OMG my head is going to fucking explode. I just got a notification from the NYT (are they desperately trying to sell you subscriptions, too?) that Biden has dropped out. There it goes, we can kiss the election goodbye. 14 million people who voted for Joe in the primary were just kicked in the teeth. THANKS, OBAMA. You notice the most stalwart for Joe were the CBC and the Progressive Caucus. All the crap about the DNC rigging the primary for Hillary is going to come roaring back with a vengeance. How the FUCK can we make the case that Donald Trump is against democracy when Democratic insiders just pulled the most un-democratic move imaginable? This is the big donors. They know Joe's been too goddamn progressive on economic issues. They want another goddamned neoliberal. The only thing with a remote chance to save this ensuing train wreck is to stand steadfast behind Kamala Harris and don't let these corrosive, self-satisfied white yuppies wreck her, too.
Exactly, Nina. This is why people hate politics. The people who obsess over politics don't understand the loyalty component. All these MSNBC watchers don't understand how Trump could have such a big core of voters. They feel loyal to him. All the people who feel loyal to Biden (and Joe Biden is _beloved_ by the base) have just been kicked hard in the teeth by a process that wasn't democratic and didn't allow Joe to make the decision on his own. He was pushed out. Bullied. None of their arguments were conclusive.
And so all these Beltway types, the Obama bros, the commentariat think this is all somehow about beating Trump at all costs. Sure, that's the intellectual argument. But the cost of alienating so many Joe Biden lovers may also cost us the election.
That's my fear at the moment, anyway. We have to rally around Kamala.
Wholeheartedly agree with everything you’ve said. Disappointed in the Julius Cesar style back stabbing by Pelosi, Schumer, Schiff, Jeffries and crew. Had to unsubscribe from the Podcast Bros. I thought bulk of Biden/Harris war chest came from small dollar donors and not these entitled Rich folks.
I am bracing for the worst of America from now until Inauguration Day because the racism and misogyny is going to be turned up to 10. 😵💫
Biden is truly beloved by the base and we’ve just been told we matter like not at all. VP Harris has by vote but one does not forget the treachery.
Yes you can. We obviously don’t agree on the impact. We shall see. It’s not like 14M people are not going to vote for the new nominee. I do agree that it needs to be Harris.
It may not be Harris. AOC said that a number of the House members in the room who are pushing this (who I call the Underpants Gnomes because none of them have the slightest clue of how this would work) also want to push out Kamala as well.
You remember when Hillary lost a big chunk of the left flank because they felt the DNC had been unfair to Bernie? The same young progressives who flocked to Obama even though he never was a true progressive but a neoliberal Washington Consensus guy? The disenchantment and staying home of marginal voters is not going to come from one ideological bloc this time. It's going to be spread all across the party. Biden voters out there are feeling betrayed right now and Barack Obama betrayed his wingman. You haven't a clue of the psychological impact this will have.
The whole bottomlessly asinine Underpants Gnomes theory is predicated on the idea that somehow Democratic insiders are going to be able to pick, behind closed doors, the one candidate who will galvanize the entire party. These people are so out of touch it's mind boggling. They've been so misled by their insider conventional wisdom (and Rick is no victim of this; he gets it) that somehow this election is going to be all about stopping Trump. Well it isn't. That's not the way less engaged people think about it. They think of politics more in terms of loyalty. They see a president they _love_ being sandbagged while he's recovering from covid and they just get absolutely furious at the betrayal. I guarantee many of them will take this personally.
And there's no way to fix this. Only Kamala, who's on the ticket, has a fighting chance to keep the party together but she's also opposed by the party insiders and has her own political challenges in the best of circumstances, besides. The fundamental thing you're missing is that democracy has been betrayed. Joe didn't make this decision without massive pressure. None of the quote-unquote polling arguments are definitive. Joe's doctors aren't telling him he shouldn't run. He was bullied.
The Chinese proverb is instructive: Be careful what you wish for, because you might get it. The Underpants Gnomes got their wish. Curse them for a thousand eternities.
I follow all of Rick's substacks assiduously that aren't behind the paywall and that statement wouldn't make sense on its face. First, Rick is an ex-Republican, not a Democrat, so his role is not to take a position on what the Democratic Party should do or not do about its nominee. Rick's purpose with the Lincoln Project and his other groups is not to "support" the Biden ticket (or any other potential Democratic ticket), his purpose is to keep his fire trained on Donald Trump.
That said, Rick's position on this is not hard to figure out. He's astounded that the Democrats would be so profoundly self-destructive as to not unite strongly behind their presumptive nominee and advocate for an 11th-hour process that would likely produce a Democratic civil war.
So yeah, in practical terms, that indicates support for Biden/Harris.
He's so effing weird. The MAGAloids will never trust him because he was an OG Never Trumper and he's married to "a brown lady" and has "mixed race children." But he also _repels_ anyone to the left of Genghis Khan because his patron Peter Thiel has redpilled him so hard he comes off on the stump like a human incarnation of a Parler thread. We need some Viktor Orban around these parts, ma'am!
Hi Jane, Well, first of all, I’m one of them. What I would say is, we are on the brink of a national, indeed international, catastrophe. To avoid that catastrophe the Democrats must nominate a slate that can win. Defeating Donald Trump is what this is about, isn’t it? After the infamous debate, Joe can not defeat Trump. The assassination attempt makes an already hopeless situation even more so. If Joe steps aside, the Democrats will have a Golden Opportunity to nominate candidates that can win. Trump can be beaten, but not by Biden or Harris. Both need to withdraw or Trump will be elected. My personal choice for a slate that would have the best chance of defeating Trump is Kelly/Jeffries. Others might be able to defeat him, but with Biden and/or Harris (or Newsom), we’re going to end up with Trump in the White House again. We’re staring into the abyss. It’s not a time for complacency or parochial interests to prevail.
You are stringing together a bunch of unsupported assertions that are belied by history and furthermore, you exhibit a profound ignorance of the political process. You apparently think this is like choosing your favorite candy bar in a vending machine.
Need I remind you that Hillary Clinton was up by 7 to 9 points on Trump this time in '16 and ahead in all the swing states? Go acquaint yourself with political historian Allan Lichtman and get back to us when you've found a clue.
Democratic overperformance of the polls on Election Day has been a through line since the '18 midterms.
Now you're posting like a troll. It should go without saying that _nobody_ here wants a second Trump Administration, but brother, if you're going to have this position you have an obligation to bring something at least resembling a supportable argument to the table. "Biden/Harris cannot win" is not that. It's a bare assertion. And it's on the same epistemic level as all the countless pundits and prognosticators who kept insisting all throughout '16 that _Trump_ couldn't win.
Except Allan Lichtman. His predictive model called that one right and has been right in 9 out of the last 10 presidential elections.
You'd think by now I'd be immune, but instead I'm constantly amazed at how many allegedly 'seasoned professional' journalists are still waiting for the promised Trump pivot like Linus sitting the pumpkin patch waiting for the Great Pumpkin. Well, this particular Great Pumpkin doesn't have a pivot setting. You can't expect a raging narcissist to stop being a giant self-centered a-hole.
The normalcy bias in the media is apparently so overwhelming, that even at this late date, with all the past evidence before them, they're still willing to disregard the fact of Trump for the illusory promise of Trump. Truly sad.....
Rick, you had Michael Steele on laughing at the dems for wanting to get rid of Biden. Now he’s saying dems need to read him his last rites and move on. What changed?
That was the 18th, a day before Jen O'Malley Dillon went on Morning Joe and said definitively that Joe is not dropping out. If you'll read the full context of Michael's comments, he's expressing frustration at the Democratic Underpants Gnomes, who haven't a clue how this process would work, and not frustration at President Biden.
Fortunately, Steve Schmidt is no longer Rick's boy.
Unfortunately for everybody, Steve Schmidt is a flaming moron.
Dean Phillips is independently wealthy. Steve Schmidt is an unemployed political consultant. Remember when he pulled that same grift in '20 with Howard Schultz?
That's a conspiracy theory based on the unsupported conclusion that Rick Wilson is acting in bad faith. Pretty cynical for a Biden stalwart. Do you remember the John Wheeler fiasco? I do. Do you remember Schmidt's quote that came out about "building generational wealth?" Do you remember his self-righteous, near-tearful homophobic freakout because as a kid he thought he was hit on by a camp counselor? Steve Schmidt is a profoundly weird guy, apparently also pretty self-interested, and his separation from the Lincoln Project was final. But Rick Wilson doesn't piss inside the ex-GOP pro-democracy tent and that is eminently respectable. I'm sure he could have some choice public words for some on The Bulwark who are also on this bandwagon.
I might be old and suck but I refuse to cede the ground to a fucking arsehole like Kid Fucking Rock. I would sure like to see a few big time artists pull out their inner Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan or John Fogerty and go for it. Feel free to cover this one, I'm sure Big Mama Thornton would approve, or better yet write your own and blast it out on YouTube. The arts generally die under fascism.
Hey that's cool, Ian. But when it comes to protest music I generally prefer dodecaphonic (atonal) avant garde rock in odd and shifting time signatures, but to each their own ;)
Many of you will recognize my name and/or newsletter, and will know that I have spent the last couple of years raising the alarm about Trump and his neo-fascist threat to American democracy.
Trumpism must be defeated in the House, Senate, WH, and state elections. Period.
But just saying that doesn't get the job done.
It'll take a massive unified Blue turnout, especially across half a dozen swing states where the outcomes can rest on margins of 10-50,000 votes. So obviously every vote counts.
In such a close race, I have to wonder out loud: how on earth can attacks against Barak Obama or Nancy Pelosi help accomplish that task?
Nobody is "attacking" Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama unless you consider that Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama are "attacking" Joe Biden. What's good for the goose ...
In my opinion, both of them are over their skis. They are part of the same team that gave Trump to us by pushing out Joe Biden in 2016 so Hillary Clinton could have "her turn."
Worked out splendidly, didn't it. Criticizing both of them for trying to push Joe out of the race is absolutely fair game.
OMG my head is going to fucking explode. I just got a notification from the NYT (are they desperately trying to sell you subscriptions, too?) that Biden has dropped out. There it goes, we can kiss the election goodbye. 14 million people who voted for Joe in the primary were just kicked in the teeth. THANKS, OBAMA. You notice the most stalwart for Joe were the CBC and the Progressive Caucus. All the crap about the DNC rigging the primary for Hillary is going to come roaring back with a vengeance. How the FUCK can we make the case that Donald Trump is against democracy when Democratic insiders just pulled the most un-democratic move imaginable? This is the big donors. They know Joe's been too goddamn progressive on economic issues. They want another goddamned neoliberal. The only thing with a remote chance to save this ensuing train wreck is to stand steadfast behind Kamala Harris and don't let these corrosive, self-satisfied white yuppies wreck her, too.
Yeah I felt like vomiting. This silent public coup was eye opening and now I know why people hate politics.
If they don’t rally around VP Harris democracy is done for.
Exactly, Nina. This is why people hate politics. The people who obsess over politics don't understand the loyalty component. All these MSNBC watchers don't understand how Trump could have such a big core of voters. They feel loyal to him. All the people who feel loyal to Biden (and Joe Biden is _beloved_ by the base) have just been kicked hard in the teeth by a process that wasn't democratic and didn't allow Joe to make the decision on his own. He was pushed out. Bullied. None of their arguments were conclusive.
And so all these Beltway types, the Obama bros, the commentariat think this is all somehow about beating Trump at all costs. Sure, that's the intellectual argument. But the cost of alienating so many Joe Biden lovers may also cost us the election.
That's my fear at the moment, anyway. We have to rally around Kamala.
Wholeheartedly agree with everything you’ve said. Disappointed in the Julius Cesar style back stabbing by Pelosi, Schumer, Schiff, Jeffries and crew. Had to unsubscribe from the Podcast Bros. I thought bulk of Biden/Harris war chest came from small dollar donors and not these entitled Rich folks.
I am bracing for the worst of America from now until Inauguration Day because the racism and misogyny is going to be turned up to 10. 😵💫
Biden is truly beloved by the base and we’ve just been told we matter like not at all. VP Harris has by vote but one does not forget the treachery.
Exactly, Nina.
Biden cements his legacy as one of our most productive Presidents in history.
Can I quote that back to you after Trump is elected?
Yes you can. We obviously don’t agree on the impact. We shall see. It’s not like 14M people are not going to vote for the new nominee. I do agree that it needs to be Harris.
It may not be Harris. AOC said that a number of the House members in the room who are pushing this (who I call the Underpants Gnomes because none of them have the slightest clue of how this would work) also want to push out Kamala as well.
You remember when Hillary lost a big chunk of the left flank because they felt the DNC had been unfair to Bernie? The same young progressives who flocked to Obama even though he never was a true progressive but a neoliberal Washington Consensus guy? The disenchantment and staying home of marginal voters is not going to come from one ideological bloc this time. It's going to be spread all across the party. Biden voters out there are feeling betrayed right now and Barack Obama betrayed his wingman. You haven't a clue of the psychological impact this will have.
The whole bottomlessly asinine Underpants Gnomes theory is predicated on the idea that somehow Democratic insiders are going to be able to pick, behind closed doors, the one candidate who will galvanize the entire party. These people are so out of touch it's mind boggling. They've been so misled by their insider conventional wisdom (and Rick is no victim of this; he gets it) that somehow this election is going to be all about stopping Trump. Well it isn't. That's not the way less engaged people think about it. They think of politics more in terms of loyalty. They see a president they _love_ being sandbagged while he's recovering from covid and they just get absolutely furious at the betrayal. I guarantee many of them will take this personally.
And there's no way to fix this. Only Kamala, who's on the ticket, has a fighting chance to keep the party together but she's also opposed by the party insiders and has her own political challenges in the best of circumstances, besides. The fundamental thing you're missing is that democracy has been betrayed. Joe didn't make this decision without massive pressure. None of the quote-unquote polling arguments are definitive. Joe's doctors aren't telling him he shouldn't run. He was bullied.
The Chinese proverb is instructive: Be careful what you wish for, because you might get it. The Underpants Gnomes got their wish. Curse them for a thousand eternities.
Thanks Rick. You give me hope.
Saw a thread link that you were no longer supporting Biden Harris? Is this true?
I follow all of Rick's substacks assiduously that aren't behind the paywall and that statement wouldn't make sense on its face. First, Rick is an ex-Republican, not a Democrat, so his role is not to take a position on what the Democratic Party should do or not do about its nominee. Rick's purpose with the Lincoln Project and his other groups is not to "support" the Biden ticket (or any other potential Democratic ticket), his purpose is to keep his fire trained on Donald Trump.
That said, Rick's position on this is not hard to figure out. He's astounded that the Democrats would be so profoundly self-destructive as to not unite strongly behind their presumptive nominee and advocate for an 11th-hour process that would likely produce a Democratic civil war.
So yeah, in practical terms, that indicates support for Biden/Harris.
Thank you for speaking so nice and clearly for those of us who find it hard to hear videos and podcasts. It really helped.
Thank you. Every time I get anxious about the election your podcasts talk me down.
JD Vance is this election’s “Larry the Cable Guy”.
He's so effing weird. The MAGAloids will never trust him because he was an OG Never Trumper and he's married to "a brown lady" and has "mixed race children." But he also _repels_ anyone to the left of Genghis Khan because his patron Peter Thiel has redpilled him so hard he comes off on the stump like a human incarnation of a Parler thread. We need some Viktor Orban around these parts, ma'am!
Thank you for all your hard work. You guys are amazing your entire team!!!
Hi Jane, Well, first of all, I’m one of them. What I would say is, we are on the brink of a national, indeed international, catastrophe. To avoid that catastrophe the Democrats must nominate a slate that can win. Defeating Donald Trump is what this is about, isn’t it? After the infamous debate, Joe can not defeat Trump. The assassination attempt makes an already hopeless situation even more so. If Joe steps aside, the Democrats will have a Golden Opportunity to nominate candidates that can win. Trump can be beaten, but not by Biden or Harris. Both need to withdraw or Trump will be elected. My personal choice for a slate that would have the best chance of defeating Trump is Kelly/Jeffries. Others might be able to defeat him, but with Biden and/or Harris (or Newsom), we’re going to end up with Trump in the White House again. We’re staring into the abyss. It’s not a time for complacency or parochial interests to prevail.
You are stringing together a bunch of unsupported assertions that are belied by history and furthermore, you exhibit a profound ignorance of the political process. You apparently think this is like choosing your favorite candy bar in a vending machine.
Need I remind you that Hillary Clinton was up by 7 to 9 points on Trump this time in '16 and ahead in all the swing states? Go acquaint yourself with political historian Allan Lichtman and get back to us when you've found a clue.
Democratic overperformance of the polls on Election Day has been a through line since the '18 midterms.
Enjoy the 2nd Trump Administration
Now you're posting like a troll. It should go without saying that _nobody_ here wants a second Trump Administration, but brother, if you're going to have this position you have an obligation to bring something at least resembling a supportable argument to the table. "Biden/Harris cannot win" is not that. It's a bare assertion. And it's on the same epistemic level as all the countless pundits and prognosticators who kept insisting all throughout '16 that _Trump_ couldn't win.
Except Allan Lichtman. His predictive model called that one right and has been right in 9 out of the last 10 presidential elections.
You have such keen insight!
Noodle and crew
You'd think by now I'd be immune, but instead I'm constantly amazed at how many allegedly 'seasoned professional' journalists are still waiting for the promised Trump pivot like Linus sitting the pumpkin patch waiting for the Great Pumpkin. Well, this particular Great Pumpkin doesn't have a pivot setting. You can't expect a raging narcissist to stop being a giant self-centered a-hole.
The normalcy bias in the media is apparently so overwhelming, that even at this late date, with all the past evidence before them, they're still willing to disregard the fact of Trump for the illusory promise of Trump. Truly sad.....
Rick, you had Michael Steele on laughing at the dems for wanting to get rid of Biden. Now he’s saying dems need to read him his last rites and move on. What changed?
What context did he say that in and who was on the panel?
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4780200-michael-steele-democrats-biden-move-on/amp/
That was the 18th, a day before Jen O'Malley Dillon went on Morning Joe and said definitively that Joe is not dropping out. If you'll read the full context of Michael's comments, he's expressing frustration at the Democratic Underpants Gnomes, who haven't a clue how this process would work, and not frustration at President Biden.
Hey Rick- tell your boy to fuck off
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/7/19/2255914/-PASS-THE-TORCH-USA-Is-A-PAC-Setup-By-Dean-Phillips-And-Steve-Schmidt-To-Force-Biden-Out-Of-Race
Fortunately, Steve Schmidt is no longer Rick's boy.
Unfortunately for everybody, Steve Schmidt is a flaming moron.
Dean Phillips is independently wealthy. Steve Schmidt is an unemployed political consultant. Remember when he pulled that same grift in '20 with Howard Schultz?
I’ll believe that when Rick opens his mouth and speaks up against this effort, and Schmidt. He never does. They’re playing both sides.
That's a conspiracy theory based on the unsupported conclusion that Rick Wilson is acting in bad faith. Pretty cynical for a Biden stalwart. Do you remember the John Wheeler fiasco? I do. Do you remember Schmidt's quote that came out about "building generational wealth?" Do you remember his self-righteous, near-tearful homophobic freakout because as a kid he thought he was hit on by a camp counselor? Steve Schmidt is a profoundly weird guy, apparently also pretty self-interested, and his separation from the Lincoln Project was final. But Rick Wilson doesn't piss inside the ex-GOP pro-democracy tent and that is eminently respectable. I'm sure he could have some choice public words for some on The Bulwark who are also on this bandwagon.
I might be old and suck but I refuse to cede the ground to a fucking arsehole like Kid Fucking Rock. I would sure like to see a few big time artists pull out their inner Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan or John Fogerty and go for it. Feel free to cover this one, I'm sure Big Mama Thornton would approve, or better yet write your own and blast it out on YouTube. The arts generally die under fascism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UHPWMXfzDw
Hey that's cool, Ian. But when it comes to protest music I generally prefer dodecaphonic (atonal) avant garde rock in odd and shifting time signatures, but to each their own ;)
Thinking Plague: Malthusian Dances
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/track/malthusian-dances-2?from=search&search_item_id=1200171817&search_item_type=t&search_match_part=%3F&search_page_id=3579118198&search_page_no=0&search_rank=1&logged_out_menubar=true
Many of you will recognize my name and/or newsletter, and will know that I have spent the last couple of years raising the alarm about Trump and his neo-fascist threat to American democracy.
Trumpism must be defeated in the House, Senate, WH, and state elections. Period.
But just saying that doesn't get the job done.
It'll take a massive unified Blue turnout, especially across half a dozen swing states where the outcomes can rest on margins of 10-50,000 votes. So obviously every vote counts.
In such a close race, I have to wonder out loud: how on earth can attacks against Barak Obama or Nancy Pelosi help accomplish that task?
Nobody is "attacking" Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama unless you consider that Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama are "attacking" Joe Biden. What's good for the goose ...
In my opinion, both of them are over their skis. They are part of the same team that gave Trump to us by pushing out Joe Biden in 2016 so Hillary Clinton could have "her turn."
Worked out splendidly, didn't it. Criticizing both of them for trying to push Joe out of the race is absolutely fair game.
The winning slate:
Mark Kelly/Hakeem Jeffries
Make it so.
And what do you say to the millions of primary voters who cast their ballot for Joe Biden?
"Make it so." Like this was the Marvel Universe or something.
Or Star Trek.
Or Harry Potter.
Or Game of Thrones.
God forbid we have a little fun here.
You forgot the '/s' if you wanted people to take that as a joke.
His long post upthread demonstrates that he's deadly serious.
If you think this particular historical moment is "fun," you can go back to watching movies in the hi-larious Saw franchise or something.
You know how democracy works, right?