Haele, thank you so much for this cogent explanation of competing political philosophies...

....across the Democratic Coalition spectrum. I wish your post could be pinned. I wish it could be required reading.

Hekate

Someone here is really looking for the Pity Party, Assimilated White Ethnicity Chapter

And I don't mean Name Removed.

Every group that came in large numbers had a hard time, sometimes viciously hard. Irish, Italians, Jews, and many more -- all of us have an ancestral story, and I am not going to belabor mine.

The big difference between those of European descent and what's loosely called POC these days is that within 2 generations nearly all European-Americans are assimilated and considered White by default. I don't know where that one poster gets his "Italians were not considered white until 1978" shtick. In 1953 my husband and his family left Europe with their religion stamped on their papers; in 1964 they moved from NY to California, and as he told me with amusement in later years, he left New York a Jew and arrived in California an Anglo.

A sense of humor and a sense of proportion help.

For a lot of us, based on unfortunate personal experience or just good instincts, these photos...

...as background to his publicly visible relationship with his daughter as the favored child, are really...disturbing.

Trump boasts. Look at those early underage photos of Ivanka, which were published in magazines at his behest. She's gorgeous, and he possesses her. In bed? Lap dancing? Sure, she's his property. And his repeated remarks (boasts) to that shock-jock whoever-he-was, that underage Ivanka's body was so desirable that if she were not his daughter he would shtup (oh, sorry, he said date) her himself. Because she is his property; she's a thing.

Not being an East Coaster, I never paid attention to this moron until last year -- I only knew him as a running gag from Doonesbury, who has been following him for 30 years. But when all this with Ivanka surfaced I about gagged when it sank in.

Remember PNAC? The signers expected the 21st Century to be the New American Century...

While I vigorously disagreed with their goals and methods, I didn't question their underlying assumption about America's pivotal role in the world. After all, the 20th Century was the American Century already. Our greatness was in our leadership.

Who could have imagined that fringe isolationists would now be ascendant? And that they could destroy our standing in the world so swiftly and rapaciously?

Voter suppression is definitely THE issue. As for "wealthy supporters"....

...we actually have them, and gods bless them.

What I find hilarious (well, maddening, really) is the knee-jerk hostile reactions of some to any reference whatsoever to a "donor class" of Democrats. Kamala Harris was reported to have recently participated in a meeting of Democrats of the donor class, and the buzz is she might be garnering support for a presidential run. Amid the flutter of excitement here at that prospect of her candidacy were the usual gripes that amount to "REAL Democrats wear sackcloth and carry a begging bowl, and the rich can go to hell."

sigh

As far as I can tell, we are lucky to have some millionaire/billionaire Democrats. They are Democrats, for gods' sake. There are not as many of them as there are conservatives, and we should kind of cherish and nurture them, not lump them in with the Kochs. We need them on our side.

People like the Kochs, DeVoses, et al. are powerfully driven by their ideology, often religious. When you believe you have The One And Only God on your side, you can do amazing things. Jihads and Crusades, the slaughter of millions, that kind of thing.

~~~~~~~

Hm. I remember the continuous screeching here that Obama was "spelunking" (caving in)...

...that he was throwing (pick a constituency) "under the bus," that he "promised" single payer (he did not) and reneged, and on and on ad nauseum. The perfidy of the man knew no bounds, apparently. Those of us who understood his patient strategy and defended it were driven into the BOG for the duration of his presidency. I mean, really, eight damn years.

See, I don't forget these things.

Worse, because Obama was never one to toot his own horn excessively (or even very much at all) his name got attached to the stereotypes about the plan by low-information voters and every bump in the road was magnified to a gaping chasm and attributed to him as a failure. Leftish voters who should have known better participated in this game, too.

The few red state governors who adopted the ACA and helped it succeed attached their state's name to it (KYnect, for instance) which was fine, but allowed the vilification of that "damn Obamacare" to proceed apace. Other red state governors went out of their way to be unhelpful.

When Barack Obama left office he was asked about the future of his landmark legislation, given how much the GOP wanted to destroy it. He opined that it was not going to be easy to get rid of, now that people actually had something so essential. And he was right about that. It's possible, because the GOP has devolved into something malicious. But it is not going to be easy.

What is it about hardcore GOPers that makes them crotch-sniffers? I know that's vulgar...

...but their interest in sex is prurient beyond belief. They are obviously disgusted by sex -- it's what their fascination with contraception and abortion is all about: dirty unauthorized sex. And now this. They can take a break from describing abortion in excruciating detail and start obsessing about describing sex-reassignment surgery in slobbering detail.

Gods they are disgusting. They need to get a life and leave other people alone.

That's a helluva vivid line, isn't it? One for the history books...

Interesting line about "struggling to master the levers of power," too.

I remember that one of the knocks on Hillary was how dangerous she would be "because she knows where the levers of power are." Like it was a bad thing instead of a measure of competence and experience in governance. *holes. Now look what we have.

You're wrong about that. She's gutsy as hell, went all thru the campaign on the Trump story...

She faced down Trump's mockery and threats of violence at his campaign rallies. She's young, and looks small and not imposing -- and she's female. And true to Trump's bullying nature, he picked on the person who looked small and helpless. Bellowing about the lying media and fake news, he singled her out by name: "There's Little Katy Tur. Look at her!" And the mob turned to look.

It got bad enough that at least once the Secret Service came to her after the rally and voluntarily escorted her back to her car, and when those guys fear for your safety, maybe you should too.

Katy did not back down. She got thinner. Her hair got thinner. But she did not give up.

You think she's carrying water for Trump and the GOP? Really?

I'm glad to see that MSNBC is giving her a try at her own desk. She started out a little nervous, a little unsure of how to manage a panel, and she's gotten better all the time.

So here's to "Little Katy Tur," standing tall.

Moose and Squirrel beg to differ. Wherever Boris and Natasha are, is up to nogoodnik. nt