By Ashkan
Left-wing, LGBT extremism killed Charlie Kirk. It was preceded by a cycle of vicious polarization in America. This is an upsetting reality.
(more…)Disaffected young voters resort to outdated mode of digital expression to trade barbs across the aisle
Abigail and Ashkan are two students hopelessly immersed in the nonsense electoral discourse of the Ivy League — in the swing state of Pennsylvania.
Abigail, a Democrat, hails from a rural northern Californian farming community and is a passionate proponent of American exceptionalism.
Ashkan, a Republican, is a gay first-generation American who believes in the promise of this country and its freedoms above all else.
Substack
By Ashkan
Left-wing, LGBT extremism killed Charlie Kirk. It was preceded by a cycle of vicious polarization in America. This is an upsetting reality.
(more…)By Abigail
Charlie Kirk’s death first made me think of John Adams’ famous line in a letter to his political opponent, Thomas Jefferson: “You and I ought not to die before we have explained ourselves to each other.”
(more…)By Ashkan
After Hillary Clinton placed half of Donald Trump’s supporters into a basket of deplorables, it should have clicked. Someone should have said: “guys, let’s not do that again!”
(more…)By Ashkan
Deciding my vote for President has forced a profound questioning of my core values unlike anything I’ve ever experienced — my uncompromising devotion to procrastination has not wavered, though. And it never will. You have my word.
(more…)By Ashkan
Few things match the awkwardness of bashing legacy admissions to someone who later sheepishly reveals “my dad went here…” Hasn’t really stopped me, though. I feast on the souls of soft-penised dilettantes who were grandfathered into what I traded my adolescence to achieve.
(more…)By Abigail
California has finally done it! After decades of bitter debates, lengthy court battles, and public mudslinging, the Golden State has finally ended inequality in higher education. Who knew all you had to do was ban legacy admissions?
(more…)By Ashkan
I’m currently fighting off an intense bout of déjà vu — since this week’s debate, I feel like I’ve been transported back to being my unfortunately normal-height 8th grade self, rabidly absorbing the drama of the 2016 election as my interest in politics was piqued for the first time.
(more…)By Abigail
footnotes from Ashkan
Kamala Harris has always been a sort of political chameleon. If we learned anything from her first televised interview as the 2024 Democratic nominee last Thursday, it’s that she’s finally found an environment she’s (relatively) well-suited to. That’s not to say that she excelled, by any means, when going toe-to-toe with Dana Bash while Tim Walz did a remarkable job placidly smiling and waving by her side, but she put on a performance that was more confident than anything else we’ve seen from her during the last four years.
(more…)By Ashkan
footnotes from Abigail
I find it genuinely funny that the Democratic Presidential campaign strategy for the past two cycles has been to campaign as little as possible.
Do we all remember the Joe Biden COVID bunker in 2020? As Trump criss-crossed the country shaking hands and kissing babies1 (which I suppose might have been ill-advised from a #FlattenTheCurve perspective), Joe Biden sat ensconced in his impenetrable Delaware basement, conveniently untouchable by reporters who could seize on a gaffe, or, far worse, make him explain his vision for America.
(more…)By Ashkan
footnotes from Abigail
Kamala Harris, an original co-sponsor of the Green New Deal in 2019, has asked Pennsylvania voters for forgiveness. She was wrong, she says.
Despite previously advocating for a ban on fracking — the highly pollutive and relatively new process to extract fossil fuels — Kamala’s totally on board now. The Pennsylvania economy is strongly buoyed by fracking, and she needs to win Pennsylvania. It’s just basic political calculus; swing voters want their local economy functioning and no matter how pro-oil Kamala falls she won’t bleed any lefty voters to the orange man.
(more…)