I don’t know. I will readily admit I pre-worry a lot more than I ever used to, about the obvious boogeymen and the ones that have not yet fully materialized.
Eightish years ago, I discounted Trump because I didn’t believe he could possibly turn the heads of Republicans. Got that one wrong.
When he was nominated and elected, I worried, but not as much as I should have. I figured the guard rails would hold. They did, but not undamaged and only just.
I believed the Mueller investigation would succeed because I couldn’t imagine it would be politicized or actively hamstrung as it was, or that so many people who knew better would work so hard to protect Trump through that investigation along with 2 impeachments. Got that one wrong, too.
I worried about whether Biden would win in 2020, but when he did, I didn’t spend a lot of time being concerned over the country coping with a deeply organized and concerted movement by Republicans to subvert and overturn it. Hoo, boy.
I didn’t think we’d ever endure a US Supreme Court that was corrupt to the bone, or if we did, I figured they would care enough about their reputation and integrity to fix it. Damn. Wrong again.
You get the idea. I’ve only scratched the surface of the things I should have been much more worried about.
So I can’t say I’m as particular now about the things I pre-worry about, together with the obvious things that I merely constantly worry about. I worry about them all.
I’m not in any position to say whether your way or mine is the more fortunate.
But what would have been different if you had been worried to the appropriate level? Would you have donated (more)? Volunteered (more)? Or would you simply have had the satisfaction of knowing that your worst worries were indeed worth worrying about?
Can we be worried that we’re not worried enough? Pass the Xanax.
There’s actually a mostly OH, NJ and CA centered US organization like this that I wouldn’t call a political party. They’re trying to do this and aren’t connected to the No Labels party. I wouldn’t share their name because I don’t want to be pushy. They actually overestimate how many people support them and have no donors.
Mostly I believe I would have been more bold in speaking out to those in my sphere who were going down the rabbit hole.
I already made regular donations to the ACLU and other organizations fighting hard to protect democracy. I’d have stepped up those donations. (I’ve done so now.)
It’s why I now post about topics like this one, where I likely wouldn’t have before.
Going forward, I hope I may be roundly excoriated by the Teeming Masses™ for being a Cassandra.
However, I’m thinking Manhin will run fo re-election and is merely signaling here, to ticket-splitting West Virginians, that he isn’t a Biden Democrat.
My theory is that Manchin is a very shrewd politician (and is genuinely horrified by Trump), as well as an attention hog, and while the latter loves all the attention as long as he’s a “will he or won’t he” for a prez run, the former won’t allow him to run in a race that might help Trump. So he’ll continue to publicly say maybe until the very end, and then will announce his endorsement of Biden.
I agree. Joe Manchin voted four times to remove Trump from office. Why would he now embrace a no-chance Presidential bid whose only possible impact could be tipping the election to Trump?
Possibly because he could be promised all sorts of things to drop out of the race. Just like the House Freedom Committee blackmailed Kevin McCarthy.
The House is likely to flip in 2024. Dems will need to fight to keep even 50 votes in the Senate. (As it looks now. Subject to huge change as circumstances do.) Manchin has already annoyed the rest of Senate Dems by his actions; maybe he wants to make sure that if they need him, they really need him.
I’m not sorry for taking a shot at Manchin earlier. Any day you can do that is a good day.
During one of the Trump impeachments, I watched some of the speechifying (I’m not so crazy as to call it “debate”) and several Republicans decried the impeachment as partisan and divisive. I said at the time that they could end the divisiveness in a minute just by voting to convict.
Divisiveness is what you accuse other people of doing when you have no better argument to make, but you can’t admit you are wrong. No one could defend Trump on the merits of his impeachments, so they could only fall back on accusing the other side of something. Remember that when they accuse Biden of being divisive.
It’s exactly the opposite; it’s the perfect hope for the future. Everybody can hear about this new party that promises common sense and unity, and think “once they pick a candidate and a platform, they’ll enact exactly the policies that I want.” No one can disagree with you if you never say anything. We’ll see how long they can keep that up.
Let me know when the No Labels Party actually stands for something. I’m not holding my breath.
Exactly - any “Unity Party” seems to be a combination of Republicans steering clear of MAGA and Democrats steering clear of The Squad/Bernie Sanders/Elizabeth Warren. Agreeing on a President is one thing; agreeing on Representatives and Senators is entirely different, and much less likely. There’s a reason Republicans are Republicans and Democrats are Democrats.
Voters are long past voting for policies, if that was the case we’d have President Warren now. Let’s say NLP comes up with some brilliant idea. Then either of the main parties will simply steal their idea and make it their own. We’re in the post-issue, post-policy, post-truth era now. Those things don’t matter- it’s all about tribalism. The NLP is just an attempt to steal enough votes from the blue tribe to let the red tribe win. I don’t think it will make much difference, but you never know.
Let’s say Manchin runs for a time to extract concessions from Biden and is planning to throw in the towel at some point. There will be a number of voters who would have voted for Biden in Biden vs Trump, who now may not vote at all because they’re bitter their candidate dropped out.
I just don’t see an upside for Dems with No Labels, despite what some are arguing. The potential to damage Biden is far greater than to damage anyone else in the race. The fact that it is largely funded by Republicans (to the extent we can tell, since they won’t release their donors’ list) is all I need to know.
Yup. And considering what SCOTUS is made up with. The idea that Trump can be in prison AND be president is a bit troubling. Trump may be allowed to self pardon himself which is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.
MAGA’s will vote for him if he’s dead.
The founding fathers never dreamed we could find our selves in such a situation. Never thought that people could posibly be as stupid as Trump supporters are. But here we are.