“Beattie repeatedly said Black lawmakers, policymakers, and groups need to ‘learn’ their place and take ‘a knee to MAGA.’”

“‘Shithole countries’ was the high-point of Trumps presidency,’ he wrote in 2020.”

amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/02/...

If we as a nation have no standards, then we are ultimately saying that we will go along with anything, as long as our team is winning.

This is how nations fail.

So, right now, I have little patience for think pieces that talk about how Democrats just need to X, Y, or Z. There is a larger problem at play here. One that I fear may already be insurmountable.

Palin was the beginning of the end for the GOP. Once they saw how a charismatic, deceitful, unqualified populist could succeed in their party, they haven't turned back. They have only doubled down. Nationwide, they have elevated and celebrated swagger and bluster over quality and integrity.

"NO! Standards matter. That person is not qualified by any standard that we have ever held as being necessary to hold high office. There is no coversation to be had. There are no nuances. There is no room for debate. The only question is why would you ever think that is okay?"

I keep thinking back 12-13 years ago when a Republican friend was pushing back on my Palin criticism. They kept trying to point out her good points. My response then is the same as now -

It has become acceptable voters to vote for someone who wouldn't be permitted to get a job as a police officer or other civil servant. Who wouldn't even pass a legal background check.

While I understand the impulse to self-reflect on what Dems might have done differently, I think we are ignoring the elephant in the room -

And we really think the problem is that the candidate who said she was for ALL Americans, who was laying out clear plans that would help small businesses AND the middle classes, who had decades of service both in the system and challenging the system didn't use THE RIGHT VOCABULARY?