Gillibrand is fairly well liked and she ran ads touting her support for 9/11 victims. She keeps her head down and does the work. A lot of activist types hate her for that, but it works.
Wanna do a thread about popularity and politics because I keep hearing "But Bernie is the most popular politician in the country." Thsi is a story about the infamous 2021 City Council race in my neighborhood where DSA and Chuck Schumer both lined up behind the Democratic candidate in my Biden +16 district and she ended up losing 2-1🧵(1)
During the campaign, some of the people working on the Democratic candidate Felicia Singh's campaign told me they believed she would win because "she's likable" and her oppoent, now Councilwoman Joann Ariola, was not. It is true Ariola was a bit of a divisive figure in the neighborhood and she had lost two previous elections, but the politics was shifting here by 2021 (2)
At the end of the campaign, when it became clear Singh was going to lose, she was canvassing my block, and she met with a neighbor of mine, a lifelong Democrat who probably hadn't voted that way since before 9/11. He was a contractor with an AFL-CIO sticker on his truck, who had built his business from the ground up and was environmentally conscious, using well water in his house and growing his own food. (3)
Greens are holding on to Stuttgart I and thier seat in Munster, and are locked in a very tight race in Berlin's Tempelhof-Schöneberg constituency, which was an SPD seat. The Greens pretty much are responsible for a lot of the recent fuckups but not really paying a political price. #GermanElections
The Chancellor's own constituency in Potsdam 👀 #GermanElections
Talking to some friends in the trans/non binary community yesterday and today. A lot of anger, not so much at voters or Democrats, but at activists, mainly those outside the community, who prioritized issues like sports over housing/jobs/healthcare and helped trigger a backlash against it all. Progressive groups are in a world of hurt going forward
One said progressive activists are like “locusts” who move from one cause to the other, “exploiting marginalized groups and using them to spark unwinnable fights and leaving them in a worst place than before.”
Another said trans people feel like the Left’s “pikemen” saying “we were placed in the front lines by people who have nothing to lose if the battle goes badly.”
She added “we just wanted basic rights and instead we lectured people about pronouns. I just wanted to make sure I can get HRT, I don’t care if some asshole calls me a ‘he.’”
She added “they took down black people by losing the policing issue, immigrants and now us. Palestinians better realize they’re next.”
Brutal. Writing this up.
“Five years ago, the worst thing that happened to me in Miami was some jerk in Florida called me a ‘he.” And that sucked. Now I have to be scared of the cops and everybody else and can’t even access healthcare in the state. How is this better exactly? How has all the activism helped?”
I’m older. My progressivism dates to the Bush era. Back then progressives believed the only acceptable reason for the US to interfere in international affairs was to stop genocide. Then Syria happened and progressive said “actually no, that’s not our problem either.” (1) 🧵
We sat back and allowed genocides to happen in Rwanda, Darfur, Syria, China, Burma and did nothing. Fine. I can accept that. But now the crocodile tears over Palestinians? Suddenly it’s all too much for you to bear? Suddenly the “genocide” is too much?
Fuck off. (2)
And the moral depravity in saying “well it only matters because we give Israel bombs.” As if you would have been able to stomach dismembered Palestinian children if it was Russia or China funding Israel and not us? Do you really think that makes you look righteous? (3)