Thread by @drvolts

I'm enjoying that the couch jokes are bugging Republicans but I'm enjoying it almost more that they are bugging harumphing, self-consciously morally superior Dems. "We're better than this." No we're not. Knife those fuckers.

The couch thing is an example of what @joshtpm used to call "bitch slap politics" (I think has wisely used different terms since. "Dominance politics"?) It's not rooted in fact, it's not a substantive critique, it's got nothing to do with policy, it's just ...

@joshtpm ... "we're mocking you because you're pathetic & we feel like it." The irrationality of it, the fact that it's made up & kind of ridiculous, is the *point*. This is not about exchanging semantic information. It's about kicking sand in someone's face. It's a dominance play.

@joshtpm The left is typically on the ass end of these dominance plays, because it is the only mode of engagement that the right understands or is capable of any more. For the right, there's nothing to politics *but* dominance. And the left just loves being the 98-lb weakling.

@joshtpm We are in a rare moment when the left is feeling its oats. It has a little swagger! It's been a long time. Finally, it can stick its chest out, be the one kicking sand instead of the one coughing & apologizing for putting its face in the way. Finally!

@joshtpm It is so, so, SO telling that even in this moment, you have a chorus of folks -- fresh from gazing at themselves in the mirror & complimenting themselves for how reasonable they are -- scolding lefties for showing a little muscle.

@joshtpm I know lots of people wish that politics were a matter of evidence & reasoned argument & coming together despite our differences. And maybe someday we can get some of that back. But right now, it's a knife fight, and being ostentatiously high-minded ...

@joshtpm ... might get you approving notice from the other harumphing pundits, but it won't do shit to keep the fascists out of office. Trump -- fascists generally -- succeed by puffing themselves up to look larger than they are. We need to make them look small. Mockery does that.

Just to conclude: I understand entirely if dominance politics makes you uncomfortable, if you find it aesthetically or even morally distasteful. I too would rather be in a grad seminar. But it clearly *works*. And especially in this election ...

... winning is much more important than a campaign that flatters your personal tastes & predilections. Saving actual lives, preventing actual suffering, is more morally significant than discourse that flatters your identity.

Get a taste for blood. Fight!

Wait, one more point & then I'm really done: if you want to know what reaches & sways semi-engaged swing voters, it's this, not policy. The fact that Dems remain polite even when receiving endless wedgies *communicates more than their 'messaging'*. It communicates weakness.

Just think about the evolution from Biden's "threat to democracy" language (high-minded harumphing from a soapbox) to the Harris/Walz "good lord these are some creepy, weird fuckers" language (what you'd say to a friend). Same basic message. But it *feels* different.