TPM Reader NZ has a contrary take on the party unity question …

I am a loyal reader (and member) and generally find your analysis compelling, even if I don’t entirely agree. I’m prompted to write by your “post-primary unity” piece. I thought it was balanced and insightful until the last paragraph. But then I think you went off the rails in a way that replicates some of the frustrating asymmetry in how people often discuss the pro/anti- Bernie camps.

TPM Reader CGM responds to TPM Reader MRK …

I’ve been thinking about some version of this since the first debate. But MRK’s take on Warren made me want to write in and respond.

Some defensive posturing: I am a feminist. I went to an all-girls high school where I was taught women can do anything men can do, backwards and in heels etc. I would love nothing more than to see a woman elected president. But I am terrified about nominating a woman against Trump.

TPM Reader MRK shares some thoughts before heading off to canvass in New Hampshire …

I’ve been trying to figure out why (other than systemic sexism) the media reaction to Elizabeth Warren’s campaign has been muted, especially since she finished ahead of Biden in Iowa. She didn’t over-perform and she didn’t underperform there, really. She should have been able to lay claim to the proverbial third ticket out of Iowa. Biden clearly did underperform, and if it weren’t for his consistently strong polling elsewhere, there would be real pressure on him to quit. But he’s a former VP with strong support from African Americans in the polls, et cetera.

I have a long list of quibbles what with TPM Reader PJ shares here — mainly on conflating two very different meanings of “liberalism” and I think giving too little significance to the coalitional nature of the Democratic Party. But I wanted to share it with you because it’s a good contribution to the conversation …

I appreciate what you’re saying about the far left and liberalism. let me offer a bit of a counterpoint. I think there are some people who read Trump as an expression of something highly American. Maybe not intrinsically American, per se, but something that’s mixed in the DNA and which often takes over: white supremacy, masculinist fantasies of domination, an erotic fascination with violence. Moreover, we know where the roots of liberalism are: John Locke, contract theory, a social imagination that puts the individual at the center of the social world and struggles to understand that personhood is constantly being constructed, rather than etched in stone by a Maker.

TPM Reader RW thought it was Klobuchar’s night …

I’m an undecided New Hampshire democrat–at least I was until tonight. I attended the MSNBC watch party and thought Klobuchar hit it out of the park (and so did most of the crowd). I’ve seen most of the candidates during their swings through the state, many in intimate settings. For weeks my wife and I have been agonizing about whom to support.

An update from the New York suburbs from TPM Reader FB …

Tonight, a Republican County Legislator in Westchester County New York, David Tubiolo from Yonkers, switched parties and became a Democrat. This left the 17-member Westchester County Board of Legislators, which as recently as 3 years ago had a Republican coalition majority and arch-conservative County Executive, with NO REPUBLICANS. The sole remaining member of the minority caucus is a registered Conservative from the town of Mt. Pleasant.

I had thought the intra-Democratic divisions this year couldn’t help but be less than 2016. Divisions usually come more to the surface when a party has had a decent run in power. They’re not as hungry for the presidency. The risks of its loss are less palpable. There’s more focus on reordering who the dominant party faction is. The crisis of President Trump you would think would concentrate people’s minds. And indeed poll after poll shows just that: overwhelmingly Democrats want whoever can beat Trump.

But that’s not how it’s looking.

President Trump was never going to just roll over and take solace in his acquittal.

And after yesterday’s dark and blatantly bonkers speech from the White House celebrating his acquittal, it’s no surprise that he and his allies are already retaliating against those who wronged the President. As an image-obsessed leader who demands nothing short of cult-like loyalty from all who have access to him, it’s easy to believe new reports from Bloomberg News and the Washington Post that the White House is planning to reassign Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman back to the Department of Defense.