Sometimes HCR's letters give me a pit in my stomach. This is one of those times. The school where my mom was principal for 15+ years burned down in Altadena this past week - a school where I painted the Kinder classrooms for a few summers -- and today's letter managed to make me further worried. UGH. Exhausted in SoCal.
I am so sorry for the overwhelming losses you are going through. You must be completely weary, and the news just adds to your exhaustion. I don't know that it will help, but please know there are many of us who care very much. Many of us who will contribute and assist in any way we can.
That has been my experience in every community no matter where it is across the US. Whether it's hurricanes in FL, tornados in NE, or Noreasters in ME neighbors help each other.
And when the job is too big for friends and neighbors to handle, that's when FEMA and the Red Cross are there to help.
It's not just government workers who are making a difference. There are crews from many states, neighboring states, yes, but also from my state, MA. And let's not forget to thank the Canadian and Mexican governments which have sent fire-fighting planes and personnel. Strength and resilience are evident in the face of unthinkable disaster.
It takes a pretty empty soul to lay on burdens to others suffering in a disaster zone. And that appeals to so many claiming to be Christian? The likes of Trump and Musk would be driving the nails.
My daughter just posted on Instagram that it has been Dems who have laid the fires in Lahaina and LA to "promote our case for climate change". Upon my questioning her sanity, she blew me off with, first, a tirade of invective about trying to control her communications and "freedom of speech" and said: "her comment was mostly satire anyways". As if that is Okay! Who uses other people's tragedy for satire and spreading falsehoods...??? My daughter, I guess. I commented that I supposed her definition of "freedom" and mine were diametrically opposed. It is a truly lost cause. I hope you folks don't have to experience the like. Sleep becomes difficult. I'm a pretty tough, rational thinker (I hope), but this is beyond the pale, for me.
Ah, it must be so hard to hear your child under such terrible illusions. My mother fell under the spell of Rush Limbaugh (and of the wealth of her second husband and his "fiscal conservatism") and is now a frightened, vindictive Fox zombie. There are So many topics we have to avoid that I barely speak to her for more than 5 minutes at a time. She used to be such a happy person. I hope the spell will lift for her and for your daughter.
Rupert is still spewing bullschittery. Apparently, nobody can stop him. He has his Russian fifth wife (I think) and his connections with Vlad and their billionaire cronies are all set to rule all of us. Remember you are dealing with a cult. It takes deprogramming or Ike to break the spell.
I am sorry about the discord in your family and hope that it improves. A woman in my extended family, who I liked, turned raging MAGA and hostile. I think there is a difference between those who get snared in the lies, and those who knowingly concoct them. Especially those who lie who accept positions of public trust.
Of course, cults must have a leader. What is different here is that chump has all kinds of money and power glom onto him like he has a magnetic field. So hope I live to see the pin prick the blimp and see the air deflate the whole mess. Since Ike is gone, it’s about all we have…
The pain of losing a family member to the MAGA cult of lies is hard. I am sorry for your troubles. My late mother's last vote was for T**** in 2016, and I'm still trying to deal with it.
it is tough, James. Maybe reject any anger or guilt as not being yours. Push it aside mentally and let your Neurons learn to do so automatically. Just a thought from what helps me.
Bruce, I don't know if this will help, or applies to your situation, and I’m probably going to regret saying anything at all, but it’s worth a try.
As I've said here, many times, I’ve maintained strong and close relationships with relatives and friends who happen to be Trump supporters. With very few exceptions, dependency, not politics, is the dividing line between us.
I was 17 when I started my business. While I worked for other companies through college, I kept my business going. Fifty years later, I closed my business and retired.
Very early on, I had to confront the fact, that my employee’s dependency on me creating work for them, was killing my business. Simply put, my company sold creative work which depends, entirely, on independent thinkers. Since dependent people cannot think creatively, I had to let them go. And so I ask…
Is your daughter dependent on other people, for work, income, and/or direction? If so, that might explain her attraction to Trump. Does she see in Trump, the traditional male role of provider in her life? This is a patriarchal society issue, not a daddy issue.
If you expect her to be an independent woman, and she wants to be dependent, she might feel attracted to Trump who promises to take care of her. If your daughter really likes being dependent, she is probably fighting to remain dependent. If she wants dependency enough, she will even fight you to get it.
Good points. None of my family MAGAts are dependent . They worked hard but are fearful that some undeserving person will get a crumb that should be theirs.
Very interesting Raffey. If you can find it, read my post later on in the stack about my experience in my business...we had the same instincts. I was able to implement some guidelines that made sense to some, but never enough.
To your comment: "Is your daughter dependent on other people?" That is an interesting question. Yes she is in a quasi Pyramid organization, and she works from home as the kids go to a coalition of home schooled ...schools. She has a trad marital relationship, and is in a very co-dependent relationship with her husband.
Yes, I agree with your assessment, and understand it. That doesn't mean I won't continue to remind her even while we are able to establish boundaries of behavior when I am with them. It is the only way that I can visit with my grandchildren. Just by being there, someone who is quite different in their lives, living 13 hours away by airplane, telling them about the strange, different history of their family. My "Leib" is with them, without breaking boundaries which would cut off access to them, even if it hurts to not try to teach them my truth.
I had children that went wild after their mother died. People deal with situations uniquely/differently. Mine were just MAD at the universe and had no one but me to take it out on. It took over twenty years of non-stop interventions on my part to reach any resolution at all. Now, things are coming together. We are speaking the same language. We all have to decide if we are in it for the long run. If we want truth and justice to prevail, we have to put in the work.
There is a lot of truth to what you say, Craig. My daughter's and Son's issues although very different had a similar nexus. Their mother left us to live with another man and his family, very abruptly. That has also been a long haul issue. And, I made several mistakes, which both hold me accountable to and will not forgive. With constant work, I have at least been able to visit with my grandkids, and my daughter with some degree of muzzling agreed to all round. My son, my best friend for so long, is a different story which I will not accost y'all with. At least he is not MAGA.
So much in so many ways, Kathy. That is an impossible question for me to answer satisfactorily. However, she does say, on Medical and health science issues, for example. That she has far more expertise than any doctor or scientist because of her amazing abilities as a researcher. Says the woman who flunked out of first year undergrad after a 4.0+ GPA throughout high School, providing entrance into one of our best and (I'll say it) most expensive Universities. Not that the money really matters, it's the general lack of respect for ones own future that I don't understand, and the coincident lack of respect for others, who have driven themselves to achieve their goals.
Unfortunately her attitude toward "Freedom from" distorts her views on many many subjects, where she gets her information, and how she applies it.
As a Topangan I say we are always grateful for the fire crews. In awe of them, really. Our own at Station 69, and those who leave their faraway homes to join the battle, as well as the prisoners on the front lines.
They are a part of the government that dates back to Ben Franklin in our country, and I believe to thousands of years ago in Imperial Rome and China? And our government has forged international agreements not just with our neighbors, but with with countries as far away as Australia, where fires are also a major natural threat, made so much more deadly and unnatural by human waste and inaction.
May these catastrophes serve to break across boundaries of create a global resistance to the Oiligarchs and their new Plutocracy - the United States of America.
Mark Elias did an interview with Allison Riggs (elected to the N.C. Supreme Court) about the GOP trying to throw out 60,000 votes to prevent her from taking her seat on the bench. Below is a link to the interview and info for those who would like to help with her legal costs. This is an IMPORTANT case because if the GOP is successful in N.C. they will try it in other states too.
Yes, I donated because Justice Riggs has to pay court costs and this fight has dragged on and on. Please donate to help her: https://www.riggsforourcourts.com/
When justice and truth are in plain sight to even your average Joe without a law degree, how can courts rule in favour of corruption and be allowed to get away with it?
Sometimes HCR’s letters give me a pit in my stomach, too. And this is one of those times. I feel so disheartened at my fellow Americans. And frustrated that there’s so little than I can do. I’m so sorry, Lauren, at what you and other Californians are going through. It is just heart-wrenching, devastating to watch the devastation. I hope you’ll be able to stay safe where you are.
Lincoln was right; Mass public opinion even shifts the earth under SCOTUS. But that is exactly the tricky part JL, especially under the current circumstances wherein much of the MSM is complicit due to their business models.
I am very sorry for your losses. While we moved to Sacramento 10 years ago to be closer to our growing grandchildren, I spent the entirety of my life before that in SoCal, first as a child adjacent to the Palisades, then as an adult raising our family adjacent to Altadena. We are gutted by all of the losses, all of the suffering. These communities have lost so much. Our oldest friends lost their family home, and every day either we, or our children, hear of someone else we know, or know of, who have suffered same. It is so exhausting, and now with the regime change about to take place, not sure where I will find the energy to get through the next four years.
I am borrowing a quote by Ram Dass: Whether tomorrow brings the apocalypse or not, our work is the same: Love one another and alleviate suffering for all. This helps me so much. I hope it helps you, too. There are many examples of support and selflessness during the fires while our so-called leaders-to-be throw foul-mouthed invectives. This is a battle of love vs. hatred.
Last night's 60 Minutes from Altadena and Pacific Palisades was just heart breaking. I thought of every little square viewed from above as unit of sorrow, each family bearing its burden of loss. We simply must find ways to support these Americas, even as the president-elect casts derision on elected California officials. Just as those poor people in North Carolina lost their communities to flooding and, later political plundering, we must make sure their voices are heard and their needs addressed.
A good number of years ago when my own daughter was in elementary school, I had a part time job in a bank branch. Another of us had a very young child who was diagnosed with cancer. A customer was tacky enough to ask my colleague how she was able to cope. She managed to say, “One day at a time, one hour at a time, sometimes one minute at a time” while the rest of us sat in stunned silence. We are in that situation now, and will get through in the same way: one day, one hour, one minute. We can also take heart that with Letters like this, a bright light shines on the tactics being used to disenfranchise voters as NC is trying to do, information that was not so available 200 years ago. I am convinced that Washington, where I live, has one of the best, if not *the* best election system in the country, implemented by a Republican Secretary of State, Kim Wyman …who now has a job in election security in the Biden administration (can you even imagine P-E Trump, CF, having such an office?). We started with ballot drop boxes, though not that many at first. Every year more were added. We could mail ballots via USPS for the cost of a stamp, but that wasn’t quite so easy for many voters. Every year more drop boxes were added; a few years ago the King County Executive announced that the county would make its ballots postage-paid. That way, people who didn’t have a drop box near them - yet - would have an easier time voting. More conservative counties erupted that it was unfair to them; the Governor, a Democrat, agreed and said that the state would make ALL ballots postage paid. Our processing systems are secure, unconnected to the internet. Secretary Wyman also wanted to register automatically all young residents on their 18th birthday. So: we can do this: we can emulate Mrs. Pence, we can buoy our spirits with the Full Frontal episode titled “Trump in Scotland”, and think of new and creative ways to mock him. As the farmer said, “He’ll crack up.” Join the League of Women Voters, any group that can create links with other states…
I miss mutual greetings from election workers, and the polling place, but mail-in voting works and leaves a physical paper trail. Wyman is one of the very few Republicans I ever voted for.
I mentioned it before, but I find much to admire in books by Edith Eger.
Indeed, this was one of the best changes in our political processes that we have made here in Washington State. Now if only we could rewrite our constitution and make it a legal framework instead of the disastrous list of elevated and amended laws that it is; or maybe we could straighten out our state's horrible tax system which has to be one of the most regressive in the country. And oh, the ferry system is short five much needed boats, and way understaffed. Oh well - one battle at a time. We are making progress slowly but surely. And yeah, I have to confess that I broke my usual rule of not voting for any R's and consistently voted for Kim. She did a fantastic job.
So deeply sorry for the losses in Southern California, and your town in particular. What a horrid tragedy. I can only imagine how overwhelmed you are with the chaos in the country, let alone suffering through the fires' losses. Concentrate on what little you can control right now and know that the majority of us across our country are with you in spirit.
Lauren, it’s no wonder you feel the way you do. You are witnessing and living in trauma. You rightly feel grief and loss. Give yourself time to process all of this. Seek out supportive friends, and be kind to yourself. We will be here when you’re ready to re-join the fight.
My stomach hurts, too. From this letter, sadly. And from a friend's son in Altadena who told his mom across the country, "Don't worry. The fire is 35 miles away." Then, within the hour, they escaped with only the clothes on their backs and their lives. Everything turned to ash. Your sorrows are my sorrows.
''...when a Republican candidate calls for throwing out the votes of 60,000 voters to declare victory in an election he lost, they have abandoned the principles of democracy in favor of a one-party state that will operate in their favor alone...''
I am sorry for your family's loss in California. While I can understand nature's flames of destruction, I am at a loss in understanding Maga's desire to burn down our democracy. Sadness overwhelms me.
Lauren, I almost hate to say I “like” your post. Please take the heart ❤️ as a hug, to you and your neighbors. Don’t worry about our foolishness here in NC. We stand with you and there are people in our state who stand ready to help our friends in Cali.
I am so sorry for the devastation in LA - parts appear to have been vaporized. Words can't express how tragic it is or how my heart aches for you all. Our son was born in LA and, while we haven't lived there for many, many years, I still feel that connection.
What boggles my mind is the energy that these (apparently) talented people are expending on these devious ploys, while real problems, like homelessness & hunger are so prevalent. These issues could actually be resolved with this sort of determination, yet it is spent on control & greed. Oh my gawd, it is getting more disappointing by the hour. 😥
As a linguist I can see a creative beauty in the synonyms you create. Flamboyant words like gerrymandering and filibuster to replace a good hardworking Anglo Saxon word like "cheat".
Katherine I think you are paying attention to the real problem. As tragic as the fires in California are, you used the phrase "losing power" to focus on what the 1% and maga is doing to the democracies in this country and abroad.
I've been writing lately that once those people gain powe as they been doing in some states and in the last election in most of the country, they are going to be in control for a long, long time . For those of us that hope the midterm election is going to take some of that power away and then in four years we'll be back in the White House, I think don't have the whole clear picture of how deeply the situation changed already. They been secretively for at least since Regan times, little by little, planning, executing, trying again and investing billions of dollars. Such an effort and investment finally presented them with control of the 3 branches of government and the media. They are not to risk all that plying nice and in one or few elections. They are here to stay they have contingency plans. We have to open our eyes and act ASAP. What's going on in NC is proof enough. Look Oklahoma , Texas and Wisconsin to name a few states. And pay attention to the relentless campaign against Governor Newsom, most likely one of the leading presidential contender for the next election due " his criminal behavior during the fires " .Stay put.
Some people have little imagination and less empathy, so if they're not homeless or hungry themselves, they can't understand the plight of those who are.
You hit the nail on the head - the lack of empathy. So many are no longer capable of it - I’ve wracked my brain trying to figure that one out. ASD is much more prevalent, along with more narcissism - I mean, it just wasn’t so obvious 30 years ago, now it’s every time I turn around. Empathy isn’t really something that can be taught (seems like we all used to have it - not so any longer). 😥
Republicans do whatever they want; they don’t follow rules because for all intent and purpose there are literally no consequences. Litigating is inconsequential when it comes to people who have money, power and tactics to delay things. They are above the law. Rules, equity and ethics only work when people have a code of honor, or at a minimum some self respect. Here, we are being told that they will cheat and steal votes; let the litigating begin. The lying and alternative facts have been normalized-lying, cheating, stealing. Welcome to America.
TR, so much for the hallowed "rule of Law" as Joyce calls it in her Substack. Since when has the ever been a rule of Law under our constitution. In America, it has always been the "Law of the Ruler". So what do you do about that? Constitutional reform. We (with our Allies) gave another country and thereby the region a new basic law which works pretty well in 1949. I speak of Germany and parts of Europe. Maybe we should look at that again.
But they love to say things like "no one is above the law," or "justice for all" as they take away the right to vote or make medical choices about our own bodies.
In some cases it goes beyond "lack of empathy". That lack of empathy is one of the traits listed in a description of "psychopathy". For example, consider the practice during 45's term where asylum-seeking families were separated without keeping records of where their children were sent. That was the work of a psychopath. They are not just indifferent to the lives of other people, they are hostile. And they have managed to convert people with good hearts to vote for their evil ways. More than 11% of Americans are living in poverty -- more than 30 million of US. These people need our empathy.
You're right. CFDT spouts his nonsense 24/7/365, so we become outraged for 5 minutes and then he brings up another stupid thing like immigrants eating pets.
And that is what our corporate media gloms on to instead of the fact that CFDT was crushed in his debate with Kamala and then refused to debate her again.
How many times has the corporate media pointed out that CFDT is a demented fool unqualified to be President. Instead, they focus on his latest ridiculous diversion.
CFDT has arguably picked 4 or 5 cabinet candidates that are unqualified to do anything and yet the media and Republicans have mostly accepted that they might actually be approved to positions that only CFDT can remove them from.
And the sheeple vote for them because they can spew hate and fear. The Republicans have found a way to buy their way into several Senate seats like JD, Cruz, Scott, etc. with their lies and disinformation.
Some people seem obsessed with lording over others. It seems to be humanity's actual original sin, and the historical source of most of humanity's avoidable sufferings. Abuse of power is, literally is, evil. Throughout history some have dreamed of societies in which people prosper in peace, but that state is always fragile, and never completed large scale. I keep thinking that we, as a people, could deescalate violence if we chose to.
For a moment, imagine an America without corporations. When I imagine such an America, I see a country where everyone stands on a level playing field... a country without the wealth and power that only corporations can accumlate, and no man can generate on his own... a country that nurtures creativity, innovation, independent thinking and collaboration... a country that puts children first... a country that values peace more than wealth and happiness more than strife... a country where fair is an adult word, not a child's word.
I don't have to imagine that. We, as citizens, had that vision starting with the Progressive movement in the late 19th century. Continuing with Brandeis anti trust law and then with FDR and the New Deal. Corporate power must be checked by the countervailing power of government regulation and enforcement power to promote fairness and competition. We had that in our grasp, but gave it up with the election of Nixon and Reagan.
It's their plan Jonathan, they planned and invested long and big for this moment. They are here to stay. The remaining question is what to do about it.
Don't get me started about the fine art of gerrymandering here in NC. They carve towns and counties up into little odd-shaped quilt pieces and stitch districts back together in contorted ways. This state is so progressive in so many ways and places but 50 years behind in others. As a former Chicagoan, I thought I'd seen it all but NC continues to surprise me monthly.
I live in North Carolina currently and have lived here since 1975. I have seen all the craziness upfront. It’s exasperating to vote to learn this challenge is going on to the NC State Supreme Court.
Jeff Jackson was my US House member and he was gerrymandered out and then chose to run for Attorney General of NC.
I am appalled by the political tricks going on now. Reading tonight’s letter, thank you, Heather Cox Richardson, for the historical perspective. The patterns of our past are repeating themselves. This, sadly, doesn’t mean progress at all. Repeating bad patterns for political gain, power, influence and control limits/restricts “we the people “ in favor of the powerful. This has not been a successful strategy for sustained progress. It undermines democracy. It undermines democratic principles and values.
Vicky, what they are doing in NC it's one of the many experiments they might apply to other states and vice-versa. They are here to stay and be prepared to hear "we have a mandate" at nauseum.
Eventually, the US will have to pass laws that forbid gerrymandering. If we avoid a catastrophic dictatorship and manage to regain control of our country.
The failure of the founders to protect the right to vote as inviolate strikes me as a huge oversight. It seems to me that the mission of the Constitution is blatantly undermined by any schemes to distort equal justice, protection, and representation of any citizen that is otherwise qualified to vote.
Even if by honest error, deprivation or unreasonable barriers to the right to vote should be considered an intolerable injury to both affected individuals and the whole of society; and actively remedied. The vote-distorting shenanigans $COTUS winks at are Tyrannosaurus-rex-in-room corrupt as hell, and a clear and present danger to the Republic.
The right to vote, and have every vote count, needs to be held sacrosanct.
The Founders envisioned a Republic where only white men of property could vote, so saw no need to protect that. Unless you add another amendment to protect everyone’s right to vote, or better still, replace your 18th Century document with one fit for a modern democracy, I can’t see how you can protect your country from the anti-democratic power grabs of those who believe the Founders were right.
This breakdown of North Carolina politics—and I have lots of friends and colleagues who teach in the UNC system, which has been historically inclusive, liberal, and challenging of the status quo—demonstrates exactly what Jamelle Bouie wrote in his Friday column in The NY Times: there was not “peaceful transfer of power” in the federal election. The neofascists and christofascists won. So they took office because Dems followed the rules and let them. But what if Harris had won? Would there have been a “peaceful transfer of power”? Vide North Carolina.
The Democratic Party failure to invoke section 3 of amendment 14 shows they were not in the election to win. And using section 3 of amendment 14 actually would be playing by the rules of the constitution. So to me, the party is a total disgrace.
Please don’t take my comments as directed at you, they are not. The NYT’s perspective is cynical and irresponsible at best, considering their role in consistently upholding narratives that sustain oligarchs main goals, and undermining the Biden/Harris administration. With that said, President Biden is still the President, and the Commander in Chief, still responsible for upholding the Oath to defend our Constitution, IMHO.
. . . And each time I look for an update on the horrific LA fires (I am so, so sorry to those here who are directly affected by them) I see another awful lie spread by Trump and his right-wing media megaphone. Just now, he posted a picture of the Hollywood Hills (with Hollywood sign) burning, with the words "TRUMP WAS RIGHT". And Republicans in the House are already talking about how they will withhold federal funding from California unless various "conditions" are met.
What is the MOST ironic thing is that California sends so much federal money to the "taker" states - the red states. California is the fifth largest economy in the entire world. And to be vilified by these uninformed GOP members? Crazy.
I'd love to see Newsom figure out a way around the tax code to keep some of our CA tax dollars from heading to the Plutocracy's coffers this year. Let the Billionaire's Congress figure out how to fund their Red State pork barrel projects without our largesse. Sorry, I try not to be selfish, and I know we are basically feeding the poor in the South, and wherever Walmart and Amazon Dist. Centers are the only jobs left, but it is really starting to rankle.
Especially when we could be spending it here to develop new Green Tech and Sustainable Farming and to AI and its guardrails, and of our course, Housing and services for our own poor and homeless, in a state suffering from its own success and income inequality.
I only regret that there is so much lying about the fire. The real problem is the climate change Republicans pretend isn’t happening, and the president elect’s bff is out there using his social media site to spread lies and misinformation.
I lived in a purple Florida county. De Santis chopped a little blue off one end, added some red on the other and now we are solidly red. Years ago voters amended the constitution to discourage gerrymandering . Republicans have spent millions of taxpayers money evading it. They have also made it harder to vote and vote early. Im afraid this could get lots worse really fast.
Heather's reporting on North Carolina politics today only reaffirms everything Didion was writing in the last years of her life.
She was reporting, really, from many places. But Washington D.C. politicians underlined all the more the charades, the lives-in-abstractions, and the repetitions of similarly dehumanized power players (both parties) all playing only that they and their teams stay in power.
Didion had to repeat, often, that these games always went on totally and completely apart from any factual observations of the public at whose expense the elites indulged their charades.
I disagree. Didion wrote from a strictly privileged perspective. A second reading of "The Year of Magical Thinking" convinced me that she was completely detached from, and incapable of understanding, how the majority of people live.
Of course you're correct, Katherine, in some ways.
She was born to and raised in an affluent northern California family. She knew publishing success at an early age and had the benefit all her life of access to the best publishing houses in New York and the best film studios in Hollywood, for whom she and her husband co-wrote many successful screenplays.
She knew everybody in power.
Of all this, yes, something like "The Year of Magical Thinking" sets her as insider elite.
But you err, Katherine, if you ignore the many other books of journalism where she was on the ground -- widely in the U.S. and similarly so in foreign countries where she could see and did see, did report on the damages done by U.S. elites and covered up by U.S. institutions, from universities to government agencies she knew and named all too well.
I can't let a comment equating "both parties" slip by without a caution. "Politicians are all the same" and "both parties are corrupt" have been the PR of the powerful (read WASP patriarchy) since our union was founded. It continues to work, thanks to the willingness of engaged leftists to let perfection be the death of progress in our limited electoral system. There is a CLEAR difference between the parties, and women have Always been able to see it more clearly than men, at least in one life or death aspect.
Please be careful not to smear Democrats with the same brush as Republicans this way.
Please, Patrice, note one key difference between today's era and that of Joan Didion.
She very specifically chronicled how both political parties in the 1980s and '90s limited their public utterances to abstractions, team slogans, stereotypes of the other, and other packaging rhetoric. The worse part of this for her was the relentless predictability that both parties would, for their conceits, also avoid citations of "observable fact" as any decent writer or journalist knows should be key.
Joan Didion's alarm at these behaviors then yet obtain today insofar as American schools went full throttle since then to stigmatize anyone ever using any humanities. Thus the parties Heather cites in North Carolina today show themselves all aloof from, illiterate to parallels to any novels, memoirs, histories, films, or other arts aptly grounding policy and politics in observable human circumstances.
Nothing says we cannot build a platform that will draw voters on both sides. We can present the things we know that are needed. A single-payer universal healthcare system has been a dream. It would save us $460 billion a year. Why have we not proposed that???? Free child care. Free college. Supplemental income below $30,000. Why have we not proposed that???? Free school lunches. Why not? It is needed and it is time. Why not? A lack of courage is why not. Did you know that courage is what overcomes fear? Would a brave soul stand up, one that can infuse us with courage? https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/start-our-movement?r=3m1bs
But all of those have been proposed over and over! And they've been blocked over and over. It's not that Democrats don't propose or even make serious efforts to make those things happen.
Still, there have been pilot programs for supplemental or universal basic income, and they've done well.
And here in New Mexico, we do have free school lunches for all kids in public schools.
the people/corporations who make money under the present system work very hard and spend a lot of money to ensure that the presesent system does not change. Health insurers do not want a single-payer universal health care system. Where is their role in that? Nowhere - so they resist. Likewise income supplements - but they go to people that for Republicans are the wrong color.
So many reforms that could be possible, but money and racism and blunt stupidity ensure that they are fervently opposed, even by people who would benefit from them. Alas...
As the richest nation in the world, we do not have universal health care, we have untold numbers of homeless people, we have children who go to school hungry every day, and children who live in cars with their families. My daughter lives in Germany. People pay into the health care system, but they have excellent health care. About three years ago I needed a CT scan and had to pay out of pocket. The cost of the scan was 40 euros, about $40. If people want additional services that are not covered, they can pay out of pocket, but they don't have to mortgage their homes to do so.
I’m heartsick at what’s going on in North Carolina, where I lived from 1991 to 2014. I remember the years when voting rights were expanding. And I remember the 2010 census and the subsequent REDMAP gerrymandering with “surgical precision” to create a minority rule.
I volunteered in NC in October to help elect Josh Stein. I’m furious that the NC legislature is looking for, and finding, ways to constrain him and his AG. It’s un-American. 😡
So wrong so unbelievable Denying the votes and choices of citizens And agree with comments above feel the immorality and anti democratic principles of this in pit of stomach And all of this with the fires blazing destroying and a immoral so called president elect - if really elected - who doesn’t care
Sometimes HCR's letters give me a pit in my stomach. This is one of those times. The school where my mom was principal for 15+ years burned down in Altadena this past week - a school where I painted the Kinder classrooms for a few summers -- and today's letter managed to make me further worried. UGH. Exhausted in SoCal.
I am so sorry for the overwhelming losses you are going through. You must be completely weary, and the news just adds to your exhaustion. I don't know that it will help, but please know there are many of us who care very much. Many of us who will contribute and assist in any way we can.
The outpouring of community has been incredible - Community gets sh!t done - even if tRumpf's "gov" wont.
That has been my experience in every community no matter where it is across the US. Whether it's hurricanes in FL, tornados in NE, or Noreasters in ME neighbors help each other.
And when the job is too big for friends and neighbors to handle, that's when FEMA and the Red Cross are there to help.
Take heart that government workers are working tirelessly to help. We will rebuild SoCal with a focus on equity and undermine Trump’s MAGAts in DC. North Carolina is making progress towards becoming deep blue like California! https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/resisting-project-2025-from-within-government
It's not just government workers who are making a difference. There are crews from many states, neighboring states, yes, but also from my state, MA. And let's not forget to thank the Canadian and Mexican governments which have sent fire-fighting planes and personnel. Strength and resilience are evident in the face of unthinkable disaster.
It takes a pretty empty soul to lay on burdens to others suffering in a disaster zone. And that appeals to so many claiming to be Christian? The likes of Trump and Musk would be driving the nails.
My daughter just posted on Instagram that it has been Dems who have laid the fires in Lahaina and LA to "promote our case for climate change". Upon my questioning her sanity, she blew me off with, first, a tirade of invective about trying to control her communications and "freedom of speech" and said: "her comment was mostly satire anyways". As if that is Okay! Who uses other people's tragedy for satire and spreading falsehoods...??? My daughter, I guess. I commented that I supposed her definition of "freedom" and mine were diametrically opposed. It is a truly lost cause. I hope you folks don't have to experience the like. Sleep becomes difficult. I'm a pretty tough, rational thinker (I hope), but this is beyond the pale, for me.
Ah, it must be so hard to hear your child under such terrible illusions. My mother fell under the spell of Rush Limbaugh (and of the wealth of her second husband and his "fiscal conservatism") and is now a frightened, vindictive Fox zombie. There are So many topics we have to avoid that I barely speak to her for more than 5 minutes at a time. She used to be such a happy person. I hope the spell will lift for her and for your daughter.
Rupert is still spewing bullschittery. Apparently, nobody can stop him. He has his Russian fifth wife (I think) and his connections with Vlad and their billionaire cronies are all set to rule all of us. Remember you are dealing with a cult. It takes deprogramming or Ike to break the spell.
Oh Patrice, we know, and I feel for you too. Nevertheless I find great humor in "Fox Zombie".
I’m so very sorry. It must be so hard to have one of your children go MAGA.
I am sorry about the discord in your family and hope that it improves. A woman in my extended family, who I liked, turned raging MAGA and hostile. I think there is a difference between those who get snared in the lies, and those who knowingly concoct them. Especially those who lie who accept positions of public trust.
Of course, cults must have a leader. What is different here is that chump has all kinds of money and power glom onto him like he has a magnetic field. So hope I live to see the pin prick the blimp and see the air deflate the whole mess. Since Ike is gone, it’s about all we have…
Ain't that the truth, JL
The pain of losing a family member to the MAGA cult of lies is hard. I am sorry for your troubles. My late mother's last vote was for T**** in 2016, and I'm still trying to deal with it.
it is tough, James. Maybe reject any anger or guilt as not being yours. Push it aside mentally and let your Neurons learn to do so automatically. Just a thought from what helps me.
Bruce, I don't know if this will help, or applies to your situation, and I’m probably going to regret saying anything at all, but it’s worth a try.
As I've said here, many times, I’ve maintained strong and close relationships with relatives and friends who happen to be Trump supporters. With very few exceptions, dependency, not politics, is the dividing line between us.
I was 17 when I started my business. While I worked for other companies through college, I kept my business going. Fifty years later, I closed my business and retired.
Very early on, I had to confront the fact, that my employee’s dependency on me creating work for them, was killing my business. Simply put, my company sold creative work which depends, entirely, on independent thinkers. Since dependent people cannot think creatively, I had to let them go. And so I ask…
Is your daughter dependent on other people, for work, income, and/or direction? If so, that might explain her attraction to Trump. Does she see in Trump, the traditional male role of provider in her life? This is a patriarchal society issue, not a daddy issue.
If you expect her to be an independent woman, and she wants to be dependent, she might feel attracted to Trump who promises to take care of her. If your daughter really likes being dependent, she is probably fighting to remain dependent. If she wants dependency enough, she will even fight you to get it.
Good points. None of my family MAGAts are dependent . They worked hard but are fearful that some undeserving person will get a crumb that should be theirs.
Very interesting Raffey. If you can find it, read my post later on in the stack about my experience in my business...we had the same instincts. I was able to implement some guidelines that made sense to some, but never enough.
To your comment: "Is your daughter dependent on other people?" That is an interesting question. Yes she is in a quasi Pyramid organization, and she works from home as the kids go to a coalition of home schooled ...schools. She has a trad marital relationship, and is in a very co-dependent relationship with her husband.
Yes, I agree with your assessment, and understand it. That doesn't mean I won't continue to remind her even while we are able to establish boundaries of behavior when I am with them. It is the only way that I can visit with my grandchildren. Just by being there, someone who is quite different in their lives, living 13 hours away by airplane, telling them about the strange, different history of their family. My "Leib" is with them, without breaking boundaries which would cut off access to them, even if it hurts to not try to teach them my truth.
I love some MAGAts as well. The challenge of my life. I have lost them in ways that are hard to explain.
I had children that went wild after their mother died. People deal with situations uniquely/differently. Mine were just MAD at the universe and had no one but me to take it out on. It took over twenty years of non-stop interventions on my part to reach any resolution at all. Now, things are coming together. We are speaking the same language. We all have to decide if we are in it for the long run. If we want truth and justice to prevail, we have to put in the work.
There is a lot of truth to what you say, Craig. My daughter's and Son's issues although very different had a similar nexus. Their mother left us to live with another man and his family, very abruptly. That has also been a long haul issue. And, I made several mistakes, which both hold me accountable to and will not forgive. With constant work, I have at least been able to visit with my grandkids, and my daughter with some degree of muzzling agreed to all round. My son, my best friend for so long, is a different story which I will not accost y'all with. At least he is not MAGA.
What misinformation is she getting?
So much in so many ways, Kathy. That is an impossible question for me to answer satisfactorily. However, she does say, on Medical and health science issues, for example. That she has far more expertise than any doctor or scientist because of her amazing abilities as a researcher. Says the woman who flunked out of first year undergrad after a 4.0+ GPA throughout high School, providing entrance into one of our best and (I'll say it) most expensive Universities. Not that the money really matters, it's the general lack of respect for ones own future that I don't understand, and the coincident lack of respect for others, who have driven themselves to achieve their goals.
Unfortunately her attitude toward "Freedom from" distorts her views on many many subjects, where she gets her information, and how she applies it.
Oh lordy - I'm so sorry.
As a Topangan I say we are always grateful for the fire crews. In awe of them, really. Our own at Station 69, and those who leave their faraway homes to join the battle, as well as the prisoners on the front lines.
They are a part of the government that dates back to Ben Franklin in our country, and I believe to thousands of years ago in Imperial Rome and China? And our government has forged international agreements not just with our neighbors, but with with countries as far away as Australia, where fires are also a major natural threat, made so much more deadly and unnatural by human waste and inaction.
May these catastrophes serve to break across boundaries of create a global resistance to the Oiligarchs and their new Plutocracy - the United States of America.
They reject everything that Ben Franklin saw as necessary for our fledgling country. That is the ultimate crime against our founders
What stupidity!
And Ukraine is sending Fire Fighters!
And I’m afraid the Orange Menace will turn around and stab the Ukrainians in the back at Putin’s wishes.
Mark Elias did an interview with Allison Riggs (elected to the N.C. Supreme Court) about the GOP trying to throw out 60,000 votes to prevent her from taking her seat on the bench. Below is a link to the interview and info for those who would like to help with her legal costs. This is an IMPORTANT case because if the GOP is successful in N.C. they will try it in other states too.
https://youtu.be/Xzh1904ujRI?si=4v7U86KxndHnw-Nd
Thanks for posting the link. The relentless attacks on our democracy are exhausting but also enraging… we must persevere!
Yes, exhausting and enraging.
Yes, I donated because Justice Riggs has to pay court costs and this fight has dragged on and on. Please donate to help her: https://www.riggsforourcourts.com/
When justice and truth are in plain sight to even your average Joe without a law degree, how can courts rule in favour of corruption and be allowed to get away with it?
Corruption is the means by which they plan to rule
It’s also inherently unstable and we may wind up with a dictatorship.
There is a certain creative beauty in the synonyms you create in the US.
It should be appreciated. Flamboyant words like gerrymandering and filibuster to replace a good hardworking Anglo Saxon word like "cheat".
Exactly
Public Servant, thank you and your buddies for your tireless work.
Thank you for the link. It gives me a bit of hope. We have to have hope.
I dream, but not with the MAGAts I know there.
Sometimes HCR’s letters give me a pit in my stomach, too. And this is one of those times. I feel so disheartened at my fellow Americans. And frustrated that there’s so little than I can do. I’m so sorry, Lauren, at what you and other Californians are going through. It is just heart-wrenching, devastating to watch the devastation. I hope you’ll be able to stay safe where you are.
Lincoln claimed that public sentiment is everything. Are there effective ways we can influence that? Organize?
Lincoln was right; Mass public opinion even shifts the earth under SCOTUS. But that is exactly the tricky part JL, especially under the current circumstances wherein much of the MSM is complicit due to their business models.
I am very sorry for your losses. While we moved to Sacramento 10 years ago to be closer to our growing grandchildren, I spent the entirety of my life before that in SoCal, first as a child adjacent to the Palisades, then as an adult raising our family adjacent to Altadena. We are gutted by all of the losses, all of the suffering. These communities have lost so much. Our oldest friends lost their family home, and every day either we, or our children, hear of someone else we know, or know of, who have suffered same. It is so exhausting, and now with the regime change about to take place, not sure where I will find the energy to get through the next four years.
I am borrowing a quote by Ram Dass: Whether tomorrow brings the apocalypse or not, our work is the same: Love one another and alleviate suffering for all. This helps me so much. I hope it helps you, too. There are many examples of support and selflessness during the fires while our so-called leaders-to-be throw foul-mouthed invectives. This is a battle of love vs. hatred.
What the world needs now...
Always has.
Last night's 60 Minutes from Altadena and Pacific Palisades was just heart breaking. I thought of every little square viewed from above as unit of sorrow, each family bearing its burden of loss. We simply must find ways to support these Americas, even as the president-elect casts derision on elected California officials. Just as those poor people in North Carolina lost their communities to flooding and, later political plundering, we must make sure their voices are heard and their needs addressed.
What is hard is that those who need our love and support value it less than their community of hatred.
Yes it is! And to borrow from Wonder Woman, “Only love can truly save the world.”
A good number of years ago when my own daughter was in elementary school, I had a part time job in a bank branch. Another of us had a very young child who was diagnosed with cancer. A customer was tacky enough to ask my colleague how she was able to cope. She managed to say, “One day at a time, one hour at a time, sometimes one minute at a time” while the rest of us sat in stunned silence. We are in that situation now, and will get through in the same way: one day, one hour, one minute. We can also take heart that with Letters like this, a bright light shines on the tactics being used to disenfranchise voters as NC is trying to do, information that was not so available 200 years ago. I am convinced that Washington, where I live, has one of the best, if not *the* best election system in the country, implemented by a Republican Secretary of State, Kim Wyman …who now has a job in election security in the Biden administration (can you even imagine P-E Trump, CF, having such an office?). We started with ballot drop boxes, though not that many at first. Every year more were added. We could mail ballots via USPS for the cost of a stamp, but that wasn’t quite so easy for many voters. Every year more drop boxes were added; a few years ago the King County Executive announced that the county would make its ballots postage-paid. That way, people who didn’t have a drop box near them - yet - would have an easier time voting. More conservative counties erupted that it was unfair to them; the Governor, a Democrat, agreed and said that the state would make ALL ballots postage paid. Our processing systems are secure, unconnected to the internet. Secretary Wyman also wanted to register automatically all young residents on their 18th birthday. So: we can do this: we can emulate Mrs. Pence, we can buoy our spirits with the Full Frontal episode titled “Trump in Scotland”, and think of new and creative ways to mock him. As the farmer said, “He’ll crack up.” Join the League of Women Voters, any group that can create links with other states…
I miss mutual greetings from election workers, and the polling place, but mail-in voting works and leaves a physical paper trail. Wyman is one of the very few Republicans I ever voted for.
I mentioned it before, but I find much to admire in books by Edith Eger.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Eger
J L, thanks for the link to Edith Eger's story. She has an indomitable spirit.
Indeed, this was one of the best changes in our political processes that we have made here in Washington State. Now if only we could rewrite our constitution and make it a legal framework instead of the disastrous list of elevated and amended laws that it is; or maybe we could straighten out our state's horrible tax system which has to be one of the most regressive in the country. And oh, the ferry system is short five much needed boats, and way understaffed. Oh well - one battle at a time. We are making progress slowly but surely. And yeah, I have to confess that I broke my usual rule of not voting for any R's and consistently voted for Kim. She did a fantastic job.
It's all harrowing and disgusting that honor, truth mean so little. It's hard to accept.
So deeply sorry for the losses in Southern California, and your town in particular. What a horrid tragedy. I can only imagine how overwhelmed you are with the chaos in the country, let alone suffering through the fires' losses. Concentrate on what little you can control right now and know that the majority of us across our country are with you in spirit.
Lauren, it’s no wonder you feel the way you do. You are witnessing and living in trauma. You rightly feel grief and loss. Give yourself time to process all of this. Seek out supportive friends, and be kind to yourself. We will be here when you’re ready to re-join the fight.
Beyhan, you are a wise and generous soul.
My stomach hurts, too. From this letter, sadly. And from a friend's son in Altadena who told his mom across the country, "Don't worry. The fire is 35 miles away." Then, within the hour, they escaped with only the clothes on their backs and their lives. Everything turned to ash. Your sorrows are my sorrows.
My fellow SoCal heart goes out to you, Lauren. Stay strong!
- Pulled Quote -
''...when a Republican candidate calls for throwing out the votes of 60,000 voters to declare victory in an election he lost, they have abandoned the principles of democracy in favor of a one-party state that will operate in their favor alone...''
No comment today.
I am sorry for your family's loss in California. While I can understand nature's flames of destruction, I am at a loss in understanding Maga's desire to burn down our democracy. Sadness overwhelms me.
Prayer your way via FedEx, Lauren. Let us all hang tough together; the madness will burn out, if we remain vigilant.
Lauren, I almost hate to say I “like” your post. Please take the heart ❤️ as a hug, to you and your neighbors. Don’t worry about our foolishness here in NC. We stand with you and there are people in our state who stand ready to help our friends in Cali.
I am so sorry for the devastation in LA - parts appear to have been vaporized. Words can't express how tragic it is or how my heart aches for you all. Our son was born in LA and, while we haven't lived there for many, many years, I still feel that connection.
My heart goes out to you, your mom, the school, and the thousands who lost their communities.
What boggles my mind is the energy that these (apparently) talented people are expending on these devious ploys, while real problems, like homelessness & hunger are so prevalent. These issues could actually be resolved with this sort of determination, yet it is spent on control & greed. Oh my gawd, it is getting more disappointing by the hour. 😥
Those aren't real problems to the people pulling this stunt. Losing power is the only problem.
As a linguist I can see a creative beauty in the synonyms you create. Flamboyant words like gerrymandering and filibuster to replace a good hardworking Anglo Saxon word like "cheat".
I suppose you imagine it best that rather than give you a diagnosis, the doctor simply said, “you’re sick”, and sent you home.
I see what you mean Bill, these wonderfully sounding words are specifying elaborate ways of cheating.
However when the doctor specifies and clarifies my illness, I know I am "sick".
I do not believe that in this case they acknowledge that they are cheating b astards. These synonyms are used to obscure not clarify.
😥True.
Katherine I think you are paying attention to the real problem. As tragic as the fires in California are, you used the phrase "losing power" to focus on what the 1% and maga is doing to the democracies in this country and abroad.
I've been writing lately that once those people gain powe as they been doing in some states and in the last election in most of the country, they are going to be in control for a long, long time . For those of us that hope the midterm election is going to take some of that power away and then in four years we'll be back in the White House, I think don't have the whole clear picture of how deeply the situation changed already. They been secretively for at least since Regan times, little by little, planning, executing, trying again and investing billions of dollars. Such an effort and investment finally presented them with control of the 3 branches of government and the media. They are not to risk all that plying nice and in one or few elections. They are here to stay they have contingency plans. We have to open our eyes and act ASAP. What's going on in NC is proof enough. Look Oklahoma , Texas and Wisconsin to name a few states. And pay attention to the relentless campaign against Governor Newsom, most likely one of the leading presidential contender for the next election due " his criminal behavior during the fires " .Stay put.
Some people have little imagination and less empathy, so if they're not homeless or hungry themselves, they can't understand the plight of those who are.
You hit the nail on the head - the lack of empathy. So many are no longer capable of it - I’ve wracked my brain trying to figure that one out. ASD is much more prevalent, along with more narcissism - I mean, it just wasn’t so obvious 30 years ago, now it’s every time I turn around. Empathy isn’t really something that can be taught (seems like we all used to have it - not so any longer). 😥
Republicans do whatever they want; they don’t follow rules because for all intent and purpose there are literally no consequences. Litigating is inconsequential when it comes to people who have money, power and tactics to delay things. They are above the law. Rules, equity and ethics only work when people have a code of honor, or at a minimum some self respect. Here, we are being told that they will cheat and steal votes; let the litigating begin. The lying and alternative facts have been normalized-lying, cheating, stealing. Welcome to America.
‘Power Hungry’😥
TR, so much for the hallowed "rule of Law" as Joyce calls it in her Substack. Since when has the ever been a rule of Law under our constitution. In America, it has always been the "Law of the Ruler". So what do you do about that? Constitutional reform. We (with our Allies) gave another country and thereby the region a new basic law which works pretty well in 1949. I speak of Germany and parts of Europe. Maybe we should look at that again.
But they love to say things like "no one is above the law," or "justice for all" as they take away the right to vote or make medical choices about our own bodies.
In some cases it goes beyond "lack of empathy". That lack of empathy is one of the traits listed in a description of "psychopathy". For example, consider the practice during 45's term where asylum-seeking families were separated without keeping records of where their children were sent. That was the work of a psychopath. They are not just indifferent to the lives of other people, they are hostile. And they have managed to convert people with good hearts to vote for their evil ways. More than 11% of Americans are living in poverty -- more than 30 million of US. These people need our empathy.
We're beyond a lack of empathy. It is indifference. The worst crime of all. The one thing that will destroy us.
You're right. CFDT spouts his nonsense 24/7/365, so we become outraged for 5 minutes and then he brings up another stupid thing like immigrants eating pets.
And that is what our corporate media gloms on to instead of the fact that CFDT was crushed in his debate with Kamala and then refused to debate her again.
How many times has the corporate media pointed out that CFDT is a demented fool unqualified to be President. Instead, they focus on his latest ridiculous diversion.
CFDT has arguably picked 4 or 5 cabinet candidates that are unqualified to do anything and yet the media and Republicans have mostly accepted that they might actually be approved to positions that only CFDT can remove them from.
Or they do but don't care.
Exactly! Just imagine what could be accomplished if they weren't so corrupted by power and wealth.
And the sheeple vote for them because they can spew hate and fear. The Republicans have found a way to buy their way into several Senate seats like JD, Cruz, Scott, etc. with their lies and disinformation.
Some people seem obsessed with lording over others. It seems to be humanity's actual original sin, and the historical source of most of humanity's avoidable sufferings. Abuse of power is, literally is, evil. Throughout history some have dreamed of societies in which people prosper in peace, but that state is always fragile, and never completed large scale. I keep thinking that we, as a people, could deescalate violence if we chose to.
For a moment, imagine an America without corporations. When I imagine such an America, I see a country where everyone stands on a level playing field... a country without the wealth and power that only corporations can accumlate, and no man can generate on his own... a country that nurtures creativity, innovation, independent thinking and collaboration... a country that puts children first... a country that values peace more than wealth and happiness more than strife... a country where fair is an adult word, not a child's word.
I don't have to imagine that. We, as citizens, had that vision starting with the Progressive movement in the late 19th century. Continuing with Brandeis anti trust law and then with FDR and the New Deal. Corporate power must be checked by the countervailing power of government regulation and enforcement power to promote fairness and competition. We had that in our grasp, but gave it up with the election of Nixon and Reagan.
"Republicans refuse to accept the voters’ choice"...except when the voters choose Republicans...
Corrupt as hell.
It's their plan Jonathan, they planned and invested long and big for this moment. They are here to stay. The remaining question is what to do about it.
Thank you for amplifying this story. Please, everyone, help the NCDP and Justice Allison Riggs fight the GOP attack on democracy!
I just donated far more than the usual contributions that I've been sprinkling around. This makes my blood boil.
Me too.
Here is a link again to interview with Justice A. Riggs for more info and how to help.
https://youtu.be/Xzh1904ujRI?si=4v7U86KxndHnw-Nd
Don't get me started about the fine art of gerrymandering here in NC. They carve towns and counties up into little odd-shaped quilt pieces and stitch districts back together in contorted ways. This state is so progressive in so many ways and places but 50 years behind in others. As a former Chicagoan, I thought I'd seen it all but NC continues to surprise me monthly.
Money bought the politics a decade ago.
Whatever they do,they do it because they think they are entailed to and because we allow them, plain and simple Sharon.
Thank you for the link, B Evans!
Thank you!
I live in North Carolina currently and have lived here since 1975. I have seen all the craziness upfront. It’s exasperating to vote to learn this challenge is going on to the NC State Supreme Court.
Jeff Jackson was my US House member and he was gerrymandered out and then chose to run for Attorney General of NC.
I am appalled by the political tricks going on now. Reading tonight’s letter, thank you, Heather Cox Richardson, for the historical perspective. The patterns of our past are repeating themselves. This, sadly, doesn’t mean progress at all. Repeating bad patterns for political gain, power, influence and control limits/restricts “we the people “ in favor of the powerful. This has not been a successful strategy for sustained progress. It undermines democracy. It undermines democratic principles and values.
What will you and other citizens of goodwill do about it?
Vicky, what they are doing in NC it's one of the many experiments they might apply to other states and vice-versa. They are here to stay and be prepared to hear "we have a mandate" at nauseum.
Eventually, the US will have to pass laws that forbid gerrymandering. If we avoid a catastrophic dictatorship and manage to regain control of our country.
The failure of the founders to protect the right to vote as inviolate strikes me as a huge oversight. It seems to me that the mission of the Constitution is blatantly undermined by any schemes to distort equal justice, protection, and representation of any citizen that is otherwise qualified to vote.
Even if by honest error, deprivation or unreasonable barriers to the right to vote should be considered an intolerable injury to both affected individuals and the whole of society; and actively remedied. The vote-distorting shenanigans $COTUS winks at are Tyrannosaurus-rex-in-room corrupt as hell, and a clear and present danger to the Republic.
The right to vote, and have every vote count, needs to be held sacrosanct.
I completely agree with you. It is our right to vote. Our inalienable right.
The Founders envisioned a Republic where only white men of property could vote, so saw no need to protect that. Unless you add another amendment to protect everyone’s right to vote, or better still, replace your 18th Century document with one fit for a modern democracy, I can’t see how you can protect your country from the anti-democratic power grabs of those who believe the Founders were right.
You last point J L is what might retake the power from them back to we the people so expect a savage battle from them to prevent that from happening.
Thanks Heather, how much more anti democratic can the United States get? We are on the edge of a civil war, unfortunately!
I seems to me that Republican demagogues have done all the could to rekindle the Civil War. Lincoln would likely be disgusted.
I won’t be surprised if Trump tries having his minions in the militias attack people he hates.
He will try, Jan 6 with him leading
This breakdown of North Carolina politics—and I have lots of friends and colleagues who teach in the UNC system, which has been historically inclusive, liberal, and challenging of the status quo—demonstrates exactly what Jamelle Bouie wrote in his Friday column in The NY Times: there was not “peaceful transfer of power” in the federal election. The neofascists and christofascists won. So they took office because Dems followed the rules and let them. But what if Harris had won? Would there have been a “peaceful transfer of power”? Vide North Carolina.
The Democratic Party failure to invoke section 3 of amendment 14 shows they were not in the election to win. And using section 3 of amendment 14 actually would be playing by the rules of the constitution. So to me, the party is a total disgrace.
Please don’t take my comments as directed at you, they are not. The NYT’s perspective is cynical and irresponsible at best, considering their role in consistently upholding narratives that sustain oligarchs main goals, and undermining the Biden/Harris administration. With that said, President Biden is still the President, and the Commander in Chief, still responsible for upholding the Oath to defend our Constitution, IMHO.
Not on your life. There’s another would have been mayhem.
“Republicans refuse to accept the voters’ choice.“ A huge part of our current problems.
Can the Republicans in North Carolina sink any lower? Well, the Texas Legislature returns tomorrow, and I'm certain they will try to outdo NC. Ugh!
Can Tennessee or Florida be far behind?
No decency is epidemic in what is left of the
"GOP".
Great line, "No decency is epidemic...."
They suffer from an excess of shamelessness.
It just seems... hopeless. So hopeless right now.
. . . And each time I look for an update on the horrific LA fires (I am so, so sorry to those here who are directly affected by them) I see another awful lie spread by Trump and his right-wing media megaphone. Just now, he posted a picture of the Hollywood Hills (with Hollywood sign) burning, with the words "TRUMP WAS RIGHT". And Republicans in the House are already talking about how they will withhold federal funding from California unless various "conditions" are met.
What is the MOST ironic thing is that California sends so much federal money to the "taker" states - the red states. California is the fifth largest economy in the entire world. And to be vilified by these uninformed GOP members? Crazy.
No, it's vile.
I'd love to see Newsom figure out a way around the tax code to keep some of our CA tax dollars from heading to the Plutocracy's coffers this year. Let the Billionaire's Congress figure out how to fund their Red State pork barrel projects without our largesse. Sorry, I try not to be selfish, and I know we are basically feeding the poor in the South, and wherever Walmart and Amazon Dist. Centers are the only jobs left, but it is really starting to rankle.
Especially when we could be spending it here to develop new Green Tech and Sustainable Farming and to AI and its guardrails, and of our course, Housing and services for our own poor and homeless, in a state suffering from its own success and income inequality.
Totally understand your thoughts
"And to be vilified by these uninformed GOP members?"
And their shameless, conscienceless self-serving "GOP" leaders, most of whom I'm sure know very well they lie. I'm sure Trump and Musk do.
Gov. Newsom started a website because there was so much disinformation and politicizing the LA fire catastrophe. I'm sorry I don't have the link.
I only regret that there is so much lying about the fire. The real problem is the climate change Republicans pretend isn’t happening, and the president elect’s bff is out there using his social media site to spread lies and misinformation.
I lived in a purple Florida county. De Santis chopped a little blue off one end, added some red on the other and now we are solidly red. Years ago voters amended the constitution to discourage gerrymandering . Republicans have spent millions of taxpayers money evading it. They have also made it harder to vote and vote early. Im afraid this could get lots worse really fast.
Joan Didion yet lives.
Heather's reporting on North Carolina politics today only reaffirms everything Didion was writing in the last years of her life.
She was reporting, really, from many places. But Washington D.C. politicians underlined all the more the charades, the lives-in-abstractions, and the repetitions of similarly dehumanized power players (both parties) all playing only that they and their teams stay in power.
Didion had to repeat, often, that these games always went on totally and completely apart from any factual observations of the public at whose expense the elites indulged their charades.
So it goes on. Worsens.
I disagree. Didion wrote from a strictly privileged perspective. A second reading of "The Year of Magical Thinking" convinced me that she was completely detached from, and incapable of understanding, how the majority of people live.
Of course you're correct, Katherine, in some ways.
She was born to and raised in an affluent northern California family. She knew publishing success at an early age and had the benefit all her life of access to the best publishing houses in New York and the best film studios in Hollywood, for whom she and her husband co-wrote many successful screenplays.
She knew everybody in power.
Of all this, yes, something like "The Year of Magical Thinking" sets her as insider elite.
But you err, Katherine, if you ignore the many other books of journalism where she was on the ground -- widely in the U.S. and similarly so in foreign countries where she could see and did see, did report on the damages done by U.S. elites and covered up by U.S. institutions, from universities to government agencies she knew and named all too well.
I can't let a comment equating "both parties" slip by without a caution. "Politicians are all the same" and "both parties are corrupt" have been the PR of the powerful (read WASP patriarchy) since our union was founded. It continues to work, thanks to the willingness of engaged leftists to let perfection be the death of progress in our limited electoral system. There is a CLEAR difference between the parties, and women have Always been able to see it more clearly than men, at least in one life or death aspect.
Please be careful not to smear Democrats with the same brush as Republicans this way.
Please, Patrice, note one key difference between today's era and that of Joan Didion.
She very specifically chronicled how both political parties in the 1980s and '90s limited their public utterances to abstractions, team slogans, stereotypes of the other, and other packaging rhetoric. The worse part of this for her was the relentless predictability that both parties would, for their conceits, also avoid citations of "observable fact" as any decent writer or journalist knows should be key.
Joan Didion's alarm at these behaviors then yet obtain today insofar as American schools went full throttle since then to stigmatize anyone ever using any humanities. Thus the parties Heather cites in North Carolina today show themselves all aloof from, illiterate to parallels to any novels, memoirs, histories, films, or other arts aptly grounding policy and politics in observable human circumstances.
Nothing says we cannot build a platform that will draw voters on both sides. We can present the things we know that are needed. A single-payer universal healthcare system has been a dream. It would save us $460 billion a year. Why have we not proposed that???? Free child care. Free college. Supplemental income below $30,000. Why have we not proposed that???? Free school lunches. Why not? It is needed and it is time. Why not? A lack of courage is why not. Did you know that courage is what overcomes fear? Would a brave soul stand up, one that can infuse us with courage? https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/start-our-movement?r=3m1bs
But all of those have been proposed over and over! And they've been blocked over and over. It's not that Democrats don't propose or even make serious efforts to make those things happen.
Still, there have been pilot programs for supplemental or universal basic income, and they've done well.
And here in New Mexico, we do have free school lunches for all kids in public schools.
the people/corporations who make money under the present system work very hard and spend a lot of money to ensure that the presesent system does not change. Health insurers do not want a single-payer universal health care system. Where is their role in that? Nowhere - so they resist. Likewise income supplements - but they go to people that for Republicans are the wrong color.
So many reforms that could be possible, but money and racism and blunt stupidity ensure that they are fervently opposed, even by people who would benefit from them. Alas...
As the richest nation in the world, we do not have universal health care, we have untold numbers of homeless people, we have children who go to school hungry every day, and children who live in cars with their families. My daughter lives in Germany. People pay into the health care system, but they have excellent health care. About three years ago I needed a CT scan and had to pay out of pocket. The cost of the scan was 40 euros, about $40. If people want additional services that are not covered, they can pay out of pocket, but they don't have to mortgage their homes to do so.
We are an embarrassment. We can and should do better, but so many are deliberately fed lies.
I’m heartsick at what’s going on in North Carolina, where I lived from 1991 to 2014. I remember the years when voting rights were expanding. And I remember the 2010 census and the subsequent REDMAP gerrymandering with “surgical precision” to create a minority rule.
I volunteered in NC in October to help elect Josh Stein. I’m furious that the NC legislature is looking for, and finding, ways to constrain him and his AG. It’s un-American. 😡
So wrong so unbelievable Denying the votes and choices of citizens And agree with comments above feel the immorality and anti democratic principles of this in pit of stomach And all of this with the fires blazing destroying and a immoral so called president elect - if really elected - who doesn’t care