You know as well as I do that “He lives out of state” means “he’s an opportunistic parasite who cares nothing for the electorate trying to capitalize on vulnerable electorate for his own purposes”. It’s like saying “I pay hundreds of thousands in taxes!” without noting “I make a billion dollars a year” - technically…

The narrative is that Ossoff got grassroots support. The truth is Ossoff is an anointed party insider (who didn’t even live in the district and was the wrong sort of candidate for that district) and the party made sure the nascent grassroot support for other candidates (who live in the district and got their support…

Corbyn didn’t win. He lost by marginally less than anyone thought he would. We already know how to do that. Liberals everywhere in the world need to look to Macron to remember what actually winning an election looks like.

I agree, but if we don’t even try, we’ll never be able to change the culture. Once women running for office is seen as normal, people willl feel less of a need to “prove” that a woman running for office “must” be wrong.

Corbyn lost by a lesser margin, just like Ossoff. He didn’t win anything. The only reason he even did as well as he did was May’s absolutely brutal incompetence. It wasn’t his platform, which, just like Bernie’s, appeals to mostly young people but not to the more reliable core party voters.

While Ossoff did have some connections, he was primarily popular with the grassroots. This is one reason support was able to coalesce around him in an attempt to avoid a runoff election - the people on the ground wanted someone that the party was entirely willing to support.

Honestly, most people make for flawed candidates - be it a scandalous background, a poor temperament, or skeletons in the closet, almost everyone has something wrong with them. But for some reason, women are more likely to think that disqualifies us from office - despite the fact that I can’t name many women who tried…

The Democrats mostly aren’t running more women because women haven’t been running for office. I don’t have the article handy at the moment, but men are dramatically more likely to run for office without prompting than women, though the difference between the two decreases when someone suggests that they should run.

Voters are already terrified and furious that Republicans are threatening to throw them off their healthcare. If they actually go through with it, voters will move heaven and earth to punish them.

SOMEONE PLEAAAASSEEEEEE REPORT ON FALLIBILITY ELECTRONIC VOTING. So Ossoff was up +7 a week ago

That IS why they liked Trump.

For some reason, money always seems more effective for Republicans than Democrats.

Mmm, I might be letting my current mood unfairly influence my perceptions of his future prospects, true. It’s just that we’re pretty bad at winning state offices, and I don’t know how well he’d fare once this current wave of enthusiasm is exhausted.

I think we’re at the point where pretty much all Democrats or Republicans are going to vote party over policy.

I... Don’t really know what you wanted him to do, though? It’s not like he knew that he’d be running for office when he moved, and I don’t think any other Democrats were considered for the seat.

Maybe Bernie should start an anti Democratic party and just run candidates in these deep red districts. They can have his liberal economic policies and also have a strong anti-establishment and anti-Democratic party vibe which would probably be enough to swing some seats.

My god are Republicans awful! Like it’s not even about policy at this point.

Maybe if Ossoff had actually lived in the district, he could’ve voted for himself.

If it’d been a one-point loss, they might have hesitated... But a five-point loss, they’ll convince themselves that if they just drown the races in enough money, they can still put out a win.

You know, I had really liked Ossoff, too. A disciplined campaigner, thanked all the right people, kept an upbeat message. Young, too. He’d have had a good future, had he been elected - though not in that particular office, given that he’d never be re-elected, once the Republican label stopped being so radioactive.