What if we all joined your party? Would it be our party then too? Or does only Bernie Sanders get to sit outside your party and tell you to change? 😎
Replies
But Tom, why do progressives lose elections. Wwwwhhhyyyyy? The world may never know!
aug 27, 2025, 12:21 am • 0 0 • view
Your choice but still don’t get why you entertain these people. Since you do, I don’t think it’s actually his party. It sure doesn’t feel like a party. Nothing does as we fight for the survival of America. Join and bring party favors!
aug 26, 2025, 11:38 pm • 0 0 • view
"Or does only Bernie Sanders get to sit outside your party and tell you to change? 😎" I'll will never forget this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ1A...
aug 27, 2025, 6:55 pm • 0 0 • view
Sounds like this Gordon Forbes does NOT like the idea of a big tent. Personally, would not like whatever "party" he is in.
aug 27, 2025, 12:46 am • 0 0 • view
Again, this continually comes to mind when I think of the many Democratic factions...
aug 26, 2025, 11:40 pm • 0 0 • view
I get his criticism. I’m tired of Republicans telling Democrats what’s wrong with them when they’ve done nothing discernible to understand how their own party went so completely off the rails.
aug 27, 2025, 10:43 am • 0 0 • view
"I'd rather continue to lose elections to dangerous autocrats than accept moderates and the very people Democrats need to win over. Moral purity and feeling superior is the most important thing to me, much more important than obtaining power or stopping a dangerous tyranny."
aug 27, 2025, 2:27 am • 26 1 • view
Hmm, and yet the Democratic electorate of NYC chose Zohran Mamdani as their candidate for mayor but feckless, worthless "moderates" like Chuck Schumer & Hakeem Jeffries haven't endorsed him. "Blue no matter who" has to work both ways or GTFOH. (I DO vote Dem in every election w/ my nose held.)
aug 27, 2025, 6:50 pm • 9 1 • view
New York City is not remotely consistent with the electorate in the United States. "Berkeley, California elected a communist mayor. Therefore, communist can win nationwide."
aug 27, 2025, 6:51 pm • 14 0 • view
Did he actually say anything about nationwide? Or are you reading that into what he said?
aug 27, 2025, 9:43 pm • 4 0 • view
Jeffries and Schumer understand that Mamdani cannot even win outside of New York City. He can't even win Yonkers, let alone Albany or Buffalo.
aug 27, 2025, 11:41 pm • 2 0 • view
So why don’t they endorse him? He’s the front runner in the race for mayor of nyc right now. What’s the downside of endorsing?
aug 28, 2025, 12:16 am • 3 0 • view
The downside of endorsing is that they lose their own jobs because of the endorsements.
aug 28, 2025, 12:21 am • 1 0 • view
Would they lose for that, though? Endorsing the candidate who currently has the best chance of winning? In a city that isn’t half as leftist as depicted in popular culture. He’s not winning because he’s a hair-on-fire radical. Endorsing him is not like wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt.
aug 28, 2025, 12:34 am • 1 0 • view
Neither of us know, but I am quite certain that Jeffries and, particularly, Schumer see endorsing Mamdani as an unnecessary risk. If Mamdani is winning, then it's also pointless.
aug 28, 2025, 12:36 am • 0 0 • view
Except to the degree that they’d look less like weasels, which is a problem they have right now. A problem that also might cost them their jobs.
aug 28, 2025, 12:40 am • 2 0 • view
No, Democrats uniting as a party is not an unnecessary risk. Failure to endorse only feeds media narratives about intra-party conflict, which is far more damaging than any effect from an endorsement. Nadler endorsed Mamdani.
aug 28, 2025, 12:43 am • 3 0 • view
Endorsing the quite popular Democratic nominee for mayor would cause them to lose their jobs? That makes no sense.
aug 28, 2025, 12:40 am • 1 0 • view
It's not that it would, it's that it might, particularly for Schumer. Let me ask you this: What is the benefit to Jeffries or Schumer to making the endorsement? Endorsements are a two-way thing. There is no upside.
aug 28, 2025, 12:42 am • 1 0 • view
The benefit to Jeffries and Schumer is that it would help signal that the Democratic Party isn’t just an ossified husk of geriatrics and that they’re embracing a new generation of people emerging as leaders. It also shows unity when the media is circling with “Dems divided” narratives.
aug 28, 2025, 12:46 am • 1 0 • view
Because he is running for mayor. They are also not endorsing other democrats running for mayor of other cities, are they?
aug 28, 2025, 3:27 am • 3 0 • view
Jeffries’ district is in that city, and it’s kind of an important city in the state that Schumer represents. I don’t expect them to make endorsements for the mayors of Houston or San Francisco, but NYC is a little different in their case.
aug 28, 2025, 3:30 am • 3 0 • view
I know they are from there but they stand as the leaders of the entire party. I like the dude, but it’s just a mayoral race.
aug 28, 2025, 3:31 am • 3 0 • view
It is because they are leaders they should endorse him. The other viable candidates are corrupt/sex pests. They need to say no to that to prove they are different from republicans.
aug 28, 2025, 3:37 am • 1 0 • view
It’s the mayoral race in the biggest city in the country that both of them represent. Acting like you have to distance yourself from the guy that’s likely to be the next mayor of NYC is just signaling weakness.
aug 28, 2025, 3:34 am • 1 0 • view
You're the one committed to losing. It's your type of Democrat who makes people across the country sour on the party. You're a craven, cowardly loser who accommodates fascism—like Schumer & Jeffries. You insist the left of the party accommodate "moderates"—we do all the time—but don't reciprocate.
aug 27, 2025, 6:58 pm • 1 0 • view
Democrats have already begun abandoning segments of the left and must do so much more. The answer for Democrats is to reject the 9% of voters on the left utterly in favor of the 38% of voters in the middle. You're a tiny, sad minority.
aug 27, 2025, 7:06 pm • 3 0 • view
Many registered Democrats don’t ever vote. Why is that? Is it because they are mad at free Palestine protesters and leaders using land acknowledgments to open speeches? No, it’s because they are never promised anything good, only means tested tax rebates for starting non profits. There is no story.
aug 27, 2025, 8:35 pm • 0 0 • view
You guys simply cannot get your minds around the reality that offering programs is a loser. Democrats must talk only about these, symbols and values. Until they do, they'll lose.
aug 27, 2025, 8:36 pm • 0 0 • view
No, that’s not what I’m getting at. I think the problem is that the programs offered are wonky, inside-the-beltway bullshit that most people don’t understand. We must talk about symbols and values in an unrelenting and bombastic fashion. Biden had good policies, but they weren’t sold to the people.
aug 27, 2025, 8:42 pm • 2 0 • view
I agree with you completely. Biden was terrible at rhetoric and the necessary showmanship. He was just so small as president.
aug 27, 2025, 11:49 pm • 1 0 • view
I think that was most evident with Ukraine. Putin wouldn’t have dared with a Reagan, Bush, or Clinton in the White House.
aug 27, 2025, 11:57 pm • 2 0 • view
Trump captured the pop culture. So did Obama. We need that, but not with shitty plans that will lead us right back here again. Furthermore, we need massive, bold government reforms & criminal accountability for the Trump regime, and the next Dem president must promise that. Retribution for this crap
aug 27, 2025, 8:46 pm • 3 0 • view
We need a salesman. Newsom gets it. I’m not saying he’s the guy, but this is how it’s done.
aug 27, 2025, 8:59 pm • 0 0 • view
Ah, I see you were in conservative media. So, basically, you're one of those people who spent years building a constituency for a fascist conman & yet are completely unwilling to take responsibility for what you've done and your role in creating the disaster that's befallen this country. 1/2
aug 27, 2025, 7:50 pm • 3 0 • view
I spent zero years, months, or days building any Trump constituency. Conservatism exists to conserve Western liberalism, which is what I do and have done. Democrats will win as soon as they abandon you and your loser ideas, and come to the center. It's already happening.
aug 27, 2025, 7:52 pm • 0 0 • view
Whatever keeps you from examing your conscience for being part of a movement that, brick by brick, created a constituency for totalitarianism.
aug 27, 2025, 7:55 pm • 0 0 • view
My conscience is clear. My heart is full. And you're a loser.
aug 27, 2025, 7:56 pm • 0 0 • view
Rather than be introspective, you project your guilty conscience on those of us who warned about what people like you were doing. Have a great day, creep. 2/2
aug 27, 2025, 7:50 pm • 3 0 • view
I was in conservative media, too, where I wrote articles like "I'll Take Clinton Over Trump" and the "The Conservative Case for Engaging Cuba"
aug 27, 2025, 8:05 pm • 21 0 • view
I wrote a two-part series about why Republicans should reject Trump. So much more. I ultimately gave up my career in the face of the Trumpification of the GOP. The problem with these guys is that they will say George W. Bush and Mitt Romney are just like Trump. They're incorrigible.
aug 27, 2025, 8:07 pm • 18 1 • view
Romney ran on anti immigrant xenophobia and voted through trump's judges. He begged for Trump's endorsement. His differences with him are purely aesthetic
aug 27, 2025, 8:34 pm • 1 0 • view
I don't say Bush & Romney were just like Trump. But the broader GOP under both—& maybe particularly the conservative media eco-system that both supported the GOP & drove it even further into the fever swamps—continued to cultivate a base that would embrace Trump. Do you think he came out of nowhere?
aug 27, 2025, 8:24 pm • 1 0 • view
Fuck W. The nation believed in him enough to elect him President. TWICE. That honor obligates him to weigh in aggressively on Trump. Every single day of silence provides an indication that he supports democracy dying and Americans suffering. You awake, W?
aug 27, 2025, 8:13 pm • 62 10 • view
Also I want to point out that I totally understand and can appreciate leaving the GOP in the face of fasicsm taking over. I've had long talks about me with friends who have done the same. But platforms have frameworks that are basically the same. That cannot be ignored.
aug 28, 2025, 12:39 am • 1 0 • view
I'll ask you rather than I assume I know the answer: Were you supporting GW Bush when he put John Roberts & Sam Alito on the Supreme Court? Supporting GHW Bush when he put Clarence Thomas on the court? This is what I mean when I argue mainstream conservatives supported the trajectory to Trump. 1/2
aug 28, 2025, 5:20 pm • 0 0 • view
Trump has been thoroughly enabled by a Supreme Court created & led by mainstream conservatives. Citizens United. Shelby v. Holder. The immunity decision. Numerous shadow docket decisions this term helping Trump overcome lower court setbacks. I admire your break w/ the GOP over Trump & Trumpism.
aug 28, 2025, 5:20 pm • 1 0 • view
I follow you & actually appreciate much of what you write. I think the pro-democracy tent has to be big enough to deal w/ the extent of the crisis. But I also believe that by 2016, when most Never Trumpers jumped ship, the damage was done. Conservative media & its GOP allies had created a monster.
aug 27, 2025, 8:20 pm • 2 0 • view
The monster wasn't primarily Trump. The monster was the perhaps 30-40% of the country who were primed—they DEFINITELY were primed by folks like Limbaugh, etc.—to welcome a Trump. Bernie Sanders didn't create that monster. I get self-reflection is hard but the left didn't build the voters for Trump.
aug 27, 2025, 8:20 pm • 2 0 • view
For all their talk about privilege and entitlement, after nearly a decade of Trump they still act like this is a game
aug 26, 2025, 11:30 pm • 22 2 • view
That’s because it is to them.
aug 26, 2025, 11:33 pm • 10 0 • view
I've been a Dem for 40+ years and I'd much rather have Never-Trumper former Republicans like yourself in my party than the groups who do nothing but complain, b*tch, and moan, and then stay home on election day because their one particular, parochial issue isn't the key plank in the party platform.
aug 27, 2025, 12:40 am • 224 19 • view
Abso-fr1cking-lootely!
aug 27, 2025, 2:49 am • 1 0 • view
Tom was one of the earliest Never Trumpers to speak up. He wrote a column early on that I sent my republican husband that pretty much said don’t vote for anyone who enables this guy. It got my husbands attention and he’s now unaffiliated and has voted straight dem no matter what. Thanks Tom!
aug 27, 2025, 4:03 am • 4 1 • view
I'm a Never-Trumper former Republican, and one of the reasons for that is I have a worldview grounded in reality. And it's obvious you guys are the ones doing the bitching and moaning here, whining that liberals aren't capitulating to you on issues just because you declared it's necessary to win.
aug 27, 2025, 2:54 am • 2 1 • view
The actual reality is that those of you on the center right are the minority in the coalition, if you're authentically anti-authoritarian you will vote Dem, if you're not you you won't, and there's no evidence any "moderate swing voter whose vote depends on Democrats ditching trans people" exists.
aug 27, 2025, 3:01 am • 1 1 • view
PREACH!
aug 27, 2025, 2:23 am • 7 0 • view
The purists are not motivated by winning or policy change, but by getting attention. Once I realized this, their actions started to make a lot more sense.
aug 27, 2025, 3:35 pm • 1 1 • view
How many need children burn to death by our missiles and bombs before an issue stops being “parochial?” Side question- what, if any, obligation does a dem candidate have to respond in any way to voters concerns beyond repeating “I am not trump, vote for me”
aug 27, 2025, 2:49 am • 1 0 • view
I was ABSOLUTELY furious about that and the damn uncommitted.Absolutely the most destructive movement i have ever witnessed.Sitting out and letting a MADMAN win to PUNISH the Democratic party because of what was happening 1000’s of miles away.😡😡
aug 27, 2025, 1:48 pm • 1 0 • view
It's actually infuriating. I have friends who are single issue driven or will not vote outside their lofty ideals. They preach constantly, but most of what they want doesn't happen and never will. Idealism is great, but not at the expense of practicality. Idealism alone doesn't solve anything.
aug 27, 2025, 2:39 am • 7 2 • view
🎯
aug 27, 2025, 2:29 am • 2 0 • view
💯 sadly I know too many people like that
aug 27, 2025, 2:28 am • 0 0 • view
Same. Not a Dem, been voting anti GOP my entire adult life, and the entire time far left loons have been whining because candidates aren’t exactly like them. That’s not how politics or adulthood work
aug 27, 2025, 3:04 am • 4 1 • view
THIS
aug 27, 2025, 2:27 am • 1 0 • view
Counterpoint: wouldn't it feel right to denounce someone you don't know for a reason you can't quite grasp?
aug 27, 2025, 2:31 am • 0 0 • view
You folks will never get it. You are doomed to forever be the minority party you’ve chosen to be. VOTERS are leaving your party in droves and you’re still blaming them. Enjoy your future losses, losers.
aug 27, 2025, 2:45 am • 1 0 • view
And which "parochial" issue talking about?
aug 27, 2025, 9:12 am • 0 0 • view
aug 27, 2025, 2:27 am • 1 0 • view
Those are not democrats. They're Jill Stein supporters. MTG is more likely to vote D.
aug 27, 2025, 2:29 am • 8 0 • view
The left makes every potential winning candidate walk an ideological plank that makes it impossible for them to win a national election. Democrats are winning quiet local elections because they largely aren't saddled with this chorus of the impossible to please.
aug 27, 2025, 2:38 am • 68 6 • view
And yet in the last 32 years, Biden won, Obama won twice, and Clinton won twice. Dems have had the White House for 20 of those 32 years. Over the last 50 years, Dems have had tho White House for 24 out of the last 50 years. The facts don’t support your assertion.
aug 27, 2025, 3:15 am • 2 0 • view
I think it supports my position. Both Clinton and Obama are huge disappointments to the ideological left. Both skillfully refused to walk the plank -- and won.
aug 27, 2025, 3:33 am • 6 0 • view
I don’t agree that there’s any such plank. Neither the Democrat nor Republican Parties are anywhere close to having uniform opinions on their platforms. The result is that the nominations nearly always go to a candidate near the relative middle of their party (Trump being a notable exception). …
aug 27, 2025, 4:02 am • 1 0 • view
So yes, far left Dems are perennially disappointed, as are Dems falling to the right of the mainstream. This is how democracy works, though.
aug 27, 2025, 4:04 am • 1 0 • view
The original discussion was not about far left Dems being disappointed. It was about them not voting while also making more moderate Ds less palatable to independents. A formula that has greater implications nationally.
aug 27, 2025, 5:12 am • 3 0 • view
Exactly
aug 27, 2025, 1:49 pm • 0 0 • view
Well put. They made Kamala say “I did that” re the gender change for the prisoner, and it doomed her entire campaign.
aug 27, 2025, 2:05 pm • 1 1 • view
That’s really a tiny sliver of the party… most just want Democrats to not be owned by corporations and to have a spine and a brain instead of just blindly following whatever their consultants say.
aug 27, 2025, 2:54 am • 11 0 • view
Reason they’re doing better in state elections is they’re not stuck in DC bubble and micromanaged by party leadership.
aug 27, 2025, 2:57 am • 1 0 • view
Yeah, but most of us who think like that agree with most or all of what Tom says too.
aug 27, 2025, 8:50 pm • 0 0 • view
The tiny sliver. If five percent sit on their hands because someone won't jump on an ideological grenade, you lose the House.
aug 27, 2025, 3:03 am • 10 0 • view
Many others stay home because they aren’t convinced by the candidate’s sales pitch. There are a lot more apathetic voters than ideological ones. The apathetic ones need a reason to come out and vote and they won’t do it for a lacklustre candidate they’re lukewarm on.
aug 27, 2025, 3:22 am • 3 0 • view
But isn't this apathy a byproduct of poisoning the sales pitch (she/he won't jump on my grenade)?
aug 27, 2025, 1:12 pm • 4 0 • view
Not really… more of a they’re just another corporate shill looking to line their pockets.
aug 27, 2025, 1:17 pm • 0 0 • view
Issue is people who actually voted for Harris are pissed at congressional Dems right now because they’re doing very little to fight Trump. “Please actually do something to try and stop the fascist regime” isn’t really a purity test, is it?
aug 27, 2025, 1:29 pm • 3 0 • view
I don't mean this as a challenge but out of curiosity: what do you want them to be doing that they aren't? It seems to me they are neither in power nor especially natural leaders of the kinds of opposition that are useful while they aren't.
aug 27, 2025, 8:53 pm • 0 0 • view
Pretty much using every type of procedural tool they have to obstruct everything in sight, Mitch McConnell style, and screaming off the rooftops that Trump is a fascist installing an authoritarian regime. You’re right, they’re not particularly great at either one.
aug 27, 2025, 9:56 pm • 1 0 • view
No, they were very specifically targeted by the left (and the fake left) with the lie that Democrats and Republicans are all alike. Many believed it. Some still do.
aug 27, 2025, 8:51 pm • 1 0 • view
I’m already seeing the purity tests for the 2028 presidential election—people announcing they won’t vote for so and so if they’re the nominee based on some issue the Republican would be much worse on.
aug 27, 2025, 9:43 am • 8 1 • view
They're narcissistic nihilists, happier complaining about the lack of purity of Dems than the Republican reversal of progress on the very issues they supposedly care about. All with some bizarre assumption it will get so bad that they'll eventually be handed power. Never mind the interim suffering.
aug 27, 2025, 11:33 am • 6 1 • view
aug 27, 2025, 2:24 am • 2 0 • view
Same
aug 28, 2025, 3:22 am • 3 0 • view
Hear hear! We can return to arguing about how to run the country once we secure its continued existence.
aug 27, 2025, 4:15 am • 2 1 • view
Or worse, it is in their platform and they refused to check, and instead rely on the influencer whose being paid to persuade them to stay home.
aug 27, 2025, 2:28 am • 5 0 • view
This is the primary problem, I think. Republican-supported trolls. There are a lot of them.
aug 27, 2025, 2:44 am • 0 0 • view
Amen. I've been fighting with purists all day. I've concluded that they are a lost cause.
aug 27, 2025, 2:16 am • 16 1 • view
Starting to suspect some of it is inauthentic. Once it gets to a certain level of deafness to anything anyone has to say, I assume it’s a troll.
aug 27, 2025, 2:18 am • 16 0 • view
Agreed. Either that or oppositional disorder. Or very thick skulls 🤷
aug 27, 2025, 3:01 am • 1 0 • view
When the “bus” stops at 23 abc blvd and the destination is 22 abc blvd, do you get on the “bus”? Or stay home? I know a few who … stay home!
aug 27, 2025, 2:40 am • 4 0 • view
I’ve been a Dem for a long time, and my heart gets continually broken by people who stay home, or decide to vote for Nader or Stein.
aug 27, 2025, 2:50 am • 6 1 • view
Amen to that! A few of my kids included.
aug 27, 2025, 2:40 am • 0 0 • view
Let’s just have a whole bunch of parties, broken down by micro-issues. Or, we could have 2: Fascist-ish, and Not Fascist-ish
aug 27, 2025, 6:17 pm • 0 0 • view
Trumpism is a conservative wet dream. They’ve been planning this for 50 years! The only thing they really take issue with is the clumsiness of the execution and Trumps stupidity. Enough crocodile tears over “big gov”. We don’t need another GOP-lite party. Fuck the neocons and neoliberals. ENOUGH!
aug 26, 2025, 11:48 pm • 0 0 • view
You are so confused that's it sad. The neocons and the neoliberals are the ones desperately screaming at Democrats to adopt policies and themes that will attract moderate voters. Progressives lose almost everywhere, all the time. Stop. It's madness.
aug 27, 2025, 2:34 am • 3 1 • view
You are the one confused or brainwashed. There are no moderates. Populist noise, not policy, rules politics, enriching donors while ignoring voters. The neoliberal elite acts as controlled opposition, keeping the oligarchy in power. Bernie rivaled Trump in support until the Democrats crushed him.
aug 27, 2025, 2:41 am • 0 0 • view
Well, that's the end of *this* discussion.
aug 27, 2025, 2:46 am • 9 2 • view
"It was the Democrats who crushed Bernie Sanders by voting against him, man. It was a conspiracy, man."
aug 27, 2025, 3:24 am • 3 1 • view
Are you 10? In 2016 and 2020, Sanders faced DNC bias, fewer debates, superdelegates stacked against him, media downplaying his campaign, and procedural hurdles. Grassroots support was strong, but the party apparatus systematically favored establishment candidates, man.
aug 27, 2025, 3:30 am • 1 0 • view
Bernie Sanders lost to Hillary Clinton because Sanders received fewer votes than Clinton or Biden. It's not a conspiracy, dude. Your favored candidate sucks and is unpopular.
aug 27, 2025, 3:47 am • 2 1 • view
Why did Harris lose? Why did Clinton lose? Such wonderful candidates. They were so…what’s the word…Republicanesque. Could it be because people were sick of YOUR stacked deck choices? Man. A conspiracy? No. Just more controlled opposition. Chomsky recognized this back in the 80s.
aug 27, 2025, 3:57 am • 0 0 • view
Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris were not remotely "Republicanesque." You have outed yourself as an absurd rube. The Chomsky reference is just a chef's kiss. Democrats will win when Democrats nominate centrist candidates who can talk in themes that resonate with workadaddy voters.
aug 27, 2025, 4:01 am • 1 1 • view
Clinton and Harris were neoliberals. Look up neoliberal and then look up Republican. Dude. Themes that resonate with work-a-day voters? Like Sanders and Mamdani? Good idea.
aug 27, 2025, 4:06 am • 0 0 • view
Sanders was basically the only legit challenger to Clinton, who had loads of baggage. His supporters made the mistake of thinking his ideas were popular because he had strong showing in 2016. When he ran against a crowded field in 2020 his support dropped because Dems had real choices.
aug 27, 2025, 4:05 am • 1 0 • view
Clinton was massively unpopular. Obama won in 2008 because he was an alternative to Clinton. In 2016, Clinton worked to clear the field. Sanders was the *only* alternative to Clinton. Clinton was radically unpopular. She hurt Democrats. (I like her a lot; woulda been a great president.)
aug 27, 2025, 4:08 am • 3 1 • view
Or because you can’t win without party support in a two party system.
aug 27, 2025, 4:07 am • 0 0 • view
He didn’t get the votes. Period.
aug 27, 2025, 3:33 am • 1 0 • view
Sanders isn't a registered Democrat so why should the DNC be in favor of him, and why would Democrats nationally vote for him in a primary over Clinton or Biden who have been registered Democrats most of their lives?
aug 27, 2025, 3:34 am • 1 0 • view
Sanders’ coalition was young, working-class, and progressive, while his neoliberal opponents drew older, wealthier, and more moderate voters, reflecting a clear ideological and generational split within the Democratic Party. With enough support, this was the answer to disenfranchised MAGA hordes.
aug 27, 2025, 3:43 am • 0 0 • view
Really? His coalition couldn't win the 2016 nor the 2020 Democratic primaries. So he never had enough support, and he certainly wasn't going to be attracting MAGA voters like you think he would have.
aug 27, 2025, 4:16 am • 1 0 • view
We’ll never know because we have one party. The donor party and Dem faithful are happy to lose to maintain the status quo.
aug 27, 2025, 4:19 am • 0 0 • view
But he got fewer states and got fewer votes than Clinton. And super delegates didn't put Clinton over the top.
aug 27, 2025, 3:33 am • 1 0 • view
He was an old man with young ideas. Ideologically he was the answer. Cosmetically and culturally, maybe not for the older conservative American voters brainwashed by generations of exceptionalism myth and sadly bigoted. It didn’t help that he got virtually no support from party leaders. Thus MAGA.
aug 27, 2025, 4:14 am • 0 0 • view
Brilliant retort. Subsidies aren’t about a free market; they’re about rigging it. We call it capitalism, but when the government props up corporations, picks winners, and shields industries from competition, it’s cronyism, not freedom.
aug 27, 2025, 2:48 am • 0 0 • view
I thought we were an autonomous collective
aug 27, 2025, 3:29 am • 11 0 • view
Bernie woulda won
aug 27, 2025, 3:29 am • 8 0 • view
I think theres a really interesting counterfactual world where Bernie becomes President, does poorly, which subsequently disillusions a bunch of progressives in a totally different way Not sure what sort of republican party that would have been produced, but surely more responsible than this one
aug 27, 2025, 4:36 am • 1 0 • view
aug 27, 2025, 3:45 am • 2 0 • view
Yes, conservatives for years have argued that the government should own stakes in major corporations, just like Bernie has always wanted
aug 27, 2025, 2:35 am • 3 1 • view
Trump is running a criminal protection racket. I don’t agree with Bernie here, but to frame this as Trump going socialist is beneath you. Why the fuck are we subsidizing business in a free market anyway?
aug 27, 2025, 2:45 am • 0 0 • view
Don't bother with that wolf; they're unaware of everything.
aug 27, 2025, 4:40 pm • 1 1 • view
We are hoping you will gage your actions with a bit more subtlety than Bernie does.
aug 26, 2025, 11:43 pm • 0 0 • view
I fear that progressives didn't pass their math classes. It takes lots of votes to win. Invite in all possible anti-trump voters! WELCOME!
aug 26, 2025, 11:29 pm • 18 2 • view
Eric Alterman put it best when he said “Voting is not therapy.”
aug 26, 2025, 11:45 pm • 4 1 • view
I can only conclude that leftists hate themselves and want to lose.
aug 26, 2025, 11:31 pm • 19 2 • view
Moral purity and refusing to tolerate everyone who is intolerant is the most important thing to the American left. A close second is being seen to suffer. Wearing the mantle of victimhood as a hair shirt is impossible if Democrats actually gain power by increasing the party coalition.
aug 27, 2025, 2:30 am • 6 1 • view
Time for Dems to change their attitude! I don’t like losers. Nothing admirable about it.
aug 27, 2025, 2:50 am • 3 0 • view
aug 28, 2025, 4:19 am • 0 0 • view
aug 27, 2025, 1:50 am • 1 0 • view
I’m not sure how many you can change but exposure is great tactic
aug 26, 2025, 11:46 pm • 0 0 • view
Preach!!
aug 27, 2025, 2:17 am • 0 0 • view
Please. Telling our party to change is required for entry to the party.
aug 27, 2025, 12:14 am • 2 0 • view
Outch. :)
aug 27, 2025, 12:44 am • 3 0 • view
Well, Angus King too.
aug 26, 2025, 11:39 pm • 0 0 • view
We should drop the various policy issues and unite to defend the nation against those who wish to destroy it. Without that those policy issues will not matter anyway. I am very happy with the support of never Trump Republicans. Many of them have shown more courage than the frozen dem leadership.
aug 27, 2025, 12:06 am • 5 0 • view
Can you be a never Trumper and a lackey for Trumpism? Goddamned people, if you are going to criticize Tom, at least make some sense.
aug 27, 2025, 3:02 pm • 0 0 • view
Dem voters have rejected Bernie multiple times. You would expect to go to someone else's house party and set all the house rules to your personal tastes and likings, would you?
aug 26, 2025, 11:41 pm • 4 0 • view
*wouldn't expect
aug 26, 2025, 11:42 pm • 0 0 • view
The Bernie wing in particular drives me nuts on this. If they truly cared about the party having power to make progress on very liberal issues, they could have chosen Warren instead. They wanted party outsider, and if I recall correctly, also gave the Dems Fetterman. Great judgment there.
aug 27, 2025, 11:39 am • 5 0 • view
At least once a day, someone in a thread I'm reading will state there's no difference between the two parties, so, it's already your party.
aug 26, 2025, 11:34 pm • 4 0 • view
Larry David is the best version of Bernie Sanders.🤣
aug 26, 2025, 11:27 pm • 4 0 • view
Oh shit lol
aug 26, 2025, 11:25 pm • 1 0 • view
He is not wrong. What prevented conservatives from leaving MAGA following Trump's 2020 defeat? Additionally, the majority of Democrats are more aligned with Bernie Sanders than they would be with “never Trumpers."
aug 26, 2025, 11:37 pm • 0 0 • view
1. People like @radiofreetom.bsky.social *did* leave GOP. In @radiofreetom.bsky.social's case it was *during* Trump's first presidency and *before* 2020. 2. I would not be so sure about the claim that more Democrats align with Sanders than, say, Nichols and Rubin.
aug 26, 2025, 11:58 pm • 2 0 • view
tough but fair
aug 26, 2025, 11:31 pm • 0 0 • view
"OUR" party. Already breaking off into factions, and it's only August 2025.
aug 26, 2025, 11:25 pm • 6 0 • view
Bernie has always been full of it . . . he believes in Bernie. Never Trumpers believe in something bigger than themselves.
aug 27, 2025, 4:12 am • 0 0 • view
Um...Bernie actually does politics. Do that.
aug 27, 2025, 7:03 am • 0 0 • view
So, Gordon would rather see the country crash and burn than compromise on his ideological orthodoxy?
aug 26, 2025, 11:33 pm • 4 0 • view
Unfair critique, he believe they would win if every adopted his ideologic orthodoxy. He is fighting but he is fighting a losing battle because he does not understand "people"
aug 27, 2025, 12:51 pm • 0 0 • view
That is the point, but those are the stakes.
aug 27, 2025, 1:18 pm • 0 0 • view
That IS the point.
aug 27, 2025, 1:17 pm • 0 0 • view
Tom, I love you and your takedowns but some of these clowns are not worthy of attention and IMO your cherry-picking of simpletons is a bad look. But still: I'm wildly liberal (deconverted from both Christianity & conservatism years ago) but I agree with you often and I NEED wise voices like yours.
aug 26, 2025, 11:32 pm • 10 0 • view
Cherry picking of simpletons? Have you ever considered the reason we are all hip-deep in shit is because we DIDN’T cherry pick the simpletons ENOUGH???
aug 26, 2025, 11:36 pm • 4 0 • view
Pretty sure I saw Cherry Picking Simpletons during their U.S. tour when I worked as a bar-back in a Manhattan nightclub back in college. 🤔
aug 27, 2025, 12:48 am • 8 0 • view
A Zep tribute band? @radiofreetom.bsky.social please forgive me
aug 27, 2025, 12:57 am • 2 0 • view
aug 26, 2025, 11:33 pm • 0 0 • view
Keep it up. ✅
aug 27, 2025, 12:14 pm • 0 0 • view
This must be what it was like fighting Franco…
aug 26, 2025, 11:23 pm • 7 0 • view
And look how that went
aug 26, 2025, 11:32 pm • 14 0 • view
He IS still dead...
aug 26, 2025, 11:38 pm • 4 0 • view
Nice SNL reference, but he died from natural causes at an old age.
aug 26, 2025, 11:53 pm • 6 0 • view
I remember that. I remember being informed by the news of every detail of his decline.
aug 27, 2025, 12:14 am • 3 0 • view
I remember a editorial cartoon, Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin playing cards asking Franco why he took so long. Point is that Spain stayed fascist for a long time after that war.
aug 27, 2025, 1:21 am • 7 0 • view
My family fought Franco and got the hell out. We partied when he died.
aug 28, 2025, 3:25 am • 3 0 • view
Exactly. I was thinking about Homage to Catalonia, although I seem to have backed into a double entendre with Chevy’s breaking news running gag.
aug 27, 2025, 12:14 am • 0 0 • view
People like that poster are one reason Democrats are losing.
aug 27, 2025, 1:50 am • 2 0 • view
That person probably isn’t a Democrat. Hell “he”might not even be a person
aug 27, 2025, 2:47 am • 0 0 • view
The *object* of the game is to get the most votes, how do these morons thinking kicking people *out* will help them win? These are the same people that kick a lot of own-goals in soccer, aren’t they? 🤦🏾♀️
aug 26, 2025, 11:29 pm • 13 0 • view
Seriously, wtf is wrong with people.... I know, I know... But FFS...
aug 26, 2025, 11:46 pm • 4 0 • view
Big tent means just that.
aug 27, 2025, 4:42 am • 0 0 • view
You can join but your singing the praises of Reagan will have to stop. That won’t fly in these parts.
aug 26, 2025, 11:33 pm • 3 0 • view
This is where I tell you about "Reagan Democrats" how he won the bluest states in a landslide
aug 26, 2025, 11:36 pm • 9 3 • view
Ok Tom- but please acknowledge Reagan set off the prion disease that destroyed the Republican Party. The “movement conservatives” were nihilists who lied to get their way & set the Republicans on a path of non stop bad faith. The Reagan fan boy shit is a major blind spot for you & the Bulwark set.
aug 27, 2025, 2:50 am • 1 0 • view
I think there are some honest discussions to be had about failures that were the result of his policies. What you need to learn from is his Political Skill. Compare the culture in 1980 and today and adjust.
aug 27, 2025, 12:49 pm • 2 2 • view
You talk as though Reagan was Patient Zero rather than Newt.
aug 27, 2025, 5:36 pm • 1 1 • view
Oh, Newt is worthy of plenty of opprobrium. I just can’t abide the veneration conservatives heap upon Reagan, as though he were a God damned saint.
aug 28, 2025, 5:10 pm • 1 0 • view
I am well aware of the temporary insanity of the Reagan Democrats.
aug 26, 2025, 11:37 pm • 0 0 • view
(Temporary? Most of them never came back.)
aug 26, 2025, 11:40 pm • 2 0 • view
Clinton lured them back in.
aug 26, 2025, 11:43 pm • 1 0 • view
And how did they vote in 2016 or 2024?
aug 26, 2025, 11:59 pm • 0 0 • view
Yes, a lot of the white working class voted for Trump. But that has nothing to do with Reagan.
aug 27, 2025, 12:07 am • 2 0 • view
We are not talking about Reagan. We are talking about Reagan Democrats. Do you really want to argue that not only did they get "lured back" by Clinton but that they stayed with Democrats in 2016 and 2024?
aug 27, 2025, 12:14 am • 0 0 • view
Many of the people voting for a trump weren’t eligible to vote, or weren’t even born during Reagan’s term so you can hardly call them “ Reagan Democrats”. The truth is Dems have done a terrible job of communicating to the white working class in the last few cycles.
aug 27, 2025, 12:27 am • 1 0 • view
Joe Biden was great at communicating with the white working class. It’s just that the Democratic Party hasn’t won the majority of White voters since the Civil Rights Act passed.
aug 27, 2025, 1:55 am • 2 0 • view
Alternatively, the (large part of the) white working class got all the information needed to make the choice and chose xenophobia and misogyny over its own economic and civic interests.
aug 27, 2025, 4:18 am • 0 0 • view
aug 27, 2025, 12:35 am • 0 0 • view
In most parts, Reagan will be praised for what he deserved praise for and condemned for what he deserved condemnation for. Just like anyone else in politics and our national history.
aug 27, 2025, 5:35 pm • 1 1 • view
I was mostly just joking with Tom because he is a big Reagan fan.
aug 27, 2025, 5:36 pm • 0 0 • view
I want everyone from Tom Nichols to Bill Kristol to Joe Walsh to Bernie Sanders to be Democrats. It's a fight for the soul of the country and I'll take all the allies I can get. We can argue about marginal tax rates later.
aug 26, 2025, 11:48 pm • 7 0 • view
aug 27, 2025, 12:12 am • 3 0 • view