Ryan GrimVerified account

it’s a lovely short hand that puts the two candidates on completely even footing despite the fact that one has been serving in the legislature for years, and the other has never held public office.

Whitmer consistently stood up for the left during her time in senate. Remember “rape insurance”? Remember when House members where silenced for having the audacity to say “vagina” during abortion debate? That was Whitmer and her female colleagues working together.

there is a segment of the left that finds it extremely convenient to wipe out years of legislative experience fighting for issues that matter to progressives by throwing out the word “centrist” and claiming that’s enough to merit voting for someone else, with no basis.

I thought maybe we’d learned a lesson on that. I guess I was wrong.

Wait a minute, in that sentence that you clipped, all I said was that the race has largely been covered that way. Do you disagree? Separately, do you disagree that El-Sayed is running to her left? I'm not placing value judgments--aren't those facts?

And yes, like you said, it's a shorthand. By definition, a shorthand erases lots of other stuff. That's why it's called a shorthand. I definitely do get tired of words like progressive, centrist, establishment, etc, but what are better shorthands? They're not the same politically

you could have used “establishment” and “anti-establishment” or “party supported” and “insurgent” or any number of distinctions that didn’t erase the fact that she is a longstanding politician and one with yes, a progressive record- policies she’s voted on again and again.