in an advertisement, every time.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (3 children)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] LifeInMultipleChoice 6 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Hamburgers, probably. Chicken sandwiches we know do

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It’s literally in the summary

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yes I read that, I was expressing shock at the concept itself. Sorry for any confusion

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I didn’t mean to be curt either. My reply could easily be seen as dickish, so my apologies. But yes in the USA school board elections are ‘non-partisan’, but any keen observer can glean the partisan leaning of a candidate. It looks as if in this case one must be even keener than usual.

[–] Drivebyhaiku 3 points 9 months ago

As a gently raised Canadian I too was very confused.

But then the whole "registered party member", primary voting thing doesn't really exist here either. Like parties have internal democratically held meetings to figure out their best candidates... But I could technically go to and participate in every party meeting if I wanted to figure out their schedule. People just can't run for office for multiple parties in an election.

Personally I find it a little fucked up that you register your intentions and essentially choose your political circular mail during the initial voting process in the first place. It would not be out of character from this outsider's perspective if school boards in the US were a partisan affair because there's already more infrastructure to create a distinct two party supremacy down there then we of the north are used to.

Just explaining our electoral system to my American friends usually has them very jealous at the general lack of extra steps. Complaining that we still have very much have proportional representation issues to address on the Canadian side usually falls on deaf ears.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

As somebody whose dad was involved in getting 2 schools built while I was in school and was also president of the schoolboard for a time before that, I can confidently say that anybody who runs for a schoolboard position is doing so because they have an agenda.

Oftentimes, that agenda is "I want our schools to be better for our kids," but not always. Sometimes, people run because they have differing opinions on what making schools better means, but sometimes (and rather often right now, it seems) you get somebody whose only goal is to burn it to the ground. Those are the kinds of people who care about political parties in schoolboards - because they're so obsessed with the us vs. them of their politics that it shapes the rest of their lives.

Local politics can be a cutthroat and dirty game. I'll always remember my dad telling me about how he was walking out of a town meeting one time when he saw an old lady point to him and loudly say to her friends, "That's him! That's the enemy!"

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] ATDA 12 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Run as a Dem and win: LLUL DEMZ ZO ZTUPID

Run as a Dem and lose: WAAAAHHHH CENZURSHIP CANZEL CULTURE

Calling it.

[–] cheese_greater 7 points 9 months ago

Can't tell if shes 35 or 53

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Bethany Mandel, the controversial right-wing pundit, home-schooling advocate, and prolific social media poster, is running for county school board — as a Democrat.

Though the school board race in deep-blue Montgomery County, Maryland, is technically nonpartisan, Mandel’s campaign published a graphic on Tuesday listing her as a Democrat.

The most infamous was a column, published in the wake of the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, titled “We Need to Start Befriending Neo Nazis.” (Mandel is Jewish.)

Mandel’s campaign is part of a broader push by conservative culture warriors to take over school boards and decide what children can be taught.

Oklahoma’s Republican superintendent of public schools recently appointed the woman who runs Libs of TikTok, the anti-LGBTQ meme account, to a state library advisory committee.

In a column defending her refusal to use trans people’s chosen names and pronouns, she wrote: “Playing along with delusions isn’t a kindness to those suffering from other psychological conditions.”


The original article contains 1,226 words, the summary contains 156 words. Saved 87%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] Additional_Prune 6 points 9 months ago

"If not me, then who?" An opposing candidate, that's who, even if that opposing candidate is my cat, you flaming sack of kookery.

load more comments
view more: next ›