But in all seriousness while facts are good, facts alone are not enough. Emotion is very much required in a campaign & that's where the joy comes in. The best option is a mix of joy & facts.
There was a great interview with Trump's former NSA H.R. McMaster on CBS Sunday Morning. He didn't say it explicitly, but he painted a well-defined picture of how Trump was "played" by Putin through simple flattery and praise. He warned Trump that Putin is the best liar in the world, so not to take anything he says at face value. But, his advice was clearly ignored. He also thought other authoritarian leaders know this playbook-- flatter Trump, act accommodating, praise him, and that's the way to wrap him around their fingers. Sad that it's so obvious to everyone else except the guy running for President.
I am so happy to hear this! As a Chicagoan, I am so looking forward to the day when we are able to take the giant TRUMP off the front of that eyesore. 💪🏻
Thanks for sharing this, Chris. Imnsho, the Washington Monthly is arguably the best--and certainly the most underrated--source for creative and thoughtful political commentary in the MSM
Great to see another member of Markers For Democracy, Stephanie Brown, highlighted in this edition of Hopium Chronicles. She was one of many members of Markers to write a Thank you to President Biden. This is a good week to send another thank you postcard. Stephanie's postcards are available on her Etsy shop. https://www.etsy.com/shop/StephaniesVision Markers For Democracy has some thank you postcards on our VistaPrint pro-shop (no proceeds to us): https://markersfordemocracy.org/postcarding/mfd-postcard-shop
And good polling news on this opening day: 538 Presidential Polling average shows that Kamala Harris has hit a new high-water mark of support: 46.6 percent. That’s an impressive 2.4 percent higher than her support on 27 July.
(538 has Harris leading Trump by approx. 2.7–2.8 per cent.)
How incredibly our political prospects have changed for the better in just over three weeks!
Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo has a succinct summary of poll movement:
"Whether or not it is enduring, Kamala Harris’ transformation of the 2024 presidential race is stunning. There’s no other way to put it. When Joe Biden dropped out of the race he was approaching 4 percentage points behind Donald Trump. Today Harris is just shy of three points ahead, a six- or seven-point shift.
"What is even more striking is the shift in her net favorability. As of today, according to the 538 average, she remains three points “underwater,” as the jargon has it — her unfavorability three points over her favorability. But in post-2016 politics this amounts to being absolutely on fire. The numbers tell the story: on July 9th, Harris had a net unfavorability of 17.5 percentage points. Today it’s 3. Shifts like this are simply unheard of."
Awesome video came out yesterday of Kamala and Tim (and their respective spouses) stopping by the Beaver County (PA) field office and phone banking voters. Phone banking!
Come on, fellow Hopium folks! If Kamala and Tim can phone bank, we can too! Let's do the work!
Thank you Simon, perfect pitch as always. Very excited about DNC and truly, never seen such an extraordinary energy and magic with the two nominees in the field. Talk about time to go for 55. I truly, deeply wonder why the heck Trump isn't campaigning. It's positively bizarre. Why send Vance out for crowds of 35 people or whatever?
Amidst all the smug, snarky headlines from both the WaPo and NYT (which do infuriate me) I wonder, how much influence does each still have ? That is to say, I wonder how big the threat of their undermining Harris' (panning her plans, downplaying good polling) is. I mean, most right leaning voters have been taught to hate the MSM. The young voters were really working to activate from my understanding don't get their news from traditional outlets, but rather from TikTok and other platforms. So as upsetting as it is, I wonder if it is that "threatening" ?
I don’t know but I doubt it has significant effect. Not a friend or family member (we’re boomers and older) takes the NYT’s pabulum seriously. Their bias is transparent. We just don’t click on the garbage. And there’s a lot of garbage. Headlining themselves into irrelevance.
Republicans don't even read those NYT or WaPo. Whatever readers they have left are not MAGAts. So I don't know what their game is. After 2016, they made the decision to publish in their opinion page any nonsense, no matter how useless, as long as it was written by a Trump voter because they thought they were losing the mainstream or something. Now they've become a parody of themselves. Word games are all that is keeping the NYT afloat.
I was thinking more if the effect of the MSM's coverage on either swing/young voters. I mean the premise I think we were operating on - if I understood correctly - was that Biden was unpopular because most all of his accomplishments were constantly buried/ignored by the times. So now Harris is rolling out policy proposals and here comes the MSM getting all dismissive. However, if young people aren't writ large reading outlets like this I'm inclined to think/hope it doesn't affect Harris with 18-30 that much. I'm just hoping it doesn't harm her with the suburban 45 year old Michigan housewife who might still go to church semi-regularly. Full time worrier here - I'm always finding something to freak out about lol
The MSM is less trusted now than ever before. I think it's even possible that the NYT hating on her makes her look cooler to young and working class voters. Hillary was seen as way too connected to the old guard and it hurt her. The new voters Kamala is bringing in want hope and optimism. The Dems are giving it to them while the MSM is lecturing them on why this or that "won't work" (as if they have any idea).
Funny that the Vice President has become the change candidate-partly because Trump is no longer the change maker himself. But it is a smart strategy in continuing the President's legacy while offering something even a little different to politics.
The first Democratic Convention in Chicago was held in 1864. On the first day a 30 foot portion of the Gallery collapsed and 60 people were injured, none seriously. In 1996 the big story during the Convention were pictures of Dick Morris getting his toes nuzzled by a prostitute on a balcony of the Jefferson Hotel in DC. This Convention is already a huge success!
I received an email this morning from Blue Wave Postcard Movement with info about a virtual Postcarding party on Saturday, August 31st, from 1 - 2:30 PM, MST
It will feature national guests:
Simon Rosenberg from The Hopium Chronicles Substack
and
Sylvia Salazar of @tono.latino on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok
How about cold, hard factual joy ! Or joyful facts !
But in all seriousness while facts are good, facts alone are not enough. Emotion is very much required in a campaign & that's where the joy comes in. The best option is a mix of joy & facts.
Thank you for your service, Matthew!
There was a great interview with Trump's former NSA H.R. McMaster on CBS Sunday Morning. He didn't say it explicitly, but he painted a well-defined picture of how Trump was "played" by Putin through simple flattery and praise. He warned Trump that Putin is the best liar in the world, so not to take anything he says at face value. But, his advice was clearly ignored. He also thought other authoritarian leaders know this playbook-- flatter Trump, act accommodating, praise him, and that's the way to wrap him around their fingers. Sad that it's so obvious to everyone else except the guy running for President.
iirc you were asking about commentary. did you see the Washington Monthly link Chris Dwyer posted above
https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/july-august-2024/
Love that projection: "HARRIS WALZ: JOY AND HOPE"
A Trump Tower has never looked this good!
The Democratic National Committee also projected these messages on the tower last night:
Trump-Vance weird as hell
Harris Walz fighting for you
Project 2025 HQ
I am so happy to hear this! As a Chicagoan, I am so looking forward to the day when we are able to take the giant TRUMP off the front of that eyesore. 💪🏻
https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/july-august-2024/
This is a thoughtful, thorough assessment and perfectly timed for Biden-Day at the DemConv. Thanks so much for sharing it! Great read to wake up to.
Thanks for sharing this, Chris. Imnsho, the Washington Monthly is arguably the best--and certainly the most underrated--source for creative and thoughtful political commentary in the MSM
Love this ❤️
"Forward not Back"
Great to see another member of Markers For Democracy, Stephanie Brown, highlighted in this edition of Hopium Chronicles. She was one of many members of Markers to write a Thank you to President Biden. This is a good week to send another thank you postcard. Stephanie's postcards are available on her Etsy shop. https://www.etsy.com/shop/StephaniesVision Markers For Democracy has some thank you postcards on our VistaPrint pro-shop (no proceeds to us): https://markersfordemocracy.org/postcarding/mfd-postcard-shop
Tonight - first night of the Dem Convention - is going to be a Super Moon in the skies above! Go, Dems!!!
And good polling news on this opening day: 538 Presidential Polling average shows that Kamala Harris has hit a new high-water mark of support: 46.6 percent. That’s an impressive 2.4 percent higher than her support on 27 July.
(538 has Harris leading Trump by approx. 2.7–2.8 per cent.)
How incredibly our political prospects have changed for the better in just over three weeks!
Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo has a succinct summary of poll movement:
"Whether or not it is enduring, Kamala Harris’ transformation of the 2024 presidential race is stunning. There’s no other way to put it. When Joe Biden dropped out of the race he was approaching 4 percentage points behind Donald Trump. Today Harris is just shy of three points ahead, a six- or seven-point shift.
"What is even more striking is the shift in her net favorability. As of today, according to the 538 average, she remains three points “underwater,” as the jargon has it — her unfavorability three points over her favorability. But in post-2016 politics this amounts to being absolutely on fire. The numbers tell the story: on July 9th, Harris had a net unfavorability of 17.5 percentage points. Today it’s 3. Shifts like this are simply unheard of."
Thrilling! Thanks for letting us all know!
Awesome video came out yesterday of Kamala and Tim (and their respective spouses) stopping by the Beaver County (PA) field office and phone banking voters. Phone banking!
Come on, fellow Hopium folks! If Kamala and Tim can phone bank, we can too! Let's do the work!
https://www.msnbc.com/weekends-with-alex-witt/watch/harris-walz-and-spouses-make-voter-calls-from-pennsylvania-phone-bank-217397317742
I am getting more excited just watching everyone - thank you for posting! I hope that couple got at least to get a glimpse of VP Pres and Gov Walz 💙
"Joy and Progress"
feels stronger, more optimistic
see bluecd2nm.com for lots of info, graphics, videos etc.
Thank you Simon, perfect pitch as always. Very excited about DNC and truly, never seen such an extraordinary energy and magic with the two nominees in the field. Talk about time to go for 55. I truly, deeply wonder why the heck Trump isn't campaigning. It's positively bizarre. Why send Vance out for crowds of 35 people or whatever?
It is so bizarre, would love any insights.
Amidst all the smug, snarky headlines from both the WaPo and NYT (which do infuriate me) I wonder, how much influence does each still have ? That is to say, I wonder how big the threat of their undermining Harris' (panning her plans, downplaying good polling) is. I mean, most right leaning voters have been taught to hate the MSM. The young voters were really working to activate from my understanding don't get their news from traditional outlets, but rather from TikTok and other platforms. So as upsetting as it is, I wonder if it is that "threatening" ?
I don’t know but I doubt it has significant effect. Not a friend or family member (we’re boomers and older) takes the NYT’s pabulum seriously. Their bias is transparent. We just don’t click on the garbage. And there’s a lot of garbage. Headlining themselves into irrelevance.
Republicans don't even read those NYT or WaPo. Whatever readers they have left are not MAGAts. So I don't know what their game is. After 2016, they made the decision to publish in their opinion page any nonsense, no matter how useless, as long as it was written by a Trump voter because they thought they were losing the mainstream or something. Now they've become a parody of themselves. Word games are all that is keeping the NYT afloat.
I was thinking more if the effect of the MSM's coverage on either swing/young voters. I mean the premise I think we were operating on - if I understood correctly - was that Biden was unpopular because most all of his accomplishments were constantly buried/ignored by the times. So now Harris is rolling out policy proposals and here comes the MSM getting all dismissive. However, if young people aren't writ large reading outlets like this I'm inclined to think/hope it doesn't affect Harris with 18-30 that much. I'm just hoping it doesn't harm her with the suburban 45 year old Michigan housewife who might still go to church semi-regularly. Full time worrier here - I'm always finding something to freak out about lol
The MSM is less trusted now than ever before. I think it's even possible that the NYT hating on her makes her look cooler to young and working class voters. Hillary was seen as way too connected to the old guard and it hurt her. The new voters Kamala is bringing in want hope and optimism. The Dems are giving it to them while the MSM is lecturing them on why this or that "won't work" (as if they have any idea).
"Do more, worry less."
What a motto Simon.
Funny that the Vice President has become the change candidate-partly because Trump is no longer the change maker himself. But it is a smart strategy in continuing the President's legacy while offering something even a little different to politics.
-MS
The Change candidate – vs the "time to change your diaper" candidate.
The first Democratic Convention in Chicago was held in 1864. On the first day a 30 foot portion of the Gallery collapsed and 60 people were injured, none seriously. In 1996 the big story during the Convention were pictures of Dick Morris getting his toes nuzzled by a prostitute on a balcony of the Jefferson Hotel in DC. This Convention is already a huge success!
That's a good point. On the spectrum of historical Chicago-area DNC's, the bar we have to clear this week isn't super-high.
I received an email this morning from Blue Wave Postcard Movement with info about a virtual Postcarding party on Saturday, August 31st, from 1 - 2:30 PM, MST
It will feature national guests:
Simon Rosenberg from The Hopium Chronicles Substack
and
Sylvia Salazar of @tono.latino on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok
Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAsf-2sqj4uE9QeYVkMCGfOY46kQmHwyaih?
Order Blue Wave Postcards here: https://shop.bluewavepostcards.org/pages/write-postcards
Simon... I think I’ve heard of that guy.