There are lots of stories in the news tonight, but most of them seem like preludes. What happened today will eventually be overridden by the stories’ outcomes. So, for example, we learned that former president Trump’s accountants, Mazars USA, turned over Trump’s financial information to the Manhattan district attorney’s office on Monday. This got a lot of headlines, but we had a pretty good sense they would turn over the information just as soon as the Supreme Court said they must, so this part of the story will get forgotten.
As Donald Trump and his followers meet at CPAC to continue spreading the Big Lie and railing against “radical” Democratic bills such as HR-1/S-1 (For the People Act), my thoughts are with a true patriot.
This month marks 90 years since the passing of Ida B. Wells. Born into slavery, Ms. Wells would go on to co-found the NAACP and become a fierce advocate for civil rights and a woman’s right to vote.
I mention Ms. Wells because of her searing writing on the practice of lynching – a practice that would become a spectator sport in states across the nation, drawing enormous crowds including children who were released from school in order to attend. Lynching was an attack on Black Americans, on their bodies, their citizenship, their humanity.
I mention Ms. Wells because her work goes to the heart of what it means to be a citizen – the right to vote and to expect your government to defend you rights and privileges regardless of your gender or the color of your skin.
I mention Ms. Wells because 150 years after the ratification of the 14th Amendment, the promises contained therein are under attack today, not by the lynch mobs Ms. Wells wrote and spoke so fiercely about, but by Republicans in Congress, and in State Legislatures across the country controlled by Republicans, who are working to restrict the right to vote.
In the final essay of his remarkable life, Representative John Lewis wrote:
“Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble. Voting and participating in the democratic process are key. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.”
Ida Wells got into “good trouble” and so must we all, by supporting HR-1/S-1 and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
Voting by mail/ballot drop box was instituted here in Colorado some years ago. Our voter participation rate is amongst the largest nationwide, for one simple reason: convenience! My ballot is mailed to me, with a packet of reading material that provides a summation of all measures and initiatives. It’s a 10 minute drive to the nearest drop box. I get text updates from the time my ballot is received until it’s accepted for counting. (Email updates are also available).
Numerous states have recognized ours as a model.
Perhaps most importantly, fraud is zilch, zip, zero.
Thank you Heather. Finally, capital Police being taken to task. I remember what my own eyes saw as some police simply dismantled and pulled back the flimsy barricades. But, imo, All the little mob soldiers who go to jail in this failed coup attempt will not cure our ills UNTIL their commander in chief gets arrested and prosecuted right along with them. Head of the snake.
Thank you, Heather! As a retired teacher-librarian, I’d like to nominate you as a true Wonder Woman. I’m amazed that you manage to do all this research, produce a polished and detailed nightly letter, do your day job and remain focused, coherent and sane. Kudos!
After the COVID relief bill passes, I'm ready for Democratic leaders to become much more aggressive and vocal in pushing the For the People legislation. Not just speaking out in support but painting Republicans as enemies of voting. The GOP has made this clear with the raft of state bills that seek to prevent the extraordinary turnout last November. They must be stopped.
Ah, the filibuster! There is a joke about traditional behaviors that have long outlasted their original utility. The joke goes like this: A young girl has watched her mother always cut a few inches off the end of a ham, before baking it in the oven. When she asked for mother why, she was told that her grandmother always did this and that was how her mother learned to bake a ham. Curious, the girl asked her grandmother why she always cut the end of the ham off. The grandmother got a far away look and laughed, then said “Oh that! We had a very small oven and I had to cut the end off the ham so it would fit in the oven.” Clearly, there was no longer utility in wasting part of every ham. The same is true with the filibuster. The Founding Fathers envisioned the Congress would be populated by wise men of good will who would think through issues and debate them before coming to a resolution. The House soon grew too large for unlimited debate, so established rules for limiting it. The smaller Senate kept unlimited debate rules. Well now the Senate is likely larger than the House was when it limited debate. Further, the filibuster is now used to eliminate debate on an issue and to kill potential legislation, rather than to further debate. The filibuster is a tradition, much like living in caves or cutting off the. end of hams, that no longer serves the goal of debate. It is time to end it.
Seems H.R. 1 and S. 1 will be the perfect reason for for busting the filibuster and bring the end of minority rule. It certainly will favor Democrats for years but it would give the GOP a much needed slap in the face to purge itself of the movement conservatives hellbent on killing democracy.
I would love to see the filibuster eliminated in order to get serious things accomplished. But, the next time there is a Republican Senate--possibly in two years--we might regret its disappearance. I don't understand why there never is any mention of a way to limit the use of the filibuster without doing away with it: return to the original protocol, which was that the the Senator launching a filibuster had to stand (not sit) and speak in order to prevent a vote. He (and it was always a man in those days) could read the phone book or Joy of Cooking; it didn't matter as long as he didn't sit down or leave the podium. He could speak for hours and hours; the longest by segregationist Strom Thurmond was slightly more than 24 hours. You can bet there would be far fewer people stopping the majority's will if that were the way it was done now.
I’d like us to move major elections to Saturday. No more Tuesdays. U get Saturday and u will increase participation, you have more volunteers, more available security, less disruption during the work week. This should be in the HR 1 bill.
"Eighty-five percent of us want to limit the amount of politics,"
probably should have been,
"Eighty-five percent of us want to limit the amount of money in politics".
One wonders if that same 85% would therefore strongly support public financing of elections.
I certainly would.
Publicly financed elections, an end to partisan gerrymandering, and the elimination of the Electoral College would go a long way toward establishing a democracy in America. It would also likely mean the end of the Republican Party as it is today.
California where I live makes voting as easy as possible. Similar to Colorado although I have not gotten text or email updates. As in Colorado, fraud is zilch, zip, zero. Thanks for the stats. Helps in sharing info with others.
Democracy in the US cannot survive without stopping vote suppression by the Republican Party. Unfortunately, HR1/S1 almost certainly cannot pass in the Senate unless the Democrats abolish the filibuster, which they cannot do because Manchin, Sinema, and one or two other Democrats have only slim margins in their overwhelmingly white states and fear losing them if they don't walk the Jim Crow line. Furthermore, even if the Senate did eliminate the filibuster and pass the bill, the Roberts court would probably emasculate it. (Roberts has steadfastly pursued preservation of white political dominance throughout his career.) So, in addition to dropping the filibuster, Democrats would need to expand the Supreme Court. That makes three high barriers protecting the white ruling class, and each of those barriers seems insurmountable. A monumental, nationwide, get-out-the-vote effort in 2022 might give the Democrats the three or four extra Senate seats they need to get rid of the filibuster and at the same time avoid the loss of the House. No prudent person would bet on that outcome, but now is not the time for prudence. Now it the time for monumental effort.
It is high time we get answers to the nefarious workings of some of the Capitol police. As in every Police force, there are dirty police. That is a fact. When I was growing up, my Dad was a Deputy Sheriff and was dismayed by the true interests of some, certainly not all, Police. The Police Chief was a family friend who lived in our neighborhood and worked in tandem with my Mom with her involvement in the School District. I remember him saying at our house over dinner that it's a full time job just keeping the Police on the straight and narrow, let alone the criminals. Perhaps that I why even today I have a cautious opinion of Police.
Regarding voter suppression, I am sickened by the factor of Republicans that are openly willing to vote against the good of the People. These are not grey issues, these are clear and pointed facts they are choosing to drive over people with. This issue alone has dwindled any hope I have for true reform.
I can't praise Liz Cheney enough for her tough stand on Trump. I am waiting for the other shoe to drop with her, but so far she is showing ethics I didn't think she had. CPAC will be every Republicans wet dream. This will be Trump's resurrection. Hold on to your hats, this will be the stomping down of the Democrats in more ways than one.
They continue to prove that Richard Hofstadter was right 67 years ago. We should start calling them what they are: Pseudo-Conservatives -
From clinical interviews and thematic apperception tests, Adorno and his co-workers found that their pseudo-conservative subjects, although given to a form of political expression that combines a curious mixture of largely conservative with occasional radical notions, succeed in concealing from themselves impulsive tendencies that, if released in action, would be very far from conservative. The pseudo-conservative, Adorno writes, shows “conventionality and authoritarian submissiveness” in his conscious thinking and “violence, anarchic impulses, and chaotic destructiveness in the unconscious sphere. . . . The pseudo conservative is a man who, in the name of upholding traditional American values and institutions and defending them against more or less fictitious dangers, consciously or unconsciously aims at their abolition.”
HR1/S1, For the People Act is worth going to the mat for. Democrats cannot afford to let these bills not become law. Truth is, Americans cannot afford that; it's just that so many Rs in Congress have forgotten what it means, truly means, to be an American.
So, the filibuster must go, at least for bills that affect voting rights, as it has gone for budget bills. Also, and I've wondered about this for years, whatever happened to actually having to hold the floor, to talk without respite for hours and days. If you insist on filibustering, then do it for goodness sake! don't just threaten and the other side caves in!
I just finished a bit of research on what my own piece of Republicanism accomplished during his six terms in office and I was truly impressed by how little a Congressman can get away with doing, putting cult before country, and still be elected. Really low bar. He initiated 33 bills over six terms, managed to get one (1) passed, to rename a post office after a local hero.
Now, my district is a safe Republican seat --R+14-- and I'm embarrassed to say that it was the Maryland Dems who gerrymandered it so they'd have seven safe Democratic seats. It makes me so 😡 mad.
HR1/S1 could bring us a little closer to a more perfect union, to an honest democracy, just a little, and there are Congress folk who would rather see it not pass? What are you doing in a position of leadership? Get out of the way!
As Donald Trump and his followers meet at CPAC to continue spreading the Big Lie and railing against “radical” Democratic bills such as HR-1/S-1 (For the People Act), my thoughts are with a true patriot.
This month marks 90 years since the passing of Ida B. Wells. Born into slavery, Ms. Wells would go on to co-found the NAACP and become a fierce advocate for civil rights and a woman’s right to vote.
I mention Ms. Wells because of her searing writing on the practice of lynching – a practice that would become a spectator sport in states across the nation, drawing enormous crowds including children who were released from school in order to attend. Lynching was an attack on Black Americans, on their bodies, their citizenship, their humanity.
I mention Ms. Wells because her work goes to the heart of what it means to be a citizen – the right to vote and to expect your government to defend you rights and privileges regardless of your gender or the color of your skin.
I mention Ms. Wells because 150 years after the ratification of the 14th Amendment, the promises contained therein are under attack today, not by the lynch mobs Ms. Wells wrote and spoke so fiercely about, but by Republicans in Congress, and in State Legislatures across the country controlled by Republicans, who are working to restrict the right to vote.
In the final essay of his remarkable life, Representative John Lewis wrote:
“Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble. Voting and participating in the democratic process are key. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.”
Ida Wells got into “good trouble” and so must we all, by supporting HR-1/S-1 and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
Voting by mail/ballot drop box was instituted here in Colorado some years ago. Our voter participation rate is amongst the largest nationwide, for one simple reason: convenience! My ballot is mailed to me, with a packet of reading material that provides a summation of all measures and initiatives. It’s a 10 minute drive to the nearest drop box. I get text updates from the time my ballot is received until it’s accepted for counting. (Email updates are also available).
Numerous states have recognized ours as a model.
Perhaps most importantly, fraud is zilch, zip, zero.
Thank you Professor HCR. Be well, all 🖖🏻☮️🖖🏻
Thank you Heather. Finally, capital Police being taken to task. I remember what my own eyes saw as some police simply dismantled and pulled back the flimsy barricades. But, imo, All the little mob soldiers who go to jail in this failed coup attempt will not cure our ills UNTIL their commander in chief gets arrested and prosecuted right along with them. Head of the snake.
Thank you, Heather! As a retired teacher-librarian, I’d like to nominate you as a true Wonder Woman. I’m amazed that you manage to do all this research, produce a polished and detailed nightly letter, do your day job and remain focused, coherent and sane. Kudos!
After the COVID relief bill passes, I'm ready for Democratic leaders to become much more aggressive and vocal in pushing the For the People legislation. Not just speaking out in support but painting Republicans as enemies of voting. The GOP has made this clear with the raft of state bills that seek to prevent the extraordinary turnout last November. They must be stopped.
Ah, the filibuster! There is a joke about traditional behaviors that have long outlasted their original utility. The joke goes like this: A young girl has watched her mother always cut a few inches off the end of a ham, before baking it in the oven. When she asked for mother why, she was told that her grandmother always did this and that was how her mother learned to bake a ham. Curious, the girl asked her grandmother why she always cut the end of the ham off. The grandmother got a far away look and laughed, then said “Oh that! We had a very small oven and I had to cut the end off the ham so it would fit in the oven.” Clearly, there was no longer utility in wasting part of every ham. The same is true with the filibuster. The Founding Fathers envisioned the Congress would be populated by wise men of good will who would think through issues and debate them before coming to a resolution. The House soon grew too large for unlimited debate, so established rules for limiting it. The smaller Senate kept unlimited debate rules. Well now the Senate is likely larger than the House was when it limited debate. Further, the filibuster is now used to eliminate debate on an issue and to kill potential legislation, rather than to further debate. The filibuster is a tradition, much like living in caves or cutting off the. end of hams, that no longer serves the goal of debate. It is time to end it.
Seems H.R. 1 and S. 1 will be the perfect reason for for busting the filibuster and bring the end of minority rule. It certainly will favor Democrats for years but it would give the GOP a much needed slap in the face to purge itself of the movement conservatives hellbent on killing democracy.
A boy can dream.
I would love to see the filibuster eliminated in order to get serious things accomplished. But, the next time there is a Republican Senate--possibly in two years--we might regret its disappearance. I don't understand why there never is any mention of a way to limit the use of the filibuster without doing away with it: return to the original protocol, which was that the the Senator launching a filibuster had to stand (not sit) and speak in order to prevent a vote. He (and it was always a man in those days) could read the phone book or Joy of Cooking; it didn't matter as long as he didn't sit down or leave the podium. He could speak for hours and hours; the longest by segregationist Strom Thurmond was slightly more than 24 hours. You can bet there would be far fewer people stopping the majority's will if that were the way it was done now.
I’d like us to move major elections to Saturday. No more Tuesdays. U get Saturday and u will increase participation, you have more volunteers, more available security, less disruption during the work week. This should be in the HR 1 bill.
Typo?
"Eighty-five percent of us want to limit the amount of politics,"
probably should have been,
"Eighty-five percent of us want to limit the amount of money in politics".
One wonders if that same 85% would therefore strongly support public financing of elections.
I certainly would.
Publicly financed elections, an end to partisan gerrymandering, and the elimination of the Electoral College would go a long way toward establishing a democracy in America. It would also likely mean the end of the Republican Party as it is today.
Two very noble endeavors.
California where I live makes voting as easy as possible. Similar to Colorado although I have not gotten text or email updates. As in Colorado, fraud is zilch, zip, zero. Thanks for the stats. Helps in sharing info with others.
Democracy in the US cannot survive without stopping vote suppression by the Republican Party. Unfortunately, HR1/S1 almost certainly cannot pass in the Senate unless the Democrats abolish the filibuster, which they cannot do because Manchin, Sinema, and one or two other Democrats have only slim margins in their overwhelmingly white states and fear losing them if they don't walk the Jim Crow line. Furthermore, even if the Senate did eliminate the filibuster and pass the bill, the Roberts court would probably emasculate it. (Roberts has steadfastly pursued preservation of white political dominance throughout his career.) So, in addition to dropping the filibuster, Democrats would need to expand the Supreme Court. That makes three high barriers protecting the white ruling class, and each of those barriers seems insurmountable. A monumental, nationwide, get-out-the-vote effort in 2022 might give the Democrats the three or four extra Senate seats they need to get rid of the filibuster and at the same time avoid the loss of the House. No prudent person would bet on that outcome, but now is not the time for prudence. Now it the time for monumental effort.
Thank you Heather.
It is high time we get answers to the nefarious workings of some of the Capitol police. As in every Police force, there are dirty police. That is a fact. When I was growing up, my Dad was a Deputy Sheriff and was dismayed by the true interests of some, certainly not all, Police. The Police Chief was a family friend who lived in our neighborhood and worked in tandem with my Mom with her involvement in the School District. I remember him saying at our house over dinner that it's a full time job just keeping the Police on the straight and narrow, let alone the criminals. Perhaps that I why even today I have a cautious opinion of Police.
Regarding voter suppression, I am sickened by the factor of Republicans that are openly willing to vote against the good of the People. These are not grey issues, these are clear and pointed facts they are choosing to drive over people with. This issue alone has dwindled any hope I have for true reform.
I can't praise Liz Cheney enough for her tough stand on Trump. I am waiting for the other shoe to drop with her, but so far she is showing ethics I didn't think she had. CPAC will be every Republicans wet dream. This will be Trump's resurrection. Hold on to your hats, this will be the stomping down of the Democrats in more ways than one.
Be safe, be well.
For the People Act could save America Democracy.
They continue to prove that Richard Hofstadter was right 67 years ago. We should start calling them what they are: Pseudo-Conservatives -
From clinical interviews and thematic apperception tests, Adorno and his co-workers found that their pseudo-conservative subjects, although given to a form of political expression that combines a curious mixture of largely conservative with occasional radical notions, succeed in concealing from themselves impulsive tendencies that, if released in action, would be very far from conservative. The pseudo-conservative, Adorno writes, shows “conventionality and authoritarian submissiveness” in his conscious thinking and “violence, anarchic impulses, and chaotic destructiveness in the unconscious sphere. . . . The pseudo conservative is a man who, in the name of upholding traditional American values and institutions and defending them against more or less fictitious dangers, consciously or unconsciously aims at their abolition.”
HR1/S1, For the People Act is worth going to the mat for. Democrats cannot afford to let these bills not become law. Truth is, Americans cannot afford that; it's just that so many Rs in Congress have forgotten what it means, truly means, to be an American.
So, the filibuster must go, at least for bills that affect voting rights, as it has gone for budget bills. Also, and I've wondered about this for years, whatever happened to actually having to hold the floor, to talk without respite for hours and days. If you insist on filibustering, then do it for goodness sake! don't just threaten and the other side caves in!
I just finished a bit of research on what my own piece of Republicanism accomplished during his six terms in office and I was truly impressed by how little a Congressman can get away with doing, putting cult before country, and still be elected. Really low bar. He initiated 33 bills over six terms, managed to get one (1) passed, to rename a post office after a local hero.
Now, my district is a safe Republican seat --R+14-- and I'm embarrassed to say that it was the Maryland Dems who gerrymandered it so they'd have seven safe Democratic seats. It makes me so 😡 mad.
HR1/S1 could bring us a little closer to a more perfect union, to an honest democracy, just a little, and there are Congress folk who would rather see it not pass? What are you doing in a position of leadership? Get out of the way!