I can not believe what I'm reading on this board right now in regards to Joe...

[ancianita]

70. I wrote lengthy descriptions of both Inslee's executive and Biden's legislative work previously.

(Sorry for the delay. Comcast tech wiped out my lengthy reply to you an hour ago while upgrading my Internet and cable system. I can't now remember what I wrote, but will try.)

The issue, as I see it, is that Biden has loong standing political relationships with members of the current Republican Senate, and better than anyone, by being in good standing with their previous bipartisan work, get traction on their cooperation going forward.

The Republicans' well-deserved stereotype will still diminish through the work they swore an oath to do, and there are exceptions to our stereotype -- why? Because we really don't know ALL their hearts and minds. Some are willingly complicit in the current legal tricks and traps their party leaders want to use, others are unwillingly so.

Refusing to trust Repubs is well deserved. They brought this on themselves, with malice and forethought or no. However. We cannot and must not succumb to their habit of zero sum thinking, politically, about our own candidates in relation to how Repubs operate.

The zero sum thinking I've seen around here won't serve to really arm us against this corrupt president in the general. Every flaw he can find we will have to have a counter-blow to. We are not what we are called. We are what we answer to.

We have great, great candidates with vision, skills and accomplishments that we here need to simultaneously promote with "AND" language, not "BUT" language.

Because one candidate stands out in one issue or policy should not imply that the others are not as committed to promoting what s/he favors in our own respective candidates. Already I see others taking up Inslee's priorities on climate change, and I applaud them for it. Inslee doesn't "own" the issue. It's all our issue.

Biden's strength from his past Senate work, as I see it, hits the ground running as a "forced capacity rebuilding" of bipartisanship among the Repub senators who themselves want credit.

They want credit. Not just money. Credit with their constituents is more important than some "cover" story or pandering. To move forward, work with a new Democratic president like Biden, maybe a stronger Democratic senate, is how they get that credit. People like bipartisanship. It feels rational and right. With Biden, they can more likely get credit back home as pragmatic bipartisans, not comrade refuseniks like McConnell who, even as we speak, and unknown to most of his constituents, has Oleg Deripaska setting up shop in Kentucky.

We are much, much better than the zero sum inclinations I've read here. I am not ridiculous or naive about them.

I expect the promotion of our candidates to be devoid of all that "but" and comparison language and be solid with the factual supports we can marshal on their behalf for the country, so people will believe we stand more FOR their interests than AGAINST their reps as opponents.

This is about demonstrating living constructively with difference, which is the heart of Democracy and governing.