What Democrats Can Accomplish When They Control a Whole State by Grace Segers

Like their cohorts on the other side of the Dairy State Divide, Minnesota Democrats have taken their recent wins at the voting booth as a mandate to actual enact meaningful change for the citizenry. Writing for The New Republic, Grace Segers highlights not only the specific accomplishments but also the overall mindset of these Democrats, hyper-focused on having substantive legislation ready to go so there’d be no dithering when the opportunity arose. Especially in this time when the members of the Republicans are determined to ram through their more regressive, bigoted policies in direct defiance of the will of the people, Democrats need to stop equivocating in a desperate quest for a middle ground between the parties that doesn’t exist. It is long past time for national-stage Democrats to learn from their aligned legislators at the state level.

Moms for Liberty Came to Philly. Philly Came for Them. by Kim Kelly

With appropriate animosity towards the putrid national group that has earned the harsh nicknames Klanned Karenhood and Mein Kampf, Kim Kelly writes about the reception Moms for Liberty received when they staged one of their national get-togethers in the City of Brotherly Love. It’s only a shame the event wasn’t scheduled in winter so these racist book burners could have gotten the full Santa-at-the-Eagles game treatment. This article is published by The Nation.

A New Decade, A New Album, A New Life—Olivia Rodrigo’s Next Chapter by Jia Tolentino

I understand that sharing this profile so soon after exalting over the pictured pop sensation’s latest single makes it seem like my little corner of the digital world is morphing into a Olivia Rodrigo stan account. That’s following the evidence to an incorrect conclusion, though. The linked article is offered because this has long been a Jia Tolentino stan account. The New Yorker staff writers stays into the Condé Nast family to pen a cover story on Rodrigo for Vogue. As usual, Tolentino’s work is smart, funny, engaging, and brimming with offhand insights.