What are we but a collection of memories? Not much. A body, some desires, occasional suffering and joy.

The memories give context to everything else. Change them, and you change everything.

This is why my chronic illness is so terrifying. It’s in my brain. Literal brain damage. It’s being treated, but I wake up every day with a low lying terror that I have forgotten something important.

“We can hurt the bad people until they tell us what we need to know to be safe.”

It’s nonsense, but it can feel true.

Assuming this is a centrist take is part of why she is pissed off. She isn’t endorsing because she opposes genocide and Dems treatment of trans people.

Dems are too far right for her and people are acting like she is saying trump has his good points.

They are just declaring their neighbors illegitimate and marching in like Putin.

I can say that unqualified judges generally cause the corruption more than the qualified ones.

To be fair to us, the brain worm guy dropped out.

Yeah, the naval base is the big thing.

For Ukraine, it’s about the principle of the matter. Taking Crimea back would mean “we are a real country and you can’t push us around.”

Just the dirt is worth a lot. Even if Russia conducted a genocide without anyone noticing, and all the buildings flat.

Most of us don’t worship our dads.

We have some good memories and some bad ones. I know I do. Walz reminds me, and I think a lot of other people, of the good memories of my dad. My dad is a flawed human being that struggled to do the right thing sometimes but he did struggle, and I love him for the things he taught me and the good memories he left me.

That’s warm fuzzies, not worship

It’s not weird if you agree with the premise in general just not her in specific.

Harris healthcare plan in 2020 was to the left of Bidens, She called for Medicare for all. She dissagreed with Bernie about banning private insurance.

She was not against universal healthcare. I doubt she is now. If Dems sweep the house and somehow picked up 10 seats in the Senate (impossible) she might try to go for it.

It’s not impossible in 2026 for Dems to make big gains in the Senate, but it is very, very unlikely.

Then why are you here?

If you don’t believe in electoral politics that’s fine. But you should be off organizing union drives, or mutual aid societies, or literally any other venue for democratic power.

Why would you care which corporate shill holds office?

Your presence here suggests that it does, in fact, matter who wins elections, or which team holds power.

Manchin wasn’t even in the Senate yet. Lieberman was an independent that endorsed Romney 3 years later.

There were senators from Louisiana and Missouri in that majority.

Also Franken wasn’t seated until like June because of recounts and lawsuits. Ted Kennedy was on deaths door and passed away 2 months later. His replacement was seated a couple months after that and then Scott Brown won in fucking Massachusetts in January.

They ended up with something like 109 working days in which Democrats could override a Republican filibuster. They passed 2 major pieces of legislation. Dodd Frank and the ACA.

What, precisely, do you think Democrats should be doing right now to help the American people?

If they do their jobs well, they get rewarded with votes. It’s a simple question of not inverting the relationship between the public servants and the public.

Hard disagree. The public is not a monolith. It does not know what it wants, because most people want mutually exclusive things.

You could instruct the federal agencies to ignore court rulings, effectively undoing Marbury vrs Madison.

That’s a constitutional crisis, but what is the court gonna do? Call the FBI? Send in the military?

You can ask the Cherokee people what the court does with an uncooperative federal government, but you won’t find any in Georgia.

Maybe that’s just fascism with our side in charge though.

Oh absolutely. He would be a terrible VP pick and a prez run would flop. Not even WV likes him anymore.

Manchin could have switched parties anytime during his 18 years in office. He was a godsend when he ran the first time, and he’s been a godsend ever since.

He’s a piece of shit human, but he was the only democratic candidate with a chance at victory in West Virginia. His has been 85% better than any Republican that would have held his seat otherwise and it is infantile to pretend otherwise.

Manchin is infuriating, but he is no Sinema. He holds his office in a red state getting redder, not a pink state turning purple. He sometimes represents the wrong headed desires of his constituents and I can’t hold that against him. Far more often he has voted for the best interests of the country.

I don’t think you realize how much of a stink “California Governor” has in middle America.

It’s bullshit. We should all be so lucky to live in a place like California, but fox News Propaganda has been working for decades convincing disengaged voters that Cali is a hellscape.

I think Newsom would make a fantastic President, but I am not convinced he has the best chance to win.

France put together a winning left coalition in 2 weeks.

How does the US being a bigger, wealthier, country mean we are weaker? I’m so tired of these arguments about what we can’t do. If Biden dropped out 2 weeks before November it would be a disaster. As it is, he is listening to the legitimate concerns of the people.