Among the many reasons this is horseshit, this whole genre of liberal-scolding rests on the premise that the offended heartlanders are responding to what Dems actually say -- the intramural debates in which people like Dowd are involved. They're not!
By & large, Trump's base has no idea what Dems actually say or do. They are responding to a ludicrous caricature they see on RW media (& RW social media). They are responding to lies & conspiracy theories. Dems changing how they talk *won't change any of that*.
It's very weird how America's elite journalists/pundits/etc. wring their hands over "post-truth politics" & the problem of misinformation, but then turn around & treat the things voters do as a direct response to Dem "messaging." Voters rarely HEAR Dem messaging.
Because -- stop me if you've heard me say this a trillion times -- the RW has a giant propaganda machine that carries their messages directly to the ears (& id) of their voters. Dems lob messages out into the MSM & hope for the best.
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Just got done reading The Cold Millions, the newish book by @1JessWalter. It is set amidst the labor struggles of the early 20th century, out west (Spokane & Seattle). It hit me so hard; then as now, the fight for social justice is bloody & frustrating & often seems futile.
But it also shows that all these futile actions, all these frustrations & lost battles, somehow, over time, add up to progress, thanks to people who fight no matter what, even in the face of violence & loss. Couldn't be more timely.
Should also add: it's a fantastic read! I'd place it a notch beneath Beautiful Ruins (my favorite audiobook ever), but completely worth your time. bookshop.org/books/the-cold…
Sorry, commenters, you're wrong: Rise of Skywalker is the worst Star Wars movie & the worst movie of the modern era. The prequels were extremely bad, but TRoS was extremely bad in a *worse way*. It was the worst in the worst way one can be worst.
The sequels were bad in a "auteur with no ear for dialogue & no feeling for actors is given way too much money & freedom & creates a towering, relentlessly clunky, narratively overpacked oddity." I don't wanna watch them, but I can forgive, or at least live with, them.
Here's a thing I wrote about America's new climate ambassador, John Kerry, back when he was just running a climate advocacy group. vox.com/energy-and-env…
I think it's great that Kerry is in this role but, let's be honest, there's no human on earth who can spin or fool other world leaders about the US & climate at this point. They know our promises are good ONLY until another Republican is elected.
What can he tell them? Yes, Biden will issue climate rules via executive authority, like Obama did; he'll say the right things & be a productive negotiating partner, like Obama was. But, just like with Obama, all that work could easily be nuked in 2024, like it never happened.
Wow, I didn't expect much from this podcast ("not a monolith," ok, we get it!) but it turned out to be a total mind blower. @IanHaneyLopez cuts through the "woke vs. shut-up-about-woke" debate in an incredibly productive & thoughtful way. Recommended. stitcher.com/show/the-ezra-…
One insight I wish everyone on the left could hear: the anti-racist message of siding with the oppressed & dispossessed is NOT necessarily appealing to all of the vast category of people we call "people of color." It's certainly not *automatically* appealing.
At the same time, "moderates" need to hear that racial messaging is not some separate thing from economics. The most appealing message, in surveys, is that *rich people are using race to divide & screw working people*.
I used to wonder, "what level of threat would rouse the institutional Democratic Party to actually FIGHT, fight like desperate people willing to do anything to save their country?" It's become pretty clear that there is no such level of threat. They'll politely watch it go under.
The lesson the Dem gerontocracy learned from impeachment is that it was unpopular. It lost them votes. It reaffirmed their priors that fighting back is a losing proposition. None of them reflected on how we've ended up in a social/media environment where that could happen ...
... where an openly criminal scumbag president could loot the country & the public could so fully & profoundly misunderstand the situation that they see impeachment as "partisan squabbling." Instead they just accept the polls & herd in the other direction.
When news of Graham's fraud got out, prominent Democrats called for him to resign. He then used those calls to promote himself to the Trump base.
Two things worth noting about this. First, the message: there are no real rules, no neutral referees. No one *really* cares about principles. There's only a zero-sum competition. To be a loyal member of one's side is to do ANYTHING, illegal or not, to help it win. Anything.