I love this take. Charlotte Swasey, a self-proclaimed political data nerd, says Democrats need to get weird:
Continue reading Campaigns Should Get Weird
“Maybe what your district needs is an entirely row-boat-based campaign. There’s essentially no downside here. If you’re running in an R +20 district, that marginal 10 votes from a careful, ordinary campaign is just not going to matter. It should be hail-mary all the way.” –Charlotte Swasey
Back in 2020, I wrote Better Politics Please, an idealistic little book that dreamed of a functional, more friendly political climate. Roughly six months after it came out, January 6th happened and it all felt hopelessly naive. A presidential election cycle later it feels like we’re stuck in the same place. But every now and then the naive hope of that book shines through.
Today it comes from Republican Representative Michael Flood from Nebraska. You’ve probably seen headlines about him being booed at town halls. You might remember him as they guy who admitted to voting for the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ and missing a section that defanged the federal courts.
But the guy is actually holding town halls, when Republican leadership has encouraged their entire party not to do it.
The Daily sat down with Flood to ask why.
Continue reading The Value and Power of Screaming Town HallsLately this blog has felt more like a time capsule, capturing my thoughts at any given moment in time. Elections are a massive tipping point in history (in the sense that a major change happens based on a single result, marking a stark change), so it seems like a good time to capture those thoughts just a week out.
Continue reading 2024 Presidential ElectionIn 2020, after four years of Donald Trump and in the midst of the divisiveness of a pandemic response, I wrote a book called Better Politics, Please.
It was hopeful.
Maybe naively hopeful.
On January 6, 2021, as the nation witnessed a violent attempt to overthrow an election—an unprecedented assault on our democracy—that hopeful book felt worse than naive.
Here we are four years later, barreling toward the 2024 election. Are our politics any better? Please?
Continue reading Better Politics Please AgainYesterday former President Donald Trump made a series of racist attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris, challenging her biracial identity. I try to bite my tongue on the latest controversy of the day (and often fail), but this is just nuts.
It’s really wild (and kind of gross) to watch people struggle with race and not understand being biracial or mixed race in 2024. You can have more than one identity, and that’s not inconsistent. Claiming one of those identities does not negate the other.
White people claim multiple European roots and celebrate both—for St. Patrick’s Day it’s “I’m Irish!” and for Oktoberfest it’s “I’m German!”
Using my father’s last name does not mean I disowned my mother’s family. I can claim both.
Continue reading We’re Not Going Back: Biracial ConfusionSometimes a blog like this works best as a time capsule. What did I think at the time? Our perspective tends to distort over time, so capturing an honest assessment in the moment is important for the sake of accuracy. With politics and history, doubly so. Everything seems inevitable in hindsight. But at the time it often didn’t feel that way.
And politics in the last month? Oof. From President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance, to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, to Biden withdrawing from the election and Vice President Kamala Harris taking the mantle—it’s been wild.
I could write about this for days, but nobody wants to read that. So I’m going to try to capture my thoughts in short, quick bursts. Here goes nothing…
Continue reading A Political Snapshot in TimeThe Fourth of July seemed like a fitting day to read Adam Kinzinger’s political memoir, Renegade: Defending Democracy and Liberty in our Divided Country.
If you don’t remember Kinzinger, he’s one of two Republicans in Congress who served on the January 6 Committee and one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach President Donald Trump. I profiled him in my 2020 book Better Politics Please.
It’s an interesting book, perhaps not as polished and slick as some political memoirs (and he gives us the mercy of not rehashing his entire life in excruciating detail like most political memoirs), but a solid snapshot of politics from the Tea Party to the Insurrection.
Continue reading Renegade for Independence DayIn the summer of 2020 I published a book, Better Politics Please, yearning for a better way. Six months later January 6 happened and it felt like we were further than ever from coming together as Americans.
That book was written in hope, and I’ve felt awfully hopeless since.
Today I finished reading Barack Obama’s 2006 memoir, The Audacity of Hope. You have to read any political memoir, especially one released in the build up to a presidential run, with a grain of salt. There’s a lot of humble optimism and positive framing of life experience.
Continue reading The Audacity of HopeInteresting story from small town Minnesota about a school board forcing one of their only Latino teachers to remove his Puerto Rico and Pride flags. That’s a whole thing, and while I have feelings about it, I want to talk about elections instead.
Why it matters: Because Worthington School Board, like many of our local boards and councils, has a problem with uncontested elections.
Continue reading Uncontested Elections Are Bad for Democracy: Worthington School BoardTuesday is another chance to exercise our democracy. After the threats we’ve seen in recent years, I hope you’re taking full advantage of this opportunity. Go vote.
If you’re in West St. Paul (or even Dakota County), I’ve put together what I hope is a very helpful voter’s guide.
Continue reading 2022 Election
