We have a nascent left-wing movement in the local governments of many cities. It's loose and relatively unorganized but it's more than we've had in decades. Bernie's run in 2016 has a lot to do with that.
Our primary election turnout is abysmal, and Americans need to realize that the primaries are how the parties get reformed. Maybe the Democratic Party will have its Tea Party moment in 2026.
Job #1 has always been to loot the treasury. It's a class war and they just scored a major victory.
This is why I don't even think Trump really cares all that much about immigrants, or trans persons, or abortion rights. All of it was campaign rhetoric to keep him out of jail, and otherwise they are all in the same basket of people he doesn't spend a second thinking about. The problem is that also means he also doesn't care about what the white supremacists and the evangelists in his party will do.
This was also my takeaway from the debate. Trump looked weak from the jump when he let Harris take the lead in shaking his hand. He was on the defensive all night. All this capped off by a cringe-inducing "I saw people on television talking about it" when fact-checked on the immigrants eating cats and dogs comment (which was also batshit insane enough to lose some of the 67 million watching). Truly an "okay, let's get you to bed, grandpa" moment.
The substance behind his words has never mattered to his supporters, no matter how vile or dissembling, but the vibe absolutely does. They won't turn around and vote for a Black woman, but there has to be a loss of enthusiasm that comes about from this, if not breaking the spell entirely for a few people. He looked old, small, and weird.
Yes, it happens, but the majority of American workers still had Labor Day off this year.
It would have a measurable impact on voter turnout.
I'm subjected to a few hours of Fox News/right-wing YouTube a week, and it's certainly felt like the vibe has shifted. Reading between the lines with some of the talking heads, it sounds like they'd rather Trump lost and the GOP made gains in both the House and the Senate.
They can still run the party status quo ante that way for at least a little while. If Democrats get through voting rights legislation, the GOP will be forced to come up with an actual party platform beyond "loot the treasury."
And it's bound to come up at the debate (if the debate happens). Some of his low-info voters will hear about it for the first time that night, and it being a simple thing is important in that scenario.
I do the same, but it has to be on my phone, and last I checked that wasn't an option with the screen off even with Premium. So I used Vanced (and now Revanced). I have moderate-to-severe tinnitus and this setup might have saved my life once or twice.
I'm not sure what made me feel older, how rough he sounded, or him dropping a self-deprecating McDonald's joke. Talk about a throwback.
I'm also already seeing that "two-bit union buster" line a lot.
Kinzinger, too. Plus with Bernie, Jayapal, and others attending a progressive side show I'm getting the sense progressives (or anyone staunchly anti-corporate) aren't going to get much time on the podium.
If they don't have significant local progressives like Chuy Garcia or Delia Ramirez up there, and their "local" speaker is Pritzker, I'm going to have a real hard time buying this campaign promise.
To put a finer point on the other comment, this is a human rights issue. "You do you" would be enough if an equity of human rights existed in this country for trans people. It does not.
What's going on is an attempted extermination by neglect.