I'm deactivating this account on 11/30, after 17 years. I'm now bsky.app/profile/mschmitt9.b…
Washington, DC
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The first episode of @NewAmerica's new podcast series, "Democracy Deciphered," is up, featuring my colleague @MaresaStrano and me with our day 2 takes on the election. newamerica.org/democracy-dec…
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Mark Schmitt -- moved to Bluesky retweeted
I'd argue that @Tim_Shenk's new book, LEFT ADRIFT, is what you should read to think more clearly about the problems and dilemmas the Democratic Party is now facing:
penguinrandomhouse.com/books…
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Mark Schmitt -- moved to Bluesky retweeted
Some Election Day thoughts:
- Ds been overperforming since Dobbs, likely to do so again today. Dobbs before/after moment in US politics.
- Early vote, polling got better for Harris this week. Ds enter E-D in stronger battleground EV position than 2020. Encouraging sign. 1/
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Some thoughts from me and my colleagues at @PolReformNA (@MaresaStrano, @leedrutman, @oscarpocasangre, @ilyseh, @hrgilman & Sarah Jacob) on what we're looking at in the election, beyond the actual result: newamerica.org/political-ref…
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I'm enthusiastic to vote for DC's Initiative 83--ranked-choice voting along w/ open primaries. Not necessarily best combo for every state or city, but ideal for DC to encourage competition, ensure majority winners, and open the system in a city where most choices are intra-party.
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Mark Schmitt -- moved to Bluesky retweeted
"Nothing matters" isn't a description of how political discourse works, it's an instruction. When you ACT like something matters, then all the various feedback loops in our political and media ecosystem can click into place, and suddenly it might end up mattering A LOT.
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Trump's 15-min closed-McDonald's photo op made me think about the late Florida governor/Senator Bob Graham, whose signature "work days" involved working full shifts at real jobs, in part to appreciate what different jobs were like. He did more than 400: miamiherald.com/news/local/c…
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Mark Schmitt -- moved to Bluesky retweeted
One reason the horse race lives the high life is that "who's gonna win?" is not seen as an ideological question. The more you focus on it, the more innocent you feel.
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The Heritage Foundation's 1981 "Mandate for Leadership" package for the Reagan admin has long been seen as among the most politically consequential products of a think tank. The same will be said of Project 2025, but for a very different reason.
Project 2025 is less popular than socialism in this new NBC poll.
Across three recent polls, between 1 and 4 percent strongly support it.
The percentage who strongly *oppose* it is between 18 and 50 times greater.
washingtonpost.com/politics/…
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Mark Schmitt -- moved to Bluesky retweeted
It's been a wild journey from Bush-era "America is the greatest country ever, and you're a traitor if you disagree!!!" conservatism to the modern "America is a filthy shithole, but perhaps, with hard work and a lot of deportations, we might rise to the level of Hungary" line.
JD Vance on CNBC says that if immigration was the path to prosperity, then "America would be the most prosperous country in the world." (Who wants to tell him ... )
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When people say they want to hear "substantive policy," they always mean "debt and entitlements." It was the definition of "serious" from the 1990s through most of the Obama administration. Nothing about improving people's lives. It stifled political possibility and created MAGA
As someone who is neither a Democrat nor a Republican, my biggest complaint about last's night debate is that there was no substantive policy discussion from either candidate, esp. about debt and the old-age entitlements driving it.
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That's why this @rooseveltinst report by @DavidpStein is so important, and perhaps marks the beginning of the end of this tiresome, illiberal obsession. rooseveltinstitute.org/publi…
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RFK Jr: "In a system of the kind my father and my uncle thrived in, with open debates and fair primaries"--he would have won.
When his uncle ran, only 16 states held primaries, JFK didn't compete in the largest (CA) and there were no national debates--just one w/ Humphrey in WV
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Something I've learned from two year of working on fusion voting is that every state has its own history and culture of multi-party democracy, esp. in 19th C. Kansas is one of the liveliest & most competitive, until shut down. See our new paper: newamerica.org/political-ref…
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Mark Schmitt -- moved to Bluesky retweeted
Start your week by signing up to these two newsletters!!
boltsmag.org/newsletter
the-downballot.com/subscribe
Fight the presidentionalization of all of American politics, get subnational- and downballot-pilled at @boltsmag and @downballotnews.
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Interesting contrast: Harris and Walz began their electoral careers in municipal office and Congress -- grassroots world -- while Trump jumped straight to President and Vance to Senate in 7th largest state, boosted by Trump endorsement rather than local connections.
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50 years ago this week--my family got a color TV. House Judiciary Cmte was voting on Nixon impeachment. Our B&W TV broke. Regular TV repair guy was on vacation. My frantic parents found another, Carlos, who had a color TV on his truck for $23. So we became a color TV family.
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The Democrats are a functioning political party -- for now. New post following up on previous post calling for less personalized politics: open.substack.com/pub/marksc…
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