I supported Harris (and Hilary) every way I knew how. She (same as Hilary) would be an infinitely better president than the fascist (and I would be delighted if AOC can win the general election to become president).
Problem was, Harris demonstrated in 2020 that she could not win a significant number of primary votes. Instead, her 2020 primary campaign was an airball. In 2024, Harris was foisted upon the Dems by Joe Biden, without the benefit of any primary contest at all to learn who could actually win votes, especially swing voters in swing states. Harris won almost exclusively votes from people (like me) who are going to vote Dem no matter what. Among swing voters in swing states, her campaign was once again an airball. The whole thing was a self-inflicted (mostly from Biden) fatal wound for the Dem Party.
This is not (for me) about gender or ethnicity. It is about the ability to win, as demonstrated in the primary process. You gotta' play the games, to find out who can win. If that candidate is Newsom, so be it (and I dearly wish Bernie was 20 years younger).
Okay, but I think you're missing WHY I wrote this in the first place. It's because Gavin Newsom is the reason Democrats keep losing—he has yet to give us a compelling reason to vote FOR him. "I can insult Donald Trump for being a whiny chickenshit Fascist wannabe" is something half the people on Substack can do, and do, every day of the week!
Joanne Carducci, whose post about Newsom is why I started writing this, does a better job than Newsom does at mocking Trump with substance. Moreover, unlike him SHE has principles she sticks to—I'd vote for her any day of the week over Newsom, most of the Democratic Party, and ALL of the Republican Party!
::Speaking of which? @JoJoFromJerz—have you considered running for political office? *I* live in New Jersey these days, too! Send me your campaign literature....::
I keep using Hillary Rodham Clinton as my poster...person for everything wrong with modern Neoliberalism. Part of it is that yes, I hate her guts for how she desperately tried to slime Bernie Sanders, Julian Assange, and Edward Snowden with a fervor she NEVER showed against Donald Trump*, and for the scandals she kept insisting were "nothingburgers" while failing to decisively address them and even (in the case of "But Her E-Mails"?) tried to cover up—an act she'd screamed was "TREASON!" when Somebody Not Her was accused of it.
But more significantly if less emotionally, she never seemed to be FOR anything other than "Hillary Rodham Clinton, First Woman President". She'd tell people who asked her about her platform to "Look at my website"—WTF, you don't know what your own platform is? All she seemed to talk about during the General Election is how she was going to "go toe to toe with Putin"—which may sound smart now, but in 2016 really came off like she couldn't WAIT to nuke Moscow and St. Petersburg!
She never tried to explain to the voters she counted on in the formerly-industrial Midwest what she would do to alleviate their loss of work and crumbling infrastructure—she barely campaigned there at all! Donald Trump at least went to those states and held rallies there—yes, it was as a boost to his own bloated ego, but to people desperate for a candidate who seemed to notice them rather than take them for granted? He must have seemed like The Second Coming.
What she did is what most Democrats keep doing—listening to highly-paid advisors who urge going on television or attending $100,000-a-plate dinners to fill the campaign coffers, rather than going out to talk to the people they want to actually vote for them, and making a case for why these people SHOULD.
Harris tried to reach out, and she had a pretty great campaign going, but she didn't have the time to build the groundswell she needed. It also didn't help that the MSM hung the "Palestinian Genocide" albatross around her neck, which prevented a nonzero percentage of Liberals and Leftists from voting for her—like, was she going to publicly denounce the man who chose her as his successor for not being more aggressive against Netanyahu? Nobody but Donald Trump would be mook enough to do that!
I hated how Biden handled things after October 7, 2023 and how easily he (and America) let ourselves be used, too—but I understood that 1) he was a Cold War Democrat who would knee-jerk "Defend Israel" and only consider the consequences later; and 2) he was an old man whose first impulse would be "Well, Palestine STARTED it!" I just imagine Barack Obama watching his former VP and doing this—🤦🏿!
Yes, that was longer than my original post, but I hope it makes it clearer why I'm not a Newsom cheerleader. I will say once again, though, that MORE Democrats should be doing what he's doing to Donald Trump—ALL the Democrats should be doing this to Donald Trump. But those who want to be President? Need to offer us more than "Dog-pile on Grandpa Shitzenpants! Dog-pile on Grandpa Shitzenpants!"
____
* The Steele Dossier smelled, and not just of Trump's urine(!), from the moment I first heard of it. The material was so salacious and sensationalistic that, like General Akbar, I was screaming, "IT'S A TRAP!"—as it turned out to be, making Hillary look like she'd sink to any level to discredit Donald Trump....
" If you have electable Dems to recommend, I am all ears."
SURE you are.... 🙄
But, giving you a benefit of the doubt you don't deserve after being such a fucking troll?
AOC is looking good, as is Jasmine Crockett, or ANY woman on The Squad. Yes, they're female and not-White, so the mainstream DNC is running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to minimize their impact—but they beat the Corporate DNC choices by a LOT.
While I'm not thrilled with Tim Walz given he bad-mouthed Kamala Harris right after losing in 2024 (after she ran as good a campaign as was possible with only a few months' time!), he has the advantage for voters like you of being Old, White, Male, and Not a Republican in All But Name. I suppose he'll probably throw Harris under the bus more if he's seriously being considered (that being a DNC mainstay, destroying your previous choices!), but he's better than Rahm Emanuel, Cory Booker (who's my Senator right now!), or Peter Buttgieg—all of whom are cowardly Corporate Clinton NeoLibs.
If Harris ran again I'd vote for her because I feel she deserves a real chance this time, though I fear I might be very much in the minority there.
No, I think you have—all of you who think that, because you're groping for the Hillary Neoliberal past, which is how we GOT to this point.
If you want to cheer Gavin Newsom for attacking Trump, cool—I'm glad he's going after Trump, too, because we need a lot more of that! But do NOT think that makes him "Presidential" or a "natural leader", because he's too eager to cut his principles to suit the fashions of the moment....
Foist of all, Nancy P's nephew is a chip off of the old block and I'll leave that, at that.
More significantly DocDarke, Substack reflects Amerika just like Trump does. All of these M.F.'s running around here talking about "Smitty" never talk about how 80 million of their (mostly) white asses voted for him. THAT's what they ought ruminate on if they are worth the powder to blow them up with.
Ergo, substack is just like everything else in this cowardly "shithole." Intellectual honesty, critical thought and honest debate are things that have gone by the way of the dodo bird. Cowardly, group-grope sycophancy is the uniform of the day pal. So, you have two stark choices: you can be a truth-teller, be ostracized, DEMONitized and suffer the consequences (like...oh, let's say "Jesus") OR you can get subscriptions in droves by being a cowardly, craven, compliant little bitch.
I agree, but—as one of those White asses (thankfully, not one who ever voted for him!), I am too well aware that there are a shitload of those bigoted enough, deluded enough, or…I dunno, maybe dyslexic enough? To have colored in his name on their ballot.
As for selling my soul for worldly riches? I’m either heroically honest—
🤣 ::I can’t even finish that sentence with a straight face!::
or more likely, just as rotten at making and hanging onto money as my Uncle claimed my side of the family always was! 🤷♂️
I supported Harris (and Hilary) every way I knew how. She (same as Hilary) would be an infinitely better president than the fascist (and I would be delighted if AOC can win the general election to become president).
Problem was, Harris demonstrated in 2020 that she could not win a significant number of primary votes. Instead, her 2020 primary campaign was an airball. In 2024, Harris was foisted upon the Dems by Joe Biden, without the benefit of any primary contest at all to learn who could actually win votes, especially swing voters in swing states. Harris won almost exclusively votes from people (like me) who are going to vote Dem no matter what. Among swing voters in swing states, her campaign was once again an airball. The whole thing was a self-inflicted (mostly from Biden) fatal wound for the Dem Party.
This is not (for me) about gender or ethnicity. It is about the ability to win, as demonstrated in the primary process. You gotta' play the games, to find out who can win. If that candidate is Newsom, so be it (and I dearly wish Bernie was 20 years younger).
Okay, but I think you're missing WHY I wrote this in the first place. It's because Gavin Newsom is the reason Democrats keep losing—he has yet to give us a compelling reason to vote FOR him. "I can insult Donald Trump for being a whiny chickenshit Fascist wannabe" is something half the people on Substack can do, and do, every day of the week!
Joanne Carducci, whose post about Newsom is why I started writing this, does a better job than Newsom does at mocking Trump with substance. Moreover, unlike him SHE has principles she sticks to—I'd vote for her any day of the week over Newsom, most of the Democratic Party, and ALL of the Republican Party!
::Speaking of which? @JoJoFromJerz—have you considered running for political office? *I* live in New Jersey these days, too! Send me your campaign literature....::
I keep using Hillary Rodham Clinton as my poster...person for everything wrong with modern Neoliberalism. Part of it is that yes, I hate her guts for how she desperately tried to slime Bernie Sanders, Julian Assange, and Edward Snowden with a fervor she NEVER showed against Donald Trump*, and for the scandals she kept insisting were "nothingburgers" while failing to decisively address them and even (in the case of "But Her E-Mails"?) tried to cover up—an act she'd screamed was "TREASON!" when Somebody Not Her was accused of it.
But more significantly if less emotionally, she never seemed to be FOR anything other than "Hillary Rodham Clinton, First Woman President". She'd tell people who asked her about her platform to "Look at my website"—WTF, you don't know what your own platform is? All she seemed to talk about during the General Election is how she was going to "go toe to toe with Putin"—which may sound smart now, but in 2016 really came off like she couldn't WAIT to nuke Moscow and St. Petersburg!
She never tried to explain to the voters she counted on in the formerly-industrial Midwest what she would do to alleviate their loss of work and crumbling infrastructure—she barely campaigned there at all! Donald Trump at least went to those states and held rallies there—yes, it was as a boost to his own bloated ego, but to people desperate for a candidate who seemed to notice them rather than take them for granted? He must have seemed like The Second Coming.
What she did is what most Democrats keep doing—listening to highly-paid advisors who urge going on television or attending $100,000-a-plate dinners to fill the campaign coffers, rather than going out to talk to the people they want to actually vote for them, and making a case for why these people SHOULD.
Harris tried to reach out, and she had a pretty great campaign going, but she didn't have the time to build the groundswell she needed. It also didn't help that the MSM hung the "Palestinian Genocide" albatross around her neck, which prevented a nonzero percentage of Liberals and Leftists from voting for her—like, was she going to publicly denounce the man who chose her as his successor for not being more aggressive against Netanyahu? Nobody but Donald Trump would be mook enough to do that!
I hated how Biden handled things after October 7, 2023 and how easily he (and America) let ourselves be used, too—but I understood that 1) he was a Cold War Democrat who would knee-jerk "Defend Israel" and only consider the consequences later; and 2) he was an old man whose first impulse would be "Well, Palestine STARTED it!" I just imagine Barack Obama watching his former VP and doing this—🤦🏿!
Yes, that was longer than my original post, but I hope it makes it clearer why I'm not a Newsom cheerleader. I will say once again, though, that MORE Democrats should be doing what he's doing to Donald Trump—ALL the Democrats should be doing this to Donald Trump. But those who want to be President? Need to offer us more than "Dog-pile on Grandpa Shitzenpants! Dog-pile on Grandpa Shitzenpants!"
____
* The Steele Dossier smelled, and not just of Trump's urine(!), from the moment I first heard of it. The material was so salacious and sensationalistic that, like General Akbar, I was screaming, "IT'S A TRAP!"—as it turned out to be, making Hillary look like she'd sink to any level to discredit Donald Trump....
Not groping for more unelectable candidates like Hilary, or Harris. If you have electable Dems to recommend, I am all ears.
" If you have electable Dems to recommend, I am all ears."
SURE you are.... 🙄
But, giving you a benefit of the doubt you don't deserve after being such a fucking troll?
AOC is looking good, as is Jasmine Crockett, or ANY woman on The Squad. Yes, they're female and not-White, so the mainstream DNC is running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to minimize their impact—but they beat the Corporate DNC choices by a LOT.
While I'm not thrilled with Tim Walz given he bad-mouthed Kamala Harris right after losing in 2024 (after she ran as good a campaign as was possible with only a few months' time!), he has the advantage for voters like you of being Old, White, Male, and Not a Republican in All But Name. I suppose he'll probably throw Harris under the bus more if he's seriously being considered (that being a DNC mainstay, destroying your previous choices!), but he's better than Rahm Emanuel, Cory Booker (who's my Senator right now!), or Peter Buttgieg—all of whom are cowardly Corporate Clinton NeoLibs.
If Harris ran again I'd vote for her because I feel she deserves a real chance this time, though I fear I might be very much in the minority there.
How's THAT, Junior?
You have lost the plot in this crisis.
No, I think you have—all of you who think that, because you're groping for the Hillary Neoliberal past, which is how we GOT to this point.
If you want to cheer Gavin Newsom for attacking Trump, cool—I'm glad he's going after Trump, too, because we need a lot more of that! But do NOT think that makes him "Presidential" or a "natural leader", because he's too eager to cut his principles to suit the fashions of the moment....
Foist of all, Nancy P's nephew is a chip off of the old block and I'll leave that, at that.
More significantly DocDarke, Substack reflects Amerika just like Trump does. All of these M.F.'s running around here talking about "Smitty" never talk about how 80 million of their (mostly) white asses voted for him. THAT's what they ought ruminate on if they are worth the powder to blow them up with.
Ergo, substack is just like everything else in this cowardly "shithole." Intellectual honesty, critical thought and honest debate are things that have gone by the way of the dodo bird. Cowardly, group-grope sycophancy is the uniform of the day pal. So, you have two stark choices: you can be a truth-teller, be ostracized, DEMONitized and suffer the consequences (like...oh, let's say "Jesus") OR you can get subscriptions in droves by being a cowardly, craven, compliant little bitch.
The choice is yours.
I've made mine.
🤦♂️ Until you mentioned it just now? I was unaware that Gavin Newsom and Nancy Pelosi were related by marriage!
That Senior Editor job at the WASHINGTON POST is looking more likely every day, as I find out I don’t know shit…!
I agree, but—as one of those White asses (thankfully, not one who ever voted for him!), I am too well aware that there are a shitload of those bigoted enough, deluded enough, or…I dunno, maybe dyslexic enough? To have colored in his name on their ballot.
As for selling my soul for worldly riches? I’m either heroically honest—
🤣 ::I can’t even finish that sentence with a straight face!::
or more likely, just as rotten at making and hanging onto money as my Uncle claimed my side of the family always was! 🤷♂️