Author | Lightnews

Marc Singer @theothermarcsinger.bsky.social · 20h

Even if we can get to 50 or 51, we still need a caucus willing to nuke the filibuster and reform the SC or we won't have a governing majority. Probably need 53 or more for that.

We need a real plan to win in southern, rural, rust belt states. Pretending it will fix itself doesn't get us there.

Marc Singer @theothermarcsinger.bsky.social · 20h

Come on. You started by dismissing Dem losses in rural states that have given Reps a durable Senate/EC advantage, and now your comeback plan depends on winning seats we haven't held in decades. Even your list of 50 depends on seats we struggle with (ME, WI, 2 in NC).

Whistling past the graveyard.

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Marc Singer @theothermarcsinger.bsky.social · 1d

I don't do doomerism. But I would prefer the answer to doomerism be something more actionable than cherrypicking and wishcasting.

If your model for future Democratic control of the Senate rests on Kansas, you'd better have a plan to win Kansas.

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Marc Singer @theothermarcsinger.bsky.social · 1d

I don't like the Nichols/Yglesias solution of moving the party to the right (and I doubt it would work - our problem is rural emptying + media/information system collapse), but at least they admit we have a problem.

Marc Singer @theothermarcsinger.bsky.social · 1d

We can't count on Maine (ME hasn't had 2 Dem senators since 1980) or Wisconsin. IA hasn't elected a Dem senator since 2008, SC since 1998, TX since 1988, KS since *1932*.

This is not a formula for winning the Senate. It's a recipe for permanent loss.

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Marc Singer @theothermarcsinger.bsky.social · 1d

And you don't have to go back to 1978 to see the decline. We held the Senate for two congresses since 2014 and those were both by the skin of our teeth, with majorities dependent on Manchin/Sinema/Fetterman. We won't have a governing coalition unless we can figure out how to win in the Plains again.

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Marc Singer @theothermarcsinger.bsky.social · 1d

The Plains (and rural states generally) going solid R is the whole story because those states are overrepresented in the Senate and the electoral college. That's what took us from hitting 60 senators in a stretch year to struggling to reach 50.

That's not an advantage for Democrats.

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Marc Singer @theothermarcsinger.bsky.social · 1d

*IL was a loss and regain, NV should be in the gain column, some of those wins and a lot of those losses are doubles. Overall trend is still down since 2007 and way down since 2009.

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Marc Singer @theothermarcsinger.bsky.social · 1d

You can pick good or bad years, but the overall trend for Dems in the Senate is bad. We can't cope our way out of this.

Marc Singer @theothermarcsinger.bsky.social · 1d

If you start at 2007, we gained AZ, GA, MN, NH, NM, OR, VA.

We gained and lost AK, AL, IN, MO, NC.

We lost AR, FL, IA, IN, LA, MT, ND, NE, OH, PA, SD, WI, WV.

Gained, lost and regained CO, IL, and PA (but the regain is Fetterman, so...)

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Marc Singer @theothermarcsinger.bsky.social · 3d

United in their common conviction that the Democratic base, who they hate, should put them in charge of the party.

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Marc Singer @theothermarcsinger.bsky.social · 3d

To be fair, a lot of the folks defending Nazi tattoo guy are people who identify as hating Democrats while also assuming they are entitled to run the party.

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Marc Singer @theothermarcsinger.bsky.social · 4d

Royal who Cheated on Wife with Consenting Adult Looking Pretty Good Now, Huh?

by King Charles

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 4d

Breaking News: Andrew, the younger brother of King Charles III, is being stripped of his title as prince, Buckingham Palace said. nyti.ms/4oQeykJ

Prince Andrew with grey hair, wears a dark suit with a yellow tie. A headline reads: "Prince Andrew to Be Stripped Of His Royal Title." Photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated Press

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Marc Singer @theothermarcsinger.bsky.social · 4d

And instructors didn't have to go along with it, but precarious employment left many feeling like they have no choice.

(tbf my tenured and tenure-track colleagues have no such excuse)

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Marc Singer @theothermarcsinger.bsky.social · 4d

This is part of it, but not all of it (and not even a big part at this point). Covid didn't make university administrators cater to students and parents, soaring tuitions did that.

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Marc Singer @theothermarcsinger.bsky.social · 4d

Same with activists/"the groups." It's true that Dem electeds weren't saying "abolish the police," but the loudest activists on social media were and the public took note of Democratic silence. You have to distance yourself from toxic positions perceived as coming from your side.

Marc Singer @theothermarcsinger.bsky.social · 6d

I stand humbly chastened.

Hi, It’s Me, Wikipedia, and I Am Ready for Your Apology

“Wikipedia, the constantly changing knowledge base created by a global free-for-all of anonymous users, now stands as the leading force for the dum...

www.mcsweeneys.net

Marc Singer @theothermarcsinger.bsky.social · 7d

I'm not sure how this argument helps to get funding back for SNAP or to protect people who are about to lose the benefits.

Marc Singer @theothermarcsinger.bsky.social · 7d

This was a great weekend for Chris Murphy to send me a fundraising email, inasmuch as it was also a great weekend to make sure I never receive a fundraising email from Chris Murphy again.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 8d

Chris Murphy on Platner's Totenkopf tattoo: "He sounds like a human being to me. A human being who made mistakes, recognizes them, and is very open about it."

Marc Singer @theothermarcsinger.bsky.social · 8d

The Washington Post is not a newspaper anymore, not to its owner. It's the lobbying arm for Amazon.

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Marc Singer @theothermarcsinger.bsky.social · 11d

This isn't over when he is out of office. It isn't over when he is in prison. It's over when we have removed him from the public memory as anything but a source of national shame.

Marc Singer @theothermarcsinger.bsky.social · 11d

Back in the first term I thought a lot about his face showing up on those wall charts of the US presidents you see in classrooms.

Now I think a lot about that Venetian doge who tried to overthrow the Republic. His portrait is preserved but forever covered by a black cloth.

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Marc Singer @theothermarcsinger.bsky.social · 11d

I will vote for whatever candidate promises to tear down his gilded ballroom, rebuild the White House, abolish ICE, undo everything he has accomplished, restore everything he has wrecked, and send every last one of these people to prison.

Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 11d

Left: White House last month.

Right: White House today.

Via ABC News.

abcnews.go.com/Politics/new...

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Marc Singer @theothermarcsinger.bsky.social · 13d

The left really, really needs to come up with better candidate selection criteria than "he seems working class and he hates the people I hate."

ArgellaStone but Spooky @argellastone.bsky.social · 14d

So Graham Platner has an SS-Totenkopf tattoo.

Erdogan Gwan Delilah @socialconcarne.bsky.social · 14d

chat it doesn't look good

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Reposted by Marc Singer

Hemry, Local Bartender @bartenderhemry.bsky.social · 14d

I mean this is viscerally upsetting because it's really genuinely him treating the white house like it's his own personal property; he's the king and it's his palace. No other president ever thought like this, even if they were a fucking horrible person, because it goes against our founding creed

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 14d

I'm not a West Wing obsessed lib or anything but the more I see pictures of this the more fucked up I think it is. It's like he cut off one of the hands of the Lincoln memorial with an angle grinder so he could add a big gun to it.

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 14d

The Treasury Department instructed employees not to share to share photos of the demolition of parts of the White House’s East Wing

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