Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey comfortably defeated Rep. Seth Moulton in his Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday, in what the media — and Moulton himself — had described as a “generational” challenge.
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media → defeat → challenge
The framing is understandable: In a country suffering under gerontocratic rule, Markey is 80 and Moulton is 47.
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Moulton → suffer → rule
Age, however, was the least of what was at stake in Moulton’s run from the decaying center of the Democratic Party.
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what → decay → Party
Moulton ran on a conservative line, recycling right-wing talking points and echoing Donald Trump to suggest, erroneously, that Democrats have been failing because they have not been conservative enough.
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they → run → Trump
Markey may be 80 years old, but his campaign did precisely what Democrats must if they want to appeal to progressives and bring in a broad working-class voter base: He ran on issues of economic inequality, taxing billionaires, green energy, and universal health care — all while refusing to jettison support for vulnerable minorities, especially trans people.
Meanwhile Moulton, claiming to represent a break in the status quo, repeated precisely the tired centrist playbook that has both failed America’s multiracial working class and failed to win elections.
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that → do → elections
He punched left and, as Markey himself highlighted, threw trans kids “under the bus.”
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Markey → punch → bus
In a risible misreading of the Democrats’ 2024 presidential election loss, Moulton suggested that his party had shown too much care for trans rights.
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party → suggest → rights
“I have two little girls,” Moulton told the New York Times just after the November 2024 election.
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Moulton → have → election
“I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete.”
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them → want → athlete
It was only last month that Moulton offered a tempered apology for the anti-trans remarks — and only because Markey had lambasted him during a debate.
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Markey → offer → debate
“He just took the whole playbook of MAGA and Trump, and he blamed those kids for the loss,” said Markey, who has been consistent in his advocacy for trans rights.
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who → take → rights
“We should have been loving those kids.
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We → love → kids
We should have been embracing them.
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We → embrace → them
Indeed, we should question the validity of this so-called “debate” entirely: Why did the moderator of a Senate primary debate even feel the need to ask a question about trans girls in sports at all?
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moderator → question → sports
This is not, after all, a political problem in need of addressing in Massachusetts, or anywhere else.
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This → address → Massachusetts
It is a ghoulish far-right panic that has been baselessly elevated into a hot-button issue, with the help of Democratic cowardice.
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that → elevate → cowardice
Fox News, of all places, noted that Markey is “one of the few Democrats running this midterm cycle who is continuing to push for transgender rights, particularly in sports” — as if that were a bad thing.
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that → note → sports
“There is good evidence that transgender issues were a major part of Markey’s victory, too,” wrote reporter and trans advocate Erin Reed.
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Reed → be → victory
“In the final days of the campaign, a UMass/Amherst poll asked primary voters how a candidate who embraces anti-trans positions or policies would impact their vote.
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who → ask → vote
In that poll, a whopping 67% stated it would make their vote less likely for that candidate.”
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vote → state → candidate
And no doubt proselytizers for Democratic Party conservatism will stress that Markey’s victory in deep-blue Massachusetts cannot offer lessons for Democrats running in less progressive territory.
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victory → stress → territory
This again would be to selectively learn the wrong lessons from Kamala Harris’s spectacular 2024 failure.
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This → learn → failure
It should not need repeating that Democrats in 2024 campaigned on Republican talking points, with Harris donning khaki for photo ops at the Arizona border.
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Harris → need → border
If Donald Trump’s campaign attacking trans people gained purchase, it is because Democrats roundly failed to answer it by demystifying right-wing anti-trans fearmongering.
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Democrats → attack → fearmongering
They also failed to offer a robust, class-focused platform to vote for.
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They → fail → platform
Being nearly half someone’s age does not constitute a generational challenge; contesting the staid ways of a generational establishment does.
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contesting → constitute → establishment
Moulton did nothing of the sort.
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Moulton → do → sort
Markey said it best on Tuesday: “Generational change isn’t about compromising.”
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change → say → compromising
IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.
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WE → ’ → ?
What we’re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government.
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seeing → see → government
Court orders are being ignored.
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orders → ignore → ?
MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies.
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loyalists → put → agencies
The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse.
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Department → strip → purse
News outlets that challenge Trump have been banished or put under investigation.
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that → challenge → investigation
Yet far too many are still covering Trump’s assault on democracy like politics as usual, with flattering headlines describing Trump as “unconventional,” “testing the boundaries,” and “aggressively flexing power.”
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many → cover → power
The Intercept has long covered authoritarian governments, billionaire oligarchs, and backsliding democracies around the world.
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Intercept → cover → world
We understand the challenge we face in Trump and the vital importance of press freedom in defending democracy.
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we → understand → democracy
We’re independent of corporate interests.
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We → ’re → interests
Will you help us?
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you → help → us
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press.
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president → have → press
…and 21 more, not listed.
