About 12 years ago, I came to believe that our ruling elite (if you want to call them that) of BOTH parties were content--even preferred--having an American public that is (our favorite phrase in the military) "fat, dumb and happy." Keep gasoline cheap, jack up the internet bandwidth, keep the fatty foods everywhere and affordable, and let the "smart people," run the country. And I consider Democrats--with their reliance on virtue & technocracy until ~2016, just as complicit in that. Well, this is just one, logical result of that attitude, courtesy of our perpetual disengagement for want of more satisfying things. Because, as is usually the case, the REAL culprit is We The People. We didn't immediately fall for the next Hitler or Stalin, no. We fell for the Rush Limbaughs and Sean Hannitys--but also Rachel Madows--who told us, 24/7 for 2 decades without pause, what and how to think. Meanwhile, while we get our panties in a bunch about boogiemen like the NSA "tapping our phones," we gladly handed over every aspect of our privacy to Google and Facebook (both of whom collect, literally 1000X more personal data than the NSA could if it wanted to)...and now, they influence our lives FAR more than we even realize...and then we shrug our shoulders and don't care anyway. Because they didn't bully us--they appealed to our insatiable lust for comfort, convenience, "stuff." Sure, they kinda LIED to us about how they were doing it, but once the truth came out, we did startlingly little to change it. Because we still don't freaking CARE. And it's all of us. It just so happens that, The Right, being more desperate, got more inventive & outlandish in how they exploited it. This time. But we're still marvelously nonchalant about all of it when it comes to DOING anything. Shrieking does not count as action, despite what people might imagine.
Even now, with all that's happened, we still anticipate the voter turnout (at least for Democrats) will be LESS next year than it was last year. This seems unfathomable, if not criminal. We are the civilian equivalent of the 2021-2 Boston Celtics (it's a Boston/sports thing. Trust me, this isn't a favorable metaphor)--looking to do the minimum possible to make our own lives comfy, surely distracted by emotions and histrionics of the moment, but also still fully prepared to do close-to-nothing about it when it matters, even declare it's hopeless if necessary--just don't make me DO anything. We seem to want to be France in 1939--bent on letting ourselves descend ALL the way into hell before we get serious about it (psychologically, if not also physically--Camus wrote of this, quite eloquently and succinctly). EXACTLY as our leaders want it (well, unless they want an insurrection--then, for sure, they want you). The way out of this is simple: normal people finding the time and priority to freaking VOTE. Vote, dammit--if you don't (I'm not talking about anyone who has unjustly been denied. I'm talking about those who choose not to) vote, I have NO use for you, period. Do that, and I don't care how rigged these GOP fascists make it, they will still lose most of the time--because they can muster 40% of us on their best days. Because we are right (good or bad) because, as Heather noted, MOST OF US DON'T BELIEVE IN THAT CRAP. So, make it right: Vote, vote, VOTE--make it a Top 3 priority in your life...because, yeah, your life MIGHT depend on it--if not now, then surely coming soon. Heather is not exaggerating the stakes.
Robert, your assessment and solution are basically correct with one exception. Your are preaching to the choir. What are you doing to get out the vote? The League of Women Voters perhaps around the country, but certainly in Maine has programs to promote voting and to register voters. One of those programs needs volunteers to go to high schools to speak to students and register them to vote. I joined our local LWV and offered my name as a volunteer to help where they need me. Stacy Abrams is the most well known voter organizer with her hands in a lot of voter registration and get out the vote drives. They need donations and funding. Find them online, send your checks and perhaps volunteer or start your own voter registration and get out the vote organization. Go meet with your local, state and Federal elected representatives in person to register your concerns. If they a re e doing a good job, ask how you can help them advance their work and get reelected. Get some friends together to join you. No doubt waiting until the next election to start working on this is too late. Always has been.
I would like to follow up on my my comment that as a whole, right, left or Independent, Americans are poorly informed about our world. I listened last night to Professor Seth Singleton speak on the topic "Will the West Survive?" on a Zoom program by the Camden Conference, an internationally recognized organization that holds annual conferences in Camden, Maine focused on current topics of significant importance and urgency. This February's conference is "Europe: Challenged at Home and Abroad".
Singleton, has worked a lifetime abroad with agencies all over the world involved in international relations and related education. Singleton gave us a PowerPoint presentation of the course of American, European, Eastern European, Russia/Soviet and China relations from WWII to the present. He pointed out how US management of these relations, particularly with our strong European alliance, have created and preserved security and prosperity for the US and the West compared to human and previous American history where nations were more nationalistic or worked in smaller alliances designed for military aggression. The goals, strategies and personalities of world leaders to preserve peace and improve prosperity were explained in detail that made the importance of informed, internationally curious and capable leaders and diplomats more apparent than anything we hear from our basic education and news media in the US.
Americans need this level of education and information to better understand why our vote, democracy and quality of leadership is so importance.
Singleton described how we have moved from securing our place in the world for the benefit of everyone to giving that place up under Trump, and losing our grip and influence, putting Europe of a track of going their own way without us. And giving China and Russia an open door to fill our vacuum.
He advised that until we resolve our internal authoritarian trend, and form a new international perspective and ideology of human rights, worldwide health and prosperity, and protection of the planet, we will fall back into a weak, isolationist, authoritarian direction that threatens ourselves and the world.
Education for ALL of us is key. Maria Ressa's speech to the Nobel Prize committee is critical to getting factual education out to the citizens who will make the decisions is critical.
It is true that Americans' level of general knowledge is appallingly low, not just because isolationism and authoritarianism, but because science education has been undermined by the more-extreme evangelical Christians, and because the mass media are America-centric and include very little news or information from the world beyond its borders.
To educate our citizens education needs to be more available. Education needs to be free for those who cannot afford it and teachers should be well paid. I remember a smug comment by wealthy businessman it’s probably many of you know. He said something to the effect of “Those who can do, those who can’t, teach”
That comment has been around since I was in college in the 60s. There are many who can do, but can’t teach at all. My first career was as a systems programmer. I was lucky enough to stay home for 12 years with my young children. By the time I was ready to go back to work, several generations of computers had come and gone. I went to grad school to get a teaching license and was a teacher librarian for 22 years. I loved it.
We need to pay teachers better and also show them a lot more respect. When I was in public school in the 50s and 60s, we had high quality teachers, in part because few other careers were open to women. As the career options have opened up to women, the low pay and lack of respect are pushing a lot of women into other career choices.
Correct. Put YOUR effort (and $) behind those working for what you want. LWV is non-partisan and doing a great education and voter registration effort.
Mostly word of mouth. I'm a writer and slowly building my community involvement (it's hard; complicated and I reside overseas) from afar. I donate money to Vote.org, Rock the Vote, Ballot Ready, and BLM. I'm also a member of Writers for Democracy and am involved with non-political organizations that encourage community involvement, adult education and general activism.
While I would expect this forum to have a notably higher-than-average voter turnout, I would never presume it to be "a choir." I'm met a surprising number of individuals (mostly young, but not all) over the past few years who are intelligent, known issues, are concerned as hell...and for some reason also decide "my vote doesn't matter," or "what's the point?" Really--I had such a discussion just three days ago with someone I consider incredibly conscientious and bright.
My 42yo son votes but doesn't think it makes a difference. He's ready to let the country fall apart so that it can be rebuilt. We've had many discussions.....
Does your son understand that his strategy is the very definition of Anarchism? I've been to a couple of lectures by Noam Chomsky at MIT over the years, and the simplest way to understand Anarchism is to tear the government down or let it collapse, but only to the last point where it was working effectively for the people, and then immediately rebuild (with any luck, more intelligently) from that point forward. There's a fine interview online he did with Michael Wilson back in 2013 that you and your son might find interesting: https://chomsky.info/20130528/
I'm not willing to have democracy shredded just now, with so much rampant craziness manifesting all over the place. If everything is allowed to fall apart, who does your son think will take steps to control everything?
When I was living in the US, I stopped voting after the election of Jimmy Carter because I realised that the Electoral College would always make a mockery of the popular vote.
It chafes when a writer claims the all pervasive "we". I take firm exception to lumping all Americans into any collective "we". Down through the decades there has been a whole subset in this Country who did not buy into the oligarch driven lobotomizing of America. We didn't fall down the rabbit hole of consumerism, mindless media and fast food. Some of us were called hippies. Some of us were called college professors. And some of us were called radicals. An awful lot of us have been simply going about our lives in quiet opposition to what has been happening concerning the subversive and corrosive damage to mind, soul and body in the USA promoted by an awful lot of politicians and religious leaders. We have been working for holding the line on our Democracy, voting rights and a just plain nation wide sanity. How do we know this to be true? The fact that there is still a Democratic Party, voting rights and a significant victory in the 2020 taking of the White House, Senate and House; not to mention Georgia, in the middle of a raging pandemic with mail in ballots being threatened at every turn so we stood at the polls in the covid fog. All this sure tells me there is a viable contingent of serious Americans in this Country.
My understanding from his post is that he is calling on the "do not rock the boat" mentality, to which so many democrats signed up to. In many ways our 401K plans and retirement portfolios feed into this system, making it "too big to fail".
With respect. I have a hard time with such statements as "to which so many democrats signed up to..." Also. Subscribing to a retirement plan does not negate an interest in Democracy. That is a false equivalence in my mind. I wonder how many of those Democrats with a decent retirement are now able to donate to Democratic Candidates?
Thanks, Barbara. By "so many democrats.." I am referring to the Democratic Party establishment primarily. Indeed, private retirements plans are not anti-democratic, however the way in which they have been set up and structured is the deal breaker. A majority of main stream retirement plans don't give visibility to the companies one in investing, because they are bundled by portfolios towards a style of investment (conservative to aggressive returns). Through our 401K investments we could well be supporting Koch industries in one of our portfolios; or an oil company that could care less about the environment; or a company who gets into a country's politics to its own advantage, etc, etc. While being an investor does not negate Democracy, unintentionally we can be undermining it by financially supporting companies that act against Democracy.
As I recall, an uncomfortable number of people, during the last campaign, answered the question of who they were voting for with: “As long as my stocks are fat and happy, I’m happy.”
Thank you for your response. For me I try not to get stuck in the minutia. Each person has the opportunity to form the best ethical and compassionate life for themselves that they can put together. I just can't label people who shop Walmart as supporting the Walton family, or the people who buy a particular product as contributing to the burning of the Amazon forest. And on and on.
I focus on the big picture. Voting, registering people to vote, getting people to the polls etc.
Besides if someone is concerned about the ethical nature of their portfolio then why not support the campaigns of Stacy Abrams or Beto O'Rourke?
I have always used "we" since I became the member of a professional firm as a college graduate where I wrote letters representing the firm. My boss explained that even if we have differences of opinion or do our job somewhat differently, when we represent the firm, "we" are all working together, not individually. Ever since, I have recognized that wherever I am, I am part of a greater whole, such as "we the people".
As I developed my own firm, I always used "we" in my letters and communications. As I mentored our staff, it frustrated me that younger staff had a hard time getting out of the habit of using "I" in their communications with clients and consultants, and with our staff. Maybe this is old school. And maybe it isn't clear in stating who is most responsible, but I have found that people and businesses who use "I" are less effective in working with others in sharing responsibilities and credit.
The use of we in the context you state is fine. That is part of a rather dry, professional environment uniting for a common business objective. Mr. McTague was lumping everyone in the same despicable pot. I don't believe the use of the collective we works in that case.
I, for one, appreciate Rachel Maddow's show. She is intelligent, articulate, and has the letters behind her name from some pretty powerful institutions to back up her positions. I recognize that it is the opposite of what is churned out on Faux Noise; it is also not even in the same ballpark as what is being done by Carlson and Hannity. TRMS is not news, nor does it claim to be. It is opinion, and there is a metric s-ton of research that goes into the spots she delivers, and she will self-correct when she has misstated something, or gotten the facts wrong.
I Trust her on the level of Walter C., she has the chops to do it right. Makes me boil when people compare her (also Hayes and ODonnell) to Rupert’s crew of evil.
Yes, I was taken aback by the reference to Maddow. I also appreciate her for all the reasons you have mentioned. There are times when we can't watch because she is so on point about all that is being discussed in this commentary and also during the death star donny years. It's overwhelming.
For several years, I couldn't watch Rachel, because of her delivery. I'd feel my blood pressure rising as she dramatically spelled out her point and finally revealed it. However, I have come around to watching her program every night, as her point is always valuable. Like Heather, she pulls the threads to reveal motivation and intent, and I've never found her logic or information to be faulty.
Rachel's narrative style puts off some people because it's the opposite of how news is typically delivered. Her approach is to tell a story, a story that takes you somewhere, an information-rich journey with a distinct destination. Along the way, she interprets what's happening and why, provides a wealth of context, and looks ahead to what may be next.
Because of Rachel's distinctive style and the amount of time she devotes to her top story, I come away feeling I better understand the news, including what I've already read about or heard earlier in the day.
I feel the same way, but after the 2016 "election," I was in such a swivvet, I didn't want to be led down a path, unless it was one that ended with TFG's execution. Rachel's style is unique in the industry, and it took some time before I could appreciate her approach. I now love the story in her narrative, and her interpretation is always spot-on.
Can’t just preach to the choir here (though I disagree with your assessments). Gotta get off your backside, fat, happy, dumb or otherwise, and work to get out the vote. So I’ll call the question. What are YOU doing to get out the vote? Me? Volunteering with my state representative’s reelection campaign, including being trained to do door to door. In voting season- something I am not at all comfortable doing but understand how important that will be in 2022. Also, sending postcards to voters. Hundreds of them. At my own expense. Then, last October, I invited 16 neighbors to come dit on my deck, have a drink and some appetizers, and reviews short bios of the 13 candidates for our local school board. Four Republicans in the group, by the way. Gratefully, my top three candidates won. But more important I think, was that all of us voted. The takeover of our local school board by Trump style R’s was thwarted.
Your assessment of the media environment contains some difficult truths but this group already understands much of that. Besides, nothing that anyone here can do about that except continue to search for non mainstream sources that tell the truth. The reality that the mainstream media is broken cannot be fixed in time for the 2022 election.
Cynicism is luxury I can’t afford. It is my strongest opinion that none of us can. Action is my solution to my deep fear that we will lose this democracy. I ask you to join me and take action.
You are also someone who mushes together journalism from a strong practitioner of it, such as Rachel Maddow, with those of far-right propagandists, such as Carlson and Hannity. When I have time, hopefully in the near future, I will this substantiate my argument. Have you read Rachel Maddow's books and reviewed the transcripts of her programs with those on Fox News? Will you factually argue your position?
Fern, First of all, I appreciate your response. Second, I would agree with you on substance (for the most part), particularly Madow--and I personally have no issue with her in the grand scheme of things. However, that is not really germane to my argument. My point is one of intent, positioning by the media itself and then, of course, the response by viewers. Of course Madow is more journalistic, intellectual and factual in her work in programing--because at least a significant portion of her intended audience is among the better educated demographic in America. But it doesn't change the fact that she is STILL 1) a pundit and 2) the point of her program, more than anything, is to gain a following that, whether we want to admit it or not, is still HIGHLY based on emotion, charging/solidifying opinion, "fighting the other" and so on. That's not all of it, but it's the biggest part. She is largely in what I call the "viewer satisfaction," category--or as that ersatz philosopher Ron Burgundy once said, "We gotta stop giving people the news they need, and give them the news they WANT." She applies there too--she just does it with more journalistic integrity. Her entire program was created as an alternative/answer, for left-minded people after the onset of Rush and the Fox Fools. I don't blame MSNBC, her, or followers of her program for feeling that way either. But, it is what it is.
And let me be clear--yes, I intentionally couched most of what I wrote as "we." I refuse to accept people saying things like "not my president." That's bull (I said it three years ago to friends of mine who were actual supporters of Hillary Clinton. I said it 25 years ago to colleagues who took down President Clinton's picture from the chain of command photos in Army offices). Moreover, I will say what too many don't want to hear or acknowledge: we got Donald Trump because we--as a whole nation--deserved it. And until we, as a whole people, decide to DESERVE better, we will continue to get crap. That includes me--I'm no less to blame--and yes, I'm working to DESERVE better.
I'm quite tired of "us and them" and hearing every reason in the world why it's someone else's fault for everything. No, it's ALL of our faults. Sure, there are a few satanic, panicked stallions out there who will run right over the cliff no matter what we do--I won't stop them. And some who will oppose EVERY good faith effort to make things better--they, I will oppose with all of my means. I pity those people though, not hate...and I pity that if they try to overthrow our country again, I'll gladly go back on active duty and put them down like a pestilence. It should NEVER have to come to that, but if it does no, I'll fight it till my dying breath.
But I will also spend the rest of my life going back and thinking hard about how we ALL went wrong and let it get this way. How we ignored places like the rust belt and Appalachia to the point that a state that voted predominantly Dem for decades (West Virginia) became one of hardest hearts of Trump territory--things like THAT should make us all pause. It bothers me a lot, and I'll be damned if I'm going to blame it all on Fox Media, Steve O'Bannon and Donald Trump (Oh, they all played a huge role, and I can't wait to see most of them in jail, but they're just part of way bigger problem).
This is a busy day for me, so I have no time today to provide you with a proper response. Do you have a name for your beliefs? I am asking a couple questions, so I might identify whether your lecture like response to me is connected to any organization or following. Otherwise, I will recognize that you are expressing your personal beliefs independent of any affiliation. You will hear from me in a day or two. Thank you for your response and patience.
Voting is the citizens’ right and responsibility in a democracy. The turnouts have been atrocious for a long time and need to be emphasized, especially because there will be important primaries this year. Secretary of State offices keep those figures. Look up your state!
Given that Republicans already are working on a plan to replace anyone who has anything to do with elections at ALL levels of government, including Secretaries of State, w/ Trumpers, that may well tip the scales.
Georgia has removed our Secretary of State from overseeing elections, probably because Brad Raffensperger refused to cave in to Trump's request to "find the votes" to make him the victor. Raffensperger's motivation in bucking TFG were questionable, but he did the right thing at the time. Now, county election boards in liberal areas are being replaced so that partisan legislators can nullify the votes and declare the candidates of their choice winners.
Good point. Here in my blue state we vote for the electors. I don’t know if it’s like that in every state, especially now with rampant repub cheating, but it takes some thought and research. Most just skip it I bet.
I think that you are wrong to throw the ‘Rachel Maddows’ in the same lot with the ‘Hannitys and Limbaughs’, within the context of current discussion. As viewers, we are challenged to form our own opinions from what we hear or read or watch. Those on the media right are espousing opinions based on unsubstantiated claims or outright nonsense, whereas those on the media left are most often taking off from a platform of knowns. I am in agreement on your comments about voting. In defense of what to some seems indefensible, i.e. the lack of engagement on the part of voters…I find it to be an arguable point that people inherently want to trust. When that trust is eroded or broken, many become disillusioned, some fully disengage. The challenge is to find a way to bring people back to caring.
It boils down to something much simpler: Greed. “Citizens United” —-the money from the Billionaires Gang—enticed both parties. Dems just didn’t realize that it was stacked against them by its mastermind, Charles Koch. The “Libertarian” “Tea Party” became the worm Koch used to co-opt the RNC.
I don’t often hear a Democrat calling out Rachel Maddow, but I have always felt that the spoon-feeding of partisan opinion, if it is to exist at all, should stay with the right-wing propaganda machine and not be mimicked by the left. I’ve heard all the rationale about how we need to counter Faux news, but it diminishes us to resort to such “journalism.”
(spoonfeeding) "should stay with the right-wing propaganda machine and not be mimicked by the left"
I might have agreed in 1999. But, now, seeing how truly, spectacularly successful Fox + AM radio + direct TV is at turning its viewers into drones for Trump, a fascist?
I think that whomever controls the levers of the propaganda machine wins. That is one reason I think that the probability of the US becoming Fascist is greater than 0.5.
The "left" has been asleep at the wheel while the right has taken over ever lever of propaganda from AM radio, TV, direct TV, you name it. I drove from PA to western NY listening to AM radio and EVERY town has an AM propaganda station saying that Trump won the election all day every day.
The left will lose if they/we don't get with the program.
But, honestly, it may be, in fact likely is, too late.
Goebbels completely understood this:
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."
If you dig deep into what Peter McIndoe started, you may see that he is simply "fighting lunacy with lunacy". The next time someone tries to tell you a conspiracy about vaccines or that masks don't work or that the virus isn't really that bad...just tell them that "Birds Aren't Real." An alternate approach could be: "Do you have a few minutes to hear about the Flying Spaghetti Monster?"
You're right, Kathy. Putting Maddow, with a Doctorate of Philosophy in Politics from Oxford with Hannity, a college drop out carnival barker is ludicrous!
I certainly don’t intend to question Maddow’s credentials, but I find her delivery, her outrage, her indignance, all serve to stoke the polarization we’re experiencing among our citizens. Just because the right-wing people do this does that make it advisable? Do we need angry, indignant editorializing on the left? I guess lots of people must think so because she’s so popular, but I prefer my news delivered in a more dispassionate fashion.
We must factor in how utterly outrageous the stories there for the telling have been these past years. To me, it has been the equivalent of the Nixon Watergate break-in’s repeated on a daily basis. The sheer volume and audacity of the daily assault on democracy has worked against any hope of academic delivery. TRMS tells the daily democracy horror stories. Yes it is hard not to sound or feel impassioned about that which may be at risk. I stand by her show even as I admit that I am moved by her indignation. However, in my mind, she will never be the opposite side of the same coin as Tucker, etc. Perhaps sometimes the truth requires passion.
Perhaps we do need to be angry and indignant. I am angry and indignant! Although I myself wouldn’t characterize Maddow like that. I see her as sharp as a tack, great research, and a good interviewer. However, I don’t watch very often. I prefer to read my news.
Karen, you're right about delivery, I think. I'm not a fan of vein popping outrage from media personalities either. I am not a huge fan of commentary so I don't spend much time consuming it. I prefer news.
Well, I'm actually an independent voter, who has voted (almost--excepting Charlie Baker) straight Dem for the last two elections. I have an old (and brilliant) high school friend who works in data analysis for Dem pollsters. A year ago, he issued a stark warning: that the language/rhetoric he was seeing on the Far Left was much the same as what/where the Far Right had been using only four years earlier--and trending worse. A movement's virtues are also its vices (not my line). I am politically much like Camus:"no one's enemy," but I AM the enemy of oppression, unjustified violence and intentional injustice; and therefore, necessarily, to those who makes themselves slave to those horrors. David Brooks, whom I still admire, wrote very pointedly about the fall of the GOP in the Atlantic this week; Heather has written in the past about those moderate Democrats who sided with the North in days before the civil war--anyone who is NOT openly against us, is FOR us--that should be our thinking. Values and some sort of moral/ethical compass guide my comments more than politics.
Both-side-ism and protestations of independence can seem like eminently reasonable positions, but when the moral battle lines between those who would destroy democracy and those who seek to save it are as clearly drawn as they are today, such sentiments ring very hollow indeed.
Please be specific, which people and or groups was your 'brilliant' high school friend in data analysis for Democratic pollster referring to? Which firm does he work for? What is the language/rhetoric from far-right and far-left was he referring to. When strong accusations such as yours are put forward, it makes sense to look at the source/evidence from which it comes. Thank you.
Thank you, Fern. It is just as inaccurate to equate Liz Cheney and Lauren Boebert (two Republicans) as it is to equate Rachel Maddow and Joe Manchin (two Democrats). People on the ideological far ends of political positions are not in the same mind-set as those who are willing to put forward cogent arguments supported by responsible data.
Thank you, Melinda. I don't know that Maddow is a member of any party. I believe that she has stated that she has no affiliation with any political party.
One more point for now, while you haven't spelled out your claim, are you comparing publicly dispensed reports of equal strong or weak organizations. A small, fringe group would not be comparable to Fox News and the stream of propaganda from Facebook/Meta.
Must be the “left” that Bill Maher skewers regularly. They seem to be elite celeb types. I know of no such creature. This old, retired counselor noticed long ago that Dems seem to follow the Golden rule more than republicans. That and Samuel Gompers guided me.
I find David Brooks to be a sophisticated pundit, borderline elitist. His demeanor and intelligence can suck you in, but at days end leaves me with an empty feeling. But then, I am not one to view the NYT or the Atlantic as ‘prints of record’
I used to like David Brooks but after I heard him say that there should not be accountability for the Jan 6 insurrectionists and that I would need to get along with Josh Hawley, I changed my mind.
It was on this very issue that Obama “lost” me. After campaigning that he would preserve our privacy, he immediately caved after being elected because “it seemed to have national security benefits”. Total BS.
I'll take your analysis one step further back. The die was cast when education at all levels was sacrificed to budget cutters. We have raised a generation of people who are fundamentally ignorant of how governments work and what is required of citizens. The result? A population who thinks their obligations start and end in the 24 hours of election day. A population that is willing to turn over the hard work of understanding policy and forming an opinion to whoever yells the loudest. Why think? There's someone who's willing to do that for you, at the small price of your freedom. Besides, The Apprentice is on tonight.
In the short run, we have to pass election reform so our government is even slightly representative of popular opinion. In the long run, we have to reform education and create a country of citizens instead of sheep.
Do you remember when Civics was taught in high school? I do. I graduated from high school in1962, back when we still had a democracy. When I was in high school, one needed 70 to pass a course and 93 to score an A. Not long after those years in the 60s, many schools lowered scores necessary to pass, e.g., 60 or 65 could let you slide through high school, and to get an A, one only would need to score a 90. "Make it easy on these kids. Life it tough enough to force them to pass with higher standards," so-called educators and school boards would cry. Is it any wonder why this country seems to be going to Hell?
This thinking is exactly what made me sign up to send postcards and letters through those grass movement channels. Years ago, I got recruited to work on a school referendum, having been identified as one of the "movers and shakers" among the school parents. (I am still amazed at this as I didn't say much, I'd just SHOW UP to stuff) It was educational for me to watch how the school board members strategized based on data of voters. Think your local schoolboard is just now becoming political? Think again. At least for that, they were trying to save programs in our school.
I don't wish to be pushed out of my comfort zone again, I can hear readers gnashing their teeth, but I don't like making calls for elections, didn't like standing in the cold outside polling places, etc. What I CAN do, from the comfort of my home, is write those letters and postcards. Perhaps I am idealistic, but I do like to think that they make a difference. I would suggest that anyone who is able to do that much, yeah, even if it is only 10 postcards, sign up now to do it. I don't have the information handy on where/how to sign up, but perhaps one of Heather's "movers and shakers" commenters will do so.
A college writing text that covers writing for argument or persuasion can help you develop your writing skills, e.g. "Writing Worth Reading: The Critical Process" by Packer & Timpane, or "From Inquiry to Argument" by Linda McMeniman. Finding or starting a writing group that will critique your work in a supportive and constructive manner is the best way I've found, both as a writer and as a teacher, to improve the work.
I hope you read the comments here, Robert. You may find the differences some of us have with you and the information offered a means to greater understanding.
Robert, putting Rachel Maddow in the same sentence as Limbaugh and Hannity is disconcerting to me. When you say that she tells us what to think, I feel that you are pain wrong. I listened to her when she was on Air America. I found her to be an authority, but I like to feel that I can think for myself. I respect those like Heather, John Meacham, Michael Beshloff, and other scholars who present fact. It does not mean that I agree with everything they say. You shared your feeling, but did some people agree. So, in a way, you are telling us to believe you. Rachel does not tell us that we have to accept everything she presents. She has a large staff who go out and research the facts she presents. I have appreciated the work that she does and feel that it is disingenuous to lump her in a despicable group. You are quite free to disagree with her statements, but please do not tell me that she controls my think.
As was pointed out on MSNBC tonight, the January 6 Committee is now focused on Trump as a felon for obstructing the operation of Congress in its constitutional responsibilities. Liz Cheney used the exact words from the statute defining the crime in stating what they are now looking at Trump and his fellow conspirators in and out of Congress for committing.
For "obstruction of official proceedings", see 18 USC Sections1505 & 1512(c). Note, on the DOJ's "Capitol Breach Investigation Resource Page" , "[I]n the first 300 days afterJanuary 6, 265 defendants have been already charged by Garland's DOJ Team with "corruptly obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding.".
In the grand scheme of things, most of those people are pawns. Several of the knights and bishops, however, have been charged with felonies. It's the king, the queen and the rooks they're looking at for the big things.
United States Representative Liz Cheney is Wyoming's lone member of Congress in the U.S. House of Representatives.
An outstanding characteristic about the strength of her political spine as a Republican.
Thank GOD for her selfless devotion and vigorous support for America’s democracy.
Her bravery against republican death threats has not shaken her patriotic oath of office promises.
She is America’s hero and now the actual insurmountable wall against her party's treasonous attempted power grab to destroy America’s democracy.
All America must do all that is necessary to perpetuate Liz Chaney’s successful U. S. House of Representatives membership against trump's anti-American minions who seek to destroy her at all costs!
I wish I could completely agree with this, because it would mean things aren't as dark as they appear to be. But this week, "our hero" voted against the full faith and credit of the United States, of the United States keeping its word on the most basic of things, that we're not deadbeats, when she voted against raising the debt ceiling, leaving only Adam Kinzinger as the one real patriot in that party.
Well, she is a republican and her daddy is dick cheney and republicans continue their death threats against her almost daily... and she is the champion of our American Democracy surviving the 2022 & 2024 attacks by republicans, Eh!?
Dear Professor Cox Richardson, a slight correction, from the NYTimes: " Judge McFadden, however, stayed his ruling for 10 days to give Mr. Trump time to file an appeal, which he is very likely to do."
I continue to be shocked and disgusted as the GOP traitors' words from January 6th leak out like pus from a festering political wound to our nation.
Today I phoned Liz Cheney's office in Cheyenne, and asked her staffer to thank her for her bravery in standing up to the Trumplican GOP, her patriotism, and her work on the January 6th Commission. To write that I never thought I would be this grateful to a member of the Cheney family would be an understatement.
Bless you, and bless your work. Thank you from the bottom of my lifelong Democratic heart.
Caroline Kenner, I am grateful for Cheney's integrity and hard work on the Commission. But she still votes with the republicans, against both infrastructure bills, raising the debt ceiling and voting rights legislation. On these and other critical issues she is no different that the rest of the republicans. I suspect she is making a political bet that tfg's supporters with lose and anti-t**** republicans will eventually control the party.
Very possibly, and we will have to face that possibility when it materializes.
Considering that many politicians among the hard right-wing extremists currently posing as Republicans base their comments news-cycle by news-cycle, Liz Cheney certainly stands out as a person of conscience. Is she playing a longer game than most of them? Maybe.
Liz Cheney is an ally now. She is not a friend. Her interest in upholding her oath to protect and defend the Constitution against her own party's lawlessness and oath-breaking is admirable, whatever the future holds.
If this were 1973, the entire nation would be glued to their televisions watching the hearings. Now, though, half the country allows their anointed gatekeepers - Fox, OANN, Newsmax - to decide whether they should even be exposed to the news that key people in at least two of the three branches of their government, including the President, actively conspired to keep power in the face of an election that went against them.
An effective Democratic National Committee would be collecting all this news and turning it into devastating ads for the 2022 elections. It is imperative that we get as many people as possible to clearly state - in the voting booth - that the people's voice is important in this country, and to leave no doubt about where the majority sits.
The Republicans, of course, are plowing ahead with their strategy, still conspiring to make sure their efforts succeed next time. We can only hope that the Senate finds a way to pass voting rights legislation before the 2022 election, or we won't have to worry about representative government in this country again in our lifetimes.
I agree with you. This morning, while writing in my journal that has quotes, I read this one attributed to Plato. I think it is appropriate to what Dr. Richardson and you have written today: "We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light."
If you're keeping company with Plato, you have probably heard too of Diogenes of Sinope, a self-described principled Cynic, who is said to have gone about in public in the light of the noon-day sun holding a lantern up to people's faces saying he was looking for an honest man. ("Man" in this case may be considered binary, or gender neutral, but there is no verifiable information that he bothered women and men equally.). A modern Diogenes out and about today would want first to grab people's cell phones and pitch them in a well before giving them an "enlightenment facial."
Mobiguy As someone who was glued to the Erwin Senate Watergate hearings (and was on the Nixon White House Enemies List) I feel that the Democrats and DOJ are playing paint ball against Republicans with A-15s and Glocks. Cheers when one of the baddies get splatted with paint, while the baddies keep hitting with real bullets. Subverting the Constitution and initiating a Capitol Building insurrection in which people got killed and over 140 law enforcement officers got wounded are criminal offenses. Trump and his sycophants keep spewing their false bile with little more that tut tuts in some media and from Liz Cheney and a few others.
With voting rights been diminished in over a dozen Republican states and the Stench Court poised to reassess the Constitution, it is past time for Democratic hardball. GET BBB AND JOHN LEWIS VOTING BILL PASSED! HIGHLIGHT THAT THE REPUBLICANS ARE LOCK STEP AGAINST THE LEGISLATIVE BENEFITS THAT ARE FLOWING TO INDIVIDUALS AND ALL STATES! FOCUS STACCATO MESSAGE THAT THE big lie/1/6 WERE/ARE ILLEGAL ASSAULTS ON AMERICAN DEMOCRACY.
The Dems must switch from paint ball to hard ball. Our country’s future depends on it. President Biden can have IT’S MORNING AGAIN IN AMERICA by mid-late 2022. But this depends on a concerted effort to turn the psyche of many Americans from gloomy to positive. HIT ‘EM HIGH, HIT ‘EM LOW, COME ON GAME, LET’S GO.
I agree completely- the democrats have been busy assembling a case against Trump for at least two years that he has ignored with impunity even though the evidence is air tight. Meanwhile Trump thunders his transparent lies to stoke up his followers to great effect and he is enabled by Fox News and his loyal followers in governor's offices throughout the country. It's an uneven contest and I keep hoping that the democrats are going to come up with something that will reach people in the gut and in the heart.
Richard I grew up in an advertising family (father and grandfather). I would go to the Ward Wheelock Company on some Saturdays from the age of 9. The focus was on identifying a message, simplifying it, and displaying it incessantly. [As a MIT Sloan Fellow I learned how quickly a message is forgotten without repetition.] Campbell Soup: “A can on your shelf is like a part-time cook in your kitchen.’ [At one time Campbell’s sought 88% of all the canned soup in America.] Whitman’s: “A woman never forgets a man who remembers.” Whitman’s sales soared during Christmas and Easter.
From political campaigns I remember Reagan’s “It’s morning again in America,’ which propelled him to a massive re-election. In 1992 James Camille’s “It’s the economy, stupid” was extremely effective in Clinton’s campaign against President Bush [Actually the economy was beginning to turn around, but that fact was overwhelmed by the stupid slogan.]
We are not dealing with a sophisticated American public. Even I am confused by what has been legislated and who is receiving what. I would look for brief slogans that could transform the complex into a visceral message. Addressing low-and-middle-income persons: how did the cash grants specifically affect them? What’s the personal impact of child care funding for individual families? The vaccination and masking success of the Biden administration despite the anti-vax/anti-mask opposition by so many Republicans, including
Governors.
BE VISCERAL, BE BRIEF, AND BE REPETITIVE. (Also tell Manchin to s++t or get off the pot)
I just contacted my Congressman, Tom Malinowski, who has been a marvelous representative since 2019. He is targeted by the Republicans in a tough re-election against Thomas Kean, Jr, who would be nothing were he not the son of Governor Tom Kean. I offered to work with Malinowski’s folks in developing brief, visceral ads that highlight what he and President Biden are accomplishing and ‘low light’ the Republican naysayers.
Excellent, Keith. I'm sure you remember these lyrics that Clinton use "Don't stop thinking about tomorrow." The assault rifles the right wing Republicans are using to get their way far overpower the Democrat's softball attempts to counter them. It's past time for the Dem's to get real and use more powerful weapons than the GOP's are using. Real assault rifles are made to do one thing, and that is to kill humans. If the GOP weapons are killing the things the Democrats want, then they are going to win. We do not want a dictator in power, and if there is really only one party, we will no longer have a democracy.
Jeri I vividly recall a car ride with my dad when I was 19 or 20. He wanted me, after college, to go into the family advertising business. I my response was something like “Dad, why would I want to spend a career in advertising, when at the end all that I had accomplished was selling more soap?” The rest of the car ride was extremely chilly. Still, with political advertising, the least worst alternative is to Trump the Republican ads with truth and facts in a visceral manner that a third-grader could understand. KEEP IT SIMPLE AND STACCATO.
Thank you Keith. Your talents are what is necessary in the next two election cycles. The level of tone deafness on the left is astounding. "Defund the police" overstates the position, turns off the mainstream, and delegitimizes the lived experience of people in high-crime communities who most need government services and who should be the Democrats' natural constituency. We don't play paintball, we hand our paintball guns over to the Republicans and paint targets on our chests. And we do it over and over.
As a freshman in college, I went to the semester's first meeting of Students for a Democratic Society, one of the most visible college radical movements of the day. The previous spring the Vietnam protests had occupied the ROTC and college administration buildings, and there was tremendous momentum around the progressive movement. The meeting was held in the largest lecture hall on campus and the room was filled. After an hour of polemic lecturing by the five core members of the group, everyone went home. The next meeting, held the following week, was attended by the five core members and me - and I came out of curiosity to see how many freshmen they had driven away. The group visited a picket line at a local Ford plant to show solidarity. They were kicked out. I feel like these are the people who run the Democratic party today.
Please, please find a way to convince the people in charge that they need to understand their audience before they ever open their mouths.
I’ll repeat. “I used to rig card games for a living. I’d watch people sit down and lose everything, again and again. But they didn’t lose because they ‘played by the rules,’ and we didn’t. They lost because it wasn’t a game. It just looked like one. Democrats think it’s a game.” Derek Delgaudio, Twitter. Joe B still thinks it’s politics as usual, it hasn’t been since Reagan/Murdoch took over
All concerned, (e.g. all Americans terrified of America's democracy's imminent demise), Democrats NOW must get off their ass and aggressively canvas/effectively & repeatedly inform their neighbors of the issues and the urgency of voting in EVERY election. Cleanse Congress of all insurrectionists/traitor republicans + Joe Manchin!
Yes, Brian Klaas, the author of "Corruptible: Who Gets Power And How it Changes Us," said on the radio today that these folks who are watching only OAN etc. probably don't even know about these texts. And lord knows what else.
Barbara I don’t know if the hearings are on TV since I haven’t watched TV news for months. My understanding is that they are private but should be televised in several months. I recall a clip of Liz Cheney that I saw attached to a NYT article several days ago. I believe that was from a press conference.
And boo and hiss to the Republicans in the House who voted NOT to hold Meadows in contempt! I’m disgusted by them. It makes my blood boil that they are complicit in Trump’s crimes.
I have imagined a traveling photo exhibit of four by six foot, before and after photos of the 150 injured Capitol police officers. But there is no longer a national news source that everyone watches. So, while we would all see the news about the exhibit, the Fox Fiction watchers would hear lies about it or not hear about it at all.
We cannot require dissemination of news but we can regulate through the FCC dissemination of mis- or dis-information without violating the first amendment protections on free speech. No one may yell “fire” in a crowded theater, incite a riot, or deliberately cause a dangerous riot. We have SCOTUS decisions supporting this.
Per usual, I have enjoyed my morning coffee and read both this letter and the comments (numbering, at this moment, 141 in the 7 hours since this was posted). We are indeed living through a time that is as perilous to our unified country as the period leading up to the Civil War. What really sticks in my mind this morning is this, from the Letter:
"That is, a Republican member of Congress wanted Republican-dominated state legislatures not even to wait to see who had won the election—none of those states had been called by November 4—but simply to ignore the will of the voters, choose their own electors, and hope that the Supreme Court would hand the election to Trump as he had been saying for weeks it would." Followed by this: "Our democracy is at stake. In the Declaration of Independence, this nation’s Founders declared it “self-evident” that governments are legitimate only if those they govern consent to them. If lawmakers take it upon themselves to ignore the will of the voters and themselves decide who will hold power, we will have lost the ability to consent to our government. And that government will be far more extremist than polls suggest the vast majority of us want."
A sitting member of Congress, elected to that body, advocating overthrow of a lawful election. That cannot go unadjudicated.
"'a few Republican lawmakers pause about continuing to shore up those who set out to undermine democracy, if not for their own principles, then for the reality that this will not play well during televised hearings next year. 'We are all watching what is unfolding on the House side,' Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said today, 'and it will be interesting to reveal all of the participants that were involved.'"
Give pause? How can there be any hesitation to bring them to justice? It was on live TV, the documentation of their conspiracy is in hand.
And Senators are watching the House Representatives as if they too did not know. McConnell knew of this. He had to know. This 'and it will be interesting to reveal all of the participants that were involved' is laughable.
People seem to forget, having knowledge of a crime and doing nothing to prevent it from occurring is the same as participating in the crime.
Those complicit republican conspirators, by their unwillingness to right the wrongs that are slowly but surely extinguishing the brightly burning flames of American Democracy.
Out with that putrid trash NOW!
Sorry folks!
I can not, and will not, accept the republican threat against America that I have loved for the last 76 years.
McConnell is hoping there was one activist from the left somewhere in the crowd and will then pretend this one person balances out the hundreds who stormed the Capitol and those who encouraged them. The rhetoric from the south continues to be that the rest of the country is out to destroy it, and if the south doesn’t destroy half its population it will be destroyed itself. I wonder if there shouldn’t be a new southern strategy that simply ignores the south, at least the Deep South, a strategy that breaks the alliance between the south and the west. Win the west, and you don’t need the south, her heels dug in, determined to be static?
Please work hard to convince your neighbors to vote against those who seek to destroy American democracy. Do all you can to convincingly assure yourself they know and believe in the Truth...PLEASE. Thank you!
And one that can't spell. Does that narrow the field? None of those people whose names are out there should hold any public office. It is going to get interesting very quickly. In the meantime, pass the voting rights acts.
That struck me too. The names that immediately came to mind were Jordan and Boebert. But I'm sure there are plenty of other dim bulbs who could have written that message!
I continue to advocate for invoking Section 3 of the 14th amendment that would result in removal from office and prevent them from serving in any federal, state, or local elected office at any time in the future anyone who was directly involved in the planning, promotion, or execution of the January 6th Capitol riots. This should apply to anyone regardless of the office they held at the time of the riot or currently, including the former President.
I have written about this to every member of the January 6th Select Committee, all of my Congressional representatives and senators, AG Merrick Garland, and President Biden. I will continue pressing this request until we begin to hold those responsible for Jan 6 actions accountable.
All of those I communicate with are now regular pen pals and receive letters on this frequently. I also encourage others, many others, to make the same requests, cordially but firmly.
Many years ago I decided to spend some time and a few dollars on a therapist to help me deal with frustrations I was experiencing from seeing too many challenges on which I seemed unable to make a real difference despite working what I felt was quite hard on them. That therapist provided me with some of the best advice I ever received. The therapist suggested that I needed to realize that I had spread myself too thin over too many challenges and I needed to realize I could not solve all of the world's problems. Instead, she suggested I find one issue, one thing I truly cared deeply and passionately about where my own skills and resources might make a difference. Then I should go find several other people who also cared deeply and passionately about that same challenge.
The therapist reminded me of the importance of strength in numbers and the value of diversity of the skills of people required to address those challenges effectively. The therapist also suggested that when we found ourselves having an impact and making a difference in the lives of people we were trying to help, to take the time to celebrate those accomplishments and victories, no matter how small. She said, take joy from those victories and celebrations, and do not worry you cannot solve every problem.
The therapist also said that as you find you have the time, skills, resources, and passion to add another challenge to that first one you can take on an additional challenge in the same way. However, be careful not to spread yourself so thin you become ineffective in either of those two. Then a third challenge, then ...
Well, that advice has changed my life. I try to focus on one thing at a time until I can make a difference there and find a group of people I enjoy working with and who care passionately and deeply about that same challenge. When we can make real differences in the lives of some people and we get something started that has real momentum and growth, I can leave that challenge in the hands of those folks and begin to think about the next challenge I would like to tackle.
I have been fortunate enough to find the world is filled with caring, skilled, kind, and wonderful people who care about many of the same things I care about. Working with them has been so rewarding and we have made a real difference in some lives. Enough? Well, enough to allow for a few of those celebrations my former therapist suggested I enjoy with my friends.
I hope to spend the remainder of my life continuing to make small differences and enjoy small celebrations working on challenges I think are important to address. And you know, if more people would think about taking a similar approach, it would be amazing how many differences and celebrations we might see. Perhaps even creating a truly celebratory culture as we enjoy the changes we might see.
So, why am I making such an effort you ask? Well, I am hoping to see another one of those celebrations in the future. If not, at least I will have met more people who care about the same challenges I do and that is a good thing.
I view reading LFAA and having my coffee as sitting with friends discussing the issues of the day. This is Community to me. And, for what it’s worth, the migraine knocking at the door dissuaded me from adding a bit of Jameson’s to my coffee this morning.
"We are all watching what is unfolding on the House side,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said today, “and it will be interesting to reveal all of the participants that were involved."
Typical McConnell. He relishes being rid of Trump et al, but refuses to lift a finger - leaving Democrats to do the heavy lifting, while hurling brickbats at them.
Before Trump's mob sacked the Capitol to impose their will, McConnell had shredded the Constitution to impose his. Sins of Omission and Sins of Commission.
Growing up in the shadow of the Holocaust and coming of age in the activism of the 1960s, I feel that I've spent a lifetime protesting the too easy identifications of various oppressions with Nazism. But McConnell calls to mind Hannah Arendt's notes on Eichmann: Except for an extraordinary diligence in looking out for his personal advancement, he had no motives at all… He merely, to put the matter colloquially, never realized what he was doing… It was sheer thoughtlessness—something by no means identical with stupidity—that predisposed him to become one of the greatest criminals of that period.
Deliberate and with aforethought as to "the diligence in looking out for his personal advancement" and "sheer thoughtlessness" as to what he is doing.
I think, Arendt means thoughtless of the context of one's actions and thoughtless to the consequences of one's actions, beyond one's personal advancement.
I think, regarding McConnell, in policy to treat all life and the entire planet as resources to be exploited for personal profit. And in politics to treat all procedures and protocols as the means to personal power. In short, giving no thought to the harmful impact of his actions on our most vulnerable neighbors, our fragile planet, and on the insecure rule of law.
"The most striking difference between ancient and modern sophists is that the ancients were satisfied with a passing victory of the argument at the expense of truth, whereas the moderns want a more lasting victory at the expense of reality"
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of
The outstanding negative quality of the totalitarian elite is that it never stops to think about the world as it really is and never compares the lies with reality.
Your citing or quoting the sages of the ages, may or may not support your opinion. It stretchers far beyond my understand that Mitchell, and the 'donors'/power brokers for whom he serves are unaware of consequences of their dictates to the degree they can be known in advance. However harmful at times or most of the time, the line is drawn to serve their interests. This is not to say that all of them care nothing for the human good, sometimes adjustments are made.
The point is, that such as McConnell are thoughtless of the relatively predictable harm, we can reasonably assume they are well aware of. They are care/less of all but their own interests, and even blinkered as to those, in the long run.
Thank you for a bit more clarity. While our argument narrows, painting all of them automatons as you have, doesn't settle the matter. I reach as far as agreeing that what you have expressed is true of the vast majority.
I am not painting anyone as an 'automaton'. The point is that such as McConnell, and Eichmann, have 'agency' and are not stupid. They have decided to act for their own advancement, without any thought to the harmful impact of their decisions/actions.
Thank you lin for drawing attention to Hannah Arendt’s “Origins of Totalitarianism”. Her structured matter of fact analysis of the motivation of those who would control us and how we let them is an important message for us. Together with Timothy Snyder’s “20 Lessons …” those two books would constitute an undergraduate curriculum in “Motivations of Despots and How to Control Them”.
Thank you lin for revealing some of your own background. To have a personal context makes frequent posters point of view more understandable and readable.
Seeking further clarification here is it “lin”. Small L or “lin” double i?
Thank You for giving me the opportunity to mention Ken Krimstein's 'The Three Escapes' of Hannah Arendt' a worthy companion to Art Spiegelman's 'Maus.' And I do not say that lightly. Krimstein depicts not only a biography, but also a social and intellectual history. Take *that* Martin Heidigger! (You Nazi you.)
I hold all 208 Repugs who voted against holding Meadows "in contempt of Congress" guilty of treason for their support of the insurrection and its aiders and abettors -- that includes all senators who, thus far, have NOT proclaimed their outrage against apostate Meadows and his ilk!
Without Heather and all of you, I would be an island of one. You and my arts groups here in Spain are the only reason I am on FB anymore. When I posted these truths, no one replies. It is as though those who were all ¨Blue Wave¨ only want recipes and photos of kittens. This group is my anchor with sanity.
As someone who uses FB quite a bit as both a way to stay in touch with friends or to promote the concert events of the musical groups that I belong to, I have taken my own advice around "stagger breathing" and stepped back from engaging in political commentary. The people on my friends list know my stances and about my belief system. I had to stop engaging with the Republiqans and Cult 45 members because they were getting rent free space in my head that was causing me a lot of discontent and discomfort. I have threads show up on my "Memories" page of conversations that number into the 100-120 comment range regarding various issues. In every single one of these, the stances of the Republiqans reflect no utilization of anything other than lies, Faux talking points, and no indication that they can think critically. Often showing up are the names of people that have both unfriended and blocked me (including, recently, one who made a post on my page about how juvenile that was; he subsequently both blocked and unfriended me.)
I still am passionate about the things I believe in; I just refuse to engage with idiots whose only reply to a rebuttal of their lie with evidence to the contrary is a well thought out and reasoned "Nu-uh". The few times that I have engaged on one guy's page when he "invites" opposing views (he's a former local newscaster who has jumped the shark into the deep end and no longer makes any sense at all; he sold his farm and is moving to Montana) I will occasionally get a "thumbs up" or even a comment, but most of the comments are downright mean, nasty, ill-informed, and poorly written.
"Staggering breathing", my musical friends tell me, is very important to the success of a choral performance. We each need to stop and take a breath, alternating, when this civil war stress is too much, so our song of democracy continues, strong and powerfully.
Dr Heather Cox Richardson averages over 50K likes per day on Facebook and I've seen days over 100k. December 13th letter has 51k likes, 3k+ comments, & over 18k shares.
But it does have its role for maintaining communication - www.facebook.com/austrop, but I will have to agree, it doesn't encourage real communication - just that you are alive and functioning. Interestingly, I never see the political or other posts that people complain about (and may it stay that way!). I don't use FB for HCR - I rely on the direct web link (am I missing stuff?).
I always share Heather’s letters on fb….interestingly never any negative comments or reactions…probably because those people are not interested in reading anything past the first paragraph!
I post Heather' Letters on fb, but quote a salient paragraph or 2 in a heading for it, hoping to entice my friends to read the whole thing, but gratified if they at least respond to the quote.
It really depends on the circle of friends. I do have friends that post photos of their cats, etc., but most of "friends" in my group are politically minded, and politics is the primary topic on my page.
ThankYou! For your activism and vote. I apologize for the Coals to Newcastle. And sympathize with your experience of Blue Wave voters' disengagement. That has happened stateside too. With 2022 closer than it looks, hopefully after some 'recipes and kittens' R&R people will be ready to get back in the struggle, soon.
Republican obstruction of vote by mail also suppresses the overseas vote. Republican obstruction of the FEC - appointing fixers like Don McGahn to the commission and also for years, refusing to nominate/confirm a quorum - perversely hurt Americans voting from overseas, while preventing adequate oversight of foreign influence.
My wish was that today they had included the time stamps on the increasingly frantic text messages sent to Meadows from the Fox newscasters and Trump Jr. I think it would have been even more starling reinforcement of how utterly delighted Trump was at the chaos as it got worse.
I won’t live long enough to tell the babies & unborn about this period in our history. Thankfully there will be works from Professor Richardson to take my place. Thank You!!!
The burning of the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin, on Monday 27 February 1933, took place four weeks after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. Hitler's government stated that Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch council communist, was the culprit, and it attributed the fire to communist agitators. Later, Hitler's general Hermann Göring bragged that he himself set the fire.
Note that Trump precedes any mention of Democrats with "communist."
I'm so thankful for Heather's focus on the GOP voting-rights suppression efforts underway. We need all the sunlight we can shine on the GOP's attempts to undermine free and fair elections. This unidentified member of Congress texting "let's target the states that didn't announce their election results on election night" is dangerous. As an election officer, I can affirm that the vote totals are announced when ALL the votes have been counted! Believe me, I'd rather be home right after the polls close, kicking back with a glass of wine after a 15-hour day. But we take an oath to finish the job, and sometimes it takes time to close out the equipment, cross-check the results, call in the results, and hand-deliver/escort the sealed boxes of voted ballots to the central elections office. Good on Senator Warnock for pursuing Voting Rights legislation so publicly and persistently. Let people vote, for heaven's sake. What are they afraid of - democracy?
They cannot handle that our country isn’t the “white America” they’ve grown to love. They are seeing the rise of the rainbow of colors that they sought to oppress for so long and that scares them. Good, I say! Let’s drive these bastards back under the rocks from whence they came. We are very lucky to have Warnock in the Senate. He is not afraid. He saw how the Repubs changed the rules when voting for the debt ceiling. He called them out for doing so and reminded them when it is convenient, they make things go their way. Dems in the Senate, especially, must back Warnock strongly and demand the rules to be tweaked to include the Voting Rights Act.
“They cannot handle that our country isn’t the “white America” they’ve grown to love. They are seeing the rise of the rainbow of colors that they sought to oppress for so long and that scares them. Good, I say! Let’s drive these bastards back under the rocks from whence they came.”
Just a side note. Kentucky has been ravaged by the recent devastating tornadoes, so why is Senate Minority Leader McConnell (R-KY) nowhere to be seen on the ground showing some degree of compassion for those crushed and in mourning. Is the honorable senator from Kentucky taking a "Cancun break"?
I am going to extend a bit of grace at this time to Mr. McConnell, a man that I am definitely not fond of nor have I or will I vote for as a Kentuckian. At this moment, the efforts in of rescue and initial cleanup could be hindered by visits from politicians.
Seriously, if your whole town was in ruins and your home was destroyed, would you really want McConnell showing up and weeping crocodile tears? It might just be the last straw (to mix a few metaphors)
Could be. Another side note: Remember when people claimed that AIDS was God’s punishment for homosexuals? I can just as reasonably claim that the tornadoes were Divine vengeance on Kentucky voters for repeatedly electing McConnell and Rand Paul.
Well, the "other senator" who denied the need for Federal aide for other major weather disasters, has asked for aide for this disaster......specializing in hypocrisy.
Yesterday, on Heather's FB politics talk, she repeated Bill McKibben's words "don't be an individual" (when he was asked: "what can I do as an individual?") i.e. join a movement. I hope our group here is a movement and that we can support the effort to save our democracy.
Two days ago, I finally told GMA Video to cancel my subscription since they won't separate the bundle that includes FNC. I wrote to the CEO (twice) to tell him that I protested their support of a dangerous propaganda machine and he responded "we have to give the people what they want". It means that I can't see PBS any more, some of the content I really like, but I am sick of Judy Woodruff's negativity on the Newshour. I will continue to get my news from the internet, and clarity from Heather!
PBS Passport is yours for $60 for year, or $5 per month. I think if you’ve given already in last 12 months you can access Passport. Most of their programming is there, or will be.
The texts are stunning. For one moment imagine any of this was from Black Lives Matter or Occupy. Members of Congress involved should be charged with treason as well as the rest of the lynch mob.
About 12 years ago, I came to believe that our ruling elite (if you want to call them that) of BOTH parties were content--even preferred--having an American public that is (our favorite phrase in the military) "fat, dumb and happy." Keep gasoline cheap, jack up the internet bandwidth, keep the fatty foods everywhere and affordable, and let the "smart people," run the country. And I consider Democrats--with their reliance on virtue & technocracy until ~2016, just as complicit in that. Well, this is just one, logical result of that attitude, courtesy of our perpetual disengagement for want of more satisfying things. Because, as is usually the case, the REAL culprit is We The People. We didn't immediately fall for the next Hitler or Stalin, no. We fell for the Rush Limbaughs and Sean Hannitys--but also Rachel Madows--who told us, 24/7 for 2 decades without pause, what and how to think. Meanwhile, while we get our panties in a bunch about boogiemen like the NSA "tapping our phones," we gladly handed over every aspect of our privacy to Google and Facebook (both of whom collect, literally 1000X more personal data than the NSA could if it wanted to)...and now, they influence our lives FAR more than we even realize...and then we shrug our shoulders and don't care anyway. Because they didn't bully us--they appealed to our insatiable lust for comfort, convenience, "stuff." Sure, they kinda LIED to us about how they were doing it, but once the truth came out, we did startlingly little to change it. Because we still don't freaking CARE. And it's all of us. It just so happens that, The Right, being more desperate, got more inventive & outlandish in how they exploited it. This time. But we're still marvelously nonchalant about all of it when it comes to DOING anything. Shrieking does not count as action, despite what people might imagine.
Even now, with all that's happened, we still anticipate the voter turnout (at least for Democrats) will be LESS next year than it was last year. This seems unfathomable, if not criminal. We are the civilian equivalent of the 2021-2 Boston Celtics (it's a Boston/sports thing. Trust me, this isn't a favorable metaphor)--looking to do the minimum possible to make our own lives comfy, surely distracted by emotions and histrionics of the moment, but also still fully prepared to do close-to-nothing about it when it matters, even declare it's hopeless if necessary--just don't make me DO anything. We seem to want to be France in 1939--bent on letting ourselves descend ALL the way into hell before we get serious about it (psychologically, if not also physically--Camus wrote of this, quite eloquently and succinctly). EXACTLY as our leaders want it (well, unless they want an insurrection--then, for sure, they want you). The way out of this is simple: normal people finding the time and priority to freaking VOTE. Vote, dammit--if you don't (I'm not talking about anyone who has unjustly been denied. I'm talking about those who choose not to) vote, I have NO use for you, period. Do that, and I don't care how rigged these GOP fascists make it, they will still lose most of the time--because they can muster 40% of us on their best days. Because we are right (good or bad) because, as Heather noted, MOST OF US DON'T BELIEVE IN THAT CRAP. So, make it right: Vote, vote, VOTE--make it a Top 3 priority in your life...because, yeah, your life MIGHT depend on it--if not now, then surely coming soon. Heather is not exaggerating the stakes.
Robert, your assessment and solution are basically correct with one exception. Your are preaching to the choir. What are you doing to get out the vote? The League of Women Voters perhaps around the country, but certainly in Maine has programs to promote voting and to register voters. One of those programs needs volunteers to go to high schools to speak to students and register them to vote. I joined our local LWV and offered my name as a volunteer to help where they need me. Stacy Abrams is the most well known voter organizer with her hands in a lot of voter registration and get out the vote drives. They need donations and funding. Find them online, send your checks and perhaps volunteer or start your own voter registration and get out the vote organization. Go meet with your local, state and Federal elected representatives in person to register your concerns. If they a re e doing a good job, ask how you can help them advance their work and get reelected. Get some friends together to join you. No doubt waiting until the next election to start working on this is too late. Always has been.
I would like to follow up on my my comment that as a whole, right, left or Independent, Americans are poorly informed about our world. I listened last night to Professor Seth Singleton speak on the topic "Will the West Survive?" on a Zoom program by the Camden Conference, an internationally recognized organization that holds annual conferences in Camden, Maine focused on current topics of significant importance and urgency. This February's conference is "Europe: Challenged at Home and Abroad".
Singleton, has worked a lifetime abroad with agencies all over the world involved in international relations and related education. Singleton gave us a PowerPoint presentation of the course of American, European, Eastern European, Russia/Soviet and China relations from WWII to the present. He pointed out how US management of these relations, particularly with our strong European alliance, have created and preserved security and prosperity for the US and the West compared to human and previous American history where nations were more nationalistic or worked in smaller alliances designed for military aggression. The goals, strategies and personalities of world leaders to preserve peace and improve prosperity were explained in detail that made the importance of informed, internationally curious and capable leaders and diplomats more apparent than anything we hear from our basic education and news media in the US.
Americans need this level of education and information to better understand why our vote, democracy and quality of leadership is so importance.
Singleton described how we have moved from securing our place in the world for the benefit of everyone to giving that place up under Trump, and losing our grip and influence, putting Europe of a track of going their own way without us. And giving China and Russia an open door to fill our vacuum.
He advised that until we resolve our internal authoritarian trend, and form a new international perspective and ideology of human rights, worldwide health and prosperity, and protection of the planet, we will fall back into a weak, isolationist, authoritarian direction that threatens ourselves and the world.
Education for ALL of us is key. Maria Ressa's speech to the Nobel Prize committee is critical to getting factual education out to the citizens who will make the decisions is critical.
It is true that Americans' level of general knowledge is appallingly low, not just because isolationism and authoritarianism, but because science education has been undermined by the more-extreme evangelical Christians, and because the mass media are America-centric and include very little news or information from the world beyond its borders.
To educate our citizens education needs to be more available. Education needs to be free for those who cannot afford it and teachers should be well paid. I remember a smug comment by wealthy businessman it’s probably many of you know. He said something to the effect of “Those who can do, those who can’t, teach”
That comment has been around since I was in college in the 60s. There are many who can do, but can’t teach at all. My first career was as a systems programmer. I was lucky enough to stay home for 12 years with my young children. By the time I was ready to go back to work, several generations of computers had come and gone. I went to grad school to get a teaching license and was a teacher librarian for 22 years. I loved it.
We need to pay teachers better and also show them a lot more respect. When I was in public school in the 50s and 60s, we had high quality teachers, in part because few other careers were open to women. As the career options have opened up to women, the low pay and lack of respect are pushing a lot of women into other career choices.
First I want to thank you. Second both my sisters in law are teachers and I admire them both.
George Bernard Shaw, in "Man and Superman", 1905.
Yes! yes! yes!
("Americans need this level of education and information to better understand why our vote, democracy and quality of leadership is so importance."
Correct. Put YOUR effort (and $) behind those working for what you want. LWV is non-partisan and doing a great education and voter registration effort.
Mostly word of mouth. I'm a writer and slowly building my community involvement (it's hard; complicated and I reside overseas) from afar. I donate money to Vote.org, Rock the Vote, Ballot Ready, and BLM. I'm also a member of Writers for Democracy and am involved with non-political organizations that encourage community involvement, adult education and general activism.
While I would expect this forum to have a notably higher-than-average voter turnout, I would never presume it to be "a choir." I'm met a surprising number of individuals (mostly young, but not all) over the past few years who are intelligent, known issues, are concerned as hell...and for some reason also decide "my vote doesn't matter," or "what's the point?" Really--I had such a discussion just three days ago with someone I consider incredibly conscientious and bright.
And voting is just the most direct thing.
My 42yo son votes but doesn't think it makes a difference. He's ready to let the country fall apart so that it can be rebuilt. We've had many discussions.....
Does your son understand that his strategy is the very definition of Anarchism? I've been to a couple of lectures by Noam Chomsky at MIT over the years, and the simplest way to understand Anarchism is to tear the government down or let it collapse, but only to the last point where it was working effectively for the people, and then immediately rebuild (with any luck, more intelligently) from that point forward. There's a fine interview online he did with Michael Wilson back in 2013 that you and your son might find interesting: https://chomsky.info/20130528/
I'm not willing to have democracy shredded just now, with so much rampant craziness manifesting all over the place. If everything is allowed to fall apart, who does your son think will take steps to control everything?
It is all good + please knock, knock, knock on your neighbors' doors and school doors also, Eh!?
Hear hear!
Will add LWV to my monthly contributions, thank you.
Ditto
When I was living in the US, I stopped voting after the election of Jimmy Carter because I realised that the Electoral College would always make a mockery of the popular vote.
The only election in the world where the winner often doesn’t
It chafes when a writer claims the all pervasive "we". I take firm exception to lumping all Americans into any collective "we". Down through the decades there has been a whole subset in this Country who did not buy into the oligarch driven lobotomizing of America. We didn't fall down the rabbit hole of consumerism, mindless media and fast food. Some of us were called hippies. Some of us were called college professors. And some of us were called radicals. An awful lot of us have been simply going about our lives in quiet opposition to what has been happening concerning the subversive and corrosive damage to mind, soul and body in the USA promoted by an awful lot of politicians and religious leaders. We have been working for holding the line on our Democracy, voting rights and a just plain nation wide sanity. How do we know this to be true? The fact that there is still a Democratic Party, voting rights and a significant victory in the 2020 taking of the White House, Senate and House; not to mention Georgia, in the middle of a raging pandemic with mail in ballots being threatened at every turn so we stood at the polls in the covid fog. All this sure tells me there is a viable contingent of serious Americans in this Country.
"Some of us were called hippies. Some of us were called college professors. And some of us were called radicals."
And some of us freely made the ultimate sacrifice to protect what we Americans enjoy today.
America is:
We The People...
Good
Bad or,
Indifferent.
We are all equal if we ALL vote for what is in the best interest of ALL the people of our America.
My understanding from his post is that he is calling on the "do not rock the boat" mentality, to which so many democrats signed up to. In many ways our 401K plans and retirement portfolios feed into this system, making it "too big to fail".
With respect. I have a hard time with such statements as "to which so many democrats signed up to..." Also. Subscribing to a retirement plan does not negate an interest in Democracy. That is a false equivalence in my mind. I wonder how many of those Democrats with a decent retirement are now able to donate to Democratic Candidates?
Thanks, Barbara. By "so many democrats.." I am referring to the Democratic Party establishment primarily. Indeed, private retirements plans are not anti-democratic, however the way in which they have been set up and structured is the deal breaker. A majority of main stream retirement plans don't give visibility to the companies one in investing, because they are bundled by portfolios towards a style of investment (conservative to aggressive returns). Through our 401K investments we could well be supporting Koch industries in one of our portfolios; or an oil company that could care less about the environment; or a company who gets into a country's politics to its own advantage, etc, etc. While being an investor does not negate Democracy, unintentionally we can be undermining it by financially supporting companies that act against Democracy.
As I recall, an uncomfortable number of people, during the last campaign, answered the question of who they were voting for with: “As long as my stocks are fat and happy, I’m happy.”
Thank you for your response. For me I try not to get stuck in the minutia. Each person has the opportunity to form the best ethical and compassionate life for themselves that they can put together. I just can't label people who shop Walmart as supporting the Walton family, or the people who buy a particular product as contributing to the burning of the Amazon forest. And on and on.
I focus on the big picture. Voting, registering people to vote, getting people to the polls etc.
Besides if someone is concerned about the ethical nature of their portfolio then why not support the campaigns of Stacy Abrams or Beto O'Rourke?
I have always used "we" since I became the member of a professional firm as a college graduate where I wrote letters representing the firm. My boss explained that even if we have differences of opinion or do our job somewhat differently, when we represent the firm, "we" are all working together, not individually. Ever since, I have recognized that wherever I am, I am part of a greater whole, such as "we the people".
As I developed my own firm, I always used "we" in my letters and communications. As I mentored our staff, it frustrated me that younger staff had a hard time getting out of the habit of using "I" in their communications with clients and consultants, and with our staff. Maybe this is old school. And maybe it isn't clear in stating who is most responsible, but I have found that people and businesses who use "I" are less effective in working with others in sharing responsibilities and credit.
The use of we in the context you state is fine. That is part of a rather dry, professional environment uniting for a common business objective. Mr. McTague was lumping everyone in the same despicable pot. I don't believe the use of the collective we works in that case.
Agree. One of the most distressing manifestations of recent years is the obsession with "Me" and My" everything.
I, for one, appreciate Rachel Maddow's show. She is intelligent, articulate, and has the letters behind her name from some pretty powerful institutions to back up her positions. I recognize that it is the opposite of what is churned out on Faux Noise; it is also not even in the same ballpark as what is being done by Carlson and Hannity. TRMS is not news, nor does it claim to be. It is opinion, and there is a metric s-ton of research that goes into the spots she delivers, and she will self-correct when she has misstated something, or gotten the facts wrong.
I agree that comparing Rachel Maddow as equal to Tucker Carlson in insane
Odd fact: Carlson gave Maddow her start. I just hope she more than makes up for him. He's really gone beyond the pale.
He was always so, raised by morons
Followed by Lawrence who also has a show focused on truth.
I love Lawrence. His calm is the antidote to Rachel's more dramatic delivery.
I Trust her on the level of Walter C., she has the chops to do it right. Makes me boil when people compare her (also Hayes and ODonnell) to Rupert’s crew of evil.
Yes, I was taken aback by the reference to Maddow. I also appreciate her for all the reasons you have mentioned. There are times when we can't watch because she is so on point about all that is being discussed in this commentary and also during the death star donny years. It's overwhelming.
For several years, I couldn't watch Rachel, because of her delivery. I'd feel my blood pressure rising as she dramatically spelled out her point and finally revealed it. However, I have come around to watching her program every night, as her point is always valuable. Like Heather, she pulls the threads to reveal motivation and intent, and I've never found her logic or information to be faulty.
Rachel's narrative style puts off some people because it's the opposite of how news is typically delivered. Her approach is to tell a story, a story that takes you somewhere, an information-rich journey with a distinct destination. Along the way, she interprets what's happening and why, provides a wealth of context, and looks ahead to what may be next.
Because of Rachel's distinctive style and the amount of time she devotes to her top story, I come away feeling I better understand the news, including what I've already read about or heard earlier in the day.
I feel the same way, but after the 2016 "election," I was in such a swivvet, I didn't want to be led down a path, unless it was one that ended with TFG's execution. Rachel's style is unique in the industry, and it took some time before I could appreciate her approach. I now love the story in her narrative, and her interpretation is always spot-on.
I haven't either. I admire excellent research and scholarship which is why I like her.
Hope Rachel weaves this into a story ! Voter fraud….in this Trump/DeSantis-loving community.
https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2021/12/13/3-residents-of-the-villages-arrested-for-casting-multiple-votes-in-2020-election/
Love this.
Ally, I am a fellow Oregonian. I appreciate your input on Rachel, as I feel the same as you about the fine work she does on each of her shows.
Can’t just preach to the choir here (though I disagree with your assessments). Gotta get off your backside, fat, happy, dumb or otherwise, and work to get out the vote. So I’ll call the question. What are YOU doing to get out the vote? Me? Volunteering with my state representative’s reelection campaign, including being trained to do door to door. In voting season- something I am not at all comfortable doing but understand how important that will be in 2022. Also, sending postcards to voters. Hundreds of them. At my own expense. Then, last October, I invited 16 neighbors to come dit on my deck, have a drink and some appetizers, and reviews short bios of the 13 candidates for our local school board. Four Republicans in the group, by the way. Gratefully, my top three candidates won. But more important I think, was that all of us voted. The takeover of our local school board by Trump style R’s was thwarted.
Your assessment of the media environment contains some difficult truths but this group already understands much of that. Besides, nothing that anyone here can do about that except continue to search for non mainstream sources that tell the truth. The reality that the mainstream media is broken cannot be fixed in time for the 2022 election.
Cynicism is luxury I can’t afford. It is my strongest opinion that none of us can. Action is my solution to my deep fear that we will lose this democracy. I ask you to join me and take action.
Well said. We are either part of the problem or part of the solution.
Excellent. Thank You for this and your important work. It (democracy) all starts at school boards - and PTA's, and back yard barbecues.
Yes, Sheila!
“Cynicism is luxury I [we] can’t afford. It is my strongest opinion that none of us can. Action is my [our] solution to my deep fear…”
💙💙💙
YES!
“Cynicism is the luxury I [we] can’t afford. It is my strongest opinion that none of us can. Action is my [our] solution to my deep fear…”
Thank you, Robert & Sheila & Ashley!
You are also someone who mushes together journalism from a strong practitioner of it, such as Rachel Maddow, with those of far-right propagandists, such as Carlson and Hannity. When I have time, hopefully in the near future, I will this substantiate my argument. Have you read Rachel Maddow's books and reviewed the transcripts of her programs with those on Fox News? Will you factually argue your position?
Fern, First of all, I appreciate your response. Second, I would agree with you on substance (for the most part), particularly Madow--and I personally have no issue with her in the grand scheme of things. However, that is not really germane to my argument. My point is one of intent, positioning by the media itself and then, of course, the response by viewers. Of course Madow is more journalistic, intellectual and factual in her work in programing--because at least a significant portion of her intended audience is among the better educated demographic in America. But it doesn't change the fact that she is STILL 1) a pundit and 2) the point of her program, more than anything, is to gain a following that, whether we want to admit it or not, is still HIGHLY based on emotion, charging/solidifying opinion, "fighting the other" and so on. That's not all of it, but it's the biggest part. She is largely in what I call the "viewer satisfaction," category--or as that ersatz philosopher Ron Burgundy once said, "We gotta stop giving people the news they need, and give them the news they WANT." She applies there too--she just does it with more journalistic integrity. Her entire program was created as an alternative/answer, for left-minded people after the onset of Rush and the Fox Fools. I don't blame MSNBC, her, or followers of her program for feeling that way either. But, it is what it is.
And let me be clear--yes, I intentionally couched most of what I wrote as "we." I refuse to accept people saying things like "not my president." That's bull (I said it three years ago to friends of mine who were actual supporters of Hillary Clinton. I said it 25 years ago to colleagues who took down President Clinton's picture from the chain of command photos in Army offices). Moreover, I will say what too many don't want to hear or acknowledge: we got Donald Trump because we--as a whole nation--deserved it. And until we, as a whole people, decide to DESERVE better, we will continue to get crap. That includes me--I'm no less to blame--and yes, I'm working to DESERVE better.
I'm quite tired of "us and them" and hearing every reason in the world why it's someone else's fault for everything. No, it's ALL of our faults. Sure, there are a few satanic, panicked stallions out there who will run right over the cliff no matter what we do--I won't stop them. And some who will oppose EVERY good faith effort to make things better--they, I will oppose with all of my means. I pity those people though, not hate...and I pity that if they try to overthrow our country again, I'll gladly go back on active duty and put them down like a pestilence. It should NEVER have to come to that, but if it does no, I'll fight it till my dying breath.
But I will also spend the rest of my life going back and thinking hard about how we ALL went wrong and let it get this way. How we ignored places like the rust belt and Appalachia to the point that a state that voted predominantly Dem for decades (West Virginia) became one of hardest hearts of Trump territory--things like THAT should make us all pause. It bothers me a lot, and I'll be damned if I'm going to blame it all on Fox Media, Steve O'Bannon and Donald Trump (Oh, they all played a huge role, and I can't wait to see most of them in jail, but they're just part of way bigger problem).
This is a busy day for me, so I have no time today to provide you with a proper response. Do you have a name for your beliefs? I am asking a couple questions, so I might identify whether your lecture like response to me is connected to any organization or following. Otherwise, I will recognize that you are expressing your personal beliefs independent of any affiliation. You will hear from me in a day or two. Thank you for your response and patience.
Voting is the citizens’ right and responsibility in a democracy. The turnouts have been atrocious for a long time and need to be emphasized, especially because there will be important primaries this year. Secretary of State offices keep those figures. Look up your state!
Given that Republicans already are working on a plan to replace anyone who has anything to do with elections at ALL levels of government, including Secretaries of State, w/ Trumpers, that may well tip the scales.
Georgia has removed our Secretary of State from overseeing elections, probably because Brad Raffensperger refused to cave in to Trump's request to "find the votes" to make him the victor. Raffensperger's motivation in bucking TFG were questionable, but he did the right thing at the time. Now, county election boards in liberal areas are being replaced so that partisan legislators can nullify the votes and declare the candidates of their choice winners.
With the Electoral College able to reverse the outcome of the popular vote, it may take more than just voting to save American democracy.
Good point. Here in my blue state we vote for the electors. I don’t know if it’s like that in every state, especially now with rampant repub cheating, but it takes some thought and research. Most just skip it I bet.
I think that you are wrong to throw the ‘Rachel Maddows’ in the same lot with the ‘Hannitys and Limbaughs’, within the context of current discussion. As viewers, we are challenged to form our own opinions from what we hear or read or watch. Those on the media right are espousing opinions based on unsubstantiated claims or outright nonsense, whereas those on the media left are most often taking off from a platform of knowns. I am in agreement on your comments about voting. In defense of what to some seems indefensible, i.e. the lack of engagement on the part of voters…I find it to be an arguable point that people inherently want to trust. When that trust is eroded or broken, many become disillusioned, some fully disengage. The challenge is to find a way to bring people back to caring.
Thus caring:
Here we all are.
Let's get it done,
Now. Eh!?
"the REAL culprit is We The People"
Yes, correct.
Who exactly is we the people?
Me. You. Jim Bob. Roy Pack. Javier. Julio. Moses.
Just to name a few.
Remember. I voted for Reagan twice.
Feel free to shoulder your share of the blame, but not everyone should be included.
It boils down to something much simpler: Greed. “Citizens United” —-the money from the Billionaires Gang—enticed both parties. Dems just didn’t realize that it was stacked against them by its mastermind, Charles Koch. The “Libertarian” “Tea Party” became the worm Koch used to co-opt the RNC.
With Rupert’s propaganda machine
Yes!
+ Rupe-De-Do-Da-Day's media-controlling gazillions, Eh!?
I don’t often hear a Democrat calling out Rachel Maddow, but I have always felt that the spoon-feeding of partisan opinion, if it is to exist at all, should stay with the right-wing propaganda machine and not be mimicked by the left. I’ve heard all the rationale about how we need to counter Faux news, but it diminishes us to resort to such “journalism.”
(spoonfeeding) "should stay with the right-wing propaganda machine and not be mimicked by the left"
I might have agreed in 1999. But, now, seeing how truly, spectacularly successful Fox + AM radio + direct TV is at turning its viewers into drones for Trump, a fascist?
I think that whomever controls the levers of the propaganda machine wins. That is one reason I think that the probability of the US becoming Fascist is greater than 0.5.
The "left" has been asleep at the wheel while the right has taken over ever lever of propaganda from AM radio, TV, direct TV, you name it. I drove from PA to western NY listening to AM radio and EVERY town has an AM propaganda station saying that Trump won the election all day every day.
The left will lose if they/we don't get with the program.
But, honestly, it may be, in fact likely is, too late.
Goebbels completely understood this:
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."
Oh, I forgot. The right wing has also taken over youtube and reached out to our youth.
My own son came home with some story he got from youtube after a friend forwarded it to him that was pure right wing propaganda.
My....own.....son was starting to be swayed, in fact, probably was.
Tell your son that "Birds Aren't Real". Tell him to look it up.
I just did that; pretty scary. Reeks of Zimbardo.
If you dig deep into what Peter McIndoe started, you may see that he is simply "fighting lunacy with lunacy". The next time someone tries to tell you a conspiracy about vaccines or that masks don't work or that the virus isn't really that bad...just tell them that "Birds Aren't Real." An alternate approach could be: "Do you have a few minutes to hear about the Flying Spaghetti Monster?"
Will do. Thanks for the pointer.
I don’t understand the call out of Rachel Maddow. Placing her in the same basket with Hannity et al? No. These days, the truth appears partisan.
You're right, Kathy. Putting Maddow, with a Doctorate of Philosophy in Politics from Oxford with Hannity, a college drop out carnival barker is ludicrous!
I certainly don’t intend to question Maddow’s credentials, but I find her delivery, her outrage, her indignance, all serve to stoke the polarization we’re experiencing among our citizens. Just because the right-wing people do this does that make it advisable? Do we need angry, indignant editorializing on the left? I guess lots of people must think so because she’s so popular, but I prefer my news delivered in a more dispassionate fashion.
We must factor in how utterly outrageous the stories there for the telling have been these past years. To me, it has been the equivalent of the Nixon Watergate break-in’s repeated on a daily basis. The sheer volume and audacity of the daily assault on democracy has worked against any hope of academic delivery. TRMS tells the daily democracy horror stories. Yes it is hard not to sound or feel impassioned about that which may be at risk. I stand by her show even as I admit that I am moved by her indignation. However, in my mind, she will never be the opposite side of the same coin as Tucker, etc. Perhaps sometimes the truth requires passion.
Perhaps we do need to be angry and indignant. I am angry and indignant! Although I myself wouldn’t characterize Maddow like that. I see her as sharp as a tack, great research, and a good interviewer. However, I don’t watch very often. I prefer to read my news.
Karen, you're right about delivery, I think. I'm not a fan of vein popping outrage from media personalities either. I am not a huge fan of commentary so I don't spend much time consuming it. I prefer news.
Well, I'm actually an independent voter, who has voted (almost--excepting Charlie Baker) straight Dem for the last two elections. I have an old (and brilliant) high school friend who works in data analysis for Dem pollsters. A year ago, he issued a stark warning: that the language/rhetoric he was seeing on the Far Left was much the same as what/where the Far Right had been using only four years earlier--and trending worse. A movement's virtues are also its vices (not my line). I am politically much like Camus:"no one's enemy," but I AM the enemy of oppression, unjustified violence and intentional injustice; and therefore, necessarily, to those who makes themselves slave to those horrors. David Brooks, whom I still admire, wrote very pointedly about the fall of the GOP in the Atlantic this week; Heather has written in the past about those moderate Democrats who sided with the North in days before the civil war--anyone who is NOT openly against us, is FOR us--that should be our thinking. Values and some sort of moral/ethical compass guide my comments more than politics.
Both-side-ism and protestations of independence can seem like eminently reasonable positions, but when the moral battle lines between those who would destroy democracy and those who seek to save it are as clearly drawn as they are today, such sentiments ring very hollow indeed.
Exactly
Please be specific, which people and or groups was your 'brilliant' high school friend in data analysis for Democratic pollster referring to? Which firm does he work for? What is the language/rhetoric from far-right and far-left was he referring to. When strong accusations such as yours are put forward, it makes sense to look at the source/evidence from which it comes. Thank you.
Thank you, Fern. It is just as inaccurate to equate Liz Cheney and Lauren Boebert (two Republicans) as it is to equate Rachel Maddow and Joe Manchin (two Democrats). People on the ideological far ends of political positions are not in the same mind-set as those who are willing to put forward cogent arguments supported by responsible data.
Thank you, Melinda. I don't know that Maddow is a member of any party. I believe that she has stated that she has no affiliation with any political party.
One more point for now, while you haven't spelled out your claim, are you comparing publicly dispensed reports of equal strong or weak organizations. A small, fringe group would not be comparable to Fox News and the stream of propaganda from Facebook/Meta.
Must be the “left” that Bill Maher skewers regularly. They seem to be elite celeb types. I know of no such creature. This old, retired counselor noticed long ago that Dems seem to follow the Golden rule more than republicans. That and Samuel Gompers guided me.
I find David Brooks to be a sophisticated pundit, borderline elitist. His demeanor and intelligence can suck you in, but at days end leaves me with an empty feeling. But then, I am not one to view the NYT or the Atlantic as ‘prints of record’
I used to like David Brooks but after I heard him say that there should not be accountability for the Jan 6 insurrectionists and that I would need to get along with Josh Hawley, I changed my mind.
Yes.
I should have voted for Baker.
If your cable provider carries BBC, they give a less partisan presentation of American politics.
Love them
It was on this very issue that Obama “lost” me. After campaigning that he would preserve our privacy, he immediately caved after being elected because “it seemed to have national security benefits”. Total BS.
He had to deal with the tea party haters, I forgive him about everything. Just shocked that he wasn’t killed, the hatred was palpable in rural Texas
I'll take your analysis one step further back. The die was cast when education at all levels was sacrificed to budget cutters. We have raised a generation of people who are fundamentally ignorant of how governments work and what is required of citizens. The result? A population who thinks their obligations start and end in the 24 hours of election day. A population that is willing to turn over the hard work of understanding policy and forming an opinion to whoever yells the loudest. Why think? There's someone who's willing to do that for you, at the small price of your freedom. Besides, The Apprentice is on tonight.
In the short run, we have to pass election reform so our government is even slightly representative of popular opinion. In the long run, we have to reform education and create a country of citizens instead of sheep.
Do you remember when Civics was taught in high school? I do. I graduated from high school in1962, back when we still had a democracy. When I was in high school, one needed 70 to pass a course and 93 to score an A. Not long after those years in the 60s, many schools lowered scores necessary to pass, e.g., 60 or 65 could let you slide through high school, and to get an A, one only would need to score a 90. "Make it easy on these kids. Life it tough enough to force them to pass with higher standards," so-called educators and school boards would cry. Is it any wonder why this country seems to be going to Hell?
This thinking is exactly what made me sign up to send postcards and letters through those grass movement channels. Years ago, I got recruited to work on a school referendum, having been identified as one of the "movers and shakers" among the school parents. (I am still amazed at this as I didn't say much, I'd just SHOW UP to stuff) It was educational for me to watch how the school board members strategized based on data of voters. Think your local schoolboard is just now becoming political? Think again. At least for that, they were trying to save programs in our school.
I don't wish to be pushed out of my comfort zone again, I can hear readers gnashing their teeth, but I don't like making calls for elections, didn't like standing in the cold outside polling places, etc. What I CAN do, from the comfort of my home, is write those letters and postcards. Perhaps I am idealistic, but I do like to think that they make a difference. I would suggest that anyone who is able to do that much, yeah, even if it is only 10 postcards, sign up now to do it. I don't have the information handy on where/how to sign up, but perhaps one of Heather's "movers and shakers" commenters will do so.
postcardstovoters.org
turnoutpac.org
fieldteam6.org
Hello Ruth:
I was born a dreamer. I think in images, not words.
I have been an Architect for over 60 years & still going strong!
All this is my excuse for not being able to master wordsmithing into persuasive appeals.
So Ruth can/would you care to direct me to resources that would help me develop effective original appeals I could utilize to urge Americans to vote?
Thank you Ruth for your consideration.
George
A college writing text that covers writing for argument or persuasion can help you develop your writing skills, e.g. "Writing Worth Reading: The Critical Process" by Packer & Timpane, or "From Inquiry to Argument" by Linda McMeniman. Finding or starting a writing group that will critique your work in a supportive and constructive manner is the best way I've found, both as a writer and as a teacher, to improve the work.
WOW! Ruth, thank you!!!
Excellent recommendations that I would never be able to confidently discover any of them without your expertise and kind consideration.
Ruth Brinton will be forever at the top of my electronic composition file, even though it is otherwise in alphabetical order!
MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR to you and all of your loved ones now and forevermore ... and even longer!
Sincerely,
GEORGE EDWARD DOBB JR.
George, when you sign on to those websites, they give you excellent examples.
Thank you, Ruth!
And thank YOU, Miselle! Your efforts make a difference! 💙
I hope you read the comments here, Robert. You may find the differences some of us have with you and the information offered a means to greater understanding.
Robert, putting Rachel Maddow in the same sentence as Limbaugh and Hannity is disconcerting to me. When you say that she tells us what to think, I feel that you are pain wrong. I listened to her when she was on Air America. I found her to be an authority, but I like to feel that I can think for myself. I respect those like Heather, John Meacham, Michael Beshloff, and other scholars who present fact. It does not mean that I agree with everything they say. You shared your feeling, but did some people agree. So, in a way, you are telling us to believe you. Rachel does not tell us that we have to accept everything she presents. She has a large staff who go out and research the facts she presents. I have appreciated the work that she does and feel that it is disingenuous to lump her in a despicable group. You are quite free to disagree with her statements, but please do not tell me that she controls my think.
Thank you for pointing out how little privacy we have. I do laugh when I hear people complain about losing their privacy because they already have.
As was pointed out on MSNBC tonight, the January 6 Committee is now focused on Trump as a felon for obstructing the operation of Congress in its constitutional responsibilities. Liz Cheney used the exact words from the statute defining the crime in stating what they are now looking at Trump and his fellow conspirators in and out of Congress for committing.
For "obstruction of official proceedings", see 18 USC Sections1505 & 1512(c). Note, on the DOJ's "Capitol Breach Investigation Resource Page" , "[I]n the first 300 days afterJanuary 6, 265 defendants have been already charged by Garland's DOJ Team with "corruptly obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding.".
That's the one Cheney was quoting. It has a sentence of 5 years, increased to 8 if it's part of "domestic terrorism."
Correct.
Then why are sentences for the insurrectionists being decided as months?
In the grand scheme of things, most of those people are pawns. Several of the knights and bishops, however, have been charged with felonies. It's the king, the queen and the rooks they're looking at for the big things.
Plea bargains? Lesser charges?
Damn, they are building the case AND using the right language. Now, did I want butter or parm cheese on my popcorn?
🍿 🍿
So, do we have ex presidents with ex executive privileges, or royalty who are above our laws? To be determined I guess.
TCinLA. Thanks for Liz Cheney's perceptions.
However, having met, and even befriended a few "felons" in my time, that word is usually reserved for two classes of folks:
1) Those currently in prison who have been convicted of a felony (following an arrest and a trial).
2) Those who have completed serving their time, and were released, who were convicted of a felony (following an arrest and a trial).
So, Trump is not a felon. He is currently just a regular, free, citizen who can do whatever he wants, including, run for President.
Using that word to describe a guy who likely ate steak at his Mara Lago resort and golfed yesterday, is more than a bit off.
If the meting out of justice will include out of control oligarchs, their facilitators and sycophants, then I hope TFG is a near future felon.
LIZ CHENEY
United States Representative Liz Cheney is Wyoming's lone member of Congress in the U.S. House of Representatives.
An outstanding characteristic about the strength of her political spine as a Republican.
Thank GOD for her selfless devotion and vigorous support for America’s democracy.
Her bravery against republican death threats has not shaken her patriotic oath of office promises.
She is America’s hero and now the actual insurmountable wall against her party's treasonous attempted power grab to destroy America’s democracy.
All America must do all that is necessary to perpetuate Liz Chaney’s successful U. S. House of Representatives membership against trump's anti-American minions who seek to destroy her at all costs!
I wish I could completely agree with this, because it would mean things aren't as dark as they appear to be. But this week, "our hero" voted against the full faith and credit of the United States, of the United States keeping its word on the most basic of things, that we're not deadbeats, when she voted against raising the debt ceiling, leaving only Adam Kinzinger as the one real patriot in that party.
Well, she is a republican and her daddy is dick cheney and republicans continue their death threats against her almost daily... and she is the champion of our American Democracy surviving the 2022 & 2024 attacks by republicans, Eh!?
Dear Professor Cox Richardson, a slight correction, from the NYTimes: " Judge McFadden, however, stayed his ruling for 10 days to give Mr. Trump time to file an appeal, which he is very likely to do."
I continue to be shocked and disgusted as the GOP traitors' words from January 6th leak out like pus from a festering political wound to our nation.
Today I phoned Liz Cheney's office in Cheyenne, and asked her staffer to thank her for her bravery in standing up to the Trumplican GOP, her patriotism, and her work on the January 6th Commission. To write that I never thought I would be this grateful to a member of the Cheney family would be an understatement.
Bless you, and bless your work. Thank you from the bottom of my lifelong Democratic heart.
Caroline Kenner, I am grateful for Cheney's integrity and hard work on the Commission. But she still votes with the republicans, against both infrastructure bills, raising the debt ceiling and voting rights legislation. On these and other critical issues she is no different that the rest of the republicans. I suspect she is making a political bet that tfg's supporters with lose and anti-t**** republicans will eventually control the party.
Very possibly, and we will have to face that possibility when it materializes.
Considering that many politicians among the hard right-wing extremists currently posing as Republicans base their comments news-cycle by news-cycle, Liz Cheney certainly stands out as a person of conscience. Is she playing a longer game than most of them? Maybe.
Liz Cheney is an ally now. She is not a friend. Her interest in upholding her oath to protect and defend the Constitution against her own party's lawlessness and oath-breaking is admirable, whatever the future holds.
I keep saying, if Liz Cheney had been an adult in Nazi Germany she would have been saving Jews.
If this were 1973, the entire nation would be glued to their televisions watching the hearings. Now, though, half the country allows their anointed gatekeepers - Fox, OANN, Newsmax - to decide whether they should even be exposed to the news that key people in at least two of the three branches of their government, including the President, actively conspired to keep power in the face of an election that went against them.
An effective Democratic National Committee would be collecting all this news and turning it into devastating ads for the 2022 elections. It is imperative that we get as many people as possible to clearly state - in the voting booth - that the people's voice is important in this country, and to leave no doubt about where the majority sits.
The Republicans, of course, are plowing ahead with their strategy, still conspiring to make sure their efforts succeed next time. We can only hope that the Senate finds a way to pass voting rights legislation before the 2022 election, or we won't have to worry about representative government in this country again in our lifetimes.
I agree with you. This morning, while writing in my journal that has quotes, I read this one attributed to Plato. I think it is appropriate to what Dr. Richardson and you have written today: "We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light."
If you're keeping company with Plato, you have probably heard too of Diogenes of Sinope, a self-described principled Cynic, who is said to have gone about in public in the light of the noon-day sun holding a lantern up to people's faces saying he was looking for an honest man. ("Man" in this case may be considered binary, or gender neutral, but there is no verifiable information that he bothered women and men equally.). A modern Diogenes out and about today would want first to grab people's cell phones and pitch them in a well before giving them an "enlightenment facial."
I often refer to Diogenes and so your text brought a smile to my face.
Mobiguy As someone who was glued to the Erwin Senate Watergate hearings (and was on the Nixon White House Enemies List) I feel that the Democrats and DOJ are playing paint ball against Republicans with A-15s and Glocks. Cheers when one of the baddies get splatted with paint, while the baddies keep hitting with real bullets. Subverting the Constitution and initiating a Capitol Building insurrection in which people got killed and over 140 law enforcement officers got wounded are criminal offenses. Trump and his sycophants keep spewing their false bile with little more that tut tuts in some media and from Liz Cheney and a few others.
With voting rights been diminished in over a dozen Republican states and the Stench Court poised to reassess the Constitution, it is past time for Democratic hardball. GET BBB AND JOHN LEWIS VOTING BILL PASSED! HIGHLIGHT THAT THE REPUBLICANS ARE LOCK STEP AGAINST THE LEGISLATIVE BENEFITS THAT ARE FLOWING TO INDIVIDUALS AND ALL STATES! FOCUS STACCATO MESSAGE THAT THE big lie/1/6 WERE/ARE ILLEGAL ASSAULTS ON AMERICAN DEMOCRACY.
The Dems must switch from paint ball to hard ball. Our country’s future depends on it. President Biden can have IT’S MORNING AGAIN IN AMERICA by mid-late 2022. But this depends on a concerted effort to turn the psyche of many Americans from gloomy to positive. HIT ‘EM HIGH, HIT ‘EM LOW, COME ON GAME, LET’S GO.
I agree completely- the democrats have been busy assembling a case against Trump for at least two years that he has ignored with impunity even though the evidence is air tight. Meanwhile Trump thunders his transparent lies to stoke up his followers to great effect and he is enabled by Fox News and his loyal followers in governor's offices throughout the country. It's an uneven contest and I keep hoping that the democrats are going to come up with something that will reach people in the gut and in the heart.
Richard I grew up in an advertising family (father and grandfather). I would go to the Ward Wheelock Company on some Saturdays from the age of 9. The focus was on identifying a message, simplifying it, and displaying it incessantly. [As a MIT Sloan Fellow I learned how quickly a message is forgotten without repetition.] Campbell Soup: “A can on your shelf is like a part-time cook in your kitchen.’ [At one time Campbell’s sought 88% of all the canned soup in America.] Whitman’s: “A woman never forgets a man who remembers.” Whitman’s sales soared during Christmas and Easter.
From political campaigns I remember Reagan’s “It’s morning again in America,’ which propelled him to a massive re-election. In 1992 James Camille’s “It’s the economy, stupid” was extremely effective in Clinton’s campaign against President Bush [Actually the economy was beginning to turn around, but that fact was overwhelmed by the stupid slogan.]
We are not dealing with a sophisticated American public. Even I am confused by what has been legislated and who is receiving what. I would look for brief slogans that could transform the complex into a visceral message. Addressing low-and-middle-income persons: how did the cash grants specifically affect them? What’s the personal impact of child care funding for individual families? The vaccination and masking success of the Biden administration despite the anti-vax/anti-mask opposition by so many Republicans, including
Governors.
BE VISCERAL, BE BRIEF, AND BE REPETITIVE. (Also tell Manchin to s++t or get off the pot)
I just contacted my Congressman, Tom Malinowski, who has been a marvelous representative since 2019. He is targeted by the Republicans in a tough re-election against Thomas Kean, Jr, who would be nothing were he not the son of Governor Tom Kean. I offered to work with Malinowski’s folks in developing brief, visceral ads that highlight what he and President Biden are accomplishing and ‘low light’ the Republican naysayers.
Reform the police should have gone viral instead of defund the police. Big misstep. They’re Nazis, stupid sounds true to me
Excellent, Keith. I'm sure you remember these lyrics that Clinton use "Don't stop thinking about tomorrow." The assault rifles the right wing Republicans are using to get their way far overpower the Democrat's softball attempts to counter them. It's past time for the Dem's to get real and use more powerful weapons than the GOP's are using. Real assault rifles are made to do one thing, and that is to kill humans. If the GOP weapons are killing the things the Democrats want, then they are going to win. We do not want a dictator in power, and if there is really only one party, we will no longer have a democracy.
There is only one party now
Hate to like this comment but it certainly cannot be disproved by today’s Republicans.
Been waiting half of my long life. I hate advertising, but Luntz has given repubs lying slogans that work for decades. Maybe they could hire him..
Jeri I vividly recall a car ride with my dad when I was 19 or 20. He wanted me, after college, to go into the family advertising business. I my response was something like “Dad, why would I want to spend a career in advertising, when at the end all that I had accomplished was selling more soap?” The rest of the car ride was extremely chilly. Still, with political advertising, the least worst alternative is to Trump the Republican ads with truth and facts in a visceral manner that a third-grader could understand. KEEP IT SIMPLE AND STACCATO.
So why are Dems so resistant, they have been outgunned with words for half of my long life.l.
Jeri You prompted me to recall a 1971 movie—The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight
Thank you Keith. Your talents are what is necessary in the next two election cycles. The level of tone deafness on the left is astounding. "Defund the police" overstates the position, turns off the mainstream, and delegitimizes the lived experience of people in high-crime communities who most need government services and who should be the Democrats' natural constituency. We don't play paintball, we hand our paintball guns over to the Republicans and paint targets on our chests. And we do it over and over.
As a freshman in college, I went to the semester's first meeting of Students for a Democratic Society, one of the most visible college radical movements of the day. The previous spring the Vietnam protests had occupied the ROTC and college administration buildings, and there was tremendous momentum around the progressive movement. The meeting was held in the largest lecture hall on campus and the room was filled. After an hour of polemic lecturing by the five core members of the group, everyone went home. The next meeting, held the following week, was attended by the five core members and me - and I came out of curiosity to see how many freshmen they had driven away. The group visited a picket line at a local Ford plant to show solidarity. They were kicked out. I feel like these are the people who run the Democratic party today.
Please, please find a way to convince the people in charge that they need to understand their audience before they ever open their mouths.
I’ll repeat. “I used to rig card games for a living. I’d watch people sit down and lose everything, again and again. But they didn’t lose because they ‘played by the rules,’ and we didn’t. They lost because it wasn’t a game. It just looked like one. Democrats think it’s a game.” Derek Delgaudio, Twitter. Joe B still thinks it’s politics as usual, it hasn’t been since Reagan/Murdoch took over
But they plod along carrying the burden of Manchin and Sinema
All concerned, (e.g. all Americans terrified of America's democracy's imminent demise), Democrats NOW must get off their ass and aggressively canvas/effectively & repeatedly inform their neighbors of the issues and the urgency of voting in EVERY election. Cleanse Congress of all insurrectionists/traitor republicans + Joe Manchin!
I’ll buy that. But Joe B can travel the country touting his successes while Rupert’s evil crew blasts outright lies every minute - at 90 decibels
Yes, Brian Klaas, the author of "Corruptible: Who Gets Power And How it Changes Us," said on the radio today that these folks who are watching only OAN etc. probably don't even know about these texts. And lord knows what else.
You are so right! You couldn’t be more correct!
Truth
Are the hearings public yet? I don't own a Tv but I have see the media give Cheney massive coverage.
Barbara I don’t know if the hearings are on TV since I haven’t watched TV news for months. My understanding is that they are private but should be televised in several months. I recall a clip of Liz Cheney that I saw attached to a NYT article several days ago. I believe that was from a press conference.
Amen, to Warnock and his wondrous speech today! Cheers to Liz Cheney and the Jan 6 committee. There is hope.
Gratitude to you, Heather, for your brave and courageous work! Perilous times and yet...we work towards a better, cleaner democracy.
And boo and hiss to the Republicans in the House who voted NOT to hold Meadows in contempt! I’m disgusted by them. It makes my blood boil that they are complicit in Trump’s crimes.
I have imagined a traveling photo exhibit of four by six foot, before and after photos of the 150 injured Capitol police officers. But there is no longer a national news source that everyone watches. So, while we would all see the news about the exhibit, the Fox Fiction watchers would hear lies about it or not hear about it at all.
that's a big part of the problem--no longer a news source that everyone watches
We cannot require dissemination of news but we can regulate through the FCC dissemination of mis- or dis-information without violating the first amendment protections on free speech. No one may yell “fire” in a crowded theater, incite a riot, or deliberately cause a dangerous riot. We have SCOTUS decisions supporting this.
Yup.
Per usual, I have enjoyed my morning coffee and read both this letter and the comments (numbering, at this moment, 141 in the 7 hours since this was posted). We are indeed living through a time that is as perilous to our unified country as the period leading up to the Civil War. What really sticks in my mind this morning is this, from the Letter:
"That is, a Republican member of Congress wanted Republican-dominated state legislatures not even to wait to see who had won the election—none of those states had been called by November 4—but simply to ignore the will of the voters, choose their own electors, and hope that the Supreme Court would hand the election to Trump as he had been saying for weeks it would." Followed by this: "Our democracy is at stake. In the Declaration of Independence, this nation’s Founders declared it “self-evident” that governments are legitimate only if those they govern consent to them. If lawmakers take it upon themselves to ignore the will of the voters and themselves decide who will hold power, we will have lost the ability to consent to our government. And that government will be far more extremist than polls suggest the vast majority of us want."
A sitting member of Congress, elected to that body, advocating overthrow of a lawful election. That cannot go unadjudicated.
Drinking my black coffee too.
This astounds me:
"'a few Republican lawmakers pause about continuing to shore up those who set out to undermine democracy, if not for their own principles, then for the reality that this will not play well during televised hearings next year. 'We are all watching what is unfolding on the House side,' Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said today, 'and it will be interesting to reveal all of the participants that were involved.'"
Give pause? How can there be any hesitation to bring them to justice? It was on live TV, the documentation of their conspiracy is in hand.
And Senators are watching the House Representatives as if they too did not know. McConnell knew of this. He had to know. This 'and it will be interesting to reveal all of the participants that were involved' is laughable.
People seem to forget, having knowledge of a crime and doing nothing to prevent it from occurring is the same as participating in the crime.
McConnell is trying to cover his rear. He has always been a liar.
And yet there they are!
Those complicit republican conspirators, by their unwillingness to right the wrongs that are slowly but surely extinguishing the brightly burning flames of American Democracy.
Out with that putrid trash NOW!
Sorry folks!
I can not, and will not, accept the republican threat against America that I have loved for the last 76 years.
“Interesting” translates to damning.
McConnell is hoping there was one activist from the left somewhere in the crowd and will then pretend this one person balances out the hundreds who stormed the Capitol and those who encouraged them. The rhetoric from the south continues to be that the rest of the country is out to destroy it, and if the south doesn’t destroy half its population it will be destroyed itself. I wonder if there shouldn’t be a new southern strategy that simply ignores the south, at least the Deep South, a strategy that breaks the alliance between the south and the west. Win the west, and you don’t need the south, her heels dug in, determined to be static?
Quite a few of us remain vigilant in our fight for We The People, All of Us This Time down here in the lower region of this country 💙!
Please work hard to convince your neighbors to vote against those who seek to destroy American democracy. Do all you can to convincingly assure yourself they know and believe in the Truth...PLEASE. Thank you!
And one that can't spell. Does that narrow the field? None of those people whose names are out there should hold any public office. It is going to get interesting very quickly. In the meantime, pass the voting rights acts.
That struck me too. The names that immediately came to mind were Jordan and Boebert. But I'm sure there are plenty of other dim bulbs who could have written that message!
I was going with Gunslinger Barbie.
I continue to advocate for invoking Section 3 of the 14th amendment that would result in removal from office and prevent them from serving in any federal, state, or local elected office at any time in the future anyone who was directly involved in the planning, promotion, or execution of the January 6th Capitol riots. This should apply to anyone regardless of the office they held at the time of the riot or currently, including the former President.
I have written about this to every member of the January 6th Select Committee, all of my Congressional representatives and senators, AG Merrick Garland, and President Biden. I will continue pressing this request until we begin to hold those responsible for Jan 6 actions accountable.
All of those I communicate with are now regular pen pals and receive letters on this frequently. I also encourage others, many others, to make the same requests, cordially but firmly.
Excellent! I completely agree!
Many years ago I decided to spend some time and a few dollars on a therapist to help me deal with frustrations I was experiencing from seeing too many challenges on which I seemed unable to make a real difference despite working what I felt was quite hard on them. That therapist provided me with some of the best advice I ever received. The therapist suggested that I needed to realize that I had spread myself too thin over too many challenges and I needed to realize I could not solve all of the world's problems. Instead, she suggested I find one issue, one thing I truly cared deeply and passionately about where my own skills and resources might make a difference. Then I should go find several other people who also cared deeply and passionately about that same challenge.
The therapist reminded me of the importance of strength in numbers and the value of diversity of the skills of people required to address those challenges effectively. The therapist also suggested that when we found ourselves having an impact and making a difference in the lives of people we were trying to help, to take the time to celebrate those accomplishments and victories, no matter how small. She said, take joy from those victories and celebrations, and do not worry you cannot solve every problem.
The therapist also said that as you find you have the time, skills, resources, and passion to add another challenge to that first one you can take on an additional challenge in the same way. However, be careful not to spread yourself so thin you become ineffective in either of those two. Then a third challenge, then ...
Well, that advice has changed my life. I try to focus on one thing at a time until I can make a difference there and find a group of people I enjoy working with and who care passionately and deeply about that same challenge. When we can make real differences in the lives of some people and we get something started that has real momentum and growth, I can leave that challenge in the hands of those folks and begin to think about the next challenge I would like to tackle.
I have been fortunate enough to find the world is filled with caring, skilled, kind, and wonderful people who care about many of the same things I care about. Working with them has been so rewarding and we have made a real difference in some lives. Enough? Well, enough to allow for a few of those celebrations my former therapist suggested I enjoy with my friends.
I hope to spend the remainder of my life continuing to make small differences and enjoy small celebrations working on challenges I think are important to address. And you know, if more people would think about taking a similar approach, it would be amazing how many differences and celebrations we might see. Perhaps even creating a truly celebratory culture as we enjoy the changes we might see.
So, why am I making such an effort you ask? Well, I am hoping to see another one of those celebrations in the future. If not, at least I will have met more people who care about the same challenges I do and that is a good thing.
Now my blood is really boiling...
Those two highlighted quotes stir up in me the fight response as the successful evolutionary reaction to threats of my extinction!
THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!
It would be much easier to proceed if the member's name was public information.
I view reading LFAA and having my coffee as sitting with friends discussing the issues of the day. This is Community to me. And, for what it’s worth, the migraine knocking at the door dissuaded me from adding a bit of Jameson’s to my coffee this morning.
Nice to know another Mossback here.
We will be donating to Stacy's campaign even though we are in Salem, Oregon.
"We are all watching what is unfolding on the House side,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said today, “and it will be interesting to reveal all of the participants that were involved."
Typical McConnell. He relishes being rid of Trump et al, but refuses to lift a finger - leaving Democrats to do the heavy lifting, while hurling brickbats at them.
Before Trump's mob sacked the Capitol to impose their will, McConnell had shredded the Constitution to impose his. Sins of Omission and Sins of Commission.
Growing up in the shadow of the Holocaust and coming of age in the activism of the 1960s, I feel that I've spent a lifetime protesting the too easy identifications of various oppressions with Nazism. But McConnell calls to mind Hannah Arendt's notes on Eichmann: Except for an extraordinary diligence in looking out for his personal advancement, he had no motives at all… He merely, to put the matter colloquially, never realized what he was doing… It was sheer thoughtlessness—something by no means identical with stupidity—that predisposed him to become one of the greatest criminals of that period.
In the case of McTurtle, nothing he does is "thoughtless", rather what he does is DELIBERATE and with aforethought.
Deliberate and with aforethought as to "the diligence in looking out for his personal advancement" and "sheer thoughtlessness" as to what he is doing.
I think, Arendt means thoughtless of the context of one's actions and thoughtless to the consequences of one's actions, beyond one's personal advancement.
I think, regarding McConnell, in policy to treat all life and the entire planet as resources to be exploited for personal profit. And in politics to treat all procedures and protocols as the means to personal power. In short, giving no thought to the harmful impact of his actions on our most vulnerable neighbors, our fragile planet, and on the insecure rule of law.
"The most striking difference between ancient and modern sophists is that the ancients were satisfied with a passing victory of the argument at the expense of truth, whereas the moderns want a more lasting victory at the expense of reality"
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of
The outstanding negative quality of the totalitarian elite is that it never stops to think about the world as it really is and never compares the lies with reality.
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
Your citing or quoting the sages of the ages, may or may not support your opinion. It stretchers far beyond my understand that Mitchell, and the 'donors'/power brokers for whom he serves are unaware of consequences of their dictates to the degree they can be known in advance. However harmful at times or most of the time, the line is drawn to serve their interests. This is not to say that all of them care nothing for the human good, sometimes adjustments are made.
The point is, that such as McConnell are thoughtless of the relatively predictable harm, we can reasonably assume they are well aware of. They are care/less of all but their own interests, and even blinkered as to those, in the long run.
Thank you for a bit more clarity. While our argument narrows, painting all of them automatons as you have, doesn't settle the matter. I reach as far as agreeing that what you have expressed is true of the vast majority.
I am not painting anyone as an 'automaton'. The point is that such as McConnell, and Eichmann, have 'agency' and are not stupid. They have decided to act for their own advancement, without any thought to the harmful impact of their decisions/actions.
Yup---typical McConnell. I will do whatever benefits me ($$$) in the end, but in the meantime, I'll look like I'm doing my job.
He's despicable.
Sewer rat
You got that right.
Mitch plans to rewrite history, power is as important as greed
And corrupt
Thank you lin for drawing attention to Hannah Arendt’s “Origins of Totalitarianism”. Her structured matter of fact analysis of the motivation of those who would control us and how we let them is an important message for us. Together with Timothy Snyder’s “20 Lessons …” those two books would constitute an undergraduate curriculum in “Motivations of Despots and How to Control Them”.
Thank you lin for revealing some of your own background. To have a personal context makes frequent posters point of view more understandable and readable.
Seeking further clarification here is it “lin”. Small L or “lin” double i?
Thank You for giving me the opportunity to mention Ken Krimstein's 'The Three Escapes' of Hannah Arendt' a worthy companion to Art Spiegelman's 'Maus.' And I do not say that lightly. Krimstein depicts not only a biography, but also a social and intellectual history. Take *that* Martin Heidigger! (You Nazi you.)
http://www.kenkrimstein.com/the-three-escapes-of-hannah-arendt
Seriously I or I? Lin. The photo is of a fan, because I am a fan of HCR;)
Seriously :)
Could be either way.
You run deep my friend and currents sometimes come back on themselves. Strong currents are to be respected and not taken for granted. Therefor I ask.
I hold all 208 Repugs who voted against holding Meadows "in contempt of Congress" guilty of treason for their support of the insurrection and its aiders and abettors -- that includes all senators who, thus far, have NOT proclaimed their outrage against apostate Meadows and his ilk!
Doubtless they are the same ones who saw all the evidence presented at the second impeachment and still chose to vote against it. No. Moral. Compass.
they are attempting to hide their own role in Sedition
Their asses are grass, and the January 6 committee is the lawnmower
And of those 208, which ones (names please) were sending those text messages?
Yes, please!
Soon, I hope.
Without Heather and all of you, I would be an island of one. You and my arts groups here in Spain are the only reason I am on FB anymore. When I posted these truths, no one replies. It is as though those who were all ¨Blue Wave¨ only want recipes and photos of kittens. This group is my anchor with sanity.
As someone who uses FB quite a bit as both a way to stay in touch with friends or to promote the concert events of the musical groups that I belong to, I have taken my own advice around "stagger breathing" and stepped back from engaging in political commentary. The people on my friends list know my stances and about my belief system. I had to stop engaging with the Republiqans and Cult 45 members because they were getting rent free space in my head that was causing me a lot of discontent and discomfort. I have threads show up on my "Memories" page of conversations that number into the 100-120 comment range regarding various issues. In every single one of these, the stances of the Republiqans reflect no utilization of anything other than lies, Faux talking points, and no indication that they can think critically. Often showing up are the names of people that have both unfriended and blocked me (including, recently, one who made a post on my page about how juvenile that was; he subsequently both blocked and unfriended me.)
I still am passionate about the things I believe in; I just refuse to engage with idiots whose only reply to a rebuttal of their lie with evidence to the contrary is a well thought out and reasoned "Nu-uh". The few times that I have engaged on one guy's page when he "invites" opposing views (he's a former local newscaster who has jumped the shark into the deep end and no longer makes any sense at all; he sold his farm and is moving to Montana) I will occasionally get a "thumbs up" or even a comment, but most of the comments are downright mean, nasty, ill-informed, and poorly written.
"Staggering breathing", my musical friends tell me, is very important to the success of a choral performance. We each need to stop and take a breath, alternating, when this civil war stress is too much, so our song of democracy continues, strong and powerfully.
Gailee, precisely why I stay on facebook.
Facebook is basically for bragging about what you are doing, or where you have been. Unfortunately.
Dr Heather Cox Richardson averages over 50K likes per day on Facebook and I've seen days over 100k. December 13th letter has 51k likes, 3k+ comments, & over 18k shares.
Many folks are selective about how they use FB.
But it does have its role for maintaining communication - www.facebook.com/austrop, but I will have to agree, it doesn't encourage real communication - just that you are alive and functioning. Interestingly, I never see the political or other posts that people complain about (and may it stay that way!). I don't use FB for HCR - I rely on the direct web link (am I missing stuff?).
I always share Heather’s letters on fb….interestingly never any negative comments or reactions…probably because those people are not interested in reading anything past the first paragraph!
Not really. There is some good commentary, but I cannot wade through 2,000 comments.
I post Heather' Letters on fb, but quote a salient paragraph or 2 in a heading for it, hoping to entice my friends to read the whole thing, but gratified if they at least respond to the quote.
Yes, I add a comment at the beginning also… hoping for that hook! It also helps me summarize Heathers points in my head
Yes!
It really depends on the circle of friends. I do have friends that post photos of their cats, etc., but most of "friends" in my group are politically minded, and politics is the primary topic on my page.
Ditto!
I’ve always enjoyed having you here Gailee. Hang in there‼️
HaHa. At least not photos of kitten recipes. (Although I can give you some for guinea pigs.)
If you are an ex pat or temporarily living in Spain, then this might be useful:
https://www.democratsabroad.org/es
I belong to Democrats abroad. It is these democrats that put Biden over the top.
ThankYou! For your activism and vote. I apologize for the Coals to Newcastle. And sympathize with your experience of Blue Wave voters' disengagement. That has happened stateside too. With 2022 closer than it looks, hopefully after some 'recipes and kittens' R&R people will be ready to get back in the struggle, soon.
Republican obstruction of vote by mail also suppresses the overseas vote. Republican obstruction of the FEC - appointing fixers like Don McGahn to the commission and also for years, refusing to nominate/confirm a quorum - perversely hurt Americans voting from overseas, while preventing adequate oversight of foreign influence.
https://www.govexec.com/management/2020/12/election-commission-regains-quorum-and-resumes-full-duties-facing-massive-backlog-work/170680/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-worked-with-trumps-pick-for-white-house-counsel-he-doesnt-care-about-corruption/2016/12/09/76f0793c-bcac-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html
https://theconversation.com/americans-around-the-world-were-part-of-the-largest-voter-turnout-in-u-s-history-152414
https://news.wttw.com/2019/08/27/federal-election-chair-sounds-alarm-2020-election
My wish was that today they had included the time stamps on the increasingly frantic text messages sent to Meadows from the Fox newscasters and Trump Jr. I think it would have been even more starling reinforcement of how utterly delighted Trump was at the chaos as it got worse.
Good point! I wish they had included the senders’ names. I wonder why they didn’t.
The Committee plans to later release the names of MOC's who participated in planning of the Insurrection- a good thing IMHO.
Yes, a very good thing. I am just wondering what the benefit is to waiting.
Keep those members on edge hoping their names aren't on "the list."
Just what I was thinking, too
I won’t live long enough to tell the babies & unborn about this period in our history. Thankfully there will be works from Professor Richardson to take my place. Thank You!!!
The burning of the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin, on Monday 27 February 1933, took place four weeks after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. Hitler's government stated that Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch council communist, was the culprit, and it attributed the fire to communist agitators. Later, Hitler's general Hermann Göring bragged that he himself set the fire.
Note that Trump precedes any mention of Democrats with "communist."
Thank you 🙏
Any mention of Trump that associates him with Hitler gets my approval.
I'm so thankful for Heather's focus on the GOP voting-rights suppression efforts underway. We need all the sunlight we can shine on the GOP's attempts to undermine free and fair elections. This unidentified member of Congress texting "let's target the states that didn't announce their election results on election night" is dangerous. As an election officer, I can affirm that the vote totals are announced when ALL the votes have been counted! Believe me, I'd rather be home right after the polls close, kicking back with a glass of wine after a 15-hour day. But we take an oath to finish the job, and sometimes it takes time to close out the equipment, cross-check the results, call in the results, and hand-deliver/escort the sealed boxes of voted ballots to the central elections office. Good on Senator Warnock for pursuing Voting Rights legislation so publicly and persistently. Let people vote, for heaven's sake. What are they afraid of - democracy?
They cannot handle that our country isn’t the “white America” they’ve grown to love. They are seeing the rise of the rainbow of colors that they sought to oppress for so long and that scares them. Good, I say! Let’s drive these bastards back under the rocks from whence they came. We are very lucky to have Warnock in the Senate. He is not afraid. He saw how the Repubs changed the rules when voting for the debt ceiling. He called them out for doing so and reminded them when it is convenient, they make things go their way. Dems in the Senate, especially, must back Warnock strongly and demand the rules to be tweaked to include the Voting Rights Act.
Marlene‼️ Fabulous, I love all of this ‼️
“They cannot handle that our country isn’t the “white America” they’ve grown to love. They are seeing the rise of the rainbow of colors that they sought to oppress for so long and that scares them. Good, I say! Let’s drive these bastards back under the rocks from whence they came.”
Yes, that’s what they’re afraid of
Thank you ClaireBlue for your excellent work 🏆🏆❤️
Thank you, Roland - you're very kind!
Just a side note. Kentucky has been ravaged by the recent devastating tornadoes, so why is Senate Minority Leader McConnell (R-KY) nowhere to be seen on the ground showing some degree of compassion for those crushed and in mourning. Is the honorable senator from Kentucky taking a "Cancun break"?
He does not care.
Another He. Does. Not. Care.
He can’t be bothered by helping “the little people”.
KY is just the place he happens to get elected from. It’s not any place he cares about.
Right, Marcy.
I am going to extend a bit of grace at this time to Mr. McConnell, a man that I am definitely not fond of nor have I or will I vote for as a Kentuckian. At this moment, the efforts in of rescue and initial cleanup could be hindered by visits from politicians.
True words. Trust me on that. His visit would divert a bunch of resources that could best be used helping those in need, not those in power.
You are likely right.
Seriously, if your whole town was in ruins and your home was destroyed, would you really want McConnell showing up and weeping crocodile tears? It might just be the last straw (to mix a few metaphors)
Could be. Another side note: Remember when people claimed that AIDS was God’s punishment for homosexuals? I can just as reasonably claim that the tornadoes were Divine vengeance on Kentucky voters for repeatedly electing McConnell and Rand Paul.
Well, the "other senator" who denied the need for Federal aide for other major weather disasters, has asked for aide for this disaster......specializing in hypocrisy.
Dr. Paul missed his calling. He should have studied veterinary medicine: he suffers from "foot-in-mouth" disease.
Yesterday, on Heather's FB politics talk, she repeated Bill McKibben's words "don't be an individual" (when he was asked: "what can I do as an individual?") i.e. join a movement. I hope our group here is a movement and that we can support the effort to save our democracy.
Two days ago, I finally told GMA Video to cancel my subscription since they won't separate the bundle that includes FNC. I wrote to the CEO (twice) to tell him that I protested their support of a dangerous propaganda machine and he responded "we have to give the people what they want". It means that I can't see PBS any more, some of the content I really like, but I am sick of Judy Woodruff's negativity on the Newshour. I will continue to get my news from the internet, and clarity from Heather!
If you’re a member of PBS, you can access content streaming to an app on your tablet or on TV via something like a Roku.
Also accessible on their website with no additional apps or devices needed.
Thanks, I'll look into that. The VT service I had bundled several channels together. I contribute to PBS, so I should turn that into a membership.
PBS Passport is yours for $60 for year, or $5 per month. I think if you’ve given already in last 12 months you can access Passport. Most of their programming is there, or will be.
Bravo! And have you cancelled F.Book?
That's next!
The texts are stunning. For one moment imagine any of this was from Black Lives Matter or Occupy. Members of Congress involved should be charged with treason as well as the rest of the lynch mob.
Exactly!
That is exactly where this is heading