There are three things with Tester, one good, two bad.

Bad - the demographic shift in Montana has been accelerating during COVID. Some people “Yellowstone”. Basically a shitload of conservatives from liberal states have flocked to Montana and brought the vibe WAY down. There also used to be a concept in Montana of “vote for the most Montana-est candidate” that has historically led to state-wide offices other than President to be pretty competitive. Before the current, absolutely horrible R Governor (Gianforte), we had a two term Dem governor. Tester is another example. That trend has all but disappeared over the last few elections as people with no ties to Montana, but strong ties to conservative politics, have moved to the state.

The other negative is this is a presidential election year, so the Trumpers might be more motivated to vote.

The one boon Tester has going for him right now is that there is an abortion referendum on the ballot. As we’ve seen in a few other states, having a yes/no option to protect women’s reproductive freedom has been bringing out the votes for democrats. Montana is a small state (~1.2 million people) so it doesn’t take much to swing a race one way or the other.

It’s pretty sad too because Sheehy and Gianforte are basically incredibly unlikeable. Absolutely vile pieces of trash, and they’ll probably win anyway.

This is bullshit. The Secretary of State in Montana is a woman. The GOP is both con men AND con women.

Boy got a brain that makes MC Escher be like “bro, what?”

Cognitive Decline? Everything Trump Has Ever Said During Political Existence.

Anyone else ever get the feeling Francis is just a bit dumb?

Fair enough. Probably one of those areas where Ds and Rs agree, but for different reasons.

Like when you say “America is going in the wrong direction” and Ds are like “yeah, we’re moving rightward and closer to a Christian theocracy and it sucks” and Rs are like “yeah, we’re moving leftward and toward a woke secular communist state”

I guess it just struck me as gross because we have like significantly more people locked up in the US than any other country on earth.

Doesn’t show up differently on Voyager, luckily, so it’s really easy to spot right away. I don’t want to block outright because it’s better to at least be able to see when some bullshit needs to be countered.

Probably UniversalMonk, the Lemmy poster version of a spoiler candidate.

Only 34% of Americans and barely over half of Harris supporters believing in Trans rights is pretty fucking depressing.

61% believing the criminal justice system is too lenient? What the fuck?

63% believing the government should ensure health care (including 1/3 of republicans) is encouraging at least.

Over half of both parties (55%D, 76%R) believe the US should be the world’s only superpower. Barf.

America really sucks sometimes.

Spry, fuck yes.

Progressive, in a lot of ways yes. Even just looking at what her and Biden have accomplished, pushing and pushing for student loan reform, climate action, judges, drug costs, infrastructure, cannabis reform (off the top of my head), it’s a lot more than we’ve gotten from some other administrations.

Obviously there are always ways she could be MORE progressive for my taste, and she’s not an AOC or Bernie, but she’s good uh… well, progress.

Wow, so surprising they would pick one of the most hotly contested senate races in the country with a vulnerable incumbent Democrat. Total coincidence I’m sure, and not at all an effort to help the Republican.

The green party cares about the environment man.

It’s just that it’s the political environment. Fucking trash.

I think they meant singing - they might be referring to the “deepfake” tech that was taking old photos and making them seem like they were singing 80s songs.

https://archive.is/XdvbR

Archived version

There’s a difference between requesting something and expecting it.

Diet Mountain Dew? Is he a racist?

Wouldn’t the opposite of a low risk, medium reward pick a high risk, medium reward pick?

Mark Kelly is super moderate - that’s the only negative thing about him as far as I know. It’s possible his moderation was more about being elected in AZ and he might be free to be more left-leaning if he were on a national stage, but that’s like… not usually how it goes.

For Pete, it’s more of an “electibility” question - whether him being a gay man would turn off some voters? I would love to think we’re passed that on the left, but it’s an untested assumption.

And just to be clear, Pete and Mark are actually my top picks for VP, on a personal level. I’m just playing Trump’s advocate for the sake of discussion.

But ultimately, he would not be the one making those decisions. She would.

Literally Ender’s Game

Obligatory fuck OSC.

He’s pretty moderate though. I’m not sure he’s really the best choice nationally - Harris won’t need help bringing the middle over, she needs to convince progressives to vote.