I appreciate the view, it does give me a few things to think on. Unlike you with the silver linings, when I feel someone I love gets hurt or needs protection, the redhead in me gets pissed off and wants to pick up the baton and fight right away, the calm and the good that may appear, seem to come later.
Thank you and I totally understand the sentiment. I guess I’ve been through so much being pissed off in the nearly ten years (!) this MFer has been on our political radar. I need to try a different approach. But so far especially with certain Cabinet picks, he’s not making it easy
I am 59 years old, a guitar player, and have been a very big fan of yours for many years. I am also a conservative and regularly listen to Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, Dennis Prager. I very much appreciate your intelligence and your ability to communicate very effectively. I admit I have struggled in the past with your political stances, but I grew up during a time when we could all have our own opinions and still get along just fine. All that to say that although I disagree with you politically, this piece is not only very well written, but well thought out and very level headed. I can respect and appreciate that, especially since many on the left seem to have fallen off the deep end. 👍
Thanks Ray. I too long for an environment in which we can all have our own opinions without it being toxic. I appreciate you recognizing those qualities in this piece. I think there is room room for rational folks to coexist. I recently found out there's an organization working on s that and getting folks with political differences to respect one another again. If interested: https://braverangels.org/
Genuinely one of the best things ive read on this, and it does give me a little bit of hope for the future! Your views are a great shining light in this time, as is your music :)
It’s disheartening to see how many turned their back on racism, misogyny (I remember the times of old when a politician making a statement regarding grabbing a woman would have been career ending), mocking the disabled, stupid conspiracy theories……I could go on and on. But, here we are.
I do have to say, your writing made me think about not losing myself in this world of hate. Several of my friends, who I’ve helped out over the years when they were low on money, supported Trump. As I know they struggle, I will treat them to lunch, take them to shows, and so forth. After the election, I told myself I would never help them out again. This is not because they voted Republican, but because what they voted for. As stated earlier, this piece made me reflect on not losing that part of oneself which so many have….helping and caring about others.
Thanks for sharing your story. I'm sorry to hear of the experience you describe. That really does present a moral dilemma: Should we still care for and help out those down on their luck, even when they behave so disappointingly? Of course, a well-meaning clergy person would answer yes. Realistically, I'd look at it as a case by case basis. I'd like to think it's possible to keep that charitable part of oneself while accepting there will be some who inevitably fall to the dark side.
Maybe you just need to subscribe to the Daily Wire, and watch Ben Shapiros “Scamala” series, and you will learn how unqualified she actually is! 😂 All kidding aside, i enjoyed reading your opinions on this moment in time! You are one of my favorite guitarists of all time, and you are also a very talented writer! I think political opinions often boil down to peoples personal experiences in the world, and the experiences which shape our opinions are unique. Once we form out opinions, we tend to hyoer focus on the media sources that confirm that they are correct. I have questioned my opinions more than once, just by flipping through the channels to get a different perspective
Thanks saying that, it’s much appreciated. I agree about political opinions. I try to get different perspectives too. What drives me nuts are folks who think their favorite candidate/pundit/party etc can do no wrong
Thanks for the nice comments. Believe it or not, I mostly agree. Being against Nazis and racism are good intentions but being out of bounds with accusations is self-defeating (and offensive to those not deserving those labels). I understood the concern when his supporters began including David Duke, Richard Spencer, Nick Fuentes and other self-professed and professional racists. Trump and team would save SO much trouble by simply distancing and denouncing these types clearly and forcefully, not being mealy-mouthed about it ("You want me to denounce? Ok, fine. I denounce. Anything else?"), but ok. Obviously he's not like those types (none of them have Jewish relatives and Black allies). There were many other factors, as mentioned in the piece, but you're not wrong about that and yes...high impact impolosion! Cheers
And again... Dems campaign was a complete failure. "Get your pitchforks and torches!" "Trump is Hitler!" Fsiled overriding campaign dogma. ....STILL LOVE THAT YOU PLAY ALL GENRES OF MUSIC! 🇺🇲🎸
Alex let me start by saying how much I admire you as a musician and human being. I have found you to be very thoughtful and kind in our interactions on Twitter even though we disagree. I've also found your writings to be deep, well thought out and better written than most journalists. If I'm being honest as a Christian I've been trying to be less politically provocative than a decade ago on social media and your writings have helped me in that pursuit as well.
With that being said I respectfully ask you a few questions. Do you think you could be out of touch with the "Outside The Beltway", "Flyover" states? When was the last time you sat down for a couple of hours with an average middle/working class man in flyover country? You might be tremendously surprised (depending on who it is) on how well informed they are, how much we actually agree on and finally methods to get us to our goals that you might not have thought about and neither political party has an interest in because they can't make money on it.
Fascinating insight from someone politically inclined, but not 'in politics', as either a politician, journalist or 'expert' talking head.
Speaking as a Brit and European and hence naturally a bit to the left of US right/left splits, it certainly seemed that the Dems were hoping the 'we ain't Trump' card would get them over the line, which is what I certainly hoped for and quietly expected. But as you point out, a large number of Americans are not as politically aware of party positions, but are certainly aware of how their costs are increasing and making any sort of comfortable living is getting harder. Democrats are incredibly 'Status Quo', and Trump offered change. Admittedly that change appears to be a flamethrower in a firework factory, but if you only look at the headlines, Trump wants to fight tha' power, whereas Harris was fight to keep what you had.
This is very well written and I appreciate the detail you give and putting this out there. But quite honestly Alex, I definitely disagree with your takes. This is very similar to the take the Chris Matthews gave on Morning Joe the day after the election.
Basically you seem to be saying that if only the Dems could go a little more right wing on wedge issues like fear mongering the homeless situation, crime and immigration, then they could easily start winning again. The problem is Harris did do this a lot, and it didn't really work. Also, I am looking at the ballot initiatives all over the country that won in a landslide and they were definitely not only abortion. In deep red states like Missouri, Kentucky, Alaska, etc. there were actual progressive initiatives that passed like paid family leave, $15 minimum wage, mandatory sick days, banning vouchers for charter schools (this is pretty crazy since a lot of centrist Dems like Booker and Cuomo were praising vouchers not too long ago). Most of these were passed in landslides.
When Tim Walz was selected, he absolutely started bringing up some of these progressive issues like paid family leave, collective bargaining, etc. But then in the last month of the campaign, the campaign switched to multiple events with Liz Cheney (who BTW voted with Trump 92% of the time) and how tough Kamala would be at the border. The problem with this is that your average voter who does not study the issues will see both candidates not focus on their actual economic needs, and what happened is a lot of them stayed home, and some very misinformed people voted for Trump. Yes and of course racism and misogyny play a major part too. But actually having a economically progressive message, which Biden actually had in 2020, would have won this for Kamala.
I appreciate the positive words on the writing but, respectfully I don't think you understood my point. "Dems/Kamala should have gone more right wing" was not it. As you mentioned, she campaigned with Liz Cheney. Her convention included former Trump voters, former GOP politicians and even Trump admin. members (Grisham, Troy etc..). My point is that nothing she could have done mattered. I can't say exactly why, but I think the DNC, party leadership and others in positions to steer the ship made a massive mistake - Biden's abysmal approval was an albatross around her neck (and being female, person of color etc.. didn't help) and should have disqualified both of them (not legally but in the eyes of the DNC etc) from running in 2024. She also allowed herself to get tripped up in the wedge issues, particularly in 2020, which was then easily weaponized by the right in soundbites four years later. For example, the trans-prisoner question was one Biden - being an old school politician - wisely refused to answer during the primary season! That's just better politics. As far as inflation, crime and homelessness, it's how these issues are talked about. The San Francisco Mayor seemed to be in denial of the severity of the problem - she lost her election. Same with Oakland's Mayor who got recalled. Again, I'm not saying candidates need to go more "right" on those issues, but they need to be more direct and honest about acknowledging the problems and be better at communicating potential solutions . Folks like Beshear, Whitmer, Shapiro, Pete Buttigieg etc all seem like good examples of effective communicators that can tackle difficult issues without sounding too far "left" or "right."
But my issue Alex is the lessons you seemed to learn from this lesson is to latch onto right wing narratives about immigration, homelessness and crime. Leaning into these right wing narratives is just not a winning issue for the Democrats in general because it just gives more fuel and power to these identity politics issues that the right wing loves to exploit. What did Trump constantly talk about during the election? That he was going to save America by "mass deportations" and creating trade wars with our allies using tariffs. With ridiculous lies ("Kamala Harris let in 13,000 convicted murders into this country, etc!). This message could have been easily countered with an economic appeal to working class voters. In fairness, Harris did have some programs in line to deal with this but the media chose not to talk about them very much.
Exit polls showed that this election was very much about economics, and going back to this little Clinton/Obama place of "well we can't go too far left because then we're just gonna look like lunatics" is not successful. People conveniently forget that during both Clinton and Obama years of centrist policies, there were major down ballot losses for Democrats which we are still paying for dearly through our courts and horrible gerrymandering.
I'll say one thing we agree on is that we should be consulting Western Europe on how they deal with their homeless problem. One way they deal with this is that they actually have a real social welfare system in most of these countries, and a real affordable housing program. Fear mongering homelessness, undocumented workers, asylum seekers like the right does is not going to solve this problem, it feeds their narratives. We need real economic populist change. I will say that the Build Back Better legislation would have been a great start to this, and it is very possible had this passed, Harris would have won the election.
Watched NaziTown USA on PBS. Fascism is homegrown. (Insert deportation of illegals) The idolization of a leader in all of history leads to a tyrant. The similarities of this ugly part of American history is bone chilling. History is repeating itself. We are going backwards with absolutely no guardrails. I cringe for the “Me Too” movement as yet another sexual predator is added to the list of incoming unqualified appointments. How many women are triggered by this? My head is shaking as I type this in disbelief. The dog whistles are heard like Malmsteen’s fake Marshall stacks. When I see American Flags on pick up trucks, I don’t see our flag. I see white power flags. We are in a dangerous time, women’s rights, immigrants rights, what next? His fear tactics are textbook and worked. Psychologically something speaks to the men drawn to this man. Lack of father’s approval ? I don’t know, I don’t know! We’re going off the rails on a crazy train. Hold on dearly.
Nov. 17th Masked group marching thru Ohio with Nazi flags. PBS airing historic programs assuming…purposely? Release the Gaetz details to the public!!!! It should be public record. Also, more crazy info coming out about the unqualified Fox host ( multiple paid off sexual assault victims)Truly the company you keep shines thru… Could go on and on. Dignity is lost.Thank you for the therapeutic read and vent.
I appreciate the view, it does give me a few things to think on. Unlike you with the silver linings, when I feel someone I love gets hurt or needs protection, the redhead in me gets pissed off and wants to pick up the baton and fight right away, the calm and the good that may appear, seem to come later.
Thank you and I totally understand the sentiment. I guess I’ve been through so much being pissed off in the nearly ten years (!) this MFer has been on our political radar. I need to try a different approach. But so far especially with certain Cabinet picks, he’s not making it easy
I am 59 years old, a guitar player, and have been a very big fan of yours for many years. I am also a conservative and regularly listen to Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, Dennis Prager. I very much appreciate your intelligence and your ability to communicate very effectively. I admit I have struggled in the past with your political stances, but I grew up during a time when we could all have our own opinions and still get along just fine. All that to say that although I disagree with you politically, this piece is not only very well written, but well thought out and very level headed. I can respect and appreciate that, especially since many on the left seem to have fallen off the deep end. 👍
Thanks Ray. I too long for an environment in which we can all have our own opinions without it being toxic. I appreciate you recognizing those qualities in this piece. I think there is room room for rational folks to coexist. I recently found out there's an organization working on s that and getting folks with political differences to respect one another again. If interested: https://braverangels.org/
Thanks, I will check it out.
Genuinely one of the best things ive read on this, and it does give me a little bit of hope for the future! Your views are a great shining light in this time, as is your music :)
I appreciate the sentiment and it's good to know that my needing to get a few things off my chest is helpful for others to read
Very well written piece.
It’s disheartening to see how many turned their back on racism, misogyny (I remember the times of old when a politician making a statement regarding grabbing a woman would have been career ending), mocking the disabled, stupid conspiracy theories……I could go on and on. But, here we are.
I do have to say, your writing made me think about not losing myself in this world of hate. Several of my friends, who I’ve helped out over the years when they were low on money, supported Trump. As I know they struggle, I will treat them to lunch, take them to shows, and so forth. After the election, I told myself I would never help them out again. This is not because they voted Republican, but because what they voted for. As stated earlier, this piece made me reflect on not losing that part of oneself which so many have….helping and caring about others.
Thanks for sharing your story. I'm sorry to hear of the experience you describe. That really does present a moral dilemma: Should we still care for and help out those down on their luck, even when they behave so disappointingly? Of course, a well-meaning clergy person would answer yes. Realistically, I'd look at it as a case by case basis. I'd like to think it's possible to keep that charitable part of oneself while accepting there will be some who inevitably fall to the dark side.
Maybe you just need to subscribe to the Daily Wire, and watch Ben Shapiros “Scamala” series, and you will learn how unqualified she actually is! 😂 All kidding aside, i enjoyed reading your opinions on this moment in time! You are one of my favorite guitarists of all time, and you are also a very talented writer! I think political opinions often boil down to peoples personal experiences in the world, and the experiences which shape our opinions are unique. Once we form out opinions, we tend to hyoer focus on the media sources that confirm that they are correct. I have questioned my opinions more than once, just by flipping through the channels to get a different perspective
Thanks saying that, it’s much appreciated. I agree about political opinions. I try to get different perspectives too. What drives me nuts are folks who think their favorite candidate/pundit/party etc can do no wrong
I am better for reading that.
Great to hear, thank you
Love your music. Well written post election commentary.
Not much factual accountability of how POORLY Democrats completely blew it! Also, my 3 favorite phrases were circulating & I love them..
HE IS NOT HITLER!
I AM NOT RACIST!
FUKK YOU!
A campaign run on TRUMP IS A NAZI! was completely stupid!
Again, love your eloquent writing here. But DEMS IMPLODED!
Thanks for the nice comments. Believe it or not, I mostly agree. Being against Nazis and racism are good intentions but being out of bounds with accusations is self-defeating (and offensive to those not deserving those labels). I understood the concern when his supporters began including David Duke, Richard Spencer, Nick Fuentes and other self-professed and professional racists. Trump and team would save SO much trouble by simply distancing and denouncing these types clearly and forcefully, not being mealy-mouthed about it ("You want me to denounce? Ok, fine. I denounce. Anything else?"), but ok. Obviously he's not like those types (none of them have Jewish relatives and Black allies). There were many other factors, as mentioned in the piece, but you're not wrong about that and yes...high impact impolosion! Cheers
Major Jewish vote for Trump.
And again... Dems campaign was a complete failure. "Get your pitchforks and torches!" "Trump is Hitler!" Fsiled overriding campaign dogma. ....STILL LOVE THAT YOU PLAY ALL GENRES OF MUSIC! 🇺🇲🎸
The definitely failed. The “H” word shouldn’t have come up in the campaign. Thank you for nice words.
Alex let me start by saying how much I admire you as a musician and human being. I have found you to be very thoughtful and kind in our interactions on Twitter even though we disagree. I've also found your writings to be deep, well thought out and better written than most journalists. If I'm being honest as a Christian I've been trying to be less politically provocative than a decade ago on social media and your writings have helped me in that pursuit as well.
With that being said I respectfully ask you a few questions. Do you think you could be out of touch with the "Outside The Beltway", "Flyover" states? When was the last time you sat down for a couple of hours with an average middle/working class man in flyover country? You might be tremendously surprised (depending on who it is) on how well informed they are, how much we actually agree on and finally methods to get us to our goals that you might not have thought about and neither political party has an interest in because they can't make money on it.
Fascinating insight from someone politically inclined, but not 'in politics', as either a politician, journalist or 'expert' talking head.
Speaking as a Brit and European and hence naturally a bit to the left of US right/left splits, it certainly seemed that the Dems were hoping the 'we ain't Trump' card would get them over the line, which is what I certainly hoped for and quietly expected. But as you point out, a large number of Americans are not as politically aware of party positions, but are certainly aware of how their costs are increasing and making any sort of comfortable living is getting harder. Democrats are incredibly 'Status Quo', and Trump offered change. Admittedly that change appears to be a flamethrower in a firework factory, but if you only look at the headlines, Trump wants to fight tha' power, whereas Harris was fight to keep what you had.
Great piece, Alex.
This is very well written and I appreciate the detail you give and putting this out there. But quite honestly Alex, I definitely disagree with your takes. This is very similar to the take the Chris Matthews gave on Morning Joe the day after the election.
Basically you seem to be saying that if only the Dems could go a little more right wing on wedge issues like fear mongering the homeless situation, crime and immigration, then they could easily start winning again. The problem is Harris did do this a lot, and it didn't really work. Also, I am looking at the ballot initiatives all over the country that won in a landslide and they were definitely not only abortion. In deep red states like Missouri, Kentucky, Alaska, etc. there were actual progressive initiatives that passed like paid family leave, $15 minimum wage, mandatory sick days, banning vouchers for charter schools (this is pretty crazy since a lot of centrist Dems like Booker and Cuomo were praising vouchers not too long ago). Most of these were passed in landslides.
When Tim Walz was selected, he absolutely started bringing up some of these progressive issues like paid family leave, collective bargaining, etc. But then in the last month of the campaign, the campaign switched to multiple events with Liz Cheney (who BTW voted with Trump 92% of the time) and how tough Kamala would be at the border. The problem with this is that your average voter who does not study the issues will see both candidates not focus on their actual economic needs, and what happened is a lot of them stayed home, and some very misinformed people voted for Trump. Yes and of course racism and misogyny play a major part too. But actually having a economically progressive message, which Biden actually had in 2020, would have won this for Kamala.
I appreciate the positive words on the writing but, respectfully I don't think you understood my point. "Dems/Kamala should have gone more right wing" was not it. As you mentioned, she campaigned with Liz Cheney. Her convention included former Trump voters, former GOP politicians and even Trump admin. members (Grisham, Troy etc..). My point is that nothing she could have done mattered. I can't say exactly why, but I think the DNC, party leadership and others in positions to steer the ship made a massive mistake - Biden's abysmal approval was an albatross around her neck (and being female, person of color etc.. didn't help) and should have disqualified both of them (not legally but in the eyes of the DNC etc) from running in 2024. She also allowed herself to get tripped up in the wedge issues, particularly in 2020, which was then easily weaponized by the right in soundbites four years later. For example, the trans-prisoner question was one Biden - being an old school politician - wisely refused to answer during the primary season! That's just better politics. As far as inflation, crime and homelessness, it's how these issues are talked about. The San Francisco Mayor seemed to be in denial of the severity of the problem - she lost her election. Same with Oakland's Mayor who got recalled. Again, I'm not saying candidates need to go more "right" on those issues, but they need to be more direct and honest about acknowledging the problems and be better at communicating potential solutions . Folks like Beshear, Whitmer, Shapiro, Pete Buttigieg etc all seem like good examples of effective communicators that can tackle difficult issues without sounding too far "left" or "right."
But my issue Alex is the lessons you seemed to learn from this lesson is to latch onto right wing narratives about immigration, homelessness and crime. Leaning into these right wing narratives is just not a winning issue for the Democrats in general because it just gives more fuel and power to these identity politics issues that the right wing loves to exploit. What did Trump constantly talk about during the election? That he was going to save America by "mass deportations" and creating trade wars with our allies using tariffs. With ridiculous lies ("Kamala Harris let in 13,000 convicted murders into this country, etc!). This message could have been easily countered with an economic appeal to working class voters. In fairness, Harris did have some programs in line to deal with this but the media chose not to talk about them very much.
Exit polls showed that this election was very much about economics, and going back to this little Clinton/Obama place of "well we can't go too far left because then we're just gonna look like lunatics" is not successful. People conveniently forget that during both Clinton and Obama years of centrist policies, there were major down ballot losses for Democrats which we are still paying for dearly through our courts and horrible gerrymandering.
I'll say one thing we agree on is that we should be consulting Western Europe on how they deal with their homeless problem. One way they deal with this is that they actually have a real social welfare system in most of these countries, and a real affordable housing program. Fear mongering homelessness, undocumented workers, asylum seekers like the right does is not going to solve this problem, it feeds their narratives. We need real economic populist change. I will say that the Build Back Better legislation would have been a great start to this, and it is very possible had this passed, Harris would have won the election.
Watched NaziTown USA on PBS. Fascism is homegrown. (Insert deportation of illegals) The idolization of a leader in all of history leads to a tyrant. The similarities of this ugly part of American history is bone chilling. History is repeating itself. We are going backwards with absolutely no guardrails. I cringe for the “Me Too” movement as yet another sexual predator is added to the list of incoming unqualified appointments. How many women are triggered by this? My head is shaking as I type this in disbelief. The dog whistles are heard like Malmsteen’s fake Marshall stacks. When I see American Flags on pick up trucks, I don’t see our flag. I see white power flags. We are in a dangerous time, women’s rights, immigrants rights, what next? His fear tactics are textbook and worked. Psychologically something speaks to the men drawn to this man. Lack of father’s approval ? I don’t know, I don’t know! We’re going off the rails on a crazy train. Hold on dearly.
Nov. 17th Masked group marching thru Ohio with Nazi flags. PBS airing historic programs assuming…purposely? Release the Gaetz details to the public!!!! It should be public record. Also, more crazy info coming out about the unqualified Fox host ( multiple paid off sexual assault victims)Truly the company you keep shines thru… Could go on and on. Dignity is lost.Thank you for the therapeutic read and vent.
Thanks Kelly. I'm glad you appreciated the piece. I like the comparison to Yngwie's fake Marshalls. 😂