Lost in all the sturm und drang is that a year from now, we could be looking at COVID under control and a new normal underway, America NOT at war, and modest but negligible inflation paired with consistent economic growth.

A lot could change, but this outlook is *very* possible. For all the back and forth about "messaging," "popularism," "deliverism" and this or that, I think the thing that's MOST likely to decide the midterms is whether or not kids are in schools without masks.

It'll be a mood, not a message folks.

The Congressional Libra Caucus is truly unmatched. I mean...

With news of means-testing fever re-emerging, I thought it'd be good to resurface this piece on government inefficiencies and how things like means-testing makes programs more cumbersome to administer—therefore making it harder for the benefits to be felt.
theatlantic.com/politics/archi… Every time we've been given the opportunity to make social welfare programs universal, there's always an effort to make sure that *certain* groups aren't getting any "extra benefits" they "haven't earned."

This is flatly racist, and it'd be nice if we started saying so loudly.

For what it's worth, I think a big problem Democrats will face shortly is a whole generation of 18-35ish year old voters who'd otherwise be diehard Blue Team collectively saying "meh, what even is the point?" instead of showing up at the ballot box. This cohort has seen two financial crises, a raging climate crisis, rising authoritarianism, and institutions failing to respond to any of it adequately.

The party's pitch of "hey we're better than the other side" has a STEEP diminishing margin of return in the face of all that.

I get the frustration with Republicans speaking at our convention. I really do. I'm a "burn the Republican Party to the ground and salt the earth" kind of Democrat.

It shouldn't (and likely won't) be like this four years from now, but right now it is. Here's why I'm ok with it: Each of the Republicans speaking are committing to voting for a candidate running on the most progressive platform in our nation's history.

That platform looks the way it does because of the organizers, agitators, and others who willed it and pressured it into existence.