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ArcticStones's avatar

SUCCINCT EXPLANATIONS

“Trump’s policies are not good for American businesses or high income earners. His policies are for the specific benefit of his inner circle – which just happens to include America’s foreign adversaries.”

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The Electoral College is DEI for Red States.

https://marginaliamagazine.com/the-electoral-college-is-d-e-i-for-red-states/

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QUOTE OF THE DAY?

“The American electoral system is basically 500,000 information-resistant people across a handful of states taking a guess and then going “Haha! Oops!" every two to four years. This process takes 18 months and costs four trillion dollars every time.”

– Patrick Cosmos, lawyer and perplexed election observer

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michaelflutist's avatar

Yeah, and add that many of those Americans are operating on prejudices and things they know are true that are false. Where did you see these quotes?

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ArcticStones's avatar

The latter was re-quoted by Carl Quintanilla on BlueSky. Added a link to the second.

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PollJunkie's avatar

I've tried arguing with some of them with simple facts but they deny anything to be true that doesn't fit their worldview. They've even created a propaganda bot called DogeAi to feed their prejudices now since Grok was owning them with facts and figures.

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PollJunkie's avatar

https://usafacts.org/visualizations/electoral-college-states-representation/

The Electoral college is DEI for nobody except the lowest populated states and swing states. I know this is a popular liberal talking point but it's also not true and not helpful. The senate is that, especially for overwhelmingly white rural states BY DESIGN.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/when-adding-new-states-helped-republicans/598243/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2023/us-senate-bias-white-rural-voters/

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ArcticStones's avatar

$ 20 million to depose outdated Democratic incumbents

David Hogg, recently elected Vice Chair of the DNC, has announced that his outside group, Leaders We Deserve, will spend $20 million to elect younger primary challengers to older incumbents in safely Democratic districts. Hogg is not targeting battleground-district members.

The 25-year-old Parkland Massacre survivor and gun control activist described a "culture of seniority politics" that has made the Democratic Party less effective.

Congressional Democrats are bracing for a deluge of primary challenges from younger insurgents who say older and more established incumbents aren't effective foils to President Trump.

https://www.axios.com/2025/04/18/house-democrats-david-hogg-primary-dnc

(Edited)

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Diogenes's avatar

While doddering, ineffective legislators should of course be replaced, seniority should not be ignored entirely. It takes years to master the arcane rules of the House and the Senate, and legislators who have learned all the nuances of immigration, environmental, military, or tax legislation best serve their constituents.

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Ethan (KingofSpades)'s avatar

Yeah, he's out of order unless this is microtargeted against those who have totally checked out (like Ed Towns was). Even so, this is not what a vice-chair does. It's like being on the Student Council, not a member of the Justice League.

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PollJunkie's avatar

The median age of GOP legislators are much less than us and they seem to be doing just fine.

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Diogenes's avatar

"Much less' is not much. The median age of Democratic members of the House is 57.6. The median age of Republican members of the House is 57.5.

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PollJunkie's avatar

I must have read the wrong figures somewhere or maybe it was about comparing the number of legislators in their 70s and 80s. Misinformation is Bipartisan.

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Kevin H.'s avatar

Spending money against dems as a DNC vice chair? Impeach this moron

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PollJunkie's avatar

🤣

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NewEnglandMinnesotan's avatar

It's important to note that David Hogg has specifically stated that he is not targeting members for their age, but rather for their inefficacy. He also recognizes that spendiing against Dems in competitive districts is a non-starter. Some quotes from Hogg from an interview on MSNBC:

"I want to clear one thing up: this is not an issue we're taking with age in particular. Look, there are ineffective older people and ineffective younger people across our party" (2:06-2:13)

"what we're trying to do here is not just focus on primaries where there's, potentially, an older incumbent, but more than anything an ineffective person in that position and then replace them with a generational leader to build the future of our party." (2:56-3:08)

"We're also focusing on competitive races to support the Democrat…we're not going to challenge the Democratic incumbent in those races. We do not want to lose the House here, but we want to help make sure that we win back the House" (3:08-3:21)

The whole interview is worth a watch:

"DNC Vice Chair Hogg launches effort to primary ‘out-of-touch, ineffective’ Dems" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bajt0hvH3hw

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dragonfire5004's avatar

Sounds exactly like the David Hogg I’ve always expected. This has been blown up bigger than it should be thanks to the MSM being run by Republicans now. He’s not trying to create issues in competitive districts with incumbents who have to vote with Republicans sometimes to hold their seats.

He’s trying to get a better overall party by making sure we only ever have true tooth and nail fight the GOP to the last breath Democrats in safe seats and let’s be totally honest here: we don’t have that in most of them.

Part of the problem of our party image is that it’s run by old age Democrats, the pre-Trump ones when working together and trying to get along was the norm. Those politics are gone, they will never ever come back. These Dems need to adjust to reality yesterday or we need better voices to lead us.

Nothing wrong with primary challenges in blue districts, if the incumbents are actually fighting hard for their constituents, they should cruise easily. If they aren’t, they need to go. This is not a time for timidity in the face of far right autocracy, this is a time for action. Anyone who doesn’t agree with that doesn’t belong in Congress period.

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Tigercourse's avatar

I know NY AG James' mortgage issue was brought up here a couple of days ago. I personally wouldn't have cared even if there had been some light fraud - the world had changed, the rule of law is almost dead and it would laughable to look down on one of our own for something like this while Trump runs around free - but it's also looking like even that was exaggerated. She was cosigning for a family member.

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michaelflutist's avatar

If that's the case, was it even wrong at all?

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Burt Kloner's avatar

but some will make a lot more of it than cosigning for a family member and people will believe it

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michaelflutist's avatar

Yes, but if that's all it is, it'll blow over.

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ehstronghold's avatar

Right, people cosign for family members all the time. Like having your parent cosign for you on a mortgage is the only way a lot of millennials and Gen Z people can get mortgages these days because they're so inflated.

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ehstronghold's avatar

Great news everyone, Chris Matthews is back in our lives. /s

No really, he's launching a Substack which every journalist who's no longer employed by the MSM is doing. So if you really want those Tip O'Neill stories you know where to go.

But for the rest of us you can take your business to the following Substacks: The Downballot, The Bulwark, Jim Acosta, Charlie Sykes, Tara Palmeri and others more relevant than Matthews. And there's MeidasTouch if you want constant Dem cheerleading without apology.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/chris-matthews-brings-back-msnbc-hardball-substack-1236193875/

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Wolfpack Dem's avatar

Downballot, TPM (Josh Marshall), and Bulwark (esp. The JVL) are about all the news that I can stand right now.

That's my "circle of trust" anyway. RIP, Kevin Drum.

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ehstronghold's avatar

JVL is great. I really like Will Sommer and Jonathan Cohn's stuff they're doing for The Bulwark.

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Wolfpack Dem's avatar

Especially the science/research focus from Cohn. Very, very important.

Sommet about Lauren Egan gets on my nerves, though.

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ArcticStones's avatar

I highly recommend Heather Cox Richardson’s "Letters From an American". Josh Marshall is great.

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michaelflutist's avatar

I also recommend Democracy Watch,

Marc Elias's show, and Talking Feds, although now part of Meidas Touch, is levelheaded and not extreme at all. I was writing a longer comment about why though I watch Meidas Touch,

I'll never subscribe to it, but when I navigated away from the Substack app to check something on my Opera browser, my draft disappeared. Very disappointing. Maybe I'll type something later on my computer.

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