Lindsay Graham Dead at 71

[Cristiano]

I'm surprised by my own reaction to him -- which is not far behind yours. He is funny, engaging and insightful. This is a man who appears to have learned from his mistakes in more than just a superficial sense.

I think what impresses me most with him, aside from how masterfully he handles people who attack him, is that he doesn't do it from a place of anger. He has every fucking right to burn these assholes to the ground. Instead, he handles them by trying to contrast our shared humanity and that Trump is the threat.

He is not naive. He is just enlightened and knows that getting down into the sewage with these people solves nothing, but neither does being a pushover either. No more we go high stuff. His humility and self deprecating humor are incredible. He still calls people out on their shit, but he is not afraid to call out his own shit either. Hell, seeing him answer the question of what was his dad's biggest mistake that help lead to Trump again without hesitation - picking Merrick Garland - was impressive.

All in all, I am pleasantly shocked how much I adore him. I always liked Joe Biden, but I do have some anger at him too as I feel in some ways he is directly responsible for Trump 2.0. Hunter at least gives me some hope.

 

[Beebo Brink]

I always liked Joe Biden, but I do have some anger at him too as I feel in some ways he is directly responsible for Trump 2.0.

One problem with old age is that we can get stuck in a previous era as a frame of reference and just not manage to update it. Biden (and Schumer and others) didn't seem to fully grasp how deeply politics has changed. He saw the danger Trump posed, but still persisted in a measured, tepid response to that threat. He treated Trump's presidency as a one-off, a momentary regrettable aberration that had been successfully traversed, rather than an eruption of deep discord in our society that needed to be confronted.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

One problem with old age is that we can get stuck in a previous era as a frame of reference and just not manage to update it. Biden (and Schumer and others) didn't seem to fully grasp how deeply politics has changed. He saw the danger Trump posed, but still persisted in a measured, tepid response to that threat. He treated Trump's presidency as a one-off, a momentary regrettable aberration that had been successfully traversed, rather than an eruption of deep discord in our society that needed to be confronted.

Very well said! To build on this: I think we all had that belief about W. Bush. He was very much a typical republican and then everything went crazy after 9/11 for a while. Some Progressives sensed the growing fascism but overestimated how soon it would really hit. Burh actually did show himself to be sane enough to gracefully step down and the crisis passed. Obama allowed us to feel like things were back to "normal."

A lot of people kind of learned the wrong lesson from Bush. He was a terror who calmed down and then retired. Most establishment politicians were not paying attention to, and greatly underestimated the explosion of white power activity that happened in the following years.

Long story short, yes, it is very different this time. We really needed Biden to come down like a hammer on this but he favored a bit of appeasement.

 

[Cristiano]

One problem with old age is that we can get stuck in a previous era as a frame of reference and just not manage to update it. Biden (and Schumer and others) didn't seem to fully grasp how deeply politics has changed. He saw the danger Trump posed, but still persisted in a measured, tepid response to that threat. He treated Trump's presidency as a one-off, a momentary regrettable aberration that had been successfully traversed, rather than an eruption of deep discord in our society that needed to be confronted.

I agree, and I get that. However, I wish he had not tried to run again and we could have had a full campaign for someone else. Harris, as much as I do love her, had such a limited amount of time and the added weight of sexism and racism. If Biden had originally stepped aside for the greater good, who knows what would have happened.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

I agree, and I get that. However, I wish he had not tried to run again and we could have had a full campaign for someone else. Harris, as much as I do love her, had such a limited amount of time and the added weight of sexism and racism. If Biden had originally stepped aside for the greater good, who knows what would have happened.

Yeah.... the transition to Harris was rocky at best. ....also, I certainly like Harris as a person, but her performance in the debate against Trump really could have been a lot better. She was just ill prepared to deal with Trump's style of rapid fire lies.

There are many very different kinds of "debates." The way you'd debate a serious scientist who's acting in good faith is radically different than what you have to do when campaigning for public favor. A lot of older political debates certainly did a lot of silly virtue signaling and attacks that wouldn't be acceptable in a more academic debate. However, I think both Harris and Waltz were very unprepared for the Trump/Vance style of just lying their fucking heads off with wild abandon, and daring you to call them on it. They seem to have worked out a system where you use crazy lies to put your opponent on the defensive then act like they are "weak" for needing to be on the defensive. I think we have a lot of dumb shit voters who only grasp soundbites. If you need to explain yourself, you lost.

 

[detrius]

Yeah.... the transition to Harris was rocky at best. ....also, I certainly like Harris as a person, but her performance in the debate against Trump really could have been a lot better. She was just ill prepared to deal with Trump's style of rapid fire lies.

There are many very different kinds of "debates." The way you'd debate a serious scientist who's acting in good faith is radically different than what you have to do when campaigning for public favor. A lot of older political debates certainly did a lot of silly virtue signaling and attacks that wouldn't be acceptable in a more academic debate. However, I think both Harris and Waltz were very unprepared for the Trump/Vance style of just lying their fucking heads off with wild abandon, and daring you to call them on it. They seem to have worked out a system where you use crazy lies to put your opponent on the defensive then act like they are "weak" for needing to be on the defensive. I think we have a lot of dumb shit voters who only grasp soundbites. If you need to explain yourself, you lost.

The UK's current by-election in Clacton-on-Sea seems to be a great teaching moment for this kind of thing.