I was with Planter for a while, but this is too much. Time for him to go. I don't want the Democratic Party to become a party that values winning so much that it looks past major character or sex pest issues like this.
Thank you Simon - I’ve supported Hopium since the beginning and have never failed to learn about American politics from you. When Platner first appeared I was really hopeful that a candidate had been found who would be effective against Sen Collins. I am so disappointed for all of you that he is not that man. What I must say is that I could not quite understand your reticence at the start of his campaign, now I know why, your instincts were right and you were right to counsel caution. Even though I’m on the other side of the pond it is impossible not to recognise the anxiety about the looming midterms and passions are running high. I sincerely hope that you can persuade your band of proud plucky patriots that their passion needs to be directed towards defeating the republicans and not fracturing the ever growing democratic coalition that you are helping to build. Wishing you and all at the Hopium community well.
I agree 100% Alexis. One of the things I value most about Simon is that he provides us with an insider view to how the Democratic Party thinks, how to read data, and how to win elections. I always trust his instinct!
I agree. When you're right, you're right, Simon. And we should all have remembered you had to deal with the mother of all mushrooming problems of this type--Bill Clinton. No wonder the sexting in marriage bothered you a lot more than some of us--when it comes to powerful men and the abuse of women, where there's smoke, there's usually a four-alarm fire. Heck, we now know Trump's 26 needs an exponent ("Trump's Women" said the real number was "dozens" a decade ago), plus few %&!$ for pedophilia.
Though I make no apology for not believing the Republican operative--after hundreds and hundreds of millions of lies, if you want me and millions of others in this country to believe a word you say, you're going to have to leave the GOP.
Thank you for calling out the Bernie Bro effect. The damage they did to Hillary, who should have been our first female president, gave us Trump. I will never forget that.
dkos has become intolerable with its attacks on establishment dems; it is tedious. the backbiting over platner has damaged the site, and markos himself is not even as far left as many of the readers. i come here for sanity, even if simon can be a bit of a harsh taskmaster at times.this is one of a few sites with sanity; others are rachel bitecofer and heather cox richardson and paul krugman. i often use this site to refer to people who need info.
I rarely go do DKos and mostly to see if Markos has posted. I can't help myself, I do start to read their comments. I never a get past a few of them. Most of them criticize Markos as well. I can only imagine the comments today.
they are celebrating belgium ffs. this is unheard of in most countries...you don't gloat over your home team's loss, especially because you don't like trump. other teams, even norway, have gotten pasted in this cup; we blew the doors off paraguay and they rallied and went on to oust germany. its a funny game. wish trump had kept his tiny hands off the tournament.
Amen--a crime against more than half of humanity. The Times lost all credibility with me when I saw with my own eyes the lies they were willing to tell on the occasion of Ws first inauguration to validate the Supreme Court and GOP's theft of the 2000 election, arguably the inciting event of the mess we're in (unless it was Reagan's secret negotiations with the Iranians in 1980, Nixon's secret negotiations with the North Vietnamese in 1968--Republicans have NEVER had a problem collaborating with, even initiating collaborations with our nation's enemies to win elections, have they?--combined with the assassinations of MLK and RFK by "lone gunmen").
At this point, I say screw the corporate media, all of it, every last one of them that called Trump's win "decisive"--and never said the same about Biden's much larger win (when the reality was that Kamala overperformed the Biden administration's Election Eve approval rating by 8 points, which means that far from the "mandate" they declared he had (and denied Biden had), he not only didn't win a majority (which AP hid for more than a month after the Cook Report announced it), but he underperformed by nearly double digits.
We, the people, have a lot more reach and credibility than they do; it's time for us to *be* the media and leave them in the pixel dust.
I fundamentally believe in an anti-fascist coalition. That means center and left. This week’s posts seem to push for a war on the left part of the coalition. And using the insulting term “Bernie Bros” suggests that this is just another version of the DLC.
As for Platner, he should quit.
A coalition includes both centrists and leftists. And even Lynn Chaney.
Dude, seriously WTF are you talking about? I literally include an article by a DSA activist explaining what the DSA is. We recommended Platner. I have talked about embracing the rainbow. Take this post down. It's a gross misread of this post and all that I've been writing and commentating on for the last several months.
This week has been different. Sometimes we don’t see ourselves clearly. I think you are sincere about the coalition, but this week has been constant criticism of the left candidates. You may not understand that Bernie Bros is an insult.
I thought endorsing Platner was an example of good faith. It turned out poorly, but because of his personal failings, not his politics.
Like I said, I believes] you are sincere. ‘“DLC” was a shot and I apologize for that. I believe you have moved on from that.
I don’t think you perceive how the posts this week appear to many left Democrats. We have to work together. Whoever wins in Michigan, we all should support.
Primaries are difficult but necessary. And some in primaries will criticize the Democratic establishment. Just as that is ok, so too is your defense of Jeffries and Schumer.
Defeating Trumpist fascism matters more than internal differences.
Tom this is going to be a hard few days for everyone and people need to keep their comments here measured and respectful. But to be very clear - I think "the left" really f-cked up here with Platner as they did with DAC too. These unvetted candidates could end up doing harm to the broader Democratic effort this November, and to what end? I think you can see that while you view the Bernie Bros comments as a slur it sure isn't seen that way by others here. And finally, I don't think you understand the incredible online harassment that has taken place of any one questioning Platner or El-Sayed. It's not been a healthy development in our family, and feels deeply illiberal. Even here inside Hopium world the people defending Platner some times got close to hysterical in their defense of him. Platner was always one candidate of the 40 or so we need to win Senate and House races and yet online it has been the only election that matters. We have an incredible array of candidates out there across the country and we need to be focusing now on helping them win and move beyond these destructive intermural struggles.
Tom, I feel like there’s a real fundamental asymmetry at play here that, I’m sorry, is right out of the Maga playbook. I’m pretty involved online with Democratic projects, and here’s what I’ve been observing… A constant, relentless, unyielding, unnuanced assault on anyone in our coalition that isn’t staunchly progressive from the independent voters who are actually just to the left of the median democrat. They have done nothing but a sale Jefferies and Schumer for everything they’ve done, whether it was good or bad, and have given them no credit for any evolution or response to the pressure… There is no universe for which they can do anything right, and they have absolutely attached themselves to a dogmatic belief that there’s no acceptable outcome other than new leadership, and that there’s this hard left template that the entire party has to follow nationwide and every district and every state if we’re going to win. And they don’t give a shit if there’s any evidence whatsoever that is contrary to that viewpoint. Now I don’t mind that they hold that viewpoint and I am open minded to seeing how their candidates perform in elections where they’re gonna have to win some Republican vote voters and some more moderate center right independent voters, while also capturing a massive majority of the Democratic vote. I’m all for it if they can win. But they have been relentlessly negative against the whole rest of the party all year and last year.
Yet, if there is an ounce of criticism spoken in their direction, no matter how legitimate, evidence based, or well-intentioned and good faith it is, they immediately assume a victim mindset and go off as if they are unfairly targeted all the time by the evil moderates, whoever the hell that is. I sure don’t think of myself as a moderate but I do think of myself as an establishment Democrat because I support the Democratic Party because I know that without Democratic Party majorities, we can advance our values plain and simple. This is the same bullshit that Maga uses all the time… A bunch of angry white Christian men who somehow believe that in the context of American history, they’ve gotten a raw deal and are still getting a raw deal, and they dish out the ugliest most cutting and divisive attacks and criticism all day long at their opponents, and then they cannot handle even one word of criticism themselves. Schumer and Jefferies have fucked up a few times in the last 18 months, and they deserved to be called out on it. But anyone who’s unwilling to have a conversation about the fact that the DSA fucked up huge by recruiting a candidate like platinum with this stuff in his background and not unearthing it first, and if they did, continuing to promote him as a candidate thinking that it won’t come out with the Republican attack machine in literally the most important Senate election in the country, against an babbled Republican incumbent who is a prolific fundraiser and has built a brand, no matter how much of a bullshit brand it is, a brand nonetheless of being a good human who will vote for what she believes is right as opposed to just tow the party line? It was irresponsible as hell to recruit him and not vet him properly, and for Bernie Sanders, who I love, and mom Donnie, who I also love, and AOC, who might be my favorite figure in American politics, to come out and wholeheartedly give him their support when such a basic and fundamental process was not undertaken for a statewide election when the whole goddamn democracy is on the line, they all fucked up and they fucked up huge. And they deserve to be called out for it, and the family needs to be able to have this discussion, and going in the corner like they tend to do and crying victim as though they have the right to cast aspersions constantly on the “establishment“ but we can’t criticize anything about them when we have legitimate concerns, is not a sustainable relationship. I agree we need all corners of our tent, but we also need all corners to act in good faith and, I’m sorry… That online activist very loud portion of the tent is not acting in good faith quite often, and it’s being influenced by foreign agitators who are pretending to be on their side and getting them all worked up so that they’re angry at their natural allies instead of the actual dangerous common adversary.
Simon, It would be best if you did not make a clean distinction between "establishment" Dems and other Dems. There are many shades of opinion out there in the pro democracy world. Also, I personally have specific complaints about Dem party leadership that no leadershio person has addressed. And that is the big problem: the party does not listen. It is not a small number of people who have this issue. And to say that we are only a small part of the moderate left is to ignore the proble.
Richard, I have shared polling data that shows that in fact the those who disapprove of the Dem leadership and the party more broadly is a minority of our party. This is just a fact. And the term Establishment Dems is one being used by many in our family as a slur, which as I point out is both wrong and destructive.
And yes what I am implicitly arguing here is that the discourse of on-line Dem activists right now seems significantly disconnected from the broader Democratic electorate across the country.
I'm so freaking sick of how the term "Establishment Dem" is used to smear any Democrat who is not a progressive.
Is Rebecca Bennett an "Establishment Dem"? She has never served in an elected position in her life! How could she be the establishment? She is just a total badass mom who wants to save this country, running against a corrupt and entitled Republican nepobaby. But by smearing her as an "Establishment Dem" they will make her a less compelling candidate.
i have decades of watching the far left cost us close elections. establishment dems is the new status quo....as if running a woman and then a black woman was somehow status quo ffs....let me see the r's do it; they couldn't even get behind nikki haley to derail trump....
I completely agree with your first point. I don’t think our candidates and electeds divide neatly into two ideological categories—there is much greater variety than that. But I feel like the general statement that the party does not listen is too broad and seems unfair
Have you tried having a real email exchange with anybody with any real authority at the DNC? Did you try adding your own 2 cents during the month before Biden withdrew? Did you attempt conversations regarding 2024 just having canvassed for a Dem senator for weeks in 2022? No, I am not being unfair.
dishonorable? have you followed the sport? from maradona's hand of god to shady outcomes in argentina in 78, teams kicking the ball around in 82 because a tie would see them through, the uncalled hand ball against germany-usa in 2002....in this game, especially in the argentina/uruguay school of thought, winning is all that matters, by any means necessary....and there was klinsmann's flop in 1990, leading to the winning pk in the final. winning erases everything in soccer.....
Simon, sorry about the soccer team loss. Trump should have kept his big nose out of it. It's seemed to me that, with the basketball games and the World Cup, people have just been so delighted to have something to enjoy, to unite around, to feel good about, especially in these dark times. And Trump just can't let ANYTHING not be about him. He has to try and steal the joy from every little thing.
If Platner really cares about removing Collins, he'll drop out quickly and move off the stage. I hope he'll do that.
I called Congressman Raskin and Senators Alsobrooks and Van Hollen to say ordinary taxpayers should not be paying for Trump's war and the aftermath. Let them roll back the big tax benefits they gave the billionaires. I also said Trump is out of touch with reality and must be removed from office. I'm writing postcards to Ohio voters today.
You know I’m just gonna admit it… I got sucked into the excitement around Platner. He was a very compelling speaker, and I loved his populist agenda. I was never comfortable with the degree to which he was running against the Democratic Party itself… I think an awfully good metric going forward is that if someone is running against the party instead of against the person or people in their primary field, there could be trouble afoot. I’m sure some of them have good intentions under it all, but this is a situation ripe for opportunistic grifters who want to take advantage of an impassioned voter base.
I have tried, not just for myself, but for my family and my circle of friends and influence to be the keeper of the Democratic Party’s overall story, which much like America as a whole, has blind spots, disgrace, and to put it the most positively, insufficiencies. But it is also a political project that mirrors the best of what America has always been. It has evolved… It has tried to meet the moment. The Democratic Party is a place where bold, and flawed leaders have taken a stand at a moment when the United States needed it most to change for the better… Certainly under pressure, because the party is nothing but an organization that responds to people.
But the history of our party is one where we had an important lock on electoral votes in the south as well as big congressional majorities that were stable in both chambers save maybe four or six years total in just the Senate between 1955 and 1995… and yet, Lyndon Johnson, a man who came from the Jim Crow south, at the moment when it was actually possible and when history was on the line, used all of his political leverage and pushed through the civil rights act and the voting rights act. And he knew when he did it that he would be unraveling our supremacy in the south for at least a couple of generations. And we have paid a very heavy political price for that decision and yet, nothing makes me more proud to be a Democrat than knowing that that’s part of our history.
Because history called and we did the right fucking thing. And you contrast that with what the Republicans did. Standing on top of the legacy that was established by who is generally considered our nation‘s greatest president, and who will forever be known as the man who saved the union and emancipated the slaves… And what did they do in the exact same moment? They decided that they would go after the disaffected white supremacists and build a voting coalition around them so that they could grab power. Instead of helping us bake into the culture permanently that white supremacy is un-American and will never be tolerated again, they hopped in bed with the same motherfuckers that had been controlling our apparatus for too long, and then with massive funding from the wealthiest oligarchy to ever roam planet Earth, they commenced on a 60 year project to wage the most divisive, ugly, cynical politics on the American people that we have seen since the Civil War. They have pitted neighbor against neighbor, they have done everything they can to control as much of the discourse as possible through media consolidation so that they can convince Americans that “some“ of us aren’t American enough, aren’t patriotic enough, aren’t moral enough, aren’t strong enough, and don’t look right.
I don’t know how you could possibly betray the two central projects of Abraham Lincoln‘s presidency and the mark that he left on history more than to try to keep white supremacy permanently embroiled in our culture as the social expectation, and then to use that to divide America as much as possible. For Christ’s sake, it’s a betrayal of all of us, but I can’t even believe what a staggering betrayal of their foundational leader it is.
I could write a 50 page essay right now on all the things starting with the new deal and moving into the present day that make me proud to be a Democrat, and where the Democratic Party, even when they fell short of everything that I hoped for, was the one trying to meet the moment and make this a better country. And I have reams of evidence of how the country is in fact better because the Democratic Party was governing.
It’s been a very difficult decade, and the decade that we’ve lived through is a culmination of six decades worth of bullshit propaganda, and a relentless assault on our national comity and shared national community… And it’s been very deliberate. We have had some bad apples, but we have been a good political party. And as the American people have changed, we have changed. Especially in this moment, for all of our perceived flaws and faults, I’ve fucking had it… We are not the party the people should be running against. Especially people who want to appear next to our brand on a ballot.
I love the fresh blood coming in and I think there is room for aggressive populism in our ranks, but run against your opponents in the primary and pledge to make the Democratic Caucus better, don’t run against the party itself, as if we’ve done nothing but fuck things up… Because it is not true… Not even a little. We should all be proud of our collective accomplishments and that does not take away our right and obligation to be disappointed in what yet remains to be done and the times when we weren’t strong enough to stop something bad from happening. This is my team, and I’m fucking proud of it. 🇺🇸
Well written, Steve. I'm a 100% too. As I've written before, I am a bleeding heart liberal myself but I am aware that my extreme beliefs are to the left of most Democrats and won't win many elections. I depend on the "establishment" Dems to balance my personal desires so that we can win. I am only recently beginning to understand why Bernie has been a drag on our party - every time he speaks he knocks the Democratic Party. While I agree with his positions, knocking our party is just counter-productive and damaging. My education on this all comes from Simon and the Hopium community.
Amazing beautiful essay. Yes to all. Democrats are my party, and everyone who supports equal rights and compassion and is willing to save our environment.
I was wrong about Platner. I hoped for Mills in the primary, but it seemed like Platner was Maine's choice. And they had been to his rallies and liked the guy. A tattoo and some texts and a past drinking problem did not seem like a big deal as long as it was in the past. Those smarter than me realized that this was just a preview of worse to come. I get that a woman is reluctant to come forward, hoping that he goes away and then realizes that this a-hole could be a Senator. But to let politico release the scoop after the primary is a failure of the democratic party. Why could this not be quietly discovered and Platner removed before the primary? I realize that the old party system is not coming back but I sure wish democrats could learn a lesson from this fiasco. Going into 2028 presidential primary, get behind only candidates who are prepared to be president. I'm for Kamala but I get she needs challengers. But please, let's not have debates with 20 candidates, most of them just trying to sell a book or relive past or future glory with no chance of being president.
I will be talking about this tomorrow night in our get together but concerns about Platner's viability were shared widely by the Senate Democratic campaign committee to Senators, to Platner's campaign, to folks in Maine. We know from reporting that the Platner campaign knew of the some of the worst of the stories last summer. And yet they want ahead, risking the Senate majority, on an unvetted, first time candidate - why? Why was Platner so important? Why was electing him more important than winning the Senate? Why take this risk?
It needs to be clear to everyone that Platner and his campaign lied to all of us about things that matter. The story of his putting his life together, getting married, was not true. His serial infidelity happened after his marriage, and the campaign knew about this and hid it. They the core story he was telling was not true, and yet they told it again and again.
Maybe I'm truly a cock-eyed optimist, but although I really liked Platner, I'm feeling better about Maine than I was a day ago, knowing the other shoe has dropped, and did so before the 14th, before the Repos got to dump a whole steaming pile of oppo on us the very next day. Surely we can find someone in Maine who can give Generic Democrat a run for their money.
Not Mills, I hope; she showed pretty clearly her heart wasn't in it, her age was clearly an issue for our voters (whereas for Republicans, Collins could be suffering from end-stage dementia and still be their only hope of holding on to the seat), and putting her forward could feel like the Establishment rubbing Platner supporters' faces in a mix of dirt and salt, which doesn't seem helpful. Hopefully one of the other Dems in the gubernatorial primary is viable (or maybe we in Wisconsin can loan Maine one of ours--an embarrassment of riches out here, folks)
I also hoped for Mills, David, despite her age (I'm 70 and know how tired I am! LOL) She stood up to Trump to his face and then won in court. That establishes her as a warrior in my book. She's a proven election winner. This one went off the rails - how a state candidate thinks his past won't come back to bite him when it's this egregious is beyond me. He's damaged Maine and our party.
Having to play defence far too much when we should be on offence, considering all the piles of ammunition they have given us to attack them with and too many seem to have lost sight of the bigger picture.
Still plenty of time to right the ship though. Will be glad once these primaries are over and we can all HOPEFULLY come together again.
Especially not when the Repos are trying to hang Platner around our neck. I'd like to LOL because it accurately reflects how the GOP views women, so I feel they deserve it and it would really tick them off as a result, but in my household, it's an unwritten rule that only my Belov-ed is allowed to use that word, and then only for truly exceptional individuals.
Nathan Newman's piece was fascinating and so helpful. I now understand what is going on and am not as scared of the DSA as a whole. We should distribute the piece widely and also remain vigilante about the national party's shenanigans, versus the local, commu itu-based chapters, and not feel overwhelmed. They are making BIG mistakes that will likely splinter them. Thanks, Simon!
I'm not following closely Michigan, but we need first of all candidates who WIN, not everyones' dream candidate. Michigan is a blue state, but push too hard and it can also go red at least for a cycle.
We should be winning MI and ME and not working overtime to fuck these up.
The soccer game was a huge disappointment. I've thought in the few games our back line defenders are susceptible to making mistakes. That really came out in this game. Pulisic, who I really hadn't seen before and had no opinion of, looked confused and tentative. I wasn't impressed.
McKennie makes that team go, and Balogun gets the ball in the net. Tillman is a real weapon with free kicks.
But the back line defenders to me look weak and susceptible to mistakes. They needed to maybe be more conservative on the back end, or something, because that didn't look right at all.
Has Jay Clayton been re-nominated for ODNI?
My understanding, and open to be corrected, is that he the nominee but Trump has not sent it to the Senate yet.
Thank you, Simon. And thanks for all you do.
I was with Planter for a while, but this is too much. Time for him to go. I don't want the Democratic Party to become a party that values winning so much that it looks past major character or sex pest issues like this.
Thank you Simon - I’ve supported Hopium since the beginning and have never failed to learn about American politics from you. When Platner first appeared I was really hopeful that a candidate had been found who would be effective against Sen Collins. I am so disappointed for all of you that he is not that man. What I must say is that I could not quite understand your reticence at the start of his campaign, now I know why, your instincts were right and you were right to counsel caution. Even though I’m on the other side of the pond it is impossible not to recognise the anxiety about the looming midterms and passions are running high. I sincerely hope that you can persuade your band of proud plucky patriots that their passion needs to be directed towards defeating the republicans and not fracturing the ever growing democratic coalition that you are helping to build. Wishing you and all at the Hopium community well.
I agree 100% Alexis. One of the things I value most about Simon is that he provides us with an insider view to how the Democratic Party thinks, how to read data, and how to win elections. I always trust his instinct!
I agree. When you're right, you're right, Simon. And we should all have remembered you had to deal with the mother of all mushrooming problems of this type--Bill Clinton. No wonder the sexting in marriage bothered you a lot more than some of us--when it comes to powerful men and the abuse of women, where there's smoke, there's usually a four-alarm fire. Heck, we now know Trump's 26 needs an exponent ("Trump's Women" said the real number was "dozens" a decade ago), plus few %&!$ for pedophilia.
Though I make no apology for not believing the Republican operative--after hundreds and hundreds of millions of lies, if you want me and millions of others in this country to believe a word you say, you're going to have to leave the GOP.
Thank you for calling out the Bernie Bro effect. The damage they did to Hillary, who should have been our first female president, gave us Trump. I will never forget that.
Amen.
Second Amen.
dkos has become intolerable with its attacks on establishment dems; it is tedious. the backbiting over platner has damaged the site, and markos himself is not even as far left as many of the readers. i come here for sanity, even if simon can be a bit of a harsh taskmaster at times.this is one of a few sites with sanity; others are rachel bitecofer and heather cox richardson and paul krugman. i often use this site to refer to people who need info.
I rarely go do DKos and mostly to see if Markos has posted. I can't help myself, I do start to read their comments. I never a get past a few of them. Most of them criticize Markos as well. I can only imagine the comments today.
they are celebrating belgium ffs. this is unheard of in most countries...you don't gloat over your home team's loss, especially because you don't like trump. other teams, even norway, have gotten pasted in this cup; we blew the doors off paraguay and they rallied and went on to oust germany. its a funny game. wish trump had kept his tiny hands off the tournament.
We women never got our NYT "diner interview" coverage after that loss, which is too bad because we had a lot to say about disrespect and misogyny.
I have been waiting since 2016 for my diner interview. Hey, Californians also have diners.
Amen--a crime against more than half of humanity. The Times lost all credibility with me when I saw with my own eyes the lies they were willing to tell on the occasion of Ws first inauguration to validate the Supreme Court and GOP's theft of the 2000 election, arguably the inciting event of the mess we're in (unless it was Reagan's secret negotiations with the Iranians in 1980, Nixon's secret negotiations with the North Vietnamese in 1968--Republicans have NEVER had a problem collaborating with, even initiating collaborations with our nation's enemies to win elections, have they?--combined with the assassinations of MLK and RFK by "lone gunmen").
At this point, I say screw the corporate media, all of it, every last one of them that called Trump's win "decisive"--and never said the same about Biden's much larger win (when the reality was that Kamala overperformed the Biden administration's Election Eve approval rating by 8 points, which means that far from the "mandate" they declared he had (and denied Biden had), he not only didn't win a majority (which AP hid for more than a month after the Cook Report announced it), but he underperformed by nearly double digits.
We, the people, have a lot more reach and credibility than they do; it's time for us to *be* the media and leave them in the pixel dust.
Thanks Simon. The article is very useful and good. Onward.
I fundamentally believe in an anti-fascist coalition. That means center and left. This week’s posts seem to push for a war on the left part of the coalition. And using the insulting term “Bernie Bros” suggests that this is just another version of the DLC.
As for Platner, he should quit.
A coalition includes both centrists and leftists. And even Lynn Chaney.
Without both, we will not win.
Dude, seriously WTF are you talking about? I literally include an article by a DSA activist explaining what the DSA is. We recommended Platner. I have talked about embracing the rainbow. Take this post down. It's a gross misread of this post and all that I've been writing and commentating on for the last several months.
This week has been different. Sometimes we don’t see ourselves clearly. I think you are sincere about the coalition, but this week has been constant criticism of the left candidates. You may not understand that Bernie Bros is an insult.
I thought endorsing Platner was an example of good faith. It turned out poorly, but because of his personal failings, not his politics.
Like I said, I believes] you are sincere. ‘“DLC” was a shot and I apologize for that. I believe you have moved on from that.
I don’t think you perceive how the posts this week appear to many left Democrats. We have to work together. Whoever wins in Michigan, we all should support.
Primaries are difficult but necessary. And some in primaries will criticize the Democratic establishment. Just as that is ok, so too is your defense of Jeffries and Schumer.
Defeating Trumpist fascism matters more than internal differences.
Tom this is going to be a hard few days for everyone and people need to keep their comments here measured and respectful. But to be very clear - I think "the left" really f-cked up here with Platner as they did with DAC too. These unvetted candidates could end up doing harm to the broader Democratic effort this November, and to what end? I think you can see that while you view the Bernie Bros comments as a slur it sure isn't seen that way by others here. And finally, I don't think you understand the incredible online harassment that has taken place of any one questioning Platner or El-Sayed. It's not been a healthy development in our family, and feels deeply illiberal. Even here inside Hopium world the people defending Platner some times got close to hysterical in their defense of him. Platner was always one candidate of the 40 or so we need to win Senate and House races and yet online it has been the only election that matters. We have an incredible array of candidates out there across the country and we need to be focusing now on helping them win and move beyond these destructive intermural struggles.
Tom, I feel like there’s a real fundamental asymmetry at play here that, I’m sorry, is right out of the Maga playbook. I’m pretty involved online with Democratic projects, and here’s what I’ve been observing… A constant, relentless, unyielding, unnuanced assault on anyone in our coalition that isn’t staunchly progressive from the independent voters who are actually just to the left of the median democrat. They have done nothing but a sale Jefferies and Schumer for everything they’ve done, whether it was good or bad, and have given them no credit for any evolution or response to the pressure… There is no universe for which they can do anything right, and they have absolutely attached themselves to a dogmatic belief that there’s no acceptable outcome other than new leadership, and that there’s this hard left template that the entire party has to follow nationwide and every district and every state if we’re going to win. And they don’t give a shit if there’s any evidence whatsoever that is contrary to that viewpoint. Now I don’t mind that they hold that viewpoint and I am open minded to seeing how their candidates perform in elections where they’re gonna have to win some Republican vote voters and some more moderate center right independent voters, while also capturing a massive majority of the Democratic vote. I’m all for it if they can win. But they have been relentlessly negative against the whole rest of the party all year and last year.
Yet, if there is an ounce of criticism spoken in their direction, no matter how legitimate, evidence based, or well-intentioned and good faith it is, they immediately assume a victim mindset and go off as if they are unfairly targeted all the time by the evil moderates, whoever the hell that is. I sure don’t think of myself as a moderate but I do think of myself as an establishment Democrat because I support the Democratic Party because I know that without Democratic Party majorities, we can advance our values plain and simple. This is the same bullshit that Maga uses all the time… A bunch of angry white Christian men who somehow believe that in the context of American history, they’ve gotten a raw deal and are still getting a raw deal, and they dish out the ugliest most cutting and divisive attacks and criticism all day long at their opponents, and then they cannot handle even one word of criticism themselves. Schumer and Jefferies have fucked up a few times in the last 18 months, and they deserved to be called out on it. But anyone who’s unwilling to have a conversation about the fact that the DSA fucked up huge by recruiting a candidate like platinum with this stuff in his background and not unearthing it first, and if they did, continuing to promote him as a candidate thinking that it won’t come out with the Republican attack machine in literally the most important Senate election in the country, against an babbled Republican incumbent who is a prolific fundraiser and has built a brand, no matter how much of a bullshit brand it is, a brand nonetheless of being a good human who will vote for what she believes is right as opposed to just tow the party line? It was irresponsible as hell to recruit him and not vet him properly, and for Bernie Sanders, who I love, and mom Donnie, who I also love, and AOC, who might be my favorite figure in American politics, to come out and wholeheartedly give him their support when such a basic and fundamental process was not undertaken for a statewide election when the whole goddamn democracy is on the line, they all fucked up and they fucked up huge. And they deserve to be called out for it, and the family needs to be able to have this discussion, and going in the corner like they tend to do and crying victim as though they have the right to cast aspersions constantly on the “establishment“ but we can’t criticize anything about them when we have legitimate concerns, is not a sustainable relationship. I agree we need all corners of our tent, but we also need all corners to act in good faith and, I’m sorry… That online activist very loud portion of the tent is not acting in good faith quite often, and it’s being influenced by foreign agitators who are pretending to be on their side and getting them all worked up so that they’re angry at their natural allies instead of the actual dangerous common adversary.
Simon, It would be best if you did not make a clean distinction between "establishment" Dems and other Dems. There are many shades of opinion out there in the pro democracy world. Also, I personally have specific complaints about Dem party leadership that no leadershio person has addressed. And that is the big problem: the party does not listen. It is not a small number of people who have this issue. And to say that we are only a small part of the moderate left is to ignore the proble.
Richard, I have shared polling data that shows that in fact the those who disapprove of the Dem leadership and the party more broadly is a minority of our party. This is just a fact. And the term Establishment Dems is one being used by many in our family as a slur, which as I point out is both wrong and destructive.
And yes what I am implicitly arguing here is that the discourse of on-line Dem activists right now seems significantly disconnected from the broader Democratic electorate across the country.
Amen to that.
And it is hurting not helping in my opinion.
We are going to have to be united to beat MAGA.
The term Establishment has always pissed me off. To me it's just name calling and fractionalizing.
I'm so freaking sick of how the term "Establishment Dem" is used to smear any Democrat who is not a progressive.
Is Rebecca Bennett an "Establishment Dem"? She has never served in an elected position in her life! How could she be the establishment? She is just a total badass mom who wants to save this country, running against a corrupt and entitled Republican nepobaby. But by smearing her as an "Establishment Dem" they will make her a less compelling candidate.
i have decades of watching the far left cost us close elections. establishment dems is the new status quo....as if running a woman and then a black woman was somehow status quo ffs....let me see the r's do it; they couldn't even get behind nikki haley to derail trump....
I completely agree with your first point. I don’t think our candidates and electeds divide neatly into two ideological categories—there is much greater variety than that. But I feel like the general statement that the party does not listen is too broad and seems unfair
Have you tried having a real email exchange with anybody with any real authority at the DNC? Did you try adding your own 2 cents during the month before Biden withdrew? Did you attempt conversations regarding 2024 just having canvassed for a Dem senator for weeks in 2022? No, I am not being unfair.
the felon caused the Knicks to lose. & he caused the USMNT to lose. A win would have been dishonorable.
dishonorable? have you followed the sport? from maradona's hand of god to shady outcomes in argentina in 78, teams kicking the ball around in 82 because a tie would see them through, the uncalled hand ball against germany-usa in 2002....in this game, especially in the argentina/uruguay school of thought, winning is all that matters, by any means necessary....and there was klinsmann's flop in 1990, leading to the winning pk in the final. winning erases everything in soccer.....
Simon, sorry about the soccer team loss. Trump should have kept his big nose out of it. It's seemed to me that, with the basketball games and the World Cup, people have just been so delighted to have something to enjoy, to unite around, to feel good about, especially in these dark times. And Trump just can't let ANYTHING not be about him. He has to try and steal the joy from every little thing.
If Platner really cares about removing Collins, he'll drop out quickly and move off the stage. I hope he'll do that.
I called Congressman Raskin and Senators Alsobrooks and Van Hollen to say ordinary taxpayers should not be paying for Trump's war and the aftermath. Let them roll back the big tax benefits they gave the billionaires. I also said Trump is out of touch with reality and must be removed from office. I'm writing postcards to Ohio voters today.
You have such cool Congress members! Raskin in particular is one of my absolute favorites, but Van Hollen and Alsobrooks seem incredible too
well, trump will also have the olympics to screw up....
Thank you, Simon. We needed this!
You know I’m just gonna admit it… I got sucked into the excitement around Platner. He was a very compelling speaker, and I loved his populist agenda. I was never comfortable with the degree to which he was running against the Democratic Party itself… I think an awfully good metric going forward is that if someone is running against the party instead of against the person or people in their primary field, there could be trouble afoot. I’m sure some of them have good intentions under it all, but this is a situation ripe for opportunistic grifters who want to take advantage of an impassioned voter base.
I have tried, not just for myself, but for my family and my circle of friends and influence to be the keeper of the Democratic Party’s overall story, which much like America as a whole, has blind spots, disgrace, and to put it the most positively, insufficiencies. But it is also a political project that mirrors the best of what America has always been. It has evolved… It has tried to meet the moment. The Democratic Party is a place where bold, and flawed leaders have taken a stand at a moment when the United States needed it most to change for the better… Certainly under pressure, because the party is nothing but an organization that responds to people.
But the history of our party is one where we had an important lock on electoral votes in the south as well as big congressional majorities that were stable in both chambers save maybe four or six years total in just the Senate between 1955 and 1995… and yet, Lyndon Johnson, a man who came from the Jim Crow south, at the moment when it was actually possible and when history was on the line, used all of his political leverage and pushed through the civil rights act and the voting rights act. And he knew when he did it that he would be unraveling our supremacy in the south for at least a couple of generations. And we have paid a very heavy political price for that decision and yet, nothing makes me more proud to be a Democrat than knowing that that’s part of our history.
Because history called and we did the right fucking thing. And you contrast that with what the Republicans did. Standing on top of the legacy that was established by who is generally considered our nation‘s greatest president, and who will forever be known as the man who saved the union and emancipated the slaves… And what did they do in the exact same moment? They decided that they would go after the disaffected white supremacists and build a voting coalition around them so that they could grab power. Instead of helping us bake into the culture permanently that white supremacy is un-American and will never be tolerated again, they hopped in bed with the same motherfuckers that had been controlling our apparatus for too long, and then with massive funding from the wealthiest oligarchy to ever roam planet Earth, they commenced on a 60 year project to wage the most divisive, ugly, cynical politics on the American people that we have seen since the Civil War. They have pitted neighbor against neighbor, they have done everything they can to control as much of the discourse as possible through media consolidation so that they can convince Americans that “some“ of us aren’t American enough, aren’t patriotic enough, aren’t moral enough, aren’t strong enough, and don’t look right.
I don’t know how you could possibly betray the two central projects of Abraham Lincoln‘s presidency and the mark that he left on history more than to try to keep white supremacy permanently embroiled in our culture as the social expectation, and then to use that to divide America as much as possible. For Christ’s sake, it’s a betrayal of all of us, but I can’t even believe what a staggering betrayal of their foundational leader it is.
I could write a 50 page essay right now on all the things starting with the new deal and moving into the present day that make me proud to be a Democrat, and where the Democratic Party, even when they fell short of everything that I hoped for, was the one trying to meet the moment and make this a better country. And I have reams of evidence of how the country is in fact better because the Democratic Party was governing.
It’s been a very difficult decade, and the decade that we’ve lived through is a culmination of six decades worth of bullshit propaganda, and a relentless assault on our national comity and shared national community… And it’s been very deliberate. We have had some bad apples, but we have been a good political party. And as the American people have changed, we have changed. Especially in this moment, for all of our perceived flaws and faults, I’ve fucking had it… We are not the party the people should be running against. Especially people who want to appear next to our brand on a ballot.
I love the fresh blood coming in and I think there is room for aggressive populism in our ranks, but run against your opponents in the primary and pledge to make the Democratic Caucus better, don’t run against the party itself, as if we’ve done nothing but fuck things up… Because it is not true… Not even a little. We should all be proud of our collective accomplishments and that does not take away our right and obligation to be disappointed in what yet remains to be done and the times when we weren’t strong enough to stop something bad from happening. This is my team, and I’m fucking proud of it. 🇺🇸
100%
Well written, Steve. I'm a 100% too. As I've written before, I am a bleeding heart liberal myself but I am aware that my extreme beliefs are to the left of most Democrats and won't win many elections. I depend on the "establishment" Dems to balance my personal desires so that we can win. I am only recently beginning to understand why Bernie has been a drag on our party - every time he speaks he knocks the Democratic Party. While I agree with his positions, knocking our party is just counter-productive and damaging. My education on this all comes from Simon and the Hopium community.
Excellent post. I really hope we can move on from this superficial populism phase.
Amazing beautiful essay. Yes to all. Democrats are my party, and everyone who supports equal rights and compassion and is willing to save our environment.
Powerfully argued, PianoMan: thank you.
Millions of Americans stayed home on Election Day in 2024, contented in their conviction that “why bother — both parties are the same”.
Nothing could be further from the truth, as your post makes clear.
1000%. Thanks for reminding us of the price we paid for the folly of stay-at-home Democrats. Perfection is the enemy of the good.
Well said.
Such a great post!
I was wrong about Platner. I hoped for Mills in the primary, but it seemed like Platner was Maine's choice. And they had been to his rallies and liked the guy. A tattoo and some texts and a past drinking problem did not seem like a big deal as long as it was in the past. Those smarter than me realized that this was just a preview of worse to come. I get that a woman is reluctant to come forward, hoping that he goes away and then realizes that this a-hole could be a Senator. But to let politico release the scoop after the primary is a failure of the democratic party. Why could this not be quietly discovered and Platner removed before the primary? I realize that the old party system is not coming back but I sure wish democrats could learn a lesson from this fiasco. Going into 2028 presidential primary, get behind only candidates who are prepared to be president. I'm for Kamala but I get she needs challengers. But please, let's not have debates with 20 candidates, most of them just trying to sell a book or relive past or future glory with no chance of being president.
I will be talking about this tomorrow night in our get together but concerns about Platner's viability were shared widely by the Senate Democratic campaign committee to Senators, to Platner's campaign, to folks in Maine. We know from reporting that the Platner campaign knew of the some of the worst of the stories last summer. And yet they want ahead, risking the Senate majority, on an unvetted, first time candidate - why? Why was Platner so important? Why was electing him more important than winning the Senate? Why take this risk?
It needs to be clear to everyone that Platner and his campaign lied to all of us about things that matter. The story of his putting his life together, getting married, was not true. His serial infidelity happened after his marriage, and the campaign knew about this and hid it. They the core story he was telling was not true, and yet they told it again and again.
Maybe I'm truly a cock-eyed optimist, but although I really liked Platner, I'm feeling better about Maine than I was a day ago, knowing the other shoe has dropped, and did so before the 14th, before the Repos got to dump a whole steaming pile of oppo on us the very next day. Surely we can find someone in Maine who can give Generic Democrat a run for their money.
Not Mills, I hope; she showed pretty clearly her heart wasn't in it, her age was clearly an issue for our voters (whereas for Republicans, Collins could be suffering from end-stage dementia and still be their only hope of holding on to the seat), and putting her forward could feel like the Establishment rubbing Platner supporters' faces in a mix of dirt and salt, which doesn't seem helpful. Hopefully one of the other Dems in the gubernatorial primary is viable (or maybe we in Wisconsin can loan Maine one of ours--an embarrassment of riches out here, folks)
Amen to these truths about the deceitful Platner. Good riddance, say I.
I also hoped for Mills, David, despite her age (I'm 70 and know how tired I am! LOL) She stood up to Trump to his face and then won in court. That establishes her as a warrior in my book. She's a proven election winner. This one went off the rails - how a state candidate thinks his past won't come back to bite him when it's this egregious is beyond me. He's damaged Maine and our party.
Yeah, not a great day to be honest.
Well, feels Iike a bad couple of weeks actually.
Having to play defence far too much when we should be on offence, considering all the piles of ammunition they have given us to attack them with and too many seem to have lost sight of the bigger picture.
Still plenty of time to right the ship though. Will be glad once these primaries are over and we can all HOPEFULLY come together again.
To counter Trump’s “Dumocrats” let’s start using “Republican’ts.”
I would rather replace the a with u to be honest.
If we were all Irish we'd be able to do that without much backlash.
That briefly popped into my head too but let's not.
Especially not when the Repos are trying to hang Platner around our neck. I'd like to LOL because it accurately reflects how the GOP views women, so I feel they deserve it and it would really tick them off as a result, but in my household, it's an unwritten rule that only my Belov-ed is allowed to use that word, and then only for truly exceptional individuals.
Nathan Newman's piece was fascinating and so helpful. I now understand what is going on and am not as scared of the DSA as a whole. We should distribute the piece widely and also remain vigilante about the national party's shenanigans, versus the local, commu itu-based chapters, and not feel overwhelmed. They are making BIG mistakes that will likely splinter them. Thanks, Simon!
I thought so too Tracey.
My hope is that as Nathan suggests it is time for Mamdani and his allies to break from the national DSA and build something different.
Here's hoping...and FAST!
I'm not following closely Michigan, but we need first of all candidates who WIN, not everyones' dream candidate. Michigan is a blue state, but push too hard and it can also go red at least for a cycle.
We should be winning MI and ME and not working overtime to fuck these up.
The soccer game was a huge disappointment. I've thought in the few games our back line defenders are susceptible to making mistakes. That really came out in this game. Pulisic, who I really hadn't seen before and had no opinion of, looked confused and tentative. I wasn't impressed.
McKennie makes that team go, and Balogun gets the ball in the net. Tillman is a real weapon with free kicks.
But the back line defenders to me look weak and susceptible to mistakes. They needed to maybe be more conservative on the back end, or something, because that didn't look right at all.