Hmm. Opening new offices and hiring people seems more like a way to keep the cycle of donor money moving, rather than a strategy to win…absent any actual messaging or policy changes from Democratic leadership.
When I read the article I expected the regional initiatives to have some sort of mechanism to change messaging and policy. It doesn’t seem to me that “listening” is what’s needed…we know exactly what these potential voters want.
I was being silly…and I thought I agreed with most of your points. I’m really not tying to fight.
Meh…if it’s devolved to complaining about my writing structure…this isn’t happening in good faith.
Rock on, eh.
Not Minnesota, no. It’s not in the Bible Belt…they love hockey…they endure the cold. I think there’s more in common there with much of Canada than there are differences. It’s not the only difference…but we couldn’t just move the border because we’d get flooded with guns…and half of them would literally revolt if they had to follow our gun rules. It’s a small state…but there’s 6 million of them and they’d overwhelm us.
Yeah…Canada has pretty much lost sight of it’s roots of being distinct and different from the US. We slide more and more into a capitalist hellscape. Most of our stores are American…Canadians consume less and less media that’s culturally Canadian…our right wingers tend not to differentiate themselves from American right wingers…and an increasing number of them prefer American right wingers to Canadian left wingers…and vice versa. It’s happened mostly in my lifetime and it’s depressing. Very recently…20-30 years ago Canadians understood your message: that American left wingers are to the right of Canadian right wingers…but that’s all changed…I don’t know exactly when it happened…but we’ve become more homogenized.
Everybody in my circles is educated about politics, and we generally understand it better because of our education and complicated party system…but yeah…we’re miles from being educated enough
Is the Intercept any good any more, generally speaking? Earnest question.
I used to read it when Grimm and Scahill were around…but I realized I haven’t read an article there in years. This one seems OK.
No, I dont think that. Are you just trying to find things to argue about? Sounds like we generally agree but you want to fight?
I wouldn’t say “Canadians are quite ignorant”, speak for yourself…or maybe just conservative Canadians.
You didn’t engage with anything I wrote and just ranted about what you wanted to reply to.
I’m Canadian…and I stayed no opinions in my reply, just the lay of the land as I see it. I agree that the US sucks, agree that Canada is mediocre and getting worse, and I absolutely do not want Americans joining us…especially the gun nuts, fundamentalists etc.
All I was saying is that we’re a lot closer to each other than all this hyperbole and combative rhetoric would have us believe…Minnesota and isn’t some monolith of conservative boogeymen…they’re mostly nice and reasonable people, and there’s many who would appreciate what makes us better than them.
I think the reason that Democrats are in trouble is because they don’t represent their voters. There’s a chasm between policy and opinion. That, and they need to win elections by at least 3 and up to 10 points because of how corrupt the US “Democracy” is.
I’m Canadian and I’ve spent some time down in the US…I don’t consider myself to have radically different views…even from many American conservatives…except on a couple wedge issues. The problem, as I see it, isn’t that we’re different…it’s that there are people paying big bucks to convince us that we are.
Oot.
There’s no trailers in CT?
Oh, I agree.
A lot of things just make more sense north to south or regionally.
I’m Canadian BTW.
Hmm. Manitoba is run by Wab Kinew/the NDP…socialists.
Manitoba isn’t right wing…currently has a “socialialist” government. Maybe you mean Alberta?
I don’t think it’s logical to talk about our respective peoples in those terms…we have many Canadians that are right of many Americans…and many Americans that are left of many Canadians.
If we moved the border most normal people wouldn’t notice too much of a change…at the end of the day…but there’d be some irreconcilable sticking points like firearms.
If Minnesota joined…Quebec would probably use the opportunity separate because we’d have to open up the constitution.
We should really be both breaking up into regions/countries that make sense:
Yeah…although he’s often a thoughtful dude and he’s surprisingly knowledgeable about politics…he’ll always be the bloviating sensationalist.
We’re in strange times…and who knows what will happen…but these separation anxieties on both sides of the border are just heightened because of the age we live in.
I spent years in British Columbia, and if you ran in my circles you might actually be convinced that the Cascadia movement had legs, for example. It doesn’t…it just goes to a fever pitch when the other people are in charge.
Sure it can…Minnesota and US-wide. Even though voter turnout in that state is relatively high…the last federal election saw higher than average Republican turnout and lower than average Democrat turnout.
Furthermore, voting intentions for Trump have fallen dramatically in Minnesota for obvious reasons…while voting against him has seen almost the same rise.
Additionally, voting for Trump isn’t the same as being conservative…there’s are very large cohorts of people who were for example: low information/previously apolitical, the Trump left, and independents and libertarians…it was a motley coalition.
I’d put actual hard conservative support in Minnesota in the 30-35% range. There are far too many people who would benefit from cheaper and higher quality healthcare and education immediately to maintain a number anywhere near 47%.
It’s not a secret that Republicans and conservatives in general can win elections with these low numbers…and round we go.
You’re saying he’s doing it for the money? Or that by virtue of being rich he was always doing it for the money?
I have another song for you.
The whole thing is silliness to make a point…like Alberta separation. But…
…I wouldn’t be so sure with this positioning of Minnesotans, or any Americans, so far right of Canada. The American system has been gerrymandered and moved away from democracy in various ways…to the point where the actual people might be more aligned with Canada than you believe.
The only hardcore sticking point, in my estimation, would be guns. It would be a non-starter for too many on both sides.
I mean…it’s Jesse Ventura…but it’s hyperbole to make a point, I’d imagine.
It’s no more silly than Alberta joining the US.
Huh…we’ve known Trump was senile since before he was elected the first time. He’s just a talking point robot…arguably the best “politician” we’ve ever seen: Reagan 2.0.
If anyone recalls, Trump used the “I know what you are, but what am I?” strategy to switch the conversation to Biden’s cognitive ability from his own.
…I guess it REALLY worked, because a lot of folks have memory-holed themselves.