Biting political analysis of the McCain funeral from Jeet Heer:

[brer cat]

46. This set of tweets is the opinion

of one person; it doesn't really "belie" anything, and blaming every ill on "elites" is a cop out. We have a long history of elites serving this country well, albeit imperfectly, but if we seek purity in all our leaders, we are doomed to fail as we leave millions of potential voters sitting on the sidelines instead of supporting an imperfect candidate.

I find it hard to believe that anyone living in these years of trump can believe that his voters were motivated primarily by populist ideals. They have fiercely embraced the racism, bigotry, and misogyny that he started shouting from day one, and they have not held him accountable for failing to appoint an administration or promote policies that would achieve any such ideals. Sixty million people DID have a say in politics and DID act on that belief, and now we have have a fascist running our country. "Democracy" is no protection from charismatic liars who can convince the gullible and willfully uninformed to vote against their best interests.

Elections won by those on the fringe are those who peel off enough of the center to cobble together a majority of voters. Republicans did indeed have a long run-up to the 2016 election where they worked tirelessly (and revoltingly) to pull together a large base of people who could be moved by appeals to white supremacy. If we are going to elected Democrats, we have to better understand who is in that center and how to motivate them to get off their a$$es and vote. For example, it is indisputable that Black women generally vote in higher percentages than any other demographic group, and while they are hardly monolithic, I see them as largely in the center politically. What can we learn from them? I don't have the answer, but I do think (a) they look with clear eyes at what they stand to lose, (b) they recognize a con when they see one, and (c) they aren't waiting on a savior...power can come from a ballot and they use it.