Practically every day last week a new 'Democrats in Disarray' article popped up in the New York Times with regard to Maine. 'Filling an enormous hole' 'scrambling to respond' 'fighting with Chuck Schumer: stay out of Maine' and most recently with regard to the former President of Maine's Senate 'a complicated past' and....wait for it...'his positions on social issues have CHANGED!' [gasp].
What is it with the Times and other outlets that they keep coming back, again and again, to paint a picture of chaotic gloom mostly in their imaginations? Maine may well serve as a textbook manual for how to clean up a mess on aisle 11 and get back on your feet as quickly as possible.
Personally, I would not want to be Susan Collins right now. As Andy Borowitz said, she's concerned that Maine voters will now remember the things she actually did.
The Times was not nearly so gleeful as the OpEd page of the Wall Street Journal which even took time out of their endless diatribes against democratic socialists out to destroy America to delight in the Platner issue even while many of their pundits ignore the fact that a man now actually convicted of sexual abuse sits in the Oval Office.
You can always trust the Wall Street Journal, which used to be a real newspaper, to ignore Trump's failings and pound on anyone they think might be a threat to him. The last thing the WSJ can stand is for Mayor Mamdani to be successful.
Actually there is a kind of split personality over there. Their news reporters have often worked to expose Trump’s failings even as their OpEd page often continues to enable or excuse him while playing their endless game of false ‘whataboutism’.
"What is abnormal and dangerous is politics that operates as a cult of personality, in which fear, self-abasement, and groupthink create a rigid uniformity that forecloses the push-and-shove of healthy debate."
A big thanks to Ms. Rubin for pointing out this fundamental truth.
Politics SHOULD be a debate, bolstered by facts, statistics, and experience. The Trump era of believing whatever the dear leader says (even if it directly contradicts what he just said yesterday) is a sign of serious cognitive disability among his followers.
Empirically-derived facts should always trump emotions and "gut feelings". Critical thinking is a human strength, which is why we start teaching it in elementary school. (The 4 C's: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, and Critical Thinking Skills).
"Empirically-derived facts should always trump emotions and "gut feelings”.
Were we all AI bots, this would be true. As long as we are human, however, emirically derived facts will always vie with emotions and gut feelings.
Had we depended entirely on empirically defined facts, we would never have taken on the British military in 1775. The odds were completely against us. Every empirical fact pointed to a British victory.
As humans, we are a contradiction in terms. I often think of us as an awkward combination of animal, poet, builder, and would-be god. The result is the cacophony created by our fears, our dreams, our tools, and our hubris. Out of that we have constructed a world of contradictions - a world dominated by a species that cannot seem to decide what it wants, even after over five thousand years of what we call ‘civilization’.
Currently 'We the People’ are caught up in just a conundrum. Democracy’s greatest strength and its greatest weakness are one in the same - our glorification of the rights of the individual to life,libery, and the pursuit of happiness even as we demand to survive as one creedal nation.
Susan's "concerns" are duly noted. Somehow, Susie's concerns never counted for a nominee or noxious piece of legislation if her party needed her vote. It's clearly time to retire her.
Right on! Legacy media is owned by those who have an interest in keeping this country on its current, terrible path. In addition, responding to your question “what is it with the Times and other outlets”, the answer is also us and our click-bait, sport’s team winners or losers, strength or weakness, zero sum, all or nothing, headline-focused mentality. Legacy media delivers. And our national attention deficit disorder. Thoughtfulness, critical thinking, strategy, long-range view and consequences are not hallmarks of too many American voters. And those are the qualities we’re going to need to adopt if we ever get out of this mess and try to undo the damage to this country and make sure we can never be here again.
Simon Rosenberg has about the best take on this that I’ve heard. In his view, we need to look at any Maine Senatorial candidate vs. a “generic Democrat.” Since Maine is a D+7 state that means the nominee should poll about 7% ahead of Susan Collins. Anyone with numbers somewhere around that level should be OK. It goes without saying that we really need to win this seat if we want to have any real chance of flipping the Senate next year—which will be absolutely crucial to slowing the Republican march to autocracy.
Republicans wreck the economy, balloon the deficit & transfer wealth to the wealthiest.
Flawed, not perfect Dems are at least an order of magnitude better than the Trump & Co packs of depraved sociopaths. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_i38-qjtbI Resist corrupt authoritarians.
Thank you Jennifer. I was part of the process in a very minor way (I volunteered to be a delegate to the nominating convention and was not chosen), and it was remarkably cheerful, efficient and focused. My questions got answered promptly and personally, things happened when and where promised, and minor inevitable confusions were ironed out. More than 3000 people statewide volunteered for the 500 regular delegate slots, and the 250-word application statements published before the caucuses were without exception thoughtful, heartfelt and articulate (I only read the 188 from my county, but still..). Platner has to get credit for stirring up this level of civilized engagement. Thanks also for giving credit to Shenna Bellows, a remarkable public servant and stellar Secretary of State.
There are some other encouraging lessons here. A high-level candidate with real chops and prior vetting can be advanced quickly. That implies that we could shorten the national elections into a far shorter cycle than the endless electioneering we now endure. The UK and other European democracies do this. It is time not just for campaign finance reform, but real democratic election reform. Finally, I think Susan Collins should be very afraid. Democrats may finally have their act together.
There will be always be those who cannot tolerate the essential messiness and frequent inefficiency of the democratic process. It would be nice if they would leave for countries where autocratic rule would make them far more comfortable, and where they would swiftly discover how foolish they were to do think that a better system.
They would then seek to return, and we could stop them at the border, telling them only democracy supporters would be granted citizenship.
I love Maine's common sense approach. Focusing on keeping our democracy and beating fascism is what is most important rather than focusing on ideologies that so many don't understand. I'm not saying they shouldn't understand them, but in this particular time that we are in protecting our country and our future is a first priority.
I agree. People don't understand ideologies. But, they understand specific cases, like people gunned down in the street and babies in cages. To paraphrase an old saying, I don't know anything about facism, but I know what I won't stand for.
Local parties and local people are the best way. They just see a problem, roll up their sleeves and go to work solving their own problems. Ideology is necessary to keep things from taking a negative turn, but it is insufficient for concrete results.
They didn't "understand" when their kids were drafted and placed in harm's way. They didn't "understand" when "tax cuts" cut their government benefits. When they lost their jobs to foreign countries. When their money becomes worth less.
It's the culture.
They'll understand when they don't want to be allied (and aligned) with preverts.
We’re proud of Maine. And if you want to see MSM prejudice , check out some of the NYTimes articles on Ukraine. You would have thought Russia would have win in a “walkover.”
The only disarray is in the Republican Party. Had this scenario been the opposite trying to find someone to replace Susan Collins for example, the process likely would have been very different and possibly in disarray. As long as this candidate is acceptable to most Mainers then they’ve made some serious progress. I hope he’s successful in November.
How many more young people like Isabella Gonzalez have to die while this slow process grinds its way forward? Apparently there are not enough "good" people within the ranks of Republicans, among our CEOs and other societal leaders, to force an end to it now. But if they did step up, would there be enough "ordinary" Americans to join them? I guess so long as it's not our kid that gets killed, we can't be bothered. And we made sure our kids didn't join up, didn't we?
I saw on the news yesterday that this has been THE most unpopular US war ever - from Day 1. It's being waged by people who simply don't give a shit what "we the people" want. What would you have us do? March in the streets by the millions? While Trump plays golf and again, "doesn't give a shit"? The legacy media wouldn't even bother to report on it.
There's even no point in contacting our Congress reps as Trump doesn't give a shit what they want either. He doesn't care what our allies think. He doesn't care about the countries hosting our bases, who are being hammered too. He doesn't care about his approval rating; why should he?
His sons are heavily invested in defense industries now, and he's got Hegseth whispering in his ear that he is the greatest warfighter president of all time, with the mightiest military the world has ever seen, and he must crush his enemies!
But in fact, he's lost this war, but Trump can never be "a loser". His ego won't permit it.
So what do you see ordinary Americans able to do about this situation?
"There's even no point in contacting our Congress reps as Trump doesn't give a shit what they want either."
To the contrary, we should be bombarding our congressional representation constantly, loudly, and voluminously. They need to be forced to stand and take a position on this illegal war of choice, and those who support it and the corrupt president need to be voted out.
My Congressman is Jack Bergman, a retired Lt. General who rode Trump's coattails in 2016, and ever since up here in MI's Upper Peninsula of Magaland. He's signed on to Trump's crusade against Canada's wildfires as MI has been engulfed in smoke for days now (this is our first clear day). He was probably an intelligent man at one time, but now he is a Trumper not above saying the same moronic things as Trump about a forest fire raging where there are not even any roads!
He's campaigning on "Promises made, promises kept" - those being Trump's promises. He sees that as his role - to rubber-stamp and approve everything he says and does. And why not? He'll likely get elected with 2/3 of the vote. Again.
What promises that benefit people has Trump kept? Time for the Michigan opposition to stand and ask this question, loudly and often. Point out the damage that his policies have done, also loudly and often. If the word finally gets through to the voters, Bergman will fail to get reelected. Democracy takes work.
Thanks for this article, a clear view of what is "normal". Sometimes we think craziness is normal. I'm learning that diversity and disagreeing kindly is most normal. Let's keep up the good work!
As I see it, the opposite of 'disarray' is lockstep. At least when things are temporarily in disarray, that means people are thinking for themselves and finding a solution. Lockstep means abdicating thought in favor of taking orders.
The MSM coverage of the Democrats' selection of a new candidate in Maine is trite, uninformed, and completely predictable. When similar - or worse - things happen on the MAGA side, as they do routinely, you hear not a single peep.
I subscribed to NYT when Trump was elected after being a Washington Post subscriber for many years. In the past 3 months, I have seen more and more articles appearing in the NYT that make me think I may as well be reading the Post or the WSJ. Don’t get me wrong, I am not looking for a left wing, lead the charge, publication in the same vein as the GOP “RAH, RAH!” WSJ, but puhleeaase, give me facts and sound analysis, not sensationalism!! I am close to ending my NYT subscription in spite of the opinion writers that I trust to give me the straight story (just like Jennifer Rubin ALWAYS does for us here). The abysmal coverage of the Platner situation in the NYT is just another reason to drop the NYT. Wish that would wake them up, but I know it won’t. Very sad.
I hope you’re right, but I am not sure that legacy media will last that long (at least not those that do not pander to wealthy). Sensationalism is what sells or gets clicks and that all the owners care about because it brings in more money for the Jeff Bezos of the world. I will simply be subscribing to organizations like the Contrarian and the Bulwark because they are not beholden to the Oligarchy nor the ad dollars. For that reason, we must subscribe to these non profit organizations to keep us informed.
We have this strange groundless belief that non-profit organizations are per se righteous. Many pay their directors and high-level staff handsomely, even extravagantly. Often they pay huge amounts to underwrite travel to and accommodations at meetings, workshops, speaking engagements, etc. for executives and board members which CEOs of for-profit companies would envy. Knowing that an organization is a not-for-profit isn't enough. We need to learn what salaries are paid, how much they spend on travel and other perks for execs and board members.
Thank you for this, Signe. I know of them and try to do due diligence on orgs. My comment was directed more to people who think the not-for-profit status means the org. is automatically a worthy recipient of our money. I wouldn't put you in that category.
Like showing up for weekly protests in my Maine town, the county meeting last weekend was uplifting and energizing. A diverse group of people, over 400 in person and at least 400 online voted.
Just to know we belong to a party that isn't in lockstep to one man and cares about our neighbors, working families, the environment, healthcare, foreign policy and women's rights was worth the couple of hours needed to cast our votes.
Practically every day last week a new 'Democrats in Disarray' article popped up in the New York Times with regard to Maine. 'Filling an enormous hole' 'scrambling to respond' 'fighting with Chuck Schumer: stay out of Maine' and most recently with regard to the former President of Maine's Senate 'a complicated past' and....wait for it...'his positions on social issues have CHANGED!' [gasp].
What is it with the Times and other outlets that they keep coming back, again and again, to paint a picture of chaotic gloom mostly in their imaginations? Maine may well serve as a textbook manual for how to clean up a mess on aisle 11 and get back on your feet as quickly as possible.
Personally, I would not want to be Susan Collins right now. As Andy Borowitz said, she's concerned that Maine voters will now remember the things she actually did.
The Times was not nearly so gleeful as the OpEd page of the Wall Street Journal which even took time out of their endless diatribes against democratic socialists out to destroy America to delight in the Platner issue even while many of their pundits ignore the fact that a man now actually convicted of sexual abuse sits in the Oval Office.
You can always trust the Wall Street Journal, which used to be a real newspaper, to ignore Trump's failings and pound on anyone they think might be a threat to him. The last thing the WSJ can stand is for Mayor Mamdani to be successful.
Actually there is a kind of split personality over there. Their news reporters have often worked to expose Trump’s failings even as their OpEd page often continues to enable or excuse him while playing their endless game of false ‘whataboutism’.
"What is abnormal and dangerous is politics that operates as a cult of personality, in which fear, self-abasement, and groupthink create a rigid uniformity that forecloses the push-and-shove of healthy debate."
A big thanks to Ms. Rubin for pointing out this fundamental truth.
Politics SHOULD be a debate, bolstered by facts, statistics, and experience. The Trump era of believing whatever the dear leader says (even if it directly contradicts what he just said yesterday) is a sign of serious cognitive disability among his followers.
Empirically-derived facts should always trump emotions and "gut feelings". Critical thinking is a human strength, which is why we start teaching it in elementary school. (The 4 C's: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, and Critical Thinking Skills).
"Empirically-derived facts should always trump emotions and "gut feelings”.
Were we all AI bots, this would be true. As long as we are human, however, emirically derived facts will always vie with emotions and gut feelings.
Had we depended entirely on empirically defined facts, we would never have taken on the British military in 1775. The odds were completely against us. Every empirical fact pointed to a British victory.
As humans, we are a contradiction in terms. I often think of us as an awkward combination of animal, poet, builder, and would-be god. The result is the cacophony created by our fears, our dreams, our tools, and our hubris. Out of that we have constructed a world of contradictions - a world dominated by a species that cannot seem to decide what it wants, even after over five thousand years of what we call ‘civilization’.
Currently 'We the People’ are caught up in just a conundrum. Democracy’s greatest strength and its greatest weakness are one in the same - our glorification of the rights of the individual to life,libery, and the pursuit of happiness even as we demand to survive as one creedal nation.
It is a conundrum we have yet to resolve.
Susan's "concerns" are duly noted. Somehow, Susie's concerns never counted for a nominee or noxious piece of legislation if her party needed her vote. It's clearly time to retire her.
I dumped the Times a few months back. I could no longer support their blinders regarding Trump's obvious dementia.
I dumped the Times when they dogpiled on Biden and gave the pedophile a pass.
Right on! Legacy media is owned by those who have an interest in keeping this country on its current, terrible path. In addition, responding to your question “what is it with the Times and other outlets”, the answer is also us and our click-bait, sport’s team winners or losers, strength or weakness, zero sum, all or nothing, headline-focused mentality. Legacy media delivers. And our national attention deficit disorder. Thoughtfulness, critical thinking, strategy, long-range view and consequences are not hallmarks of too many American voters. And those are the qualities we’re going to need to adopt if we ever get out of this mess and try to undo the damage to this country and make sure we can never be here again.
Simon Rosenberg has about the best take on this that I’ve heard. In his view, we need to look at any Maine Senatorial candidate vs. a “generic Democrat.” Since Maine is a D+7 state that means the nominee should poll about 7% ahead of Susan Collins. Anyone with numbers somewhere around that level should be OK. It goes without saying that we really need to win this seat if we want to have any real chance of flipping the Senate next year—which will be absolutely crucial to slowing the Republican march to autocracy.
Republicans wreck the economy, balloon the deficit & transfer wealth to the wealthiest.
Flawed, not perfect Dems are at least an order of magnitude better than the Trump & Co packs of depraved sociopaths. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_i38-qjtbI Resist corrupt authoritarians.
Please, bring on a Blue Tsunami. #VoteBlue!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6ji9EFt9Lg
Thank you Jennifer. I was part of the process in a very minor way (I volunteered to be a delegate to the nominating convention and was not chosen), and it was remarkably cheerful, efficient and focused. My questions got answered promptly and personally, things happened when and where promised, and minor inevitable confusions were ironed out. More than 3000 people statewide volunteered for the 500 regular delegate slots, and the 250-word application statements published before the caucuses were without exception thoughtful, heartfelt and articulate (I only read the 188 from my county, but still..). Platner has to get credit for stirring up this level of civilized engagement. Thanks also for giving credit to Shenna Bellows, a remarkable public servant and stellar Secretary of State.
Thanks so much for reporting from the on the ground, Mary! Of course, these are the stories that don't get any attention from the MSM.
The story that makes Congressional Republicans most uncomfortable is EPSTEIN.
I'm thinking it's a coin toss between Epstein and 'who won the 2020 election?'
Thanks for the report!
There are some other encouraging lessons here. A high-level candidate with real chops and prior vetting can be advanced quickly. That implies that we could shorten the national elections into a far shorter cycle than the endless electioneering we now endure. The UK and other European democracies do this. It is time not just for campaign finance reform, but real democratic election reform. Finally, I think Susan Collins should be very afraid. Democrats may finally have their act together.
I felt heard and seen and trusted the process. Sorry for hitting send prematurely
You can edit your comments. See the 3 dots to the right of your name? Click on that, and one of your choices will be to edit the comment.
There will be always be those who cannot tolerate the essential messiness and frequent inefficiency of the democratic process. It would be nice if they would leave for countries where autocratic rule would make them far more comfortable, and where they would swiftly discover how foolish they were to do think that a better system.
They would then seek to return, and we could stop them at the border, telling them only democracy supporters would be granted citizenship.
As a resident of Maine, I participated in the process to replace Platner on the ticket and while my preferred candidate did not prevail,
A yellow dog is preferable to Collins.
I love Maine's common sense approach. Focusing on keeping our democracy and beating fascism is what is most important rather than focusing on ideologies that so many don't understand. I'm not saying they shouldn't understand them, but in this particular time that we are in protecting our country and our future is a first priority.
I agree. People don't understand ideologies. But, they understand specific cases, like people gunned down in the street and babies in cages. To paraphrase an old saying, I don't know anything about facism, but I know what I won't stand for.
Local parties and local people are the best way. They just see a problem, roll up their sleeves and go to work solving their own problems. Ideology is necessary to keep things from taking a negative turn, but it is insufficient for concrete results.
They didn't "understand" when their kids were drafted and placed in harm's way. They didn't "understand" when "tax cuts" cut their government benefits. When they lost their jobs to foreign countries. When their money becomes worth less.
It's the culture.
They'll understand when they don't want to be allied (and aligned) with preverts.
I think most of them would rather die than admit they were wrong.
Thank you always for your clear headed explanation of situations. It helps a lot. Especially in this “ real” chaos we live in.
We’re proud of Maine. And if you want to see MSM prejudice , check out some of the NYTimes articles on Ukraine. You would have thought Russia would have win in a “walkover.”
The NYTimes has always been hostile to Ukraine. The Guardian does a better job.
Thanks. Phillips O’Brien and Mick Ryan are also good.
I subscribe to General Ryan, who recently earned his PhD.
The only disarray is in the Republican Party. Had this scenario been the opposite trying to find someone to replace Susan Collins for example, the process likely would have been very different and possibly in disarray. As long as this candidate is acceptable to most Mainers then they’ve made some serious progress. I hope he’s successful in November.
How many more young people like Isabella Gonzalez have to die while this slow process grinds its way forward? Apparently there are not enough "good" people within the ranks of Republicans, among our CEOs and other societal leaders, to force an end to it now. But if they did step up, would there be enough "ordinary" Americans to join them? I guess so long as it's not our kid that gets killed, we can't be bothered. And we made sure our kids didn't join up, didn't we?
I saw on the news yesterday that this has been THE most unpopular US war ever - from Day 1. It's being waged by people who simply don't give a shit what "we the people" want. What would you have us do? March in the streets by the millions? While Trump plays golf and again, "doesn't give a shit"? The legacy media wouldn't even bother to report on it.
There's even no point in contacting our Congress reps as Trump doesn't give a shit what they want either. He doesn't care what our allies think. He doesn't care about the countries hosting our bases, who are being hammered too. He doesn't care about his approval rating; why should he?
His sons are heavily invested in defense industries now, and he's got Hegseth whispering in his ear that he is the greatest warfighter president of all time, with the mightiest military the world has ever seen, and he must crush his enemies!
But in fact, he's lost this war, but Trump can never be "a loser". His ego won't permit it.
So what do you see ordinary Americans able to do about this situation?
"There's even no point in contacting our Congress reps as Trump doesn't give a shit what they want either."
To the contrary, we should be bombarding our congressional representation constantly, loudly, and voluminously. They need to be forced to stand and take a position on this illegal war of choice, and those who support it and the corrupt president need to be voted out.
My Congressman is Jack Bergman, a retired Lt. General who rode Trump's coattails in 2016, and ever since up here in MI's Upper Peninsula of Magaland. He's signed on to Trump's crusade against Canada's wildfires as MI has been engulfed in smoke for days now (this is our first clear day). He was probably an intelligent man at one time, but now he is a Trumper not above saying the same moronic things as Trump about a forest fire raging where there are not even any roads!
He's campaigning on "Promises made, promises kept" - those being Trump's promises. He sees that as his role - to rubber-stamp and approve everything he says and does. And why not? He'll likely get elected with 2/3 of the vote. Again.
What promises that benefit people has Trump kept? Time for the Michigan opposition to stand and ask this question, loudly and often. Point out the damage that his policies have done, also loudly and often. If the word finally gets through to the voters, Bergman will fail to get reelected. Democracy takes work.
Thanks for this article, a clear view of what is "normal". Sometimes we think craziness is normal. I'm learning that diversity and disagreeing kindly is most normal. Let's keep up the good work!
As I see it, the opposite of 'disarray' is lockstep. At least when things are temporarily in disarray, that means people are thinking for themselves and finding a solution. Lockstep means abdicating thought in favor of taking orders.
The MSM coverage of the Democrats' selection of a new candidate in Maine is trite, uninformed, and completely predictable. When similar - or worse - things happen on the MAGA side, as they do routinely, you hear not a single peep.
And lockstep only works in the short term, if at all. Eventually, entropy (disarray) sets in, which requires creative thinking to overcome.
I subscribed to NYT when Trump was elected after being a Washington Post subscriber for many years. In the past 3 months, I have seen more and more articles appearing in the NYT that make me think I may as well be reading the Post or the WSJ. Don’t get me wrong, I am not looking for a left wing, lead the charge, publication in the same vein as the GOP “RAH, RAH!” WSJ, but puhleeaase, give me facts and sound analysis, not sensationalism!! I am close to ending my NYT subscription in spite of the opinion writers that I trust to give me the straight story (just like Jennifer Rubin ALWAYS does for us here). The abysmal coverage of the Platner situation in the NYT is just another reason to drop the NYT. Wish that would wake them up, but I know it won’t. Very sad.
If enough people unsubscribe from the NYT, AND tell them WHY, they may change.
I hope you’re right, but I am not sure that legacy media will last that long (at least not those that do not pander to wealthy). Sensationalism is what sells or gets clicks and that all the owners care about because it brings in more money for the Jeff Bezos of the world. I will simply be subscribing to organizations like the Contrarian and the Bulwark because they are not beholden to the Oligarchy nor the ad dollars. For that reason, we must subscribe to these non profit organizations to keep us informed.
I’m not sure these are all non-profits … but I wish they were!
We have this strange groundless belief that non-profit organizations are per se righteous. Many pay their directors and high-level staff handsomely, even extravagantly. Often they pay huge amounts to underwrite travel to and accommodations at meetings, workshops, speaking engagements, etc. for executives and board members which CEOs of for-profit companies would envy. Knowing that an organization is a not-for-profit isn't enough. We need to learn what salaries are paid, how much they spend on travel and other perks for execs and board members.
A great resource is Charity Navigator — https://www.charitynavigator.org/
They rate non-profits, for example Planned Parenthood, and share how much is spent in direct service provision and how much on salaries etc.
Thank you for this, Signe. I know of them and try to do due diligence on orgs. My comment was directed more to people who think the not-for-profit status means the org. is automatically a worthy recipient of our money. I wouldn't put you in that category.
Like showing up for weekly protests in my Maine town, the county meeting last weekend was uplifting and energizing. A diverse group of people, over 400 in person and at least 400 online voted.
Just to know we belong to a party that isn't in lockstep to one man and cares about our neighbors, working families, the environment, healthcare, foreign policy and women's rights was worth the couple of hours needed to cast our votes.