Obama could have vetoed the PATRIOT extension act, and yet he signed it in 2010, and then again 2011, and then in 2015 he signed the USA Freedom Act, which replaced mass surveillance with “targeted surveillance”. And I’m no law expert, but in my view with the current federal government “targeted” does not seem to mean very much with respect to actions by the US government toward its citizens.
“Legal resident” is an open compound word spelled with a space, not an adjective modifying a noun. An elementary school at the top of a hill is not a “high school” even though it is high and also a school. This is because “high school” is a word that means specifically secondary school (in North America at least), which excludes primary/elementary schools. Likewise in the United States, a “legal resident” refers to a non-citizen lawful permanent resident, not just any person who resides in a country legally.
Historical Jesus was pretty woke. Unfortunately, most of Christianity instead follows the teachings of some guy named Paul… who didn’t even know Jesus!
I voted for Kamala Harris and encouraged others to do as well, and even I think it’s naive to blame leftists and pro-Palestine advocates for the Democrats’ loss in 2024. The Democratic establishment campaign was basically just, “We’re not as horrible as the other guy”. That was plainly not enough to excite people to vote. It worked in 2020 at the start of a global pandemic, but it was not going to work again. People stayed home not because they internalized some message from chronically online leftists, but because Democrats failed to give them a reason to take time off work and stand in line.
It’s in the data. Across four battleground states, over 900,000 registered Democratic voters stayed home compared to 2020; Trump only won those states by 500,000. If you look at analyses of the data (Cooperative Election Study, Pew Research Center, Catalist), many of them conclude that it’s because the Democrats failed to provide a real plan to improve the lives of their own voter base, especially in economically disadvantaged, nonwhite communities. It’s not even a question of the plan being too progressive or not enough—there was just no clear plan.
In contrast, look at Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral primary campaign in New York City where they saw the highest voter turnout in history. Early voting more than doubled compared to 2021. His campaign was grounded in actually solving problems for everyday people, especially with regard to affordability, and it worked. Establishment Democrats who are in the pockets of billionaires are so terrified of this that they are pouring their money and endorsements into a guy who resigned in disgrace following sexual harassment allegations, instead of the guy who won the primary. What ever happened to “vote blue, no matter who?”
If the Democrats want to actually win elections, they need to deliver a plan to the American people that shows they can follow through on making life materially better for everyone, not just their billionaire and corporate donors. Otherwise, they just seem like controlled opposition and no one will care to show up at the polls.
Gee, if only the private corporation with a near monopoly on “progressive” general election ballot lines would hold meaningful, competitive primary elections for the highest office in the land. But no, it’s “tradition” for unelected party insiders to clear the field for demonstrably unpopular incumbents who broke their campaign promise of running a single term. Better to handpick the nominee before voters even get a say.
Look at NYC. Their ranked-choice mayoral primary is competitive, and voters turn out when it actually matters. You can’t blame people for skipping a rigged system that’s failing to produce candidates they actually like. Doing so isn’t gonna lower cost of living or fix the broken US healthcare system, which is what most people are actually voting for when they get the chance.