I hate it, but I suspect you’re right. Until they change, though? I expect we vacillate between narrow victories from the usual small mix of blue and purple states that just lead to gridlock and embarrassing losses that unleash the tide of reactionary corporatism that we’ve come to expect from the GOP. Really, we al…

I mean, take a look at a place like Trumpgrets. It’s clear that an awful lot of people, unlike you or I, were not what we’d call, for lack of a better term, “high-information voters.” I think, quite simply, an awful lot of people are angry at the status quo—just like an awful lot of people here are angry at it…

Oh, I can’t help but think that he’s the exact reason why a liberal arts university education was created in the first place. He seems to have an introspective side to him, but, as the article kind of points out, he also has the depth of a high school student. Someone should introduce him to philosophy or Buddhism…

It probably is “broken” if you consider gerrymandering, voter suppression laws and the fact that one’s voting experience can wildly vary depending on the district—some make it simple while others have hours-long lines. The thing is, the GOP is the one who engages in all this, and then cries “fraud” to justify making…

I *suspect*—as a non-professional—what happened is that you went from a serotonin-promoting prescription (Effexor) to a dopamine one (Wellbutrin). Your brain became used to the higher levels of serotonin, which, in the most general sense, promotes “calming,” whereas dopamine is more “exciting.” Then, with the…

The entire album is amazing.

Great song...I’m a bit partial to this YouTube video, myself!

I think it’s pretty fair to say that every single appointee Trump makes will do the exact opposite of what they should do in that position.

I’m not disputing the gravity of the situation—thus, like I said, “a much smaller scale.” If one tiny mayor can cause that much of a local, national and international media circus, just imagine how much worse Trump can be? If we are looking for any hint of peace and quiet during Trump’s tenure, I don’t think it’s…

At a much smaller scale, this is what Toronto was like under Rob Ford as mayor, who was Canada’s own multimillionaire right-wing populist. It was a four-year media circus until he happened to get cancer and die. Trump, likewise, will never let us calm down; he will just jump from one event/scandal to another...sigh.

I’m sorry to hear that...my sympathies. Justice for people of color in America is long overdue and shouldn’t have to wait anymore. It frustrates me that, with such a large number of elected officials, they can’t seem to handle the equivalent of walking and chewing gum most of the time. Americans deserve better.

Yes, I’m exhausted too—I sympathize greatly. Having grown up in the Rust Belt, where the economy there went to shit starting in the early 1980s instead of 2008 when it hit nearly everyone else, there’s a sense that a good part of my life is defined by this struggle.

France also has chronically high unemployment and low social mobility. A social safety net is important, but it’s never the end of the story.

I agree. Of course, the GOP doesn’t exactly come out and tell people “I’m going to potentially raise your taxes to pay for a huge corporate and billionaire tax cut.” Likewise, the Democratic Party can’t go out and say “I’m the party of big government.” It’s going to be a matter of coming up with a concrete vision…

We do absolutely have to get Democrats out to vote in every election, not just presidential ones. That means, of course, tackling the voter suppression laws, but also tackling apathy. 2010 was a crucial election because of the Census and its relationship to redistricting; by not going out to vote, Democrats…

I have extended family that has expressed support for Trump, which I believe arose out of economic insecurity. I even have a relative who is well-educated in more than one field and isn’t afraid to move across the country to pursue work wherever it is—exactly the kind of “job retraining” that Democrats have…

What I’m hoping is that Warren’s words reflect an optimism that Democrats can retake Middle America without having to resort to the kind of “racism lite” that moderate and conservative Democrats are historically prone to, out of fear that racism is a permanent characteristic of white Middle America. Due to the nature…

I wrote a long response to this here. Honestly, I don’t think Sanders has ever been against women’s and minorities’ rights; I think he fell into a trap that a lot of white male politicians fall into, and that is to assume that his support is “a given” and thus not worthy of drawing special attention to it. It’s…

Laws that affect voter suppression, like voter ID laws that make it virtually impossible for certain demographics to actually get one or laws that permanently bar convicted felons from voting ever again (which disproportionately burden black Americans), are most definitely a problem. So are more latent forms of voter…

You don’t have to empathize with them. However, at some point, after losing close to 3/4 of state governorships to the GOP and losing the national Electoral College to a complete buffoon, the Democratic Party needs to do something for Middle America beyond more of the same. The fact is, we need this region’s votes…