Coloradans getting their first driver's license are asked at the DMV if they want to register to vote. So someone can be 16 and already registered to vote, they'll be mailed a ballot for every election after they turn 18. It should be this easy in every state.
From Lucian Truscott’s Newsletter, July 1, 2024, entitled, “Grow a spine, Democrats”:
As Democrats, as a political party, as human beings, we should be ashamed of ourselves that it took a Republican former political operative to point out the obvious to us: President Biden is our guy. You don’t walk away from your guy because of one bad debate. You stand behind him, and you double down.
That’s essentially the message from Stuart Stevens in a New York Times op-ed published online yesterday. Listen to this, from the top of his piece: “It’s baffling that so many Democrats are failing to rally around a wildly successful president after one bad night. But it does remind me of why Republicans defeated Democrats in so many races Republicans should have lost.”
I've read Stevens' comments. I often agree, but this is nonsense.
The country is facing multiple threats, and neither Democratic leadership nor the Biden administration has a plan irr strategy to address them.
Biden cannot prosecute the case against Trump, much less lead the way to bold reforms to strengthen our democracy.
This is not just 1 bad night. Biden has not addressed the dangers we face, he hasn't educated the country about the impact of SCOTUS decisions, he can barely say the word abortion, much less fiercely advocate for reproductive rights.
A Democrat should not be losing to Trump. A Democrat should not be hemmoraging base voters from every sector.
You dont get to run for president as a trophy, you don't get to run because you believe you're up to the task, and you dont get to override the very clear consensus of your base.
The pro-democracy coalition will congregate around whoever replaces Biden.
Democrats lose because they ignore reality and fail to fight. Republicans confirmed a SCOTUS justice weeks before the 2020 election. It wasn't "too hard". If we fail to do what's necessary again, we'll lose.
Yes. President Biden and his re-election campaign should drop discussions about 1 bad debate night. Biden should be hollering from the White House roof tops that SCOTUS is a corrupt, incompetent, right wing advocacy group dangerously undermining our constitutional government and the rule of law. America is NOT a monarchy. Biden must promise to add 4 liberal judges to the court as soon as he has a congressional majority so he can reverse the opinion on presidential immunity, restore abortion rights and national access to women's reproductive health care, voting rights, fair taxes and so forth. Coming out ANGRY snd swinging now will put the debate behind him and quell the nervous nellies among Democrats.
You've made a lot of broad statements that don't jibe with what I've been reading. Biden is not hemorrhaging base voters; if anything, many of his base have been fired up. He outperformed Trump on donations during and after the 'debate'.
Biden is not the one prosecuting Trump, it's the justice department, and they've been hamstrung by a corrupt Supreme Court.
Biden has been, and continues to be a champion for reproductive rights, and he has been addressing the dangers to our democracy throughout his entire term.
Check out commenter Pamsy's recommendation to listen to Heather Cox Richardson's FB post about the fantasy of replacing our presidential candidate.
Finally, with regard to the term "gaslighting", Jessica said it best in her June 30, 2024 Extra! Extra! newsletter:
I'm also going to push back on your use of the term "gaslighting" to describe the actions of well intentioned people who simply have a different opinion than you. If we call all differences of opinion "gaslighting" we are ceding a very specific term--one that is needed to describe something Republicans ARE doing, to our detriment--to the morass of overused and therefor impotent words.
Young voters, Black working class voters, Latino voters, AIPA voters.
If everyone was "fired up", Biden wouldn't be down in every swing state.
Biden's campaign has spent 100M, and he's still behind.
Biden hasn't robustly defended abortion rights. Read Jessica Valenti's excellent newsletter if you want chapter and verse.
The fact that it's "hard" to replace Biden is not an excuse for continuing the same losing campaign with the same losing candidate. It's literally the definition of insanity.
I'm not going to debate you further, just point out that I strongly disagree with your statements and point of view, as I know you disagree with mine. The one thing we agree on is that our democracy is at stake in the upcoming elections.
Thanks for this, Pamsy. I heard about HCR being on FB today though since I'm not on FB, I didn't think I'd have access. Seems it's available to non-subscribers and glad to have watched. I'm inclined to include the link here though I don't know protocol about sharing FB links, especially since I'm not a subscriber. (It's not easy being old!) So thank you again, and thanks to Fran-Michelle for calling attention to it as well.
The feeling is mutual, Fran-Michelle. And thank you for posting the link. HCR's trusted voice on the matter is greatly needed during these challenging days. And helpful as we move into the next four months.
Amen! We were talking about this tonight with friends--in a stage of angst and frustration with the Democratic Party "leadership." There is an amazing roster of young, media savvy, articulate, committed young Democrats who should be on the front lines: Whitmer, the Justins from TN, Warnock & Ossof, AOC, Mark Kelly, Buttigieg, etc, etc.! What the actual flip, Dems??? We can't fight these racist, retrograde, patriarchal, homophobic, white nationalists and soulless oligarchs?!!
No one is talking about fantasy anything. My experience w young voters at one of the country's largest public universities is a data sample, but not an insignificant one. Young voters feel both unheard and unspoken to, and they are _not_ detached from the urgency of the present (climate change; women's bodily autonomy; human rights and the refugee, labor, and immigration crises; housing and food insecurity; income inequality; queer and transgender rights, etc.). If the DNC and party leaders do not start addressing the concerns of young Americans asap, I believe we are doomed.
You’re conveniently forgetting Mitch McConnell is the reason they confirmed someone before the 2020 election and he obstructed Obama from confirming someone in the election before.
I'm not forgetting anything. I'm pointing out that Republicans fight relentlessly, and dont let anything stop them.
How many rights will we lose over the next 4 years?
We need a leader who will relentlessly educate the American people about SCOTUS, Project 2025, and Trump 2.0 AND who leads the charge for rejecting the filibuster and reforming the Court.
There is no evidence that that would help, no evidence that it's needed, and no plan to execute it. What we actually need is to continue the work we've been doing instead of calling for nonsense in substack comments
I don't know what polls you're looking at, but none that I've seen have been close to that. I've also never seen a correct one. They predicted a red wave that never came in 2022, as an example. They weren't even close, and leaned so far to the right so as to not be useful information. The only reason that could be a plausible argument for Biden to step down would be if there was evidence that Trump gained ground from the debate, and that evidence doesn't exist. In the last four days the Biden campaign has raised over $38 million and received over 10,000 new volunteers. That isn't an unpopular candidate who needs replacing. To do so would be a suicide mission. If you want to see a real losing strategy, rustle up a person who is totally unprepared to run for president, and give them 4 months to campaign. We need to act as a team, not a self destructing panic machine.
Polls should be taken with more than a grain of salt. To paraphrase Robert Hubbell, polls take the pulse of how people are feeling in any given moment, not how they will vote in two or more months. Barack Obama took a hit at the polls after his debate with Romney. Some polls actually show Biden doing better than he did a month ago. The 538 shows Trump ahead of Biden by 1.6 percentage points. Trump has lost ground in the polls since March 2024, when he was ahead by 2.2 points.
There are many problems with how today's polls are constructed, and the polls have been notoriously wrong in the past. It would be a mistake to let the polls of the moment influence our decision-making.
The pro-democracy coalition, donors, surrogates, and activists will unite behind a new candidate.
The primary goal is to defeat Trump. The secondary goal is to stop the decimation of what's left of our democracy.
We need someone who will lay out the stark reality to Americans, and propose bold reforms. Biden will not call for SCOTUS reform or elimination of the filibuster. We know because he hasn't supported either reform.
We need someone who will relentlessly educate Americans about the dangers of a 2nd Trump presidency and Project 2025. Biden won't because he hasn't.
I don't want to advocate for change, but I've watched 2 years of a failing campaign, and a leader who can't or won't use his bully pulpit as we hover over the abyss.
My the forth be with you. May you pursue freedom in the fullness of your life, enjoyment of liberty and happiness pursuits. The thing is, however, we will never have a government that is of, by and for us, one that can protect those freedoms we all value unless or until you learn we learn to use the power of democracy because it is in the extent to which we all can engage with one another to use that power of democracy and create that government. Our government doesn't work well right now because of those who we have voted to represent us. It does not work because we cannot form in civil community with one another, collaborate well enough to live in peace together or find the compromises that work for all of us. These problems with democracy that people say are plunging us into a frantic sea of emotions is of our own making.
Rumor has it that this is still our Republic that Franklin challenged us to keep. Even our flag is still pretty awesome - when it's flown right-side up.
Thanks Jess-Please rest up. We need you.
Will do, thanks!
Feel better, Jess. Your letter and information about how I can help made me feel better.
I'm so glad!
Take good care of yourself. ❤️
Trying. (:
Coloradans getting their first driver's license are asked at the DMV if they want to register to vote. So someone can be 16 and already registered to vote, they'll be mailed a ballot for every election after they turn 18. It should be this easy in every state.
AMEN!!!
Safe travels.
thanks!
I hope you're feeling better.
The best way to mobilize young voters, energize the base, and cement the pro-democracy coalition is for Biden to pass the torch.
Enough is enough.
From Lucian Truscott’s Newsletter, July 1, 2024, entitled, “Grow a spine, Democrats”:
As Democrats, as a political party, as human beings, we should be ashamed of ourselves that it took a Republican former political operative to point out the obvious to us: President Biden is our guy. You don’t walk away from your guy because of one bad debate. You stand behind him, and you double down.
That’s essentially the message from Stuart Stevens in a New York Times op-ed published online yesterday. Listen to this, from the top of his piece: “It’s baffling that so many Democrats are failing to rally around a wildly successful president after one bad night. But it does remind me of why Republicans defeated Democrats in so many races Republicans should have lost.”
I've read Stevens' comments. I often agree, but this is nonsense.
The country is facing multiple threats, and neither Democratic leadership nor the Biden administration has a plan irr strategy to address them.
Biden cannot prosecute the case against Trump, much less lead the way to bold reforms to strengthen our democracy.
This is not just 1 bad night. Biden has not addressed the dangers we face, he hasn't educated the country about the impact of SCOTUS decisions, he can barely say the word abortion, much less fiercely advocate for reproductive rights.
A Democrat should not be losing to Trump. A Democrat should not be hemmoraging base voters from every sector.
You dont get to run for president as a trophy, you don't get to run because you believe you're up to the task, and you dont get to override the very clear consensus of your base.
The pro-democracy coalition will congregate around whoever replaces Biden.
Democrats lose because they ignore reality and fail to fight. Republicans confirmed a SCOTUS justice weeks before the 2020 election. It wasn't "too hard". If we fail to do what's necessary again, we'll lose.
This rest is just gaslighting.
Yes. President Biden and his re-election campaign should drop discussions about 1 bad debate night. Biden should be hollering from the White House roof tops that SCOTUS is a corrupt, incompetent, right wing advocacy group dangerously undermining our constitutional government and the rule of law. America is NOT a monarchy. Biden must promise to add 4 liberal judges to the court as soon as he has a congressional majority so he can reverse the opinion on presidential immunity, restore abortion rights and national access to women's reproductive health care, voting rights, fair taxes and so forth. Coming out ANGRY snd swinging now will put the debate behind him and quell the nervous nellies among Democrats.
If Biden did this, it would be a game-changer. Does anyone believe he will?
You've made a lot of broad statements that don't jibe with what I've been reading. Biden is not hemorrhaging base voters; if anything, many of his base have been fired up. He outperformed Trump on donations during and after the 'debate'.
Biden is not the one prosecuting Trump, it's the justice department, and they've been hamstrung by a corrupt Supreme Court.
Biden has been, and continues to be a champion for reproductive rights, and he has been addressing the dangers to our democracy throughout his entire term.
Check out commenter Pamsy's recommendation to listen to Heather Cox Richardson's FB post about the fantasy of replacing our presidential candidate.
Finally, with regard to the term "gaslighting", Jessica said it best in her June 30, 2024 Extra! Extra! newsletter:
I'm also going to push back on your use of the term "gaslighting" to describe the actions of well intentioned people who simply have a different opinion than you. If we call all differences of opinion "gaslighting" we are ceding a very specific term--one that is needed to describe something Republicans ARE doing, to our detriment--to the morass of overused and therefor impotent words.
Young voters, Black working class voters, Latino voters, AIPA voters.
If everyone was "fired up", Biden wouldn't be down in every swing state.
Biden's campaign has spent 100M, and he's still behind.
Biden hasn't robustly defended abortion rights. Read Jessica Valenti's excellent newsletter if you want chapter and verse.
The fact that it's "hard" to replace Biden is not an excuse for continuing the same losing campaign with the same losing candidate. It's literally the definition of insanity.
I'm not going to debate you further, just point out that I strongly disagree with your statements and point of view, as I know you disagree with mine. The one thing we agree on is that our democracy is at stake in the upcoming elections.
Agreed.
Have you listened to HCR in her FB post today? It is not as simple and straightforward as you think.
Thanks for this, Pamsy. I heard about HCR being on FB today though since I'm not on FB, I didn't think I'd have access. Seems it's available to non-subscribers and glad to have watched. I'm inclined to include the link here though I don't know protocol about sharing FB links, especially since I'm not a subscriber. (It's not easy being old!) So thank you again, and thanks to Fran-Michelle for calling attention to it as well.
I appreciate you Jean.
I think it's ok to post the public link to today's (July 2) HCR Politics Chat. I'll paste it here for those who are interested:
https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/videos/1898979867213221/
The feeling is mutual, Fran-Michelle. And thank you for posting the link. HCR's trusted voice on the matter is greatly needed during these challenging days. And helpful as we move into the next four months.
Amen! We were talking about this tonight with friends--in a stage of angst and frustration with the Democratic Party "leadership." There is an amazing roster of young, media savvy, articulate, committed young Democrats who should be on the front lines: Whitmer, the Justins from TN, Warnock & Ossof, AOC, Mark Kelly, Buttigieg, etc, etc.! What the actual flip, Dems??? We can't fight these racist, retrograde, patriarchal, homophobic, white nationalists and soulless oligarchs?!!
This is not Fantasy football. I recommend listening to HCR’s FB talk of today.
No one is talking about fantasy anything. My experience w young voters at one of the country's largest public universities is a data sample, but not an insignificant one. Young voters feel both unheard and unspoken to, and they are _not_ detached from the urgency of the present (climate change; women's bodily autonomy; human rights and the refugee, labor, and immigration crises; housing and food insecurity; income inequality; queer and transgender rights, etc.). If the DNC and party leaders do not start addressing the concerns of young Americans asap, I believe we are doomed.
One reason young people don't feel heard is that candidates and parties actually don't listen to people who are not registered and who don't vote!
You’re conveniently forgetting Mitch McConnell is the reason they confirmed someone before the 2020 election and he obstructed Obama from confirming someone in the election before.
I'm not forgetting anything. I'm pointing out that Republicans fight relentlessly, and dont let anything stop them.
How many rights will we lose over the next 4 years?
We need a leader who will relentlessly educate the American people about SCOTUS, Project 2025, and Trump 2.0 AND who leads the charge for rejecting the filibuster and reforming the Court.
There is no evidence that that would help, no evidence that it's needed, and no plan to execute it. What we actually need is to continue the work we've been doing instead of calling for nonsense in substack comments
According to polling, Harris is within 2 points of Trump...4 points ahead of Biden.
Biden's been behind since polling began a year ago. His approval is now at 32.
How is this a winning strategy?
I don't know what polls you're looking at, but none that I've seen have been close to that. I've also never seen a correct one. They predicted a red wave that never came in 2022, as an example. They weren't even close, and leaned so far to the right so as to not be useful information. The only reason that could be a plausible argument for Biden to step down would be if there was evidence that Trump gained ground from the debate, and that evidence doesn't exist. In the last four days the Biden campaign has raised over $38 million and received over 10,000 new volunteers. That isn't an unpopular candidate who needs replacing. To do so would be a suicide mission. If you want to see a real losing strategy, rustle up a person who is totally unprepared to run for president, and give them 4 months to campaign. We need to act as a team, not a self destructing panic machine.
THIS TIMES A THOUSAND
I'd love to see that poll. Can you post link?
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/02/post-debate-polls-bad-news-biden-00166395
Polls should be taken with more than a grain of salt. To paraphrase Robert Hubbell, polls take the pulse of how people are feeling in any given moment, not how they will vote in two or more months. Barack Obama took a hit at the polls after his debate with Romney. Some polls actually show Biden doing better than he did a month ago. The 538 shows Trump ahead of Biden by 1.6 percentage points. Trump has lost ground in the polls since March 2024, when he was ahead by 2.2 points.
There are many problems with how today's polls are constructed, and the polls have been notoriously wrong in the past. It would be a mistake to let the polls of the moment influence our decision-making.
All but 1 poll has shown Biden significantly behind for months and months. At a certain point, blaming the polls reeks of desperation and denialism.
I never follow polls. Too many searching for clicks. Not a reliable gage.
Ok. And who should he pass the torch to?
Harris is the logical candidate.
The pro-democracy coalition, donors, surrogates, and activists will unite behind a new candidate.
The primary goal is to defeat Trump. The secondary goal is to stop the decimation of what's left of our democracy.
We need someone who will lay out the stark reality to Americans, and propose bold reforms. Biden will not call for SCOTUS reform or elimination of the filibuster. We know because he hasn't supported either reform.
We need someone who will relentlessly educate Americans about the dangers of a 2nd Trump presidency and Project 2025. Biden won't because he hasn't.
I don't want to advocate for change, but I've watched 2 years of a failing campaign, and a leader who can't or won't use his bully pulpit as we hover over the abyss.
Jessica,
Your work and your encouragement daily is so appreciated.
Steve and Helene Schmitz
Bainbridge Island, WA
Check out *Hopium* folks you’ll like it !! Simon is always taking Biden’s progress and you’ll like the new ad too. GO JOE GO !!!!
Stay. Healthy Jessica.. We all appreciate all your doing.. health peace love and prosperity for all in America
Thank you for featuring our work on your post! It was wonderful to work with YourVoiceMatters.org
My the forth be with you. May you pursue freedom in the fullness of your life, enjoyment of liberty and happiness pursuits. The thing is, however, we will never have a government that is of, by and for us, one that can protect those freedoms we all value unless or until you learn we learn to use the power of democracy because it is in the extent to which we all can engage with one another to use that power of democracy and create that government. Our government doesn't work well right now because of those who we have voted to represent us. It does not work because we cannot form in civil community with one another, collaborate well enough to live in peace together or find the compromises that work for all of us. These problems with democracy that people say are plunging us into a frantic sea of emotions is of our own making.
Rumor has it that this is still our Republic that Franklin challenged us to keep. Even our flag is still pretty awesome - when it's flown right-side up.
Happy Independence Day, Everyone!
What will we do to prevent the Supreme Court from stealing the election, as they did for George W?
Thanks for your uplifting words.
Rest for you.... then, Are you a convention delegate?