Archivist here. Calling her an archivist is a definite misnomer. She’s technically a collector, like her son said. An archivist is a steward of an existing collection, taking that existing collection and organizing and making sense of it. Someone who compiles the collection, especially a private person is a collector.

As somebody who works in archives, she is a total badass. There’s brilliance in the idea behind her collection, because television is such a good mirror of our culture and what cultural values we were focused on at the time.

Pretty sure this is the video you’re talking about. I like the videos this guy puts out, they’re all really well researched.

Here’s the video you’re thinking of! Shaun’s videos are quite great. (And he’s got such a soothing voice!)

You're completely right, of course. Good luck getting anyone to get that. They would much rather insult, berate and demean anyone who is frustrated with the situation (but still intends to vote Biden) than actually act any different from the Bros they claim to hate so much.

The economy is routinely among the most important issues cited by voters in exit polls. In that link, it notes that the economy was uncharacteristically not the top issue in 2018, but it was still the third most important with only health care (which I would argue is an economic issue) and immigration (thanks to…

It is true (as it is on most issues, really) that Democrats are on the right side of social issues in terms of their popularity. But that doesn’t necessarily translate to electoral wins, for a variety of reasons. Point is, they can probably expand their appeal by focusing on issues that have more direct relevance to…

For voters that lean more liberal on social issues, any Democrat would have an advantage on those issues over Trump, and as you indicate, Biden has a mixed record on a lot of those issues. And what I’m advocating is precisely adopting Sanders popular positions. He had some positions that are less popular (e.g. giving…

Oh, it’s just this dumb thing that some people do—go out of their way to show how clueless about sports they are. “I don’t understand sportball, I can’t even be bothered to get the name right! Teehee, I regret the error, I’m just so above knowing about sports that I couldn’t possibly check to make sure I was right.”

“Update 4/13/20 12:51 pm: This post has been updated with the correct spelling of Mike Conely’s name.”

Well, the “kingmakers” don’t really matter if you manage to persuade Democrats to vote for your progressives, since the king in this case is chosen by (more or less) popular vote. Sanders lost not because ‘the kingmakers’ didn’t like him, but because 70% of the Democratic electorate didn’t like him either.

Hillary did lose to Trump, yes.

I get it. I don’t believe the whole “not voting is privilege” because so many of the people I know who don’t vote do so because they’re in positions of such little privilege that to them, the difference is minimal.

There are a lot of false narratives in politics and one of them is, indeed, the narrative that a candidate is 100% responsible for everything their “supporters” say.

The republican strategy of putting up increasingly radical, increasingly hostile politicians each election IS WORKING.

I get the sentiment, but the fact is when Republicans win elections, the message the Democratic Party receives is not necessarily “We should be more liberal” but “We should be more like Republicans.” And more than that, when Democrats lose elections, that means Republicans take power, which means the country moves…

I find it ironic that you think I’m just trying for the “witty comeback”, when you came at me first with your “well, actually”. My comment about appreciating historical context was genuine, but you’d rather be offended.

From David Sedaris in 2008 where the choices weren’t nearly as starkly divided into what it is now:

This is disgusting, whoever did it.

Both camps have to be careful not to stir up the resentment from their loyalists. The candidates and aides have to make a show of being reconciliatory. The online mob is highly suggestible and incendiary. The only way to manage them is to feed them some Kumbaya shit. The campaigns have to mindful of how they engage…