Primary voters don't reflect the electorate very well either, mainly due to systemic factors. They tend to be older, whiter, and more affluent and therefore more conservative. This is especially true in the traditional early New England primaries, which are extremely white. Caucuses also demand a lot of time and engagement. And depending on where you live, the race may effectively be over already by the time your state's primary election rolls around.
Exceptions occur if there is no "obvious" establishment candidate or "heir apparent" -- 1992 was a free-for-all, for example, which Clinton handily won as a skilled campaigner -- or if they're seen as inherently weak. Obama won over the party apparatchiks in 2008, for example, who switched from Clinton.
But sitting presidents are rarely primaried even when they're vulnerable, and the party can effectively shut down that process to protect their candidacy. Everybody is scared of 1968.
Some people like to point out American presidents have always been immoral and war criminals, especially in what we euphemistically call foreign policy.
And that's true, but the way some people say it -- and the way they shudder at the idea of exposing presidents to legal liability for official acts-- suggests they think it's a good thing, actually.
"Demoralized" is a good way of describing the American public.
They have little experience with a functional national government and have ceased to expect it.
Their leaders rarely show any willingness to deal with important issues, preferring to tilt at windmills over TikTok or whatever. Stuff just randomly happens because the SCOTUS said so or because lobbyists bribed Congress. Oh, and Trump got away with crimes again because he's rich and they're not.
It feels like we should have had this big national conversation over how much Biden sucks during or preferably before the 2020 primary when even Obama was like, "Nah, man, don't."
But inevitability, entitlement, fear, "it's my turn," presumptive nominee, no one else can win, chosen one, great white hype, etc.
And yeah, puberty fucked me up physically and mentally, and HRT partially unfucked me, thankfully, but from my perspective, nothing much about me actually changed, especially in terms of behavior.
There would be times I wasn't even trying and would pass anyway -- and sometimes the opposite. The world was a minefield of constantly shifting perceptions and expectations. "This boy is flirting with me. But does he know that?"
Our cat is a Siamese-Tabby mix, but because he doesn't look EXACTLY like a Siamese cat -- which is what "mix" means, duh -- people frequently tell us it's not true and we're making it up.
There's something about human nature in this observation, I think.
We ended up with Biden in 2020 because the money hated everyone to his left and a lot of people were afraid of how a non-white candidate or a woman would fare in Trump's America.
I don't have any schadenfreude. One debate doesn't mean anything. But it is interesting watching the panic creeping through the Democratic Party apparatchiks who insisted it's ride or die with Biden suddenly throwing him under the bus and suggesting he drop out.
If social media existed when I was a teenager, of course I would have used it -- and not because it's "addictive" but because I was desperately lonely and fending off family abuse, societal hatred, indifferent peers, and being broke. You mean I could talk to people who might give a shit about me? Sold!
I used IRC and ICQ for the same reasons in college and you know what? It made me feel better having people who weren't threatening to kill me on a regular basis.
The democratization of information via the Internet probably would have worked more to our advantage if those who controlled old media, which many people still rely on and which has a talismanic importance to our geriatric politicians, weren't all billionaire fascists.
That is to say, the problem isn't that anyone can say anything online so much as the claims and narratives that get amplified by our media-political complex are always the bullshit right-wing ones.
Build Back Better went exactly as the progressives expected -- once Manchin and Republicans got the physical infrastructure spending they wanted, they walked away from the rest of the program, only some of which later got revived by the Infrastructure Reduction Act in 2022.
Formerly from Twitter and Mastodon.lol. Trans, bi, she / her. Writing, dreams, politics, science, metaphysics.Blocking and muting you is the easiest thing in the world if you mouth off at me.