Comments on: Hong’s loss is Crowley’s gain

By: Selfy

Selfy — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 01:48:35 +0000

Neo wrote “…her extreme vocal fry…”
Really? In what I’ve heard (maybe just old clips) she sounded like Sandy Cortez’s kid sister.
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Is it possible that the DSA has partially infiltrated the vote fraud operations?

By: Richard Aubrey

Richard Aubrey — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 15:58:00 +0000

A certain percentage of dems vote dem because that’s as far left as they can get. Not because they like traditional dem policies and philosophies. If the dems go further left, these folks will march along with them. And others who’ve favored too-crazy -to-count third parties may come aboard at this level of leftishness. So it’s the more or less rational folks who leave who will make the difference. Not sure if they’ll vote republican or stay home. The first might be too icky.

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 02:14:22 +0000

From what I've read, for example this, there's not a lot of daylight between Crowley and Hong on policy questions. Crowley just bobs and weaves better than Hong.

By: huxley

huxley — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 23:03:55 +0000

Re: Hong’s loss in Wisconsin primary [copied from Open Thread]

Vox has an article titled “Francesca Hong lost. Here’s what it means for progressives.”

As Vox tells it, the Democrat leaders decided that Hong was too radical to win, so in the midst of much candidate chaos they maneuvered Crowley back into the race, threw their support to Crowley (à la Biden/Sanders in 2020), and Crowley squeaked out a win against Hong.

Democrats call that democracy.

However, Vox also played a version of “Republicans pounce” with a twist:
___________________________

Republicans, meanwhile, were happy to take advantage of the mess to try to build momentum for Hong, who they saw as a weaker opponent. A group associated with the Republican Governors Association spent over $3 million on “attack” ads to help elevate her profile with Democratic primary voters.

–Vox, “Francesca Hong lost. Here’s what it means for progressives.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/francesca-hong-lost-here-s-what-it-means-for-progressives/ar-AA29VW3t
___________________________

So, if I’ve got that straight, Republicans were trying to help Hong win by running attack ads.

Karl Rove lives!

Maybe. I’m sure those ads were also part of the general all-out Republican strategy in 2026 to hang Democrats by the DSA label.

By: Skip

Skip — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 22:57:34 +0000

Hong had poll numbers yet lost
Doesn’t speak well for poll takers who want a result then go find how toget them

By: Niketas Choniates

Niketas Choniates — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 22:53:12 +0000

Polls that you don’t pay for should be assumed to be bad, just as a matter of mental hygiene. The polls put in front of you are put there to support somebody’s narrative; you would not see them if they didn’t.

Public polls are a shambling zombie, a relict of the days when “news” was about reporting events and not narrative propagation, and when what the public thought was something that they attempted to report on instead of to shape.

It is a waste of time trying to figure out how good they are or what they mean, they’re essentially marketing at this point. It’s like trying to check up on whether 9 out 10 dentists really recommend Colgate toothpaste and worrying about whether it might have been only six.

The customers of the polling outfits are not us, they are the media outfits writing about them. Hong’s campaign was no doubt paying for accurate polling and that was a factor in her willingness to concede the primary when the margin was so much tighter than the polls: it was no surprise to her.

By: SENNACHERIB

SENNACHERIB — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 22:05:28 +0000

What we’ll see is do “facts” matter in the mid-terms. Never, never estimate the.electorate. The Dems are also going through their own.Strom Thurmond phase.

By: neo

neo — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 21:46:26 +0000

TommyJay;

Glad to hear about your friend. Not a single one of my friends has undergone a similar change, unfortunately.

Love that song. Good lyrics, too.

By: TommyJay

TommyJay — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 21:20:53 +0000

neo,
I have my old friend visiting me for car week in Monterey. A 35 year tradition. He had been an inveterate reader of the New Yorker, and was relatively left wing most of his life, though he’s probably say he’s been a Dem leaning independent. Now, he’d probably say that he didn’t leave the Democrat party; it left him.

Anyway, he showed me this Bill Maher video. Oh my.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRIjYHVh5kI

Then I showed him your video with the former DSA member who quit in disgust from your post several days ago.

I love that Eagles song. Written by JD Souther. Most songs have a chorus with static lyrics. Some vary the chorus just a tiny bit. “New Kid” has a chorus that evolves with the cresting fame, then the fade, then the bitterness. Watching your former girlfriend with her new guy. Ouch. He chose her poorly. Kinda like voting for a Mamdani or a Hong.

By: neo

neo — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 20:57:39 +0000

Kate:

That may be enough, especially because Milwaukee is a blue voting machine city.