best bit is here, look at the gloss chait gives to meatball ron's conspicuous cruelty:
But do these maneuvers actually resonate with the party’s rank and file? Many of his moves seem consumed with grievances that are only intelligible to those steeped in state-of-the-art right-wing social analysis.
vacuous culture war would be a sure winner, if only the rubes were smart enough to get it, lmao.
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Yeah I saw the anti-trans sports bill that got passed in Utah, and the article mentioned that there was exactly one trans girl involved in girls' sports in the whole state. Numbers like that should deeply put this into perspective for nearly anyone. A state had to write a bill to focus on exactly one person? And a child at that? That's just bullying and traumatic.
This is almost word-for-word what my mother, the more conservative of my two parents, said. I almost put it in my comment. My father said something along the lines of "How could this be a big deal when I'm pretty sure I have never even met a trans person?"
I've got a cousin-by-marriage who is trans. My god(now)mother who is also trans. Personally knowing them has a huge impact on how I've perceived the importance of trans-rights.
I think the "They're just 1% why do they matter?" attitude is good for defusing the hysteria. But its a nasty place when anti-trans laws are going into effect and the public response becomes "Throwing trans-people under the bus is an acceptable sacrifice for political expediency". Having skin in the game gives people someone to fight for.