Orthodox Christian. America is a confusing place for me too.

Does Wicked Count? If not then that weird piece of shit Nicolas Cage was involved in last year. Really cool concept until it became an out of touch rant about “woke cancel culture” or some shit.

To be fair, they can get away with this just because the anti-choice stance is so ravenous they have a self-righteous-sized blind spot for preventable suffering of others.

Sadly, this won’t be covered broadly enough or penetrate the bubbles it needs to for opinion to change. Even in 2024 only 9% of voters listed abortion as their most important issue. Where 48% listed inflation, “the economy”, or immigration as their most important issue. Draw from that what you will, but I don’t think the average voter understands the … externalities of strong anti-abortion measures.

I’ve lived with someone who came out as an unapologetic white Christian supremacist shortly before moving out. He definitely held these beliefs and cited “the old ways things were”.

Recall, some dispute marital rape as well.

These are good points, and maybe I was less articulate because I was responding to the article grumpily. A more accurate statement would be “I’m sick of pundits and beltway liberals telling me what policy positions aren’t ‘possible’ while being wildly popular amongst the electorate on both sides of the political spectrum. Instead of running on that they opt to play percentage points, message on issues that don’t upset their donors, and drift the party’s platform increasingly in the interest of the corpos over decades as they back candidates closer to the center instead.”

Now, Manchin might not be the best candidate to voice this opinion on: because electorally, you’re right, the partisan bias was too great in that state. But, man, I heard the quote from an Obama staffer during the Georgia run-off: “Stacy Abrams is teaching us the power of directly campaigning on improving material conditions.” I was gob smacked that they spoke about this as though it was a revelation. If you want the exact quote I can dig through my podcasts and find it.

However, I might push back slightly on him appearing in a legislation event as some virtuous gesture. He himself was instrumental in including little exceptions in previous bills for auctioning off land for drilling, explorations for new drill sites, and continues to push that our reliance on oil as a place borne of pragmatism and not at all influenced by his donations.

This is part of the reason I bicker with Liberals about appealing to electoralism all the damn time. Great, we technically got a “D” win, but the party installed a senator that doesn’t vote with the party and pulls the senate more “center” as they try to scoop up disaffected conservatives. So, they effectively installed their own opposition. Well done.

Very much the smartest people in the room.

Note: venting, and I’m not talking about individuals just the collective “wisdom” of belt-way liberals.