Real reasons to be grateful

Hope folks have a happy Thanksgiving! As a reminder, there will be no newsletter Friday. Even newsletter writers get to have a holiday! 

I know it might be hard to believe it in this terrible year, but recent political developments give us something to be thankful for. There are signs that Donald Trump’s grip on the GOP is weakening. Charlie Kirk’s death didn’t result in a MAGA revival, but instead created intra-party warfare. More Republicans in Congress are looking for the exit.  Ordinary people are standing up to Trump, even if many elites are failing. 

The journey ahead is long and, yeah, things will still be hard. But there are glimmers of hope. And hey, Trump got a mysterious MRI, which is not something doctors order just for the hell of it.

Hear me now or hear me later: MTG is running for president

In October, I wrote an article and hosted a video arguing that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene would run for president. Neither of those got much traction. This is the short-attention-span era, and it seemed like lots of people rejected my argument, purely based on the headlines, and refused to engage. I’m not sure why so many people find it impossible that Greene aspires to the White House — though I’m sure gender plays a role — but after she resigned from Congress on Friday, I hope people give my arguments another look.  

At first blush, resigning from Congress seems like a weird move for someone running for president. But in fact, that shows that Greene understands the political moment we’re in. Voters want an outsider who is running against the establishment. That’s why New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is getting such positive attention, even from people who might have rejected him in the past. “Shake things up” is what people want. 

Crucially, Donald Trump is no longer a credible “outsider,” even to some of the dumbest voters who backed him. As Heather Digby Parton writes at Salon, Trump’s greed and corruption has gotten so out of control that it’s hard for even his loyal supporters to look away. Plus, his demand for unquestioning loyalty, which most Republicans have been providing for years now, makes Trump more “establishment” than any establishment figures before him. 

The Epstein files vote was a big indicator that Republican politicians are starting to suspect that GOP base voters will soon be ready to move on. Greene’s resignation is the next. She all but said she doesn’t want to be strapped to a sinking ship, in this case meaning a GOP led by Trump. I don’t think she’ll be successful, by the way — Republicans will never nominate a woman — but I suspect that otherwise she has a pretty good read on what it might take to be the next big MAGA leader. Far more so than JD Vance, anyway. 

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AOC is the future we need now

Last week, the Washington Post published a lengthy article demonstrating that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is, as I’ve been hoping, also looking into a run for president. “Standing Room Only” did a video about this a few months ago, in which I laid out my arguments why I think Ocasio-Cortez can win — if Democrats have the nuts to nominate her. 

I’m still worried that Democratic primary voters will be browbeaten, like they were in 2020, into believing only an uninspiring, centrist-coded older white man can win a national election. Every time I post about this, my mentions fill up with liberals neurotically claiming that while they’d love to vote for her, the electorate isn’t ready, etc. All the same arguments used against Barack Obama in the 2008 election cycle, basically. 

Those arguments were shortsighted then and they’re shortsighted now. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris failed in 2024 because of the growing frustration with the politics-as-usual mentality. Democrats need to run someone who can plausibly present themselves as uncorrupted by the old boys’ club and political machine. AOC is that person. She seems like an honest player, so the vibes are right. Her verifiable history as a former bartender who broke the New York Democratic machine with shoe-leather politics makes for a highly persuasive personal story. 

Democratic primary voters are understandably fearful of losing again, and that can make people overly cautious. But in politics, as in sports, playing not to lose often makes you more likely to lose. You’re not nimble. The fear of risk leads to boring, focus group-tested messaging over genuine communication, which means no one listens to you’re saying. AOC knows how to get attention without crossing lines, unlike Trump. It’s quite a skill and one that’s badly needed in an era of maximum distraction. 

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What we're reading this week

• “So I'm in the Epstein Files,” Rebecca Watson, Skepchick

• “How Right-Wing Superstar Riley Gaines Built an Anti-Trans Empire,” Madison Pauly, Mother Jones

• “The Unraveling of the Justice Department,” Emily Bazelon and Rachel Poser, New York Times

• “What Harvard Is Whispering About Larry Summers,” Irin Carmon, New York

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