In my friend group the two people least interested in politics are a queer guy and a hispanic guy. The rest of us are straight white dudes. I am always baffled that they are not more invested as people who are more likely to be negatively impacted.

Ya like, good that we aren't going to back slide into autocracy just yet. But like the reason is because the autocrats were so incredibly stupid and incompetent they did things that are directly tied to raising prices on everyone. If gas prices were low, this would have been like 2018.

Kimmel did a man-on-the-street piece on Wednesday where they asked subjects if they intended to vote. Most had no idea the elections were over.

So here’s my damper, there was anti-trans legislation passed in blue states and there was an increasing rise of anti-trans rhetoric within the Democrat candidates.

WA state's bullshit is going to die in the courts. I'm sickened that it passed; looking at the districts - king and two other counties rejected it.... but the boondocks voted for it overwhelmingly. you can't put that on the left, on establishment dems, when it's the people in the sticks making it happen.

Now is the time for them to start laying the groundwork for actual changes...

• things like barring lobbying funds from politics (I know, it's the Dems, they'd never do that)
• anything that claws back the government's power and brings mega corps to heel (naïve, I know!)

The trump terms have demonstrated that there aren't enough checks and balances because the GOP have demonstrated following the rulebook is optional. If we can't rebuild democracy, we must harden it.

(I'm a kiwi with no skin in the game here, but now is the time to really start pushing, not celebrating)

I hate saying this but imma be honest with you. They absolutely won because they abandoned trans rights as a talking point. You have no idea how many peoples single issue with not voting democrats was gender affirming care. They hate it and will tell you in the same breath that circumcision is ok. The only reason so many republicans flipped was because of how bad the economy is performing.

I’m not saying to abandon trans rights but I think I speak for the majority when I say that running on policy that affects 1% of the population and angers 50% of the population is stupid. Instead of phrasing it to help trans people, we should focus on expanding healthcare access to ALL citizens. Not just trans people.

So a lot of anti trans would-be-red voters voted blue but still supported their gross views in supporting anti-trans stuff. That tracks.

I keep saying that this is just the start, but also as a Texan what a hell of a start.