I just hope that voters see through GOP scare tactics. We lost a great senator here in Ohio in 2024 who wasn't young but he focused his whole career on fighting to make life better for ordinary people. What did he lose to? A guy whose campaign ads shouted "A trans woman is going to rape your daughter in a public restroom!!!" and "Democrats will force your child to change genders!!!" And he somehow convinced enough people that transgender people were a bigger threat than losing your job or health care to win.
And for the record, they are not “gay”. They may be same sex attracted. They may possibly be termed homosexual. But I wouldn’t know because if they are, they’re totally in the closet. That doesn’t count for anything.
I'm not going to disagree with what this lady has to say, because I think she's right. At the same time, I have a feeling she's not getting something here.
The current Zeitgeist is that nobody has to take responsibility. It's always someone else's fault. I just got off the phone with my bank, wherein the person who was supposed to solve my problem told me that they couldn't solve my problem, that I should call customer service and ask to speak to a supervisor. We already did that. The bank manager I spoke to already did that. They told him to go to the escalation people who just told me that they can't solve my problem, I have to go to the customer service people. But I've already been to the customer service people. I'll give it another try. But I really wish that somebody actually knew their job and somebody would actually do their job.
So why should the Democrats be any different in this?
The second problem I see is that composite young person that was working for the union program and learning a trade. Lots of complaints about all those other people. But did this young person vote? Did this young person bother to inform himself about the issues, or did he just figure that someone else would do it and tell him what to do. And when you think of it that way, you realize why there were all these young people who voted for Trump, despite his performance the last time he was trying to wreck the country.
A friend of mine was telling me about this couple that he knew that chose not to vote. They knew what a disaster Trump would be, but they were "afraid" of what Harris would do. What they meant was they were too goddamn lazy to get off their asses and find out what Harris would do, what she and Mr. Biden did.
So they simply didn't vote. And possibly, the weather really wasn't very nice that day, and they didn't do the mail-in thing because because because because because.
So they simply didn't vote. 1/3 of this country thought that returning Trump to office would be a good thing, despite the disaster of the last time. 1/3 of this country voted for Harris. And 1/3 of this country couldn't be bothered to vote at all because it was – and my estimation-- to God damn much work.
General message to Dems: Please, please stop making one of the Dems' top priorities the insistence that men can be women if they say so. We can't afford to do this anymore. It is handing the issue to the Republicans on a silver platter.
That’s not what the Democratic Party is saying. That’s not what transgender and gay rights advocates are saying. That’s not what scientists are saying. That’s not what people have intelligence and compassion are saying
That’s what the Republican Party is saying. It’s a comment devoid of compassion, intelligence, knowledge, and common sense.
This is precisely the issue that Mike’s column is attempting to address. Little buzz words feed into the party porta-potty politics of resentment and exclusion. The issue of trans gender identity— which neither you nor the Republican party nor fundamentalist Christians ever heard of until about 10 years ago, and still know nothing about— is a fairly complex issue that could be addressed in a rational and intelligent manner. It can be addressed very simply and defused.*
But instead, it’s just easier that “men can be women if they say so.’
*Here you go: “gender dysphoria and transgender identity are a subject that science, medicine, and psychology have been studying for approximately 100 years. Cultural anthropology has been studying the issue for approximately 150 years. Gender is primarily a psychological concept that has been well studied and documented. Gender refers to the sense that people have of themselves as being male or female. For 99.5% of humanity, biological sex—man or woman— and psychological gender— the sense of oneself as being male or female— are in alignment. For .5% of humanity, the two are not in alignment. Very similarly, 96% of humanity is primarily heterosexual, and 4% of humanity is primarily homosexual. In neither case does this difference pose any kind of a threat to the majority. If you want to know more about this, Google “biological basis for gender dysphoria and transgender identity.” There are a wealth of articles on the subject from recognized authorities which can explain it clearly.
Thank you for proving my point. Sex and gender are different. You got that far, but then you stopped because …
You don’t know anything about the subject, you ignored a very simple but clear explanation of the phenomenon, but you’re going to repeat the Republican/religious right claim anyway.
Did you Google what I very subtly suggested YOU Google to educate yourself? No you did not. welcome to MAGA.
There are a great many transgender people whom you cannot differentiate as to whether they are biological men or biological women. And in any case, they are not a threat tp anyone.
I will Add something, but only as a response to myself.
Lady, why do you care if a very small portion of humanity have a gender identity that is different from yours? Is there something that has gone bad in your life because someone else is transgender?
Transgender people are no threat to you or anybody you know. They are not forcing anybody to be transgender, they are not marching in front of your house, they are not demanding special rights, and goddamnit, above all, they are not molesting kids. The very few people with penises that are harassing women in locker rooms would be called heterosexual men in any other context, behaving like so many heterosexual men do.’
What they are, are people that have been dealt a pretty difficult hand by nature. The Christian right telling lies about them does not help them live their best lives. Small government Republicans interfering in the lives of private families facing difficult medical choices does not help them live their best lives. It doesn’t help anyone except people who get money, power, and religious dominion on the backs of innocent people.
Drag queens are not the same as transgender people. But they are also no threat to you or anyone you know. They are not forcing anyone to be a drag queen, marching in front of your house, demanding special rights, and above all, drag queen story hour is not about molesting kids by strangers. It’s about people in outrageous costumes reading stories to kids in the presence of their parents.
If you’re worried about men molesting kids and harassing women, stop blaming transgender people. Start looking at the hundreds of Catholic priests and Christian pastors that are arrested, convicted, or sentenced, every single year for their crimes against children, often against women, and occasionally against men.
You're proving my point, exactly as I knew someone would.
I'm not and never have been a Christian. I've always been a Democrat. I have never voted for or donated to Republicans. And no, I didn't Google any of your drivel because I don't need to. After over a decade of following this issue, I've heard all the bad talking points and poor arguments. No amount of bloviating about "educate yourself!" (in other words, "agree with me!") will change that humans cannot and do not change sex and men do not have a claim to women's rights.
If Dems keep doing what you're doing, you'll keep losing.
And again, you proved my point.. you don’t need to google it because you don’t need to understand it. You call it drivel because you don’t understand it and don’t feel the need to.
I don’t require you to agree with me and you don’t require to actually have some knowledge on the subject. These aren’t bad arguments. These are simply facts. Sex and gender are not the same thing. I know you want to think that they are the same thing, but they are not, according to scientists and medical doctors. These are people that have studied this for nearly 100 years. They know stuff.
For 99.5% of the population, biological sex and psychological gender align. For 1/2 of one percent of humanity, they do not. If the condition is severe enough, surgery is an answer for those people. This is backed up by 100 years of scientific and medical research. Not the first transgender surgery, but perhaps the most significant, was performed nearly 70 years ago. Google Christine Jorgensen.
no one except ignorant people and the right wing is insisting that anyone is changing a man into a woman. (And why aren’t you concerned about the reverse?) That is not what is happening. Instead, for those people for whom the condition is serious enough— and it's seriousness is decided by doctors, NOT culture warriors— surgery is bringing their physical bodies into alignment with their psychological gender. The vast majority of people who get this surgery are very satisfied with it. It relieves their distress.
If it's causing you distress, it's because you choose to have it caused your distress. It doesn't cause me any distress because I've made the effort to understand the problem.
And if the American public has managed to convince itself that transgender people are actually a threat, and will vote against their own interests because a tiny percentage of 1/2 of percent of human is transgender...
Then this country deserves whatever is coming at it. Because exactly the same thing happened 100 years ago in Germany. If you don’t think it’s the same, it’s because you’re neither jewish nor transgender.
Well stated! I think many of US have walked the walk you presented, we did everything right and have struggled ever since.
Perhaps social media today where mis-information, dis-information and outrageous lies uphold MAGA narrative for some makes real messaging more difficult. But the F2F approach to organizing and truth telling/listening can work.
I don't think the democratic party as a whole is out of touch. They routinely fought using legal means against the warped regime we currently have.
The problem seems to be that it is very difficult to defeat cheater, aka MAGA/Republi(con) artists if you follow the rules.
Locally much can be accomplished. Nationally, it remains yo be seen if anything can change the chaotic cruelty.
Totally agree. I think we have vast swaths of officeholders who are NOT out of touch. My congresswoman is not out of touch. But it's become way too easy to scare people by manufacturing nonexistent threats that make them vote against their own interests.
Mallory, your State Senate campaign, your video stood out because you clearly articulated who you are, what you stood for…not using a politics as usual playbook. Democrats need more candidates like you who understand their constituents. The DNC had a whiny no charisma chair in Jaime Harrison who blocked staunch Dems on social media who told him to get out of his house and support candidates. This continues with his chum who’s more of the same. Until the DNC gets a new leader, it’s up to us to directly support candidates like you. Which I will.
Mike, excellent decision to have Mallory here. Happy New Year to you both!!
Problems are solvable. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to limit you. Usually because they are limited and don't want you proving them wrong. Often there are people who do not WANT the problem solved, because they are profiting from the 'wrongness.' These people usually have lots of money with which to 'influence' (never say the dirty word - <bribe>) the gate keepers to solving problems, such as politicians.
Solving complex system problems is a skill that is not very common, but it does exist and is trainable. Some problems are easy once you know how. Some problems are hard even once you know how. There are difficult problems worth solving. Especially problems that hurt a couple hundred million people in the US. Maybe we can try a bit harder and not give up so easily.
Our healthcare is a trap made by and for insurance companies, drug companies and hospitals and the AMA, and the use of malpractice insurance instead of doctors actually removing incompetents from their profession. We can do better, much better. The ACA was a stop gap that slowed the then accelerating cost of medical care, but they were barely able to get that done because of the MONEY in politics. We can get rid of insurance companies with a government funded / operated competitor. We can set limits on prices of drugs, and offer grants for working on treatments for common problems. We can get better at diagnosing (without AI). We can break the limitations the AMA set on the number of doctors allowed to enter residency each year. Hospitals can be required to give proper and consistent bills for care, regardless of whether the patient has insurance or not. We can get creative by focusing on our problems and not accepting the limitations based on "what we have always done". Medicare for all is not bad, but we should then improve it to be more comprehensive than it currently is. Obviously they had intended to give Insurance companies at least some business there.
Did anyone else notice how little McMorrow said about her actual policies here? What do promises of *real results* matter if she can't tell us what thsoe results are supposed to be?
McMorrow is really shaping up to be the pro-corporate, pro-billionaire, centrist-approved candidate in this race. And Everything she says here about "not having to settle" is contradicted by the Abundance agenda company she keeps. Mallory has the Cuomo defender (and Cuomo victim-slimer) Lis Smith on her team. She has the gerontocratic, incompetent Dem James Carville advising her. Ezra Klein says hers is a race to watch.
McMorrow is just serving up the kind of feel-good, empty language of the Obama campaign, but trying to make it somehow even *less* specific. I admit it's been hard to watch her centrist cronies sap all vitality out of her candidacy. She had a lot of promise.
"Democrats don’t have a shortage of good ideas. What we have is a shortage of leaders who actually understand what it’s like to be most Americans today."
This extends to the fact that the Democratic party's gotten much farther to the left of the median voter on cultural issues in the last 12 or so years, to the point that it's caused real damage.
I just hope that voters see through GOP scare tactics. We lost a great senator here in Ohio in 2024 who wasn't young but he focused his whole career on fighting to make life better for ordinary people. What did he lose to? A guy whose campaign ads shouted "A trans woman is going to rape your daughter in a public restroom!!!" and "Democrats will force your child to change genders!!!" And he somehow convinced enough people that transgender people were a bigger threat than losing your job or health care to win.
Sherrod Brown was and is terrific. I saw he was running again this year, and I look forward to donating a couple of bucks to his campaign.
Thank you. He's running against Senator Jon Useless (Husted), a dummy in lockstep with Trump who was appointed by Gov. Mikey DeSpineless.
Let's make sure he prevails! Ohioans deserve good representation like we have in NJ (Cory Booker, Andy Kim).
I am donating to Sherrod Brown. He is real. Our 2 Senators in SC are definitely not for the people!
But South Carolina is the first state to have two gay senators, even if neither will admit it! Sad.
We don’t want them.
And for the record, they are not “gay”. They may be same sex attracted. They may possibly be termed homosexual. But I wouldn’t know because if they are, they’re totally in the closet. That doesn’t count for anything.
But what they for sure are not is gay.
So well written!
Mallory, Thanks for a refreshing view of what the Democratic party needs. Rich S, Octogenarian and Contrarian
Happy New Year Mike!
I'm not going to disagree with what this lady has to say, because I think she's right. At the same time, I have a feeling she's not getting something here.
The current Zeitgeist is that nobody has to take responsibility. It's always someone else's fault. I just got off the phone with my bank, wherein the person who was supposed to solve my problem told me that they couldn't solve my problem, that I should call customer service and ask to speak to a supervisor. We already did that. The bank manager I spoke to already did that. They told him to go to the escalation people who just told me that they can't solve my problem, I have to go to the customer service people. But I've already been to the customer service people. I'll give it another try. But I really wish that somebody actually knew their job and somebody would actually do their job.
So why should the Democrats be any different in this?
The second problem I see is that composite young person that was working for the union program and learning a trade. Lots of complaints about all those other people. But did this young person vote? Did this young person bother to inform himself about the issues, or did he just figure that someone else would do it and tell him what to do. And when you think of it that way, you realize why there were all these young people who voted for Trump, despite his performance the last time he was trying to wreck the country.
A friend of mine was telling me about this couple that he knew that chose not to vote. They knew what a disaster Trump would be, but they were "afraid" of what Harris would do. What they meant was they were too goddamn lazy to get off their asses and find out what Harris would do, what she and Mr. Biden did.
So they simply didn't vote. And possibly, the weather really wasn't very nice that day, and they didn't do the mail-in thing because because because because because.
So they simply didn't vote. 1/3 of this country thought that returning Trump to office would be a good thing, despite the disaster of the last time. 1/3 of this country voted for Harris. And 1/3 of this country couldn't be bothered to vote at all because it was – and my estimation-- to God damn much work.
Besides, look at this cool cat video.
Love Mallory you Go Girl you have this seat!!❤️❤️💙💙
EXCELLENT! We need MORE like Malory!
General message to Dems: Please, please stop making one of the Dems' top priorities the insistence that men can be women if they say so. We can't afford to do this anymore. It is handing the issue to the Republicans on a silver platter.
That’s not what the Democratic Party is saying. That’s not what transgender and gay rights advocates are saying. That’s not what scientists are saying. That’s not what people have intelligence and compassion are saying
That’s what the Republican Party is saying. It’s a comment devoid of compassion, intelligence, knowledge, and common sense.
This is precisely the issue that Mike’s column is attempting to address. Little buzz words feed into the party porta-potty politics of resentment and exclusion. The issue of trans gender identity— which neither you nor the Republican party nor fundamentalist Christians ever heard of until about 10 years ago, and still know nothing about— is a fairly complex issue that could be addressed in a rational and intelligent manner. It can be addressed very simply and defused.*
But instead, it’s just easier that “men can be women if they say so.’
*Here you go: “gender dysphoria and transgender identity are a subject that science, medicine, and psychology have been studying for approximately 100 years. Cultural anthropology has been studying the issue for approximately 150 years. Gender is primarily a psychological concept that has been well studied and documented. Gender refers to the sense that people have of themselves as being male or female. For 99.5% of humanity, biological sex—man or woman— and psychological gender— the sense of oneself as being male or female— are in alignment. For .5% of humanity, the two are not in alignment. Very similarly, 96% of humanity is primarily heterosexual, and 4% of humanity is primarily homosexual. In neither case does this difference pose any kind of a threat to the majority. If you want to know more about this, Google “biological basis for gender dysphoria and transgender identity.” There are a wealth of articles on the subject from recognized authorities which can explain it clearly.
No. Sex and gender are different and no man can be a woman in any way.
Thank you for proving my point. Sex and gender are different. You got that far, but then you stopped because …
You don’t know anything about the subject, you ignored a very simple but clear explanation of the phenomenon, but you’re going to repeat the Republican/religious right claim anyway.
Did you Google what I very subtly suggested YOU Google to educate yourself? No you did not. welcome to MAGA.
There are a great many transgender people whom you cannot differentiate as to whether they are biological men or biological women. And in any case, they are not a threat tp anyone.
But they are useful to those who need scapegoats.
I will Add something, but only as a response to myself.
Lady, why do you care if a very small portion of humanity have a gender identity that is different from yours? Is there something that has gone bad in your life because someone else is transgender?
Transgender people are no threat to you or anybody you know. They are not forcing anybody to be transgender, they are not marching in front of your house, they are not demanding special rights, and goddamnit, above all, they are not molesting kids. The very few people with penises that are harassing women in locker rooms would be called heterosexual men in any other context, behaving like so many heterosexual men do.’
What they are, are people that have been dealt a pretty difficult hand by nature. The Christian right telling lies about them does not help them live their best lives. Small government Republicans interfering in the lives of private families facing difficult medical choices does not help them live their best lives. It doesn’t help anyone except people who get money, power, and religious dominion on the backs of innocent people.
Drag queens are not the same as transgender people. But they are also no threat to you or anyone you know. They are not forcing anyone to be a drag queen, marching in front of your house, demanding special rights, and above all, drag queen story hour is not about molesting kids by strangers. It’s about people in outrageous costumes reading stories to kids in the presence of their parents.
If you’re worried about men molesting kids and harassing women, stop blaming transgender people. Start looking at the hundreds of Catholic priests and Christian pastors that are arrested, convicted, or sentenced, every single year for their crimes against children, often against women, and occasionally against men.
You're proving my point, exactly as I knew someone would.
I'm not and never have been a Christian. I've always been a Democrat. I have never voted for or donated to Republicans. And no, I didn't Google any of your drivel because I don't need to. After over a decade of following this issue, I've heard all the bad talking points and poor arguments. No amount of bloviating about "educate yourself!" (in other words, "agree with me!") will change that humans cannot and do not change sex and men do not have a claim to women's rights.
If Dems keep doing what you're doing, you'll keep losing.
And again, you proved my point.. you don’t need to google it because you don’t need to understand it. You call it drivel because you don’t understand it and don’t feel the need to.
I don’t require you to agree with me and you don’t require to actually have some knowledge on the subject. These aren’t bad arguments. These are simply facts. Sex and gender are not the same thing. I know you want to think that they are the same thing, but they are not, according to scientists and medical doctors. These are people that have studied this for nearly 100 years. They know stuff.
For 99.5% of the population, biological sex and psychological gender align. For 1/2 of one percent of humanity, they do not. If the condition is severe enough, surgery is an answer for those people. This is backed up by 100 years of scientific and medical research. Not the first transgender surgery, but perhaps the most significant, was performed nearly 70 years ago. Google Christine Jorgensen.
no one except ignorant people and the right wing is insisting that anyone is changing a man into a woman. (And why aren’t you concerned about the reverse?) That is not what is happening. Instead, for those people for whom the condition is serious enough— and it's seriousness is decided by doctors, NOT culture warriors— surgery is bringing their physical bodies into alignment with their psychological gender. The vast majority of people who get this surgery are very satisfied with it. It relieves their distress.
If it's causing you distress, it's because you choose to have it caused your distress. It doesn't cause me any distress because I've made the effort to understand the problem.
And if the American public has managed to convince itself that transgender people are actually a threat, and will vote against their own interests because a tiny percentage of 1/2 of percent of human is transgender...
Then this country deserves whatever is coming at it. Because exactly the same thing happened 100 years ago in Germany. If you don’t think it’s the same, it’s because you’re neither jewish nor transgender.
Well stated! I think many of US have walked the walk you presented, we did everything right and have struggled ever since.
Perhaps social media today where mis-information, dis-information and outrageous lies uphold MAGA narrative for some makes real messaging more difficult. But the F2F approach to organizing and truth telling/listening can work.
I don't think the democratic party as a whole is out of touch. They routinely fought using legal means against the warped regime we currently have.
The problem seems to be that it is very difficult to defeat cheater, aka MAGA/Republi(con) artists if you follow the rules.
Locally much can be accomplished. Nationally, it remains yo be seen if anything can change the chaotic cruelty.
Bravo to those who try!
Totally agree. I think we have vast swaths of officeholders who are NOT out of touch. My congresswoman is not out of touch. But it's become way too easy to scare people by manufacturing nonexistent threats that make them vote against their own interests.
I, too, have a congressman who is out there for US. He is definitely in touch with the people. I hope Mallory gets in!
Mallory, your State Senate campaign, your video stood out because you clearly articulated who you are, what you stood for…not using a politics as usual playbook. Democrats need more candidates like you who understand their constituents. The DNC had a whiny no charisma chair in Jaime Harrison who blocked staunch Dems on social media who told him to get out of his house and support candidates. This continues with his chum who’s more of the same. Until the DNC gets a new leader, it’s up to us to directly support candidates like you. Which I will.
Mike, excellent decision to have Mallory here. Happy New Year to you both!!
Problems are solvable. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to limit you. Usually because they are limited and don't want you proving them wrong. Often there are people who do not WANT the problem solved, because they are profiting from the 'wrongness.' These people usually have lots of money with which to 'influence' (never say the dirty word - <bribe>) the gate keepers to solving problems, such as politicians.
Solving complex system problems is a skill that is not very common, but it does exist and is trainable. Some problems are easy once you know how. Some problems are hard even once you know how. There are difficult problems worth solving. Especially problems that hurt a couple hundred million people in the US. Maybe we can try a bit harder and not give up so easily.
Our healthcare is a trap made by and for insurance companies, drug companies and hospitals and the AMA, and the use of malpractice insurance instead of doctors actually removing incompetents from their profession. We can do better, much better. The ACA was a stop gap that slowed the then accelerating cost of medical care, but they were barely able to get that done because of the MONEY in politics. We can get rid of insurance companies with a government funded / operated competitor. We can set limits on prices of drugs, and offer grants for working on treatments for common problems. We can get better at diagnosing (without AI). We can break the limitations the AMA set on the number of doctors allowed to enter residency each year. Hospitals can be required to give proper and consistent bills for care, regardless of whether the patient has insurance or not. We can get creative by focusing on our problems and not accepting the limitations based on "what we have always done". Medicare for all is not bad, but we should then improve it to be more comprehensive than it currently is. Obviously they had intended to give Insurance companies at least some business there.
Did anyone else notice how little McMorrow said about her actual policies here? What do promises of *real results* matter if she can't tell us what thsoe results are supposed to be?
McMorrow is really shaping up to be the pro-corporate, pro-billionaire, centrist-approved candidate in this race. And Everything she says here about "not having to settle" is contradicted by the Abundance agenda company she keeps. Mallory has the Cuomo defender (and Cuomo victim-slimer) Lis Smith on her team. She has the gerontocratic, incompetent Dem James Carville advising her. Ezra Klein says hers is a race to watch.
McMorrow is just serving up the kind of feel-good, empty language of the Obama campaign, but trying to make it somehow even *less* specific. I admit it's been hard to watch her centrist cronies sap all vitality out of her candidacy. She had a lot of promise.
McMorrow is 100% correct! It’s past time to throw the baby out with the bathwater!
My
"Democrats don’t have a shortage of good ideas. What we have is a shortage of leaders who actually understand what it’s like to be most Americans today."
This extends to the fact that the Democratic party's gotten much farther to the left of the median voter on cultural issues in the last 12 or so years, to the point that it's caused real damage.