1 - Ranked Choice! Not run offs - it's already hard for more marginalized people to make it to the polls. Don't make them go twice.
2 - No one seems to be able to decide what's a win and what's not. Biss refuses to say "genocide", but he does call for cutting weapons to Israel. In my book calling it a genocide is important, but stopping weapons is way more important. So as much as I love Kat (I fell head over heels in love with her during her short stint with Zeteo), Biss sounds ok to me. But what do I know? I live in California, I don't know these people.
And this, from The Intercept:
"Neither Stratton nor Krishnamoorthi have called Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide or said they would push to condition aid to Israel, as Kelly repeatedly pointed out in her attempts to carve out a lane to their left."
Also, THE most important thing we must do is end the Rt wing monopoly on our media. The minute we get a true majority, this must be addressed. Right now the media is the biggest aid to Fascism. In the meantime, we must build our own networks!
When I first tuned in to election results, Kat was in the lead. I was elated! She did amazingly well! I like my state senator Mike Simmons and Rep Huynh but Kat really stood out in this crowd. I hope she will run again. She has a long future for success. We need her! We definitely need ranked voting. 5 big cities in Minnesota, including Minneapolis and St Paul, use ranked voting. Perhaps Chicagoans should speak to someone there.
I voted for Stratton instead of Kelly, even though I preferred Kelly, because I was afraid we would end up with Raja because of votes split between the two women. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened with rank choice voting.
Qasim, thank you for your well-reasoned and passionate takes on these crucial topics. I’d felt powerless and overwhelmed at the current media environment, but supporting your (and others’) work on Substack has given me hope. When I re-posted your Facebook post re: the dangers of electing Raja, it made a difference for many of my followers (I also got some pushback from a few Raja supporters, but I think most saw through their weak “But I know him” responses.) Thanks for making the case so beautifully.
There is a secret bill you must publicize if you are sincere. The proposed We the People Amendment aka H J Res 54. Scroll down at this link for the official short, powerful 3 part text:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-joint-resolution/54/text For 15 years not one senator introduced it in the Senate, leaving the door wide ppen for Project 2025 executed by Trump. In addition we need an alternative inexpensive way to get the message of every candidate to every member of the constituency at no cost to receive it. Legislators are enslaved by Citizens United legal bribery. You did not mention, out of 10 Senate candidates only the 3 with the most money were given media attention. Also, remember how media treated Marianne Williamson when on the TV Dem debate stage she asked: Why are we so sick? when others were talking about healthcare insurance. She talked about what corporations do to our food supply. She was ostracized, censored, liabled. She shifted her campaign to social media videos. If you remain silent about H J Res 54 you will be complicit.
Excellent & needed b/c AIPAC and all the other AIPAC affiliated funds are going to get bolder not disappear and we need to be vigilant AF. Kat will rise again b/c this is HER TIME. Thanks for including Hogg's Leaders We Deserve in the analysis. In SF we have groups with innocuous sounding names like "Together SF" "Neighbors for a better SF" and they are billionaire boys dark money orgs. Nasty.
Excellent post. Insightful and practical analysis. Thank you. And thank you to every progressive candidate who runs for office against daunting odds. Their courage is inspiring.
I think Kat should run as an independent in the main election now. She has all small donor support so that base will be there for her and we don’t have two years to wait for people like her to get on board and running government. I think it would be worth it if she has the energy in the will to have her run against the current democratic and republican people and see who really have the overall public wants
Thank you, Qasim, for breaking this all down. I'm heart broken for Kat, but she came close and that's a good sign. Hopefully, we can all keep up this momentum. Grateful for your analysis and direction.
I agree with everything you said except for ranked choice voting. Here in California it's becoming more likely that exactly that will deliver the governorship to Republicans, even though California is a very blue state. I have been warning about this for years but no one listens. Of course the real problem is the hubris of all the Democrats who can't possibly win but still refuse to drop out. Unfortunately we seem to be stuck with them.
No, no, no. Our horrible jungle primary is nothing at all like ranked choice. If we had ranked choice, AKA single transferable vote, you could put whatever quixotic hopeless candidate you truly love first, but your vote bounces to your second choice, maybe someone semi-mainstream but still quite progressive, and if they don't make it either, then your vote finally lands on the really boring mainstream lesser evil Dem. You get to vote your conscience and the lesser evil both.
Are you saying that each person we vote for gets a certain score based on how we rank them? If so, that sounds a bit like gambling. The order you pick determines the winner, right? But does that truly reflect what the voters want? And wouldn't that also advantage Republicans in our upcoming primary, or am I misunderstanding?
No. You rank your choices. If your top pick is too far down, your vote - your actual, single vote - bounces off and goes to your next pick. This keeps going until someone has a majority.
Nothing at all like gambling.
And it would not in any way shape or form help Repugs unless they are a majority.
Ah, okay. So why did California change to a jungle primary? Just the whim of the legislature? I don't remember voting on that, but maybe it didn't register at the time and I did.
(But maybe when everyone feels free to vote for who they really want, maybe it turns out the quixotic candidate actually had a lot of support. Maybe they win! Or at least do well enough to show the world that those ideas have support).
Ranked voting in NYC gave us Eric Adams. After that, Democrats appreciated cross endorsements. Mamdani and Lander took advantage but it required voters listening up and paying attention.
If we had ranked choice, that could be ok. We'd find out how much actual support he has and that would be interesting. A bunch of my friends in the Palestine solidarity groups love him.
But right now, with the evil jungle primary looking like giving us a MAGA gov, voting for Butch Ware is a bit irresponsible. When it's closer, and there's a better idea who's where, pick the least bad of the top three Dems.
If people would research candidates instead of believing clickbait, it wouldn't matter how much money is thrown at an election.
1 - Ranked Choice! Not run offs - it's already hard for more marginalized people to make it to the polls. Don't make them go twice.
2 - No one seems to be able to decide what's a win and what's not. Biss refuses to say "genocide", but he does call for cutting weapons to Israel. In my book calling it a genocide is important, but stopping weapons is way more important. So as much as I love Kat (I fell head over heels in love with her during her short stint with Zeteo), Biss sounds ok to me. But what do I know? I live in California, I don't know these people.
And this, from The Intercept:
"Neither Stratton nor Krishnamoorthi have called Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide or said they would push to condition aid to Israel, as Kelly repeatedly pointed out in her attempts to carve out a lane to their left."
So Stratton doesn't sound so great to me.
But the main takeaway, Ranked Choice Now!
Also, THE most important thing we must do is end the Rt wing monopoly on our media. The minute we get a true majority, this must be addressed. Right now the media is the biggest aid to Fascism. In the meantime, we must build our own networks!
When I first tuned in to election results, Kat was in the lead. I was elated! She did amazingly well! I like my state senator Mike Simmons and Rep Huynh but Kat really stood out in this crowd. I hope she will run again. She has a long future for success. We need her! We definitely need ranked voting. 5 big cities in Minnesota, including Minneapolis and St Paul, use ranked voting. Perhaps Chicagoans should speak to someone there.
I voted for Stratton instead of Kelly, even though I preferred Kelly, because I was afraid we would end up with Raja because of votes split between the two women. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened with rank choice voting.
Ranked Choice Now!
Disappointing.
Qasim, thank you for your well-reasoned and passionate takes on these crucial topics. I’d felt powerless and overwhelmed at the current media environment, but supporting your (and others’) work on Substack has given me hope. When I re-posted your Facebook post re: the dangers of electing Raja, it made a difference for many of my followers (I also got some pushback from a few Raja supporters, but I think most saw through their weak “But I know him” responses.) Thanks for making the case so beautifully.
There is a secret bill you must publicize if you are sincere. The proposed We the People Amendment aka H J Res 54. Scroll down at this link for the official short, powerful 3 part text:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-joint-resolution/54/text For 15 years not one senator introduced it in the Senate, leaving the door wide ppen for Project 2025 executed by Trump. In addition we need an alternative inexpensive way to get the message of every candidate to every member of the constituency at no cost to receive it. Legislators are enslaved by Citizens United legal bribery. You did not mention, out of 10 Senate candidates only the 3 with the most money were given media attention. Also, remember how media treated Marianne Williamson when on the TV Dem debate stage she asked: Why are we so sick? when others were talking about healthcare insurance. She talked about what corporations do to our food supply. She was ostracized, censored, liabled. She shifted her campaign to social media videos. If you remain silent about H J Res 54 you will be complicit.
Excellent & needed b/c AIPAC and all the other AIPAC affiliated funds are going to get bolder not disappear and we need to be vigilant AF. Kat will rise again b/c this is HER TIME. Thanks for including Hogg's Leaders We Deserve in the analysis. In SF we have groups with innocuous sounding names like "Together SF" "Neighbors for a better SF" and they are billionaire boys dark money orgs. Nasty.
Excellent synthesis. Magnificently constructed.
Powerful. Thank you.
Excellent post. Insightful and practical analysis. Thank you. And thank you to every progressive candidate who runs for office against daunting odds. Their courage is inspiring.
“Fuck Trump. Fuck ICE. And Free Palestine. Thank you all”…
This is an excellent report and thank you for it.
I think Kat should run as an independent in the main election now. She has all small donor support so that base will be there for her and we don’t have two years to wait for people like her to get on board and running government. I think it would be worth it if she has the energy in the will to have her run against the current democratic and republican people and see who really have the overall public wants
The last thing we need is a split in the Democratic Party vote opening the possibility of a
GOP win.
There will be other elections and other opportunities.
Thank you, Qasim, for breaking this all down. I'm heart broken for Kat, but she came close and that's a good sign. Hopefully, we can all keep up this momentum. Grateful for your analysis and direction.
I agree with everything you said except for ranked choice voting. Here in California it's becoming more likely that exactly that will deliver the governorship to Republicans, even though California is a very blue state. I have been warning about this for years but no one listens. Of course the real problem is the hubris of all the Democrats who can't possibly win but still refuse to drop out. Unfortunately we seem to be stuck with them.
No, no, no. Our horrible jungle primary is nothing at all like ranked choice. If we had ranked choice, AKA single transferable vote, you could put whatever quixotic hopeless candidate you truly love first, but your vote bounces to your second choice, maybe someone semi-mainstream but still quite progressive, and if they don't make it either, then your vote finally lands on the really boring mainstream lesser evil Dem. You get to vote your conscience and the lesser evil both.
Are you saying that each person we vote for gets a certain score based on how we rank them? If so, that sounds a bit like gambling. The order you pick determines the winner, right? But does that truly reflect what the voters want? And wouldn't that also advantage Republicans in our upcoming primary, or am I misunderstanding?
No. You rank your choices. If your top pick is too far down, your vote - your actual, single vote - bounces off and goes to your next pick. This keeps going until someone has a majority.
Nothing at all like gambling.
And it would not in any way shape or form help Repugs unless they are a majority.
So it's like an instant runoff?
Well, yes, that's it's other name!
Ah, okay. So why did California change to a jungle primary? Just the whim of the legislature? I don't remember voting on that, but maybe it didn't register at the time and I did.
But it's runoff after runoff, if there are 10 or 20 people in the race
Qasim, do an article on Ranked Choice, ok? We really need it.
(But maybe when everyone feels free to vote for who they really want, maybe it turns out the quixotic candidate actually had a lot of support. Maybe they win! Or at least do well enough to show the world that those ideas have support).
Ranked voting in NYC gave us Eric Adams. After that, Democrats appreciated cross endorsements. Mamdani and Lander took advantage but it required voters listening up and paying attention.
This sounds interesting. Can you explain a little more about what you mean? Thank you.
That's why you throw in the curve ball and vote for Butch Ware!
If we had ranked choice, that could be ok. We'd find out how much actual support he has and that would be interesting. A bunch of my friends in the Palestine solidarity groups love him.
But right now, with the evil jungle primary looking like giving us a MAGA gov, voting for Butch Ware is a bit irresponsible. When it's closer, and there's a better idea who's where, pick the least bad of the top three Dems.