Yeah, part of the reason that I firmly believed prior to the disaster debate that Biden should run again is that the alternative was going to have to be either Kamala winning the primary and not being a very good candidate - nor an incumbent President - or else she would have lost and it would have been ugly and done significant damage to the successful candidate. Either way, she was going to be in the mix, and it just seemed better to roll with an unpopular incumbent President because in most cases that will be enough to win.
My past perception of her weakness as a political candidate seemed pretty reasonable based on plenty of available info from the last run, but it appears to have just been incorrect. Itâs a very pleasant surprise to have been wrong about what she would bring to the table at the top of the ticket.
My âfor youâ on Twitter has become mostly engagement bait accounts with posts that all have six-to-seven-figure views. Not sure how that happened. I suspect that lots of the people I followed left the site or donât post much anymore.
I agree, but also think a big part of it is the pair of rose-colored glasses I put on when Biden dropped out and handed it to her. I couldnât believe it, we went from zero chance to nonzero chance toâŚa good chance? And then picking Walz, wow. For me, a vanishingly small percentage of my enthusiasm is about Kamala herself, itâs about the momentum in general and the inexplicable run of good decisions that are being made (and for which she certainly deserves a lot of credit). But itâs not like all of the sudden her speaking and positions are super appealing to me. I watched the convention last night and like somebody else posted I was reminded why I donât watch that stuff. The USA USA USA stuff is super gross.
It could be that sheâs just not great at standing out in a crowded primary field, but great in a one on one election when sheâs already the candidate.
I donât necessarily think all forms of Patriotism have to be gross.
The fact that America has kept a Democracy continuously functioning for 250 years while being open to immigrants in some form or fashion for all of that time is something to be incredibly proud of. The fact that weâve created the worldâs largest economy despite having a third of the population of the country in the #2 spot is something we can be legitimately proud of.
I think capturing that National Pride and channeling it in the direction where it treats all people fairly and gives them an equal opportunity to succeed is both morally correct and good electoral politics.
Yeah this. When I see America through the eyes of recent immigrants who believe in the American dream and just want economic opportunity, then Iâm proud.
When I see how people live in Russia and Belarus, and how hard Ukraine is fighting not to become that, then Iâm proud of the USA.
Fuck Trumpers and their America-hating cynicism. They donât define us.
This was the entire theme of Peteâs speech. How theirs is a politics of darkness and ours is a politics of hope and freedom. The part about his family is especially excellent.
