Originally published at: What It Looks Like When One Side Rejects Democracy
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version. When Democracy Itself Is On the Ballot, We’ve Already Lost The last few weeks have been a particularly strange stretch in a campaign year that is unlike anything we’ve ever experienced. The country is poised…
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Whoa. Someone’s had their coffee this morning. Nice pre-dawn work, Mr. Kurtz!
Queue up the cat pictures now…
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Echoing the above. Bravo for this succinct, sobering piece. Finally something to share with my sister, who despite being well-read and no fool, and living in a swing state, fails to recognize the seriousness of this moment.
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Too early for this cat!
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How about a British cat with a Ukrainian hero?
I made @ZelenskyyUa smile.
— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) October 11, 2024
Slava Ukraini! 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/VAZkypGneB
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Democracy is designed to mediate the differences among those who believe in democracy, not resolve the conflict over whether to have democracy at all.
This. This in a nutshell why my anxiety and teeth gnashing have been at an all-time high for months. Perfectly stated Mr. Kurtz.
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If (IF) we get through this, we need to think about how to correct some of the enablers of this moment.
A suggestion that I thought was worthy of serious consideration: Since the fucking New York Times (who, let us recall, just a few days ago had an opinion piece saying Jack Smith had “questions to answer”) now survives on the basis of their crossword puzzle, let’s blanket social media with the solution to the puzzle as soon as it comes out.
Hitting their bottom line is the only way to get their attention. Sulzberger doesn’t care that he’s pissing off the libs, all indications are that he sees it as validating what his rag is doing.
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David aptly laments the “time, energy, and resources diverted from supporting the best of who we are to fend off the worst of who we can be.” I hold out hope people will quietly vote Harris-Walz in droves but are too exhausted to discuss it further.
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Somebody start up the cat!
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Barrack Obama gave a critical support speech in PA last night. His message: Vote, dammit!
Dawn patrol for MM today. It’s still early.
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Well said, but not exactly a beacon for hope. I feel like we are in our American Weimar era, but the economy isn’t crashing around us and armed political gangs aren’t having gunfights in the streets (yet). Fingers crossed we get through this and GOTV.
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Both his speech and Josh Shapiro’s speech are worth a listen
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Since Orban, with the help of Cambridge Analytica, captured the Hungarian government in April 2014, the first world has been treated to the right’s in-your-face bullying and enthusiasm for institutional dismantling. Orbanism swept within its umbra all kinds of kooky groups, including Hungary’s pro-Moscow party. Trump stuck pretty closely to the Orban playbook and again is playing to the lowest information voters (usually non-voters) with scary stuff about the invading brown people coming to rape, get abortions, live off welfare, sell drugs, steal government jobs, eat pets and vote. If Trump wins Pennsylvania, Michigan or Wisconsin, back-end analysis will be revealing. Because the US has such low voter participation rates relative to other democracies, the potential for this manipulation is greater. For example, Orban’s decrying of EU elites in the EU Parliament (he holds the current rotating presidency until January) was about as rich as Trump’s whinging about the Woke Elites out to get him while dancing around on stage with Elon Musk. Orban sets a pretty high bar for corruption, squirrling away a couple billion euros a year in EU supports. If Trump could match Orban, he’d have to steal about $700 billion a year.
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Do not forget that GREEN =
Getting
Republicans
Elected
Every
November!
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You meant the NYT? I thought you meant Chump, Stone, Manafort, Bannon, Giuliani, Roman, RoJo, Cruz, Graham, Lee, Tuberville, Jordan, Perry, Gaetz, Barr etc. If they held public office they broke their oaths. All of them are traitors, and the Dems should have had boilerplate ads for the last two elections where these people were shown like a Most Wanted flip-chart with TRAITOR branded on their foreheads.
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I disagree. I think folks are mistaken to have ever said it.
Greens are not Democratic voters. Never have been.
Sure, of the major parties, Greens should think democrats are better and make the strategic choice… but the fact they want to align with a faction, a rebellious bunch like the greens is part of their persona.
So… these people are voting Green or not voting.
They aren’t lost votes for democrats.
These folks might theoretically vote for Bernie/AOC type, but i suspect that the second the Democratic party rallied around them, this personality type will consider them a sellout… and revert to Green or No-vote…
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Now that is a cat pic!
Sobering thoughts from David Kurtz for a Friday morning three-and-a-half weeks before Election Day.
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