Really thought-provoking piece. Struck by this line: "We were essentially behaving as party actors, calling on the party whose victory we preferred to make better choices". Of course, this is perfectly normal in most European parties for its friendly papers and magazines to act like this....
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:5prledmu36imun2zjc26v5nl/post/3l7kxrpd3tc2c
...and one of the deeply surreal and stress-inducing things about watching the Democrats change presidential candidates was watching a process that happens a lot, and has a clear mechanism for succeeding, in European parliamentary parties play out in a broad US party.
@stephenkb.bsky.social exactly, and the differences between parliamentary systems and the US system are critical to understand, to see why this doesn't really work here.
When the Democratic Party changed candidates without consulting their constituents, that was extremely notable. And yeah, that makes sense in European parliamentary style systems, but it doesn't make sense in the US system, and that is being reflected right now and how close this election is.
The US system puts more emphasis on everyday voters, for better or worse. And the Democratic Party overlooked the voters to their own peril.
We'll see what happens.
