The phenomenon Matt describes here — activists refusing to celebrate half-measures — is a fascinating contrast with how satisfied conservatives are by Trump. He didn’t deliver on killing the ACA so they just agreed to stop caring about that.
Part of this asymmetry is that conservatives are happy to control courts if it means they’ll get wins/block the left eventually, and progressives are more focused on passing big legislation. The irony being that conservatives accuse *the left* of needing courts to do their work.
And it’s not like left-wing politicians don’t try! In 2016, when he made his final surrogate stops for Clinton, Sanders emphasized that she could appoint a justice who’d overturn Citizens United. Protest voters didn’t care, even though that was absolutely their only shot at CFR.
But the ACA thing is a good example and suggests that conservative outrage is often untethered from outcomes. They *had majorities on record for repeal* and couldn’t pull it off. And they just stopped caring and let Ken Paxton sue over the mandate in the hope he gets lucky.

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More from @daveweigel

29 Dec
Howard Dean once told @AriBerman that his fights with Rahm were good bc they forced the media to cover his (Dean's) 50-State Strategy. Interesting question here: Why the same sort of story (squad v centrists) didn't get much of squad's agenda covered.
If you watched TV in competitive races, you were informed that the squad (usually AOC) was all about socialism, boycotting Goya, and defunding police. That wasn't their legislative agenda!
You're seeing the splashback now with the various "conservative squads." None of them have a governing agenda, the premise is that the squad is socialist and socialism must be stopped, whatever it is. (Don't say "free money," that's a Trump policy now.)
Read 4 tweets
17 Dec
Here's how 2020 would have gone 1) if Biden only got as many votes as Clinton '16, while Trump hit his 2020 turnout number and 2) if Trump only got as many votes as he did in that election, while Biden hit *his* 2020 turnout number. OH is really red now and VA is really blue.
The map on the left is basically the same as the "real election numbers rescued from the secret CIA server farm" map, the map on the right is basically the high-end Dem fantasy of how 2020 could have gone.
Biden got 2,679,165 votes in Ohio. Had Trump gotten exactly as many votes as he got in 2016, and not one more, he'd have still won the state by 161,841 votes.
Read 4 tweets
15 Dec
I have fractures on both 1) a tooth and 2) the little charge-container that my headphones came with, and I honestly am more annoyed by 2 bc the company phased it out and I can't replace it.
(Who cares, but I've always had a weak left canine tooth - it's a baby tooth that the real tooth never descended to replace. Probably getting invasive surgery to end the year, which seems right for the time.)
(I realized over the weekend that the tooth had split in half yet is still in my mouth so I'm just trying to avoid taffy or caramel apples or whatever food would most comically yank the tooth out of my skull.)
Read 4 tweets
14 Dec
I wonder if QAnon in a Biden presidency will flip, and insist that a secret army of deep state operatives are *preventing* the Khmer Rouge-style plans Biden had for America.
Like, "When President-in-exile Trump tweeted 'GET READY!' he was sending a signal to the patriots to call off Biden's order to collective all of Iowa's farms, which is why it didn't happen."
I Am The Resistance Inside the Biden Administration
Read 4 tweets
4 Dec
Rep. Buddy Carter, evoking Chuck Schumer's comment that if Dems win Georgia they can "change the world":

"I like the world just like it is, and I don't want to change it!"
"I've heard many of you ask me: Well, why should I vote, it's rigged? You have to get out."

He assures the crowd "the president is out there making sure this was a transparent and honest election."
Public Service Commissioner Bubba McDonald continues the theme: "Don't be pressed by somebody saying, I'm just gonna sit it out, I don't like what they did in the general election. You've gotta get over it. Please, get over it."
Read 5 tweets
2 Dec
Interesting Q for Rs post Trump is if they embrace his fairly popular “hand out money” policies or return to less popular “quote Reagan and don’t give people free stuff” policies. ImageImage
The “Trumpism or Ryanism” question feels pretty settled to me! The low point of Trump’s popularity wasn’t around any particular scandal, it was when Ryan convinced him that he had a mandate to replace the ACA with high risk pools.
But if the “lol the government always makes things worse” talking point can survive the CARES act it can survive anything
Read 4 tweets

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