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jamie's avatar

I am counting on you, young ones, to protect my child and grandchildren. I am a 74-year-old "White Hippy" who is still helping, but I am so glad we have all of you.

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Mike Nellis's avatar

Glad I count among the young ones :)

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Douglas Gilligan's avatar

Key points: Anger, fear, insecurity and of course the entitlement of youth are certainly strong buttons to push. Yes, things SHOULD be better, but they don't get better by throwing a tantrum. The young men (I was young once myself) expected the world to be handed to them and when it did not fulfill all their dreams and hopes they voted for the man they had seen for nine years (at least) as a horrible example of what a man should be and decided they wanted HIM to be their president because either: A) It did not matter. B) To punish their elders who had failed them. C) Because they did not know how to reason because they had lost a year of effective schooling due to Covid Shutdown. D) They thought a fun day rioting in the Capital might be in their future if they voted for Trump. E) They were too addicted to the rage the algorithm on their phone incited in them and they figured Trump would keep providing them with more rage opportunities...

Sorry, but I have little sympathy for them. We all have our traumas and challenges, but voting for Trump was just dumb.

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Anastasia Pantsios's avatar

It wasn't mostly young people rioting at the capital. It was middle-aged people, mostly middle-class or even affluent.

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Marc Hurel's avatar

Each one of those folks you don’t have sympathy for has one vote. Many used it in 2024 in a way that has been extremely harmful to a lot of other people. Maybe your inability to sympathize isn’t the point.

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Ty's avatar

So sick of these whiney male babies. If women go to school, earn a degree, secure a great job and progress in their lives it’s because they put in the effort, the work, NOT because anything was stolen from these male babies. Who guaranteed the male species anything over anyone else? Where did young males get the idea that they were promised something over everyone else? Talk about entitled! Get off your duffs. No generation has had it easy and nothing has been handed to 90% of us except the wealthy. These guys need to read some history. Maybe look at what other generations went thru. These babies couldn’t even survive COVID without whining. Other generations went thru far more. Maybe if these young men would STOP using every excuse under the sun and put some effort into getting what they want, they might succeed. Good Grief America. Grow up. These young males have nothing more to be angry about than the rest of the nation. IF these Gullible boys were dumb enough to be suckered into Donnie’s BS, it becomes obvious as to why young males can’t succeed. How gullible can you be? And what woman wants to date people who are so dumb & whiney? Donnie has never accomplished anything on his own without his daddies money yet you’re all dumb enough to follow a major loser? Explains a lot about where we are as a nation. I don’t feel sorry for any of these young guys. They are all good at whining just like their hero— I will give them that. Whine, whine, whine! Exactly WHAT did republicans ever do for you besides make empty promises? BTW: if you don’t know what Newsom’s politics are then research it. Try looking it up, read and listen instead of WHINING. I’m not sure people this dumb & full of excuses are even salvageable. And the U.S. is depending on these young guys for our future? No wonder we’re toast! GOOD GRIEF!

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Tricia Robbins's avatar

Interesting that Mamdani won with Regan’s message: “Are you better off than you were four years ago.”

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Mike Nellis's avatar

Simple works

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Tim's avatar

One reason the Dem approval ratings are so low is probably from Democrats themselves being disappointed with the Dem Party. No one wants to "approve" what has gone on in the past. I would not over read those approval/disapproval ratings. That said Dems need to focus on real solutions and actually getting it done.

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Mike Nellis's avatar

Yes, that's right. The Dem approval rating being low isn't going to stop people from voting.

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Ty's avatar

Everyone in this country is way too quick to blame anyone but themselves for where this country is. Who elected the people who ran this country the last 60 yrs? Who elected NIXON, BUSHES, REAGAN and TRUMP? DeSantis and Abbott? McConnell? Who elected this trash? That TRASH wasn’t Democrats! Democrats aren’t dragging this country backwards. And who’s gullible enough to listen to BS about Democrats? Who elected the politicians that corrupted our Supreme Court? And when did it become a crime for young women to do better than young men? When did males have BETTER/more income guaranteed? How did that become a strike against women that now were dragging women backwards so these guys can feel better about themselves?

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Anastasia Pantsios's avatar

That's because we keep getting lectured about how terrible we are by the "mainstream" media until we become hangdog and turn on each other. But I blame the media for much of this because they set unrealistic expectations for what Democrats can or should do and if they don't, they give us endless negative press.

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Marilyn Schramm's avatar

No way -- Hillary had a clear platform with detailed policies on 2016. (So did Warren in 2020).Youth support for both Obama & Sanders was based SOLELY on personality/charisma. Youth don't know how govt actually works. They vote for those who say what they want to hear.

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Mike Nellis's avatar

Young people voted overwhelmingly for Hillary though

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Marilyn Schramm's avatar

No they didn't vote for Hilary. They overwhelmingly went 3rd party or non-vote

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Anastasia Pantsios's avatar

Hillary and Warren are women. And women are always held to higher standards by both voters and the media.

Warren and Sanders are a perfect example. Bernie gets all sorts of laudatory attention for pushing "medicare for all." In 2020, his website vertical on health care was under 500 words that basically said "We'll do Medicare for all and it's be magic — no premiums, no copays, no deductibles. (Medicare has all of those.) Warren had almost 10,000 (!!!) words, describing all the steps to getting universal access to health care. So what did the media do? It hounded Warren about "How will you pay for it?" (It was in her plan which they could've read.) Men are expected to dream big, and women are expected to solve as the problems.

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Marilyn Schramm's avatar

Agree. That's why I don't understand why women aren't elected more. They get shit done!! Pelosi -- most effective, productive Speaker EVER.

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Ty's avatar
7hEdited

Young males today obviously vote for people who will make them promises that they have no business promising. The rest of us weren’t promised anything. Yet today’s young males are waiting for promises. Meanwhile they cannot even research Democratic candidates policies while they whine about not knowing what someone stands for. JFC life is really hard when you make it harder than it has to be. Whose fault is that? Such ridiculous whining about nonsense! This country’s problem IS NOT Democrats. Keep voting for Republican fascists instead of Democrats. I’m sure that’ll work out great. It’s been great thus far!

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Gary Tinsley's avatar

Enjoying your show from Dallas.

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Douglas Gilligan's avatar

I agree, we need to declare an aggressive policy. We do not need to wait for a candidate who will be told by advisors to not promise too much. The media hounded Obama for every failed 'promise' even when the Republicans used their power in congress to block him from closing Guantanamo they blamed that on Obama. They will be advised to cater to specific voting blocks with cheap fixes so they will be seen as fiscally conservative so they will not alienate the rich donors. They will be advised to preach 'bringing back normal' when the people were so frustrated with 'normal' that they decided to blow it all up by voting for Trump.

Stop just talking about it and use your voice to PUSH an aggressive agenda that fixes EVERYTHING. Trump did not win by making small promises, he made huge promises he had no intention of keeping. We can do better than that by making GIGANTIC promises we have every intention of keeping, then evaluating candidates on that. Sure, no need to sabotage any given candidate because we will need every single vote, but we can certainly give MORE to those with a large vision.

We want to elect a good politician. Let us recognize politicians do not know everything and can not imagine everything, so let us help them.

I am frustrated that people keep saying "Somebody should come and save us with a bold vision that we can follow." when we can get on our own feet and start in the direction we know we want to go.

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Hope Crescione's avatar

First...I'm in New Haven, CT. This young man, Cameron, also David Hogg...who was shafted by the Dems, the Squad, Mamdani, Maxwell Frost...are the future of the Democratic party. They have ideas that support the regular Americans' needs, and the energy to enact these ideas. I say this as a little old lady who has virtually no respect left for the so-called do nothing leadership of the Democratic party. Bernie and Chris Murphy are the only others that have any enthusiasm for. I'm sure there are others, but I just don't know about them. I have been a registered Dem since 1971, and lately, I've even been thinking about becoming an independent. The only thing keeping me here is that I want to be able to vote in primaries. The Dems need to get off their bottom ends for us, and stop catering to their big donors.

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Ty's avatar

Bernie is an Independent. NOT a Democrat which explains why he wasn’t on Democratic tickets. Yet most of the people who whine about the Democrats don’t know this.

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Hope Crescione's avatar

You're RIGHT! I forgot that!

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EA Padilla's avatar

My fear is that all our energy will go to impeach Trump instead of getting shit done.

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Mike Nellis's avatar

As much as Trump sucks I wouldn't waste any effort on impeaching the man

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Marilyn Schramm's avatar

Repubs have NO interest in getting anything done. And Americans keep sending Repubs to Senate, who then filibuster anything passed by House. People just don't have basic understanding of how govt works & how laws get passed. No surprise they choose authoritarianism. So much easier not to have to pay attention, as opposed to being informed & having to THINK.

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Ty's avatar

Couldn’t agree more! Great post. We elect do nothing republicans and then whine about our lousy government that we elected! And then we repeat that all over in more than 1/2 our states. Might help if people learned how our government functions. Then actually took the time to learn about candidates instead of repeatedly voting for the same garbage because they recognize a name. This mess is OUR FAULT!

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Carole klein's avatar

todays conversation was the most informative message I've heard on substack. kudos. more of the same pls. I am 84 and want to hear views of the young and that includes both of you.

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Anastasia Pantsios's avatar

I'm getting very tired of "what Democrats don't understand" and "what Democrats must learn" and people pointing out all the way Democrats are allegedly to blame for everything . It's self-sabotage, a way of ceding victory to the MAGA right. There's very little about Momdani's campaign that can scale unless you can recreate an election decided a tiny sliver of energized progressive voters who tend to swallow pie-in-the-sky promises vs a horrific big-name candidate who is corrupt and nasty. It's not a situation that will translate to Ohio or Illinois or Georgia or California. Fact is, most Democrats ARE doing the things we lecture them they should do, and what we need to do is stand together and slam back at the dishonest tactics of the GOP, not blame our own. Here in Ohio is the perfect example. Sherrod Brown did everything. right. Bernie Moreno said he supported trans people who intended to rape your daughter in a public restroom. I hope Sherrod had figured out a response for that.

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Marilyn Schramm's avatar

Agree 100%. Instead of infiltrating Dem Party (like MAGA did the Repubs), all they do is criticize. Especially the youth -- if a candidate doesn't meet their purity test, they just don't vote. Apparently, they never heard the phrase -- don't let perfection be the enemy of the good.

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Anastasia Pantsios's avatar

I have heard that phrase many times and I think we need to keep saying it louder!

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Audrey's avatar

Is he still anti-Jewish don't you think he will need the Jewish vote to win the election in NY

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Mike Nellis's avatar

He's making inroads, but obviously it's a concern for him

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sara Elkins's avatar

He is not anti-Jewish and Jews are part of his campaign team. What he is is anti-killing babies,kids,women and just innocent people in Gaza. Lots of us Jewish people agree with this opinion and hope he wins mayor of N.Y. City!

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Marilyn Schramm's avatar

?????? I never saw ANYTHING about Mamdani being anti-Jewish. Do you watch Fox News?

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Anastasia Pantsios's avatar

He is anti-semitic, although not hatefully so, more ignorantly so. And instead of apologizing for a clumsy use of a term that indicates anti-Semitism to Jewish people, he's made excuses. But Andrew Cuomo is one of the most arrogant shitheads on earth and I still have not forgive Democrats who gushed over him in 2020 because he did daily press conferences insulting Trump and saying we should dump Biden for Cuomo as our presidential candidate. Seriously, people ...

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Audrey's avatar

check out what he said a few years ago and you will find it for instance in July this year he refused to condemn the actions taken agains American New Yorkers who were Jews at Columbia and other universities and when asked on a TV interview to comment on "globalize the infatada" he stated he believes in justice and freedom and therefore legitimatize it and unfortunately I do not have time to go on but look I don't care if he doesn't like Israel I care about American Jews and especially NY Jews - I like most of his ideas and believe that some of them are impossible because where will the funding come from I have lots of questions but I won't even go there until he comments on Jewish people

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Anastasia Pantsios's avatar

To Jews, "globalize the intifada" is a term that means "attack Jews anywhere in the world." What it may have meant originally is irrelevant; that is what it commonly means now. He should've just apologized, not spun semantics.

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Clayton James Conway's avatar

Seattle. The young need a low information base voter messaging of 3 or 4 economic issues that Repubs always have for their low information voters. Helps if all Dems repeat it until everyone on the planet knows what it is. Dems in charge seem to want to offer something but short enough to forget about it after a win. Without endless repeating by all the people will not believe it.

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Irene Ross's avatar

I agree with much of what Kasky said about Democrats not getting it. But I do have to push back a little on Gavin Newsom. Full disclosure—i am a supporter of him and, right now, I’m just as concerned about the 2026 midterms as I am the presidency. i think what he is doing is just what we need right now—we haven’t seen anyone stand up to him—and it’s critical that we take back the house (and possibly the senate) in 2026—to at least slow him down—rather than wait for 2028. I’ve done a lot of research and he IS popular with Republicans—and i saw an interview where he also talked about the Dems talking down to people —and also did say he could see that in himself. Now, if we have this conversation after the midterms and I’m still not clear on policy we can have another conversation. For now, though, i think its the right move

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Linda Kjonnerod's avatar

Why do democrats cling to making phone calls that no one answers, insist on sending postcards that are not read, knocking on doors when folks are not home but insist thst podcasts aren't helpful?

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Michele Chouinard's avatar

Nice summary Cam.

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