I’m sick and tired of intelligent people discussing November as if it were a national election, as if national polling or historical precedent meant a thing. This election, like the last two, will take place in a few states on the backdrop of about 45 others, involving a very few voters who are too dumb or stubborn or lazy to commit themselves in advance, at least in public. And like the last two elections, it is the Democrats’ to lose. In 2020, they chose adequately and won. In 2016, they chose poorly, took a flyer on Arizona of all places, took the Midwest for granted, and lost. So the matter has almost nothing to do with any issue standard punditry can pull out of its boilerplate. It’s all and exclusively GOTV in a very narrow context, and that — not Democratic bloodlust — is why the Ds need to “give ’em hell”, to offer a powerful spokesperson for reproductive rights with an optimistic mien–and that’s why a good, accomplished man who can’t speak ex temp anymore may turn Project 2025 into national policy (whether one accepts the term “fascism” or not).
Have a glorious 4th!