Isn’t it possible that Republicans are the better team and the better team usually wins? Republican politicians provide everything their voters want and they are diligent and relentless in doing so. Republicans deliver. I have no idea what Democratic politicians are doing most of the time.

A-fucking-men.

They would have their Bork and their Romney already.

I’m unsure how that side of the party could ever have competed with/against the combo of: political entertainment, tactical PR, fear mongering, bullying, and relentless disregard for anything but winning. All skills honed thru the wrestling biz and McMahon

bsky.app/profile/grud...

I really think Longwell needs to treat her focus groups as straight up liars and work backwards from that. There's no way they can look at certain data points and be like oooh Trump is definitely good X. Most of it is bad!

The ones who are gradually becoming eat-the-rich commies are at least identifying the true perpetrators.

Not wrong

if anyone not named trump knew what was politically effective, we wouldn't be here

I often think of this. And how President Jeb Bush, if elected, would have appointed the same Supreme Court justices Trump has.

kavanaugh, sure, but that would have been to scalia's seat. the odds of antoiny kennedy shock retiring under jeb! are slim, & who knows how rbg's life expectancy varies.

This of course does not invalidate their contribution to the cause. I still believe in the broad coalition politics!

Bingo. Too many still think their personal peccadillos about language are the focus of the electorate.

I think there are areas where they've helped. They're a reason Dems perform so much better than they used to in white college-educated suburbs for example. The problem is they don't make up for the erosion elsewhere.

They definitely have their place in the big tent, but having been swing voters themselves, they believe that all swing votes think like they do. When in fact today's swing voters are less wealthy, less educated and much much more dissatisfied with the status quo than the typical never-Trumper.

That is absolutely a fair point, but I don't think it applies to all the Never Trump/Third Way types. Sarah Longwell for example spends a ton of her time doing research on what actual swing voters think and is pretty clear in acknowledging it's messy.

Eh Democrats made a choice to pursue the suburbanites pretty clearly with Clinton digging in on neoliberalism and GOP lite policies a la three strikes, deregulation, "the era of big government is over." All that did was cede ideological ground to the GOP and make is fight on their terms

We were all shocked by 2016 because we had pretended for so long about who the Right was.

Although the David Brooks type of thought where they were all united in their love of freedom was self-flattering hubris.

Whoa on the use of "all" lol

Brutal truth, but truth nonetheless

Word!

If people like you knew we wouldn't be here.

Yeah that's what I said. Good job.

Well, I hope one can agree with this observation and also agree that the enemy of my enemy is [right now, in this moment in time] my friend. Embrace all allies and potential allies—if success is your goal, that is.

Tom Nichols shut up challenge