15 Comments
User's avatar
⭠ Return to thread
NanceeM's avatar

Unfortunately having the lesbian Nessel on the ticket is probably not right for the current moment. I think the backlash toward anything that might be lumped into the "DEI" category is real.

Expand full comment
ArcticStones's avatar

You do realize that Trump has just appointed an openly gay man as his Treasury Secretary? Scott Bessent is married to John Freeman, a New York prosecutor. Just like Pete Buggieg and his husband, Bessent & Freeman have two children.

Expand full comment
ArcticStones's avatar

Other openly gay Trump appointees include:

– Ric Grenell, 58, presidential envoy for special missions. He was Trump’s Director of National Intelligence during his first term.

– Tammy Bruce, 62, the new State Department Spokesperson was a Fox News contributor.

– Jacob Helberg, 35, Undersecretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment.

– Bill White, 57, Ambassador to Belgium.

– Art Fisher, 49, Ambassador to Austria.

PS. Peter Thiel, of whom JD Vance has long been a protégé, is another prominent right-wing gay man. Thiel’s company Palantir earns its wealth primarily from government contracts. I very much doubt Trump is going to change that.

Expand full comment
stevk's avatar

IOKIYAR

Expand full comment
JanusIanitos's avatar

We do not win by surrendering to conservative ideology. If we avoid any candidate that could be called "DEI" then that requires us to only go with straight white men.

Look, I'm not going to say that there are no opportunities to moderate and win more voters on various issues. Whether that's worth it is a complex discussion. What I am saying is that voluntarily removing all elements of diversity from our tickets to appease conservatives will not help us in the slightest and will in fact harm us.

Expand full comment
Toiler On the Sea's avatar

Baldwin winning in a Trump won-swing state in probably what was the "peak woke backlash"national environment shows sexual orientation isn't really an issue.

Expand full comment
michaelflutist's avatar

No, it doesn't show that. It shows that voters are willing to vote for what they consider a "good" LGB candidate downballot, and notice I left off the T, because trans people are a designated target for bullying right now.

Expand full comment
Jonathan's avatar

Baldwin was an exceptionally good campaigner and now is entrenched for life(if that's her ambition)

Expand full comment
Jonathan's avatar

Baldwin was an exceptionally good campaigner and now is entrenched for life(if that's her ambition)

Expand full comment
Jonathan's avatar

I hope this is never a reason for any democratic slate to be altered; fuck the Republicans and their bigotry

Expand full comment
michaelflutist's avatar

I agree with you, but unfortunately, it's clear that feminist women are not yet going to win a presidential election in the U.S. That may change if one is running during a near-depression, the way Obama won in 2008.

I've told this story before, but I'm going to repeat it now. After Senator Obama won the Iowa caucuses, I asked my father what he thought of him. He said white people are too racist to elect a Black man for president, and he knew that because he remembered how things were in Baton Rouge when he was Artist in Residence at LSU from 1966-67 and didn't think their attitudes had really changed. I asked him again after Senator Obama won the New Hampshire primary. His answer hadn't changed. So I asked him: "When New York has its primary, who will you vote for?" And he answered "Obama, of course! Because if I do anything else, I'd be letting the racists control me." He didn't believe Obama would really win until Ohio was called on Election Day, but he didn't let that determine his vote. And if the American voters want to continue destroying the country due to bigotry, that's on them, but we must never vote against a candidate because of what they are, rather than how qualified, wise and judicious they are.

Expand full comment
Jonathan's avatar

Great post

Expand full comment
Andrew's avatar

Does AG have term limits? Bc the whole conversation seems kind of moot if she can run for a third term. Going from AG to Lt Gov would suck.

Expand full comment
Jonathan's avatar

Agreed.. LG is only good if running for another office.. AG is the better job, second only to Gov

Expand full comment
sacman701's avatar

I don't think anyone would care that Nessel is gay. She codes as a normie, and if the GOP brought it up it would turn swing voters off.

Expand full comment
ErrorError