I think you're onto something with the possibility that issues are taking precedence over personalities -- which would be a step in a very positive direction. It's possible that this is a reaction to Trump: we are all so unspeakably tired of his personality cult that a great many of us would really like to get back to talking about the serious issues we're facing.
Also: it doesn't look like the fury ignited by Dobbs is going to cool down any time soon, as some pundits feared. As long as horrors like the Cox abomination in Texas -- which surely qualifies as sanctioned state torture of a woman who did nothing more than produce a non-viable pregnancy -- continue to churn forth (and the righteous misogyny of the Trump base guarantees that they're going to continue these persecutions at full throttle, damn the consequences), the majority of American women will remain in full outraged backlash. They're not interested in giving us a chance to move past it, even though it would be strategic for them to do so. And they're thus ensuring that we will carry it to the polls in 2024 with even more energy than we did in 2022.
Political men, right and left, still discount "women's issues." (Alito acknowledged our power briefly in Dobbs, noting that "women are not without electoral power." But I doubt he believed it, either.) Even after the huge run of repro rights victories over the past two years, they just don't see this as a decisive factor in 2024.
But the right seems very committed to ensuring that it will be THE decisive factor. They can't help themselves, poor dears.
I think you're onto something with the possibility that issues are taking precedence over personalities -- which would be a step in a very positive direction. It's possible that this is a reaction to Trump: we are all so unspeakably tired of his personality cult that a great many of us would really like to get back to talking about the serious issues we're facing.
Also: it doesn't look like the fury ignited by Dobbs is going to cool down any time soon, as some pundits feared. As long as horrors like the Cox abomination in Texas -- which surely qualifies as sanctioned state torture of a woman who did nothing more than produce a non-viable pregnancy -- continue to churn forth (and the righteous misogyny of the Trump base guarantees that they're going to continue these persecutions at full throttle, damn the consequences), the majority of American women will remain in full outraged backlash. They're not interested in giving us a chance to move past it, even though it would be strategic for them to do so. And they're thus ensuring that we will carry it to the polls in 2024 with even more energy than we did in 2022.
Political men, right and left, still discount "women's issues." (Alito acknowledged our power briefly in Dobbs, noting that "women are not without electoral power." But I doubt he believed it, either.) Even after the huge run of repro rights victories over the past two years, they just don't see this as a decisive factor in 2024.
But the right seems very committed to ensuring that it will be THE decisive factor. They can't help themselves, poor dears.