Political Animal

The Unconscious Bias of Sanders and Some of His Supporters

by Nancy LeTourneau August 8, 2017January 9, 2022

Robbing women and people of color of their own agency brings on charges of sexism/racism.

Political Animal

‘The Left’ Should Gaze at Their Own Navel

by Martin Longman August 3, 2017January 9, 2022

The Sanders left has practical reasons not to attack Kamala Harris, Deval Patrick, and Cory Booker as a group.

Political Animal

The Real Story Behind a Romney Aide’s Challenge to Elizabeth Warren

by D.R. Tucker July 30, 2017January 9, 2022

So, is this the best the Massachusetts Republican Party can offer? Longtime Republican operative Beth Lindstrom, a former senior aide to Mitt Romney and manager of Scott Brown’s victorious Senate campaign, said Wednesday she is considering a challenge to US Senator Elizabeth Warren. Lindstrom has held a series of conversations with top state Republicans about […]

Political Animal

Jeff Sessions Deserves to Be Humiliated

by D.R. Tucker July 29, 2017January 9, 2022

What did I tell you back down the line? I’ll scratch your back, you can scratch mine… Steely Dan, “Gaucho,” 1980 You have to admit: it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy, and it feels good to see him get screwed. Jeff Sessions probably looks in the mirror now and finds himself restraining the urge […]

Political Animal

Will Democrats Allow the Perfect to Be the Enemy of the Good in 2020?

by D.R. Tucker June 4, 2017January 9, 2022

Do you get the sense that it won’t be enough? Do you get the sense that after all of Donald Trump’s outrages, his deceptions, his lies, his depravity, his chicanery, it still won’t be enough? Do you get the sense that three years from now, the Democratic Party will still be divided along “establishment” vs. […]

Political Animal

What Can Brown Do for the Democratic Party?

by D.R. Tucker May 21, 2017January 9, 2022

Assuming, improbably as it may seem now, that Donald Trump survives and runs for a second term (hey, stranger things have happened), who will Democrats embrace as their post-Barack Obama, post-Hillary Clinton champion? It’s not too early to speculate: the 2020 Democratic presidential primary will be here before you know it, and we could once […]

Political Animal

Heads of State: The Front Lines of the Resistance to Trump

by D.R. Tucker February 4, 2017January 9, 2022

Two weeks ago, I noted the shortsighted reasoning of Setti Warren, a likely Democratic challenger to faux-moderate Republican Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts; Warren insisted that there was merit in Democrats “reaching out” to those who voted for the noxious narcissist who currently occupies the White House, despite the fact that those who embraced Donald […]

Political Animal

The GOP Death Spiral

by D.R. Tucker October 9, 2016January 9, 2022

Deval Patrick saw this coming. Back in August 2006, the former Clinton Administration official, then running to become the first African-American governor of Massachusetts, denounced the right wing’s delegitimization of public service, and the need for the Democratic Party to forcefully call out and push back against this sort of delegitimization: I thought about Patrick’s […]

Political Animal

This is What You Call Getting It Terribly Wrong

by D.R. Tucker October 1, 2016January 9, 2022

Almost as bad as the mainstream media’s pre-debate obsession with normalizing Donald Trump is the Fourth Estate’s fixation on promoting the idea that there are still reasonable, moderate Republican politicians in this country, that the GOP hasn’t completely gone goofy, that the party isn’t consumed by cynicism. Case in point: the questionable coverage of a […]