On ABC’s This Week this morning, Representative Steve Scalise (R-LA) refused to admit that Democrat Joe Biden had legitimately won the 2020 presidential election.
We need a new Voting Rights Act with teeth. One that bans gerrymandering, one that opens up the process of voting rather than restricting it. Voting should be easy, clear, transparent. We already know that if that becomes the norm the extremists following their Dear Leader would never survive. Remember: when Ossoff arranged debates with Perdue he failed to show because he knew he would look like an idiot.
Voting should be required, like it is in 30 countries that have some form of mandatory voting. In Australia, citizens who don't show up to vote are fined. They typically have over 95% voter participation. There should be a voting holiday, and mail-in voting should be encouraged for anyone who has difficulty in getting to the polls.
Mandatory voting means it will be more likely that politicians will pay attention to all voters, the wealthy, the middle class, the poor and the disabled.
Making a law such as this would require an amendment to the constitution, which is extremely unlikely as no red state would ratify it. In order to maintain their power, republicans must exercise voter suppression. There would be no voter suppression if voting were mandatory, and political parties would be more likely to be truly representative.
And of course, every candidate for president should be more thoroughly vetted. Every candidate should be required to release at least the last five years of their tax returns.
Biden has proposed ten years of tax returns! It is ironic that Republicans who have only kept power by cheating since Clinton claim that the Dems have stolen the election. I believe this utter hypocrisy will lead to more violence. This madness should be scaring the crap out of us.
Stevendm, following up on your recommendation for a thorough vetting of every candidate, this is to expand on your suggestion that every candidate be required to submit at least the last five years of tax returns. I am a member of the World Mental Health Coalition (worldmhc.org), an international organization of mental health professionals, who advocate for a fitness for duty exam for all Presidential candidates. You may remember the World Mental Health Organization from the book, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump (2017) in which leading experts in psychiatry and mental health offered the consensus that the mental state of Donald Trump presented a clear danger to the well-being of our nation. Trump’s behavior patterns have led our organization to call for a fitness for duty exam for all Presidential candidates, so that we do not have a repeat of a President who lacks the capacity to lead our nation.
A fitness for duty, or fitness to serve, exam consists of an independent evaluation of the ability to carry out specific functions necessary for a job. They are assessments, which include physical exams, that measure the mental capacity necessary for making sound decisions and include such factors as ability to attend to relevant situational facts, comprehend facts and information from multiple sources, use sound reasoning, consider consequences, and assess risk before taking action vs. such characteristics as sense of entitlement, lack of empathy, rigidity, lack of impulse control, recklessness, etc.
Such assessments are given routinely—some on a biennial basis—to all military officers, as well as to others in similar positions of power, such as CIA, FBI, DEA, and Secret Service agents, as well as many workers in nuclear plants and law enforcement departments.
The viewpoint of the World Mental Health Organization is that if physical and mental fitness for duty tests are required of the military, why are they not required of the President, who is Commander-in-Chief of the military? We see it as a glaring omission. If military officers must pass psychiatric evaluations before they lead our troops into battle, isn’t it crucial for our presidents to have to pass the same evaluations before they are allowed to lead the military?
Like a real celebration of John Lewis' birthday 81 years ago by passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would help safeguard voters from racial discrimination and vote suppression by strengthening the protections granted under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Gerrymandering and other ways to counter voter suppression? Support HR1 For the People Act to expand voting rights, change campaign finance laws to reduce the influence of money in politics, limit partisan gerrymandering, and create new ethics rules for federal officeholders.
Important side note reminder in the John Lewis article:
Democratic Representative Mondaire Jones of New York stated, "False allegations of mass voter fraud were never meant to be proven. They were always meant to lay the foundation for another decade of voter suppression," referring to former President Donald Trump's unsubstantiated claims that widespread voter fraud impacted the 2020 presidential election.
If you’re interested in getting into the weeds on HR-1 and the possibility of passing it through the Senate (S-1), this interview with HR-1 sponsor Rep. John Sarbanes and others – also a podcast – is very informative.
If I listen, I’ll get more depressed. Our state is so red it’s practically on fire. Blackburn is one senator. I expect nothing balanced out of her; she’s Trump’s bestie. The other senator is no better. I think this legislation is very much needed. My legislators will do nothing to help. They still support trump.
Oh, Marcy, I am in the same boat. Two red senators and a matching shade of governor here in Florida. I write letters and get the most ridiculous canned answers back.
Puto Rubio lives in another reality where he quotes Buybull verses instead of governance. Writing to that pendejo would only be a total waste unless I did a profanity laced missive for my own catharsis.
Marcy, Kim, Annette: have you reached out to your local Dems group? You probably have an active county group. This would be a natural place to find allies. Form there, they would be connected to others, such as health care professionals, teachers, city and county employees, etc
I am active with my local Indivisible group. I am blessed to live in Port Townsend, Wa. on th Olympic Peninsula, insulated from the world at large, but very much concerned. We are an amazing community of activists.
I wonder how the prevailing winds and cozy habitats of ‘Olympia’ differ from our long slender peninsulas and petite villages on the coast of Maine. Do you know?
Interesting dialogues.....what would happen in The House if they got rid of the law limiting the number of representatives and went back to equal sized districts...by population not land area? The population is more city based and tending to vote Democrat even in Red States. ould this undo the GOP minorities calculations and their dreams of a minoritocracy?
The House is actually organized around population, rather than land. However, smaller states, well under the appx 900,000 population of each district, still get a representative. These states are VT, DE, WY, MT, AL, ND and SD. Perhaps I don’t fully understand your thought?
It seems to me in 1929 they limited the total number reprentatives which would have continued to increase with the population as equal representation of each person was the guiding rule. It was obviously beneficial to GOP to cut this link and to the advantage of the Dems to restore it.
That is exactly what happened. It was done precisely to limit the power of the cities growing with immigrants, and has had that effect. Repealing that law would get the House closer to really being proportional to population, and would also make the Electoral College less distorted. I'm surprised it's not part of HR 1.
At least part of it is the resulting size/number of Representatives, which would require more office space and, at some point, a bigger meeting place to conduct business. But that would, at least on first glance, make gerrymandering more difficult.
And as long as the Senate of 50-50 and the two DINOs Krysten Sinema and Joe Manchin think they're in charge, don't hold your breath waiting for that or you will turn blue and die.
Which brings us back to the question of whether or not to get rid of the filibuster. Are there any reasons NOT to do so besides not having it available if Democrats lose the majority?
As a minimum, every candidate for the office of president of the United States, and also for member of the U.S. Congress, should have to qualify for Top Secret access with a thorough background check. It is unlikely that Donald Trump and at least the two QAnon-associated members of the House of Representatives could have passed such an examination.
It is frightening to think that Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA22, and Chair of the House Intelligence Committee from 2015 to 2019) has access to some of the most protected secrets of this country and hired a number of hacks that Trump moved into controlling positions of the Intelligence community.
As someone who lives in a solidly blue state, it looks to me like the battle is already lost. Republican in majorities will stop at nothing to suppress the votes of people who vote for Democrats. They have no shame and are the worst possible human beings. Republican voters want it that way otherwise the politicians would be forced to change. It didn't help that Democrats didn't gain in state legislatures in 2020 and lost some. Is there any real hope?
If people in multitude take action, there is a chance, and that is the path to change, as has been demonstrated since the founding of this country over and over--most recently in the runoff elections of 2 Democratic Senators in Georgia.
How can you help? Send a little money to Fair Fight, which is replicating its Georgia playbook in other states:
Republicans want their opposition to feel defeated at the get go. So at least redirect pessimistic energy into support for the on-the-ground activists doing the work. Even verbal support helps keep up motivation and spirit.
I have given to Fair Fight several times in the past year. Abrams will set the stage, once again, in 33 states that are planning to disenfranchise blacks and others voting rights. It is beyond me that we share space with these hateful and cruel people.
Texas needs a Stacey Abrams style get-out-the-vote for Latinos and blacks to motivate and aid them to vote, and a persistent legal drive against voter suppression from community groups and activists. Texas is very close to turning purple for similar reasons that Shelly Bird described for Virginia. Austin, for example, has become a high-tech hub, attracting tens of thousands of democratic-leaning talent. But Texas Republicans have attempted to purge voter rolls, have forced polling places to close, have fought to keep voter registration difficult, and have punished minor violations of election law with draconian prison sentences. Latino voting has remained very low and desperately needs activists to get out their vote. The same is true for black voters in Texas. Gerrymandering is horrible in Texas and will remain that way for the next ten years as the state legislature is still dominated by republicans, and reapportionment will continue to be drawn to their advantage. And republicans will also continue to shout voter fraud in minority-dominated areas. But despite republican tactics of cheating and voter suppression, Texas has edged closer and closer to turning purple. As Shelley noted for Virginia, it takes time, but I believe that time is coming to Texas.
According to brennancenter.org 33 states have introduced, prefiled, or carried over 165 restrictive bills this year while 37 states have introduced, prefiled, or carried over 541 bills to expand voting access.
There’s a whole lot of pulling in opposite directions - but expanding voting rights could certainly win this vicious tug-of-war.
I have donated to fair fight and other causes and will continue to do so. Stacy Abrams is an amazing organizer and smart as a whip. There is also Nse Ufot of the new Georgia project.
But Georgia is still a red state. Their republican legislature is already planning on making voting harder so that a repeat of senators Ossoff and Warnock can be prevented. This country also tolerated Jim Crow laws for a quite a while.
Democrats must take control of the narrative. Use media and messaging that contains factual evidence of what Biden et al. are doing to help ALL of US. Dems need to stop giving oxygen to the R's.
In all areas of my life I cling to the belief that where there is life, there is hope. We live in NC, in the county with the consistently highest voter turnout in the state that votes consistently Democrat, my husband and I joined a letter writing campaign encouraging Georgians to vote. Where phone calls have become anathema to many, often people will open and read a hand addressed letter. There is always something we can do to strengthen our hope for change.
Glad to see a negative word about phone banks, which I consider a waste of resources in today's world. Letters and postal cards (not slick pieces from candidates) reach far more voters.
Handwritten cards and letters are effective, but phone calls have an immediacy that also works (though abusive responses are possible). Engaging with a live listener is good human contact, and gives them a chance to dialogue with like-minded activists.
I have to have real hope. I can't go anywhere. My daughter and her family are here. She is very ill. She has two little girls. If I didn't keep hope flowing in every aspect of my life, I wouldn't ever get up again. So politically, my granddaughters are front and center and I will do whatever I need to keep our state safe for them. That said, in Arizona we voted Mark Kelly in for Senate and Joe Biden in for President. If that can happen here, then we can take down the right wing extremist legislature. All of my state legislators are Democrats, so admittedly I am in some kind of weird liberal bubble within the state of Arizona. I know we need to find our own Stacy Abrams for Arizona to get a big movement going and adapt to whatever comes out of this legislature this year. But it isn't over.
I visit family regularly in VA and pay some attention to its politics. VA is mostly blue now for statewide and national offices, with large swathes of liberalism in DC suburbs, around Richmond and the Norfolk-Hampton area. (The GOP still dominate rural districts.)
In Aug 2018 we attended an anti-Brett Kavanaugh rally in Alexandria. It was incredibly heartening to engage with like-minded political and union activists. I should have spent the rest of the afternoon with them instead of enduring another dreary lunch with in-laws.
I donated way more than I should have sensibly just to make sure Biden got in—now I’m not even so sure big money works and I don’t have really big money.
You are an inspiration, Liz. I'm also sensibly senseless, proud to donate c.$700 to Biden, and c.$300 to the GA runoffs. I always wait for requests from PACs that offer matching funds: 300, 350, 500, even 850% matches make the money go farther. And we know that signing or donating guarantees ... yet more petitions and requests to donate. Yay?!
This is where the pandemic has helped Dems. People don’t need to be in blue cities or suburbs to work. Where is land and housing cheaper? Trump country.
Wow, thanks so much, Shelly. Do you live in VA? If so, who do you think would make the best candidate for Governor? I am doing research right now to be prepared for November.
Charles M. Blow’s “The Devil You Know” argues that African Americans should return to the South, reverse migration if not feeling empowered in the current home state.
Mr Blow is on target but perhaps a bit tardy. In 1996 anthropologist Carol Stack published Call To Home, a sequel to All Our Kin, her 1974 classic on Black migrants in the North. CTH documents an already-existing pattern of partial return migration to southern states and neighborhoods. The reasons are complex and multifaceted -- but why be prosaic when we can SING !!!
I have found that putting my energy into supporting Democratic candidates in red states gives me the greatest hope. There is also phone banking, postcarding, etc. that can be done if you lack the finances. I am happy here in Oregon with my senators and representative (DeFazio). I try to work other states, and statewide Oregon races where a democrat may need extra help.
For what it's worth the pod save america guys have been highlighting all these causes for the last 4+ years. They also have done fund raising drives for these organizations with an eye towards helping Dem candidates in red/purple states. I feel lucky being in blue MA.
The judiciary committee minority side does look like a league of super villains but a few of them are so deeply steeped in the insurrection I’ll bet there will be some openings. That’s all they have - cheating.
Yes, there is but that would require, despite GOP voter suppression, a massive outpouring of voters at local as well as national levels, who are neither ignorant of the facts nor susceptible to 'big lies.' Getting to that point is the challenge.
Targeted, of course. The Dems won the popular vote by 7 million, but could have lost if 90,000 votes in a few states hadn’t gone blue. GOO knows this too.
Merrick Garland clearly has the right priorities. Implementing them while rebuilding and restoring faith in a decimated Department of Justice is daunting. Mitch McConnell may live to regret blocking Garland's nomination to the Supreme Court.
I get the sense that the named republicans on senate judiciary are shaking in their boots, not for what will happen in the hearing, but in anticipation of the approach he will take in providing leadership to DOJ.
This morning’s review presents the Republican narrative (storyline, vision, argument, etc). It is important to be aware of their plan. We know the right wing narrative by now - the election was stolen, there were fraudulent votes counted, and only conservatives can stop this atrocity. In today’s review, the valuable news item are the names of the conservative Republican Senators of a vital Senate committee. But I’d like to bring to light a larger picture.
The more attention the media, liberals and Democrats give to the conservative story, the LESS attention we give to the counter narrative, or the liberal vision. This would be our position. We must know of the conservative plan, but not to the detriment of promoting our own vision and narrative. We simply cannot afford to give most of our focus on the conservative narrative, because that is depressing to us, and it creates a weak attempt to counter their efforts.
In this case, we cannot be on the defense regarding the 2020 election. We MUST he on the offensive in building a universal suffrage movement to provide ballot access to every citizen in the society, against this threat of voter suppression. Because, we are the defenders of our democracy.
I’m afraid I see a reoccurring pattern developing all over again. Have we been here before, where our focus lies almost solely on the despicable opponent? Our recent history provides a perfect review for my concern. Five years ago, liberals nominated the most highly qualified candidate to ever run for the Presidency in Sec Hillary Clinton. Most observers agreed this was the case. But the focus of the national media, which played into the local media, was the conservative case against her. Our internal division of “Berniecrats” and “progressives”, vs. Clinton, coupled with wild, untruthful assertions against Sec Clinton from Russia and conservatives, led to a totally depressed effort by liberals in our effort to win 2016.
I fault liberals as well as the media for this tragedy, because we were. The lack of a positive narrative about liberalism and Sec Clinton played perfectly into the hands of right-wing media - because the mainstream media simply parroted the talking points of conservatives, in its attempt to be a neutral arbiter of ’news.’
The attention liberalism plays today to the conservative narrative, in this very beginning stage of the Biden Administration, is going to establish an early national conversation for “46". Will the predominate American story-line become the conservative fable of the illegal victory of Joe Biden? Will liberalism EVER have a consensus on our vision of America? Will liberals come to realize the VITAL importance of developing a winning story-line, that is based on “liberty and justice for all,” and other possible mantras of liberalism.
Regarding this specific instance of Merrick Garland, is your news consumption highlighting his involvement in perhaps America’s most important trial, ever? Or is your news simply a rewording of what could be a Republican press release, even with a tinge of doubt? What exactly is the vision of liberalism? What values and direction of government and economy will this administration behold? Is your ’news’ simply a repetition of the right wing narrative, of the stolen election?
Initially, we may need to simply recognize that we do not have a narrative or direction (!) Exactly what is the society that liberals want to create? What is our goal?
Secondly, please be aware of how much attention you pay to worry and fear, or a concern with the conservative narrative. In your life, do you have an equal or greater emphasis on the possibility of a liberal society. Do you see a liberal narrative? And the answer will be “No.” Simply because we do not have that voice (narrative).
Our first goal, I would suggest, is to recognize that we do not have a goal. To beat back conservatism is NOT a goal. But this will be VERY valuable for us to recognize, in order to be on the offensive in 2022. We simply cannot repeat the failures of the Clinton and Obama regimes in their first midterms, when conservatism made tremendous strides. Now, this frightening thought may well be enough for liberals to begin to strategize, soon.
There is nothing conservative about today's Republican Party. Can we please stop using the word to describe them?
My likely insignificant contribution started during the Rove whisper campaigns. Since then, I switch the word conservative to radical in my head. Real conservatives actually conserve.
My mother, b. 1920 a few months before women had the right to vote, moved to Texas in 1985. She had called herself a conservative Republican voter forever. She had, however, started to vacillate about the direction of so-called conservatives during Watergate. More than a decade later, watching Karl Rove take Ann Richards apart with demonstrable lies was the last straw for my mom. She said then that the Republicans were no longer conservative, that they had now engaged in radical acts every bit as damaging as any Radical. My mother also knew that because the so-called conservatives were white dudes in suits, the radical nature of their policies hid in plain sight. She volunteered with AAUW most of her adult life to uphold voter access.
The GQP wants unfettered access to deadly weapons and to fetter the hell out of voting. That is as radical as it comes.
The rest of us must become obsessive about increasing unfettered access to the ballot. It is our last shot at conserving the republic.
With all due respect Lee, and having come from a very conservative, white collar family myself, the terms conservative and conservatism absolutely fits the anti-democracy (anti-goverment) attitude of this mindset. I agree they have radically changed their view of the world. But the world has changed around them. imho, there is no room for a small, underfunded government to address global finances, and global transgressions of capitalism.
The “free market” conservative economic theory has given us a global crisis of universal proportions, with problems around: gender; the care of the Earth; disease; poverty; abuse and violence; nationalism; wars; and now a global pandemic. And etc.
Cosnservstism has allowed the reign of money, now global finances forces, to dictate the living conditions of billions of people. I feel fully justified in laying the answers squaring where the problems are, and the global crisis roots are the in the philosophy of true conservatives, such as Goldwater, Reagan, Bushes, Koch, Scaiffe, Heritage Foundation, et.al.
Lee and Frederick are both right. Each concentrate on different aspects of the concept of conservative. Remember that no one has a monopoly on having a correct viewpoint.
Looking at the free-economy aspect of conservatism, I find it interesting that the Russian oligarchs have adopted the principles of raw capitalism to enrich themselves with money and power. The authoritarian aspect of the soviet regime remains intact even as they abandon the communist notions of the power of the community.
Appreciate your response, John. There is nothing incorrect about Frederick's original post or his reply to me. One of the problems with our US political lexicon is that we use cross-subject shorthand that muddies the discourse. While conservative does indeed translate to unregulated capitalism here, at one time it did not, see Dwight Eisenhower who regulated the hell out of the so-called free market via income taxation. People in countries where regulated capitalism is the norm find our version radical – and sometimes shocking, especially our brutal healthcare sector.
I agree heartily and no longer want to focus solely on Republican attempts to subvert the system. This obsession with Trump and his sycophants can suck all of the oxygen out of the room. I sincerely hope the media ignores his speech at CPAC.
I do see a Democratic narrative coming from the Biden Administration's actions.
1. Competent government that can get the vaccine into American's arms and help when disaster strikes (Texas).
2. Economic prosperity: A livable minimum wage, infrastructure jobs, and much needed relief from the economic disruption of the pandemic
3. A strategic plan for international relations with well-thought out short and long-term goals. Working with our allies and standing strong against our enemies, especially Russia and China.
4. A commitment to addressing climate change while growing jobs,
Agreed. We must write and control the narrative. Stop the con. Stop the lie. Amazing changes are coming from Biden's leadership. Praise those who SERVE the people, the Democrats.
Boy do I agree! Would love to see it. Sure don't so far. The For the People Act is a perfect example. It is in my opinion a quintessential 'liberal' bill. 'LIberal' (really that is a jargon word that we should stop using) but in this sense it means moving toward the future where honesty and fairness are at the forefront. It in my opinion this bill is the only thing that we should be focusing on (other than disasters and epidemics that is) since it is the solution to defusing the big lie, and returning elections to a place where they aren't so easy to manipulate. It also requires the opposition to double down and likely expose their multi-decade plan to control US elections. I do totally agree that when we allow our conversation to be influenced much less dominated by 'their' egregious behavior we are simply playing in to their hand.
Democrats must take control of the narrative. Use media and messaging that contains factual evidence of what Biden et al. are doing to help ALL of US. Dems need to stop giving oxygen to the R's.
It seems to me that only when the left consistently DOES something for the working class and labor in this country that it will more clearly win elections. Many voters see the government as a nation-state that never helps them. It would take making the state work for people to convince the masses that the state can work for people! Forget "narratives". Forget stories and mottos, one-liners. DO something and tout THAT. To help an improved Democratic Party consolidate power, will not come down to simply announcing support for the right policies, while downplaying the wrong ones. It will, unfortunately, be much longer and harder work. And, as long as there are powerful donors in the background to whom parties must respond, who also decry any form of campaign finance reform, the democrat's are is a boat that is holding its own but standing still in the rapids.
Unfortunately, the working class bought the Reagan narrative, as my neighbors in PA. turned against Dems in two massive blowout elections wins for conservatives. Some steel workers and union members came to see “the other” as the problem, rather than a corrupt economic system.
People do not vote on policies, but on values. Reagan captured the narrative (values). His infamous ONE LINE destroyed a lot that FDR built. And this played into the anti-government screed of the right since the Hoover days of the 1920s.
People need to understand that they must contribute to the all. That folks aren't just automatically entitled to free everything unless they are willing to work . for some with a physical or mental disability, such as myself, that work will look different- but it takes all of us to make America. It is not for those who make careers in Washington- which is another story and something else which MUST end
I reject the “entitled to free everything” mantra from conservatives. Yes, there are some who take advantage. However, I know of people who received, some years ago, $628 per MONTH, with received some subsidized housing. But a small amount yet a significant percentage of that went to housing. This is the coast of Maine, more expensive than mid-west, but not a high end CoL
It is impossible to live on $550 per month! This is not where a problem lies.
The REAL problem is with the wealthy and corporations who PAY nothing o rent to nothing.
Excellent assessment, Frederick! I’ve been struggling to put words to the NOW Biden Presidency hopes. The media has not helped in any of the sources I inhale. If you have any ideas or slogans that you have thought of or are using right now in your communication, share - if you can. gildedtwig@icloud.com. Thank you. ❤️🤍💙
Though it's not new, how about The Nation magazine? Founded in 1865 to support the Freedmen and Reconstruction, and fighting ever since to protect civil and human rights.
To all above, and everyone else of course. We ought to characterize their narrative as “the anti-democracy” or “tiny democracy” - because of their resistance to government. They will of course totally agree they are anti-government. Well then, what do you think a rational rejoinder to that would be? Of crows, we are the movement of “effective government” or "big government to address big problems”
I’ve written before that we could state “government = democracy.” So, of course we are the movement and party of “Big government for Big Democracy for Big Solutions.”
You really nailed this. Some thing of the like is playing out in our get-rid-of-Johnson messaging to date in WI. It's all about him and not about what we want in a Senator or what the message is that we have to offer in rural Red strongholds. As an aside, you opinion: The Lincoln Project and Never Trump and our strong constant verbalizing about Trump kept clear focus on ousting Trump. Do you think that that anti-Trump messaging didn't translate to respectable Democratic candidates down ticket for the same reason; spent all of our messaging on him?
Yes Fred, I think that without a vision for a strong form of Democratic Capitalism, we have little to offer against this tired but digestible “free market” scam that is so prevalent. Our schools, hospitals, rads and the safety of the earth ALL demand we provide funding - and that would equate to a Democracy Capitalism
"Initially, we may need to simply recognize that we do not have a narrative or direction (!) Exactly what is the society that liberals want to create? What is our goal?"
^ This, exactly! What we need is an assertive, proactive, strong narrative. A vision and a story and steps to get there. Do we have that? What is it?
Diana, we do not have this. Or, we would have heard the consistency drumbeat of ... our narrative. Bernie made so much progress, but he was a boring laundry list pf policies. One after another.
I have passion around this, over many years. And I come to a Democracy Capitalism. Separate the two, Ensure they are both sound and fair. After we speak about THIS, then comes all of the specifics around: climate change, racial inequality, democracy efforts, prison reform, etc and etc
Excellent reminders. And to "beat back conservatism" which really isn't conservative at all, but racist and oligarchic and corrupted, is a fools errand. Let's change the narrative, and thus save democracy.
Unfortunately there is not much the Democrats seem to agree on other than to dis the conservative narrative. --- Although not a liberal narrative there is this: the Constitution has a procedure for dealing with fraudulent elections. It was followed. Time to stop being sore losers and show the same patriotism that Al Gore did in 2000. There are even Republicans who will buy into that narrative. ---- Also there is this: it's time to solve the problem of the gig economy and what that means for health care and retirement. Let's talk. (Here the approach isn't to push a yet-to-be-aggreed-upon solution but to keep hammering away at the fact there is a problem and we need to come together on a solution.)
Exactly. We don’t agree because our focus is not BIG picture, but rather minutiae. Great example abound here. Liberals offer many appraoches to a massive problem. A problem with our Democracy is addressed in HR 1 and S 1. Many problems are addressed here. But then there is poverty; racial inequality, climate chaos. All need our attention.
I feel our answer lies with as great a BIG GOVERNMENT approach as FDR.
BIG GOVERNMENT (for the people, and regulated capitalism):
defeated Nazis
rebuilt Western Europe in the 1950s
built the interstate highway system
opened post high school education on low interest loans to everyone
created the R&D for the Apollo Project (ie, the computer infrastructure for the world)
I call this a Democracy Capitalism, beause, as Elizabeth Warren famously says, paraphrasing, “I believe in capitalism, and that is why i favor big government"
Your criticisms of the liberal wing of the Democratic party, that a narrative of vision and direction was not highlighted in 2016 is spot on. However, what we just saw in 2020 was a feeble attempt at highlighting the direction and vision of a liberal agenda, while trying to make it palatable for swing voters to adopt as either their own or a better alternative to Trumpism. You're correct that Democrats have failed, so far, to adequately promote a vision for America that includes protecting voting rights of all citizens, accepting our role as the only superpower in the world, addressing issues of media fairness, limiting the power of corporations to business purposes and without granting granting rights given to persons, establishing a truth and reconciliation commission to create a complete historical record of our history and practice of white supremacy to this day, etc.
I assert that we do have goals and that we failed to promote them in a manner that could be heard by the vast majority of Americans, who bought into the MAGA message, which is simply smoke and mirrors, a big lie designed to appeal to the disenchanted, forgotten people, who believe the propaganda that the Democrats are "evil" and don't care about them. HRC's campaign was based on beating back Trumpism, while Biden's took a centrist approach, just a resumption of normalcy, without significant statement of mission. However, the outline of his agenda from his campaign website, told a different story. Build Back Better was just alliterative Pablum, at best, without vision or direction. It's not that there isn't a goal, its rather that we've been terrible at coming up with a simple, strategic, positive message that can be promoted as part of a slogan that says something rather than comparing to someone or something else, like the "better" part of Biden's slogan.
Thanks for your thoughtful reply Ron. Perhaps we have a different definition of these terms. To me, a ‘goal' would be, say, "Democracy Capitalism” - WE DEFINE this term, and each word, to our advantage.
You last sentence says a lot. I do not know what our goals are, save for the laundry list of policies which we advocate. And I wholeheartedly agree with you about the lack of a ’slogan’ as you say. I would use ‘vision’ to more exemplify what I mean. Without an overarching vision, we of course do not have the language.
Agreed, Frederick. And the language and vision, will come from a clear presentation of priorities. There's so much to be accomplished and our first priorities must be to secure voting rights and run winning candidates in State and Local elections. National elections have been won by Democrats, but gerrymandering has prevented winning the popular vote to be translated into electoral victory. Without National legislation protecting the fair and equitable division of Electoral votes, which are apportioned at the state level, the current system provides almost a 40% advantage for House seats. This system is perpetuating the ablility of GOP to target their message that anything/anyone is better than the evil Democrats. Most importantly, if we don't attend to that first, nothing else will matter as Republicans are willing to throw democracy to the wayside to regain and maintain power.
I was raised in the 1940s and 1950s by those that survived the concentration camps of the Holocaust speaking of the countless relatives that did not. Among others, Math professor Izaak Wirszup and his wife Pera, that lost 90 relatives each, and psychologist Bruno Bettelheim spoke of Auschwitz, Bergen Belson, and Dachau, and bought his way out early, with numbers inked into their arm skin, all spoke of Mussolini and Hitler, Eichmann and worse, of surviving fascism in Europe, then and after, of surviving Stalin and his gulag. These conversations punctuated my childhood, as did Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, and the cotillion dances in Manhattan that launched WASPs into a world of numbing privilege, rendering their motherhoods all but useless in today’s world.. In On Tyranny, Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, in Bloodlands, Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, in Our Malady: Lessons in Liberty from a Hospital Diary, Yale history professor Timothy Snyder, 51, the best and most prolific historian writing today, offers stark warnings and penetrates the loss and meaning of freedom as he comments on January 6th. We will soon hear about the trail... and the chilling fact pattern that led to two suicides and selfies taken as the capitol was invaded by white men trained in our military, now tacitly supported by the lies of Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Donald Trump and his family, Bill Barr and scores of government types more interested in belonging to a cabal than principle.. or the Constitution. We will learn how close we came. AND perhaps we will learn of how deeply Blacks are feared by those whose ancestors enslaved them... as we contemplate the failed Reconstruction and consider what now we must do to put things right.. We must end the Civil War. This is not about a sugary coated history of platitudes. This is about the loss of everything that matters in this nation and pure unadulterated racism in the white that does nothing.
I had the opportunity to attend a (Zoom) seminar last week with Timothy Snyder - brilliant, prophetic and terrifying. Snyder was criticized as being hyperbolic when, in 2017, he warned of the events that ultimately unfolded during the Trump administration. I agree that he is someone to whom we should all be listening. There is no democracy if freedom and liberty are not shared.
Exactly what I needed to hear this morning! I too, predicted the violent coup a few years ago based on global history, but more immediately on the Michigan boogaloo boys and my trumper county sheriffs, and I was called a fear monger. Snyder gives a clear map for changing that fascist course in America, without any "I told you so's" or name calling. "Democracy deprnds on factuality." Thank you for this Sandy!
Sandy Lewis, Your recitation of human tragedy that repeats itself and is on the march in this country. I read your words with pain, a sense of history and consciousness of the danger that is upon us. We must act before it overtakes our experiment with democracy and the people of the United States of America.
Yes. I think this is one of the main issues of Americans. Many are complacent. They sit back and enjoy the freedoms and niceties of the American lifestyle (not easy for all, but for most it is) and think and feel all is well. Most of our citizens are very low information when it comes to our republic and what a democracy is and takes to thrive.
One interesting thing I do with people who get fired up when talking about political issues is to ask them to remove names from the discussion. No names. No misnomers. No labels. Just talk policy and procedure and how things work and what is going wrong. Hardly anyone can do this when I ask.
Thank You. Timothy Snyder's "Our Malady" sits on the top of my "must read" book pile on the coffee table. It's there because it is the smallest. You are suggesting it may also be the most important. Ah, it's a good day to read.
The table actually is anchored by my teapot, and the books remain there next to it instead of in my head, so I am a bit less well read, and a bit more, oh, "stacked" is NOT the word I was looking for, but there it is!
Thanks for the recommending Bloodlands. though sounds like I will need something stronger than tea to manage it!
All writings are mission critical. On Tyranny is incredible. On Stalin & Hitler, Blood.. a must read, will torture you. Tim Snyder is a gift, he’s the voice from our conscience, that vital often seemingly vestigial organ. Conscience emerges from history reported in sunshine. Race and tolerance must be the lede and the kicker - as with Timothy Snyder.
The infamous Original 400 produce very well attended annual Anti Semitic Coming Out Dances that exclude so many. Inclusive mothers raise tolerant children. Intolerant children are often raised by intolerant mothers - the bedrock of fascism. Undeserved: exclusion is rarely deserved. Exclusion leads to prejudice. Prejudice leads to hatred. Tolerance is desirable. Intolerance is not desirable. Coming Out dances exclude.
And you find exactly the same social gatherings of similar groups in Paris, London, Vienna to my certain knowledge and probably in every other capital of Europe too. Exclusionary most definitely.....they are marriage "auctions" to ensure the perpetuation of the caste's place in society. That doesn't say much for equality of the female of the species offered up thereby for bids, dowry and "breeding potential" in the hope of a good "catch" either.
Fabulous in the sense "imbued with fables" ,or users of fables to hide the truth behind what they say of themselves or just simple fabulously wealthy relative to your average worker?
Thank you. The lengths the Republican party will go to to skew the electorate is mind boggling. If they can’t win over the majority of voters with appealing policies, they are quite happy to disenfranchise those voters who disagree with them. They are turning democracy on its head.
And they simply don’t care. It know the business of obstructionism as usual for the Republicans. It doesn’t matter that we came within a hair’s breadth of losing our Republic!
You can live outside the US but unless you renounce your US citizenship and your right to vote you will still be consumed by what's going on. Trust me, many of us expats are just as invested in what's happening in the US as you are. We vote, we call and write to our Representatives and Senators, we participate in initiatives via groups like Democrats Abroad. Crossing a border does not instantly make the issues disappear, in some ways it makes them all the more frightening.
I know, Liz. I'm sorry if I sounded snippy. It's scary as hell to be watching what's going on in the US right now and know that the forces (money) behind the movement towards an authoritarian government are willing to do anything to achieve their goals.
I lived and worked abroad for 10 years. One of the best times of my life. I learned so much about so much. I lived and worked with peoples from all over the world. I miss that life so very much. I really do. I have friends who chose to work and live abroad for the rest of their lives. All you have to do is find employment, file certain tax documents that you are working and living abroad.
It did hit me hard regarding retirement. Because I did not work for any US government entity, I could not pay into Social Security or any pension for those 10 years. Now I'm closer to retirement and I'm going to have to work really hard to make up for all of that.
When they do a "sting", they arrest the person before they actually do the crime. It's a totally bizarre claim for her to make, and it makes you wonder if there are moles in the secret service, and if Trump was doing more than just yapping his mouth, but actively arranging things.
That could be interesting. As late as January 5th, Trump thought Pence could block the certification for him. The “coup” looked like a festival of last minute, slap dash planning and disorganization.
He switched the ones on white house detail, which is good, but they still need to investigate what was going on, if there were agents in the secret service who helped plan the coup. Those agents rotated out were moved into other areas of the secret service.
The Democratic machine must create media pieces drilling into Republicans’ minds how much Biden is doing for them, as he promised, and what Beto and AOC are doing to help Texans. Gaslighting is poison them. The antidote must be facts to win over their minds and real help to earn their appreciation. The Dems must take control of the narrative.
And they must pass the Relief bill with 2K payments. Like NOW. Promises were made. If not kept, votes will be lost. The narrative is critical as are actions. So tired of all these old white male repubs repeating the Big Lie and the TV "news" shows giving them voice. It's the money. Follow the money back to the usual suspects and speak about it. Only the folks who are able to think will understand, but that might be enough. Reclaiming the narrative requires repetition. Charm couldn't hurt.
Once again, the Dems lost control of the narrative. Instead of promising $2,000 payments, they should have said they would be $1,400, on top of the $600 already received, for a total of $2,000. Of course, even a one-time payment of $2,000 is paltry. Such payments should be monthly. (But that's my progressive self talking.)
Agreed. Trying to explain that $1400 plus the already received $600 equals a $2000 payment to someone who heard a promise of a $2000 payment and is angry at Biden for walking back his promise is an exercise in frustration. And it’s not helping the narrative one bit. Sigh.
Absolutely! We have focused on the counter narrative for far too long. We need a compelling narrative of what WE hope to create and then show examples. Biden must shine a light on everything his administration accomplishes, linking it to the needs of voters. Slogans should be connected to clear objectives and repeated frequently. This is no time for typical Democratic subtleties or humility. Big bold statements are the only thing that will capture attention.
Positive daily sound-bites. Isn’t there someone out there doing a meme a day? It’s hard to celebrate wins if no one knows what’s going on. And digging out of a hole isn’t exciting work. But it’s necessary. Everyone needs to know about all the forward momentum on a daily basis.
I should be very interested to see the questions asked by Ted Cruz (R-TX), Charles Grassley (R-IA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John Cornyn (R-TX), Mike Lee (R-UT), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)
I watched Steve Scalise this morning and just shook my head. The GOP is grand no more. They have become more and more dangerous through the years, especially the last four. I can’t wait for M. Garland to be our AG. OUR AG. He’s going to be really busy.
I'm with Evelyn on Judge Garland. For the first time ever, it feels like I can say "This is MY Attorney General." It's especially heartening to know that prosecuting the Jan 6 insurrectionists is a top priority. His opening statement is a brilliant reaffirmation of the original purpose of the DOJ: Justice For All. Its founding mission is to protect and expand civil and human rights.
Today's Letter conjures another important name from our past: Amos Akerman, appointed by Ulysses Grant as first head of the DOJ. I'm just learning about him in recent weeks, but he deserves greater recognition for his work against the terrorist KKK and other un-reconstructed southerners. Remarkably, Akerman was a Confederate colonel in the Civil War, but became a Radical Republican dedicated to Reconstruction. The 14th Amendment Sec 3, whose provisions enabled Akerman to assume federal office, may well help to bar a certain 45th president from office. A cosmic irony.
So, Watkins' defense is that she's not guilty because she believed a man who, while President of the United States, made more than 30,000 false or misleading statements?
People who rely on limited new sources are not fact checking what others of us see as propaganda,, political rhetoric, disinformation, and outright lies, including The Big Lie. Hence 74,000,000 votes for Trump in 2020. Watkins was not alone.
And it'll make for a very busy AG Garland as ignorance of the law has never been a defense, nor has disagreement with its provisions. Insubordination or insurrection could only feasibly be accepted if they can find a constitutional reason for so doing. .....that the lie isn't a lie for instance....so prove it with facts and not words. Didn't we get beyond 70 legal rejections of this thesis which lawyers refused to detail in court for fear of perjuring themselves and a right-wing SCOTUS that even refused to bother with the stupidity.. Being gullible just doesn't hack it....but that apparently doesn't stop them using fox-like complicity in captive media to spread, maintain oand intensify the poison.
The real target for "reasoned argument" now must be persuading those who voted against the democrats rather than for Trump....while holding their nose! These people will not necessarily vote "for AOC" but they will listen into and take part in any movement towards breakup of the GOP....so that they can still find people that will really represent them. Let's talk to them, control the message and cut Trump out of the headlines and off the stage while the DOJ's tanks roll over the enemy lines.
As a military veteran, Jessica Watkins was introduced in basic training to the Uniform Code of Military Justice and its penalties for insubordination, sedition, and treason. It will be interesting if Watkins can prove she was following instructions to provide "security." We saw other Oath Keepers providing security on the scene to Roger Stone and Alex Jones, and we know to whom THEY are connected.
Ah but...if we take "nitwits" to mean "no wits" or plain congental stupidity it is a defense as the said "nitwit" is then judged legally irresponsible...and handed over to a Psychiatrist for some TLC before being certified ok and let off scot-free!
Will 35% of Republicans begin to pressure their representatives? Is that even pressure? The fear of losing office should not keep reasonable people from doing the proper thing. I hesitate to say the Right thing because it is obvious to most of us that the Right thing that is going on is freaking terrifying!
We might find situations where either a "Lincoln Project" does a " kamikazi" and maintains candidacy to sabotage the other or in places where the dems can't win they desist in favour of the non-trump candidate to ensure election of a fellow constitution defender.
Unfortunately The Lincoln Project has lost some ground due to the fact that they discovered one of the co-founders was a pedophile. Steve Schmidt and Rick Wilson stepped away because they said they never knew the other fellow was harassing and sexually engaged with young boys. Schmidt said he was livid because he had been abused at a Catholic camp when he was about 11-12 yrs of age.
Decades of propaganda on conservative news sources like Fox, talk radio, etc. have created an alternative reality. Deprogramming these people will not be easy. In Florida, our governor, senators and the majority of legislators are Republicans and now we have Trump. They are rolling out more restrictions on voting; trying to further restrict and criminalize protests; interfering with multiple hard won voter propositions including one to restore voting rights to felons; protect businesses and nursing homes from liability. It’s going to be a long ugly fight.
Yes it’s ugly here. DeathSantis has proposed so many restrictions on voting and other rights. And they make no sense because Florida has had no-excuse mail in ballots for years. Plus tRump WON. So that makes even less sense. I guess he’s worried about people voting him out next election.
Rush Limbaugh and those who have followed him on the right have spent decades now “educating” their listeners with entertaining drivel that is often devoid of facts, and supported only by a chain of what-ifs that sound causal in nature but are merely hypotheses based in conservative orthodoxy and increasingly dependent only on their assumed relationship to each other. In other words, they start with a what-if and build on that with additional what-ifs, the conditional nature of which are disregarded and treated as if all are established facts. That makes for a nice sounding story that is entertaining because of the emotional context in which they are presented. The story becomes an act of persuasion using that emotional content with the hypothetical chain used as facts to support the point of view. It has proven effective.
I'm always amazed when someone who is transgender, like she is, or gay, or any other "deviant" in the eyes of the Trumpscum, hates themselves so much they become one. It's like a Jew wanting to join the Sturmabteilung (the Brownshirts).
It seems more about feeling the thrill of power and commanding respect, as Watkins exercised as a drill sergeant and military expert during basic training for the Oath Keepers.
Basic training first beats you down, then builds you up to ultimately follow orders to beat others down. Being a paramilitary drill sergeant and mission planner on U.S. soil as a civilian beats serving in Afghanistan as an Army Ranger subject to UCMJ. Hazing and harassment related to gender and gender identity there and here? Good question.
I watched Scalise today and felt a chill. How can they sleep at night while living the Big Lie? All very disheartening and disturbing. I am going to do my part in my community to bring hope.
Absolutely incomprehensible to me that there are still people out there spreading these horrible lies and trying to destroy our democracy, our country. The fight rages on.
Cynically speaking; it is about money and power. The Republicans are about to shred themselves to pieces. This is preventable with adherence to the big lie. And so it goes.
My utter despise for the GOP deepens everyday. At every turn, they try to make every process into a hostage situation. I really feel if they push the Cuomo narrative, it will quickly become a very uncomfortable situation for them. You would think they would understand the value of "never ask a question you don't already know the answer to". Garland is the right choice and they know it.
The "big lie" has indeed been perpetuated by the GOP for decades, Trump just made it his mantra, daily.
I'm quite sure next week's speech by Trump is a primer for the next insurrection. The only question is, where will it be. My money is on the White House.
I don't see how the media can cover this. It's a LIE. He has lost all social media platforms due to spreading his lie. And the media is going to allow it? Unbelievable.
The media need to minimize unnecessary coverage, the "free PR" type. But we need to keep our eyes and ears open to his schemes and plans. Do not lose sight of his dangerousness.
It is terribly sad and disheartening to have the big lie repeated that Trump won the election and see Republicans claim, with straight faces, that the election was stolen, all the while their own Republican election officials declare President Biden the winner. SAD!
We need a new Voting Rights Act with teeth. One that bans gerrymandering, one that opens up the process of voting rather than restricting it. Voting should be easy, clear, transparent. We already know that if that becomes the norm the extremists following their Dear Leader would never survive. Remember: when Ossoff arranged debates with Perdue he failed to show because he knew he would look like an idiot.
Voting should be required, like it is in 30 countries that have some form of mandatory voting. In Australia, citizens who don't show up to vote are fined. They typically have over 95% voter participation. There should be a voting holiday, and mail-in voting should be encouraged for anyone who has difficulty in getting to the polls.
Mandatory voting means it will be more likely that politicians will pay attention to all voters, the wealthy, the middle class, the poor and the disabled.
Making a law such as this would require an amendment to the constitution, which is extremely unlikely as no red state would ratify it. In order to maintain their power, republicans must exercise voter suppression. There would be no voter suppression if voting were mandatory, and political parties would be more likely to be truly representative.
And of course, every candidate for president should be more thoroughly vetted. Every candidate should be required to release at least the last five years of their tax returns.
Biden has proposed ten years of tax returns! It is ironic that Republicans who have only kept power by cheating since Clinton claim that the Dems have stolen the election. I believe this utter hypocrisy will lead to more violence. This madness should be scaring the crap out of us.
It IS scaring the crap out of a lot of us.
It's even worse than going back to the Clintons. No GOP non-incumbent has won a free, fair and honest presidential election since Eisenhower.
Stevendm, following up on your recommendation for a thorough vetting of every candidate, this is to expand on your suggestion that every candidate be required to submit at least the last five years of tax returns. I am a member of the World Mental Health Coalition (worldmhc.org), an international organization of mental health professionals, who advocate for a fitness for duty exam for all Presidential candidates. You may remember the World Mental Health Organization from the book, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump (2017) in which leading experts in psychiatry and mental health offered the consensus that the mental state of Donald Trump presented a clear danger to the well-being of our nation. Trump’s behavior patterns have led our organization to call for a fitness for duty exam for all Presidential candidates, so that we do not have a repeat of a President who lacks the capacity to lead our nation.
A fitness for duty, or fitness to serve, exam consists of an independent evaluation of the ability to carry out specific functions necessary for a job. They are assessments, which include physical exams, that measure the mental capacity necessary for making sound decisions and include such factors as ability to attend to relevant situational facts, comprehend facts and information from multiple sources, use sound reasoning, consider consequences, and assess risk before taking action vs. such characteristics as sense of entitlement, lack of empathy, rigidity, lack of impulse control, recklessness, etc.
Such assessments are given routinely—some on a biennial basis—to all military officers, as well as to others in similar positions of power, such as CIA, FBI, DEA, and Secret Service agents, as well as many workers in nuclear plants and law enforcement departments.
The viewpoint of the World Mental Health Organization is that if physical and mental fitness for duty tests are required of the military, why are they not required of the President, who is Commander-in-Chief of the military? We see it as a glaring omission. If military officers must pass psychiatric evaluations before they lead our troops into battle, isn’t it crucial for our presidents to have to pass the same evaluations before they are allowed to lead the military?
Like a real celebration of John Lewis' birthday 81 years ago by passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would help safeguard voters from racial discrimination and vote suppression by strengthening the protections granted under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
https://www.newsweek.com/civil-rights-icon-john-lewis-honored-birthday-amid-calls-voting-rights-act-passage-1570853
Gerrymandering and other ways to counter voter suppression? Support HR1 For the People Act to expand voting rights, change campaign finance laws to reduce the influence of money in politics, limit partisan gerrymandering, and create new ethics rules for federal officeholders.
https://campaignlegal.org/
Important side note reminder in the John Lewis article:
Democratic Representative Mondaire Jones of New York stated, "False allegations of mass voter fraud were never meant to be proven. They were always meant to lay the foundation for another decade of voter suppression," referring to former President Donald Trump's unsubstantiated claims that widespread voter fraud impacted the 2020 presidential election.
HR-1 & S-1 include the John Lewis Voting Rights Act as Article 1. See R.Dooley's posted link for more info: https://theintercept.com/2021/02/01/deconstructed-hr1-save-american-democracy/
If you’re interested in getting into the weeds on HR-1 and the possibility of passing it through the Senate (S-1), this interview with HR-1 sponsor Rep. John Sarbanes and others – also a podcast – is very informative.
https://theintercept.com/2021/02/01/deconstructed-hr1-save-american-democracy/
Good article, thanks. The fact that Mitch McConnell hates S-1 tells me it’s a game changer.
McTurtle provides clarity in a Nixonesque manner. If Nixon or McTurtle was/is against it, I'm for it.
If I listen, I’ll get more depressed. Our state is so red it’s practically on fire. Blackburn is one senator. I expect nothing balanced out of her; she’s Trump’s bestie. The other senator is no better. I think this legislation is very much needed. My legislators will do nothing to help. They still support trump.
Oh, Marcy, I am in the same boat. Two red senators and a matching shade of governor here in Florida. I write letters and get the most ridiculous canned answers back.
Puto Rubio lives in another reality where he quotes Buybull verses instead of governance. Writing to that pendejo would only be a total waste unless I did a profanity laced missive for my own catharsis.
¡Qué lenguaje soez! ¡Excelente!
The dirty words are all I remember.
I can say mierda in 5 languages.
(six if I include Marco Rubio)
Your Dem. Ag. Secty has refused to lower flags for Rush Limbaugh. You might send her some support.
YES! I saw that and shared it with kudos!
Done! Thanks.
Marcy, Kim, Annette: have you reached out to your local Dems group? You probably have an active county group. This would be a natural place to find allies. Form there, they would be connected to others, such as health care professionals, teachers, city and county employees, etc
I am active with my local Indivisible group. I am blessed to live in Port Townsend, Wa. on th Olympic Peninsula, insulated from the world at large, but very much concerned. We are an amazing community of activists.
Hi from central WA!
I wonder how the prevailing winds and cozy habitats of ‘Olympia’ differ from our long slender peninsulas and petite villages on the coast of Maine. Do you know?
Yup, canned canned yuck. Yet. I keep writing.
I’m in Ohio and wrote to my reps about every issue for the past year and haven’t received a reply.
Donate a million and they'll fall all over themselves replying.
Interesting dialogues.....what would happen in The House if they got rid of the law limiting the number of representatives and went back to equal sized districts...by population not land area? The population is more city based and tending to vote Democrat even in Red States. ould this undo the GOP minorities calculations and their dreams of a minoritocracy?
The House is actually organized around population, rather than land. However, smaller states, well under the appx 900,000 population of each district, still get a representative. These states are VT, DE, WY, MT, AL, ND and SD. Perhaps I don’t fully understand your thought?
It seems to me in 1929 they limited the total number reprentatives which would have continued to increase with the population as equal representation of each person was the guiding rule. It was obviously beneficial to GOP to cut this link and to the advantage of the Dems to restore it.
That is exactly what happened. It was done precisely to limit the power of the cities growing with immigrants, and has had that effect. Repealing that law would get the House closer to really being proportional to population, and would also make the Electoral College less distorted. I'm surprised it's not part of HR 1.
At least part of it is the resulting size/number of Representatives, which would require more office space and, at some point, a bigger meeting place to conduct business. But that would, at least on first glance, make gerrymandering more difficult.
R D, I like the weeds. This article is incredibly rich in depth and breadth. Thank you for sharing.
Weeds are underrated. MJ is a weed. I rest my case.
My pleasure - glad it worked for you.
Brilliant description of the most important battle facing our democracy. And that future has got to be, it's going to be, decided in the next year.
And a SCOTUS that would not instantly gut it to protect state rights.
And as long as the Senate of 50-50 and the two DINOs Krysten Sinema and Joe Manchin think they're in charge, don't hold your breath waiting for that or you will turn blue and die.
I have been Blue since becoming politically aware.
Which brings us back to the question of whether or not to get rid of the filibuster. Are there any reasons NOT to do so besides not having it available if Democrats lose the majority?
You would have to ask Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema that question, they are the ones standing in the way.
No! That is the BIG IF of keeping/repealing it!
Agree! France holds elections on Saturday. A weekday alone is suppression.
So is a weekday election without a federal holiday.
As a minimum, every candidate for the office of president of the United States, and also for member of the U.S. Congress, should have to qualify for Top Secret access with a thorough background check. It is unlikely that Donald Trump and at least the two QAnon-associated members of the House of Representatives could have passed such an examination.
It is frightening to think that Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA22, and Chair of the House Intelligence Committee from 2015 to 2019) has access to some of the most protected secrets of this country and hired a number of hacks that Trump moved into controlling positions of the Intelligence community.
Those of us living in states with Republican Majority Legislatures cannot sit back quietly. The real Steal the Vote is in process.
It sure is and that’s another thing the most powerful Republicans are good at — changing the goal posts and stealing.
In the middle of the game.
As someone who lives in a solidly blue state, it looks to me like the battle is already lost. Republican in majorities will stop at nothing to suppress the votes of people who vote for Democrats. They have no shame and are the worst possible human beings. Republican voters want it that way otherwise the politicians would be forced to change. It didn't help that Democrats didn't gain in state legislatures in 2020 and lost some. Is there any real hope?
If we do not try, we have zero chance.
If people in multitude take action, there is a chance, and that is the path to change, as has been demonstrated since the founding of this country over and over--most recently in the runoff elections of 2 Democratic Senators in Georgia.
How can you help? Send a little money to Fair Fight, which is replicating its Georgia playbook in other states:
https://fairfight.com/
Republicans want their opposition to feel defeated at the get go. So at least redirect pessimistic energy into support for the on-the-ground activists doing the work. Even verbal support helps keep up motivation and spirit.
I have given to Fair Fight several times in the past year. Abrams will set the stage, once again, in 33 states that are planning to disenfranchise blacks and others voting rights. It is beyond me that we share space with these hateful and cruel people.
We need Stacey Abrams cloned exponentially
Liz, the way to do that is for all of us to help her! We can be the Staceys we've been waiting for! :)
I do all I can but I live in the bluest state MA.
Bullseye, Barbara.
Texas needs a Stacey Abrams style get-out-the-vote for Latinos and blacks to motivate and aid them to vote, and a persistent legal drive against voter suppression from community groups and activists. Texas is very close to turning purple for similar reasons that Shelly Bird described for Virginia. Austin, for example, has become a high-tech hub, attracting tens of thousands of democratic-leaning talent. But Texas Republicans have attempted to purge voter rolls, have forced polling places to close, have fought to keep voter registration difficult, and have punished minor violations of election law with draconian prison sentences. Latino voting has remained very low and desperately needs activists to get out their vote. The same is true for black voters in Texas. Gerrymandering is horrible in Texas and will remain that way for the next ten years as the state legislature is still dominated by republicans, and reapportionment will continue to be drawn to their advantage. And republicans will also continue to shout voter fraud in minority-dominated areas. But despite republican tactics of cheating and voter suppression, Texas has edged closer and closer to turning purple. As Shelley noted for Virginia, it takes time, but I believe that time is coming to Texas.
Thank you I have some dear friends in Texas and I do wish them purpler.
Dems have almost as many initiatives to expand voting in almost as many states. We will no longer take threats to democracy lying down.
According to brennancenter.org 33 states have introduced, prefiled, or carried over 165 restrictive bills this year while 37 states have introduced, prefiled, or carried over 541 bills to expand voting access.
There’s a whole lot of pulling in opposite directions - but expanding voting rights could certainly win this vicious tug-of-war.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-february-2021
Thanks Lena. It's good to be proven wrong on this point.
I have donated to fair fight and other causes and will continue to do so. Stacy Abrams is an amazing organizer and smart as a whip. There is also Nse Ufot of the new Georgia project.
https://newgeorgiaproject.org/
But Georgia is still a red state. Their republican legislature is already planning on making voting harder so that a repeat of senators Ossoff and Warnock can be prevented. This country also tolerated Jim Crow laws for a quite a while.
Democrats must take control of the narrative. Use media and messaging that contains factual evidence of what Biden et al. are doing to help ALL of US. Dems need to stop giving oxygen to the R's.
Fair Fight and Indivisible.
Send $$$$
Thanks for sharing the link, Ellie. Just made a donation to this crucial and effective group.
Yes. And -------> https://indivisible.org/
In all areas of my life I cling to the belief that where there is life, there is hope. We live in NC, in the county with the consistently highest voter turnout in the state that votes consistently Democrat, my husband and I joined a letter writing campaign encouraging Georgians to vote. Where phone calls have become anathema to many, often people will open and read a hand addressed letter. There is always something we can do to strengthen our hope for change.
Glad to see a negative word about phone banks, which I consider a waste of resources in today's world. Letters and postal cards (not slick pieces from candidates) reach far more voters.
Not only a waste of resources, but damaging to the resources we already have in place. Phone bank people are just brutalized by extremists.
Handwritten cards and letters are effective, but phone calls have an immediacy that also works (though abusive responses are possible). Engaging with a live listener is good human contact, and gives them a chance to dialogue with like-minded activists.
NB, prior suggestions from LFAAers on the value of sending postcards are much appreciated.
I have to have real hope. I can't go anywhere. My daughter and her family are here. She is very ill. She has two little girls. If I didn't keep hope flowing in every aspect of my life, I wouldn't ever get up again. So politically, my granddaughters are front and center and I will do whatever I need to keep our state safe for them. That said, in Arizona we voted Mark Kelly in for Senate and Joe Biden in for President. If that can happen here, then we can take down the right wing extremist legislature. All of my state legislators are Democrats, so admittedly I am in some kind of weird liberal bubble within the state of Arizona. I know we need to find our own Stacy Abrams for Arizona to get a big movement going and adapt to whatever comes out of this legislature this year. But it isn't over.
Thanks to the nationwide strategy, each state already has its own Stacy Abrams. Her name is Stacy Abrams.
Remember Red State Virginia? Can it be done elsewhere?
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/09/us/virginia-elections-democrats-republicans.html
https://www.thenationalsentinel.com/2019/11/08/heres-how-virginia-turned-blue-thank-eric-holder-and-good-ol-left-wing-judicial-activism/
Yes, Virginia!
Virginia is for lovers of democracy.
I think of VA as purple these days.
When does purple turn blue? VA has 2 Dem Senators, a Dem Governor, a majority Dem General Assembly. My House Rep is a Dem.
I visit family regularly in VA and pay some attention to its politics. VA is mostly blue now for statewide and national offices, with large swathes of liberalism in DC suburbs, around Richmond and the Norfolk-Hampton area. (The GOP still dominate rural districts.)
In Aug 2018 we attended an anti-Brett Kavanaugh rally in Alexandria. It was incredibly heartening to engage with like-minded political and union activists. I should have spent the rest of the afternoon with them instead of enduring another dreary lunch with in-laws.
So we donate $$$ to help push purple states to blue, and/or find out ways to support the cause, even if we don't live in that purple state.
I donated way more than I should have sensibly just to make sure Biden got in—now I’m not even so sure big money works and I don’t have really big money.
You are an inspiration, Liz. I'm also sensibly senseless, proud to donate c.$700 to Biden, and c.$300 to the GA runoffs. I always wait for requests from PACs that offer matching funds: 300, 350, 500, even 850% matches make the money go farther. And we know that signing or donating guarantees ... yet more petitions and requests to donate. Yay?!
Goldwater and Obama are just two politicians who come to mind for having a grassroots foundation of fundraising and support. Our little money counts!
This is where the pandemic has helped Dems. People don’t need to be in blue cities or suburbs to work. Where is land and housing cheaper? Trump country.
Sounds good, but it's too soon to tell.
Now we just need to make sure that the employers of these incoming dem voters think the same way and stop funding those feeding off the oligarchy.
Wow, thanks so much, Shelly. Do you live in VA? If so, who do you think would make the best candidate for Governor? I am doing research right now to be prepared for November.
Charles M. Blow’s “The Devil You Know” argues that African Americans should return to the South, reverse migration if not feeling empowered in the current home state.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/01/29/review-charles-blow-devil-you-know-nyt-book/
Mr Blow is on target but perhaps a bit tardy. In 1996 anthropologist Carol Stack published Call To Home, a sequel to All Our Kin, her 1974 classic on Black migrants in the North. CTH documents an already-existing pattern of partial return migration to southern states and neighborhoods. The reasons are complex and multifaceted -- but why be prosaic when we can SING !!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hSKVrWpH6w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq8tkMNLejM
and update and amplify the message. It would be interesting to see if Mr. Blow cited Dr. Stack in his writing.
I have found that putting my energy into supporting Democratic candidates in red states gives me the greatest hope. There is also phone banking, postcarding, etc. that can be done if you lack the finances. I am happy here in Oregon with my senators and representative (DeFazio). I try to work other states, and statewide Oregon races where a democrat may need extra help.
For what it's worth the pod save america guys have been highlighting all these causes for the last 4+ years. They also have done fund raising drives for these organizations with an eye towards helping Dem candidates in red/purple states. I feel lucky being in blue MA.
The judiciary committee minority side does look like a league of super villains but a few of them are so deeply steeped in the insurrection I’ll bet there will be some openings. That’s all they have - cheating.
Yes, there is but that would require, despite GOP voter suppression, a massive outpouring of voters at local as well as national levels, who are neither ignorant of the facts nor susceptible to 'big lies.' Getting to that point is the challenge.
Targeted, of course. The Dems won the popular vote by 7 million, but could have lost if 90,000 votes in a few states hadn’t gone blue. GOO knows this too.
I'm in PA, and the PA legislature is fighting tooth and nail to make it harder to vote.
And those guys were elected on the same ballot that Biden won. Curious.
For Republicans "Fraud for me not thee."
The best must run. Be brave. Speak truth.
Yes, Republican methods consist wholly of theft.
Merrick Garland clearly has the right priorities. Implementing them while rebuilding and restoring faith in a decimated Department of Justice is daunting. Mitch McConnell may live to regret blocking Garland's nomination to the Supreme Court.
Oh, yes, Mr. Bales, that is a regret I would want him to experience.
Yes!! Make it so!!! It's almost as good as Trumpsky frog-marched in handcuffs out of ... anywhere.
I am right there with you!
I get the sense that the named republicans on senate judiciary are shaking in their boots, not for what will happen in the hearing, but in anticipation of the approach he will take in providing leadership to DOJ.
That would be some sweet retribution.
This morning’s review presents the Republican narrative (storyline, vision, argument, etc). It is important to be aware of their plan. We know the right wing narrative by now - the election was stolen, there were fraudulent votes counted, and only conservatives can stop this atrocity. In today’s review, the valuable news item are the names of the conservative Republican Senators of a vital Senate committee. But I’d like to bring to light a larger picture.
The more attention the media, liberals and Democrats give to the conservative story, the LESS attention we give to the counter narrative, or the liberal vision. This would be our position. We must know of the conservative plan, but not to the detriment of promoting our own vision and narrative. We simply cannot afford to give most of our focus on the conservative narrative, because that is depressing to us, and it creates a weak attempt to counter their efforts.
In this case, we cannot be on the defense regarding the 2020 election. We MUST he on the offensive in building a universal suffrage movement to provide ballot access to every citizen in the society, against this threat of voter suppression. Because, we are the defenders of our democracy.
I’m afraid I see a reoccurring pattern developing all over again. Have we been here before, where our focus lies almost solely on the despicable opponent? Our recent history provides a perfect review for my concern. Five years ago, liberals nominated the most highly qualified candidate to ever run for the Presidency in Sec Hillary Clinton. Most observers agreed this was the case. But the focus of the national media, which played into the local media, was the conservative case against her. Our internal division of “Berniecrats” and “progressives”, vs. Clinton, coupled with wild, untruthful assertions against Sec Clinton from Russia and conservatives, led to a totally depressed effort by liberals in our effort to win 2016.
I fault liberals as well as the media for this tragedy, because we were. The lack of a positive narrative about liberalism and Sec Clinton played perfectly into the hands of right-wing media - because the mainstream media simply parroted the talking points of conservatives, in its attempt to be a neutral arbiter of ’news.’
The attention liberalism plays today to the conservative narrative, in this very beginning stage of the Biden Administration, is going to establish an early national conversation for “46". Will the predominate American story-line become the conservative fable of the illegal victory of Joe Biden? Will liberalism EVER have a consensus on our vision of America? Will liberals come to realize the VITAL importance of developing a winning story-line, that is based on “liberty and justice for all,” and other possible mantras of liberalism.
Regarding this specific instance of Merrick Garland, is your news consumption highlighting his involvement in perhaps America’s most important trial, ever? Or is your news simply a rewording of what could be a Republican press release, even with a tinge of doubt? What exactly is the vision of liberalism? What values and direction of government and economy will this administration behold? Is your ’news’ simply a repetition of the right wing narrative, of the stolen election?
Initially, we may need to simply recognize that we do not have a narrative or direction (!) Exactly what is the society that liberals want to create? What is our goal?
Secondly, please be aware of how much attention you pay to worry and fear, or a concern with the conservative narrative. In your life, do you have an equal or greater emphasis on the possibility of a liberal society. Do you see a liberal narrative? And the answer will be “No.” Simply because we do not have that voice (narrative).
Our first goal, I would suggest, is to recognize that we do not have a goal. To beat back conservatism is NOT a goal. But this will be VERY valuable for us to recognize, in order to be on the offensive in 2022. We simply cannot repeat the failures of the Clinton and Obama regimes in their first midterms, when conservatism made tremendous strides. Now, this frightening thought may well be enough for liberals to begin to strategize, soon.
Thank you for this. I desperately want to quit giving "the other side" any oxygen, because you're right, it detracts from our positive narrative.
There is nothing conservative about today's Republican Party. Can we please stop using the word to describe them?
My likely insignificant contribution started during the Rove whisper campaigns. Since then, I switch the word conservative to radical in my head. Real conservatives actually conserve.
My mother, b. 1920 a few months before women had the right to vote, moved to Texas in 1985. She had called herself a conservative Republican voter forever. She had, however, started to vacillate about the direction of so-called conservatives during Watergate. More than a decade later, watching Karl Rove take Ann Richards apart with demonstrable lies was the last straw for my mom. She said then that the Republicans were no longer conservative, that they had now engaged in radical acts every bit as damaging as any Radical. My mother also knew that because the so-called conservatives were white dudes in suits, the radical nature of their policies hid in plain sight. She volunteered with AAUW most of her adult life to uphold voter access.
The GQP wants unfettered access to deadly weapons and to fetter the hell out of voting. That is as radical as it comes.
The rest of us must become obsessive about increasing unfettered access to the ballot. It is our last shot at conserving the republic.
With all due respect Lee, and having come from a very conservative, white collar family myself, the terms conservative and conservatism absolutely fits the anti-democracy (anti-goverment) attitude of this mindset. I agree they have radically changed their view of the world. But the world has changed around them. imho, there is no room for a small, underfunded government to address global finances, and global transgressions of capitalism.
The “free market” conservative economic theory has given us a global crisis of universal proportions, with problems around: gender; the care of the Earth; disease; poverty; abuse and violence; nationalism; wars; and now a global pandemic. And etc.
Cosnservstism has allowed the reign of money, now global finances forces, to dictate the living conditions of billions of people. I feel fully justified in laying the answers squaring where the problems are, and the global crisis roots are the in the philosophy of true conservatives, such as Goldwater, Reagan, Bushes, Koch, Scaiffe, Heritage Foundation, et.al.
Lee and Frederick are both right. Each concentrate on different aspects of the concept of conservative. Remember that no one has a monopoly on having a correct viewpoint.
Looking at the free-economy aspect of conservatism, I find it interesting that the Russian oligarchs have adopted the principles of raw capitalism to enrich themselves with money and power. The authoritarian aspect of the soviet regime remains intact even as they abandon the communist notions of the power of the community.
Appreciate your response, John. There is nothing incorrect about Frederick's original post or his reply to me. One of the problems with our US political lexicon is that we use cross-subject shorthand that muddies the discourse. While conservative does indeed translate to unregulated capitalism here, at one time it did not, see Dwight Eisenhower who regulated the hell out of the so-called free market via income taxation. People in countries where regulated capitalism is the norm find our version radical – and sometimes shocking, especially our brutal healthcare sector.
Economic and political philosophies and theories are perhaps the most misunderstood. That radical right wing US politicians and pundits continue to apply the economic term socialism to Venezuela without mentioning its authoritarian political rule exhausts me. https://www.idea.int/gsod-indices//#/indices/countries-regions-profile?rsc=%5B101%5D&covid19=1
I realize they can hardly critique Venezuela's terrible performance in voter access and corruption because the US has marginal leg in those categories. Though HCR has pointed this out before it bears repeating, the IDEA describes the US system as a "mid-range Democracy." https://www.idea.int/gsod-indices//#/indices/countries-regions-profile?rsc=%5B2%5D&covid19=1
We can do better; we must do better.
GQP. Gotta start using that.
Agreed. The Q key is an underused resource.
We have plenty of goals. Here are some:
Enable full voting rights.
Renovate infrastructure in a climate-postive way, creating healthier schools, good jobs, and a better future.
Make health care a human right, for real.
End homelessness.
Do all this in a way that promotes racial justice.
Others here can supply the ones I've left out.
I agree heartily and no longer want to focus solely on Republican attempts to subvert the system. This obsession with Trump and his sycophants can suck all of the oxygen out of the room. I sincerely hope the media ignores his speech at CPAC.
I do see a Democratic narrative coming from the Biden Administration's actions.
1. Competent government that can get the vaccine into American's arms and help when disaster strikes (Texas).
2. Economic prosperity: A livable minimum wage, infrastructure jobs, and much needed relief from the economic disruption of the pandemic
3. A strategic plan for international relations with well-thought out short and long-term goals. Working with our allies and standing strong against our enemies, especially Russia and China.
4. A commitment to addressing climate change while growing jobs,
Agreed. We must write and control the narrative. Stop the con. Stop the lie. Amazing changes are coming from Biden's leadership. Praise those who SERVE the people, the Democrats.
Boy do I agree! Would love to see it. Sure don't so far. The For the People Act is a perfect example. It is in my opinion a quintessential 'liberal' bill. 'LIberal' (really that is a jargon word that we should stop using) but in this sense it means moving toward the future where honesty and fairness are at the forefront. It in my opinion this bill is the only thing that we should be focusing on (other than disasters and epidemics that is) since it is the solution to defusing the big lie, and returning elections to a place where they aren't so easy to manipulate. It also requires the opposition to double down and likely expose their multi-decade plan to control US elections. I do totally agree that when we allow our conversation to be influenced much less dominated by 'their' egregious behavior we are simply playing in to their hand.
Democrats must take control of the narrative. Use media and messaging that contains factual evidence of what Biden et al. are doing to help ALL of US. Dems need to stop giving oxygen to the R's.
It seems to me that only when the left consistently DOES something for the working class and labor in this country that it will more clearly win elections. Many voters see the government as a nation-state that never helps them. It would take making the state work for people to convince the masses that the state can work for people! Forget "narratives". Forget stories and mottos, one-liners. DO something and tout THAT. To help an improved Democratic Party consolidate power, will not come down to simply announcing support for the right policies, while downplaying the wrong ones. It will, unfortunately, be much longer and harder work. And, as long as there are powerful donors in the background to whom parties must respond, who also decry any form of campaign finance reform, the democrat's are is a boat that is holding its own but standing still in the rapids.
Unfortunately, the working class bought the Reagan narrative, as my neighbors in PA. turned against Dems in two massive blowout elections wins for conservatives. Some steel workers and union members came to see “the other” as the problem, rather than a corrupt economic system.
People do not vote on policies, but on values. Reagan captured the narrative (values). His infamous ONE LINE destroyed a lot that FDR built. And this played into the anti-government screed of the right since the Hoover days of the 1920s.
People need to understand that they must contribute to the all. That folks aren't just automatically entitled to free everything unless they are willing to work . for some with a physical or mental disability, such as myself, that work will look different- but it takes all of us to make America. It is not for those who make careers in Washington- which is another story and something else which MUST end
I reject the “entitled to free everything” mantra from conservatives. Yes, there are some who take advantage. However, I know of people who received, some years ago, $628 per MONTH, with received some subsidized housing. But a small amount yet a significant percentage of that went to housing. This is the coast of Maine, more expensive than mid-west, but not a high end CoL
It is impossible to live on $550 per month! This is not where a problem lies.
The REAL problem is with the wealthy and corporations who PAY nothing o rent to nothing.
Agree
Excellent assessment, Frederick! I’ve been struggling to put words to the NOW Biden Presidency hopes. The media has not helped in any of the sources I inhale. If you have any ideas or slogans that you have thought of or are using right now in your communication, share - if you can. gildedtwig@icloud.com. Thank you. ❤️🤍💙
Though it's not new, how about The Nation magazine? Founded in 1865 to support the Freedmen and Reconstruction, and fighting ever since to protect civil and human rights.
I’ll drop you a note in a short while.
Thank you...this was eye-opening!
To all above, and everyone else of course. We ought to characterize their narrative as “the anti-democracy” or “tiny democracy” - because of their resistance to government. They will of course totally agree they are anti-government. Well then, what do you think a rational rejoinder to that would be? Of crows, we are the movement of “effective government” or "big government to address big problems”
I’ve written before that we could state “government = democracy.” So, of course we are the movement and party of “Big government for Big Democracy for Big Solutions.”
Small government will literally “freeze Texas"
YES!
You really nailed this. Some thing of the like is playing out in our get-rid-of-Johnson messaging to date in WI. It's all about him and not about what we want in a Senator or what the message is that we have to offer in rural Red strongholds. As an aside, you opinion: The Lincoln Project and Never Trump and our strong constant verbalizing about Trump kept clear focus on ousting Trump. Do you think that that anti-Trump messaging didn't translate to respectable Democratic candidates down ticket for the same reason; spent all of our messaging on him?
Yes Fred, I think that without a vision for a strong form of Democratic Capitalism, we have little to offer against this tired but digestible “free market” scam that is so prevalent. Our schools, hospitals, rads and the safety of the earth ALL demand we provide funding - and that would equate to a Democracy Capitalism
"Initially, we may need to simply recognize that we do not have a narrative or direction (!) Exactly what is the society that liberals want to create? What is our goal?"
^ This, exactly! What we need is an assertive, proactive, strong narrative. A vision and a story and steps to get there. Do we have that? What is it?
Diana, we do not have this. Or, we would have heard the consistency drumbeat of ... our narrative. Bernie made so much progress, but he was a boring laundry list pf policies. One after another.
I have passion around this, over many years. And I come to a Democracy Capitalism. Separate the two, Ensure they are both sound and fair. After we speak about THIS, then comes all of the specifics around: climate change, racial inequality, democracy efforts, prison reform, etc and etc
Excellent reminders. And to "beat back conservatism" which really isn't conservative at all, but racist and oligarchic and corrupted, is a fools errand. Let's change the narrative, and thus save democracy.
Unfortunately there is not much the Democrats seem to agree on other than to dis the conservative narrative. --- Although not a liberal narrative there is this: the Constitution has a procedure for dealing with fraudulent elections. It was followed. Time to stop being sore losers and show the same patriotism that Al Gore did in 2000. There are even Republicans who will buy into that narrative. ---- Also there is this: it's time to solve the problem of the gig economy and what that means for health care and retirement. Let's talk. (Here the approach isn't to push a yet-to-be-aggreed-upon solution but to keep hammering away at the fact there is a problem and we need to come together on a solution.)
Exactly. We don’t agree because our focus is not BIG picture, but rather minutiae. Great example abound here. Liberals offer many appraoches to a massive problem. A problem with our Democracy is addressed in HR 1 and S 1. Many problems are addressed here. But then there is poverty; racial inequality, climate chaos. All need our attention.
I feel our answer lies with as great a BIG GOVERNMENT approach as FDR.
BIG GOVERNMENT (for the people, and regulated capitalism):
defeated Nazis
rebuilt Western Europe in the 1950s
built the interstate highway system
opened post high school education on low interest loans to everyone
created the R&D for the Apollo Project (ie, the computer infrastructure for the world)
I call this a Democracy Capitalism, beause, as Elizabeth Warren famously says, paraphrasing, “I believe in capitalism, and that is why i favor big government"
Your criticisms of the liberal wing of the Democratic party, that a narrative of vision and direction was not highlighted in 2016 is spot on. However, what we just saw in 2020 was a feeble attempt at highlighting the direction and vision of a liberal agenda, while trying to make it palatable for swing voters to adopt as either their own or a better alternative to Trumpism. You're correct that Democrats have failed, so far, to adequately promote a vision for America that includes protecting voting rights of all citizens, accepting our role as the only superpower in the world, addressing issues of media fairness, limiting the power of corporations to business purposes and without granting granting rights given to persons, establishing a truth and reconciliation commission to create a complete historical record of our history and practice of white supremacy to this day, etc.
I assert that we do have goals and that we failed to promote them in a manner that could be heard by the vast majority of Americans, who bought into the MAGA message, which is simply smoke and mirrors, a big lie designed to appeal to the disenchanted, forgotten people, who believe the propaganda that the Democrats are "evil" and don't care about them. HRC's campaign was based on beating back Trumpism, while Biden's took a centrist approach, just a resumption of normalcy, without significant statement of mission. However, the outline of his agenda from his campaign website, told a different story. Build Back Better was just alliterative Pablum, at best, without vision or direction. It's not that there isn't a goal, its rather that we've been terrible at coming up with a simple, strategic, positive message that can be promoted as part of a slogan that says something rather than comparing to someone or something else, like the "better" part of Biden's slogan.
Thanks for your thoughtful reply Ron. Perhaps we have a different definition of these terms. To me, a ‘goal' would be, say, "Democracy Capitalism” - WE DEFINE this term, and each word, to our advantage.
You last sentence says a lot. I do not know what our goals are, save for the laundry list of policies which we advocate. And I wholeheartedly agree with you about the lack of a ’slogan’ as you say. I would use ‘vision’ to more exemplify what I mean. Without an overarching vision, we of course do not have the language.
Agreed, Frederick. And the language and vision, will come from a clear presentation of priorities. There's so much to be accomplished and our first priorities must be to secure voting rights and run winning candidates in State and Local elections. National elections have been won by Democrats, but gerrymandering has prevented winning the popular vote to be translated into electoral victory. Without National legislation protecting the fair and equitable division of Electoral votes, which are apportioned at the state level, the current system provides almost a 40% advantage for House seats. This system is perpetuating the ablility of GOP to target their message that anything/anyone is better than the evil Democrats. Most importantly, if we don't attend to that first, nothing else will matter as Republicans are willing to throw democracy to the wayside to regain and maintain power.
Green Labor Democracy
I was raised in the 1940s and 1950s by those that survived the concentration camps of the Holocaust speaking of the countless relatives that did not. Among others, Math professor Izaak Wirszup and his wife Pera, that lost 90 relatives each, and psychologist Bruno Bettelheim spoke of Auschwitz, Bergen Belson, and Dachau, and bought his way out early, with numbers inked into their arm skin, all spoke of Mussolini and Hitler, Eichmann and worse, of surviving fascism in Europe, then and after, of surviving Stalin and his gulag. These conversations punctuated my childhood, as did Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, and the cotillion dances in Manhattan that launched WASPs into a world of numbing privilege, rendering their motherhoods all but useless in today’s world.. In On Tyranny, Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, in Bloodlands, Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, in Our Malady: Lessons in Liberty from a Hospital Diary, Yale history professor Timothy Snyder, 51, the best and most prolific historian writing today, offers stark warnings and penetrates the loss and meaning of freedom as he comments on January 6th. We will soon hear about the trail... and the chilling fact pattern that led to two suicides and selfies taken as the capitol was invaded by white men trained in our military, now tacitly supported by the lies of Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Donald Trump and his family, Bill Barr and scores of government types more interested in belonging to a cabal than principle.. or the Constitution. We will learn how close we came. AND perhaps we will learn of how deeply Blacks are feared by those whose ancestors enslaved them... as we contemplate the failed Reconstruction and consider what now we must do to put things right.. We must end the Civil War. This is not about a sugary coated history of platitudes. This is about the loss of everything that matters in this nation and pure unadulterated racism in the white that does nothing.
I had the opportunity to attend a (Zoom) seminar last week with Timothy Snyder - brilliant, prophetic and terrifying. Snyder was criticized as being hyperbolic when, in 2017, he warned of the events that ultimately unfolded during the Trump administration. I agree that he is someone to whom we should all be listening. There is no democracy if freedom and liberty are not shared.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cszc37
Excellent interview, thanks Sandy.
Brilliant! Fantastic. The Fight for Factuality. A master class in the fight for our future.
Exactly what I needed to hear this morning! I too, predicted the violent coup a few years ago based on global history, but more immediately on the Michigan boogaloo boys and my trumper county sheriffs, and I was called a fear monger. Snyder gives a clear map for changing that fascist course in America, without any "I told you so's" or name calling. "Democracy deprnds on factuality." Thank you for this Sandy!
Sandy Lewis, Your recitation of human tragedy that repeats itself and is on the march in this country. I read your words with pain, a sense of history and consciousness of the danger that is upon us. We must act before it overtakes our experiment with democracy and the people of the United States of America.
Yes, we must be active.
We all need to be frightened into action and out of complacency.
Yes. I think this is one of the main issues of Americans. Many are complacent. They sit back and enjoy the freedoms and niceties of the American lifestyle (not easy for all, but for most it is) and think and feel all is well. Most of our citizens are very low information when it comes to our republic and what a democracy is and takes to thrive.
One interesting thing I do with people who get fired up when talking about political issues is to ask them to remove names from the discussion. No names. No misnomers. No labels. Just talk policy and procedure and how things work and what is going wrong. Hardly anyone can do this when I ask.
Thank You. Timothy Snyder's "Our Malady" sits on the top of my "must read" book pile on the coffee table. It's there because it is the smallest. You are suggesting it may also be the most important. Ah, it's a good day to read.
You seem well-read and well-informed, MP. Is there still room for coffee among all the books on the table?
BTW, yesterday I bought Snyder's "Bloodlands," on war and genocide in Eastern Europe in the 1930s-40s. Definitely not "enjoyable," but worthwhile.
The table actually is anchored by my teapot, and the books remain there next to it instead of in my head, so I am a bit less well read, and a bit more, oh, "stacked" is NOT the word I was looking for, but there it is!
Thanks for the recommending Bloodlands. though sounds like I will need something stronger than tea to manage it!
P Chatterjee, A Time for Tea: Women and Labor on an Indian Plantation
A & I Macfarlane, The Empire of Tea
R Moxham, Tea : Addiction, Exploitation and Empire
Pappy’s 20 year old.
All writings are mission critical. On Tyranny is incredible. On Stalin & Hitler, Blood.. a must read, will torture you. Tim Snyder is a gift, he’s the voice from our conscience, that vital often seemingly vestigial organ. Conscience emerges from history reported in sunshine. Race and tolerance must be the lede and the kicker - as with Timothy Snyder.
Last summer I read Snyder's On Tyranny along with Madeline Albright's Fascism: A Warning. Chilling, both.
Upton Sinclair, It Can't Happen Here
Copy... Thx
“... cotillion dances in Manhattan that launched WASPs into a world of numbing privilege, rendering their motherhoods all but useless...”
The dances were a hallmark of undeserved privilege, but I don’t understand their effect on motherhood.
The infamous Original 400 produce very well attended annual Anti Semitic Coming Out Dances that exclude so many. Inclusive mothers raise tolerant children. Intolerant children are often raised by intolerant mothers - the bedrock of fascism. Undeserved: exclusion is rarely deserved. Exclusion leads to prejudice. Prejudice leads to hatred. Tolerance is desirable. Intolerance is not desirable. Coming Out dances exclude.
And you find exactly the same social gatherings of similar groups in Paris, London, Vienna to my certain knowledge and probably in every other capital of Europe too. Exclusionary most definitely.....they are marriage "auctions" to ensure the perpetuation of the caste's place in society. That doesn't say much for equality of the female of the species offered up thereby for bids, dowry and "breeding potential" in the hope of a good "catch" either.
mtDNA rules. Choose wisely. Most are useless. 2% are fabulous!
Fabulous in the sense "imbued with fables" ,or users of fables to hide the truth behind what they say of themselves or just simple fabulously wealthy relative to your average worker?
Thank you. The lengths the Republican party will go to to skew the electorate is mind boggling. If they can’t win over the majority of voters with appealing policies, they are quite happy to disenfranchise those voters who disagree with them. They are turning democracy on its head.
And they simply don’t care. It know the business of obstructionism as usual for the Republicans. It doesn’t matter that we came within a hair’s breadth of losing our Republic!
We are all tired but the Republicans count on us to lose our Fervor! We dare not.
My fervor continues especially because of HCR’s newsletter and community.
You can live outside the US but unless you renounce your US citizenship and your right to vote you will still be consumed by what's going on. Trust me, many of us expats are just as invested in what's happening in the US as you are. We vote, we call and write to our Representatives and Senators, we participate in initiatives via groups like Democrats Abroad. Crossing a border does not instantly make the issues disappear, in some ways it makes them all the more frightening.
You’re right Daria but I can dream.
I know, Liz. I'm sorry if I sounded snippy. It's scary as hell to be watching what's going on in the US right now and know that the forces (money) behind the movement towards an authoritarian government are willing to do anything to achieve their goals.
Repugs get tired too. Outlast them.
Canada is getting very picky about who gets over the border.
TC, with good reason. I wouldn't want us either.
They don't particularly want us
They've always "chosen" who they want. Pretty sensible from a European point of view.
I’m eyeing Provence.
I'm kind of partial to Céret in the Pyrénées-Orientales.
Good photos of the Pont du Diable.
No. Stay. Fight the good fight. We cannot run. Never run.
I lived and worked abroad for 10 years. One of the best times of my life. I learned so much about so much. I lived and worked with peoples from all over the world. I miss that life so very much. I really do. I have friends who chose to work and live abroad for the rest of their lives. All you have to do is find employment, file certain tax documents that you are working and living abroad.
It did hit me hard regarding retirement. Because I did not work for any US government entity, I could not pay into Social Security or any pension for those 10 years. Now I'm closer to retirement and I'm going to have to work really hard to make up for all of that.
I hope they are looking into just which "secret service agents" were talking to the insurrectionists
Undercover sting?
When they do a "sting", they arrest the person before they actually do the crime. It's a totally bizarre claim for her to make, and it makes you wonder if there are moles in the secret service, and if Trump was doing more than just yapping his mouth, but actively arranging things.
That could be interesting. As late as January 5th, Trump thought Pence could block the certification for him. The “coup” looked like a festival of last minute, slap dash planning and disorganization.
Not likely. Biden had all the SS agents switched after his inaugural because of some of these issues.
He switched the ones on white house detail, which is good, but they still need to investigate what was going on, if there were agents in the secret service who helped plan the coup. Those agents rotated out were moved into other areas of the secret service.
Not likely that it was a sting, I mean.
I also think it's unlikely. But didn't Watkins's contacts with SecrServ come before Biden's inauguration?
Exactly
Impeachment is over. But other efforts to reckon with Trump’s post-election chaos have just begun.
By Rosalind S. Helderman
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/election-claims-legal-sanctions/2021/02/21/4b051646-71fe-11eb-85fa-e0ccb3660358_story.html
The Democratic machine must create media pieces drilling into Republicans’ minds how much Biden is doing for them, as he promised, and what Beto and AOC are doing to help Texans. Gaslighting is poison them. The antidote must be facts to win over their minds and real help to earn their appreciation. The Dems must take control of the narrative.
And they must pass the Relief bill with 2K payments. Like NOW. Promises were made. If not kept, votes will be lost. The narrative is critical as are actions. So tired of all these old white male repubs repeating the Big Lie and the TV "news" shows giving them voice. It's the money. Follow the money back to the usual suspects and speak about it. Only the folks who are able to think will understand, but that might be enough. Reclaiming the narrative requires repetition. Charm couldn't hurt.
Once again, the Dems lost control of the narrative. Instead of promising $2,000 payments, they should have said they would be $1,400, on top of the $600 already received, for a total of $2,000. Of course, even a one-time payment of $2,000 is paltry. Such payments should be monthly. (But that's my progressive self talking.)
Agreed. Trying to explain that $1400 plus the already received $600 equals a $2000 payment to someone who heard a promise of a $2000 payment and is angry at Biden for walking back his promise is an exercise in frustration. And it’s not helping the narrative one bit. Sigh.
Biden never promised $2600, but good luck telling that to a Deplorable (thanks Hillary).
Very true, but sadly, they have decades of influencing (lying) to them. So it’s firmly entrenched and will be a very difficult and long term job.
I keep waiting for the Dems to realize they are long overdue for challenging it, let alone repairing the damage..
poison = poisoning.
We need a Lincoln Project type machine to take over the narrative and place click bait videos and memes in all sources
Absolutely! We have focused on the counter narrative for far too long. We need a compelling narrative of what WE hope to create and then show examples. Biden must shine a light on everything his administration accomplishes, linking it to the needs of voters. Slogans should be connected to clear objectives and repeated frequently. This is no time for typical Democratic subtleties or humility. Big bold statements are the only thing that will capture attention.
Positive daily sound-bites. Isn’t there someone out there doing a meme a day? It’s hard to celebrate wins if no one knows what’s going on. And digging out of a hole isn’t exciting work. But it’s necessary. Everyone needs to know about all the forward momentum on a daily basis.
Thanks Lena. Maximal ideas in a minimal comment.
I checked the internet to see if the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting will be live streamed and found the following website:
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/the-nomination-of-the-honorable-merrick-brian-garland-to-be-attorney-general-of-the-united-states-day-2
I should be very interested to see the questions asked by Ted Cruz (R-TX), Charles Grassley (R-IA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John Cornyn (R-TX), Mike Lee (R-UT), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)
What a rogues gallery!!!
It’s the Sedition Caucus all in one place.
It's a dismal situation when Chuck Grassley is the, ahem, liberal in the group.
I suspect we'll see in their questions sycophantic pandering to Trump and more perpetuation of The Big Lie.
Here's the entire makeup of the committee: https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/about/members
Osoff Klobacher Booker Blumenthal and more -should be good
American heroes and heroine!
Thanks.
I watched Steve Scalise this morning and just shook my head. The GOP is grand no more. They have become more and more dangerous through the years, especially the last four. I can’t wait for M. Garland to be our AG. OUR AG. He’s going to be really busy.
I'm with Evelyn on Judge Garland. For the first time ever, it feels like I can say "This is MY Attorney General." It's especially heartening to know that prosecuting the Jan 6 insurrectionists is a top priority. His opening statement is a brilliant reaffirmation of the original purpose of the DOJ: Justice For All. Its founding mission is to protect and expand civil and human rights.
Today's Letter conjures another important name from our past: Amos Akerman, appointed by Ulysses Grant as first head of the DOJ. I'm just learning about him in recent weeks, but he deserves greater recognition for his work against the terrorist KKK and other un-reconstructed southerners. Remarkably, Akerman was a Confederate colonel in the Civil War, but became a Radical Republican dedicated to Reconstruction. The 14th Amendment Sec 3, whose provisions enabled Akerman to assume federal office, may well help to bar a certain 45th president from office. A cosmic irony.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amos_T._Akerman#Civil_War
https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/amendment-14/section-3/
So, Watkins' defense is that she's not guilty because she believed a man who, while President of the United States, made more than 30,000 false or misleading statements?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/
People who rely on limited new sources are not fact checking what others of us see as propaganda,, political rhetoric, disinformation, and outright lies, including The Big Lie. Hence 74,000,000 votes for Trump in 2020. Watkins was not alone.
And it'll make for a very busy AG Garland as ignorance of the law has never been a defense, nor has disagreement with its provisions. Insubordination or insurrection could only feasibly be accepted if they can find a constitutional reason for so doing. .....that the lie isn't a lie for instance....so prove it with facts and not words. Didn't we get beyond 70 legal rejections of this thesis which lawyers refused to detail in court for fear of perjuring themselves and a right-wing SCOTUS that even refused to bother with the stupidity.. Being gullible just doesn't hack it....but that apparently doesn't stop them using fox-like complicity in captive media to spread, maintain oand intensify the poison.
The real target for "reasoned argument" now must be persuading those who voted against the democrats rather than for Trump....while holding their nose! These people will not necessarily vote "for AOC" but they will listen into and take part in any movement towards breakup of the GOP....so that they can still find people that will really represent them. Let's talk to them, control the message and cut Trump out of the headlines and off the stage while the DOJ's tanks roll over the enemy lines.
As a military veteran, Jessica Watkins was introduced in basic training to the Uniform Code of Military Justice and its penalties for insubordination, sedition, and treason. It will be interesting if Watkins can prove she was following instructions to provide "security." We saw other Oath Keepers providing security on the scene to Roger Stone and Alex Jones, and we know to whom THEY are connected.
Indeed! But instructions in this "milieu" are hardly likely to be explicit...and it's then down to her interpretation.
"We nitwits are above the law because we're nitwits" will not be a viable defense.
Ah but...if we take "nitwits" to mean "no wits" or plain congental stupidity it is a defense as the said "nitwit" is then judged legally irresponsible...and handed over to a Psychiatrist for some TLC before being certified ok and let off scot-free!
Will 35% of Republicans begin to pressure their representatives? Is that even pressure? The fear of losing office should not keep reasonable people from doing the proper thing. I hesitate to say the Right thing because it is obvious to most of us that the Right thing that is going on is freaking terrifying!
We might find situations where either a "Lincoln Project" does a " kamikazi" and maintains candidacy to sabotage the other or in places where the dems can't win they desist in favour of the non-trump candidate to ensure election of a fellow constitution defender.
Unfortunately The Lincoln Project has lost some ground due to the fact that they discovered one of the co-founders was a pedophile. Steve Schmidt and Rick Wilson stepped away because they said they never knew the other fellow was harassing and sexually engaged with young boys. Schmidt said he was livid because he had been abused at a Catholic camp when he was about 11-12 yrs of age.
The GOP and supporters have swallowed worse in the past with a quick collective lobotomy and a shrug...they rarely let it get in their way.
Decades of propaganda on conservative news sources like Fox, talk radio, etc. have created an alternative reality. Deprogramming these people will not be easy. In Florida, our governor, senators and the majority of legislators are Republicans and now we have Trump. They are rolling out more restrictions on voting; trying to further restrict and criminalize protests; interfering with multiple hard won voter propositions including one to restore voting rights to felons; protect businesses and nursing homes from liability. It’s going to be a long ugly fight.
Yes it’s ugly here. DeathSantis has proposed so many restrictions on voting and other rights. And they make no sense because Florida has had no-excuse mail in ballots for years. Plus tRump WON. So that makes even less sense. I guess he’s worried about people voting him out next election.
Rush Limbaugh and those who have followed him on the right have spent decades now “educating” their listeners with entertaining drivel that is often devoid of facts, and supported only by a chain of what-ifs that sound causal in nature but are merely hypotheses based in conservative orthodoxy and increasingly dependent only on their assumed relationship to each other. In other words, they start with a what-if and build on that with additional what-ifs, the conditional nature of which are disregarded and treated as if all are established facts. That makes for a nice sounding story that is entertaining because of the emotional context in which they are presented. The story becomes an act of persuasion using that emotional content with the hypothetical chain used as facts to support the point of view. It has proven effective.
And it must be STOPPED.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3cszc37
She's also worried that the prison system will assign her to prison by her birth chromosomes and not her inner self.
She is from the area that Rep Jim Jordan represents
I'm always amazed when someone who is transgender, like she is, or gay, or any other "deviant" in the eyes of the Trumpscum, hates themselves so much they become one. It's like a Jew wanting to join the Sturmabteilung (the Brownshirts).
TC, like Stephen Miller?
And Roy cohn
It seems more about feeling the thrill of power and commanding respect, as Watkins exercised as a drill sergeant and military expert during basic training for the Oath Keepers.
https://www.daytondailynews.com/crime/capitol-riot-prosecutors-say-champaign-county-womans-training-included-war-games/RE5YX5MNW5AY5IRE2QIUSJNRUY/
Nostalgia for past military experience? The army isn't a democratic institution.
Basic training first beats you down, then builds you up to ultimately follow orders to beat others down. Being a paramilitary drill sergeant and mission planner on U.S. soil as a civilian beats serving in Afghanistan as an Army Ranger subject to UCMJ. Hazing and harassment related to gender and gender identity there and here? Good question.
And there were some.....detested by the own people who they detested royally in their turn.
Oh him— another one.
The snake district
Oh well...say no more!
In her defense, she is NOT a proud boy.
I watched Scalise today and felt a chill. How can they sleep at night while living the Big Lie? All very disheartening and disturbing. I am going to do my part in my community to bring hope.
The crew of Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are certainly notable in their self serving and anti-constitutional ways.
Absolutely incomprehensible to me that there are still people out there spreading these horrible lies and trying to destroy our democracy, our country. The fight rages on.
Cynically speaking; it is about money and power. The Republicans are about to shred themselves to pieces. This is preventable with adherence to the big lie. And so it goes.
And so it goes.
Can we still say “fight?” ; )
We must. The fight is on. First we must get Merrick Garland confirmed.
FIGHT !!!
Thank you Heather.
My utter despise for the GOP deepens everyday. At every turn, they try to make every process into a hostage situation. I really feel if they push the Cuomo narrative, it will quickly become a very uncomfortable situation for them. You would think they would understand the value of "never ask a question you don't already know the answer to". Garland is the right choice and they know it.
The "big lie" has indeed been perpetuated by the GOP for decades, Trump just made it his mantra, daily.
I'm quite sure next week's speech by Trump is a primer for the next insurrection. The only question is, where will it be. My money is on the White House.
Be safe, be well.
I wish the mainstream media would just refuse to cover his speech at CPAC.
I completely agree. The media really needs to make him virtually "disappear"
I think we are both being too polite when we call it a "speech". It's a rally for his insurrectionists.
I don't see how the media can cover this. It's a LIE. He has lost all social media platforms due to spreading his lie. And the media is going to allow it? Unbelievable.
The media need to minimize unnecessary coverage, the "free PR" type. But we need to keep our eyes and ears open to his schemes and plans. Do not lose sight of his dangerousness.
We need real time "lies and not true" stamps across each if his utterances.
Can we also have a review list of each of his big lies, ending with the biggest lie of all, his non erection? Oops, non election?
And Russian money is still on tRump.
Thank you Heather.
It is terribly sad and disheartening to have the big lie repeated that Trump won the election and see Republicans claim, with straight faces, that the election was stolen, all the while their own Republican election officials declare President Biden the winner. SAD!