I’ve been waiting for this letter and appreciate your insights. However, I think you miss the mark with the “why” of the democrats failure. I don’t think identity politics was the downfall. Some 14 million blue voters sat this one out. Trump actually underperformed compared to 2020 by 2 million. The moderate approach compounded with Gaza and “but you can’t vote for Trump he’s a fascist” strategy failed. Or, on the other hand, this place just hates women.
Oh yes. And you are 100% right, Marc. I’m not spending any time or emotion on the Harris campaign’s or Democratic Party’s decisions in the campaign itself.
We share a gut-based rejection of much of the cultural left’s takeover of the Democratic Party and progressive politics generally. It repels people. But that’s not what I want to discuss.
Near the end of your essay, you hit on what seems likely to be our first substantive challenge—the promised mass deportation. We can anticipate some of the internal issues.
Are we going to oppose all deportations, even of alleged criminals, drug dealers, etc? Where are the resisters going to be found ( college campuses, SEIU and other labor unions, Christian churches familiar with the Sermon on the Mount, Jewish and other religious organizations, neighborhood and community groups, Democratic clubs, Democratic Socialist groups, other progressive clubs and organizations). Immigration attorneys and advocacy groups are probably already making more specific plans.
What if the administration establishes Manzanar-style camps?
What tactics will we use? What risks are we willing to take? Will the administration come out guns blazing—figuratively or literally? It’s not too early to begin thinking and talking, realizing that we are back to the COINTELPRO days that some of us remember too well. That structure takes time to build, though. Ideas?
Your argument from the pandemic is brilliant. The scope of the defeat brings with it the collapse of identitarian politics.
But I wish you'd waited a day or two to present this analysis. It is compelling and spot on and I'm afraid many people won't have it in them to absorb half of it.
We're not in any danger of losing the thread but until people have expressed and begun to manage their anxiety, fear and dread and got some of it out of their system I fear that analysis at this level may be lost on many people who value your writing.
I’ve been waiting for this letter and appreciate your insights. However, I think you miss the mark with the “why” of the democrats failure. I don’t think identity politics was the downfall. Some 14 million blue voters sat this one out. Trump actually underperformed compared to 2020 by 2 million. The moderate approach compounded with Gaza and “but you can’t vote for Trump he’s a fascist” strategy failed. Or, on the other hand, this place just hates women.
Oh yes. And you are 100% right, Marc. I’m not spending any time or emotion on the Harris campaign’s or Democratic Party’s decisions in the campaign itself.
We share a gut-based rejection of much of the cultural left’s takeover of the Democratic Party and progressive politics generally. It repels people. But that’s not what I want to discuss.
Near the end of your essay, you hit on what seems likely to be our first substantive challenge—the promised mass deportation. We can anticipate some of the internal issues.
Are we going to oppose all deportations, even of alleged criminals, drug dealers, etc? Where are the resisters going to be found ( college campuses, SEIU and other labor unions, Christian churches familiar with the Sermon on the Mount, Jewish and other religious organizations, neighborhood and community groups, Democratic clubs, Democratic Socialist groups, other progressive clubs and organizations). Immigration attorneys and advocacy groups are probably already making more specific plans.
What if the administration establishes Manzanar-style camps?
What tactics will we use? What risks are we willing to take? Will the administration come out guns blazing—figuratively or literally? It’s not too early to begin thinking and talking, realizing that we are back to the COINTELPRO days that some of us remember too well. That structure takes time to build, though. Ideas?
Your argument from the pandemic is brilliant. The scope of the defeat brings with it the collapse of identitarian politics.
But I wish you'd waited a day or two to present this analysis. It is compelling and spot on and I'm afraid many people won't have it in them to absorb half of it.
We're not in any danger of losing the thread but until people have expressed and begun to manage their anxiety, fear and dread and got some of it out of their system I fear that analysis at this level may be lost on many people who value your writing.
Tnx. I will also go kht tomorrow