the meme that you should vote third party or stay home because the Democrat isn’t liberal enough for them.

You understand Russia well enough, but if you think the left is upset at a Democrat for not being liberal enough, you really don’t understand left politics. Liberalism is fundamentally a conservative ideology. It was liberals that made the Democrats into weak and ineffective corporate bureaucrats, thus setting the stage for the latest rise of fascism. (That’s how fascism always takes root BTW.)

You are also buying into the establishment bullshit argument that the left doesn’t show up for elections. Left leaning voters are the most reliable voting demographic in the country, in spite of the Democratic establishment blaming them for all their failures.

If just half the energy wasted lecturing the left were put to good use, we wouldn’t have Trump in the first place.

Everything but Biden.

An event that would only be watched by voters who already support Harris.

The pandemic is over. Now it’s endemic, significantly less lethal, and our own immune systems are better prepared. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take it seriously, but it’s not the same situation we faced in 2020.

COVID now isn’t what COVID was during the initial outbreak. Current mutations are significantly less lethal. Between the vaccines and the fact that almost everyone has had it at least once by now, we are far more prepared to handle it. It’s still something that should be taken seriously, but it’s also well into the endemic phase. This is the steady state where humanity will have to coexist with COVID indefinitely, not the pandemic where talking about “super spreader events” is reasonable.

He was arguably a worse president than even Trump. Which of them is a worse human being is a different question.

Nobody has forgotten the stutter.

Of the two, I think the Democratic consultants do more damage.

There are very few people in the world that are more worthless than Democratic political consultants.

That’s a pretty generous summation of the problems with Biden’s debate performance. It was also hardly a one-off. Every time Biden appears it’s a coin flip for which Biden shows up, which is why he appears so infrequently.

You are absolutely right about how Trump’s bullshit gets largely ignored by the press though.

Everybody who voted for Biden didn’t even vote for Biden. The 2020 election wasn’t about Biden or Harris, it was about Trump.

Voters rejected Kamala pretty hard in the 2020 primary. I’m pleased with the current momentum and thrilled with her VP pick, but associating Kamala’s run with respect for voter’s wishes is a bit of a stretch. It was the Democratic establishment that positioned her to be the candidate, not voters.

Same thing.

There are certainly a lot of places where Democrats have fallen short but, in the big picture, Democrats are far less hostile to average Americans than the Republicans.

The worse the Republicans get, the more people want to see the Democrats as the “good guys”. That has unfortunately not been validated by Democratic policy most of the time. They do try to cater to average Americans, but only in ways that are palatable to the donor class. Republicans offer nothing to average Americans and rely entirely on culture war nonsense for popular support.

Something like “Drumpf”?

The most honest and useful measure is median net worth bracketed by age, and that’s exactly what the article uses. It’s not twisting anything.

the only challengers could not meet a reasonable bar.

There were challengers that got the required signatures in 49-50 states. That’s not a reasonable bar for a single debate? The key is that word “reasonable”. The bar we have now is that the establishment media grants them that label, and that’s not reasonable. The press is supposed to be adversarial to power, but today’s mainstream media literally represents power and the status quo.

This establishment/media conspiracy you seem to like is in your head.

It’s not exactly a conspiracy, at least not in the mode of a secret cabal of powerful shadowy figures pulling the strings. However, it is absolutely real and understanding it is critical to media literacy. What kind of salary do you think a talking-head makes on MS-NBC? Right out of the gate, how do you think that impacts their perspective on the status quo? I know you see it clearly at Fox “News”, but you don’t think it exists at CNN?

What about local news, that’s pretty independent? The context of this video was part of the reaction that mainstream media had when their cultural hegemony started slipping due to the explosion of independent media. They have largely solved the “problem” now, since strong-arming social media to favor “trustworthy” news sources. The definition of “trustworthy” includes Fox BTW, but excludes all independent news. This was achieved by dragging social media CEOs in front of congress and threatening a massive regulation regime.

Oh, and Williamson never broke 5% vs only 2 other people. In 2020 there were almost two dozen participants.

Better than Harris with the exception of a two day bump she got by calling out Biden for bad racial policy. Also, 5% with two dozen participants puts her over the average.

You seem to be asserting that you think the DNC should elevate lesser-known candidates to equal stature of a well-known candidate

Based on what? Me never saying anything of the sort?

They should set a reasonable bar where all candidates that can prove themselves serious, unaided, can participate equally in DNC sponsored events.

This is exactly what I’m saying. Would you say that’s happening? What presidential candidates will be given equal time to Harris for a floor speech at the convention? Where were the 2024 primary debates?

They should set a reasonable bar where all candidates that can prove themselves serious

Marianne Williamson is every establishment wonk’s favorite “unserious” candidate. Yet she somehow did better than a lot of “serious” candidates in the 2020. Who is or is not a “serious” candidate is dictated by the political and media establishments.

You are ignoring or rewriting every argument I make into something unrecognizable. I never said there should be no threshold for inclusion. Blackballing every potential candidate before they even declare is another thing entirely. No candidate is “serious” when the media won’t put it Tennessee n the air. Remember when MSNBC put Trump’s empty podium on the air instead of covering Bernie’s announcement? They even had a reporter there, but staton management got a call from the Hillary campaign and it was shut down.

You can quit lecturing me on the process and it’s rationalizations. I guarantee that I’m more familiar with them than you are, so quit being condescending.

I believe it was you who brought up debates. All I want is the Democrats to stop muscling progressives off mainstream media, give them a podium for a convention speech (since the primary is over) then let the chips fall where they may. Is that so unreasonable? I don’t even think anyone but Harris has a real shot, but messaging candidates are important.

Ultimately the message here is, progressives, sit the fuck down, shut the fuck up, and tow the party line. All I want is the appearance of a contest, but even that is considered radical.

How many voters do you think read up on candidates on Wikipedia? Come on, pretend to be at least a little savvy.

Find the names yourself. It will be a good exercise in media literacy. They aren’t hidden.

When did I say it’s the DNC’s job to support a specific candidate, or are you agreeing with me? In any case, it sure doesn’t look like they learned anything.

I don’t trust your judgement as to who makes a strong or weak candidate. I certainly don’t trust the judgement of a party establishment that backed Hillary in 2016 and Biden this year.