Seth Masket: I don’t know how to explain to our nation’s top editorial boards that the Democratic Party is an actual organization with a lot of rules and history to it, not just a store that distributes team jerseys, and it has already selected delegates to its nominating convention.

I don’t know how to explain to our nation’s top editorial boards that the Democratic Party is an actual organization with a lot of rules and history to it, not just a store that distributes team jerseys, and it has already selected delegates to its nominating convention.

Cannot emphasize enough how pathetic these editorial boards are revealing themselves to be.

“What we need is someone who can annihilate Trump in a debate!” Is everyone under the age of 8?

I wrote this in 2018, and a similar dynamic is going on today. The DNC is an organization that Black Democrats have gained a lot of representation in and strength over. And media calls for Democrats to just have a do-over are a way of de-legitimizing all of that. www.vox.com/mischiefs-of...

Race is still the central dividing line in the Democratic Partywww.vox.com The recent DNC vote over superdelegates revealed longstanding divisions within the party

Do they not realize that Trump is not going to debate the replacement? He will claim they didn’t win the primary and are illegitimate. We will be furious, the right will laugh their asses off at us, and we will be able to do absolutely nothing. This is grade school gaming out of Trump.

It’s fine, because the magical unicorn 🦄 gifted debater nominated 75 days out from Nov 5 and a month before people start voting wouldn’t even be able to get on the ballot in enough states to win the electoral college.

I don’t think most of the people running their mouths have given enough thought to risks like this, or haven’t been creative enough gaming things out. they act like we just pick up the cardboard cutout of Joe, replace it with a different cardboard cutout, & everything else hums along unchanged.

some people acknowledge there are risks. the thing that scares me is that many of those risks are not obvious.

Those debates were so fun! Trump would get eviscerated, drop in the polls a bit, then the go back to what they were before the debate.

Debate fetish is weird.

They just want a reality show to watch.

It is notable that the objectively radical actions of the Supreme Court with the decades long implications therein are less interesting to reporters than Biden’s bedtime.

Absolutely jaw-dropping how little coverage that got so they could make room for repeating the same crap for a week. And it seems they have some kind of duty to inform the voters about the Project 2025 plan for one of the candidates. Chris Hayes did and Joy Reid, I think. Most had almost none.

No wonder people think they suck at their jobs.

Makes writing columns so much easier.

Yep, that policy stuff and having to learn things? Can't have that. Better to ask anonymous DC buddies for quotes and relay poll info. Much less work that way.

They practically write themselves.

Survivor! But next spring, Stephen Miller drops off the Editorial Board on a deserted island of his choice!

Or - bear with me - they want to be the arbiters of who wins.

Exactly. The Trump trials gave 'em that & they miss the daily drama.

A debate and an open convention are a great idea for this very reason!

Politics-themed entertainment.

it’s really bizarre

TheirKIOK, but it's supposed to be safe, sane, and consensual.

Man, we really need to pay more attention and vote for better columnists the next time Editorial Boards come up for reelection.

That's not journalism, or even op-ed. That's just bad fanfic.

It’s unimaginative fanfic, too! Any one of us, were we creating a fantasy America, could come up with something better than “younger white guy, who is a governor.” And even if we couldn’t, we’d have the world building skills to explain how that could happen.

I understand why Aaron Sorkin has his fantastical vision of how politics works. I didn’t think so many people who ostensibly know actual politics would have such a similar view.

It makes me want to scream! Setting aside the fascism, corruption, and pedophilia, are they ignoring the fact that none of this is doable because they’re stupid or because they just want the clicks? Does it even matter? And why are they ignoring the fascism, corruption, and pedophilia?

With how weaselly the language of "voters cannot participate but their delegates will" is, I think they're actually trying to acknowledge that this "orderly process" would be "existing pledged Biden delegates released to unpledged and are the only people whose decision matters"

In fairness, my guess is that watching “The West Wing” was a formative moment for most of them.

It’s the fact that none of the West Wing stans ever bothered to find out what parts were accurate (none) that always gets me.

Chaos means clicks.

I went to WaPo, read it, & canceled my scrip. I’ve subscribed to them since I moved to DC for grad school in 1993. The last straw has been coming for some time & this was it.

Begging people to understand that the presidential ticket is not a baseball roster. You can just shake up the starters for a month and see what happens.

I wish one of them knew the law well enough to know that only Harris can legally use Biden's campaign apparatus and donor dollars --- anyone else has to start from scratch with 4 months to go...

oh but they must know the real scoop! they talk to Insiders! they are Serious Journalisms! So many people are talking, it must be

Both parties make or interpret rules as needed, to suit their interest in the moment. Of course I would prefer the rule of law, but that has been a fiction without normative power for a while now, in this country.

Carl Schmitt is jumping with joy in his grave.

It appears a lot of Americans have explained to the Washington Post and New York Times in recent days they're sick of these daft editorial boards attempting to disenfranchise tens of millions of voters, and accordingly they voted with their feet by cancelling their subscriptions.

Best to ignore editorial boards in general.

They hired James Hohmann and he’s an absolute moron.

This would be bad if it were one writer. But the Editorial Board of the newspaper for the nation's capital does not even know that the vote on the nomination WON'T EVEN TAKE PLACE IN CHICAGO AT THE CONVENTION!