The corporate wing of the Democrats has objectively terrible political instincts, because the corporate wing of the Dems wants things that are very unpopular with the electorate (this is a trait they share with the Republican establishment).
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/2
https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/758501814945869824
Biden picked up the "This is fine" messaging where Clinton left off, promising that "nothing would fundamentally change" if he became president:
https://www.salon.com/2019/06/19/joe-biden-to-rich-donors-nothing-would-fundamentally-change-if-hes-elected/
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Joe Biden to rich donors: "Nothing would fundamentally change" if he's elected
Salon.comCory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/3
Biden's 2020 election victory was a squeaker, and it was absolutely dependent on compromising with the party's left wing, embodied by the Warren and Sanders campaigns.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/4
https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/10/thanks-obama/#triangulation
Despite these excellent appointments and policies, the Biden administration has remained unpopular and is heading into the 2024 election with worryingly poor numbers. There is a lot of debate about why this might be.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/5
https://prospect.org/politics/2024-05-29-three-barriers-biden-reelection/
It's also true that Biden has presided over a genocide, which he has been proudly and significantly complicit in. That Trump would have done the same or worse is beside the point.
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The Three Barriers to Biden’s Re-Election
David Dayen (The American Prospect)Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/6
https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/the-left-is-not-joe-bidens-problem
Biden may be attracting unfair blame for inflation, and totally fair blame for genocide, but in addition to those problems, there's this: Biden hasn't gotten credit for the actual good things he's done:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoflHnGrCpM
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The Left Is Not Joe Biden's Problem. Joe Biden Is.
Hamilton Nolan (How Things Work)Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/7
https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/why-does-the-biden-white-house-hate
Biden's antitrust enforcers have gone after price-fixing in oil, food and rent - the three largest sources of voter cost-of-living concern.
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Why Does the Biden White House Hate Its Own Agenda?
Matt Stoller (BIG by Matt Stoller)Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/8
The reasons they give for this is that they don't want to mess up an active case while it's before the courts.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/9
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/10
Why doesn't the Biden admin want to talk about this very small number of very good things it's doing?
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/11
The Democrats, like all political parties, are a coalition. Now, there are lots of ways to keep a coalition together. Parties who detest one another can stay in coalition provided that each partner is getting something they want out of it - even if one partner is bitterly unhappy about *everything else* happening in the coalition.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/12
Leaders who play this game can't announce that they are deliberately making a vital coalition partner miserable and furious.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/13
This school of politics - "Everyone is angry at me, therefore I am right" - has a name, courtesy of Anat Shenker-Osorio: "Pizzaburger politics." Say half your family wants burgers for dinner and the other half wants pizza: make a pizzaburger and disappoint all of them, and declare yourself to be a politics genius:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/17/pizzaburgers/
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/14
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/15
https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/judge-rules-for-microsoft-mergers
So that's one reason that Biden's comms team won't talk about his most successful and popular policies. But there's another reason: *schismogenesis*.
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Judge Rules for Microsoft: Mergers Are Good
Matt Stoller (BIG by Matt Stoller)Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/16
https://pluralistic.net/2021/12/18/schizmogenesis/
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/17
https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/16/that-boy-aint-right/#dinos-rinos-and-dunnos
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/18
https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/05/27/texas-republicans-adopts-conservative-wish-list-for-the-2024-platform/73858798007/
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Border security, the Bible and UFOs: Here's what's in the Texas GOP's 2024 platform
, Austin American-Statesman (Austin American-Statesman)Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/19
https://prospect.org/politics/2024-05-29-my-political-depression-problem/
This is presented as *imperative*: unless we restore that mythical order, the country is doomed. We might just be the last generation of free Americans!
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My Political Depression Problem—and Ours
Rick Perlstein (The American Prospect)Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/20
It's actually worse for them when they *win*. When the GOP repeals Roe, or takes the Presidency, the Senate and Congress, and still fails to restore that lost glory, then they have to find someone or something to blame.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/21
This is where schismogenesis comes in. If the GOP is making big, bold promises, then a shismogenesis-poisoned liberal will insist that the Dems must be "the party of normal." If the GOP's radical wing is taking the upper hand, then the Dems must be the party whose radical wing is marginalized (see also: UK Labour).
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/22
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/23
The mere fact that your enemy uses a sound tactic to do something bad doesn't make that tactic invalid.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/24
https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/05/not-that-naomi/#if-the-naomi-be-klein-youre-doing-just-fine
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/25
The *reason* demagogues talk that way is that it works. It captures the interest of potential followers, and keeps existing followers excited about the project.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/26
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/27
We can't afford to cede this ground to the right.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/28
For a certain kind of online scolding centrist, the lesson from this era was that headlines should a) be boring and b) not leave out any salient fact. This is *very* bad headline-writing advice.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/29
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/30
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/31
https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/30/weak-institutions/
Pizzaburgers don't make anyone happy and they're not supposed to. They're a convenient cover for the winners of intraparty struggles to keep the losers from staying home on election day.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/32
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/eof
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-lost-cause-4
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Mister Moo 🐮
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/5
https://iop.harvard.edu/youth-poll/47th-edition-spring-2024#key-takeaway--id--1567
47th Edition - Spring 2024
iop.harvard.eduCory Doctorowudostępnił to.