Cable News Clips

I compare that to three other people: AOC, Fetterman and Mamdani. They all sort-of came from out of nowhere and tapped into the deep dissatisfaction felt by the vast majority of Americans. I am just as pissed off with the status quo as any MAGA person. I'd like to think I am better informed and have better critical thinking skills than the average MAGA, but fundamentally, we aren't that different.

The thing is that Trump gave the MAGA people a set of plans and goals that made sense to them. Dems aren't offering any clear, consistent answers. INDIVIDUAL Dems are, but there is no brand image for the party at large.

And it is worse than that. When people like AOC, Mamdani, and Platner arrive on the scene with a largely populist message, they immediately tap into that deep anger we have had for 20+ years. That is extremely threatening to status quo politicians (i.e. the majority of both parties).
https://news.gallup.com/poll/1669/general-mood-country.aspx

Nobody should be surprised that people with a populist message can explode on the scene. This chart explains all of that. You can pinpoint almost to the day when Americans gave up on our system. It was in 2005 and Americans have been totally pissed off for 21 years -- CONTINUOUSLY.

Having said that, the big question many of us have is: Is Platner a Mamdani or AOC? Or is he a Fetterman? That's the big fear, and that's the whole strategy of this smear campaign. My attitude is that we should ask as many hard questions as we can, but ultimately there really isn't much more to lose. It would take a whole lot more than I have seen to back the institutionalists against Platner.