(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Sunday Stuff: A definition of Woke, the right question about Biden, and what not to give Dad [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-19 So, how's your Sunday going? Wondering what “Woke” really means? So Sarah Silverman has been taking a turn hosting the Daily Show, and IMHO she’s been killing it. ICYMI, here she is starting out her monolog by giving Elon Musk a major burn, then she touches on Turkey and the rescue miracles still happening… (Got protein powder?) She then takes a look at NEWSMAX and carves them a new one over what “WOKE” is all about. (Silverman explains what NEWSMAX is by saying if Fox News is like your crazy uncle, NEWSMAX would be like their crazy uncle.) She finishes up with Adidas, which is looking for a ‘final solution’ to their Kanye West Nazi problem. (Love her suggestion for what Adidas should do for a better celebrity line of shoes.) “Welcome to capitalism bitches!” Over at The NY Times, Ezra Klein breaks with the Times seemingly mandatory policy of questioning Biden’s fitness to serve because of age with: There is no end of commentary gently — and not so gently — urging President Biden to act his age and step aside. And all else being equal, I share that sentiment. I don’t think we want a president ending his second term closer to 90 than he is to 80. But all else is never equal. And the commentaries that focus solely on Biden’s central weakness — his age — are missing his mounting strengths. ...But Biden proved — and keeps proving — doubters like me wrong. He won the Democratic primary, even though voters had no shortage of fresher faces to choose from. He won the general election handily, despite Donald Trump’s vaunted talents as an insult comic and a social media force. Voters seemed perfectly happy with Biden as a communicator. ...Campaigns are a (lengthy) sprint. But governing is a marathon. Last year, as Biden’s agenda languished, I found myself worried about his vigor again. Perhaps a younger, more energetic Biden would’ve proved better at managing relationships in the Senate. But then he passed a flurry of major bills — the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act — that amounted to a remarkable legislative record given the narrowness of Democrats’ congressional majorities. His party defied expectations in the midterm elections, gaining a bit more power in the Senate and holding losses down in the House. His State of the Union address was widely regarded as a success. At some point, those of us who keep declaring Biden too old to do the job need to reckon with what they’ve missed until now and might still be missing. emphasis added It’s refreshing to see someone admit that maybe age isn’t the only thing we need to know about Biden — and it might be a positive in some ways. ...And Biden’s age has carried some quiet benefits. One is that he has deftly bridged Democrats’ generational and demographic gaps. The Democratic Party has in recent years become younger, more liberal, more educated and more online. Biden’s politics were formed in a past era, when blue-collar workers were still a core constituency and liberal was often an epithet. When Biden was younger and more combative, he might have sought to vanquish the left wing of his own party. Instead, he’s welcomed them in and run an administration that has achieved something of a synthesis. Much of Biden’s staff comes from the party’s younger, more liberal wing. His core group of senior advisers is made up of longtime loyalists, forged in the same era he was. The result has been a policy agenda that reflects today’s Democratic Party married to a political style that is more of a throwback. It would be best if Democrats had the kind of political talent that could transcend their party’s current divisions, but in the absence of that figure, a leader who can bridge them is no small thing. Biden is perhaps alone, at this moment, in being that leader. emphasis added Not mentioned is the festering swamp of Christo-Fascist authoritarian kleptocracy on the Right these days — or only indirectly. ….Age has also brought Biden, perhaps out of necessity, a sense of restraint. He does not delight in the sound of his own voice as he once did. He leaves space for others — in particular Republicans — to reveal themselves to voters. We are used to politicians who always want to be the center of attention. But that carries costs. Frances Lee, a political scientist at Princeton, has shown that when presidents take strong positions on issues, they generate enormous backlash to the positions they take. Biden’s relative quiet is perhaps why his policy agenda has remained more popular than he is, and why there was so much room for voters to focus on the dangers of Republicans in the midterms. emphasis added Klein goes on to note strengths Biden has at his disposal. He now has a record to run on: big legislative accomplishments, record unemployment, ebbing inflation, putting together a coalition to support Ukraine, policies that will reduce dependency on China while restraining its ambitions — and all this is to his credit. No other Democrat has, and certainly no Republican has, anything to match that record. (It’s why Republicans are working so hard to create fake issues to incite anger and fear among voters. It’s all they’ve got.) Klein concludes with this: “Age matters, but so, as Biden keeps showing, does much else.” Moving from the Sublime to the Ridiculous… In the post linked just above from the other day, I sampled some of the social media efforts out there. The Right is pumping a lot of money into it, at least the limited sampling I consume. I admit I got a bit of schadenfreude out of seeing this ad where Don Trump Jr. is now shilling for an insurance company. Is that flop-sweat on his brow, or is he just strung-out? Too bad Jared didn’t cut him in on that Saudi cash. Be glad I didn’t try to embed the video. Ready to give up Social Security and Medicare so you can keep Jr. employed selling what is probably over-priced junk insurance? I don’t think so. But wait — there’s more! I almost did a spit-take when this popped up today. It’s such a self-parody I can almost doubt it’s really authorized merchandise. On the other hand, it’s Trump. Who else would celebrate Father’s Day by calling all those other dads “total disasters”? It's not like the Trump brand would really be that great for Mother’s Day either... I don’t know who “Richard” is, but good luck if you have kids who think you’d like this. Hope your Sunday is going well, and you’ll be ready to go out to fight the good fight on Monday! It will be President’s Day, so feel free to name your favorite president in comments. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/19/2153822/-Sunday-Stuff-A-definition-of-Woke-the-right-question-about-Biden-and-what-not-to-give-Dad Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/