I am making peace with the possibility Democrats will hand Trump four more years by nominating a candidate with endless electability red flags.
- low POC support
- low support among age groups with high turnout
- polling weakly in swing state head to heads
- left of electorate
- low POC support
- low support among age groups with high turnout
- polling weakly in swing state head to heads
- left of electorate
I am not going to spend another year gnashing helplessly as some on the left lead is headlong into another Trump win.
If people want to ignore the alarms and usher in a 40-State defeat, so be it.
If people want to ignore the alarms and usher in a 40-State defeat, so be it.
I began arriving at this peace by reversing the thinking that has consistently led to my worst political disappointments.
Rather than clinging helplessly to the hope that enough voters would do the right thing to avoid ruinous results, I started from the opposite place.
Rather than clinging helplessly to the hope that enough voters would do the right thing to avoid ruinous results, I started from the opposite place.
I began by imagining what the dumbest, most self-defeating outcome would be.
Nominating a candidate whose proxies lost every competitive race in red and purple districts in 2018, for example.
Nominating someone who hasn’t faced negative campaigning or real scrutiny.
Nominating a candidate whose proxies lost every competitive race in red and purple districts in 2018, for example.
Nominating someone who hasn’t faced negative campaigning or real scrutiny.
It is so irrational to risk another four years of Trump on that kind of wager that it is exactly what Dems may well do.
An electorate that wasn’t sufficiently motivated by even Trump’s potential election in 2016 is more likely to be stupid twice than smart once.
An electorate that wasn’t sufficiently motivated by even Trump’s potential election in 2016 is more likely to be stupid twice than smart once.
I’ll vote for whoever is the nominee.
However, I am not going to twist in another nine months of PTSD-like anxiousness over the inability to convince people that the thing bearing down on them on those train tracks is, in fact, a train.
However, I am not going to twist in another nine months of PTSD-like anxiousness over the inability to convince people that the thing bearing down on them on those train tracks is, in fact, a train.
If we make the 2020 election a face off between two narcissistic populists where one of them already won swing states in 2016 while the other’s proxies got battered in 2018, we deserve what we get.
I hope for the best but know better than to expect it from voters.
I hope for the best but know better than to expect it from voters.
And just because I have to say this every damn time, I’m a progressive. I live in a progressive town specifically because it is progressive. Trump carried <10% of the vote.
I’m also an adult who knows my personal politics would get badly defeated in Sharice Davids’ district.
I’m also an adult who knows my personal politics would get badly defeated in Sharice Davids’ district.
I’d love for the country to be more left.
Ignoring the reality that it isn’t, is not a route to making that so.
It is a route to re-electing Trump.
Ignoring the reality that it isn’t, is not a route to making that so.
It is a route to re-electing Trump.
