Dowd is the quintessential Karen.

Yes I know her brother wrote it, but she published it without critique. She's always written smarmy pieces that twist the knife in the backs of Dems, and seems to pine for the world of the 1950s where everybody knew their place and where a woman of her stature was well kept.

Her brother's worldview is absurd and bothsiderist. Dems and even some Repubs (Never-Trumpers) formed a resistance against a fascist strongman who was installed by Russia and who lost the popular vote by 3 million. He had no right being president, and any sane system would've weeded him out before he got that far. Trump's admin was a clown show and grift operation that did little to benefit anyone except his family, the one percent and racists.

Biden, otoh, is an institutionalist and bipartisan consensus seeker, and won despite the GOP voter suppression efforts aimed at the Dem base.

Hunting of the president (see Bill Clinton, Obama) has always been a Republican pasttime - so save it you racist little shitstain. You guys are cowards and sore losers whose time has come and gone.

+1. AOC and the Squad get hated on for being outspoken WoC

who say things that make some people uncomfortable.

Rahm should not be anywhere near a Dem admin.

The issue of police brutality is an institutional issue that both political parties have been complicit in for years.

If we are to show the youth, PoC etc that we are committed to police reform we can't be hiring someone like Rahm, who is also not good for other reasons that turn of those voting blocs.

Crybaby conservatives

+1. Even right wing judges have thrown out

most of these cases, both before and after the election.

The far-fetched idea that the Constitution allows state legislatures to arbitarily select the electors (and thus arbitrarily select the president) is just not going to happen as it would upend our entire conception of American democracy, where we the people choose and not some cabal of state and local officials.

I don't think we'll ever see such a ruling

even by far-right judges because it would effectively render presidential elections meaningless if legislatures could arbitrarily step in and overtake the process anytime they wanted.

I don't think Scalia (in Bush v Gore) or Kavanaugh in recent rulings view it that way - only that should an election have severe problems which can be proven in court, that cast doubt upon the results in a way that it is unable to be certified, then the power to select the electors falls back to the legislature.

I doubt even far right justices would go along with that,

as they would be fearful that if in the future Dems overtake swing state legislatures we would give the states (and the presidency) to the Dem candidate. The Texas legislature is not far away from becoming blue. Presidential elections would basically have no meaning, as it would be known ahead of time (based upon whichever party controls enough of the swing state legislatures) would win the presidency. Neither party would go for that.

From everything I've seen from both conservative and liberal election experts - the bullet points I listed are generally accepted - that power to appoint the electors flows from the Constitution through the legislatures through the people and finally through the parties.

Conservatives courts do take a stricter (voter suppresive) view of election laws. They overturned several state liberal court rulings that allowed late arriving mail-in ballots due to covid, on the basis that only the legislature can make election law. But the conservative courts did not say (or imply) that legislatures can do whatever they want whenever they want (such as arbitrarily appointing electors in contradiction to existing laws).

+1. Rachel is brilliant but also anxious, sometimes clouds her viewpoint.

•The Constitution grants legislatures the right to decide how to appoint the electors.
•Any law relating to an election can only be made prior to the election.
•All 50 state legislatures have decided that the people, through their votes, determine which party will appoint the electors.
•Legislatures can only regain the right to appoint electors directly should the election 'fail' and be unable to be certified.
•As long as the election results can be certified - meaning that there was no widespread fraud and/or negligence and the vote can be reasonably trusted - then courts will step in and force certification should rogue officials arbitrarily decide not to certify.
•Minor irregularities that occur in any election cannot stop certification.
•Conspiracy theories, conjecture, hearsay etc cannot stop certification.
•Any attempts by rogue officials or legislators to interfere with the certification is illegal.

In short, Trump and his allies are putting on political theatre to string their reality-denying base along.

These clowns have no say, and should not

be implying otherwise. The law is very clear on this. The only role the legislature plays is in a 'failed election' ie one that cannot be certified as a result of actual fraud, negligence etc - which would have to be proven in court. There is no such evidence, small irregularities are normal. Repubs are simply attempting to cast aspersions on urban areas that are heavily liberal and diverse.

Very good, we need to push back harder.

Even though what Trump is attempting won't work, he's toying with democracy and breaking norms, and there needs to be a price for this.

What Trump has revealed is how vulnerable and rickety our system is... how the democratic norms we take for granted are not really hardcoded into law the way they should be.

IMO, the GOP starts with a slight edge in these races.

-the state is historically a red, voter-suppressed state.
-Repubs tend to do better in runoffs and downballot races.
-Biden won the state but some of his voters were Repubs who voted for Purdue and Loeffler.
-Purdue outperformed Trump and beat Ossoff by 87k votes. The libertarian had 115k votes and such voters tend to lean red.

We must turn out more vote in the deep blue metro areas and surrounding burbs. Stacey Abrams was on talking about this. IMO a black candidate (Warnock) on the ticket helps us with black turnout. Ossoff helps us with the white moderates. We just need to do good GOTV and run a strong campaign. The state voted for Biden and we must make it clear it is Mitch who will stand in the way of everything (including the stimulus money) that voters want done.