Look, like I said, we are going to have to agree to disagree. Just to correct two thing you said, I never claimed that popularity makes for a good politician, but rather that it wins elections, which you seem to agree with.

Your argument spits in the face of Occam’s Razor by making several unfounded assumptions that are not necessary to explain why the DNC would support Clinton.

Okay, we are going to have to agree to disagree. To me, the fixation on gender is reductive and silly. The DNC wanted Hillary because of her loyalty to the party and because she possessed qualities that had (theretofore) been considered desirable qualities in a leader. It underestimated the reach and depth of the…

Okay, we’ve been having the same conversation for days now. You say you’re waiting for a “narrative” other than sisterhood? I have provided you with a wealth of likely factors. Feel free to go back and read them. It’s not a good look when you continue to ignore my answers in favor of your predetermined conclusion.

To refocus, the only thing I’m arguing about here is that the Democrats picked a woman over a winning candidate because the had a vagina. That’s what you said in your original comment, and it seems to be what you are still saying, despite walking it back a little. Not who was the better candidate, which is an entirely…

Yes, I completely agree with the first half of your comment. Note that I haven’t tried to defend the DNC at all. They fucked up, repeatedly, both during and prior to this election. The overconfidence of both the DNC and the Clinton campaign can take much blame for her loss. Perhaps if she wasn’t so sure she had it in…

As for point 1, the obvious answer is that the DNC didn’t “know” that Clinton would lose. Party leadership believed she would win. That’s the simplest answer to your question.

Agreed. Playing what-if games about who could have won is useless and will only hurt the Dems further. What we need to do is focus on strategy and look towards the future, not dwell endlessly on the past and point fingers to make ourselves feel better.

1: Okay, I think one of the fundamental misunderstandings here is that the DNC did not decide between Clinton and Sanders once the latter announced that he was running. There’s a major reason why the Democratic field did not look like the Republican field at the onset of the campaign season; Clinton had significant…

I’m curious about two things.

This is such a great comment. I am so frustrated with how low our level of political discourse has sunk. Does policy itself no longer matter? It seems that workable plans have been sacrificed for soundbites, and I’m sure we can attribute a lot of that to the rapidly changing platforms that campaigns are being held on…

Yeah, I do worry about the Dems abandoning (or at least not focusing on) POC specifically because you guys are such a reliably blue voting block. I hope we don’t have to see that kind of loss in order for the DNC to value and work for POC votes; if anything, I think that this election should serve as a lesson that…

I agree. I think we need to be wary of panicking about the disaffected white vote, as you put it, just because of the upset we saw in November. It would be too easy for the party to turn its back on the old base in an attempt to court a voter block that, while clearly not irrelevant, is still definitely on its way out…

Yeah, I’m always struck by how often social issues are dismissed as unimportant. It’s very easy to view issues like abortion, gay rights, etc., as distractions when one will never be personally impacted by them, but it seems excessively narcissistic to claim they shouldn’t be a priority for *anybody*. Somehow, fiscal…

Actually, with respect to the Stanford case you mention, the efforts to remove the judge were not spearheaded by RAINN. I did some digging and can’t see any advocacy by RAINN at all in response to the case, beyond an article on the RAINN site. The public efforts against Judge Persky were mostly waged by women’s groups…

The California Penal Code itself was enacted in 1872; I’d hazard a guess that most of its laws bear that timestamp. It doesn’t seem to have been amended since, which may be what you meant.

These things typically reach the courts when parents get involved. I can’t imagine a teenager suing his/her own boyfriend or girlfriend, but a parent who disapproves of the relationship may see litigation as a solution.

Likely not in criminal court, but it is certainly subject to civil litigation.

Oh no, I hope I’m not too late! I just got ungrayed on The Muse, and I am still on an insane power trip. I play nice and have an extensive knowledge of Liz Phair’s discography, if that counts for anything.

The law very clearly says that sex with a minor (unless that minor is one’s spouse) is unlawful. There are no exceptions to that rule, which means that a minor cannot legally have sex with another minor if they are unmarried. Here is the relevant portion: