Put aptly, Joe Biden’s policies helped provide the greatest wealth growth for the bottom quintile of Americans we’ve seen in a century. But it came at the expense of the loudest online voices who claim to speak for the working class in the form of increased costs thus he somehow failed them.

'the middle class really resented the working class doing well because it costs them cheap servants' is very obviously true of the Biden years, it's been confused because the most vocal members of the middle class online somehow wrapped this in leftist language

Swing voters disapprove of Trump but will continue to vote for his party because they see him as strong and Democrats as weak. As I have been shouting for years, it is really that simple. Don't play into the strongman dictator narrative. Stuff him in a locker. www.npr.org/2026/05/21/n...

Can we please get some mainstream Democrats who are proud of being mainstream Democrats? Not DSA and proud of criticizing Dems from the left. Not centrist and proud of criticizing Dems from the right. Not Dems who consider themselves above rooting for the laundry. Proud Democrats.

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The problem is that Republicans are judged on their owning the other side and being funny, while Democrats are judged on sober, responsible governance. We're playing by two completely different sets of rules in the eyes of the media as well as the average voter.

The problem isn't the law. The problem is ignorant and immature voters holding some candidates to a certain standard for transparency but not caring if others are corrupt criminals because they're entertaining.

one of my favorite facts about the US coal industry is that it employs less people than Broadway

The way to get the other kids to reject the bully is neither to play the oppressed righteous underdog nor tell the teacher, it's to laugh at him for his loserliness and insecurity.

I definitely have become a lot more cosmopolitan chauvinist in a way that I know is sort of problematic, but I just don't see any way around it. If you allow the provincially minded too much autonomy they inevitably regress and start trying to burn witches, they need minding by their betters.

People who decide elections very clearly do not care about "democracy" and just care about "strong/tough" vibes. But the solution is not to ignore Trump's anti-democratic crimes. It's to go after him as an embarrassing loser and be tough in prosecuting him, not paint him as a strongman dictator.

one thing that went wrong in our political media culture is that journalists so deeply internalized a backwards version of 'the cover-up is the crime' they assume that anything that's being done out in the open is just 'a thing that happened' that needs to be subjected to the 'objectivity' standard

Mamdani: I cannot help but think of the words of our 40th president, Ronald Reagan. He famously said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are 'I'm from the govt & I'm here to help'" I think nine more terrifying words are actually, "I worked all day and can't feed my family"

the neat thing about this is between it and biden deliverism failing, there's a coalescing coherent argument that the correct move politically for dems is to tell the WWC to get fucked

This is not “the Justice Department” creating this $1.7 billion slush fund to hand out to Trump’s criminal supporters. It is Trump’s former criminal defense attorney Todd Blanche handing out your tax dollars to Trump’s co-conspirators and thugs.

If unions start endorsing on the basis of cultural identity instead of economic interests (like seemingly the rest of the [white] working class), I'm gonna have a lot harder time going to bat for their economic interests.

Rather than conclude that democrats are bad because people like Fetterman and Polis are democrats, I prefer to conclude that people like Fetterman and Polis are not democrats and they need to get the hell out of our party.

i have been writing about the virginia supreme court decision with a certain amount of analytical detachment but if i’m being honest i’m also fucking furious i took the time to go vote and then my ballot got tossed out by these dipshits

Epistemological systems for determining what is true and what is not are the backbone of modern society. We have annihilated them all in a decade, and replaced them with a digital dreamscape in which anything that is felt strongly enough automatically BECOMES true.

the right has an incredible ability to rally round people they see as righteous warriors we shouldn't sponsor criminality like they do, but we should support, close ranks around, our own & we kinda don't

Trump imagines himself a strongman. But he consistently folds when in front of the world's strongmen, proving him again and again to be a fool, a coward, and a traitor. New, from me 👇 www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/trump-is-a...

We have watched Trump get bullied by Putin, by Netanyahu and very likely by Xi. But MAGA, by all means keep telling yourself he is a strong leader. He is a dementia-riddled failure at everything but self-enrichment. And that just shows him to be the criminal we know he is.

ya know, I disagreed with the Romney mindset of “all of the above energy policy” for renewables & fossil fuels to bring down costs. but at least I understood the impulse behind it however, today’s Republicans are just a death cult worshipping at the altar of dirty energy as a form of vice signaling

A fundamental asymmetry is that many Democrats see themselves as philosopher-kings whose duty is to represent the median view of their *constituents*, while Republicans see themselves as demagogues to entertain their *supporters*. And the vibes voters in the center see the Republicans as more fun.

I have some patience and understanding for frontline Dems in competitive races who take bad votes that play well in their district. Why the fuck is @morelle.house.gov in a D+20 seat supporting garbage Republican messaging bills?

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“[Donald Trump] has created a permission structure for people to be their worst selves. He has taught Americans that it’s okay to be selfish and spiteful and hateful and angry and resentful and that is the most toxic thing he has done to the country.”

We need an "own the chuds" agenda.

A far-right idiot amplified by Alex Jones, Jason Whitlock, Gavin McInnis and others has been streaming himself saying racist shit to black people in order to provoke them into violence so he can shoot them. He just shot just a black man here in Tennessee.

I am so sick of seeing the very worst people in our country just absolutely thriving.

this truly is the thing that makes the united states exceptional, and right wingers hate it so much they want to destroy it

I think the answer is they didn't actually care if he did any of those things, that was just a cherry on top or a polite rationalization. They really just cared about what he represented -- poking libs in the eye, not caring about norms or institutions, and hurting minorities.

It's right there! Trump is irreverent and it's more fun to laugh along with the class clown than to vote for the teacher's pet! That's all it is!

One good thing that entertainment journalists covering The Odyssey can do is never to ask Nyong'o, Page, or Nolan about this. When a prominent racist and transphobe says something racist and transphobic, go make his life miserable and leave his targets alone. They have nothing to defend or explain.

The relevant portion of the Jason Collins discussion

A lot of interesting inside baseball stuff on the "how" of the campaign, but this part about the "what" is key. We need to define a brand, and that brand cannot be "yay institutions". Even "democracy" is too close to that. We need to be way more irreverent and less teacher's pet.

Today's long-read recommendation. If you're a political obsessive like me, you'll probably do what I did: read every word (and there are thousands). One big takeaway for me: the political significance of YouTube. (I'm old, but you probably already knew that 🙂). www.thebulwark.com/p/heres-what...

Don't pick needless fights. Don't impose bottlenecks on major shipping hubs. Don't send morons to do an adult's job. But if you must do all those things, don't respond by slashing gas taxes. Putting one more layer on the stupid cake doesn't help. indianacapitalchronicle.com/2026/05/06/b...

Pretty disgusting that Fetterman is actively helping with the Republican ruse where they let Collins off the reservation to save her seat, but only when it doesn't affect the outcome. He must be coordinating with them and should be investigated.

Burgum's comments are meant to convey: 1) loyalty and adherence to party line (ring-kissing and show of strength) 2) cultural values aligned with ignorance, anti-intellectualism, and disdain for expertise 3) owning the libs Fighting back with facts accomplishes nothing. Mock them!!

They don't actually believe this, but they understand that: 1) controlling a narrative, and 2) taunting the opposition are both signals of strength that average ignorant voters respect.

virgnia foxx is one of those low key members who has been abjectly horrible her entire time in office. a total degenerate.

Voters want toughness. Things that code as "tough" today: - Willingness to drive a narrative - Willingness to tout accomplishments - Contempt for opposing political actors - Disregard for constraints - Irreverence towards institutions We can and must adopt these while affirming our values.

Mamdani has demonstrated something that Democrats have largely forgotten. You can't just do good things for voters and expect to be rewarded for it. You have to tell them about it, over and over again. You have to advertise your work in office just as much as you did on the campaign to win it.

"For too long, the university has ignored the wisdom of the donor class and hired based on academic excellence. Regrettably, this has led to the underrepresentation of discredited viewpoints in elite higher education." www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/wer...

What the fuck does "radically pro-transgender" even mean? Count me among them, I suppose.

My friend who used to say the final stage of corporate greed was demanding to be loved is never, ever proved wrong.

He's trying to provoke resist-lib pearl-clutching which he can then mock later. The correct response is mockery, not earnest offense.

We keep expecting voters to reward us for our even-handedness and to punish Republicans for their brazen attacks on democracy, and it's actually the *opposite*. Vibes-based voters respect strength. That's it.

McConnell denied Garland a vote nine months out under the guise that there was an election soon and then jammed through Coney Barrett a week before Biden won. They have been flipping the bird to the concepts of norms and fairness for decades and the democrats have done jack shit to fight back.