Right-wing media didn't mention it. When they don't follow anything but right-wing media, they don't hear the bad policies proposed by their leaders, or those policies are presented as not being harmful to THEM, or not being as extreme as the left says they are.
I don't know who you're speaking for, but it certainly isn't middle-class me [who comes from a working class family] or any of the people I know. Broad brush generalities about 'bourgeois liberal self-righteousness' are as unhelpful and they are unfair. If that's your perspective from where you sit, fine. But please don't include everyone else in your generalities.
Honestly, it sounded to me like somebody looking to place blame, which was neither true nor helpful in any way. That 'liberals look down their noses at normal folks' stuff is an old, tired trope which we normally hear from the right.
I am just trying to catch up on the comments. Yesterday there were a few comments that were offensive, at least to me. Broad generalizations and finger pointing at the wrong people. The reason we lost is because the MAGAs and MAGA wannabes came out to vote for Trump. Those racists will crawl over broken glass for Trump and then blame their cuts on the Democrats.
One thing we really must avoid - and get over IMO - is the tendency to form up the circular firing squad. WE aren't the problem. Our campaign wasn't the problem. Trump and Trump voters are the problem. They're the reason he took this election, not us. For all their ills, one thing MAGA republicans never obsess over is self-reflection and soul searching when they lose. It will be good to understand exactly what happened in this election, but we don't have that information right now, just the result. Once we have that information, we should use it to figure out how to do better next time, instead of obsessing over who to blame this time.
Agree 💯. Harris ran a flawless campaign in my opinion. I do believe there are areas where the Dems can improve. The MSM is no longer interested in honest, fair coverage - just my opinion. I also agree with Simon that the party needs to be modernized. BUT it is too soon to be making bold declarations. I agree 💯 that WE are not the problem. Trump and Trump voters ARE the problem. (As you said). I also agree that the Dems need to start communicating all the good things that happen when Dems are running things. You watch - Trump is going to declare he got the economy going again and totally take credit for Biden's work and the MSM will go along.
“Liberals look down their noses at normal folks” comes straight from the American South, which loathes liberalism and has fought against it for a very long time. My great-great grandfather was Secretary of the Confederacy during the ass-end of the Civil War and I know of what I speak.
There will be time for analysis but keep in mind that TFG's popular vote total at the moment is 72.7M, DOWN from 74.2M in 2020. But we dropped from 81.2M in 2020 to 68M right now! This could be revisited when closer to all of the votes are in, but your view seems premature.
Whatever the final numbers are, the Other Guy won with virtually the same vote count as when he lost in 2020; while some 12-15M 2020 Biden voters failed to show up and vote for Harris. Seems to me he only won by default because those MIA former Biden voters gave it away. They did not flip to the Other Guy(his numbers didn't increase from year to year) they simply didn't vote. How can it be that with all the money (some of it mine) she had and such a strong ground game (me again), we couldn't convince our own people to show up?
At least it's nice to know that trump is probably irked by the fact that, four years later, he could not get nearly as many votes as Biden got in 2020.
I was just on a call with Galvanized Action (www.galvanizedaction.org). The founder, Jackie Payne, focuses on moderate white women and spoke at length about their research. She is like Simon in terms of leaning heavily on real data. They use randomized control trials and lean heavily on focus groups and longitudinal studies (i.e., interview the same people over time to measure changes in opinions). (See https://www.galvanizeaction.org/our-work/research/).
They found a strong correlation with Internalized sexism. Women who don't trust themselves to make their own decisions (and depend on their husbands' opinions) broke for Trump, while women who think for themselves and trust their own judgement, broke for Kamala Harris.
They will be sending a recording out later to those in attendance for the Zoom; If you would like a link to it, please DM me.
Nah. Consider Hispanic women who voted FOR abortion, Amendment 4 here in Baghdad By the Sea, and voted for el caudillo Trump, who might "denaturalize" them and put them in concentration camps, and ship their asses to Cuba, Venezuela, et al.
Consider female athletes. The most effective commercial......
This is particularly acute with Southern women. I am quite close with a dear young women who has been friends since grade school with one of my college-aged sons. And on Tuesday, she walked into a voting booth and voted for Donald Trump. She felt AWFUL about it, but all she could see when she was in that booth was her dead father's face and he loved Trump.
I'm Southern born & bred and know our character defects too well. It's all about the Civil War. The South has hated the federal government ever since the government took away our slaves and forced us to treat black people like human beings. If you are born in the South, this is the water you swim in from the moment you are born.
I’m a transplant to NC. And both my late parents were WWII vets and they would be appalled at DJT’s authorianism and by what is happening in the US today.
Could this be because it seemed we were ahead and going to win and way too many Dems thought they could sit out this election? If so, we have no one to blame but ourselves. Time to get back to work then.
Simon, I posted a link to opportunities to cure ballots. I know people are exhausted, but there is a narrow window to do ballot curing - it varies by state. Please encourage everybody to check out this link if they have any juice left in their tanks:
Simon jumping into reply here b/c I wanted to make sure that you saw my apology yesterday. I certainly did not intend for my debut post here to be one of the worst in the history of Hopium. I think I must have committed a material typo or foolish word choice. that inadvertently suggested unfair or personal criticism of you. 100% not intended and, again, I'm very sorry if it came across that way. [Edit: should say "that it came across that way," no "if" b/c it obviously did and I'm not trying to caveat a mea culpa.]
I am taking this down for while it has some interesting insights 1) there are thing said in here which are factually wrong 2) we don't come here and dump and run. Needs to be more constructive if you want to report. Thank you.
I understand. From what I've seen data wise, the capital class is largely lined up behind MAGA. Also, a handful of those in the capital class control social media. And, we all know the CCP has a hand in every Chinese owned company. So, I don't think it's a huge leap in my opinion. We have a big problem on our hands. My goal is the waive the warning flag on this. Thank you!
I saw a Bulwark video today and Tim Miller was talking about Jeff Bezos' enthusiastic tweet of congratulations to TFG for his win. Miller related it to Orban's model of bringing private companies under his control. That is very concerning, especially with TFG's buddy relationship with Orban who announced they talked and have "Big Plans!" With a few billionaires controlling much of the right-wing framing (add Musk and his hunger for AI + Starlink control), and I agree with Simon's analysis. The Meidas Touch guys are also talking about the critical need to build an alternative communications system. Legacy media is just not getting it done anymore and we are losing the messaging war. It occurred to me this week in simple terms: Biden has been a great statesman, but a weak salesman. Trump is a good salesman (with a LOT of help from the right wing megaphone and sanewashing by legacy media), but a horrible statesman. Unfortunately, in this current culture with such a segmented information system, messaging and branding are critical to break through.
Scott Dworkin has run a very successful media campaign. Please share and amplify his posts.📣 He is on Trump’s “retribution” list that he wears as a badge of honor.
Yes, Trump got a lot of help from Musk and maybe a foreign government or two. I don't think it was Trump's salesmanship skills. I had an interesting reply from a commenter on the Bulwark about Musk's team micro-targeting social media users with specific messages that the economy is in recession. We all know it's not, but that's what I believe Musk's team successfully did with their social media micro-targeting.
I don't think the old guard in the Democratic Party universe has yet to fully comprehended how this affected the outcome. I think it affected it greatly. Just look at the young vote for example. Murdoch's not the only game in town anymore. And, unfortunately, no one has ever been able to figure out a good defense for Fox News. How on earth are we going to counter this?
There are brilliant and innovative minds in our camp. Throughout history, good people have found a way to oppose tyrants. If we all work together to build something, there's no reason it cannot counter what exists. I do worry about the scope of Musk's reach with his technology, government contracts, and now even more top secret clearance and access. We start where we are. It would be very helpful if some patriotic billionaires want to join and fund it as well :)
I am following the races as you are and remain optimistic about flipping the House, as I wrote today. I did not believe it was necessary to go through each one as even in the last 30 4 minutes races got called so things are changing all the time. We will either flip the House or we won't, and we will know soon.
It felt great ballot curing for Sen. Rosen yesterday afternoon and watching her deficit get smaller, from ~4000 votes to ~2000, then become an even larger margin of victory!
Thank goodness!! And thanks for letting us know. I don't about all of you, but I've been on a mental health break from cable TV and social media since election night.
I will feel better when AP calls and until then will try to squeeze in ballot curing for Sen. Rosen -- and Rep. Lee's uncalled race. NV Dems are working 9AM-9PM PT on this.
We don’t prosecute every day and show the fallacy of the right- where are these cases if sex change athletes competing? Who’s eating the dogs? Joe many checks has Mexico sent to pay for the wall? Where was the 9 month performed?
The falseness and absurdity of these things is covered again and again in a wide variety of media. The fact checks have proven useless because MAGA voters either a) don't see them on the right-wing media they follow, or b) think it's "fake news" if they do see them because they are a cult that only believes Trump. This is what we're up against.
You just made me think of the ancient Will Rogers line "I am not a member of an organized political party. I am a Democrat" :-) But I agree with you in spirt and on preferring "opposition"
To me, "resistance" evokes subterfuge; and while I don't mean to disparage that (it's important too, and not everyone can be a leader), I want my position to be 100% clear. I have no more fucks to give.
I always think of "The Resistance" as a Star Wars concept. A ragtag band instead of an organized, disciplined and well informed force of like-minded people with a strategy and the short, mid and long-term plans that flesh that out.
Of course I have to remind myself that the ragtag bunch defeated the Empire! 😁
I hate to be "That Guy" (Not that I haven't been up to this point in my life), but that was the Rebels. The Resistance were the ones fighting the First Order. (Which honestly might be a more apt comparison, now I think on it...)
I think your point about being loud is an important one, especially as we will be confronting the disinformation and divisiveness strategies that the right routinely employs.
Yes. Dan Pfieffer has called it megaphone problem vs a messaging problem. While Dem messaging definitely could be improved (as could anything), there's just no megaphone that's the equivalent of RW media to get the message out consistently. And that works both ways. It's not just getting Dem messaging out, it's attacking the right's bad ideas/results/policies, and amplifying things we know the general public hates coming from the right.
I don't think any Dem president has used the bully pulpit as effectively as they could. If I were POTUS, I would travel regularly to red states and rural areas to promote my policies and highlight how GOP's obstructionism & bad policies hurt their constituents. I would ask them to call their GOP congressman to tell them to vote for my policies.
Also frankly Dems elected officials should use every opportunity as a campaign/messaging event. Trump constantly violated the Hatch Act with zero consequences to his great benefit. While it might feel icky it’s we can’t play by a different set of rules that tie our hands. The Hatch Act is basically unenforceable so we should be more aggressive.
We forgot the impact Covid had on schools, children and parents. It is a local issue but it generated a lot of anger. Daycare, tools for schools and children to catch up.
As a sitting school board member thru Covid, that is all true. It is also why I have a fervent belief we need to support & protect our public schools from vitriol that will be coming. School board elections are critical. Our children deserve all of our support. Especially because we will soon have an antivaxxer in the WH.
In my local community progressives swept the four open seats on the school board, thus rebalancing it away from a MAGA majority. One of the defeated members had been at January 6! I'm thankful for that local victory and think about how we need to build success and strength from the bottom up
Same over here. Last cycle, we denied all 5 MAGA candidates on the ballot, one of whom referred to the voters as "having voted for Sodom and Gomorrah" in his concession. This year we did it again for the 3 crazies, and the two already on the board aren't running again. Future's bright for my neck of the woods, at least in that regard.
Right-wing media didn't mention it. When they don't follow anything but right-wing media, they don't hear the bad policies proposed by their leaders, or those policies are presented as not being harmful to THEM, or not being as extreme as the left says they are.
I don't know who you're speaking for, but it certainly isn't middle-class me [who comes from a working class family] or any of the people I know. Broad brush generalities about 'bourgeois liberal self-righteousness' are as unhelpful and they are unfair. If that's your perspective from where you sit, fine. But please don't include everyone else in your generalities.
Boy looks like a missed a doozy of a comment. I share your sentiment, though, Jane.
Honestly, it sounded to me like somebody looking to place blame, which was neither true nor helpful in any way. That 'liberals look down their noses at normal folks' stuff is an old, tired trope which we normally hear from the right.
I am just trying to catch up on the comments. Yesterday there were a few comments that were offensive, at least to me. Broad generalizations and finger pointing at the wrong people. The reason we lost is because the MAGAs and MAGA wannabes came out to vote for Trump. Those racists will crawl over broken glass for Trump and then blame their cuts on the Democrats.
One thing we really must avoid - and get over IMO - is the tendency to form up the circular firing squad. WE aren't the problem. Our campaign wasn't the problem. Trump and Trump voters are the problem. They're the reason he took this election, not us. For all their ills, one thing MAGA republicans never obsess over is self-reflection and soul searching when they lose. It will be good to understand exactly what happened in this election, but we don't have that information right now, just the result. Once we have that information, we should use it to figure out how to do better next time, instead of obsessing over who to blame this time.
Agree 💯. Harris ran a flawless campaign in my opinion. I do believe there are areas where the Dems can improve. The MSM is no longer interested in honest, fair coverage - just my opinion. I also agree with Simon that the party needs to be modernized. BUT it is too soon to be making bold declarations. I agree 💯 that WE are not the problem. Trump and Trump voters ARE the problem. (As you said). I also agree that the Dems need to start communicating all the good things that happen when Dems are running things. You watch - Trump is going to declare he got the economy going again and totally take credit for Biden's work and the MSM will go along.
“Liberals look down their noses at normal folks” comes straight from the American South, which loathes liberalism and has fought against it for a very long time. My great-great grandfather was Secretary of the Confederacy during the ass-end of the Civil War and I know of what I speak.
I don't need convincing of that, Janice. I live in NC where that attitude hangs in the air like a foul odor.
I was at Camp LeJeune after bootcamp at Parris Island and got a taste. I'm from Chicago and they could tell.
Democrats flip 14 legislative seats, affirming GOP gerrymander is dead
The Democratic gains in a strong Republican year set up a chance for them to win majorities in 2026
by Jack Kelly / Wisconsin Watch, Hallie Claflin / Wisconsin Watch and Matthew DeFour / Wisconsin Watch
November 7th, 2024
https://wisconsinwatch.org/2024/11/wisconsin-election-assembly-senate-democrat-republican-gerrymander/
I am taking this post down. It's insulting to all of us. Please do better next time.
There will be time for analysis but keep in mind that TFG's popular vote total at the moment is 72.7M, DOWN from 74.2M in 2020. But we dropped from 81.2M in 2020 to 68M right now! This could be revisited when closer to all of the votes are in, but your view seems premature.
We should pick up several million more votes, as he will too. We will how many millions soon.
Whatever the final numbers are, the Other Guy won with virtually the same vote count as when he lost in 2020; while some 12-15M 2020 Biden voters failed to show up and vote for Harris. Seems to me he only won by default because those MIA former Biden voters gave it away. They did not flip to the Other Guy(his numbers didn't increase from year to year) they simply didn't vote. How can it be that with all the money (some of it mine) she had and such a strong ground game (me again), we couldn't convince our own people to show up?
At least it's nice to know that trump is probably irked by the fact that, four years later, he could not get nearly as many votes as Biden got in 2020.
Kind of like his crowd sizes getting smaller toward the end of the campaign😉
I am sure it bugs the big orange fascist.
I was just on a call with Galvanized Action (www.galvanizedaction.org). The founder, Jackie Payne, focuses on moderate white women and spoke at length about their research. She is like Simon in terms of leaning heavily on real data. They use randomized control trials and lean heavily on focus groups and longitudinal studies (i.e., interview the same people over time to measure changes in opinions). (See https://www.galvanizeaction.org/our-work/research/).
They found a strong correlation with Internalized sexism. Women who don't trust themselves to make their own decisions (and depend on their husbands' opinions) broke for Trump, while women who think for themselves and trust their own judgement, broke for Kamala Harris.
They will be sending a recording out later to those in attendance for the Zoom; If you would like a link to it, please DM me.
Nah. Consider Hispanic women who voted FOR abortion, Amendment 4 here in Baghdad By the Sea, and voted for el caudillo Trump, who might "denaturalize" them and put them in concentration camps, and ship their asses to Cuba, Venezuela, et al.
Consider female athletes. The most effective commercial......
This is particularly acute with Southern women. I am quite close with a dear young women who has been friends since grade school with one of my college-aged sons. And on Tuesday, she walked into a voting booth and voted for Donald Trump. She felt AWFUL about it, but all she could see when she was in that booth was her dead father's face and he loved Trump.
I'm Southern born & bred and know our character defects too well. It's all about the Civil War. The South has hated the federal government ever since the government took away our slaves and forced us to treat black people like human beings. If you are born in the South, this is the water you swim in from the moment you are born.
I’m a transplant to NC. And both my late parents were WWII vets and they would be appalled at DJT’s authorianism and by what is happening in the US today.
If you don’t already follow her, please check out Substack author Jess Piper
https://open.substack.com/pub/jesspiper/p/red-state-folks-know-the-drill?r=1aiy5t&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Could this be because it seemed we were ahead and going to win and way too many Dems thought they could sit out this election? If so, we have no one to blame but ourselves. Time to get back to work then.
Simon, I posted a link to opportunities to cure ballots. I know people are exhausted, but there is a narrow window to do ballot curing - it varies by state. Please encourage everybody to check out this link if they have any juice left in their tanks:
https://www.fieldteam6.org/ballot-curing
This is objectively false and I am taking it down. Thank you.
Simon jumping into reply here b/c I wanted to make sure that you saw my apology yesterday. I certainly did not intend for my debut post here to be one of the worst in the history of Hopium. I think I must have committed a material typo or foolish word choice. that inadvertently suggested unfair or personal criticism of you. 100% not intended and, again, I'm very sorry if it came across that way. [Edit: should say "that it came across that way," no "if" b/c it obviously did and I'm not trying to caveat a mea culpa.]
Prove this statement. Prove it or take it down. Thank you.
I am taking this down for while it has some interesting insights 1) there are thing said in here which are factually wrong 2) we don't come here and dump and run. Needs to be more constructive if you want to report. Thank you.
I understand. From what I've seen data wise, the capital class is largely lined up behind MAGA. Also, a handful of those in the capital class control social media. And, we all know the CCP has a hand in every Chinese owned company. So, I don't think it's a huge leap in my opinion. We have a big problem on our hands. My goal is the waive the warning flag on this. Thank you!
I saw a Bulwark video today and Tim Miller was talking about Jeff Bezos' enthusiastic tweet of congratulations to TFG for his win. Miller related it to Orban's model of bringing private companies under his control. That is very concerning, especially with TFG's buddy relationship with Orban who announced they talked and have "Big Plans!" With a few billionaires controlling much of the right-wing framing (add Musk and his hunger for AI + Starlink control), and I agree with Simon's analysis. The Meidas Touch guys are also talking about the critical need to build an alternative communications system. Legacy media is just not getting it done anymore and we are losing the messaging war. It occurred to me this week in simple terms: Biden has been a great statesman, but a weak salesman. Trump is a good salesman (with a LOT of help from the right wing megaphone and sanewashing by legacy media), but a horrible statesman. Unfortunately, in this current culture with such a segmented information system, messaging and branding are critical to break through.
Well said. I agree
Scott Dworkin has run a very successful media campaign. Please share and amplify his posts.📣 He is on Trump’s “retribution” list that he wears as a badge of honor.
https://open.substack.com/pub/dworkin/p/were-in-this-together?r=fqsxl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&comments=true
Yes, Trump got a lot of help from Musk and maybe a foreign government or two. I don't think it was Trump's salesmanship skills. I had an interesting reply from a commenter on the Bulwark about Musk's team micro-targeting social media users with specific messages that the economy is in recession. We all know it's not, but that's what I believe Musk's team successfully did with their social media micro-targeting.
I don't think the old guard in the Democratic Party universe has yet to fully comprehended how this affected the outcome. I think it affected it greatly. Just look at the young vote for example. Murdoch's not the only game in town anymore. And, unfortunately, no one has ever been able to figure out a good defense for Fox News. How on earth are we going to counter this?
There are brilliant and innovative minds in our camp. Throughout history, good people have found a way to oppose tyrants. If we all work together to build something, there's no reason it cannot counter what exists. I do worry about the scope of Musk's reach with his technology, government contracts, and now even more top secret clearance and access. We start where we are. It would be very helpful if some patriotic billionaires want to join and fund it as well :)
Yes, yes, yes!
Leonard, I am taking this down. Feel free to report without taking a gratuitous shot at me. Thank you.
I am following the races as you are and remain optimistic about flipping the House, as I wrote today. I did not believe it was necessary to go through each one as even in the last 30 4 minutes races got called so things are changing all the time. We will either flip the House or we won't, and we will know soon.
Sorry for the redunancy but for those states that allow any sort of post-EDay curing, it can help move some razor thin races towards us.
Peltola- cursed autocorrect
I am pulling this down for it is objectively stupid, and unhelpful.
Cult expert Steven Hassan
LIVE: What Happens Next for America After Trump's 2024 Victory?
https://youtu.be/mb5lKAOzxPc?si=43JvPEio2BRFVRnt
Rosen has been called as victor in Nevada. Thankful for small favors.
It felt great ballot curing for Sen. Rosen yesterday afternoon and watching her deficit get smaller, from ~4000 votes to ~2000, then become an even larger margin of victory!
Hurray! Thank you. (And she’s a female Senator from a Western state besides. I’m feeling a bit defensive about women this morning.)
You and me both, sister!
It must have been due to the last $10 I sent.
Thank goodness!! And thanks for letting us know. I don't about all of you, but I've been on a mental health break from cable TV and social media since election night.
I saw several outlets call it, but AP hasn't. She appears to be 13k votes ahead, which seems safe. Don't know what AP is waiting for.
I will feel better when AP calls and until then will try to squeeze in ballot curing for Sen. Rosen -- and Rep. Lee's uncalled race. NV Dems are working 9AM-9PM PT on this.
oh good news!
Gallego has lead in Arizona
How is it now?
We don’t prosecute every day and show the fallacy of the right- where are these cases if sex change athletes competing? Who’s eating the dogs? Joe many checks has Mexico sent to pay for the wall? Where was the 9 month performed?
The falseness and absurdity of these things is covered again and again in a wide variety of media. The fact checks have proven useless because MAGA voters either a) don't see them on the right-wing media they follow, or b) think it's "fake news" if they do see them because they are a cult that only believes Trump. This is what we're up against.
Thank You, Simon.
Onward indeed, Simon! So proud to be part of this community, albeit a fairly quiet one.
The only thing about my activism that will change on January 20 is that I'll be standing proud as part of the opposition.
I've always thought of us as the opposition as well. The Resistance sounds unorganized and Democrats are not that.
You just made me think of the ancient Will Rogers line "I am not a member of an organized political party. I am a Democrat" :-) But I agree with you in spirt and on preferring "opposition"
To me, "resistance" evokes subterfuge; and while I don't mean to disparage that (it's important too, and not everyone can be a leader), I want my position to be 100% clear. I have no more fucks to give.
I always think of "The Resistance" as a Star Wars concept. A ragtag band instead of an organized, disciplined and well informed force of like-minded people with a strategy and the short, mid and long-term plans that flesh that out.
Of course I have to remind myself that the ragtag bunch defeated the Empire! 😁
I hate to be "That Guy" (Not that I haven't been up to this point in my life), but that was the Rebels. The Resistance were the ones fighting the First Order. (Which honestly might be a more apt comparison, now I think on it...)
Simon, yes, please rest! You have worked very hard. Come back refreshed with new ideas. On the Hopium side, there is time to regroup the "opposition".
Simon, please rest, and thanks so much for thoughtfully preparing this Community with plans you have been considering for your next journey.
Hope you choose whatever is best for you, and including Self-Care is an excellent decision.
With the heartbreaking outcome of the election, fingers crossed that there is a path for Hopium if best for you.
I think your point about being loud is an important one, especially as we will be confronting the disinformation and divisiveness strategies that the right routinely employs.
Totally agree. And looking forward to more left-leaning influencers popping up that allow Dem candidates to show how accessible they are.
I did find on YouTube since going men who were Harris supporters. It would be wise to go on their podcasts.
I mean some young men podcasters
Yes. Dan Pfieffer has called it megaphone problem vs a messaging problem. While Dem messaging definitely could be improved (as could anything), there's just no megaphone that's the equivalent of RW media to get the message out consistently. And that works both ways. It's not just getting Dem messaging out, it's attacking the right's bad ideas/results/policies, and amplifying things we know the general public hates coming from the right.
I don't think any Dem president has used the bully pulpit as effectively as they could. If I were POTUS, I would travel regularly to red states and rural areas to promote my policies and highlight how GOP's obstructionism & bad policies hurt their constituents. I would ask them to call their GOP congressman to tell them to vote for my policies.
Also frankly Dems elected officials should use every opportunity as a campaign/messaging event. Trump constantly violated the Hatch Act with zero consequences to his great benefit. While it might feel icky it’s we can’t play by a different set of rules that tie our hands. The Hatch Act is basically unenforceable so we should be more aggressive.
We forgot the impact Covid had on schools, children and parents. It is a local issue but it generated a lot of anger. Daycare, tools for schools and children to catch up.
As a sitting school board member thru Covid, that is all true. It is also why I have a fervent belief we need to support & protect our public schools from vitriol that will be coming. School board elections are critical. Our children deserve all of our support. Especially because we will soon have an antivaxxer in the WH.
In future there will likely be postcarding campaigns for school boards.
I'm marginally surprised there aren't any already.
Considering that, I'm tempted to revisit an idea I had to run for my home's school board at some point. Do what I can, where I can.
Thank you for considering running. Local government has the biggest effect on people’s lives.
We have a pretty good recent track record of not electing MAGA types. I like my odds.
In my local community progressives swept the four open seats on the school board, thus rebalancing it away from a MAGA majority. One of the defeated members had been at January 6! I'm thankful for that local victory and think about how we need to build success and strength from the bottom up
Same over here. Last cycle, we denied all 5 MAGA candidates on the ballot, one of whom referred to the voters as "having voted for Sodom and Gomorrah" in his concession. This year we did it again for the 3 crazies, and the two already on the board aren't running again. Future's bright for my neck of the woods, at least in that regard.