Democratic (Party) Direction

There isn’t a center or median of American political thought.

Yeah, true, if the claim is "Joe Manchin isn't the median of American political thought because there's no such thing because that's a totally wrong model for American political thought" I'm on board

I agree that America is too atomized for the idea of a “center” to even be comprehensible. Manchin’s not even the center of the Senate/the Meet the Press universe, though. Someone like Gary Peters (who? exactly) is.

however Manchin is always MTP and today, apparently, wouldn't answer a dumb question about whether he'd prefer a Dem majority this fall.

There isn’t a center or median of American political thought.

― papal hotwife (milo z)

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

So here's a thing. This week I'm basically taking over this thread by the way until I get bored or enough people tell me to shut up and go away.

One of my friends posted a link to a FiveThirtyEight article analyzing the results of a recent poll on Americans' feelings on LGBTQ rights. I don't really read a lot of 538 - I was kind of a junkie for it in 2016, looked for reassurances that Donald Trump would definitely, totally lose from Nate Silver's reasoned analyses, and I kinda re-evaluated my coping strategies when Trump won.

But a friend posted a link to the article and so I needed to read it to figure out how much I should panic. I'm still reasonably disinclined to panic. I mean, any more than I'm already panicking. There's still a fairly significant chance that I might be systemically exterminated within the next five years, after all.

What fascinates me about this article is that it uses a term I hadn't heard before - "cross-pressured". As far as I can tell, this is used to describe a situation where poll results show that one person holds two mutually incompatible beliefs - that they exist in a state of cognitive dissonance. When it comes to trans rights, an _extraordinarily high_ number of people are "cross-pressured".

In this light it makes perfect sense that the Democrats have no coherent platform. They're trying to appeal to the electorate, and the beliefs and desires of much of the electorate are meaningless and nonsensical.

But there is perhaps sort of a vicious circle happening here, in that the incoherence of the Democratic party _legitimizes_ incoherence in the population. People who call themselves "moderates" turn out to, in practice, model severe cognitive dissonance more closely. In other words, the electorate, as well as the Democratic leaders, are fundamentally incapable of coping with empirical reality.

The funny thing is, as a trans person, I don't really see this as a _new_ way of thinking. I think there was _always_ a certain amount of contradiction and incoherence when it came to normative beliefs about trans people. As long as nobody digs too deep, as long as nobody asks too many difficult questions, everything _seems_ to make sense.

But it doesn't. The principles I was raised from birth to live my life by, they don't make sense. They are, in fact, batshit crazy. And people are coming up with more and more ridiculous euphemisms to disguise this increasingly obvious fact. "Cross-pressured" is apparently one of the more recent. I can't wait to see what the wonks think of next.

“Puppies have a nap, now it’s time for you to have one,” Elizabeth Warren told Feinstein.

(NB: Warren is not speaking harshly, but that doesn't change the context of the exchange)

the joker before blowing up a bus in gotham pic.twitter.com/fx2Gde4yeC

— ༺𝒢𐀔𝒥༻ (@gothjafar) November 10, 2022

every video i see of kamala harris is so fucking funny pic.twitter.com/pmgA2eBESt

— bebonk ⋆˙⟡♡ ⤮ (@beaaprill) November 15, 2022

I actually think she participates quite well in this music and dance sequence.

struttin on her way to put some more people in jail

it's true, she can do that as veep

she’s walking on sunshine courtesy of prison labor

“The thing about Florida Democrats is we keep learning with every passing year that just when you thought you had hit bottom, you discover that there are new abysses to fall deeper and deeper into,” said Fernand Amandi, a veteran Democratic operative in the state. “There is no plan. There’s nothing. It’s just a state of suspended animation and chaos — and, more than anything, it’s the mournful regret and acceptance that Florida has been cast aside for the long, foreseeable future.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/22/florida-democrats-losses/

Good morning!

NEW: a PAC fighting progressive primary challengers is funded by one man who happens to be the richest person in Pennsylvania, a GOP mega donor who has avoided $1 billion in taxes: Jeff Yass. Biden’s former campaign manager is the PAC’s only consultant https://t.co/t0p8eunM1m

— Akela Lacy (@akela_lacy) January 25, 2023

a story of two men who can discern which side their bread is buttered on

Congress must join the AI revolution.

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) June 21, 2023

AI President

You can call me Al

AI Qaeda

Weird AI

AI President

AIbraham Lincoln

Dwight AIsenhower

AIke was with us when AImerica needed hAIm

AIdolf Hitler

Chester AI Arthur

luv 2 have a pro-union president

"This is not an attempt to ban TikTok. It's an attempt to make TikTok better. Tic-Tac-Toe. A winner. A winner."

-- Rep. Pelosi pic.twitter.com/ExkX6bxz0O

— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) March 13, 2024

pokemon tik-tok-toe to the polls

Sippin Ace of Spades, I do
Got the K Street everywhere I go

What's at stake for our climate in this November's elections?

Absolutely everything. https://t.co/mnBjVGTlzR pic.twitter.com/mzpsSrJiPr

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 22, 2024

Hard to believe she lost.

College Democrats Back Protests and Criticize Biden’s Israel Policy

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/30/us/politics/bidens-israel-college-democrats.html?unlocked_article_code=1.oU0.Ow5p.PAspLsJ-hPpx&smid=url-share

hell yeah

the Hillary graph is misleading

It will be interesting to learn how many of those arrested in Hamilton Hall at Columbia are actually students.

— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) May 1, 2024

fuck off, Ax

god, the convention is going to be such a fucking nightmare, I hope Brandon Johnson is actually a decent person. If I were him I'd send his family out of town to protect them from CPD.

I don't get why ppl are blaming Biden and the Democratic Party for the actions of the Columbia University administration

Let alone the state of Israel!

A new statement from the White House in response to the news of Columbia protestors taking over a campus building. pic.twitter.com/A48LpNGyhg

— Asma Khalid (@asmamk) April 30, 2024

piece of shit

Let alone the state of Israel!

I think the table is the broadly correct here. Biden's seeming inability to exercise any kind of control over Israel's actions is somewhat incongruous with the various conditions imposed on Ukraine in what they can use, where they can use it, when they can use it. The disparity between the former and the latter is particularly striking, and I think its fair to say this is something which lands on Biden's desk, the complete disregard for the concept of leverage that is so readily available in another context. But this is the problem with the idea of "unconditional support"

I think as far as Colombia goes, thats on them not Biden

I don't think the campus protests and the ridiculous reactions are good for Biden as it might peel away his "coalition" from both sides. I don't blame the protestors for that though.

have the White House put out a statement about UCLA yet or do they only weigh in when property is threatened?