I’m a first time writer-in, but have read virtually all of your ed blogs since 2016. First, thank you for what you do, all of it. This was the only news source I checked on election night. I have not gone deep at all into media coverage this time around, but as soon as I heard Trump won again in 2024 it felt clear to me the reason is that he had a female candidate. This unique unfit and misogynistic man can beat Hillary Clinton & Kamala Harris but not Joe Biden. I believe Biden was an average candidate, and Clinton & Harris were exceptionally good candidates, with Harris having the advantage of not being a Republican bogeyman. I think this decision is not a pure economic or incumbency one, but one that requires a large percentage of the voting population to not be willing to stand for a female president. I say this as a woman and a mom of two daughters. It reminds me of companies who have all female directors but no women in the C-suite bc each qualified woman is discounted for “individual” reasons.
The post-mortems that Dems go through every time we lose an election are brutal and stupid. Everything is thrown at the wall, we argue for months over tiny issues that we’re sure lost us the election.
Good morning, my name is R(***) L(***) and I’ve been a long time reader going back probably 15+ years. I really enjoy reading your content, and lately I’ve been listening to your podcast as well. I’m listening to Episode 348 and just wanted to offer Miss Riga support on her analysis – at around 19:00 – that while we should be mindful of the message and how we shape it and who we target as Democrats, whether you are a progressive Democrat or (like myself) a pro-labor Democrat. I’m really aware of the fact that as a firefighter, we have firehouse kitchen table talks daily. I am constantly finding myself saying “Where are you getting your information from?” And the reality is that people are in their own bubble because of social media and the way people consume media now.
Twenty-two year reader here. I came back for a visit today looking for some astute commentary with grim humor, but there’s none to be found — which is appropriate, given the circumstances.
Last night, and like many others, I felt ill upon realizing that this was the new political reality: an unabating descent into authoritarianism and autocracy. As a lawyer, I cannot imagine what is going to happen to our federal judiciary — both the Supreme Court and otherwise. I know that my illness has become a chronic one. I know that it won’t go away, and it may even result in my/our demise. Nevertheless, I feel oddly calm.
More concretely, in analyzing the election results, I want to offer the following thoughts
It’s Happening Already: The most chilling moment of the election night carnage came a little before 1 a.m. ET.
It wasn’t yet confirmed that Donald Trump would win, but the writing was on the wall.
Assessing the newly transformed MAGA-friendly political landscape, the pro-Trump lobbyist and political commentator David Urban said on CNN: “Democracy is a luxury when you can’t pay your bills.”
