I don’t question your statistics but every news story I have read noted that those MI cities with majority Muslim population went from losing Democratic votes to Republican/Independent with Interviews from disaffected Muslims who chose an alternative to voting for Harris. To be honest, it wasn’t just Muslims who made the same choice. It may not have made a difference even if they had voted for Harris. It wasn’t only Muslims they were a small subset of other groups who didn’t vote for Harris because they were disaffected by the Democratic Party and wanted to show their displeasure by not voting Democratic. I saw this as cutting your nose off to spite your face. I truly believe they didn’t think this through. For Muslims that would be Trump would pose more of a danger to Muslims in general and Palestinians specifically.
This is not a unique phenomenon though. Those who hold true Democratic values but require their party to be perfect have resorted by punishing the Democratic Party by not voting for the candidate. That’s how the Democrats contributed to the losses of the Bush/Gore election, the Trump/Clinton election and the Trump/Harris election. All to the detriment of our government, world affairs and climate. One would think by now people would ask themselves is it really worth not supporting a party that sucks in some ways when the alternative option will be so much worse overall and I consider evil.
As you said, we are all in this together now and must work together to deal with this travesty. I just hope that more people would understand how the perfect is the enemy of the good. Evidently too many with Democratic leanings still don’t get this and here we are.
Here’s one article that refers to my first sentence.
I can't imagine that the majority of American Christians are MAGA types, but unfortunately, I can very easily imagine that there are enough that simply do not care enough to vote *against* Trump.
I also read this morning that Trump's administration is "looking at" resurrecting a 19th century law that denies indigenous people their American citizenship. Of course, it has to do with denying economic and voting rights to the tribes we decimated and who are the poorest ethnic and racial group in the US.
A lot of people who aren't Muslims also voted against Biden, who obviously missed being clued into the fact that people aren't diehard supporters of Israel anymore. When I was an activist, nobody gave a shit for the Palestinians, but that has changed within the last 10 years. Obama was also a big fan of sending over $4 billion a year to Israel, which was quietly used to kill Palestinians even when there wasn't a "war." I thought all along that the war on Gaza would cost Harris, especially when she kept Biden's policies instead of bravely iterating something more in tune with her inclusive agenda. It shows that politics still focuses on winning at all cost.
Regardless of race, ethnicity or political views, the best way to handle this would have been for people to hold their noses vote for Harris, this time, but during her term, try to convince the administration to change policy in the Middle East, if the policy didn’t change then primary her in 2028. Knowing the consequences, people let their emotions carry them overboard, and (instead of only Houston) America we have a problem!!!!!
If you don't follow news closely, how would you know it would be better to hold your nose for Harris? And let's not forget that there are millions of people who would rather vote for Trump than for a black skinned Asian American woman.
???????????????? Those are the problems racism, and discrimination!! I am also disabled. Have you ever been discriminated against???? do you even know what the word means??!?!??!?
The thing is America is a country full of uneducated, arrogant egomaniacs. The people sending you these messages are the epitome of that. You can give them facts and numbers all day but they’ll stick to their fabrications because it’s not about facts or truth for these people. It’s about attacking whomever you can to feed your egoistic need to feel superior to others because you are in fact riddled with insecurity. To think that it was the Muslim vote that put Trump in office is wildly misinformed and stupid as we know the majority of white people in 2016 and in this election voted for Trump. Why are these people not lashing out at them? I think part of this is veiled islamaphobia, part of it is the desire to scapegoat a very small minority and part of it is a deflection of responsibility away from the people who actually did this, white Americans. That’s not to say that others did not also vote for this orangutan. We know the majority or Black men and Latino voters we’re for Trump but the vast majority of his diehard base are white Americans who like him because he’s xenophobic and racist. It feeds the ideological and material realities that have always existed in America which is white supremacy and the maintenance of it. Not to mention the perpetuation of capitalism and the power of the capitalist class. In short the Muslim population of this country is not big enough to decide who becomes president but that doesn’t matter to idiots which is unfortunately a large percentage of who the US population is.
It wasn’t Muslim people who did our election in, it was the massive voting hacks. Period. The sooner we acknowledge this the quicker we’ll stop blaming each other. Full stop
The deeper problem at play is one of the idea of “agency” and “sovereignty.”
A large mass of people in an election has rather limited agency, especially in a two party first past the post election.
Theoretically, the ideal of “democracy” is that the people of the United States are sovereign over the United States. That has a twofold meaning (1) the desires of the electorate overall cannot be questioned, and (2) the law of the land and its leaders need to follow the desires of the electorate generally.
The sovereignty argument is especially pertinent because it means that you cannot blame the electorate for hating a politician because of that politician’s support for unpopular actions, but rather the blame must lay solely with the politician who is violating the ideal of democracy by spitting in the face of the people’s will.
You cannot be a leader in Pakistan and ever say you like India. Similarly, the masses in US will never accept an anti-Israel leader - I don’t support this, but this is the reality. The massive anti-government anti-Biden protests did not help Biden, that’s for sure. But, that’s not to say, the Muslim vote was responsible for the election debacle.
I agree. The protests were not anti-Biden. They were protests against arming a group that has flouted all international norms and is committing genocide and I appreciate the sentiment . But if you put your hand in the fire, however well-intentioned, it is going to burn. At election time, knowing fully well the monstrous alternative, it is not smart to damage the chances of the non-monstrous candidate.
People didn't protest Biden because they're anti-Biden, they protested Biden's actions because they were unjust. This is literally our right as citizens guaranteed by the Constitution. We really need to get away from this framing of being "anti-Biden" or "anti-Harris" and recognize that we are supposed to be critical of politicians to demand better. That's how being a citizen works. That's how patriotism works.
Exactly. I'm pro-Palestinian and anti-genocide, but also anti-Hamas, etc. I think Netanyahu is a war criminal but I also want Hamas ousted. I am disgusted with the Israeli settlers stealing lands from Palestinians in the West Bank. I seethe with anger at every photo of murdered women and children and the destruction in Gaza. While I am an atheist, I have Jewish friends who are in total agreement with my views. Still we all voted for Harris/Walz (and wished Biden had not been pushed aside).
I think the time of criticizing the president is definitely over. So far, Trump has been very extreme and very frightening. He verbally trashed the bishop who spoke at his inauguration and asked him to show mercy and compassion to the least powerful - LGBTQ, immigrants, etc. He responded by calling her a radical left fascist and his goons have made her fear for her life. Trump obviously wanted this to have a chilling effect on anyone daring to dissent during the next 4 years.
I am a 80-year-old white woman who stands in solidarity with the Muslim community and in sorrow over the way they are scapegoated . The people blaming the Muslim community will jump on any made-up reason to jump on them.
Voter suppression in all its forms-voter id, closing polls in Democratic areas, purging of voter rolls- and gerrymandering (same as vote-rigging) are the reason Trump eked out a thin margin of victory. I think it behooves us to stop berating Democrats, even though it is a long-standing tradition among Democrats to blame each other, circular firing squads and all, but I don’t think it helps us defend against the barrage of anti-democracy policies Trump is blitzing us with now!
Democrats aren’t perfect but it’s time to stop scapegoating them just like it’s time to stop scapegoating Muslims. We can’t protect each other and our democracy from the broligarchs if we keep attacking ourselves.
I was a Muslim for 10 years, mostly when I lived in the middle east, but I was always baffled by how little any Americans knew, or wanted to know, about Islam and the Muslim way of living. I belonged to a women's group that would get together every week and read the Quran and talk about how we could help our communities. Islam teaches us to perform acts of charity and ask nothing in return. And that it is a great sin to support unjust wars and the killing of noncombatants.
I don't. I used to be a staunch democrat, honoring my dad who was an FDR democrat. You must be able to see how far the party has removed itself from FDR's policies, right? In 2020 I walked dozens of precincts for Bernie in the poorer sections of San Diego, and learned a lot, like, the people don't feel helped by either the dems or the Republicans. As I was walking and seeing how people were living, I had the feeling that they felt like rats in beakers in a scientific study, treading water until they drowned. Bernie gave them hope. He was my only hope, and the dem establishment sank his candidacy.
I couldn't support the Harris ticket. Or, I should say, I couldn't support half the ticket. I appreciated Walz. And I voted for Stein/Ware. While making phone calls for Jamaal Bowman and Rashida Tlaib I learned that the people in Michigan felt defeated. Speaking to one gentleman who sounded so down in the dumps, I told him about Butch Ware--a Muslim American, professor of African studies at UC Santa Barbara--and as I was talking I heard the excitement rising in his voice, as he was looking him up on the internet.
Please, please, dem party, give people something to vote for! Can I vote for a ticket that embraces war, billionaire donors, corporations? And can you tell which party I'm talking about?
May I suggest that next time, if there is a next time, you get on the phone or put on your tennis shoes for some walking, and work for a canddate of your choosing, to get people hopeful again. Remind them of the story, Horton Hears a Who; that one person, no matter how small, can make a difference. Thank you.
Ok, so we CAN blame you because it's not even possible you didn't realize a vote for Stein/Ware would help put democracy at risk. Congratulations. And NEXT TIME? You voted to not have a next time!
How old are you? Did you have no clue about how fucking dangerous Trump is? And you were OK knowing he'd win? You need to learn how politics works, not about how you want it to be because that kind of pie in the sky stuff just doesn't happen.
That's funny. I know about the electoral college so a vote for Stein was safe here. Eight years ago there was an app that a young neighbor told me about where a person in a purple state could contact someone in a blue state and ask them to vote for Stein so the person in the purple state could vote (with a clearer conscience) for Hillary. Crazy, no? But that's the electoral college for you.
But I keep thinking of those nearly 90 million people who didn't vote at all. I'm still curious and will contact my county Dem headquarters and see if anything is going to be done to find out why.
Right. There are different ways to look at it. Do I want to die in a nuclear holocaust or because of climate change? The dems were saber saber-rattling against Russia and China, and Iran. How many times do you slap a bear before you should expect to be clawed? Yes, I know how politics work, and I'm disgusted. I could vote for Stein/Ware as a statement and not face consequences because I live in California. If California ever becomes a blue state I'd re-examine that stance. But I've worked since 2006 with the county democratic party. I've called over 4500 people, asking them to walk in their precinct, getting out the vote. I trained the 61 people who said yes, and kept track of their progress. I also walked hundreds of precincts over those years, knocking on doors, braving barking and charging dogs, and a snapping turtle, slammed doors, hostile people, and I've learned a lot. I learned that arguing and insulting people doesn't do any good. I've been able to change two people's minds over the thousands I've spoken to. I will never know if the registered democrats I talked to, who were not steady voters, actually voted after I talked to them.
I'm wondering how many people you talked to as part of your county party. And not just ranted to people on substacks or Facebook. I'm wondering if you made phone calls, like I did, Rashida Tbalb and Jamaal Bowman. Did you make phone calls or write postcards on behalf of Harris/Walz? I did. Several hundred. I want people to have their voices heard. The postcards were for people to register to vote by mail. Then I made phone calls to remind people to turn in their ballots.
Do you have friends who worked for the MIC? I do. They tell me the inside scoop, which is not what you get from mainstream media. They know (as well as John Mearsheimer, Jeffrey Sachs, Richard Wolff, Michael Hudson) that Ukraine is losing the war. Have you taken a course with Noam Chomsky? I have. In that course we learned that the US has broken every treaty that it's ever made. What is Russia to make of that? And are you aware that Russia originally wanted to join NATO?
This country is a mess. Bernie was my only hope to change that, as well as Qasim Rashid, Jamaal Bowman, Paula Jean Swearingen. I made phone calls for them during their elections, lastly Bowman. Let me know what you decide to do in 2026. (And I was still working at that time. I retired six months ago, and I'm 73 now.)
Would you care to make phone calls with me to find out why 89 million people didn't vote in this last election? Neither Trump nor Harris made it to that number. A really great candidate could have won those votes. And I'm curious. How curious are you?
You're delusional if you actually think Californians would not "face consequences." Good luck getting anything out of this administration (but you'll be paying for everything).
Making phone calls and writing postcards is a futile activity reserved for people who lived in the past century. You're living in a delusion. Here's some news: California is an echo chamber. I left after the 2016 election when Bernie voters cost us THAT election. I now live in a swing state and you clearly have no understanding of how the electoral college works and how much gerrymandering, voter intimidation, and voter purges, along with Christian Nationalism, racism, and misogyny went on in the swing states! TRUMP won them all! You have zero clue how things actually work in America.
I love that you moved to a swing/purple state. I often look at Zillow and see that I'd come away with a shit load of money if I sold my house here and moved to, say, Kansas, or pretty much anywhere else except NY City. But then I'd have to pay half that in taxes that will mostly go to supporting the MIC, and I hate that idea.
I appreciate that you reminded me that I was delusional. There's a lot that I know from reading, lectures, and experience, but I know that there's a lot more that I don't know. One thing, though, is that I watch Democracy Now!, and couldn't bear that thought of voting for someone who was OK with all those babies that the IDF was killing. I know what we're in for, as I also listen to Richard Wolff. I wish you good sleep, good nutrition, and a solid, supportive community.
I'm super glad that you don't make phone calls and walk precincts. People would not respond kindly to you. I'm a problem? So it's better to mock and denigrate people when they don't agree with you? Who's a problem? Anyway, I'm done with you. Have a great year.
It'll be red before long. It's "mostly-blue" by population but not by geography, and will be red soon enough as the state loses electoral votes. The Brennan Center projects California will lost 12 electoral votes by 2030. If you vote for a third-party, it's a wasted vote.
I am a white Christian,who knows that Christian nationalism is not religion.Having said that I totally agree with what you have stated here . I voted for Harris but was angry with Biden for sending weapons to Israel and worried it would cause Trump to win.
My view is we all knew the stakes. People should have held their noses and voted for Harris, then during her term try to convince the administration to change the policy; if the policy didn’t change then primary her in 2028. I think people’s emotions drove them overboard and instead of Houston, we have a problem, it’s America we have a MAJOR PROBLEM.
One of the major divides in the US (at least) is the split in voting between the factually well-informed and those lacking that. It would be interesting if this factor were laid across the voting patterns of the various religions and non-religions groups. It might not amount to to anything, but it is the kind of thing I would be motivated to pursue (though I don't have the computer capacity nor do I have the knowledge of the coding necessary to write the algorithm).
"it is critical we work together, not fight one another"
Why extraordinary hypocrisy.
Thank you for taking the time to educate us. Your argument is valid.
Yeah this is on the white people the majority of who voted for the felon.
I don’t question your statistics but every news story I have read noted that those MI cities with majority Muslim population went from losing Democratic votes to Republican/Independent with Interviews from disaffected Muslims who chose an alternative to voting for Harris. To be honest, it wasn’t just Muslims who made the same choice. It may not have made a difference even if they had voted for Harris. It wasn’t only Muslims they were a small subset of other groups who didn’t vote for Harris because they were disaffected by the Democratic Party and wanted to show their displeasure by not voting Democratic. I saw this as cutting your nose off to spite your face. I truly believe they didn’t think this through. For Muslims that would be Trump would pose more of a danger to Muslims in general and Palestinians specifically.
This is not a unique phenomenon though. Those who hold true Democratic values but require their party to be perfect have resorted by punishing the Democratic Party by not voting for the candidate. That’s how the Democrats contributed to the losses of the Bush/Gore election, the Trump/Clinton election and the Trump/Harris election. All to the detriment of our government, world affairs and climate. One would think by now people would ask themselves is it really worth not supporting a party that sucks in some ways when the alternative option will be so much worse overall and I consider evil.
As you said, we are all in this together now and must work together to deal with this travesty. I just hope that more people would understand how the perfect is the enemy of the good. Evidently too many with Democratic leanings still don’t get this and here we are.
Here’s one article that refers to my first sentence.
https://apnews.com/article/trump-harris-arab-americans-michigan-dearborn-aea96b9161a77de1fa47d668e23edb98
I can't imagine that the majority of American Christians are MAGA types, but unfortunately, I can very easily imagine that there are enough that simply do not care enough to vote *against* Trump.
*sigh* Maybe I can imagine it.
https://open.substack.com/pub/brucker/p/one-of-them
I also read this morning that Trump's administration is "looking at" resurrecting a 19th century law that denies indigenous people their American citizenship. Of course, it has to do with denying economic and voting rights to the tribes we decimated and who are the poorest ethnic and racial group in the US.
A lot of people who aren't Muslims also voted against Biden, who obviously missed being clued into the fact that people aren't diehard supporters of Israel anymore. When I was an activist, nobody gave a shit for the Palestinians, but that has changed within the last 10 years. Obama was also a big fan of sending over $4 billion a year to Israel, which was quietly used to kill Palestinians even when there wasn't a "war." I thought all along that the war on Gaza would cost Harris, especially when she kept Biden's policies instead of bravely iterating something more in tune with her inclusive agenda. It shows that politics still focuses on winning at all cost.
Regardless of race, ethnicity or political views, the best way to handle this would have been for people to hold their noses vote for Harris, this time, but during her term, try to convince the administration to change policy in the Middle East, if the policy didn’t change then primary her in 2028. Knowing the consequences, people let their emotions carry them overboard, and (instead of only Houston) America we have a problem!!!!!
If you don't follow news closely, how would you know it would be better to hold your nose for Harris? And let's not forget that there are millions of people who would rather vote for Trump than for a black skinned Asian American woman.
???????????????? Those are the problems racism, and discrimination!! I am also disabled. Have you ever been discriminated against???? do you even know what the word means??!?!??!?
The thing is America is a country full of uneducated, arrogant egomaniacs. The people sending you these messages are the epitome of that. You can give them facts and numbers all day but they’ll stick to their fabrications because it’s not about facts or truth for these people. It’s about attacking whomever you can to feed your egoistic need to feel superior to others because you are in fact riddled with insecurity. To think that it was the Muslim vote that put Trump in office is wildly misinformed and stupid as we know the majority of white people in 2016 and in this election voted for Trump. Why are these people not lashing out at them? I think part of this is veiled islamaphobia, part of it is the desire to scapegoat a very small minority and part of it is a deflection of responsibility away from the people who actually did this, white Americans. That’s not to say that others did not also vote for this orangutan. We know the majority or Black men and Latino voters we’re for Trump but the vast majority of his diehard base are white Americans who like him because he’s xenophobic and racist. It feeds the ideological and material realities that have always existed in America which is white supremacy and the maintenance of it. Not to mention the perpetuation of capitalism and the power of the capitalist class. In short the Muslim population of this country is not big enough to decide who becomes president but that doesn’t matter to idiots which is unfortunately a large percentage of who the US population is.
It wasn’t Muslim people who did our election in, it was the massive voting hacks. Period. The sooner we acknowledge this the quicker we’ll stop blaming each other. Full stop
The deeper problem at play is one of the idea of “agency” and “sovereignty.”
A large mass of people in an election has rather limited agency, especially in a two party first past the post election.
Theoretically, the ideal of “democracy” is that the people of the United States are sovereign over the United States. That has a twofold meaning (1) the desires of the electorate overall cannot be questioned, and (2) the law of the land and its leaders need to follow the desires of the electorate generally.
The sovereignty argument is especially pertinent because it means that you cannot blame the electorate for hating a politician because of that politician’s support for unpopular actions, but rather the blame must lay solely with the politician who is violating the ideal of democracy by spitting in the face of the people’s will.
A simple thank you.
❤️✊🏽
You cannot be a leader in Pakistan and ever say you like India. Similarly, the masses in US will never accept an anti-Israel leader - I don’t support this, but this is the reality. The massive anti-government anti-Biden protests did not help Biden, that’s for sure. But, that’s not to say, the Muslim vote was responsible for the election debacle.
I agree. The protests were not anti-Biden. They were protests against arming a group that has flouted all international norms and is committing genocide and I appreciate the sentiment . But if you put your hand in the fire, however well-intentioned, it is going to burn. At election time, knowing fully well the monstrous alternative, it is not smart to damage the chances of the non-monstrous candidate.
Imagine thinking it’s non-monstrous to find Netanyahu, which was the official position of both candidates.
I think you mean fund Netanyahu. Funding mass murder is terrible, but still not smart to vote in a monster, who will take genocide to the next level
People didn't protest Biden because they're anti-Biden, they protested Biden's actions because they were unjust. This is literally our right as citizens guaranteed by the Constitution. We really need to get away from this framing of being "anti-Biden" or "anti-Harris" and recognize that we are supposed to be critical of politicians to demand better. That's how being a citizen works. That's how patriotism works.
Exactly. I'm pro-Palestinian and anti-genocide, but also anti-Hamas, etc. I think Netanyahu is a war criminal but I also want Hamas ousted. I am disgusted with the Israeli settlers stealing lands from Palestinians in the West Bank. I seethe with anger at every photo of murdered women and children and the destruction in Gaza. While I am an atheist, I have Jewish friends who are in total agreement with my views. Still we all voted for Harris/Walz (and wished Biden had not been pushed aside).
I think the time of criticizing the president is definitely over. So far, Trump has been very extreme and very frightening. He verbally trashed the bishop who spoke at his inauguration and asked him to show mercy and compassion to the least powerful - LGBTQ, immigrants, etc. He responded by calling her a radical left fascist and his goons have made her fear for her life. Trump obviously wanted this to have a chilling effect on anyone daring to dissent during the next 4 years.
I am a 80-year-old white woman who stands in solidarity with the Muslim community and in sorrow over the way they are scapegoated . The people blaming the Muslim community will jump on any made-up reason to jump on them.
Voter suppression in all its forms-voter id, closing polls in Democratic areas, purging of voter rolls- and gerrymandering (same as vote-rigging) are the reason Trump eked out a thin margin of victory. I think it behooves us to stop berating Democrats, even though it is a long-standing tradition among Democrats to blame each other, circular firing squads and all, but I don’t think it helps us defend against the barrage of anti-democracy policies Trump is blitzing us with now!
Democrats aren’t perfect but it’s time to stop scapegoating them just like it’s time to stop scapegoating Muslims. We can’t protect each other and our democracy from the broligarchs if we keep attacking ourselves.
I was a Muslim for 10 years, mostly when I lived in the middle east, but I was always baffled by how little any Americans knew, or wanted to know, about Islam and the Muslim way of living. I belonged to a women's group that would get together every week and read the Quran and talk about how we could help our communities. Islam teaches us to perform acts of charity and ask nothing in return. And that it is a great sin to support unjust wars and the killing of noncombatants.
Bless you, Betty. Thank you for your voice and your solidarity.
I blame the millions who decided to sit this one out and not vote.
Many sat out because of gerrymandering, voter intimidation, and voter purges in the swing states. It was ALL about the swing states.
I don't. I used to be a staunch democrat, honoring my dad who was an FDR democrat. You must be able to see how far the party has removed itself from FDR's policies, right? In 2020 I walked dozens of precincts for Bernie in the poorer sections of San Diego, and learned a lot, like, the people don't feel helped by either the dems or the Republicans. As I was walking and seeing how people were living, I had the feeling that they felt like rats in beakers in a scientific study, treading water until they drowned. Bernie gave them hope. He was my only hope, and the dem establishment sank his candidacy.
I couldn't support the Harris ticket. Or, I should say, I couldn't support half the ticket. I appreciated Walz. And I voted for Stein/Ware. While making phone calls for Jamaal Bowman and Rashida Tlaib I learned that the people in Michigan felt defeated. Speaking to one gentleman who sounded so down in the dumps, I told him about Butch Ware--a Muslim American, professor of African studies at UC Santa Barbara--and as I was talking I heard the excitement rising in his voice, as he was looking him up on the internet.
Please, please, dem party, give people something to vote for! Can I vote for a ticket that embraces war, billionaire donors, corporations? And can you tell which party I'm talking about?
May I suggest that next time, if there is a next time, you get on the phone or put on your tennis shoes for some walking, and work for a canddate of your choosing, to get people hopeful again. Remind them of the story, Horton Hears a Who; that one person, no matter how small, can make a difference. Thank you.
Ok, so we CAN blame you because it's not even possible you didn't realize a vote for Stein/Ware would help put democracy at risk. Congratulations. And NEXT TIME? You voted to not have a next time!
I personally don't vote for genocide supporters. Sorry you feel differently.
You voted in Trump.
How old are you? Did you have no clue about how fucking dangerous Trump is? And you were OK knowing he'd win? You need to learn how politics works, not about how you want it to be because that kind of pie in the sky stuff just doesn't happen.
That's funny. I know about the electoral college so a vote for Stein was safe here. Eight years ago there was an app that a young neighbor told me about where a person in a purple state could contact someone in a blue state and ask them to vote for Stein so the person in the purple state could vote (with a clearer conscience) for Hillary. Crazy, no? But that's the electoral college for you.
But I keep thinking of those nearly 90 million people who didn't vote at all. I'm still curious and will contact my county Dem headquarters and see if anything is going to be done to find out why.
I personally don't vote for genocide supporters. Harris was dangerous too.
Right. There are different ways to look at it. Do I want to die in a nuclear holocaust or because of climate change? The dems were saber saber-rattling against Russia and China, and Iran. How many times do you slap a bear before you should expect to be clawed? Yes, I know how politics work, and I'm disgusted. I could vote for Stein/Ware as a statement and not face consequences because I live in California. If California ever becomes a blue state I'd re-examine that stance. But I've worked since 2006 with the county democratic party. I've called over 4500 people, asking them to walk in their precinct, getting out the vote. I trained the 61 people who said yes, and kept track of their progress. I also walked hundreds of precincts over those years, knocking on doors, braving barking and charging dogs, and a snapping turtle, slammed doors, hostile people, and I've learned a lot. I learned that arguing and insulting people doesn't do any good. I've been able to change two people's minds over the thousands I've spoken to. I will never know if the registered democrats I talked to, who were not steady voters, actually voted after I talked to them.
I'm wondering how many people you talked to as part of your county party. And not just ranted to people on substacks or Facebook. I'm wondering if you made phone calls, like I did, Rashida Tbalb and Jamaal Bowman. Did you make phone calls or write postcards on behalf of Harris/Walz? I did. Several hundred. I want people to have their voices heard. The postcards were for people to register to vote by mail. Then I made phone calls to remind people to turn in their ballots.
Do you have friends who worked for the MIC? I do. They tell me the inside scoop, which is not what you get from mainstream media. They know (as well as John Mearsheimer, Jeffrey Sachs, Richard Wolff, Michael Hudson) that Ukraine is losing the war. Have you taken a course with Noam Chomsky? I have. In that course we learned that the US has broken every treaty that it's ever made. What is Russia to make of that? And are you aware that Russia originally wanted to join NATO?
This country is a mess. Bernie was my only hope to change that, as well as Qasim Rashid, Jamaal Bowman, Paula Jean Swearingen. I made phone calls for them during their elections, lastly Bowman. Let me know what you decide to do in 2026. (And I was still working at that time. I retired six months ago, and I'm 73 now.)
Would you care to make phone calls with me to find out why 89 million people didn't vote in this last election? Neither Trump nor Harris made it to that number. A really great candidate could have won those votes. And I'm curious. How curious are you?
You're delusional if you actually think Californians would not "face consequences." Good luck getting anything out of this administration (but you'll be paying for everything).
Making phone calls and writing postcards is a futile activity reserved for people who lived in the past century. You're living in a delusion. Here's some news: California is an echo chamber. I left after the 2016 election when Bernie voters cost us THAT election. I now live in a swing state and you clearly have no understanding of how the electoral college works and how much gerrymandering, voter intimidation, and voter purges, along with Christian Nationalism, racism, and misogyny went on in the swing states! TRUMP won them all! You have zero clue how things actually work in America.
I love that you moved to a swing/purple state. I often look at Zillow and see that I'd come away with a shit load of money if I sold my house here and moved to, say, Kansas, or pretty much anywhere else except NY City. But then I'd have to pay half that in taxes that will mostly go to supporting the MIC, and I hate that idea.
I appreciate that you reminded me that I was delusional. There's a lot that I know from reading, lectures, and experience, but I know that there's a lot more that I don't know. One thing, though, is that I watch Democracy Now!, and couldn't bear that thought of voting for someone who was OK with all those babies that the IDF was killing. I know what we're in for, as I also listen to Richard Wolff. I wish you good sleep, good nutrition, and a solid, supportive community.
Wow. So I have to tell you I made phone calls and wrote postcards so that you will respect my opinion? You are a problem, lady, not a solution.
Well, at least you called me a lady. There are worse epithets.
I apologize for my harsh words. There's no call for that on this thread.
I'm super glad that you don't make phone calls and walk precincts. People would not respond kindly to you. I'm a problem? So it's better to mock and denigrate people when they don't agree with you? Who's a problem? Anyway, I'm done with you. Have a great year.
I meant if California ever becomes a purple state. It is a mostly-blue state.
It'll be red before long. It's "mostly-blue" by population but not by geography, and will be red soon enough as the state loses electoral votes. The Brennan Center projects California will lost 12 electoral votes by 2030. If you vote for a third-party, it's a wasted vote.
A vote for genocidal Democrats is a wasted vote.
I am a white Christian,who knows that Christian nationalism is not religion.Having said that I totally agree with what you have stated here . I voted for Harris but was angry with Biden for sending weapons to Israel and worried it would cause Trump to win.
June
My view is we all knew the stakes. People should have held their noses and voted for Harris, then during her term try to convince the administration to change the policy; if the policy didn’t change then primary her in 2028. I think people’s emotions drove them overboard and instead of Houston, we have a problem, it’s America we have a MAJOR PROBLEM.
Yep, well said, June.
One of the major divides in the US (at least) is the split in voting between the factually well-informed and those lacking that. It would be interesting if this factor were laid across the voting patterns of the various religions and non-religions groups. It might not amount to to anything, but it is the kind of thing I would be motivated to pursue (though I don't have the computer capacity nor do I have the knowledge of the coding necessary to write the algorithm).