I would attribute Massie’s loss to what I would call “the cracker State” problem (it also explains the concurrent loss in Louisiana…) I would maintain that if you ran a hot reform Dem like Graham Plattner from Maine in that Kentucky district, in spite of all Plattner’s working class bona fides, he would have also lost. Plattner succeeds in Maine because they are less ignorant there and can smell when someone is selling them a shit sandwich.
The election reminds me a lot of the 2004 presidential. I understand why Gore lost to Bush in 2000 -it was a convergence of a number of unfavorable factors. But 2004, Kerry losing to Bush? The facts were staring voters in the face just how bad Bush/Cheney was that weren’t staring them in the face in 2000. And yet the voters voted out of greed (thinking Bush would economically save their newfound liar loan wealth…) and denial about the Iraq war.
And now last night the facts were staring those cracker State voters just how bad Trump was: a pedo protector, a complete sellout to a foreign power that has no concern whatsoever for Americans and more specifically American workers, and a lunatic who is single-handedly burning down the US economy and global trade. They went full ignorance.
I am not at all optimistic that this cracker State problem can be fixed. I think the largest States that can practically secede (California, Maine, New Mexico; possibly others…) should give serious consideration to saying: “Hey, it’s been real; but we need to run our States based on a rule of law, not a rule of chaos that is made up by the Supreme Court as it goes along. We believe in our governments, not Israel’s…”
New York could also opt to have an orderly exit from this cancer of cracker States, but it is too captured by Dem party politicos that are Israel First (in spite of Mamdani’s great New York City success…) I don’t see Massie’s district being into Israel First, but clearly they are cracker State ignorant and Denial First -they bought the flimsy lies peddled by Israel in political advertising…
Some more facts came in on the polling: AIPAC got its win on the backs of older voters, who would be more inclined to get Fox News as their info source. You can see AIPAC’s strategy to acquire CBS, to get to older voters they can disinform.
I’m not going to be blaming Fox/Murdoch for this outcome (regardless whether he is a certifiable CHUD…); I stand by my original thesis: cracker States are hopelessly and willfully ignorant. Just because Fox is popular on broadcast does not mean you have to change the dial to NBC! There are lots of streaming news outlets and programs one as an intelligent viewer can dial into. Don’t tell me in 2026 that’ it’s too much for someone in their 70s-80s to handle. Years ago seniors could not be counted on to handle Email -most do now!
i get your frustration and how tempting it can be to just blame losses on people being racist or dumb. there are smart people in every state of the country. some of them think different than you and i but in my opinion intelligence is seen through a far too narrow lens by most of society. just as an example society deems me as smart because i can do math quickly but my mechanic sees me as the dumbest dude alive every time i bring my car in and try to explain whats wrong with it.
it’s easy to judge normal people like they have all the same information as we do but they just don’t. thus judging them like they do is incorrect. it’s super frustrating people don’t have the information we want them to have but in part thats our failure. obviously as you mention it’s on individuals to seek better information but it’s on us to get it to them in palatable ways. i think with information that goes against your beliefs people need to have their bellies rubbed and sang softly too while they take just little nibbles of the information. and it makes them sick at first. but they get some of the nutrients and remember so eventually they seek it on their own. i’ve certainly been like that on some issues.
i still believe the idea of this country is too beautiful to split up. what our country was founded on may have been a lie from the jump but it doesn’t have to be. we can still be the land of equality and opportunity. the lamp is still lifted beside the golden door. we can still be a home for the homeless and tempest tost. it’s never too late to do the right thing and be who we always should have. so keep the fight and don’t let frustration divide us.
i think israel and DJT had a lot more to do with it than stupidity. the republicans are still owned by DJT and DJT is owned by israel. while israel can still spend millions to smear massie with crazy ai videos of him having a threesome with aoc and ilhan omar, when israel and trump have thousands of lackies all claiming the same lies are true. im not sure it’s a random american who doesn’t follow politics fault they can’t decipher the right and wrong of it though it may seem easy to us. the responsibility is on us to fix this system and make things easier to decipher for them
this is the situation. like it or don’t. since this is insanely long anyway i’ll end with a lord of the rings quote.
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
I understand your reticence to blame the ignorance of some regions. You probably feel it will only serve to accelerate residents of those regions closing down and not listening. I also understand your aspiration: this worked once -can we make it work again?
It worked because there was a higher level of education across the country. It can work if we also had a very active DOJ breaking up monopolies, and laws for foreign registration of Israeli sockpuppets. What happened to the recent decree that required google to sell off chrome? (for just one example…) -and now youtube is pulling prog channels from feeds? Think the two aren’t related??
I am done sitting around hoping that many of the people in these cracker States read up on history and can start facing the contradictions being sold to them and push back. I have to call an ignorant cracker an ignorant cracker. And now with AI slop culture, it will soon be metastasizing to other non-cracker regions.
If historians do a post mortem on America, they will observe that the beginning of decline happened when Reagan cut financial aid for education. The only way you could make it through college in the 60s through early 80s was with financial aid. Once that was cut, you consigned many to not having higher education -and at the same time after Reagan, high school and family education went downhill (I would argue it happened because parents abandoned their roles as homework assistants because they both had to work like dogs to keep up a Reagan trickle-down -the ritual of the annual family vacation, among other things, disappeared around the same time…)
I don’t see an easy buyoff happening in a place like Plattner’s district in Maine. If AI slop gets more legs, in a few years it might happen in non-cracker places like that too.
There were intelligent young people in Massie’s district that fought like hell to get him reelected. Even they would have to readily concede that most of their neighbors are ignorant and outnumbered them…
I think both you and Nick make salient points. I just turned 73 years old and I never thought I’d see the decline so rapidly of this nation. Exacerbating everything is ignorance and moral decay. Patrie is right about the decline since Reagan with education and breaking up unions. Citizens United soon followed with disastrous decisions by the Supreme Court. Secession is not a solution, but as Cenk says, getting money out of politics would be a move forward. I’m desperately trying not to give up hope, but damn, the deck has certainly been stacked against us. The Magaverse , the diehards, we will never get them to cross over to progressives, but there are now Independents and some Republicans seeing the light. I’m hoping that this forum will help others bind together so that we can obliterate these fascists motherfuckers and stop this death cult from rising again. Thank you, Nick & Patrie
when our power is people they can only beat us when we lose hope in each other. don’t lose hope in your fellow americans. gotta be kind to people and ruthless to the systems that have made us like this
Responding to the first post on this thread: I just wanted to point out the talking point that was pushed by the oldstream media on the brainwashing box was "everyone knows you can’t change the horse in the middle of the river of war. " the way they predicted the “news” media reaction post 9/11 is reminiscent of Pelosi’s stock trading, but that’s why they had to steal it from Al Gore and orchestrated a lot of propaganda to beat Kerry.
In addition, I do want to recommend the latest episode of Common Sense with Dan Carlin to everyone. a more perfect union is possible.
In response to Massie losing, he needed to bring a blowtorch. He should have played the Trump is a Bitch diss track at every rally. KY fell for propaganda. The only way to get past propaganda is to be outrageous.
I have debated that with friends. It could have made a difference in that election, but I think him or his advisors were squeamish that it would make a 2028 presidential run to be even more difficult. That was a very tough strategy call. I certainly wouldn’t have minded him trying it once he saw it was close…
a more perfect union is possible.