So, these past few days sucked. It’s not so much a question of “what happened” but more so “why?” Starting with the SCOTUS leak that Roe Vs Wade will be overturned, this only makes sense as the logical conclusion based on the direction this country is heading. We could sit around and speculate as to what the Republicans hope to gain from this, but at times like this, I just need to remind you that 56% of Republicans believe that Democrats, both the party and their voters, are a cabal of child predators running a sex trafficking ring. There’s no more reasoning with these people, and every liberal notion that these people are well meaning people is not only insultingly off base, but is actively harmful.
Right now, it’s abortion, but they will keep coming for our rights. LGBT rights are next on the chopping block. And if they get their way, they will not stop there. The Civil Rights Act could also come undone, maybe even the 19th and 14th amendments. Do you really think they wouldn’t do so? Do you think that just because most of the country doesn’t want that to happen, that they wouldn’t do that? Well, wait until you hear that the vast majority of Americans support Roe Vs Wade.
I don’t even want to talk about this shit, not just cause it’s dangerous, but all the stupid twitter leftists whose immediate response is to blame the Democrats and talk about how voting doesn’t work, when this is a direct consequence of Republicans winning the Presidency in 2016. Say what you want about Hillary Clinton, but the Supreme Court would have 7 Democratic justices if she were elected in 2016. I hate to say it, but the Democrats are not wrong when they say “vote harder” is the solution to this. What they ARE wrong on is fucking everything else.
Oh, you didn’t think I’d let these sneering liberals off the hook, did you? The sneering liberals whose first instinct is to blame Susan Sarandon for the millionth time. It’s quite impressive how much power that an actress who I never even heard of until she didn’t vote for Hillary can single handedly sway the election, yet Ruth Bader Ginsburg refusing to retire in 2014 just in case she needed to approve any more oil pipelines through Native American graveyards before handing her seat over to Amy Coney Barret bares no responsibility!
You’re all a bunch of fucking idiots and I hate you all, but you need to bang and get over it before Republicans strip away any of our other human rights. Unless, of course, your ego is more important than the well being of the millions of vulnerable people in this country who are at risk as long as Republicans are in power, but I’m sure that’s not the case at all!!!! Yes, I’m fucking mad.
Oh, and Nina Turner got destroyed in her election as well. KHive certainly was not above gloating less than 24 hours after SCOTUS announced that Roe Vs Wade was being repealed. Good to see where your priorities are you fucking parasites. Because God forbid we treat politics like a serious topic the effects the lives of millions of people instead of like a team sport.
So the question everyone is asking is “why did Nina Turner lose?” And there are a multitude of different explanations provided, but the most likely one is her lack of endorsements and financial support when combined with the overwhelming smear campaign against her. There are some people who will say shit like “oh, that bowl of shit comment cost her” or “oh she spends too much time on Twitter attacking other Democrats,” but tbh, this sounds like a bunch of coping. While it is true that a lot of leftists tend to think to be prone to echo chamber thinking, the same is just as true as establishment media.
The vast majority of people do not follow politics as closely as most people reading this. Those who would most likely support Nina Turner over Shontel Brown are the people who either don’t vote, or only show up during Presidential elections. Meanwhile, the people who show up to vote for every election are typically older voters who will lean more towards partisan politics and less skepticism. Unless you can afford to consistently run adds on TV and get your campaign out there, a lot of people will just vote for the incumbent. In other words, it’s the same problem we’ve been dealing with since 2016. And since Nina Turner didn’t have the same cavalcade of progressive organizations backing her this time, she performed worse than before.
The plus side is that there are a number of progressive candidates that DO have significantly greater backing that have their primaries coming up. And given that the Democratic Party’s incompetence is what lead to us losing Roe Vs Wade, we’d best focus on strengthening in before the general elections. I recently wrote a piece about the most important Primaries this cycle. Nina Turner’s race was listed as the 7th most important primary. Of the six ranked higher than it, four are also occurring later this month, including the number one entry. So we need all hands on deck!
While the main event isn’t until later this month, we do still have the West Virginia primaries to contend with. While Paula Jean Swearengin has given up on running for office, and Richard Ojeda has moved to North Carolina, it should be noted that both of them have endorsed progressive activist Martec Washington for Mayor of Charleston, who is attempting a primary to incumbent Mayor Amy Goodwin, an AIPAC puppet who has helped sweet cases of police brutality under the rug.
In the West Virginia State legislative primaries, there are three noteworthy races. Perhaps the most high profile one has incumbent Dem and former West Virginia Campaign endorsee Ric Griffith being packed into the same district as incumbent Dem Chad Lovejoy. Despite what his name would have you believe, Chad Lovejoy is a conservative Democrat who has voted to require parental notifications of abortions on minors, against a cap on cash bail for misdemeanors, to increase the number of charter schools in the state, and to repeal restrictions on fossil fuel development. In other words, this Chad is most definitely not based.
In West Virginia’s 26th State House district, we have Doctor and Sawbones podcaster Sydnee McElroy, whose platform includes raising the minimum wage and expanding Broadband access to West Virginians. Her opponent is H. Kate White, who is “pro-Life,” and whose favorite joke goes “Knock knock! Who’s there? Curtain. Curtain who? Curtain rod!” It’s funny that she’s anti-choice, because that joke is about as funny as a coat hanger abortion.
In West Virginia’s 70th state House district, we have former West Virginia Can’t Wait endorsee Ryan Deems, who is running against former incumbent Ronald Fragale, who lost re-election in 2014. And yes, Ronald Fragale has voted in favor of a 20 week abortion ban as well. As you can no doubt tell, Joe Manchin is hardly an outlier when in comes to West Virginia Democrats, and this has been the standard for quite a while. Change starts from the bottom up, so if you want any hope of replacing Manchin with a progressive or even a liberal Democrat, we’d best start here.
Martec Washington – Donation Link
Sydnee McElroy – Donation Link
Ryan Deems – Donation Link
Of the three state legislative races, Ric Griffith’s is the most vital given that he’s in a blue district, while the other two are red. Unfortunately, I cannot find a donation link for Griffith’s campaign, which is kind frustrating. There are a number of other 2020 WV Can’t Wait endorsees who are also running again, but most of them are running unoppossed, and this is just about the primaries.
Anyway, we can consider this a brief preview of what’s to come a week from now, and also where the West Virginia Democratic base is currently at. But if it doesn’t go well, then let’s not get complacent. There will certainly be no shortage of opportunities for us this cycle.
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Very interesting notes here. I’ve heard it argued that the SCOTUS leak has been bad for Republicans because people in general are so against this shift, this overturning of fifty years’ precedent. I read through a lot of Alito’s draft, and it was just as disingenuous as you’d expect. Extremely poor arguments for overturning such an established precedent — but then, of course, the majority doesn’t actually care about whether there’s a legal basis for what they’re doing. As is so often the case with the Court, their politics come first, and then they craft a legal argument for the political one to stand on and to be hidden by so that they can pretend it’s legitimate. I could go on about how the Court operates, but especially with Thomas of all people complaining about how the Court’s changed now — well, whose fault was that?
Out of all state politics, I’m most in tune with the southern states’ because of my family background here in the US, and especially Georgia’s. That’s an interesting one to watch, though I’m not sure how it’s doing with progressive candidates, at least outside of Atlanta. Naturally I disagreed with Greene being kept on the ballot in Rome, but there’s still more evidence that the rule of law in this country is weaker than we thought it was.