The lesson of the special elections around the country is clear: Democratic House candidates can dramatically outperform Clinton in deep red rural areas by running ideological, populist campaigns rooted in progressive areas. Poorer working class voters who pulled the lever for Trump can be swayed back to the left in surprisingly large numbers–perhaps not enough to win in places like Kansas, Montana and South Carolina, but certainly in other more welcoming climes. Nor is there a need to subvert Democratic principles of social justice in order to accomplish this: none of the Democrats who overperformed Clinton’s numbers in these districts curried favor with bigots in order to accomplish it.

But candidates like Clinton and Ossoff who try to run inoffensive and anti-ideological campaigns in an attempt to win over supposedly sensible, wealthier, bourgeois suburban David-Brooks-reading Republican Romney voters will find that they lose by surprisingly wide margins. There is no Democrat so seemingly non-partisan that Romney Republicans will be tempted to cross the aisle in enough numbers to make a difference.

The way forward for Democrats lies to the left, and with the working classes. It lies with a firm ideological commitment to progressive values, and in winning back the Obama voters Democrats lost to Trump in 2016 without giving ground on commitments to social justice. It does not lie in the wealthy suburbs that voted for Romney over Obama in 2012, or in ideological self-effacement on core economic concerns.

David Atkins nails it over at the Washington Monthly. I’d only add: yep. Though it’s also worth noting the Democrats are also fighting a messaging machine they can’t hope to match at this point. This is worth noting that in light of the South Carolina over-performance in an essentially forgotten race in a deep red district…

I felt compelled to document my first conversation with the President-Elect in a memo.  To ensure accuracy, I began to type it on a laptop in an FBI vehicle outside Trump Tower the moment I walked out of the meeting.  Creating written records immediately after one-on-one conversations with Mr. Trump was my practice from that point forward. This had not been my practice in the past.  I spoke alone with President Obama twice in person (and never on the phone) –once in 2015 to discuss law enforcement policy issues and a second time, briefly, for him to say goodbye in late 2016.  In neither of those circumstances did I memorialize the discussions.  I can recall nine one-on-one conversations with President Trump in four months – three in person and six on the phone.

James Comey, in an excerpt from his opening statement for tomorrow’s Senate hearing. He spoke in private with Obama twice in nearly five years and one of those was a “thanks for all the fish” valedictory. Compared against NINE in four months. And Comey felt compelled to document all interactions with Trump immeidately after their first meeting. Nothing wrong here. This is fine.

Let’s cut the crap about why Hillary Clinton lost

Please read the whole thing, but here’s part of the nut:

So why didn’t she [win]? The answer is pretty simple: despite running a pretty good campaign, she got walloped by things that decidedly don’t come with the territory: Russian interference via the WikiLeaks drip; an indefensible letter released by the FBI director; and a press corps that treated the Comey letter like the OJ trial. She got slammed late in the game, and had no time to recover.

Yep.

Let’s cut the crap about why Hillary Clinton lost

I can’t see Trump resigning or even being impeached, but at this point I wish he’d grow a brain and be the man that he sold himself as on the campaign

Senior Administration Official. What part of the campaign? WHAT PART OF THE CAMPAIGN?

The Trump Team Reportedly Had 18 Contacts With Russia During the Campaign

I don’t see how this is anything other than straight up, original intent treason:

Six of the 18 [newly disclosed] contacts were between Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., and campaign officials, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Among other things, they spoke about “establishing a back channel for communication between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that could bypass the U.S. national security bureaucracy, which both sides considered hostile to improved relations,” Reuters heard from four current U.S. officials.

The Trump Team Reportedly Had 18 Contacts With Russia During the Campaign

To me it feels like [Republicans] have fallen prey to a Donald Trump cult.They are ceding their loyalty not to the constitution, not to the country, not to their constituents but to this president of their party but who wasn’t even a Republican until a few years ago. They’ so desperate to want to play, to want to be invited to dinner at the white house that they are willing  to remain silent in the face of a president who is attacking our institutions.

I thought what James Clapper said yesterday, that our institutions are being attacked both externally and internally, was spine chilling. And it’s something that we should take so seriously. This president started off by attacking the Intelligence Community. He has tweeted against judges. He has tweeted intimidation to Sally Yates on the day of her testimony. He has tweeted a veiled threat to the former FBI Director.

So I have to ask Republicans over and over again. What is it going to take for you to wake up and recognize your duty is to country and not to this one man. How far does it have to go? What does he have to do for you to wake up and speak up and do what you need to do?

Ana Navaro, sometimes Republican strategist, asks the right questions before any of the Trump-leaked-secrets information hit later in the day. Some member of the GOP that has the courage to stand is going to be the one that gets to pick up the pieces. I’m starting to think that person is currently outside government…

The Center for American Progress helpfully worked through a few common preexisting conditions among, oh, all of them that will be newly surcharged should the AHCA pass. I think my favorite is completed pregnanct with no or minor complications; that’ll be an additional $17,060 atop your existing fees. Makes perfect sense to me.

The GOP’s health care plan is and always has been: sick individuals should endure bankruptcy for themselves and their families and then, when the money’s gone, kindly go die in the streets. If you don’t have the money to go bankrupt keeping yourself alive in the first place, then don’t get sick (because people who live a good life just don’t get sick) or just go die in the streets. Period.

And, of course, who is not subject to these exciting new ideas? That’d be Congress. I’ve said it before and will say it again: Congress and their dependents should be automatically enrolled the lowest coverage health care allowable by law with no recourse to outside insurance and no Congressional Clinic with 24/7 full service walk-in care for ~$500/year either. Such a law could be about two sentences long (which seems to be the limit for the GOP’s attention) and would greatly clarify these debates.