Plaidula
@plaidula.bsky.social
Himbo, strongman, G L O B E
Chapter Lead of the Twin Cities New Liberals. Pro-liberalism, anti-"I'm too good for everything" cynicism.
Chapter Lead of the Twin Cities New Liberals. Pro-liberalism, anti-"I'm too good for everything" cynicism.
Reposted by Plaidula
“The base” means core voters, not those furthest from center who denounce the party and say don’t vote.
Every sign says the Democratic base is very energized: party registration, likely voter screens, primary and special election turnout, generic ballot, which states are competitive, you name it.
Every sign says the Democratic base is very energized: party registration, likely voter screens, primary and special election turnout, generic ballot, which states are competitive, you name it.
September 15, 2026 at 11:49 AM
“The base” means core voters, not those furthest from center who denounce the party and say don’t vote.
Every sign says the Democratic base is very energized: party registration, likely voter screens, primary and special election turnout, generic ballot, which states are competitive, you name it.
Every sign says the Democratic base is very energized: party registration, likely voter screens, primary and special election turnout, generic ballot, which states are competitive, you name it.
Reposted by Plaidula
The American Democratic Party is overwhelmingly pro-trans.
i feel like theres people trying to repeat "dems are anti trans" until it takes hold in social media the same way it went with "dems are committing genocide"
'i mean if so many people are talking about it, there must be something there, right'
'i mean if so many people are talking about it, there must be something there, right'
September 14, 2026 at 6:13 PM
The American Democratic Party is overwhelmingly pro-trans.
Reposted by Plaidula
Gotta admit that I don't really think it's coincidental that suddenly all the knives are out for Talarico the moment polling has rather decisively turned in his favor.
September 14, 2026 at 2:56 AM
Gotta admit that I don't really think it's coincidental that suddenly all the knives are out for Talarico the moment polling has rather decisively turned in his favor.
Reposted by Plaidula
Ossoff: "The draft-dodging commander in chief builds a monument to himself while plunging us deeper into a war he doesn't know how to end or win"
September 13, 2026 at 7:54 PM
Ossoff: "The draft-dodging commander in chief builds a monument to himself while plunging us deeper into a war he doesn't know how to end or win"
Reposted by Plaidula
I'm not even stating a side on the latest Discourse - I'm simply saying: the goal of this shit published from the Beltway punditocracy, a group we KNOW loves Republicans & wants them to win, is to get YOU, personally, to despair & see enemies everywhere, to convince you the real war is against Dems
September 11, 2026 at 7:40 AM
I'm not even stating a side on the latest Discourse - I'm simply saying: the goal of this shit published from the Beltway punditocracy, a group we KNOW loves Republicans & wants them to win, is to get YOU, personally, to despair & see enemies everywhere, to convince you the real war is against Dems
Reposted by Plaidula
When normie establishment Dems did this, people interpreted it as a sign that establishment Dems actually just loved Republicans and the outrage/anger they expressed was keyfabe.
Can we all recognize the double standard here?
Can we all recognize the double standard here?
Too many people online seem to conflate left politics with being obnoxious and scathing and Mamdani is such a model for combining a principled ideological vision with civility and grace. You shake hands, you act like a grown up even whether others aren’t. You show up.
NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani shaking hands at the Sept. 11 ceremony via ABC7NY
September 11, 2026 at 1:53 PM
When normie establishment Dems did this, people interpreted it as a sign that establishment Dems actually just loved Republicans and the outrage/anger they expressed was keyfabe.
Can we all recognize the double standard here?
Can we all recognize the double standard here?
Reposted by Plaidula
A lot of ppl are like "oh wow only 1/6th not a big deal," but as @unavaleable.bsky.social likes to note, Hoover only lost about a 1/5 of his voters in 1932 and it was a totalizing wipeout for him.
One out of six Trump voters says they would not vote for him again
www.gelliottmorris.com/p/2026-08-30...
www.gelliottmorris.com/p/2026-08-30...
One out of six Trump voters says they wouldn't vote for him again
Plus, a few articles on why polling isn't broken #ackshually, and YouGov’s LV-RV gap. Your weekly political data roundup for August 30, 2026.
www.gelliottmorris.com
August 31, 2026 at 1:49 PM
A lot of ppl are like "oh wow only 1/6th not a big deal," but as @unavaleable.bsky.social likes to note, Hoover only lost about a 1/5 of his voters in 1932 and it was a totalizing wipeout for him.
I continue to beat my specific hobby horse that this is generational.
Boomers/Gen X are convinced GOP are better on economy because of vibes/memories from the 70s-80s. Millennials do not trust the GOP after W Bush and the GFC, Gen Z is having that same experience under Trump.
Boomers/Gen X are convinced GOP are better on economy because of vibes/memories from the 70s-80s. Millennials do not trust the GOP after W Bush and the GFC, Gen Z is having that same experience under Trump.
August 29, 2026 at 3:25 AM
I continue to beat my specific hobby horse that this is generational.
Boomers/Gen X are convinced GOP are better on economy because of vibes/memories from the 70s-80s. Millennials do not trust the GOP after W Bush and the GFC, Gen Z is having that same experience under Trump.
Boomers/Gen X are convinced GOP are better on economy because of vibes/memories from the 70s-80s. Millennials do not trust the GOP after W Bush and the GFC, Gen Z is having that same experience under Trump.
This is the most irksome part of watching people drag the founding fathers for "not anticipating this."
You can anticipate all you want, but if the volk want ruination to cure their affluenza, there is no possible system to prevent them from getting it, including "authoritarianism, but for good"
You can anticipate all you want, but if the volk want ruination to cure their affluenza, there is no possible system to prevent them from getting it, including "authoritarianism, but for good"
"Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks--no form of government can render us secure. To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea."
Representation: James Madison, Virginia Ratifying Convention
press-pubs.uchicago.edu
August 25, 2026 at 3:38 PM
This is the most irksome part of watching people drag the founding fathers for "not anticipating this."
You can anticipate all you want, but if the volk want ruination to cure their affluenza, there is no possible system to prevent them from getting it, including "authoritarianism, but for good"
You can anticipate all you want, but if the volk want ruination to cure their affluenza, there is no possible system to prevent them from getting it, including "authoritarianism, but for good"
I mean, Trump is successfully driving enormous numbers of farmers to bankruptcy and the Democratic coalition is probably only getting less reliant on farming communities in both the primaries and general elections moving forward.
The pro-farming, pro-rural consensus may be coming to an end.
The pro-farming, pro-rural consensus may be coming to an end.
Dems should absolutely kill corn ethanol and divert the spending to solar subsidies.
Underappreciated: US farmland *already substantially produces energy, not food*, and does so very inefficiently. Corn ethanol (~40% of all US corn) requires about 100 times more land per vehicle-mile driven than solar photovoltaics -> electric vehicles. Shifting corn to solar *would free up land*.
August 24, 2026 at 9:09 PM
I mean, Trump is successfully driving enormous numbers of farmers to bankruptcy and the Democratic coalition is probably only getting less reliant on farming communities in both the primaries and general elections moving forward.
The pro-farming, pro-rural consensus may be coming to an end.
The pro-farming, pro-rural consensus may be coming to an end.
As I'm pretty sure Ed Zitron has noted (and I don't buy everything he says on AI, but I buy a lot of his financial analysis), the timeline in which all of these data centers need to be built, operational at stated capacity (including power use), and paying back debtors make this quite bad.
“.. Some are viewing it as an 'oh shit' moment," an AI industry advocate told POLITICO. "Others are brushing it off like it's nothing, and those people have to get their heads out of their asses. This could go south for them, fast."
@politico.com
www.politico.com/news/2026/08...
@politico.com
www.politico.com/news/2026/08...
August 24, 2026 at 4:44 PM
As I'm pretty sure Ed Zitron has noted (and I don't buy everything he says on AI, but I buy a lot of his financial analysis), the timeline in which all of these data centers need to be built, operational at stated capacity (including power use), and paying back debtors make this quite bad.
Reposted by Plaidula
It’s been extremely funny to watch the “always following, always angry about politics” website predictably crash out over this.
You guys do realize Jeffries has run circles around Johnson, right? He’s not the most inspiring pol but he is actually quite good at the job. Sorry.
You guys do realize Jeffries has run circles around Johnson, right? He’s not the most inspiring pol but he is actually quite good at the job. Sorry.
maybe a hot take but my hunch here is that this is jared sucking up to Hakeem, not the other way around
jared is not particularly smart, but he is one of the only ones in Trump’s circle who can actually tell which way the wind is blowing because everyone else is a depraved cultist or just an idiot
jared is not particularly smart, but he is one of the only ones in Trump’s circle who can actually tell which way the wind is blowing because everyone else is a depraved cultist or just an idiot
I really do not understand the purpose of this. No one is asking for this.
August 23, 2026 at 8:26 PM
It’s been extremely funny to watch the “always following, always angry about politics” website predictably crash out over this.
You guys do realize Jeffries has run circles around Johnson, right? He’s not the most inspiring pol but he is actually quite good at the job. Sorry.
You guys do realize Jeffries has run circles around Johnson, right? He’s not the most inspiring pol but he is actually quite good at the job. Sorry.
Reposted by Plaidula
I want to expand on this in a short thread.
Fascism sucks.
It is also not going away: it is an effectively permanent part of modern representative politics because it is an effectively permanent part of human nature.
We have to be prepared to push back against it, basically forever.
Fascism sucks.
It is also not going away: it is an effectively permanent part of modern representative politics because it is an effectively permanent part of human nature.
We have to be prepared to push back against it, basically forever.
That said, I think at this point, we can conclude that fascism is a latent political force in basically every country, to a greater or lesser degree and so you need to be thinking, "what if my country goes fascist? what if a neighboring country does?" and plan for how to avoid or deal with that.
August 24, 2026 at 2:31 AM
I want to expand on this in a short thread.
Fascism sucks.
It is also not going away: it is an effectively permanent part of modern representative politics because it is an effectively permanent part of human nature.
We have to be prepared to push back against it, basically forever.
Fascism sucks.
It is also not going away: it is an effectively permanent part of modern representative politics because it is an effectively permanent part of human nature.
We have to be prepared to push back against it, basically forever.
Reposted by Plaidula
We lived like that - brutal, slavery-and-genocide beggar-thy-neighbor competition for resources in which suspicion and violence towards outsiders was a key survival skill - for many tens of thousands of years before we even developed farming.
We created culture for it. We *evolved* for it.
We created culture for it. We *evolved* for it.
August 24, 2026 at 2:31 AM
We lived like that - brutal, slavery-and-genocide beggar-thy-neighbor competition for resources in which suspicion and violence towards outsiders was a key survival skill - for many tens of thousands of years before we even developed farming.
We created culture for it. We *evolved* for it.
We created culture for it. We *evolved* for it.
Reposted by Plaidula
One of the online opinions I understand least but see most is “I, a poster, must be allowed to dictate the elected leadership of the Democratic Party and if I am not so allowed, I will never again support the party”.
August 24, 2026 at 11:21 AM
One of the online opinions I understand least but see most is “I, a poster, must be allowed to dictate the elected leadership of the Democratic Party and if I am not so allowed, I will never again support the party”.
Different analysis frame: Boomers and people who remember the 70s have dominated electoral politics since the 1980s, and we may very well be about to swing the other direction, similar to how New Deal voters dominated an entire generation before the Boomers grew in electoral prominence.
the left was blamed for stagflation in the 70s & has been less trusted on the economy ever since
the right has been catastrophically wrong about climate change, financial deregulation, multiple wars, & immigration control & it's always forgotten by the next election
the right has been catastrophically wrong about climate change, financial deregulation, multiple wars, & immigration control & it's always forgotten by the next election
August 20, 2026 at 5:34 PM
Different analysis frame: Boomers and people who remember the 70s have dominated electoral politics since the 1980s, and we may very well be about to swing the other direction, similar to how New Deal voters dominated an entire generation before the Boomers grew in electoral prominence.
Reposted by Plaidula
It is amazing that we are talking about a dems in disarray narrative when they're competitive in Ohio, Texas, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas lmao
August 16, 2026 at 7:40 PM
It is amazing that we are talking about a dems in disarray narrative when they're competitive in Ohio, Texas, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas lmao
I once worked at a company with a stupid early-morning all-hands every day, and one time the President called in from his phone but forgot to turn his camera off, as he was lying in bed with his eyes closed, lights off, plausibly snoring.
Senior leadership was clearly mildly panicking. Hilarious.
Senior leadership was clearly mildly panicking. Hilarious.
Hot take: ChatGPT is putting in relief how a lot of senior people actually work: they farm out the tedious parts to junior staff, review things half-assed in traffic, & rake in a big check for their trouble.
New: An "expert witness" in a $61 million lawsuit over an industrial explosion that killed three people and destroyed 200 homes used ChatGPT to write his report for the court.
He prompted ChatGPT to "show how 3M is 0% at fault for the explosion at Watson Grinding"
www.404media.co/show-how-3m-...
He prompted ChatGPT to "show how 3M is 0% at fault for the explosion at Watson Grinding"
www.404media.co/show-how-3m-...
August 17, 2026 at 5:11 PM
I once worked at a company with a stupid early-morning all-hands every day, and one time the President called in from his phone but forgot to turn his camera off, as he was lying in bed with his eyes closed, lights off, plausibly snoring.
Senior leadership was clearly mildly panicking. Hilarious.
Senior leadership was clearly mildly panicking. Hilarious.
Realizing I'm from Minnesota and my opinion on larger mountains is unimportant, I must acknowledge that the Sawtooths on Lake Superior being as large as they are makes me feel less crazy about thinking of them as mountain-adjacent hills.
It's so cute when people on the east coast talk about mountains
August 13, 2026 at 8:07 PM
Realizing I'm from Minnesota and my opinion on larger mountains is unimportant, I must acknowledge that the Sawtooths on Lake Superior being as large as they are makes me feel less crazy about thinking of them as mountain-adjacent hills.
Reposted by Plaidula
discourse alert: at -8 among white non-college workers, the GOP is now below the number Democrats hit among young men voters in 2024 (-5 on Nov 2024 vote choice) when we decided we had a demographic crisis on our hands
NEW Economist/YouGov Aug 7-10
3-week average net Trump job approval [now | at the start of Trump's 2nd term] among:
U.S. adult citizens: -27 | +2
Whites: -16 | +14
Non-college whites: -8 | +27
College whites: -30 | -6
Hispanics: -36 | -14
Blacks: -62 | -39
3-week average net Trump job approval [now | at the start of Trump's 2nd term] among:
U.S. adult citizens: -27 | +2
Whites: -16 | +14
Non-college whites: -8 | +27
College whites: -30 | -6
Hispanics: -36 | -14
Blacks: -62 | -39
August 11, 2026 at 1:59 PM
discourse alert: at -8 among white non-college workers, the GOP is now below the number Democrats hit among young men voters in 2024 (-5 on Nov 2024 vote choice) when we decided we had a demographic crisis on our hands
If the MAGA coalition loses 20% of its voters while the Harris coalition stays united, as this poll suggests, that really is a catastrophe for the GOP.
These toplines bury just how strongly the country disapproves of Trump. Strongly disapprove is 3x more than strongly approve. More people strongly approve than approve at all. A majority of independents strongly disapprove of Trump. Not even a majority of Republicans strongly approve.
August 11, 2026 at 10:38 PM
If the MAGA coalition loses 20% of its voters while the Harris coalition stays united, as this poll suggests, that really is a catastrophe for the GOP.
The most obvious way the US gets out of its current political predicament is neither in our control nor emotionally satisfying, but as many have noted, it mostly involves low social trust voters deciding that getting burned by Trump means politics doesn't matter and tuning out of future elections.
August 11, 2026 at 2:09 PM
The most obvious way the US gets out of its current political predicament is neither in our control nor emotionally satisfying, but as many have noted, it mostly involves low social trust voters deciding that getting burned by Trump means politics doesn't matter and tuning out of future elections.
I think Nathan's point here holds up the most where a small pool can constrain consumer access (e.g., monopolies and oligopolies with collusion), which applies in many instances (e.g., housing).
I think Max is right concerning the revealed consumer preferences in markets without these problems.
I think Max is right concerning the revealed consumer preferences in markets without these problems.
I think this is fundamentally wrong but in an interesting way I will need to write about sometime.
The key is
a) consumers do not choose what is produced, or how, they choose between what is produced. This is a crucial difference
The key is
a) consumers do not choose what is produced, or how, they choose between what is produced. This is a crucial difference
I think my most genuinely unpopular take is that a widely held and genuine consumer preference for cheaper, lower-quality goods, not private equity, is driving the decline in quality of consumer goods like clothing and housewares.
August 11, 2026 at 1:25 PM
I think Nathan's point here holds up the most where a small pool can constrain consumer access (e.g., monopolies and oligopolies with collusion), which applies in many instances (e.g., housing).
I think Max is right concerning the revealed consumer preferences in markets without these problems.
I think Max is right concerning the revealed consumer preferences in markets without these problems.
Reposted by Plaidula
I think the thing we are all in denial about when it comes to the One Cool Trick to win elections forever is that low info swing voters are basically incomprehensible eldritch horrors to politically engaged people. There’s no understanding them and you’ll go mad trying.
August 8, 2026 at 1:45 PM
I think the thing we are all in denial about when it comes to the One Cool Trick to win elections forever is that low info swing voters are basically incomprehensible eldritch horrors to politically engaged people. There’s no understanding them and you’ll go mad trying.
Reposted by Plaidula
There is, let’s say, some tension between the conviction that deliverism must be true, and the conviction that doing incremental progress toward a goal will make your base turn against you.
In general I think it would be extremely helpful to the left if the idea that you can just accomplish something like universal single payer in one fell swoop is abandoned. Laying out the incremental process for achieving an M4A would sell better and actually be achievable
August 7, 2026 at 5:14 PM
There is, let’s say, some tension between the conviction that deliverism must be true, and the conviction that doing incremental progress toward a goal will make your base turn against you.