@FeralRobots we can blame the electorate in our minds if we want, but it never does any good. assuming we ever have an opportunity to try to rebuild a democracy, we wouldn’t collectively punish them, wouldn’t disenfranchise them. there they are. i think the fundamental fault is US democracy has devolved into electing one king for all every four years, rather than representatives you actually know deliberating in common.
@FeralRobots the hero is an antihero. the mob boss. he does bad things but he takes care of business. he’s not a weasel. you know where you stand with him. he protects his own, which the marginal voter assumes includes him and his, if he votes for the man and cheers him and never snitches.
@artcollisions (meanwhile gas is extraordinarily cheap right now, by any standard other than mid pandemic when most people were staying home.)
the marginal voter was not voting on the basis of “issues”. they were choosing who best fit the role — in their imagination, by virtue of their parasocial attachments — of hero who can fix it.
parasociability is a tremendous challenge to contemporary theories of democracy.
“If the pattern of the past holds, the future won’t be majority-minority; it will be a white majority, where Spanish last names are common.” @jbouie, writing in 2014 https://democracyjournal.org/magazine/31/demography-is-not-destiny/
it feels like everywhere is the nazi bar now.
@chemoelectric @bkahn @StillIRise1963 there are remarkable crystalline springs here.
when the threshold is a supermajority and a clear majority supports, it is inaccurate to write “Florida voters reject”.
Florida voters support, by a large margin, but fail to meet the 60% threshold required to amend the state constitution. https://mastodon.social/@axios/113433518956678234
@bkahn @StillIRise1963 it’s a beautiful place and very sad the way its inhabitants have become.
scab zombie needle. stay away.
not feeling great about being a floridian so far tonight.
today’s family outing.
Three hands, indexed fingers outstretched, with two “I Voted” stickers at the tip, and one “Future Voter” sticker.
i think the strike at the nyt tech guild is really moving the needle.
today is a day for heroes without capes.
i don’t want to jinx anything, but what if Wednesday morning we wake up to a country much better than we had thought it was?
what do you do when you are tired but not sleepy?