Your essay resonated with me because I've been watching a similar dynamic unfold in Portland, Oregon.
On Portland's twelve-member city council, roughly half the members belong to or are closely aligned with the DSA, while the remainder are a mix of liberals, moderates, and non-DSA progressives. What's striking is that the fiercest political conflicts are often not between the left and the right—there is no effective right-wing presence in Portland politics—but between the DSA bloc and moderates, liberals and progressives.
The dispute is rarely over whether government should do more to help people. Most of the council supports expansive social programs and progressive goals. The conflict is increasingly about political behavior and ideological conformity. Critics argue that the DSA-aligned faction tends to divide the world into "the people" and their opponents, treats dissent from within the left as betrayal, and uses ideological purity tests to determine who counts as a legitimate progressive.
As a result, some of the sharpest attacks are directed not at conservatives but at fellow progressives who depart from the dominant faction on a few issues or who favor compromise and coalition-building. Opponents are often portrayed not as merely mistaken but as insufficiently progressive, morally suspect, or obstacles to progress.
That feels very similar to the dynamic you describe around gender. Your concern is not that Democrats support universal healthcare or redistribution. It is that disagreement on issues such as gender medicine increasingly becomes evidence of moral failure rather than a legitimate policy disagreement among people who share broadly similar values.
Critics of Portland politics point to several recurring patterns: defining opponents as insufficiently progressive rather than merely wrong; treating compromise as weakness or betrayal; selectively invoking identity-based claims to delegitimize critics who may themselves belong to the groups supposedly being defended; and maintaining an activist posture even while exercising governmental power.
What makes Portland interesting is that it illustrates what can happen in one-party political environments. Once conservatives become electorally irrelevant, the main conflict shifts from left versus right to competing factions of the left. In that setting, the harshest attacks often fall on liberals, moderates, and heterodox progressives who are close enough to be rivals for the same voters. That seems very much like the broader trend you are describing.
1. The extension of civil rights protections to "multi-partner families and relationships . . . consensually non-monogamous relationships . . . other diverse family structures" and "consensual sexual or intimate relationships, including asexual and aromantic relationships."
2. Banning foie gras, specifically: Selling, serving, distributing, or otherwise providing foie gras. The ban applies to restaurants, food-service establishments, and retailers within Portland city limits. Possession of foie gras is not a crime, thank heavens.
3. Renaming a downtown plaza that once honored Portland's first mayor after a female impersonator who was an insult to women everywhere.
I’m with you on 1 and 3. And your description of the dynamics at play in Portland sound very familiar to this resident of San Francisco.
However, there are very strong ethical arguments AGAINST foie gras aka fatty liver, which is a product of extreme animal cruelty. It is made by force-feeding ducks or geese enormous amounts of food until their livers grow ten times the normal size and become diseased. Many countries have banned the practice including the U.K., Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, and Turkey (hardly a progressive bastion). Like GAC, it deliberately induces disease state. Birds have difficulty standing, walking, and even breathing as their enlarged livers push against and displace other internal organs. Most people object to this when they understand what’s involved. I only wish the US bans went further.
A local independent journalist calculated that the Portland City Council spent hundreds of staff hours and therefore many thousands of dollars and many hours of the Council's very limited deliberative time on the foie gras ban, which would never be served by more than a half dozen high end restaurants and ordered by very few people at those restaurants.
Meanwhile, Portland has more homeless people on the streets than ever, most of whom are substance-abusers and/or seriously mentally ill including psychotic and unable to care for themselves. Our police force is so understaffed, as is our 911 system, that response times to 911 calls could themselves be considered a criminal offense against public safety.
Businesses continue to move out of Portland due to how dangerous it is, particularly in city center and adjacent areas, which means the tax base is shrinking and so in the foreseeable future there will be no way to increase or even maintain current funding of crucial city services, thereby leading to even more businesses leaving the city...a municipal death spiral.
There are many other urgent matters affecting people that the City Council should be and could be addressing and yet foie gras was given priority.
Even YOU have chosen to spend more time and pixels addressing the issue of foie gras than issues relating to the health and welfare of people in Portland.
Holly, I sincerely hope the municipal death spiral you refer to can be turned around.
I acknowledge the reality of opportunity cost and finite bandwidths. I'm interested in the journalist's calculation you cite but could not find it; help?
I'm on the other coast, near NYC, where a foie gras ban is in effect. I don't know how much time/attention its passage took from other matters. I do care VERY much about the health and welfare of people in New York City, in Portland, and everywhere.
a) my experience as a heretic among gender-believers, and
b) my experience as someone who questions harming/killing animals for convenience, habit, tradition or gustatory pleasure (note: plant-based sources of gustatory pleasure are readily available where readers of these words are likely to live).
What led me to both a & b: my curiosity, concern for evidence, and willingness to heed my conscience despite what most others in my milieu are saying/doing.
Some days, it's a challenge to keep alive my hope that people I love will ever escape the grip of the belief system that keeps them:
a) believing gender dogma
b) participating in a system of violence against non-human animals
I wish gender heretic + vegan weren't a rare combination.
Most vegans believe the trans-is-the-next-justice-movement story (I certainly did, until a friend pushed me to examine key claims); most sex realists are fond of consuming animal products (as I was, until I was confronted with the truth of what really happens to the animals).
I've been thinking about starting up a group for fellow vegans: "Open & Compassionate Discussion on the Import of Sex, Identity & Gender" (I realize that shortens to OCD, lol)
I know you're in, MBB! If any other vegans (or vegans-at-heart) are reading this, message me.
My experience here in Portland is that progressives have more than enough hate to go around against both liberals and conservatives, and so feel no need to ration it. As a matter of fact, if someone who is a liberal or centrist says anything against progressive orthodoxy, they will be accused of being a Trumper.
I wouldn’t try Ireland. Everyone “who is anyone”- from President through the legacy media, esp RTE, schools etc are confirmed adherents to the belief in magic that is “trans”.
There are some individuals and hardworking groups who are doing their best but the BBC, the tutor of the nation holds firm to its policy of indoctrination . And Parliament has just voted to allow children to be prescribed puberty blockers - by the state!
Unless things have changed very recently Scotland is not a good bet. See the Gender Recognition Reform act and the fact that every left of center party, which probably garner ~70% of votes in the recent 2026 elections makes gender ideology a featured part of their platform.
EDIT: I think it's important to add that anecdotally in my conversations with family the majority of them do not express support "gender ideology" but don't feel comfortable expressing that in public. They'll do it in hushed voices in the living room with me. I think this is similar in the US?
In recent years Scottish women have fought and won major legal battles against their government. Our belief that sex is immutable is protected in law. Our single sex spaces ( tiolets etc ) are protected. Last week in another court case prison policy was challenged and male prisoners are to be returned to male estate immediately. Ireland on the other hand has Self -ID but women there are fighting back. I partly blame the small but powerful & wealthy US students at Edinburgh and St Andrews universities for the social contagion of gender ideology here - many stay and get jobs in our institutions. But they didn’t count on Scottish women of a certain age who do not suffer fools lightly. While many here worry about increase numbers of immigrants and asylum seekers personally I think more damage has come from US and the import of this BS spread easily & further through social media. Our politicians are weary and want to move on and forget but we will never forget and will keep going. A recent threat of a class action funded by JK Rowling sure concentrated some minds here … it has helped to have a female billionaire onside but ordinary women have come together from all backgrounds to stand together in memory of all the great women who made us and for our daughters and grandaughters … thank you for your bravery too Lisa … the US will get there but in such a big country it will just take longer .. we wish you well … everything we women have is because a woman somewhere fought for us .. nothing was ever just given … nothing … stay strong ..
Thank you, Lisa. Once again, you expressed my thoughts to a tee. The situation is crappy but I take comfort in knowing there are folks out there like you who feel as I do.
I hear you. This morning, I fell into a minor depression over the UK's puberty blocker trial and I have spent today working on a post about a pedophile, rapist, and murderer trio suing to get into the state's women's prison.
Somewhere I read that the primary system (designed to give voters more input than party officials) has led to the collapse of the moderate candidacy on both right and left. The voters who tend to participate in primaries tend to be more extreme than the modal voter. To win primaries requires moving farther left or right. Then the modal voter is stuck with either voting party line or opting out of voting.
We won’t get anywhere advocating for banning primaries and returning to party leaders anointing candidates.I don’t know what we can do.
Closed primaries are, in theory, a huge hindrance, but not really in NYC, where Republicans rarely have a chance anyway. And look what happened in LA, with their open primary!
Elections have been farcical in NYC the entire time I lived there (1980s-2020). The various voting suppression tactics shocked me (polls closing before working people could get home, opening too late in the morning, no sample ballots available, absentee ballots only available by making a personal appearance at the Board of Elections downtown, long lines, faulty voting machines that didn’t provide evidence of a vote—just a counter that could fail!).
Maybe some of those tactics have since been ameliorated, but it’s still a machine town designed to favor the ruling party.
What I find hilarious today is that 25 years ago I registered as a Green as a protest against the Democratic machine, but my polling place neglected to supply me with the correct ballot. I was arguing with them when someone ran in and yelled that two planes had hit the WTC. That is not what I find hilarious but that I was so far left that I thought I was striking a blow for real democracy by registering as Green. Reality hit hard. I gave it up soon after—just no way to affect outcomes if not registered as a Democrat.
Say what you need to say in your book and then let go of a sense of responsibility for trying to fix this societal problem. You've done your share; it's time to focus on other things you do have more control over and would like to have included more of in your life.
Thank you, Ann. I have to figure out what my life is without this issue, without this version of a career. But first I need to do a really good job on the book, and try to communicate the grief I have bore witness to over these years.
Those results were deeply depressing and distressing. When I read any poll of the youth in America - the trend lines across the boards are bad. My baby boom generation is, by and large, old-school liberal but we will be dead soon. It’s not looking good out there.
If you look outside NYC, even in NY state Democratic primaries, moderates won more than progressives. The party remains a mess, neither party offers a path towards anything I want, and I remain politically homeless.
Poetica is coming within a millimeter of saying it won't serve Jewish people. I am sure they'd insist, "We're not against Jews; we're against Zionists!", which is a distinction so fine it cannot be observed at the quantum level.
I don't know, Lisa, but I'm with you. I used to say I would never move to a red state. I changed my mind about that during Covid, and since my discovery of the gender issue it has only become more appealing. My kids would like it, too. My 13-year-old, who (after dabbling in Marxism and Anarchism) has now renewed his quest to get baptized in the Orthodox Church and considers himself a conservative Libertarian, said the other day that "it's so much easier to be a progressive, you never have to watch what you say". Unfortunately, moving isn't really an option, and there are a lot of good things about the blue city where we live. And of course I do still agree with my neighbors on the depravity of Trump, but beyond that, I feel like I can't talk politics and political culture with anyone. I shudder at the trans flag my neighbors have on their porch, and the yard sign that says "it's not a difference of opinion, it's a difference of morality" or something like that. Ugh. Let's have some chocolate together. All the best for your book revisions.
To be clear, the trans flag is not the same house as the yard sign. The trans flag people are a young family, the yard sign is that of a childless boomer lady. But I'm sure supporting "trans rights" is included in her idea of what makes someone a good person.
Uggg . . . I do remember your last account of Lander, when he attemped to put a young girl on the spot and use her to defend his position on an issue that you were challenging him on. A despicable reflex on his part, which probably tells one exactly the sort of choad he likely is.
Also, sorry, Lisa. You may not withdraw to your own island. You are needed here by the still-sane but less-equipped to place this lunacy on the radar of more and more of the other sane but under-informed. There are so many folks out there who haven't yet realized how bad things can get and that they need to pitch in towards our clean-up efforts -- like, yesterday.
I'm all for taking the occasional break and easing the pain with chocolate and good TV, of course. (Am working on sewing myself a few rompers to wear as my new uniform for getting through the heat of summer. A romper has no waistline, you see.)
But perhaps cheer yourself up by focusing on how you're not alone? I recommend spending a little time hearing about the successful efforts of others to get through the nonsense and provide alternatives to the institutions that are currently failing us so badly. Case in point: I felt a bit more cheery after catching this interview with a guy offering a way for parents to educate themselves and their kids on how to think critically and not fall prey to the BS. It was nice to hear someone speak some sense and espouse the classical liberal values that have historically united rank and file Democrats and Republicans, and which have always been the secret behind the U.S.'s ability to eventually muddle through unstable, violent and corrupt eras.
If I've got faith in anything, it's that there are still enough clever and hardworking people around who can clear new paths, find new strategies and revolutionize the Zeitgeist (in bloodless ways featuring more gains than losses.) . . . Don't give up. Keep sounding the alarm about bad ideas and continue engaging as much as your heart will let you. The cynical jerks like Lander pushing lies and lunacy must be given even more opportunities to kick up their heels in an ideological dance that makes their dirty underpants show. We need as many people as possible to realize what those of his ilk are ultimately after.
Why A Children’s Cartoon Terrifies Critics | Connor Boyack #488 | The Way I Heard It
Can you send a link to the interview? I was very shocked when I went to Israel (on a work trip, many years ago) to find many different kinds of people living somewhat peacefully within Israel, including Palestinians. And of course, it's the only place an actual Queer for Palestine could live safely in that part of the world. I'm not defending the ongoing war. But many of the DSA wealthy educated folk responsible for this election are also pro-Hamas. It's just a depressing time. We need more parties. We need open primaries. Ireland is known for not being good on gender, or good about Jews. But I do love the accents and people who tell it like it is.
I'm convinced that our need to feel morally superior to MAGA or whatever is more important to us than following the science. If they're agin it, we MUST be for it to earn our moral credits. This tribalism will unravel as kids move on to other ways of gaining status or attention. In the future I'm seeing a lonely cohort of parents whose children reproach them for not being the adults they were supposed to be. When the tide recedes the movement will have gained the right for AGPs to act out their fantasies in public but little else.
I think maybe you should step back and remember all you've done and that other people have done on this. The conversation is changing and you've played a major role. Thank you so much for all that.
You can't do it all on your own and you aren't. Please catch your breath and let someone else do some of the work for now. You don't need to heal the entire world all by yourself. And the people who invested their careers and self worth on pushing these interventions are not just going to turn around and say, oh, you're right.
It is taking too long, measured in the harm done to so so many people, horrific harm, loss, you know this very very well. Who wouldn't be impatient--everyone I know is impatient.
Please give yourself a break and get some more happiness in your life and then come back when you are ready. More people are getting curious, and then informed, every day now.
Your essay resonated with me because I've been watching a similar dynamic unfold in Portland, Oregon.
On Portland's twelve-member city council, roughly half the members belong to or are closely aligned with the DSA, while the remainder are a mix of liberals, moderates, and non-DSA progressives. What's striking is that the fiercest political conflicts are often not between the left and the right—there is no effective right-wing presence in Portland politics—but between the DSA bloc and moderates, liberals and progressives.
The dispute is rarely over whether government should do more to help people. Most of the council supports expansive social programs and progressive goals. The conflict is increasingly about political behavior and ideological conformity. Critics argue that the DSA-aligned faction tends to divide the world into "the people" and their opponents, treats dissent from within the left as betrayal, and uses ideological purity tests to determine who counts as a legitimate progressive.
As a result, some of the sharpest attacks are directed not at conservatives but at fellow progressives who depart from the dominant faction on a few issues or who favor compromise and coalition-building. Opponents are often portrayed not as merely mistaken but as insufficiently progressive, morally suspect, or obstacles to progress.
That feels very similar to the dynamic you describe around gender. Your concern is not that Democrats support universal healthcare or redistribution. It is that disagreement on issues such as gender medicine increasingly becomes evidence of moral failure rather than a legitimate policy disagreement among people who share broadly similar values.
Critics of Portland politics point to several recurring patterns: defining opponents as insufficiently progressive rather than merely wrong; treating compromise as weakness or betrayal; selectively invoking identity-based claims to delegitimize critics who may themselves belong to the groups supposedly being defended; and maintaining an activist posture even while exercising governmental power.
What makes Portland interesting is that it illustrates what can happen in one-party political environments. Once conservatives become electorally irrelevant, the main conflict shifts from left versus right to competing factions of the left. In that setting, the harshest attacks often fall on liberals, moderates, and heterodox progressives who are close enough to be rivals for the same voters. That seems very much like the broader trend you are describing.
Yes, and that these niche issues interfere with the larger agendas that we *can* agree on. What's happened to Portland is such a shame.
Niche issues abound here, most recently:
1. The extension of civil rights protections to "multi-partner families and relationships . . . consensually non-monogamous relationships . . . other diverse family structures" and "consensual sexual or intimate relationships, including asexual and aromantic relationships."
2. Banning foie gras, specifically: Selling, serving, distributing, or otherwise providing foie gras. The ban applies to restaurants, food-service establishments, and retailers within Portland city limits. Possession of foie gras is not a crime, thank heavens.
3. Renaming a downtown plaza that once honored Portland's first mayor after a female impersonator who was an insult to women everywhere.
I’m with you on 1 and 3. And your description of the dynamics at play in Portland sound very familiar to this resident of San Francisco.
However, there are very strong ethical arguments AGAINST foie gras aka fatty liver, which is a product of extreme animal cruelty. It is made by force-feeding ducks or geese enormous amounts of food until their livers grow ten times the normal size and become diseased. Many countries have banned the practice including the U.K., Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, and Turkey (hardly a progressive bastion). Like GAC, it deliberately induces disease state. Birds have difficulty standing, walking, and even breathing as their enlarged livers push against and displace other internal organs. Most people object to this when they understand what’s involved. I only wish the US bans went further.
A local independent journalist calculated that the Portland City Council spent hundreds of staff hours and therefore many thousands of dollars and many hours of the Council's very limited deliberative time on the foie gras ban, which would never be served by more than a half dozen high end restaurants and ordered by very few people at those restaurants.
Meanwhile, Portland has more homeless people on the streets than ever, most of whom are substance-abusers and/or seriously mentally ill including psychotic and unable to care for themselves. Our police force is so understaffed, as is our 911 system, that response times to 911 calls could themselves be considered a criminal offense against public safety.
Businesses continue to move out of Portland due to how dangerous it is, particularly in city center and adjacent areas, which means the tax base is shrinking and so in the foreseeable future there will be no way to increase or even maintain current funding of crucial city services, thereby leading to even more businesses leaving the city...a municipal death spiral.
There are many other urgent matters affecting people that the City Council should be and could be addressing and yet foie gras was given priority.
Even YOU have chosen to spend more time and pixels addressing the issue of foie gras than issues relating to the health and welfare of people in Portland.
Holly, I sincerely hope the municipal death spiral you refer to can be turned around.
I acknowledge the reality of opportunity cost and finite bandwidths. I'm interested in the journalist's calculation you cite but could not find it; help?
I did find this article about the campaign, which mentions changes in city governance (including expansion from 4 to 12 councilors)—https://www.wweek.com/news/2022/11/16/perhaps-a-different-city-council-will-listen-to-the-persistent-campaign-to-ban-foie-gras/ — but I don't think that's the one you meant.
I'm on the other coast, near NYC, where a foie gras ban is in effect. I don't know how much time/attention its passage took from other matters. I do care VERY much about the health and welfare of people in New York City, in Portland, and everywhere.
Thanks, MBB.
I've observed many similarities between:
a) my experience as a heretic among gender-believers, and
b) my experience as someone who questions harming/killing animals for convenience, habit, tradition or gustatory pleasure (note: plant-based sources of gustatory pleasure are readily available where readers of these words are likely to live).
What led me to both a & b: my curiosity, concern for evidence, and willingness to heed my conscience despite what most others in my milieu are saying/doing.
Some days, it's a challenge to keep alive my hope that people I love will ever escape the grip of the belief system that keeps them:
a) believing gender dogma
b) participating in a system of violence against non-human animals
I wish gender heretic + vegan weren't a rare combination.
Most vegans believe the trans-is-the-next-justice-movement story (I certainly did, until a friend pushed me to examine key claims); most sex realists are fond of consuming animal products (as I was, until I was confronted with the truth of what really happens to the animals).
I've been thinking about starting up a group for fellow vegans: "Open & Compassionate Discussion on the Import of Sex, Identity & Gender" (I realize that shortens to OCD, lol)
I know you're in, MBB! If any other vegans (or vegans-at-heart) are reading this, message me.
OMG. They need to launch an updated version of Portlandia.
They can just flim the City Council meetings.
In my experience, progressives hate liberals WAY more than they hate conservatives. Conservatives are heretics, but liberals are apostates.
My experience here in Portland is that progressives have more than enough hate to go around against both liberals and conservatives, and so feel no need to ration it. As a matter of fact, if someone who is a liberal or centrist says anything against progressive orthodoxy, they will be accused of being a Trumper.
I also live in Portland! It's nice to know there are other people here who read Broadview :)
Replace the names with Stalinist, Leninist, Bundist, Socialist, and Trotskyist and we’re telling the same story.
Lenin went after his leftist compadres first.
I wouldn’t try Ireland. Everyone “who is anyone”- from President through the legacy media, esp RTE, schools etc are confirmed adherents to the belief in magic that is “trans”.
There are some individuals and hardworking groups who are doing their best but the BBC, the tutor of the nation holds firm to its policy of indoctrination . And Parliament has just voted to allow children to be prescribed puberty blockers - by the state!
Scotland or England would be a better bet. In those places gender ideology is at least contested.
Unless things have changed very recently Scotland is not a good bet. See the Gender Recognition Reform act and the fact that every left of center party, which probably garner ~70% of votes in the recent 2026 elections makes gender ideology a featured part of their platform.
EDIT: I think it's important to add that anecdotally in my conversations with family the majority of them do not express support "gender ideology" but don't feel comfortable expressing that in public. They'll do it in hushed voices in the living room with me. I think this is similar in the US?
In recent years Scottish women have fought and won major legal battles against their government. Our belief that sex is immutable is protected in law. Our single sex spaces ( tiolets etc ) are protected. Last week in another court case prison policy was challenged and male prisoners are to be returned to male estate immediately. Ireland on the other hand has Self -ID but women there are fighting back. I partly blame the small but powerful & wealthy US students at Edinburgh and St Andrews universities for the social contagion of gender ideology here - many stay and get jobs in our institutions. But they didn’t count on Scottish women of a certain age who do not suffer fools lightly. While many here worry about increase numbers of immigrants and asylum seekers personally I think more damage has come from US and the import of this BS spread easily & further through social media. Our politicians are weary and want to move on and forget but we will never forget and will keep going. A recent threat of a class action funded by JK Rowling sure concentrated some minds here … it has helped to have a female billionaire onside but ordinary women have come together from all backgrounds to stand together in memory of all the great women who made us and for our daughters and grandaughters … thank you for your bravery too Lisa … the US will get there but in such a big country it will just take longer .. we wish you well … everything we women have is because a woman somewhere fought for us .. nothing was ever just given … nothing … stay strong ..
Also, Ireland has a strong “Antizionist” bent, conflating their own history with England for Arabs with Jews
I was about to say
Ireland has gone sideways too- it’s a shame -
Thank you, Lisa. Once again, you expressed my thoughts to a tee. The situation is crappy but I take comfort in knowing there are folks out there like you who feel as I do.
I hear you. This morning, I fell into a minor depression over the UK's puberty blocker trial and I have spent today working on a post about a pedophile, rapist, and murderer trio suing to get into the state's women's prison.
That's so nice, thank you!
Somewhere I read that the primary system (designed to give voters more input than party officials) has led to the collapse of the moderate candidacy on both right and left. The voters who tend to participate in primaries tend to be more extreme than the modal voter. To win primaries requires moving farther left or right. Then the modal voter is stuck with either voting party line or opting out of voting.
We won’t get anywhere advocating for banning primaries and returning to party leaders anointing candidates.I don’t know what we can do.
Closed primaries are, in theory, a huge hindrance, but not really in NYC, where Republicans rarely have a chance anyway. And look what happened in LA, with their open primary!
Elections have been farcical in NYC the entire time I lived there (1980s-2020). The various voting suppression tactics shocked me (polls closing before working people could get home, opening too late in the morning, no sample ballots available, absentee ballots only available by making a personal appearance at the Board of Elections downtown, long lines, faulty voting machines that didn’t provide evidence of a vote—just a counter that could fail!).
Maybe some of those tactics have since been ameliorated, but it’s still a machine town designed to favor the ruling party.
What I find hilarious today is that 25 years ago I registered as a Green as a protest against the Democratic machine, but my polling place neglected to supply me with the correct ballot. I was arguing with them when someone ran in and yelled that two planes had hit the WTC. That is not what I find hilarious but that I was so far left that I thought I was striking a blow for real democracy by registering as Green. Reality hit hard. I gave it up soon after—just no way to affect outcomes if not registered as a Democrat.
RCV to beat the binary choice forced by FPTP.
RCV without proportional representation just entrenches the 2 parties further.
It’s all in the details of what kind of RCV is being promoted.
FairVote.ca has a good overview of this which FairVote.org doesn’t even identify …
https://www.fairvote.ca/ranked-ballot/
Say what you need to say in your book and then let go of a sense of responsibility for trying to fix this societal problem. You've done your share; it's time to focus on other things you do have more control over and would like to have included more of in your life.
Thank you, Ann. I have to figure out what my life is without this issue, without this version of a career. But first I need to do a really good job on the book, and try to communicate the grief I have bore witness to over these years.
Being a witness to grief, and writing well, as you do, these are gifts to the world.
Please do not underestimate them.
Those results were deeply depressing and distressing. When I read any poll of the youth in America - the trend lines across the boards are bad. My baby boom generation is, by and large, old-school liberal but we will be dead soon. It’s not looking good out there.
If you look outside NYC, even in NY state Democratic primaries, moderates won more than progressives. The party remains a mess, neither party offers a path towards anything I want, and I remain politically homeless.
True, NYC is very different than the rest of the state. But it's also an incredibly important city, and national Dems drool over Mamdani.
Should we lay bets on where and when Mamdani is scheduled to speak at the next Democratic National Convention?
He will most certainly be given a high-profile slot.
Poetica is coming within a millimeter of saying it won't serve Jewish people. I am sure they'd insist, "We're not against Jews; we're against Zionists!", which is a distinction so fine it cannot be observed at the quantum level.
I don't know, Lisa, but I'm with you. I used to say I would never move to a red state. I changed my mind about that during Covid, and since my discovery of the gender issue it has only become more appealing. My kids would like it, too. My 13-year-old, who (after dabbling in Marxism and Anarchism) has now renewed his quest to get baptized in the Orthodox Church and considers himself a conservative Libertarian, said the other day that "it's so much easier to be a progressive, you never have to watch what you say". Unfortunately, moving isn't really an option, and there are a lot of good things about the blue city where we live. And of course I do still agree with my neighbors on the depravity of Trump, but beyond that, I feel like I can't talk politics and political culture with anyone. I shudder at the trans flag my neighbors have on their porch, and the yard sign that says "it's not a difference of opinion, it's a difference of morality" or something like that. Ugh. Let's have some chocolate together. All the best for your book revisions.
Holy shite, that is scary: "it's not a difference of opinion, it's a difference of morality"
To be clear, the trans flag is not the same house as the yard sign. The trans flag people are a young family, the yard sign is that of a childless boomer lady. But I'm sure supporting "trans rights" is included in her idea of what makes someone a good person.
Lisa, apart from the lilting accents, I don't think Ireland will suit you: https://athena-forum.eu/updates/irelands-leading-role-in-pushing-european-gender-identity-politics/
Uggg . . . I do remember your last account of Lander, when he attemped to put a young girl on the spot and use her to defend his position on an issue that you were challenging him on. A despicable reflex on his part, which probably tells one exactly the sort of choad he likely is.
Also, sorry, Lisa. You may not withdraw to your own island. You are needed here by the still-sane but less-equipped to place this lunacy on the radar of more and more of the other sane but under-informed. There are so many folks out there who haven't yet realized how bad things can get and that they need to pitch in towards our clean-up efforts -- like, yesterday.
I'm all for taking the occasional break and easing the pain with chocolate and good TV, of course. (Am working on sewing myself a few rompers to wear as my new uniform for getting through the heat of summer. A romper has no waistline, you see.)
But perhaps cheer yourself up by focusing on how you're not alone? I recommend spending a little time hearing about the successful efforts of others to get through the nonsense and provide alternatives to the institutions that are currently failing us so badly. Case in point: I felt a bit more cheery after catching this interview with a guy offering a way for parents to educate themselves and their kids on how to think critically and not fall prey to the BS. It was nice to hear someone speak some sense and espouse the classical liberal values that have historically united rank and file Democrats and Republicans, and which have always been the secret behind the U.S.'s ability to eventually muddle through unstable, violent and corrupt eras.
If I've got faith in anything, it's that there are still enough clever and hardworking people around who can clear new paths, find new strategies and revolutionize the Zeitgeist (in bloodless ways featuring more gains than losses.) . . . Don't give up. Keep sounding the alarm about bad ideas and continue engaging as much as your heart will let you. The cynical jerks like Lander pushing lies and lunacy must be given even more opportunities to kick up their heels in an ideological dance that makes their dirty underpants show. We need as many people as possible to realize what those of his ilk are ultimately after.
Why A Children’s Cartoon Terrifies Critics | Connor Boyack #488 | The Way I Heard It
Mike Rowe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMBGF78TN3E
The book will be a permanent record. It will be reference material. People will read it 'down the line' and be grateful for the analysis.
Coleman Hughes interviewed journalist Peter Beinart last week. Beinart argued from minute-20 that Israel is not a democracy. Worth listening to.
I live in Ireland. Yes, the accents are nice.
Can you send a link to the interview? I was very shocked when I went to Israel (on a work trip, many years ago) to find many different kinds of people living somewhat peacefully within Israel, including Palestinians. And of course, it's the only place an actual Queer for Palestine could live safely in that part of the world. I'm not defending the ongoing war. But many of the DSA wealthy educated folk responsible for this election are also pro-Hamas. It's just a depressing time. We need more parties. We need open primaries. Ireland is known for not being good on gender, or good about Jews. But I do love the accents and people who tell it like it is.
https://www.thefp.com/p/coleman-hughes-vs-peter-beinart-debate
I'm convinced that our need to feel morally superior to MAGA or whatever is more important to us than following the science. If they're agin it, we MUST be for it to earn our moral credits. This tribalism will unravel as kids move on to other ways of gaining status or attention. In the future I'm seeing a lonely cohort of parents whose children reproach them for not being the adults they were supposed to be. When the tide recedes the movement will have gained the right for AGPs to act out their fantasies in public but little else.
I look forward to Lisa’s parsing of this strange cultural event.
You make me feel better about my own depression of chips and candy and shitty TV.
I think maybe you should step back and remember all you've done and that other people have done on this. The conversation is changing and you've played a major role. Thank you so much for all that.
You can't do it all on your own and you aren't. Please catch your breath and let someone else do some of the work for now. You don't need to heal the entire world all by yourself. And the people who invested their careers and self worth on pushing these interventions are not just going to turn around and say, oh, you're right.
It is taking too long, measured in the harm done to so so many people, horrific harm, loss, you know this very very well. Who wouldn't be impatient--everyone I know is impatient.
Please give yourself a break and get some more happiness in your life and then come back when you are ready. More people are getting curious, and then informed, every day now.
Looking forward to your book!
Thank you again.