I don’t want to veer into conversations that are out of bounds with permitted discussion on The Downballot.
That said, Democrats should always aim to be better by being open to different points of view even if the set political agenda isn’t always in line with theirs. Doesn’t mean moving to the right but being inclusive.
Virginia on my mind today though we have the Florida Specials and WI-SC coming up. The VA statewide races also curious to see how VA-01 and VA-02 shake out and what kind of candidates we have available after the 2025 elections.
Speaking of Virginia: how is our senate caucus there these days? If we win a trifecta in the fall are we going to be stymied by our slim 21-19 majority there by another Morissey type, or is the caucus reliable?
Without Joe Morrissey, there to my knowledge isn't a Senate Democrat who is a regular problem, though they can't all necessarily be expected to hold together on everything.
The coattails that we need extend to LG, which breaks ties and so would give us room to lose a vote, as well as a stronger House majority. And hopefully if she wins Spanberger won't appoint a Dem in a vulnerable district to anything.
"Bernie Sanders, AOC rally crowd of 30,000 in Denver’s Civic Center
“We will not allow America to become an oligarchy,” Vermont senator says
Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders have focused their visits on areas represented by Republicans but that have close enough margins to possibly swing toward Democrats in the future. Earlier in the day, the pair visited Evans’ district, for a rally in Greeley.
The district is likely to be a major fight as Democrats seek to regain footing in Congress. About 11,000 people attended the event, according to Colorado Public Radio.
In a news release Friday, Evans criticized Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez for their policies, including their lack of support for the oil and gas industry.
“Congressman Evans is fighting for lower costs, safer communities and making the American Dream possible for all Coloradans. His common-sense approach stands in stark contrast to AOC and Bernie Sanders’ extreme anti-oil-and-gas rhetoric,” according to the statement."
I went to the rally! Insane number of people, the line to the metal detectors at the entrance was looped around the entire park. All the speakers were great; everyone was on message about uniting common people of all idelogical stripes and past vote history against our government of billionaires. We're not going to win just by riling up the left, it will happen when we convince regular working class people, many of whom were deceived into voting for Trump, into rejecting this elitist corrupt government of the richest people in the world. If there's any message that's going to break through to people who aren't already partisan Dems, it's that.
Poll after poll show that Trump’s support amongst Independents has nosedived. And overall, his approval rating is way below that of any other president at this stage of his term. The only exception Trump#2 is slightly above Trump#1.
I don't think we're going to convince them of that. We've been saying it for years and gotten nowhere, or even farther away really. Circumstances might temporarily convince them.
Should be noted that amid the concerns about Conor Lamb as a US Senate candidate in 2028, he himself has talked about the U.S. becoming an oligarchy in responding to AOC's twitter post.
They should probably stop using the term "oligarchy". Most Americans don't/can't understand that word. Just say "robbed by a small number of corrupt billionaires". It still hasn't proved to be a very powerful attack on Republicans but it might gain steam as they blow the country up.
I'm skeptical it matters too much the semantics anyway my impression is when they mention Oligarchy it follows an explanation that comes down to ""robbed by a small number of corrupt billionaires" with maybe the small number part cut out. With the billionaire inauguration and Musk's antics I think it's more salient then when Biden was in the White House but I take your point.
Oligarch is a useful term in this context because it’s most often associated with Russia. Helps to subconsciously reinforce the link to Putin, who Americans do not like.
If we say it enough the word won’t be unknown. Even with only context to work with I think the point should be understood.
I disagree. I think we need to give up and try to meet the voters where they are to some degree. Huge swaths of people are functionally illiterate or read below the grade level that a word like oligarchy is used, or have forgotten or never learned history. We can't count on them hearing the word enough times to absorb it.
Nobody knew what DEI or CRT were before republicans devoted their messaging machine to those. Most people still don’t know what they are but are angry about it anyway.
Plus, voters despise feeling like they’re being talked down to; avoiding a simple, honestly not difficult at all word, for fear of public ignorance is both self-fulfilling and counterproductive.
We need to stop being afraid of these kinds of things with messaging. If we stick to a viable message it will work. It’s simple, to the point, and yes people will understand if we use it for more than a quarter before we abandon it.
All valid points. However, we should also be clear on exactly why we're in the situation today in 2025 regarding oligarchy or whatever else we would call it - It isn't solely because of Trump.
It's because of decades of pervasive corporate influence on the US government, especially from a lobbying perspective. Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, George W. Bush and now Trump are all culpable for why corporations have too much power. Never always was this way.
All this history needs to be summarized in a simple way so that voters understand why to vote for Democrats, not just because of the general bread and butter issues.
Bill Clinton also deserves a lot of blame, and Obama is guilty of not breaking up the banks, so unfortunately, it's not just Republicans who have been at fault.
WISCONSIN Supreme Court race. And the ongoing Early Vote, as tabulated and analyzed by Toby of MGData. Interesting comparisons between 2025 and 2023, when Janet Protasiewicz won and flipped the court to progressive.
I have a strong feeling that Elon Musk’s blatant attempt to buy this election ($100 reward "just" for "signing a petition") is going to help Susan Crawford win this one – as is Trump’s "strong and total endorsement" of the schlemiel Brad Schimel.
Yes, between the growing toxicity of Musk and our recent 10-point WI-SC wins, I've never felt less than cautiously optimistic about this race. Crawford will blow the doors off in Dane, and the WOW counties aren't what they once were for Republicans.
Also, is anyone even trying to make a case that the Superintendent of Public Instruction race is competitive? I had to look up the name of Jill Underly's opponent (Brittany Kinser), because it seems like that race is getting hardly any attention at all.
"Donald Trump just endorsed Brad Schimel. Schimel has spent his entire career on bent knee to right-wing special interests. He said he wants to be part of Trump's "support network". We assumed he had this endorsement locked up months ago."
Do you know if she needs people to text registered voters? My brother pushed me hard to text for the long shot Florida races, but this race is crucial and winnable.
OT, but I can't log on to Threads anymore. When I type in the URL it takes me to Instagram, and when I click on Threads from Instagram it just opens another Instagram window.
I am not on any of those platforms; heck I’ve never even been on Facebook. My wife, who is on Instagram, shared this link with me. When I click on the link myself, I first get a pop-up window asking me to sign up for Instagram. As soon as I close that, I can watch the video.
I hear you. There are perfectly good reasons to be on Facebook or similar sites, as long as one is aware of the tradeoff. As mentioned, my wife is on Instagram – but she has over 8000 followers there, and the platform is integral to her work getting seen online.
Sources have confirmed to CBC News that election day will be on April 28 — meaning federal parties will be sprinting through the shortest election period possible under Canadian law.
A little etymology that I found interesting. "Riding" for an electoral district comes from an Old Norse word that means thirds: Thriding. Yorkshire is divided into three Ridings, North, West and East. There is no South Riding, otherwise they would be Farthings, like Tolkien's Shire. (Likewise, the old British farthing, was a quarter of a penny.)
How this broadened to districts generally, rather than one of three, I'm not sure. Canada is the only Anglosphere country that uses the term. My guess is that someone involved in the early administration must have been from Yorkshire and picked up the word, without realizing that it implied thirds originally.
Fascinating stuff! And "tithing" means "the act of levying or taking tithes" – but also "an administrative division consisting of ten householders in the old English system of frankpledge" (used in the Middle Ages).
What race is on my mind? Our Dear Leader’s race to the bottom!
On a lighter note: TRUMPIAN EDUCATION
As we are painfully aware, Trump is trying to shut down the Department of Education. He won’t let leftist deep-state experts set standards, insist on bothersome facts, or try to raise the quality of schools in Republican-run states.
In short, Trumpian Education may soon be coming to a school near you. Enjoy!
[Quote]Jessica Aber, who was the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia for three years until resigning in January, was found dead in Alexandria on Saturday.
Police believe the death was the result of a longstanding medical issue, a friend of the family told NBC News.
Police said that they would investigate the circumstances as a matter of protocol but that the medical examiner's office would determine the cause and manner of death.
Two former senior Justice Department officials with knowledge of the matter told NBC News that authorities have found no reason to suspect foul play.[unquote]
Running as a Democrat or a Republican?
The fact that we even have to ask speaks volumes, amirite?
I'm pretty sure that's a verboten topic. (Previous iterations of this site had no presidential primary talk rules.)
Ah, darn. While I didn’t think of this as presidential primary talk, you’re right Marcus. Removed.
Is it forbidden because Primaries tend to really divide us? Or is it because it's topballot.
A little bit of both. The conversation can be very divisive and there's plenty of other forums to discuss that topic.
I don’t want to veer into conversations that are out of bounds with permitted discussion on The Downballot.
That said, Democrats should always aim to be better by being open to different points of view even if the set political agenda isn’t always in line with theirs. Doesn’t mean moving to the right but being inclusive.
That’s the trait of being liberal.
Virginia on my mind today though we have the Florida Specials and WI-SC coming up. The VA statewide races also curious to see how VA-01 and VA-02 shake out and what kind of candidates we have available after the 2025 elections.
Speaking of Virginia: how is our senate caucus there these days? If we win a trifecta in the fall are we going to be stymied by our slim 21-19 majority there by another Morissey type, or is the caucus reliable?
I think the Senate is pretty solid. My hope, of course, is that Spanberger wins with nice coattails. (AG Miyares needs to go, too.)
Without Joe Morrissey, there to my knowledge isn't a Senate Democrat who is a regular problem, though they can't all necessarily be expected to hold together on everything.
The coattails that we need extend to LG, which breaks ties and so would give us room to lose a vote, as well as a stronger House majority. And hopefully if she wins Spanberger won't appoint a Dem in a vulnerable district to anything.
Any momentum to repeal so called right to work?
Josh Weil in Florida(and the other specials on April 1)
"Bernie Sanders, AOC rally crowd of 30,000 in Denver’s Civic Center
“We will not allow America to become an oligarchy,” Vermont senator says
Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders have focused their visits on areas represented by Republicans but that have close enough margins to possibly swing toward Democrats in the future. Earlier in the day, the pair visited Evans’ district, for a rally in Greeley.
The district is likely to be a major fight as Democrats seek to regain footing in Congress. About 11,000 people attended the event, according to Colorado Public Radio.
In a news release Friday, Evans criticized Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez for their policies, including their lack of support for the oil and gas industry.
“Congressman Evans is fighting for lower costs, safer communities and making the American Dream possible for all Coloradans. His common-sense approach stands in stark contrast to AOC and Bernie Sanders’ extreme anti-oil-and-gas rhetoric,” according to the statement."
https://www.denverpost.com/2025/03/21/bernie-sanders-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-aoc-denver-civic-center-trump/
This was from late January, but Yassamin Ansari (AZ-3 U.S. Representative) had over 14,000 people log into a virtual town hall she held: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFeC6ypynBz/?img_index=1
That was the first indication I noticed that a groundswell of opposition to the second Trump Administration existed.
In this dark time, a ray of hope.
https://bsky.app/profile/salome.bsky.social/post/3lkwre4bq7s2l
I went to the rally! Insane number of people, the line to the metal detectors at the entrance was looped around the entire park. All the speakers were great; everyone was on message about uniting common people of all idelogical stripes and past vote history against our government of billionaires. We're not going to win just by riling up the left, it will happen when we convince regular working class people, many of whom were deceived into voting for Trump, into rejecting this elitist corrupt government of the richest people in the world. If there's any message that's going to break through to people who aren't already partisan Dems, it's that.
That is good to hear I had to work and figured it would be mobbed by the time I could get down there but happy to hear this.
I have been saying this since 2016...trump will be a force until republicans turn on him...you can add "enough independents turn on him"
Poll after poll show that Trump’s support amongst Independents has nosedived. And overall, his approval rating is way below that of any other president at this stage of his term. The only exception Trump#2 is slightly above Trump#1.
He has to be defeated without Republicans, or simply due to natural causes.
I don't think we're going to convince them of that. We've been saying it for years and gotten nowhere, or even farther away really. Circumstances might temporarily convince them.
Should be noted that amid the concerns about Conor Lamb as a US Senate candidate in 2028, he himself has talked about the U.S. becoming an oligarchy in responding to AOC's twitter post.
https://x.com/ConorLambPA/status/1903203928256151821
They should probably stop using the term "oligarchy". Most Americans don't/can't understand that word. Just say "robbed by a small number of corrupt billionaires". It still hasn't proved to be a very powerful attack on Republicans but it might gain steam as they blow the country up.
I'm skeptical it matters too much the semantics anyway my impression is when they mention Oligarchy it follows an explanation that comes down to ""robbed by a small number of corrupt billionaires" with maybe the small number part cut out. With the billionaire inauguration and Musk's antics I think it's more salient then when Biden was in the White House but I take your point.
Oligarch is a useful term in this context because it’s most often associated with Russia. Helps to subconsciously reinforce the link to Putin, who Americans do not like.
If we say it enough the word won’t be unknown. Even with only context to work with I think the point should be understood.
I disagree. I think we need to give up and try to meet the voters where they are to some degree. Huge swaths of people are functionally illiterate or read below the grade level that a word like oligarchy is used, or have forgotten or never learned history. We can't count on them hearing the word enough times to absorb it.
Nobody knew what DEI or CRT were before republicans devoted their messaging machine to those. Most people still don’t know what they are but are angry about it anyway.
Plus, voters despise feeling like they’re being talked down to; avoiding a simple, honestly not difficult at all word, for fear of public ignorance is both self-fulfilling and counterproductive.
We need to stop being afraid of these kinds of things with messaging. If we stick to a viable message it will work. It’s simple, to the point, and yes people will understand if we use it for more than a quarter before we abandon it.
All valid points. However, we should also be clear on exactly why we're in the situation today in 2025 regarding oligarchy or whatever else we would call it - It isn't solely because of Trump.
It's because of decades of pervasive corporate influence on the US government, especially from a lobbying perspective. Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, George W. Bush and now Trump are all culpable for why corporations have too much power. Never always was this way.
All this history needs to be summarized in a simple way so that voters understand why to vote for Democrats, not just because of the general bread and butter issues.
Bill Clinton also deserves a lot of blame, and Obama is guilty of not breaking up the banks, so unfortunately, it's not just Republicans who have been at fault.
The old Robber Barons would be more pithy. But nothing wrong with oligarch. As long as everyone uses it and repeats it as much as possible
WISCONSIN Supreme Court race. And the ongoing Early Vote, as tabulated and analyzed by Toby of MGData. Interesting comparisons between 2025 and 2023, when Janet Protasiewicz won and flipped the court to progressive.
https://nitter.poast.org/TobyMGData/status/1903233504055546015#m
https://nitter.poast.org/TobyMGData
I have a strong feeling that Elon Musk’s blatant attempt to buy this election ($100 reward "just" for "signing a petition") is going to help Susan Crawford win this one – as is Trump’s "strong and total endorsement" of the schlemiel Brad Schimel.
https://www.axios.com/2025/03/21/elon-musk-pac-wisconsin-judges
Yes, between the growing toxicity of Musk and our recent 10-point WI-SC wins, I've never felt less than cautiously optimistic about this race. Crawford will blow the doors off in Dane, and the WOW counties aren't what they once were for Republicans.
Also, is anyone even trying to make a case that the Superintendent of Public Instruction race is competitive? I had to look up the name of Jill Underly's opponent (Brittany Kinser), because it seems like that race is getting hardly any attention at all.
According to TobyMG, Kinser isn’t faring well either. But we’ll see on 4/1 what happens!
"Donald Trump just endorsed Brad Schimel. Schimel has spent his entire career on bent knee to right-wing special interests. He said he wants to be part of Trump's "support network". We assumed he had this endorsement locked up months ago."
– Judge Susan Crawford
Do you know if she needs people to text registered voters? My brother pushed me hard to text for the long shot Florida races, but this race is crucial and winnable.
Thought you might enjoy this on a Saturday: Mixing up those furry demographic groups.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFsfKpZuaoT/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
OT, but I can't log on to Threads anymore. When I type in the URL it takes me to Instagram, and when I click on Threads from Instagram it just opens another Instagram window.
I am not on any of those platforms; heck I’ve never even been on Facebook. My wife, who is on Instagram, shared this link with me. When I click on the link myself, I first get a pop-up window asking me to sign up for Instagram. As soon as I close that, I can watch the video.
I would be off Facebook in a heartbeat if it weren't my sole ongoing connection to a large number of people (classmates, old co-workers, etc.).
I hear you. There are perfectly good reasons to be on Facebook or similar sites, as long as one is aware of the tradeoff. As mentioned, my wife is on Instagram – but she has over 8000 followers there, and the platform is integral to her work getting seen online.
More updates on WI EVs still looking pretty good https://x.com/tobymgdata/status/1903582307598172391?s=61&t=5copDbz1aPl7ASsRCUclLg
Mark Carney will be running in a riding (electoral district) in Ottawa. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/mark-carney-to-run-for-seat-in-ottawa-s-nepean-riding-1.7490982
Sources have confirmed to CBC News that election day will be on April 28 — meaning federal parties will be sprinting through the shortest election period possible under Canadian law.
A little etymology that I found interesting. "Riding" for an electoral district comes from an Old Norse word that means thirds: Thriding. Yorkshire is divided into three Ridings, North, West and East. There is no South Riding, otherwise they would be Farthings, like Tolkien's Shire. (Likewise, the old British farthing, was a quarter of a penny.)
How this broadened to districts generally, rather than one of three, I'm not sure. Canada is the only Anglosphere country that uses the term. My guess is that someone involved in the early administration must have been from Yorkshire and picked up the word, without realizing that it implied thirds originally.
Fascinating stuff! And "tithing" means "the act of levying or taking tithes" – but also "an administrative division consisting of ten householders in the old English system of frankpledge" (used in the Middle Ages).
What race is on my mind? Our Dear Leader’s race to the bottom!
On a lighter note: TRUMPIAN EDUCATION
As we are painfully aware, Trump is trying to shut down the Department of Education. He won’t let leftist deep-state experts set standards, insist on bothersome facts, or try to raise the quality of schools in Republican-run states.
In short, Trumpian Education may soon be coming to a school near you. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh3Yz3PiXZw
Most Kids Left Behind.
Makes it easier to implement their Neo-Feudalism.
Devil take the hindmost.
Former U.S. attorney in Virginia found dead at 43
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/former-us-attorney-virginia-found-dead-43-rcna197665
[Quote]Jessica Aber, who was the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia for three years until resigning in January, was found dead in Alexandria on Saturday.
Police believe the death was the result of a longstanding medical issue, a friend of the family told NBC News.
Police said that they would investigate the circumstances as a matter of protocol but that the medical examiner's office would determine the cause and manner of death.
Two former senior Justice Department officials with knowledge of the matter told NBC News that authorities have found no reason to suspect foul play.[unquote]
Regardless of the cause, this is a tragedy.
Since it is Sunday night on the weekend thread: have you all heard about the trump sandwich?
1)White bread
2)Lots of baloney
3)Russian dressing
4)A small pickle
Apologies to all those who have already heard this!