2026 Congressional Elections

[romad1]

3 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

If it has to be the incompetence that stems from the base, craven character of the current GOP rather than that character itself that leads to their losses, I'll take it -- even if I am depressed by it.

 

The GOP propaganda edge (oligarch money+all the networks) will create problems for them after a certain point.  You can’t force people to eat **** when it’s obvious that it is ****.

[romad1]

4 minutes ago, romad1 said:

The GOP propaganda edge (oligarch money+all the networks) will create problems for them after a certain point.  You can’t force people to eat **** when it’s obvious that it is ****.

“You know what they said? Well some of it was true!”

[chasfh]

7 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

I'd like to believe voter are this intellectually interested in government as government, but I just don't believe it anymore. I think if the GOP gets swamped it will be over a much more mundane concern  - inflation.

I blame the schools being instructed to stop teaching civics, among other things.

[chasfh]

1 hour ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

You guys love to talk about Nazis but have noooo problem supporting one…

 

 

[romad1]

Nazis talking about Nazis

[gehringer_2]

2 hours ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

You guys love to talk about Nazis but have noooo problem supporting one…

 

Platner has an interesting lift. He has to persuade the voters the person he use to be was a stupid, provocateuring grunt and is now a grown ass adult. The first question is whether it's actually true and the second is whether he can persuade voters even if it is.

[pfife]

2 hours ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

Y

Swing and miss

[romad1]

33 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

Platner has an interesting lift. He has to persuade the voters the person he use to be was a stupid, provocateuring grunt and is now a grown ass adult. The first question is whether it's actually true and the second is whether he can persuade voters even if it is.

He's going to win. 

[GalagaGuy]

Platner is a train wreck, anyone ignoring that is every bit as delusional as the morons who support Agent Orange.  

[romad1]

18 minutes ago, GalagaGuy said:

Platner is a train wreck, anyone ignoring that is every bit as delusional as the morons who support Agent Orange.  

He's going to win. 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

33 minutes ago, GalagaGuy said:

Platner is a train wreck, anyone ignoring that is every bit as delusional as the morons who support Agent Orange.  

He's a complete trainwreck. I'm all for supporting the more progressive candidate in a primary. But there is nothing progressive about his actions. Nazi tattoos, sexist and misogynistic posts, cheating on his wife with staffers. Platner had some appealing working class traits, but it has become more appalling than appealing now. 

[GalagaGuy]

15 minutes ago, romad1 said:

He's going to win. 

He very well might, that doesn't change the fact that he's a grifter just like any other politician that pretends to be something they're not.  You have a long history here of taking people to task for their support of various right wing politicians and here you are supporting a dude that went out and got a Nazi tattoo and only had it removed 20 years later when people found out about it.  If you honestly support the dude, you are every bit as messed up as someone who supports Trump. 

[Tiger337]

I wouldn't want to have to choose between a Nazi and an an authoritarian enabler.  Tough choice for the Mainers.  

[gehringer_2]

22 minutes ago, GalagaGuy said:

He very well might, that doesn't change the fact that he's a grifter just like any other politician that pretends to be something they're not.  You have a long history here of taking people to task for their support of various right wing politicians and here you are supporting a dude that went out and got a Nazi tattoo and only had it removed 20 years later when people found out about it.  If you honestly support the dude, you are every bit as messed up as someone who supports Trump. 

I've listened to a couple of long form interviews with him out of curiosity - anyone expecting Seb Gorka or even Stephen Miller level nods and winks to facism would be disappointed. I don't have to decide whether to believe him or not as I don't have to decide whether to vote for him.

then again - on one hand, you  have  guy who admits his past and puts it out there, on the other hand there's a guy that was  probably just as bad but spent a herculean level of energy lying to deny it like Brett Kavanaugh? Which is worse? 

[gehringer_2]

5 hours ago, romad1 said:

The GOP propaganda edge (oligarch money+all the networks) will create problems for them after a certain point.  You can’t force people to eat **** when it’s obvious that it is ****.

That's the thing about inflation. You can persuade people to believe all kind of lies about the state of the world, the nature of the opposition, your own virtue as a savoir, and about the threat of their brown neighbors, but you absolutely cannot persuade them they just paid less for the week's groceries than they did. 

[GalagaGuy]

40 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

I've listened to a couple of long form interviews with him out of curiosity - anyone expecting Seb Gorka or even Stephen Miller level nods and winks to facism would be disappointed. I don't have to decide whether to believe him or not as I don't have to decide whether to vote for him.

then again - on one hand, you  have  guy who admits his past and puts it out there, on the other hand there's a guy that was  probably just as bad but spent a herculean level of energy lying to deny it like Brett Kavanaugh? Which is worse? 

That's the thing, he hasn't admitted to anything or put anything out there.  He got caught with a Nazi tattoo and then played stupid like he spent 20 years not knowing what he had on his chest.  He deleted his Reddit posts but then had to admit they were his after people pulled them from internet archives.  Now we have this story of his wife going to campaign staff months ago reporting these sexual messages to other women, something we'd never know about had it not been leaked. 

He is just about the worst possible person Democrats could have rallied behind for the seat and it makes the party look like hypocrites when they're supporting a dude every bit as bad as many of the Republicans holding office. 

[romad1]

50 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

That's the thing about inflation. You can persuade people to believe all kind of lies about the state of the world, the nature of the opposition, your own virtue as a savoir, and about the threat of their brown neighbors, but you absolutely cannot persuade them they just paid less for the week's groceries than they did. 

And it will only get worse for them. 

[Motown Bombers]

2 hours ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

He's a complete trainwreck. I'm all for supporting the more progressive candidate in a primary. But there is nothing progressive about his actions. Nazi tattoos, sexist and misogynistic posts, cheating on his wife with staffers. Platner had some appealing working class traits, but it has become more appalling than appealing now. 

He literally has no appealing working class traits. People think if you have a beaver ass on your face and wear flannel like Al Borland you’re working class. 

[GalagaGuy]

 

[Motown Bombers]

The thing is, Platner voted for Collins. He likely voted for Trump at one point. Just like Trump used to be a Democrat, Platner saw an opportunity and just came out with a bunch of slogans and leftist fell head over heels for this fraud. It’s unbelievable. 

[gehringer_2]

38 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

He literally has no appealing working class traits. People think if you have a beaver ass on your face and wear flannel like Al Borland you’re working class. 

forgetting Platner for a minute - being working class doesn't really mean much either way. FDR didn't have a working class cell in his body - was the best president the American working class ever had. 

[gehringer_2]

35 minutes ago, GalagaGuy said:

 

the disconnect in the construction is that whatever you believe about who Platner is - he is not expressing abhorrent ideologies in his campaign - he's running a pretty ordinary New England "I'm a populist democrat but I'm not anti-gun"  that's nothing new in New England. You may be convinced he's lying but that is a different thing than the implication that there is a Democrat out there running on the Nationalist Socialist Platform of 1932.

Edited 6 hours ago by gehringer_2

[gehringer_2]

In the long run, whether Platner becomes one of the first or loses and fades rapidly back to obscurity, eventually being tatted and or pierced with outrageous stuff and having an incendiary  social media past are going to become non-issues for the generation where those behaviors were the ordinary markers of that youth  cohort. Just like no WWII gen politician could have survived a photo of himself with a pony tail and a joint, but Bill Clinton was easily elected president, the indiscretions that define the rise of particular generations get normalized when that generation begins to curate the larger culture. Heck, on the GOP side Hegseth is most of that way already.