Dr. Deb Vlock, Mental-Health Parenting Expert

Author of books, essays & short fiction. Blogger, mental-health advocate, PhD. Devoted to American democracy and so much more. 🌴🥥

[Dr. Deb Vlock, Mental-Health Parenting Expert @dvlock]

As any author would, I've always wished I'd write that perfectly timely article or book. Like, "Yeah, nailed it!" I never, ever thought I'd write it and regret there was such need for it. @RLPGBooks is kindly taking a bite out of the price with this nice discount.

[Dr. Deb Vlock, Mental-Health Parenting Expert @dvlock]

@AndyRubinski @RachelBitecofer I had a similar upbringing, Andy. Just read the comments on your post; I thought I couldn't be shocked anymore on this blighted app, but omg, what filthy antisemitism! Deleting X now. See you on BlueSky, maybe.

[Dr. Deb Vlock, Mental-Health Parenting Expert @dvlock]

This is heartening and wise.

[Stuart Stevens @stuartpstevens]

I've been involved in winning presidential races and races that lost. One common thread is that everyone seems to have a reason why you won or lost which usually reflects a personal perspective or agenda.

So here's mine: I think VP Harris ran a very good campaign that operated at a high level. She had a great convention, crushed Trump in a debate, and put on a series of big event rallies that were the best I'd ever seen.

As a Republican operative, I spent years pointing out flaws in the Democratic Party and I'm not here to say it doesn't need to go through a period of questioning and self-reflection. Those are much larger questions than one election and one campaign. But the Republican party is an anti-democratic movement, attacking the pillars of American democracy from elections to the judicial system.

I understand those who say that if there had been a "normal" Democratic primary, the results would have been better. Maybe. But think about it. In modern political history, every time a sitting VP has run for the nomination, that VP has won. Perhaps it would have been different this time and the eventual nominee would have emerged stronger for the process. But more likely there would have been a bloody primary fight that left the nominee broke and trying to patch together a fractured party to face a Republican party that has become Donald Trump's party. In all probability, VP Harris would have won that primary and been in a weakened and vulnerable position when it was finally resolved in May or June.

I would say to my Democratic friends to go through this post-election process with open minds and hearts but never doubt that the Democratic party is the only pro-democracy party in America. No one will have a position in Trump's administration who is not an election denier adhering to the Big Lie. That's toxic to a country's sense of self and the damage will take a generation to repair, if it is possible to heal.

Losing an election does not mean that you were wrong and they were right. It means you lost an election. I grew up in Mississippi watching my parents back candidates opposed to segregation. When those candidates lost, and they did for a long time, my parents didn't question if they were on the right side. They didn't ask themselves if the majority who supported segregation had proven the justness of their cause by winning.

The mid-terms start after the Super Bowl. It will likely be a good election for Democrats and then the 2028 presidential race will be upon us. After a loss, the days seem long but the months will pass quickly. Reflect, rest up, but come back prepared to fight. Fight not because victory is assured but fight because not to fight is to give up. And if we do that, we no longer deserve to call ourselves Americans.

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[Dr. Deb Vlock, Mental-Health Parenting Expert @dvlock]

@IRL_with_Nik @MsMirf @JoJoFromJerz Which policy do you love the most? Separating brown children and infants from their moms and dads at the border? Then keeping no records, so many will literally never see each other again, no matter how hard the next admin worked to pick up the pieces? That was respectable.

[Dr. Deb Vlock, Mental-Health Parenting Expert @dvlock]

@IRL_with_Nik @julesfun3 @Ironyrulesall @JoJoFromJerz You are very mistaken. Your rw media is keeping the truth from you. The women who've died from sepsis in states like TX and GA and FL died because D&C is considered "abortion" even in miscarriage. Hope u will read this. https://t.co/2krStVZWOn

[Dr. Deb Vlock, Mental-Health Parenting Expert @dvlock]

@ecollins716 @SBarisch @IRL_with_Nik @JoJoFromJerz Agreed.

[Dr. Deb Vlock, Mental-Health Parenting Expert @dvlock]

@SBarisch @IRL_with_Nik @JoJoFromJerz Absolutely, thank you! Sometimes it feels like bad things *especially* happen to good people, so all you good peeps out there of any political persuasion, don't think it can't happen to you-whatever "it" is!

[Dr. Deb Vlock, Mental-Health Parenting Expert @dvlock]

@IRL_with_Nik @JoJoFromJerz Miscrriage can be deadly *when doctors are not allowed to intervene and women develop sepsis.* There have been multiple documented cases of death in red states since Roe was overturned & more expected. WANTED pregnancies. Ask ur daughters if they'd want to carry a rape baby.

[Dr. Deb Vlock, Mental-Health Parenting Expert @dvlock]

@IRL_with_Nik @JoJoFromJerz I don't know where you live, but unless you've sewn your daughters' legs shut or had them sterilized, you are deluded to think that just because they are "good christian girls" they will be safe from trump's abortion bans. Miscarriages can be deadly. And rape? Ask them.

[Dr. Deb Vlock, Mental-Health Parenting Expert @dvlock]

@NatashaM1988 @JoJoFromJerz @IRL_with_Nik I see now, Natasha, why you felt you had to go after the Dems. I looked at your Twitter feed. You are transphobic. We place high value on equality, upholding human/civil rights, and empathy. You do indeed have a dog in this race, and its name is donald.

[Dr. Deb Vlock, Mental-Health Parenting Expert @dvlock]

@NatashaM1988 @fjgenatossio @JoJoFromJerz @IRL_with_Nik What do you mean by "Democrats need to go away"? Such an odd thing to say. Like, shut up, slink off, and let Trump and the MAGA party spout their Russian propaganda and other lies uncontested? That would be as bad for you Brits as for us. And the world.

[Dr. Deb Vlock, Mental-Health Parenting Expert @dvlock]

@NatashaM1988 @JoJoFromJerz @IRL_with_Nik With all due respect, Natasha, some intellectual humility would suit you. I have a doctorate in English lit & culture and have spent plenty of time in the UK. You'd never catch me making such self-assured pronouncements about your elections or your voters from my seat here.

[Dr. Deb Vlock, Mental-Health Parenting Expert @dvlock]

@IRL_with_Nik @JoJoFromJerz Would those be the "grab em by the pussy" morals or the "sleep with porn star while wife #3 is preg" morals or the "rape her in the dressing room" morals? How about the "stiffing small contractors" morals or the "giving a blow job to a mic" morals? So many to choose from!

[Dr. Deb Vlock, Mental-Health Parenting Expert @dvlock]

@Cita_9999 @FPWellman Then, when people lose their shirts and their lives due to your dumb, corrupt and heartless policies, blame it on the party whose accomplishments you stole the credit from but has no power at all anymore (i.e. the Dems).

[Dr. Deb Vlock, Mental-Health Parenting Expert @dvlock]

@no_tred_on_snek @FPWellman Haha! Damn right! Spend it on welfare for billionaires, instead! Just sit back and watch #dayonetaxcuts

[Dr. Deb Vlock, Mental-Health Parenting Expert @dvlock]

@MovementCon @FPWellman Wait till you find out.

[Dr. Deb Vlock, Mental-Health Parenting Expert @dvlock]

Wondering if the dose of Schadenfreude will make any of this worth it. Great post by @FPWellman https://t.co/5IamQCB3JA

[Bill Kristol @BillKristol]

May I say a word for the Democratic Party for all its faults?

It is the Republican Party that nominated Trump three times, that gave way to Trump, that supports and enables Trump.

The Democratic Party in opposition could have done better. But at least they were in opposition.

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

This statue just appeared at a park in Philadelphia

[Dr. Deb Vlock, Mental-Health Parenting Expert @dvlock]

@belliott4488 @stevie10000 @RabbitohCards @WalshFreedom Will we have the chance? If trump has his way, the entire Democratic party will be arrested, fake-prosecuted for treason, and locked up.

[Dr. Deb Vlock, Mental-Health Parenting Expert @dvlock]

@belliott4488 @stevie10000 @RabbitohCards @WalshFreedom And just wait till they see the price of EVERYTHING jump when the Trump Tariffs hit and Elon breaks the economy to punish all of us (except the billionaires) for....wrecking it! Which I guess he pretends to believe is the fault of working & middle class folks?