But What If They Don’t Care

or worse, what if they don’t want it?

Attribution: Democracy if you can keep it by Dave Whamond, Canada, PoliticalCartoons.com

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67 thoughts on “But What If They Don’t Care”

  1. Voter turnout in US elections, 2018-2022 | Pew Research Center

    Chart shows most Americans are not consistent voters

    The elections of 2018, 2020 and 2022 were three of the highest-turnout U.S. elections of their respective types in decades. About two-thirds (66%) of the voting-eligible population turned out for the 2020 presidential election – the highest rate for any national election since 1900. The 2018 election (49% turnout) had the highest rate for a midterm since 1914. Even the 2022 election’s turnout, with a slightly lower rate of 46%, exceeded that of all midterm elections since 1970.
    While sizable shares of the public vote either consistently or not at all, many people vote intermittently. Given how closely divided the U.S. is politically, these intermittent voters often determine the outcome of elections and how the balance of support for the two major political parties swings between elections.
    Overall, 70% of U.S. adult citizens who were eligible to participate in all three elections between 2018 and 2022 voted in at least one of them, with about half that share (37%) voting in all three.
    [continues]

  2. also from Pew link:

    Chart shows the racial and ethnic divide in 2022 vote choice for U.S. House

    In the current partisan alignment, Black, Hispanic and Asian voters are all majority Democratic groups, to different degrees, though Republican candidates have gained some ground in the past four years among Hispanic voters.
    Black voters remain Democratic stalwarts, voting 93% to 5% for the party’s candidates for U.S. House in 2022. Hispanic and Asian voters clearly favored Democratic candidates as well, but by narrower margins: 60% to 39% for Hispanic voters, and 68% to 32% for Asian voters.
    But White Americans are much more consistent voters than Black, Hispanic or Asian Americans. Compared with the national average of 37% who voted in 2018, 2020 and 2022, 43% of White citizens who were age eligible to vote in all three elections did so; just 24% did not vote in any of these.
    Black, Hispanic and Asian adults lagged far behind, with 27% of Black, 19% of Hispanic and 21% of Asian age-eligible citizens voting in all three elections. Hispanic citizens were most likely to have not voted in any of the most recent three general elections (47%, compared with 36% for Black and 31% for Asian citizens ages 22 and older in 2022).
    [continues]

  3. What was it Hemingway said about bankruptcy? Something like ‘at first it comes gradually, then suddenly’. The end of Democracy could be like that, but watching the kids on TikTok fired up for Kamala gives me hope.

    Here they are setting her words to dance music in the clubs.. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRomuQCp/

  4. i can’t imagine a louder endorsement of democracy than a wannabe dictator begging people to vote
     
    Show him how it works

  5. i consumed a lot of political media over the weekend, and the number of different people i heard seemingly independently call JD Vance “weird” is remarkable.
     
    Either Dems finally figured out how to do talking points, or the dude’s just weird.  No way can he be a heartbeat from the presidency  and that’s so obvious i think Dems need to adjust their expectations upwards and capitalize on opportunity 
     
    Looking for a pitch-perfect convention like 2020 and praying it’s nothing like the cringe-inducing 2016 affair: NO celebrities

    (imagine states like Ohio and Florida in play. i know what you’re thinking. i’m thinking the GOP ticket is the worst ever)

  6. THIS JUST IN: President Biden is endorsing three reforms to the Supreme Court:

    1. No Immunity for Crimes a Former President Committed in Office

    2. Term Limits for Supreme Court Justices

    3. Binding Code of Conduct for the Supreme Court

  7. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/joan-baez-america-the-beautiful-get-out-the-vote-1235069654/

    Joan Baez took to Instagram on Sunday to share a video of her performing “America the Beautiful” and encourage folks to get out and vote in the 2024 presidential election. Sitting in a kitchen, she launched the clip with a sweet laugh before singing the patriotic song while playing an acoustic guitar. In her heartfelt rendition, she changed the original lyrics of “Crown thy good with brotherhood” to “Crown thy good with sisterhood” in support of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. “Times are a-changin’ — Let’s crown thy good with sisterhood,” she captioned the clip. “Register to vote at vote.org or headcount.org and VOTE BLUE!” The folk legend and activist made a surprise appearance during Hozier’s set at Newport Folk Festival on Friday, where she joined him along with Mavis Staples, Nathaniel Rateliff, Madison Cunningham, Allison Russell, and other artists to perform a rendition of The Band’s “The Weight.” As an extra treat, the set culminated with Baez leading the audience through an acoustic rendition of “We Shall Overcome,” trading verses with Kaia Kater and William Prince. Although Baez has performed the fest on numerous occasions, she was officially in attendance to give a poetry reading. Baez released her debut poetry book, When You See My Mother, Ask Her to Dance, in April. It follows the release of the documentary on her life, Joan Baez I Am a Noise that premiered last fall, which also traced her final tour that ended in 2019. She’s currently on a book tour, with her next stop featuring her in conversation with Ari Shapiro at Sixth & I in Washington, D.C. on July 31.

  8. I think Gov. Walz was the first to call them “weird”. And it sure struck a nerve. So lame…
    Trump spokesman Steven Cheung: “Democrat potential VP nominee calls President Trump, who just had an assassination attempt on his life, weird. The only thing weird is Democrats and Kamala Harris supporters trying to gaslight everyone into thinking the shooting was staged.”

  9. Joan Baez and Hosier “We Shall Overcome” Live at Newport Folk Festival in Fort Adams State Park, Newport RI Friday July 26, 2024

  10. …pretty sure JD Vance’s only professional accomplishment is writing one book- that’s great, but to be the guy one heartbeat from the presidency behind an aging, cognitively-deficient man whose own people try to assassinate him?
     
    ..and THAT GUY is going to run against someone with resumé Kelly successfully??  i say go big
     
    ok, women, we need y’all front and center, the incels don’t stand a chance against you and your social networks🫡 ✌️ 🇺🇸 

  11. Vivek asking you to stop being mean is so sad and so encouraging 
     
    Be meaner (just kidding, it may smarter to just let them keep making unforced errors)

    The throw-kid-in-cages and let’s-start-a-civil-war crowd wants you to STOP BEING SO MEAN

    ok Kamala 2024 🇺🇸

  12. ‘I fell asleep listening to him’: Trump Bitcoin speech attendees say he was ’embarrassing’

    It’s always difficult to be sure how he’s actually received at these types of events because Trump’s team stacks the crowd with supporters leading cheers (who then leave the gathering as soon as he finishes) – so the real reception is not always clear until we got stories afterwards like this one:

    “Multiple attendees at the Bitcoin Conference said Trump’s speech to them was a disaster, that he obviously had no idea what he was talking about on Crypto, and he was just there to pander for votes.”

    https://www.rawstory.com/trump-rambling-embarrassing-bitcoin-speech-attendees/

  13. Bitcoin – the medium of exchange he said he didn’t like because it wasn’t “real”?

  14. Like when I asked google what should I wear to a Stones concert? Answer: nobody cares. 

  15. Nixon:  I am not a crook
    . Stump:  I am not a puppet.  
    Vance:   We are not weird.

  16. It’s what my folks believe…
     

    McKay Coppins read every prayer offered at Donald Trump’s campaign events since he announced he would run again in 2022 — 58 in total.
    “The resulting document—at just over 17,000 words—makes for a strange, revealing religious text: benign in some places, blasphemous in others; contradictory and poignant and frightening and sad and, perhaps most of all, begging for exegesis…”
    “The premise of all of these prayers is that America’s covenant can be reestablished, and its special place in God’s kingdom restored, if the nation repents and turns back to him… Many Christians now seem convinced that God has anointed a specific leader who, like those prophets of old, is prepared to defeat the forces of evil and redeem the country. And that leader is running for president.”

  17. https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/29/americas/venezuela-election-maduro-winner-intl-hnk/index.html
    “Both Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro and his political opponent claimed victory in the country’s election on Monday, a vote that was marked by accusations of fraud and counting irregularities.” 

    “Claims of election irregularities started to emerge on Sunday evening as the votes were being counted — including opposition witnesses being denied access to the CNE headquarters as the authority counted votes, and the CNE allegedly halting data being sent from local polling stations to their central location to prevent more votes from being processed.”

    “Opposition leader María Corina Machado said in a news conference that their own records showed their candidate Edmundo González Urrutia had received 70% of the vote against Maduro’s 30%.”

    “Once the fifth-largest economy in Latin America, Venezuela’s economy has shrunk to the equivalent of a medium-sized city, smaller than say, Milwaukee, according to data from the International Monetary Fund.”

  18. Stuart Varney gets it:

    “Trump calling Kamala Harris ‘dumb’ and a ‘bum’ is a profound mistake. Women react to that kind of language, and they should” (FOX BUSINESS)

  19. I am beginning to think she should double down on choice and change, pick Whitmer. Trump is making this a boys versus girls election, so why not go all the way.

  20. “Trump calling Kamala Harris ‘dumb’ and a ‘bum’ is a profound mistake. Women react to that kind of language, and they should” (FOX BUSINESS)

     
    Craig, that would be ideal, but i don’t think they care. They’ve rationalized it, just like Melania did: locker room talk, necessary to win the game.

  21. As for the non-Mayellas, it may not work again. 

    There are a thousand good reasons that going after Harris for her race and gender are stupid and should stop now. But from a purely strategic perspective, chief among these reasons is that every woman who votes has been told within the past two years that someone else—a doctor, a legislator, a husband, a Supreme Court justice—is better suited to make life choices for her than she is. I’m not sure they’re buying it. Reducing Harris this time around to a cartoon version of a person who never made any real choices because powerful men have been slinging her around the chessboard for 30 years is not a persuasive argument for the GOP, even while it’s a familiar one. Maybe Republicans think women resonate with being called lazy sluts who stand on the shoulders of powerful men for the entirety of their careers. But it seems to me that a failure to treat the putative next president as a moral and political actor in her own right signals a failure to believe that women voters are themselves moral and political actors as well.

    https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/07/harris-trump-2024-gop-jezebel-loser.html?

  22. Most of that backlash is coming against Trump’s charisma-free VP choice, JD Vance, who frankly deserves every bit of shit the media can fling at him. He doesn’t even have to say anything – there are plenty of videos of his past utterances for reporters to dig through, like the one where he said the Democrats are run by “childless cat ladies.” Only Trump can get away with saying shit like that, as countless conservatives have learned the hard way. Vance is not only dead weight on the ticket, he makes it harder for Trump to pretend he doesn’t know about the Heritage Foundation’s plan for an American Hellscape, Project 2025; Vance wrote the introduction to a book by the plan’s architect. If these people are the master race, why don’t they ever do anything that shows it?

    https://delawareliberal.net/2024/07/29/dl-open-thread-monday-july-29-2024/
     

  23. Losing to a woman (and a woman of color to boot) is the worst thing that could happen to Orange Adolf, Vance, and their mob of MAGAts and incels. 

    What was the ominous message that they had surprises in store and they weren’t going to tell us what they were planning to do, but we’d find out?   Yeah, they’re really ~walking with Jesus.~

  24. Vote.org reports 700% increase in voter registration nationwide since Harris replaced Biden, 83% under age 35 and the biggest increase in 18 year olds ever recorded.

  25. Joe Jam in Austin

    Biden will travel to Austin, Texas, where he’ll speak at the LBJ Presidential Library at 4:30 p.m. Eastern to mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. He’ll also announce his push for three major reforms — term limits and a code of conduct for the Supreme Court, plus a constitutional amendment narrowing presidential immunity — as he lays out in a WaPo op-ed. Afterward, Biden will travel to Houston to pay his respects to the late Rep. SHEILA JACKSON LEE, before returning to the White House late at night. More from Adam Cancryn

  26. The cartoon leading the discussion today could have “18 year old voters” instead of “MEH”.  TikTok and all, nice, I guess ( I pay no attention to TikTok), but those college age adults could have given us a Kerry presidency if they would have gotten off their butts and wore their ever-present pajamas to the polling places, 20 years ago.  Every cycle, much coverage is given to the young voters, then the young just can’t find the time to vote.
    This time the election could, would, be decided by a massive turnout by women.  Pussy grabbing didn’t mean a thing over-all, but Vance’s comments about childless women should enforce a plea to get many non-registered women to galvanize and organize. And just vote.
    I am in the Shapiro camp for VP, but OMG, if Gretchen Whitmer is picked, imagine the news explosion.  Maybe peel off a few Trumper-Vancers, maybe not….
    We can hope this enthusiasm bubble won’t burst, but in reality it will be difficult to keep it soaring  higher. We just have to keep it high afloat in the Blue skies.   
    I don’t recall any studies as to if Joe Lieberman’s faith was a factor in Bush43 being appointed President by SCOTUS in 2000. I do not believe Josh Shapiro’s faith would drag Harris down to defeat.

  27. Jon Stewart will be sitting down with U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg—whose name is being floated as a potential VP pick for Kamala Harris—on tonight’s episode of #TheDailyShow

  28. Now the horse race is past the quarter pole, and Pete is surging on the rail, after seemingly being dropped from the field.  I hear the vetting is fierce, and will take us to the convention floor at the United Center.  Three whole weeks to go.  Hold on tightly.  

  29. Dex, they have to have a running mate before the convention, before the Aug. 7 deadline for Ohio ballot. I’m guessing late this week or next.

  30. I see there’s nothing on her public schedule today and she’s going to Georgia tomorrow, traveling rest of week. So today could be a biggie in her VP process.

  31. There’s a Women for Harris call
    tonight; I’m listening in. 

    Pete has been everywhere and he’s got a great resume and he’s great on the news programs, so a debate with Vance would be easy peasy.   I’d like to think this country has evolved enough, but there’s 1/3 of the country that has devolved and seems to be getting stupider.
     
    Kelly was a Republican, so that might sway moderate Independents.  He’s pro union, despite what the progressives want you to believe.   

    POTUS Joe’s schedule is busy, considering he’s just getting over the virus.   I love POTUS Joe.

  32. Hillary Clinton:

    “If Republican leaders don’t enjoy being called weird, creepy, and controlling, they could try not being weird, creepy, and controlling.”

  33. https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/29/politics/kamala-harris-jd-vance-vp-pick/index.html

    “Vance’s elevation — despite his relative lack of government experience — is giving Harris a new opportunity to go after Trump. The message is not just that Vance is “weird,” as the vice president said at a fundraiser this weekend, or that he has objectionable views, advisers said; it’s that the Ohio senator shouldn’t be a heartbeat away from the presidency, and that Trump picking him raises more questions about the top of the ticket.”
     
    Well, that does make it harder for Adolf to force Vance to drop out.  If a woman is calling Vance inept, he’ll have to stick with his pick to save orange face.

  34. https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/29/americas/venezuela-election-results-maduro-opposition-intl-latam/index.html
     
    “Protests broke out in several Venezuelan cities on Monday after authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro was formally declared a winner by the county’s electoral authority in a presidential race marred by accusations of electoral fraud.”
     
    “Maduro’s government controls almost all state institutions, including the CNE, which was accused in 2017 of manipulating turnout figures by a software company that provided the voting technology. The CNE previously denied the assertion.”
    “Senior Biden administration officials on Monday said Venezuelan election authorities must release the “detailed precinct level results” from the election. One senior administration official noted that this data is required under Venezuela law and should be immediately available. Another said that if the election results are credible, “then this should be a very simple act and one that they would be able to fulfill quite easily.”
     

  35. even FoxNews has Kamala Fever, let’s goooo

    i had only heard the audio clip of Kamala saying “i know trump’s type” but i finally saw the video of it, and the face she made at the end was an election-winning look

    i’m sure the goopers saw that and thought “oh, fuck…”

    “They’re running an authentic person, Caleb”

    “That is bad news for us, Parker”

  36. Just now on FOX…

    INGRAHAM: What can you say to viewers to reassure them that JD Vance was an excellent pick?

    TRUMP: “He’s got tremendous support, and he really does among a certain group of people — people like like families. He made a statement having to do with families.”

    “I think they understand it” — Trump to Laura Ingraham on what he says to women who have concerns about JD Vance

    https://x.com/atrupar/status/1818067818228703579?t=oz5w_4mCkMZq6jSFQJDTIQ&s=19

  37. “He’s got tremendous support, and he really does among a certain group of people — people like like families.”

    —Said with evil sneer while stroking 6” mustache

  38. NYT Breaking News: Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina is said to have taken himself out of the running to be Kamala Harris’s running mate.

  39. …big Roy Cooper fan, here, he’s like a soft-spoken Gavin Newsome, but he wasn’t the guy for right now
     
    good guy to have on your side, though

    We need to assemble this deep bench of qualified candidates into an Avengers-style messaging squad whether they make the ticket or not, all very good

    Biden’s SCotUS stuff is non-sensical btw, if you’d like a pinch of sobriety. “Constitutional Amendment”?? Congress can barely pass a budget

    Team Kamala is crushing it and Biden is press releasing pipe dreams 😒

    Just fire as many embedded trumpers as possible between now and January, Mr. President, start with DeJoy

  40. Unfortunately Biden can’t fire DeJoy.  Only the board can do that. The problem is getting appointments to the board who will do that.  Getting them approved is a huge kettle of fish. 

  41. Biden can’t fire DeJoy

    …a less ambitious proposal than a Constitutional amendment

    Biden making policy proposals at this point just creates positions Kamala has to defend whether she wants to or not, dude needs to stop

  42. OK, I was sure I heard on MSNBC the VP might not be announced until the convention.  
    I am glad Cooper dropped away because I had him gone already.  The field is like the current Cleveland Guardians bullpen; any one of them can come in and do the job.  Lots of excitement over the current Whitmer/Shapiro rallies, in support of Harris. Walz is attracting support for VP daily and is soaring. Whitmer is stunningly good at speaking.  Shapiro, my hopeful for the pick, is the right man, if Harris “needs a man.”  I have a feeling Andy Beshear wants it more than any of them, but now he seems out of it. Pete is the outlier, sorta. Nobody’s counting him out.

  43. Reagan got away with his mic check about bombing the USSR, “…in five minutes” but  Trump isn’t even trying to clean up his “you’ll never have to vote again…” statement.  Graham and others are laughing it off making up all sorts of cockamamie explanations, but we know the orange idiot is serious. We need him defeated and imprisoned.  
    Vance has my sister-in-law, a 69 year old immigrant from Stockholm who was unable to conceive, in a bad emotional state . All day she has been posting to her many friends to make sure they vote Blue.  She is  a dog lady, and she cares  24-7 for my 77 year old brother with Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome disease. They just moved back to the Chicago suburbs.

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