Mastodawn

Steve Brady Feb 18

Wrote about the very unhelpful convo around gavin newsom. arguing over whether we all will or won't vote for him in the general is just helping him establish himself as the GE candidate. He's not even the leader! we don't need to pretend he is! www.everythingishorrible.net/p/we-can-bea...

We Can Beat Gavin Newsom

We Can Beat Gavin Newsom

Liberals and leftists both have to stop acting as if he’s already the nominee

Everything Is Horrible

Noah Berlatsky Feb 18

I write a bit about how liberals and leftists might approach this better...but the core thing is just focus on the primary.

Noah Berlatsky Feb 18

when leftists start the convo with, "I won't vote for him in the general," you're helping newsom by framing him as a GE candidate. that activates D partisanship on his behalf. we don't want to do that.

Noah Berlatsky Feb 18

when liberals start the convo with, "but you'll vote for him in the general, right?" they're demanding that marginalized ppl peremptorily swear fealty to this guy who's been elaborately throwing them under the bus...and who also is treating Ds in his state like shit. that's insulting and unhelpful.

Noah Berlatsky Feb 18

we do not have to act as if he's the GE candidate! he's no even leading polls! like, he's currently behaving like someone who wants to be sinema or fetterman. he's hobnobbing with ben shapiro. Ds and leftists should be able to agree this is not our guy.

Noah Berlatsky Feb 18

the goal should be to beat him in the primary, and starting the GE fight about him now is absolutely not the way to do that.

@nberlat.bsky.social we should ask centrists if they pledge to vote for AOC in the general if she's the winner. Because I'm not entirely sure they're willing to do that.

Noah Berlatsky Feb 18

again, leaping to the general to score points off factional opponents is probably not super helpful! pointing out that she's been a much more reliable supporter of D policy and D ideals than him is probably more effective!

@nberlat.bsky.social sure, I don't *actually* want to pursue "giving them a taste of their own medicine." I wish they'd think about how much they'd disapprove of their own behavior were it coming from someone else.

Noah Berlatsky Feb 18

well, schumer and mamdani was the gross example there.

The big thing a couple of days ago was libs saying they want AOC and a subset of the leftists on this site saying she's basically the same as Newsom :p

@nberlat.bsky.social @lonjil.net I mean, no one who thinks they should be president is without problems but the extremely online left loves to pretend differences don’t matter or even exist.

Noah Berlatsky Feb 18

there are some people who are anti D partisans. so they hate all Ds. it's not even really about policy; it's anti establishment identity. which again...not a whole lot of point in arguing. it's a small group and they're just not going to vote.

Wendroid 🇺🇦Feb 18

@thomasjwebb @nberlat.bsky.social American voters don’t like women.

@wendinoakland @nberlat.bsky.social that’s true but doesn’t preclude her winning. American voters are also racist but Obama still won.

Wendroid 🇺🇦Feb 18

@thomasjwebb @nberlat.bsky.social Obama is a man.

@nberlat.bsky.social @wendinoakland I don’t think it’s that deterministic. Harris would have won if that election wasn’t in the middle of a global anti-incumbent backlash.

Wendroid 🇺🇦Feb 18

@thomasjwebb @nberlat.bsky.social If Elon hadn’t spent $300 million to push the election. So, unless Citizens United is overturned, we’re stuck, forever, having leaders chosen by the wealthiest.

Wendroid 🇺🇦Feb 18

@nberlat.bsky.social Gavin isn’t my choice.