Alan Elrod

@aselrod

Arkie. Anti-Dirtbagist. President & CEO, Pulaski Institution. Columnist & Contrib. Editor, @LiberalCurrents.com Words: @thebulwark.com, @ms.now, @foreignpolicy.com, @theunpopulist.net Writing a book (Broadleaf) Go Knicks He/Him

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Alan Elrod@aselrod· 23d

The way these scenes are bathed in bright, neon colors is wonderfully 80s. I really like the look of this movie. I found these individually based on how far I am.

Alan Elrod@aselrod· 25d

Hand’s view of liberty was entangled with a Christian sense of grace, something I think @gawattia.bsky.social would appreciate. The secular appeal of this is that a society ordered by “the spirit of liberty” is transfigured, made into something more than the sum of its parts.

By his own admission, Hand was informed by a sense of Christian charity and grace. So I think it's fitting to turn to a Biblical quotation, one from Christ himself, to enhance Hand's own words here:

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?
(Luke 9:24-25, English Standard Version)

Graham's passing reminds me of all the little ways we can die before we fully leave this life-of the costs of hubris, selfishness, and cowardice. And it reminds me that not only is each human death a tragedy because each human life is sacred, but that the little ways we kill ourselves are their own sources of grief. Of course, there have been more visceral deaths these last few days.

When ICE officials handcuffed the lifeless body of Joan Sebastian Guerrero—a young man and father, here legally—in a parking lot in Biddeford, Maine, we saw the America that Lindsey Graham warned us about in action. It's an America he helped create.

Alan Elrod@aselrod· 25d

This essay is not a plea for comity. But it is a warning against hate, even righteous and indignant hate. Storing hate in our hearts for our fellow citizens strangles the “spirit of liberty” Learned Hand spoke of.

It's clear that Graham allowed that spirit to die within his own heart long before he passed from this earth. I find that death, and the millions like it that have occurred in this decade of Trumpism, to be profoundly tragic. I don't think this demands that I misremember who Graham was
or what he did to aid the desecration of our republic. But it does mean retaining, as Hand insists, the essentially liberal values of empathy and other-mindedness. This is how Hand defined the spirit of liberty:

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interest alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned, but has never quite forgotten -that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side-by-side with the greatest.

Alan Elrod@aselrod· 25d

Punishing myself

Alan Elrod@aselrod· 29d

Fun fact: Arkansas has one of the largest Marshallese communities in the contiguous U.S.

Arkansas Children’s
Hospital

Welcomes You
Te da la bienvenida / Ej karwaineneik eok

Alan Elrod@aselrod· Jul 10

Devastating stuff from @jvl.bsky.social

The NYT has a postmortem on the Platner experiment and it wasn't Platner's idea to put himself forward. He was recruited by a trio of progressive operatives who saw him as a vehicle they could use to beat the Democratic establishment:
Last July, in a small town in coastal Maine, a couple of progressive, self-styled recruiters of economic populists showed up at the blue-shingled house of Graham Platner, a little-known oyster farmer and Marine veteran who lived largely off government benefits.
They knew his name from local labor organizers and activists, and they had watched a video on the internet of him talking about oysters. Struck by his left-leaning ideology, his working-class affect and his gravelly voice, they became convinced that he could win a Senate seat in Maine — and quickly persuaded Mr. Platner of the same.
The initial headhunters, Dan Moraff and Leanne Fan, and then a third out-of-state operative they called up to Maine — Morris Katz — told Mr. Platner he was "the one," a
"hero of the movement," "a historical figure" who could be "leading a revolution," according to half a dozen people with knowledge of their conversations.

But a clutch of people who cared about Mr.
Platner were telling him something else. They worried about his mental health, amid his ongoing efforts to heal from post-traumatic stress disorder after tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. They feared this trio of out-of-state operatives was a dangerous combination of inexperienced and overconfident. The worst-case scenario, they thought, wasn't running for Senate and losing — it was destroying the life he worked hard to build.

Yikes. This dovetails with earlier reporting from the New Yorker in September 2025...

"Within a few minutes of talking to him, I was, like, 'This guy owes it to the country to run for Senate, '" [Morris] Katz recalled, of his first meeting with Platner.

... as well as our own Lauren Egan's coverage from last month.

I understand getting excited about a new political figure and seeing the potential upsides. Especially if you' re an operative like Katz. That's your livelihood. It's why you get up in the morning.

But these progressive-labor-Bernie-Bro-whatevers were wrong. They picked a compromised guy. And instead of owning that fact and working to clean up the mess they made, they apparently tried to use Platner's leverage to get another of their preferred candidates to succeed him. They had their candidate announcing his withdrawal yesterday and blaming his predicament on the "corporate media system" and "political establishment."

Uh, no dude. You're out of the race because you never should have run in the first place. You have no business holding political power. And the trio who asked you to run and claimed you were a world-historical figure waiting to happen were blinded by some combination of ideological interests, hubris, power-grabbing, or your mollusca kavorka.

Alan Elrod@aselrod· Jul 8

Dilettantism remains, I think, the clearest explanation of Platner’s behavior www.liberalcurrents.com/graham-platn...

Dilettantism is a form of absurd, unending entitlement. This is what pushes CEOs to seek governorships and even the White House without any real experience. It’s how wealthy vulgarians like Elon Musk and Jared Kushner end up in charge of government spending and Middle East peace, respectively. Of course, the acceptance of this thinking by the general population has helped sustain Trump’s political career, thanks to his fabricated image as a wily businessman. What Platner represents to me in this dilettantist mode is an immature and spoiled boy—a boy who never took seriously the privilege with which he was born, a boy who went to war because it seemed like fun, a boy who sees consequences as something for other people.

Alan Elrod@aselrod· Jul 7

What he means by “the Bluesky crowd” is just libs and women, both of whom he clearly hates.

Ken Klippenstein & @kenklippenstein • 1h
Let me know if my Graham Platner apology is debasing and self-flagellating enough

Link to article

Reply in thread:

Ken Klippenstein
@kenklippenstein.8m •
Post is going over well with the Bluesky crowd lol

Screen shot

Marisa Kabas
@marisakabas.bsky.social
what a fucking asshole

Alan Elrod@aselrod· Jul 7

Correction: Smoothgroins vindicated

Ken Klippenstein
@kenklippenstein.bsky.social
Smoothgroins in shambles.
What Platner's victory means:

Link to Ken’s blog. Headline:

Platner Wins; Washington Whines
What the Maine Oysterman's primary victory means

Alan Elrod@aselrod· Jul 6

I should say that there’s also a very real argument that the way the red card was applied violated FIFA protocols

iainham iainspur
@iain.coys.social
People will cry corruption or whatever and totally gloss over the misapplied VAR protocols which led to the red card.

Link to ESPN story, quoted section:

VAR made their recommendation to the referee based on slow-motion and still replays, which is not aligned with VAR protocols, as these should be used for only point-of-contact purposes in a red card tackle situation. Once at the screen,
however, it would have been a surprise if the referee did not send off Balogun considering the pictures he was presented by VAR.

Alan Elrod@aselrod· Jul 3

Champing* C’mon, man, you’re from Colorado

John Hickenlooper (via Democrats.org)
Email subject line: Chomping at the bit

Alan Elrod@aselrod· Jul 2

Alan Elrod@aselrod· Jul 1

Troy Nehls in a past life

Walton Goggins as Billy Crash in Django Unchained

Alan Elrod@aselrod· Jul 1

Mike Lee really might be the most reprehensible person in the United States Senate

Alan Elrod@aselrod· Jun 29

Here’s the first two pages of my entry:

Alan Elrod@aselrod· Jun 29

This is my contribution

TO REBUILD DEMOCRACY IN THE HEARTS OF AMERICANS, WE NEED A NEW
NATIONAL SERVICE INITIATIVE
ALAN ELROD

Alan Elrod@aselrod· Jun 26

Gender and eugenics

Replier 1: "dirtbag lettism" much like "fight for 15" was a compromise
no one listened and not enough happened quickly enough for anyone to notice
civility is dead and those who killed it will be lucky if they see well constructed gallows after a proper trial that follows all the rules of currently known law

Replier 2: These effete assholes will be upset there are no handrails on the walk to the gas chambers.

Me: No but I'll complain about folks like you <quote post of Replier 2>
Hey I did not vote for Kamala Harris in 2024. Does any Democrat fuckface want to chastise me today?
Because I was always right, but after the reaction to Tuesday's elections I have a whole bunch of new ways to humiliate you.

Replier 1: Minions are conceptually stupid; they don't have any purpose; they just exist. They just came out of nowhere, and Gru just decided to adopt them. It makes no fucking sense. They're a biological oddity that shouldn't exist and should be studied by scientists.

Alan Elrod@aselrod· Jun 26

When people say “fight back” in this context, I genuinely do not know what they mean. Do a car bomb?

Series of replies. They read:

*South park gif saying “retard alert”*

“lol ok Mein Herr”

Shut up, nerd. This is "don't punch Nazis" for 2019

Fuck your liberal "democracy"
A regime of slavers, terrorists and pedophiles

We don't want to save liberalism, you guys

A series of replies. They read:

lol kys i want socialism

<pigpoopballs.jpg> changed the world

My politics are for you to grace deez nuts

A series of replies. They read:

More like Alan Nimrod Imao fukken gottem eat shit and die buddy

your analysis is shallow. you see red, bread and roses; you quake with outrage.

Yes, but did you forget to go tuck yourself?

Humiliation fetish.

Alan Elrod@aselrod· Jun 26

Look, I’m not Jewish, but some folks on here use “Zionist” in a way that feels undeniably like a slur.

I'd bet everything I own that you're a Zionist.

Breaking: A Liberal Zionist thinks you're being too mean online.

you and your outfit are zionist pigs. who cares what you have to say?

Alan Elrod@aselrod· Jun 26

Ethan Hunt has to enter this through a series of tunnels

Alan Elrod@aselrod· Jun 26

I don’t know what people think my life is like. But Larry, I live in Arkansas.

But Alan gets those sweet sweet hits by being disingenuous. He still wants to be invited to all the right parties, don't you know.

Alan Elrod@aselrod· Jun 26

No but I’ll complain about folks like you

Will O'Minder
@willowminder.bsky.social
Hey I did not vote for Kamala Harris in 2024. Does any Democrat fuckface want to chastise me today?
Because I was always right, but after the reaction to Tuesday's elections I have a whole bunch of new ways to humiliate you.

Alan Elrod@aselrod· Jun 25

You don’t even know me!

Alan Elrod@aselrod· Jun 25

Be excellent to each other

Alan Elrod@aselrod· Jun 25

There’s an idea that somehow decency and nuance are stuffy, that they’re old fashioned. But there’s nothing new about what people like Piker or Klippenstein have to offer. There’s nothing sophisticated or groundbreaking about dirtbagism.

In the interim, I see no path out of our present crisis offered by the exultation of callousness. It isn't only that cruelty is wrong in and of itself. Empathy is an essential building block of liberal democratic life. The entire enterprise rests not only on the individual dignity of our fellow citizens but on the notion that they are beings with rich interiority, capable of good and evil, and deserving of the chance to become their best selves. Dirtbagism suggests that we can behave cruelly without being cruel. We can't. It also suggests that our enemy's sins can render them outside our obligations to one another. They can't.

These are ancient impulses. There's nothing modern or savvy in our performance of savagery toward one another. And there is nothing new about the desire to humiliate our opponents. Rather than the stale, stuffy thing that many dirtbag leftists see, liberal democracy is cutting-edge. It's a moral and social provocation against millennia of human inequality and violence, a daring experiment in individual dignity and mutual cooperation. To borrow a line from James Gunn's Superman, maybe that's the real punk rock.

Alan Elrod@aselrod· Jun 24

Sorry but I think it’s ok to think Darializa Avila Chevalier sucks and to say so. This is not the type of person I want the Democratic Party to nominate more of.

Avila Chevalier reposted a tweet in August 2020, responding to a social media prompt that asked,
"Israel suddenly disappears, your third emoji is your reaction.” The reposted tweet's reply read, "Trick question - Israel doesn't exist!"

Avila Chevalier, a Muslim convert, reposted a message from 2021 declaring that "ALL PIGS EVERYWHERE ARE HARAM," an Arabic term used in Islam to describe something that is forbidden.

She also accused socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of promoting "liberal Zionism," and called out fellow democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for voting "present" on Israeli military funding, the New York Post reported.

Avila Chevalier, in a series of messages, called Joe Biden a "rapist" and "war criminal" during the 2020 presidential election, referred to the U.S. as a "f**king disgrace," talked about wiping her dirty hands on the American flag, and described interracial relationships involving white females as "fetishizing ugly colonizer women."

"My opponent wants to live in the past. He is re-litigating social media posts from half a decade ago, and continuing to champion an outdated politics that fails to serve our people," Avila Chevalier told CNN. "I have grown considerably since in the years since these tweets, and I am focused on our community and our community's future."

Alan Elrod@aselrod· Jun 23

Not much difference between what Ken’s doing and when Trump did this

UNDER FIRE
TRUMP MOCKS REPORTER WITH DISABILITY
Donald Trump | (R) Presidential Candidate
CNN
5:49 PM PT
AC360°

Alan Elrod@aselrod· Jun 22

I have a short contribution in this project that I hope you’ll all read and find useful.

TO REBUILD DEMOCRACY IN THE HEARTS OF AMERICANSE NEED A NEW NATIONAL SERVICE INITIATIVE

Alan Elrod

Alan Elrod@aselrod· Jun 21

Nalin is absolutely the kind of dude who thinks he could beat her.

Alan Elrod@aselrod· Jun 19