Monday's Most Active Threads

DCUM is a Washington, DC-based forum and Washington, DC, as the center of the federal government, is a political city. Nevertheless, it was still a bit surprising this morning when I looked at the list of yesterday's top 10 most active threads and discovered that 9 of the 10 were political. The most active was the thread about President Joe Biden's announcement that he would not accept the Democratic nomination for President. I discussed that thread yesterday and will skip it today. Not surprising, I guess, is that the next most active thread was titled, "Kamala Harris for President". The thread, of course, was posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. In another thread over the weekend someone asked if Vice President Kamala Harris could defeat former President, current cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump. I responded saying that not only did I think that she could, but should do so fairly easily. I was then asked to explain why I felt this way. My argument was that Biden has done a fairly good job as President. Inflation is under control, unemployment is low, the stock market is at near record highs, and the economy is growing. Biden has a fantastic record of passing legislation, something is even more impressive in light of the difficult political environment on Capitol Hill. As a result, if Biden were 20 years younger, this election would not even be close. Kamala Harris is not a 20 year younger version of Joe Biden, but she is as close as we are going to get. As Biden's partner during his administration, she can claim partial credit for his successes. While Biden achieved a lot, he believes that there is more to do. Harris will be the one to do it. Despite holding this position, I was still surprised by the wave of enthusiasm Harris' candidacy has met. As the original poster of this thread described, fundraising since Biden stepped down has been at record-breaking levels. Perhaps even more importantly, there appears to have been a massive psychological change among Democrats. Over night, a pessimistic, almost depressed, and — let's face it — kind of sour group has been transformed into a hopefull, enthusiastic, and excited bunch of believers. It will take a few days for the polls to catch up, but I expect huge poll shifts in favor of Democrats. In several states, Democratic Senate candidates have been over-performing Biden. I expect Harris will close that gap and maybe even exceed the Senate candidates in some cases. Meanwhile, it is now Trump — the oldest presidential nominee in history — who is old, confused, and worn out. He is still "truthing" about Biden and clearly has no plan to take on Harris, already trying to find an excuse not to debate her. To make things worse for Trump, early indications are that his vice presidential nominee, J. D. Vance, is a dud. In his first solo outing Vance practically put the audience to sleep before musing over whether he would be accused of racism for drinking a Diet Mountain Dew. Mountain Dew has long been associated with Appalachia and Vance was probably attempting to fake authenticity by choosing it as a drink. But the soft drink has also been blamed for tooth decay throughout the region — Vance even discussed "Mountain Dew mouth" in his novel, "Hillbilly Elegy". That probably explains why Vance chose the inauthentic, but less dentally problematic, Diet version.

The next most active thread was another indication of the enthusiasm for Vice President Kamala Harris. Also posted in the "Political Discussion" forum, the thread was titled, "40,000 on Zoom Call". The original poster describes a Zoom call organized by "Win With Black Women" that was expected to have about 1,000 participants. The group quickly grew to exceed the capacity of the Zoom session and, after contacting the Zoom CEO, organizers were able to increase attendance. The number of participants eventually exceeded 40,000. The original poster concluded, "The Sisters are ready for battle." It has been apparent for some time that Black women are the backbone of the Democratic Party. No group is more loyal or works harder to support Democratic candidates. President Joe Biden has shown his appreciation of the importance of Black women by first selecting one as his Vice President and then appointing another to the Supreme Court. Discussion in the thread was divided between posters celebrating the enthusiasm being shown and posters attempting to downplay it. Those who were excited articulated the same feelings that other posters have shown in other threads. They have gone from grudgingly planning to vote for Biden to being energized and excited to vote for Harris. Poster after poster pledged to support Harris and do all that they can to assist her campaign. The naysayers argue that these women represented Harris' base and were going to vote for either Biden or Harris already. Therefore, they contended, this was not that meaningful of an event. Others argued that while Black women may overwhelmingly support Harris, their numbers are not that significant and they are outnumbered by Hispanic women, not to mention White women. There has been considerable consternation in certain quarters that a majority of White women have voted for Trump in the past. Because of Republican policies that are seen as anti-woman, such as restrictions on abortion that impact broader issues of female health, this support is viewed as going against these women's self-interest. Some frustrated posters called on White women to get their act together. What should be remembered is that while likely Harris supporters among White women may not be a majority, their sheer numbers make them an important part of a winning coalition. While it would be great for White woman to be more like Black women in their support of Harris, the fact that many are not should not be blamed on those who are. One thing that this massive turnout on Zoom hopefully put an end to is the question about whether Harris is "Black enough". Clearly, that is not an issue among those on the Zoom call.

Next was a thread titled, "Official Kamala Harris VP Thread" and, like the threads above, posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. The original poster started this thread prior to President Joe Biden dropping out, but at a time when that step appeared likely. Assuming that Vice President Kamala Harris would be the obvious Presidential nominee, the original poster asked who others thought might be chosen to run as her Vice President. The conventional wisdom regarding this question is that Harris will select a White male and, more than likely, a former or current governor. Part of the justification for this may be lodged in prejudices — more often explained as other people's prejudices rather than that of whoever is offering the justification. For instance, posters in this thread fear that other people will not support a ticket with two women or two minorities. But there is a political justification as well. Vice Presidents are frequently selected to complement the Presidential candidate and appeal to groups with whom the Presidential candidate may be week. Since Harris can probably count on broad support among women and minorities, a Vice President who can appeal to White males would be a politically smart choice. Another group of posters prefer what might be called the "Aaron Sorkin" approach. They suggest that Harris should choose a non-conventional Vice President, preferably one who is a Republican. Their argument is that such a candidate could unify anti-Trump Republicans and create a broader coalition. While this idea may be appealing in television dramas, in real life it is problematic. Why would Harris want a Vice President who likely would not support her agenda? Could such a person even be counted on to break tie-breakers in favor of the Democrats if called upon to do so in the Senate? In the event the Vice President was required to replace the President, what would prevent him from reversing many of Harris' achievements? A third idea is what might be called the "Hail Mary" option. Posters who promote this idea argue that what will most help the ticket is another candidate who can create excitement and enthusiasm. They call for out-of-the-box thinking that ignores conventional wisdom. The candidate most often mentioned by these posters is Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, creating a two-woman ticket. But others suggest U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg who would be the first openly gay person to run for Vice President. When this idea was first broached to me, I thought it had some appeal. To switch from one sport metaphor to another, if Democrats are likely to lose anyway, why not swing for the fences? But, seeing the enthusiasm that has erupted since the announcement that Harris will replace Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket, I am not sure that Democrats need to take that risk now. A more conventional strategy may be all that is needed to bring home a victory in November.

Once again I have fallen behind and need to devote myself to the forums. So, again, I will stop here. For those who are interested, the one non-political topic among today's most active threads was posted in the "Relationship Discussion (non-explicit)" forum and titled, "At a breaking point in nearly sexless marriage". This is a topic that comes up routinely so while I won't get to it today (and I wouldn't have anyway because it was not the next most active thread), I am sure that I will at some point in the future.