https://bsky.app/profile/erininthemorning.com/post/3mynwzsux7k2u
Josh Turek of Iowa, Democrat, comes out with one of the worst anti-trans ads yet.
Not only is it an anti-sports ad, it proposes a ban on federal funding for gender affirming care. That would hit all medicaid and medicare patients, and any ACA federally-subsidized plans as well.
Horrific.
“Some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I’m willing to make.”
You ignored every point I made btw.
It’s not about his personal political influence, it’s about the precedent it would set.
Ah, yes, setting precedent for the Democrats, the party famous for learning from their defeats.
Turek winning would show that there’s no strategic downside to his politics in Iowa, or if I’m being really generous, in races to replace incumbent Republicans. The US isn’t a political or cultural monolith, campaign strategies vary from state to state, even in presidential elections. For example, Talarico’s Christian faith is a boon for his campaign in Texas, but if he wins, it doesn’t mean that every candidate across the nation is going to embrace Christianity.
There are no good Republican politicians; two more years of a Republican majority means two more years of unchecked efforts to erase trans people from existence. There are good Democratic politicians; Turek is not one of them. But if I can choose my enemies, I’d rather spend the next two years fighting against him and those like him in a Democrat-controlled Congress than fighting against whatever fresh hell the Republicans have planned for all of us.
Great point. And the only way they can really know for sure if it’ll work in other states is to test the waters there. And when they test the waters, you will completely capitulate for the exact same reason you want to capitulate here, and that’s when it’ll go from weak evidence that it works in other states, to strong evidence. So long as they never encounter any resistance, they’ll keep pushing, keep seeing it work, and it’ll keep spreading. It has to be nipped in the bud, above all else. If we wait, we won’t be able to stop it at all.
That’s how we got here in the first place. Because, they know they can fuck the left as hard and as frequently as they like, they know that they don’t have to give you anything at all, because you won’t ever stand up to them.
Obviously, words are useless in convincing people like you, because you fundamentally just don’t have a spine. You’ll happily sell out marginalized people because the Dems can just point to a boogeyman and you do whatever they tell you. The only real solution is to build solidarity between all marginalized people, which requires completely and unequivocally rejecting attempts to divide us with shitlib candidates like Turek. But you’ll never do that, because you are fundamentally a coward.
Oh, neat, we’re doing personal attacks now. And here I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.
Spend less time huffing theory with the rest of your echo chamber and realize that we live in the real world where our actions have real consequences for real people. You want to teach the Democrats a lesson by letting the Republicans stay in power, all so you can maintain your holier-than-thou attitude. It didn’t save a single life in 2024, it’s not going to save a single life in 2026. The Trevor Project saw huge spikes in people reaching out to their crisis hotlines immediately after the 2024 election and 2025 inauguration. That’s what happens when Republicans win. That’s what you’re saying you’re okay with.
We’re a week out from the election. Either the Republicans are going to win, or the Democrats are. The US electoral system is broken, so those are the options. No matter what the result is, I’m going to be doing everything I can to protect and support my community, and I hope you do the same.
Still not acknowledging any of my arguments. You have no answer, whatsoever, to the fact that you’re creating a political reality where the Democrats will have every incentive to sell out trans people. Blah blah, “holier than thou attitude,” has nothing whatsoever to do with my actual arguments, you just pull that out because you have nothing else.
All you can do is go back to your thought-terminating cliches and tribalistic loyalty, loyal to the fucking politicians who fuck us over rather than to marginalized people.
Claiming that you’re “doing everything you can to protect and support your community” well supporting a transphobe and allowing the Democrats to sell us out is completely laughable.
There’s an enemy battleline, and they say, “give us everyone with brown hair and we’ll go easy on you” and your commander says, “hmm, you know what, maybe we should hand over everyone with brown hair,” then you fucking remove that commander. You don’t say, “well, we need everyone we can get,” while handing over your own allies, who are actually valuable, just to appease that shithead, who isn’t.
Hang together or hang separately. End of story. No negotiation, nothing to discuss. You want to betray marginalized people, go right ahead. I’ll be cheering when Turek eats shit.
Sorry, guess you missed the comment where I replied to the bolded quote you were so proud of. I can go through sentence-by-sentence if that makes it easier for you.
Good for you for sticking to your beliefs though, I’m glad you’ll be able to stand there smug and self-satisfied while the Republicans hang us together.
Sorry, guess you missed the comment where I refuted that and explained how it will spread if it’s never resisted.
And I hope you’ll be satisfied while the ruling class hangs us separately. At least if we stand together, we’d have a fighting chance. Your “strategy” of selling out makes defeat 100% inevitable.
Yeah, that comment consisted of “guess we’ll see ¯\_(ツ)_/¯” and calling me a coward, so not sure how much acknowledgement that needed.
The Republican party wants trans people dead or so far back in the closet that we might as well be. Explain to me how that’s better for trans people, and how your “strategy” of hoping for defeat doesn’t make defeat 100% inevitable.
Lol, no it didn’t. I explained it very clearly, there’s no need to wait and see, because anyone with sense can see what will happen.
If trans people and “allies” vote for you no matter what you do, and transphobes will only vote for you if you fuck over trans people, then there is a clear incentive to fuck over trans people. It is, clearly and objectively, the correct strategic decision. Even if the number of transphobes is tiny compared to the number of people who support trans rights!
I’m not hoping for defeat. I’m hoping that we can expel this shithead traitor who wants to surrender to the right, so that we can actually fight and win.
That commander who wants to hand over everyone with brown hair to the enemy? If he happens to catch a stray bullet, we’ll all be better off for it. Because he is a liability and actively detrimental to the war effort. This is no different. If he loses, the only thing we lose is a traitor, all we lose is a knife at our back.
You are overestimating the value of this shitbag, and also underestimating the value of the trans people and allies who he is alienating, who would be far more valuable in fighting the right, as well as underestimating the value of solidarity. This is literally how the ruling class controls us and breaks our power, by letting them be the ones who define what you stand for, and they’ll make damn sure that solidarity is never part of that, because it’s the only thing that would actually be effective!