uses and abuses of red scares
Staring blankly as an apologist, or supporter, of the DSA — as opposed to candidates shuffling out of the organization walking and talking their way from the platform planks, and as opposed to candidates who have never been involved in the organization, tackle “Prison Abolition” — seems to be part and parcel to tackle what happens when Fox News gets ahold of the thing And their spokespeople for their broadcasting pleasure and go plank after plank on the phrases that get sensationalized takes —
— that flashback to the Covid and George Floyd summer when a bunch of Reed students thought they could change the world by shoving a list of radical books and podcasts into everyone’s hands — graffiti sloganeering on the problems of the police proliferate —
and a couple efforts to set up a chaz that just can’t get there and fizzle off —
The problem becomes instant. We have false advertisement. When you want advocate “Prison Abolition” I want to hear Prison Abolition. And they don’t care get there. Prisons continue to exist in the scheme of this prison abolitionist. If I am arguing anything here in any debate, I win the argument because nothing on the central point is argued. So what the hell is the point of this phrase? I mean, it is standing in the way of “Medicare for All” and any great Scandinavian flavored policy you have in mind, and just what they do in rehabilitation, decriminalization, and policing policies to pull police officers out of people’s lives as much as you can — on to some basic libertarian stances. Maybe there is an Overton Window theory — put this out there in order to get what the hell you want , but more likely this just produces a cut off as opposed to a slogan or phrase that encapsulates the policies you are seeking, and a demand for a pivot for Senate candidate Roy Cooper in North Carolina to do a “Sister Souljah” to stamp down a Law and Order message.
So we now have a Democratic candidate in Wisconsin. A perfect storm of a mixed crowded primary where everyone “real” has stepped into predictable politician scandals has made the dsa candidate the frontrunner, and has forced a candidate who had suspended a campaign back in as the last establishment hope. And in this case I say, the dsa candidate sucks for the reasons that James Carville hates the whole lot. I listen to her get interviewed and am a little bit gobsmacked — yeah, this won’t do. I see that in front of more radical audiences, she is free-flowing and comfortable, and in front of normies she is stiff in cutting off the unpalatable. She is not Mamdani who can move to conservative audiences with a list of bloated government contracts from previous administrations he wants to cut off and regulations he thinks are onerous. There is a little bit of a theory for Overton Window purposes — the media can only had the attention to pump up one person as crank, and she gets to be the bizarre Chrisine O’Donnell against the Bizarro Marco Rubio over in Michigan now. Which has the problem that you actually want to see a Democratic governor in Wisconsin And maybe the Repubicans could be indifferent on the notion of a Republican Senator in Delaware. It is notable — Bernie Sanders has not endorsed the Wisconsin dsa candidate — he appears to be kind of picky in this game and has a left edge he does not want to cross.
The good news on the mail biter of a race in Michigan as it pertains to Wisconsin is it does give succor to the establishment Democrat, here needing a pullback from a parts of the electorate sleepwalking towards this one, the last desperate lunge from the long dormant establishment has some evidence of success — maybe a silent constituency and this is the one case you hope James Carville’s mostly stupid message carries temporarily.