My guess is that the story of today that will stand the test of time is that President Biden is governing according to our traditional practices while he pushes the country into the future.
"There are but two parties now, Traitors & Patriots and I want hereafter to be ranked with the latter and, I trust, the stronger party."
-- Ulysses Grant, 1861
Grant was the general of freedom who vanquished the armies of slavery, and the president who expanded and defended freedom. We must summon similar spirit and resolve at this time.
The KKK is alive and well - at least in my home state of Florida. My great-grandfather built 3 Baptist churches in the northeastern corner of the state, where his grandparents came as homesteaders in the 19th century. Homesteading meant there - as throughout the North American continent - displacing and killing off the indigenous nations. There were 18 nations in Florida. My mother and lots of her friends and family are deeply loyal to the QAnon and other conspiracy theories, thinking of Trump as the second messiah. The inscription on her grandfather's tombstone in Palatka Florida's white cemetery - as my relatives and everyone else white called it: "A friend to his fellow man and a Lover of Christ." The big letters on the pediment: KKK.
That's a long way of saying that Grant did not vanquish the armies of slavery. It is our duty to do that.
Rosalind, you are correct that KKK sympathies have not been vanquished. Here in Oregon we have a sordid history with the KKK which reached a great strength in the 1920s, forcing Gov. Olcott in his gubernatorial run for a second term to have to choose between winning or speaking out against the Klan. To his credit, he chose to speak out against the Klan and he lost re-election. To his dying day, he never regretted that decision.
Well, today we have another skirmish in Oregon with deranged thinking as the Oregon GOP supports a false flag theory about the Jan 6 raid on the Capitol. The disturbing anti-democratic forces of history never seem to go away, lying dormant in the spinal fluid of the nation, popping out like a pandemic when the opportunity arises.
I intently read your story. Personal histories are often filled with details and nuance not available elsewhere. Thank you for sharing it with us. The steps you have taken from white nationalism, bigotry and conspiracies cause me to embrace you in spirit and appreciation.
Thank you, Fern. It's strange, how some children take in their environment differently than even their siblings. I was the little girl in Sunday School who sang "Jesus loves all the little children of the world: red and yellow, black and white - they are precious in his sight." I took that seriously - decided Jesus had it right and the grownups around me had it wrong. It's tough having a different reality from everyone else when you're small. What really saved me were the kids that were my friends: Jewish kids and Cuban refugee kids. The only ones I knew whose parents led them to reading and classical music.
Rosalind, both of my parents were victims of the Holocaust. They never claimed to be survivors because they were not in camps. My maternal grandparents were gassed in the camp called Chelmno, in a van with other people. My parents met in NY in 1946 and married after 6 weeks. They moved to a rural town in NC where my sister and I were raised. I saw the Ku Klux Klan only once but that was enough. It was when we were coming back from Temple and we had to go into a “round about” to get home. In that circle was approximately 12-15 men dressed in hoods, burning a cross. My parents were silent but their hearts were beating so hard. They owned a clothing store and you can imagine that these jerks were their customers.
Thank you for sharing your story, Marlene. A large part of my family and my friendship circle is Jewish. My daughter has a Jewish dad. It all feels very personal to me.
Rosalind, We have had some similar feelings and experiences in childhood, although mine were less sharp than yours. I had more time than most to consider the differences between me, my parents and the other girls on the block because my mother worked. Her influence on me was less as a result of that; I had more time to pursue my thoughts and interests. It is a lonely breach when you are young, and it became more tense when I became involved in civil rights in my preteens. For some of us the differences may be born in the bone.
Yes, that song struck me the same way. Although I gave up "Christianity", I have held onto many of the teachings of Christ. He was quite a progressive man. St. Paul, not so much.
I too fondly remember that song from my all white church - so later I used those images of black, white, red, & yellow children during Black History month on my library display wall- the children holding hands - it spoke volumes about my school and the need for everyone to get along.
I wondered how those who give the name “messiah” to a compulsive liar-virus super spreader- murderer-racist can possibly justify it. KKK genes go deep. Be careful!
What is your experience with the Klan? One hundred years ago, in places like Florida - one of the most brutal slave states - my family was there. Do you mean to say that I might be susceptible to the KKK gene? On the contrary - the racism of "nice white people" who call themselves Christians made me jump ship when I was just a child. It is the general myth of white supremacy that spawned and spawns the KKK. What most people don't know is that, in the ancient Greco-Roman world, white was the color of the barbarian northern tribes of Celts, Goths and Gauli (Paul's letter to the Galatians was to them). Brown was beautiful then. The European tribes, pale, blue-eyed, wild hair, too big and muscular, were - according to the historian Titus - fascinating but grotesque.
Rosalind, I think Gigi is concerned for your safety, I can't imagine anyone here thinks you have a buried predilection for racism. I do appreciate what you have been through. My sister and I walked away from an extremely racist and hateful family without any baggage that we can identify. When we hit puberty we suddenly became aware of the hatred fomented by our dad and backed away as best we could until we were able to leave home. We were lucky in that family on both sides of our parents were not known to be in any organized and violent groups. Our father came the closest, but he hated too many people of all kinds to ever participate in a white supremacy group, other than I would bet funding them. My husband and I were just discussing your point about Greco-Roman world earlier this week. It is very ironic.
My family history is rather different. An ancestor's name is on the Pennsylvania Memorial; we're related by marriage to US Grant; a great aunt worked for Vito Marcantonio; my de facto grandfather, mentor to my parents, was a Freedom Rider, partnering with John Lewis; Grinny (we couldn't pronounce Granny) marched with Rev Dr King in 1963; parents were Quakers dedicated to the NAACP and pacifism. I try to live up to their ideals through activism, but they set a high bar. I'm not gloating or bragging, just thankful for these roots of my raising. Unlike today's traitors who admire slavers and traitors, much of the North has a heritage worth embracing.
I completely relate to your family situation. You and your husband might be interested in the book one of my professors wrote - also our study text for our semester on Galatians: Galatians re-imagined - Reading with the eyes of the vanquished. Dr. Brigitte Kahl. She uses the imagery of the altar in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin which celebrated the Greco-Roman defeat over the Celtic Galatians in 225 BC. It is breathtaking and shows the Greeks as gods and goddesses, while the Celts are monsters.
It's my experience that people from the South who are Good People are better Good People than people from elsewhere in the country, because it's harder to do that down there.
When I was in Texas in 1968 running the Oleo Strut Coffeehouse at Fort Hood, we had an attorney, Davis Bragg. 4th-generation Texan, grad of Baylor, lifelong Southern progressive, long-term resident of Killeen - could have been a stand-in for Atticus Finch. The first time we went out to have dinner at his home, we found it waaaay out in the isolated countryside, and had to drive about half a mile back on the property to get to the house. I commented on how far back the house was from the road, to which he replied, "Yes, it's out of range." And that was when I knew me and Toto weren't in Kansas anymore.
Rosalind, I was responding to your original statement that some consider 45 as the second messiah. Huckabee Sanders and others in the admin made comments like that early on. I have no experience with the KKK, having been brought up in the north where racism was a little more subtle. I remember reading about the lynchings when I was young and being shocked that Eisenhower did not/could not put a stop to it. When I taught school there was a serious effort to stop bullying which obviously failed. Your post made me realize how deep the roots of hatred are, and I applaud you for speaking up. The previous and failed fascinating but grotesque potus set an example of threatening those who speak up. Thank you Linda and Ally for expressing my fear better than I did.
Sounds very much like any common-garden, budding dictator you might care to name....they all had their "fan clubs" and 5th columnists prior to installing themselves.
Unfortunately his turn as President also included very significant corruption on the part of his nominees and supporterswhich he did little to control and paid the political price; he is remembered by historians as a being a weak and ineffective President far removed from his military glory and tarnishing somewhat his memory. He was also President overseeing a particularly nasty period for Native Americans following Little Big Horn.
Here is a kinder look at the Grant administration. "Most dramatically, Grant used both federal troops and the newly established Justice Department to fight terrorism against Southern blacks, particularly by the Ku Klux Klan, which had grown into a large and formidable force in the years after the Civil War. “By 1872, under Grant’s leadership,” Chernow writes, “the Ku Klux Klan had been smashed in the South,” although another group of the same name would emerge in 1915." Wait! There's more here:
Many thanks, Lynell. I'll get into him in greater detail now. The period already fascinates me. I've just finished Goodwins Team of Rivals and will now start HCR's Death of Reconstruction before attacking Foner's Reconstruction. Christmas was a fruitful period for shortening my book "wish list" and the family is most cooperative!
I bought myself HCR's "How the South Won the Civil War" for Christmas. I'll be thrilled as soon as I can steal some time to start reading it! This community (you included!) has kept me so busy reading shared links, sparking questions that send me to the Google gods, I barely have time for anything else. Not complaining...just sayin'
I just finished “How the South Won the Civil War”. The book so enlightened me as to why we are at this point in time. Accountability for seditious acts against our democracy must happen whenever they occur.
I also thought it was great. I listened to it on Audible. It was read by Heather herself and was just outstanding. I usually prefer “real” books but my schedule is so overwhelmingly busy that listening to it while doing other things (like eating lunch) was the only way I could make the time to “read” it. I am now listening to Heather’s Wounded Knee. Read by someone else but the content is so devastating it is a little easier to hear in a different voice.
The title alone caught my attention! I am expecting to learn more by reading, but trust that now having listened to her chats and reading her many Letters, that I will pass over being scared and head straight to informed and controlled angry.
I, too, have read her book about how the South won the civil war. I felt deeply sad, afterwards, thinking things will never change-especially when things like the Charlottesville riots and George Floyd and Breanna Taylor, etc, etc. happen, and of course Trumpism. But then I talk to my children-in their 20s and early 30s-and their friends, and I hear them speak about how of course equality really means equality, and I see we now have a Biden-Harris administration and I begin to feel hopeful, just a little bit.
I haven't read it yet, but your reaction reminds me of my thoughts and feelings while reading Chinese history at university. Human nature, red in tooth and claw, doesn't seem to have advanced a hell of a lot in the span of history.
Oh no! I understand... I wasn’t scared because I didn’t know how much I didn’t know! But once you stick your toes in the water, you will dive into the deep end! I kept wondering, ‘what was I taught in high school? College? Maybe I was not so interested in History, but at 69 , I am determined to catch up. Thank God for Heather! And I border on obnoxious as I proselytize anyone and everyone who will give me 30 seconds or more!
Jump in! And please keep me (us) posted on your progress and thoughts!
Grant's comment in hindsight on Electoral College -
"In giving the South negro suffrage, we have given
the old slaveholders forty votes in the Electoral College. They keep those votes, but disfranchise the negroes. That is one of the gravest mistakes in the policy of Reconstruction. ... I am clear now that it would have been better for the North to have postponed suffrage, Reconstruction, State Governments, for ten years, and held the South in a territorial condition. ... It would have avoided the scandals of the State Governments, saved money, and enabled the Northern merchants, farmers, and laboring men to reorganize society in the South. But
we made our scheme, and must do what we can with it. Suffrage once given can never be taken away and all that remains for us now is to make good that gift by protecting those who have received it." *
It's really kind of sad. Even as they struggled to see black people with humanity, they still needed someone under their boot, and so that fell to the Native Americans.
Good points Stuart, thank you, but I still rate Grant fairly high. In recent years the consensus on both general and president has swung in Grant's favor, not least due to vigorous support for the Freedpeople in his first term. (in the second the North lost the will to fight the "Redeemers" who murdered Reconstruction.) We need leaders like him in our current time of troubles. And maybe this time the traitors who admire slavers and traitors will be suppressed properly.
Indeed but it might be a flagrant case of the "Peter Principal", or as with Churchill, he had a role to play to save the nation supporting Lincoln and thereafter he was a little out of his depth. Taft was to my mind another case...a great support to Teddy Roosevelt but should then have gone to the Supreme Court rather than the Presdiency thereafter
Imagine how things might have been if Lincoln ran with Ben Butler instead of Johnson. Atrocious Andrew did much to thwart Reconstruction, properly construed as rebuilding democracy in America, not just rebuilding the Southern economy. Yet even Johnson's spirit rests easier knowing that he is no longer -- the Worst President Ever!
Here's the deal. It's not like Pierce, Buchanan, Johnson I, Harding, Nixon, Bush II suddenly got better. It's just that Trumpsky is so very much worse. And if (ye gods) he gets a second term, he'll be even worse than ... himself!
I haven't been so fond of the term "patriot" since the Patriot Act. Just as my neighbors who display huge American flags (often in tatters, never taken down at night or in bad weather - very poor flag protocol) are generally the same ones who had the big T**** signs, making the flag a symbol of division, naming products or parties "Patriot" seems to have the goal of getting rid of democracy and installing a strongman dictator.
First, thank you so much for your posts. They are my favorite source of news and have gotten me through so many sleepless nights this year!
One thing about the post tonight, however: I’d caution you to think that the many people who have changed their voter affiliations from Republican are doing it because they are disgusted with Trump.
Quite to the contrary, many are doing it because the LOVE Trump and are angry with the Republican Party for insufficiently supporting him. I know this first hand because my father is one of the former Florida republicans who proudly did just this, and I know he is definitely typical of a “type” you might meet in Florida, which is one of many unique “types” of people I know in Florida who think Trump was the greatest president to ever walk the earth and are in complete denial of his lies.
The influx of newly registered NPA voters in Florida last year also concerned me for the same reason, which appears to have played out in the votes. As such, I looked up a few of the arrested insurrectionists on a site that allows you to search the voter registrations for people in several states and found that quite a few were registered NPA.
I suspect that the Patriot Party could become a legitimate third party, taking the 25-30% of Americans (who I think are Trump loyalists based on polls on various topics) with it. And I believe it is going to be popular with far more demographics than one might think.
I only hope the Senate can muster the courage to prevent him from becoming president again so that his party might lose steam before fully taking hold.
I've been thinking about the numbers. The election came out 81M to 74M. After Dec 6, it's not very likely that many of those 82M are going to switch to Republican. Any split in the Republican Party is going to have to share that 74M, and the Trump vote is now seriously tainted. I don't believe there were ever 74M Trumpites out there. An awful lot of them were business Republicans, elderly Eisenhower Republicans, and single-issue voters who were willing to overlook philandering and abuse of power, but who will draw the line at sedition. If we take at its face the "75% of Republicans think Trump sucks" figure some media has published, it could reduce that 74M to as little as 18M that will stay loyal to Trump. If we take your estimate of (say) 30% of all Americans as solid Trump supporters, that's 46M, with only 28M supporting the business Republicans.
Either way, as Heather has pointed out, the Republican Party is in deep trouble. The math no longer works for them, even with gerrymandering and voter suppression. If they try to reunite the split party, they'll lose a lot of the 28M to 56M non-Trump Republicans: the business community has already indicated what they think of Trumpism. If they allow the split to become two parties, neither split will have enough votes to hold Senate seats.
The Republicans' best strategy is to take Trump entirely out of the equation; convicting, then disqualifying him in the upcoming impeachment trial is the low-hanging fruit. All they need to pull together is a coalition of 17 Republican Senators to convict him. Trumpism is a personality cult, not a political party. If they can remove the Personality from any future runs, the cult will wither.
I concur with your notion, Natasha, of the so-called Patriot Party, as far as its legitimacy. I like the possibility of its potential to attract 25% of the electorate. However, I do not see it a threat to the growing Democratic Party base. I see it as a major threat to conservatism and the Republican Party.
First, I believe the Dems have learned from Obama’s first two years, that we will not sleep-walk into the mid-term election. We will grow an enthusiastic base. And we already see this energy playing out in the shifting winds of the political landscape ....
Georgia and Arizona offer stark contrasts of the polarities of our politics today. The two states have four sterling Senators, all Democrats! Let’s wrap our heads around that for a moment. And, the conservative movement and Republican Party in both states are doing their best to self-destruct. In each state, one of the newly elected Dem Senators will have to run again in 2022, and by then the disparity between Democrats and the loonies will be all the more stark.
This ‘civil war’ within conservatism has the potential to advance progressive prospects in 2022. For instance, In PA., the progressive and popular Lt Governor hs already announced his candidancy for the open Senate seat in ’22. His already strong brand can only be helped by the brouhaha in PA. politics that we all saw during the Nov. election. I suspect this dynamic will play out in many other states, as well.
Rep. Tim Ryan comes to mind. He's tight with labor like Sherrod Brown and is even more a man of the people. He's progressive where it counts and speaks well on his feet. I think a matchup between him and Gym Jordan would end up with me having 2 Democratic Senators.
There are some solid Republicans to challenge Jordan if he runs. Haven't heard anything from Kasich yet but he burned his bridges with the T**** party so he may not even try.
I've been a Ryan fan ever.since he stood up an railed against the Iraq war, he's never disappointed.
Amen. I went to school with Rob Portman and my brother was a friend of his. We don’t know what happened to him. My mother, who still lives in Ohio, has written him countless letters hoping he would “see the light,” remembering how wonderful and charitable his mother was. Looks like he finally had enough of the darkness.. who knows, but let’s hope the vacuum is filled by someone Sherrod can work with.
And yet he cites "partisan gridlock" in Washington as a reason for not running for re-election. He contributed to it! I just *hope* that not being beholden to the party will free him to vote for impeachment, but I am not holding my breath.
I think Portman had to make a biz decision. Fall in line or you don’t get the dark pac money from the billionaires for your election campaign. This makes impossible to compromise in DC. Which is how it’s supposed to work.
OMG, I hope you’re right. My bandwidth is consumed with ending the filibuster, pressing BidenHarris and new Senate Majority Leader Schumer, and working for any Democrats running in 2022. Can’t seem to sleep. Can’t seem to stop worrying. Today, going out of my comfort zone and calling Congress. Sending first of my every day postcards to the White House, titled “Keep Your Promises” ❤️🤍💙
I sure hope so! I can definitely see a likely scenario where that works out well for Democrats, especially if we can get Congress to work over the next few years and reduce the misinformation. And generally, I like the idea of having a third party, but the Patriot Party still makes me shudder!
If the GOP splits in half and hate each other. With no real opposition, what is going to contain the centrifugal forces in the current Democrat Alliance; holding together centrists and progressists?
Once the Republican madness is gone, the Democratic Centrists can become the Sane Republicans, and the Democratic Progressives can take over the Democratic party.
I think we need to come to a common understanding that the current Republican Party is neither conservative, nor democratic (small-d), nor entirely sane. It is a rogue separatist party, and is incapable of forging a coherent party platform or winning honest elections. What it stands for today certainly existed in the 1950's and 1960's, but it was in the madhouse fringes, and no one took it seriously.
Progress. Nothing like success and progress to maintain momentum.
Joe B today is giving a major address on race (and therefore class, crime, economy). He’s addressing s progressive agenda, in his style. I feel that Elizabeth and Bernie (my wing) are in line with Biden’s agenda. I anticipate AOC and friends will be on board.
Dems will squabble, even fiercely quarrel, but they (we) are not splitting. A full-strength major party with (some) recent tradition of reform is needed for the challenges ahead. Let the Repugs enjoy their own cannibal feast; I certainly will!
I keep hoping that Trump will be moving to prison for crimes committed in New York. I do know he will have to spend some time and money fighting at least three lawsuits.
Attorney Roberta Kaplan is about to make Trump’s life extremely difficult By Karen Heller January 18 at 5:00 AM CT
I read that. I’m impatient... I’m wondering why things haven’t moved faster after he left office. I’m sure all of these lawsuits are a slow-moving process but I thought there would be more news about them.
As a light blue longterm RINO, this is what I am seeing as well. The thinking of those re registering is to destroy the "old RINOs" and create the new Republican party. Which will be pure trumpism. My establishment Republican friends and family are in a "waiting it out" mode, condemning the violence but not the reason, looking to 2022 and 2024 to restore their power. The reality of a potential 3rd party splinter has not yet set in. I remind them of Ross Perot and The Reform Party of 1992 leading to the crushing defeat of HW Bush. The Little General managed to get 19% of the popular vote, primarily from other disaffected Republicans. These significant 3rd party fractures do not bode well for the party. At this point, I say good. Burn it down. It can no longer be salvaged. The insane have taken over the asylum, imagine that. Ha! Perhaps an actual compassionate conservative party will finally rise like a Phoenix from the ashes, but I am not holding my breath.
You are probably correct in your assumptions. However, the fact that some of the insurrectionists are identified as NPA does not always bear on their political affiliations. Many states do not require voters to declare their political party. If you looked for me in Georgia, there would be no political party declared - that information is not requested upon registration.
On 1/24, you posed a question about rural vs urban voters. I think you should pose one about politicians vs constituents. An except from today's LFAA reinforced this.
"Republicans who were hoping to pick up Trump’s supporters in future elections signed on to his challenge of the election outcome. For some of them, pushing the idea that there were questions about the election was a safe way to signal support for Trump and his supporters, knowing that argument would fail."
This bothers me for a couple of reasons. First, why sign up for a path of action they know will fall, and it will fail because it represents no good value to the nation? Second, many of these people are not focused on representing their constituents today but are considering their longer term political ambitions.
In an excellent but enraging column by Barry Friedman on 1/24, he covered the Sunday morning talk show circuit and the continued resistance of Rand Paul (KY), Marco Rubio (FL), and Mike Rounds (ND) to unequivocally say that the election was fair. Only Rounds, in a backhanded way, suggested that further investigation would "probably" conclude there was no significant fraud that would've changed the election at a starter our local level.
As I noted in my response to your rural vs urban voters question, it feels like there's a disconnect between how a representative votes in relation to what their constituents might vote. While it appears a majority of voters don't dispute the results, a large number of self identified Republicans believe the election was stolen, but have yet to provide any factual evidence to prove they're point. A second example is abortion rights. Approximately 75% of Americans support abortion rights, though they may differ about what conditions should be met. Since 75% of Americans aren't Republicans, that suggests some Republicans favor abortion rights. Yet the vast majority of GOP representatives support a conservative plank that is anti-abortion. A third example is DACA. About 74% of Americans support granting legal status to children of illegal immigrants, including 54% of Republicans. Why continue opposition to a program a plurality, if not majority, of your constituents support?
Are these people really representing their constituents? IMHO, it feels like candidates are using bait and switch tactics by selling themselves to voters in order to get elected, then voting in accordance with their party leadership or their donors, regardless of their constituents' preferences. I can't prove that with the time I have this morning but it seems to violate the premise of representative government.
If a representative is afraid to stand up in on behalf of their district or state in opposition to the party's leadership, they're in the wrong job. Is two years too short a term, given the amount of time representatives spend fund raising? In 2014, it inspired Represent.Us to craft a fake congressional candidate, Gil Fulbright, who starred in "honest political ads," and who started wearing logo patches for all his corporate sponsors like a NASCAR driver. "Listening to my constituents, legislating—these are things I don't do," Gil would say. "What I do is spend about 70 percent of my time raising funds for reelection."
The House passed the bill H.R. 1, the For the People Act, similar to the bill passed after the 2018 midterms, and now joined by S 1, passed by Democratic Senators. Each is aimed at reducing the influence and corruption in election laws, from voter suppression to dark money donations. The Center for Responsive Politics estimates $14B was spent trying to influence the 2020 elections. That's more than twice as much as was spent in 2016. "Nobody spends this kind of money without looking for something in return."
Do voters not pay attention to what their reps do? Why are people with low approval rating returned to office time after time? I don't know, but we're clearly not holding representatives to account frequently enough. I representatives respond only to moneyed interests, we no longer have a representative democracy in this country.
As I pointed out above regarding North Carolina, gerrymandering has a lot to do with it. It's not clear how many states will have a fair redistricting plan by 2022 or 2024. If the disparity in NC is reflective of other states with more EC votes, then it's going to be an issue until it's resolved. And the GOP has no incentive to fix it.
In NC both the state Senate and House are Republican, with a Dem governor. Only because of a state Supreme Court ruling are we doing anything about it. Wisconsin has the same issue.
Martin Gilens' article is very interesting. The subject of the inverse relationship between inequality of wealth and tax reductions for the rich+democratic shortcomings has been validated internationally.
The question has always been "Are we electing Delegates or Representatives?" delegates have a mandate dictated by the people electing them and they effectively pursue and implement that mandate. Representatives "represent" their elects and effectively decide for them. Obviously when you elect representatives you gotta be very sure that they think and act like you. In the current 2 party system in which both Parties are extremely broad houses, how does one party or the other recognize "people who think like the electors"? From the extreme right of the GOP to the centre-right, Rino members their is absolutely no common ground. The same can be said for the Democrats!
I'm not sure either party is as ideologically broadly based as it once was or roughly 40% of the electorate wouldn't identify as Independent and an approximately equal percentage sit out most elections. The rest of your point is well taken and excellently made.
Gerrymandering has created safe zones for elected officials who only represent the will of the gerrymandered. It is a form of voter suppression that ignores the will of the people. If, for example, every democrat voted their politics in Wisconsin, it is so gerrymandered that only a republican can win, no matter how many democrats vote.
I don't believe they even represent the will of the gerrymandered. They only help keep that person in office because there are no challengers. When districts are more balanced due to straight forward geographical lines we'll see what happens. I personally don't believe voters are going to move all over just to find the "right" district.
Interestingly, Since c.2010 (Tea Party time), the gerrymander is succumbing to its own perverse but remorseless logic. Extreme gerrymandering creates incumbents who are perennially vulnerable to MORE extreme candidates. It gives us a new verb, "to primary," often rendered in passive form as "to be primaried." I'd trade language enrichment for fair politics in a heartbeat.
I agree with you. As the pandemic grew last spring and summer, I became so discouraged, wondering, “who represents my interest?” Not the county mayor, not my congressional representatives and not the president. My two senators originally supported the lie the election was rigged but backed off after nearly being held hostage. My rep still thinks so. I believe ppl vote for the familiar name because they don’t really know the person’s record. My husband thinks ppl think all representatives are crooked except mine.
In all this, do people who want to bring down democracy have a better idea...a better system ready to put in its place or do they want it all to crash and burn?
It is a sad day when you see on TV Senator Rubio, Republican from Florida, call the second impeachment trial of former president Trump stupid. What is truly stupid is the man put himself in a position to be impeached for a second time. That aside, what concerns me is what if the mob attacking the capital had succeeded? What would Rubio say about that? What if they had murdered Speaker Pelosi and hung Vice President Pence? What if the mob was able to reinstall Trump as President. What would Rubio say about that, it was smart? All Republicans should act as if Trump had overthrown the government. After all, five people died in the attempt. I haven't heard Rubio say anything about the dead.
Florida is deeply red with a few urban isles of blue. Republicans have locked up state government for many years. Rubio isn’t even the worst of the lot. Senator Scott is an out and out criminal, Gov. DeSantis is simply incompetent and utterly loyal to Trump. Now they want to name US 27 “Donald Trump Highway”. It’s like a bizarre parallel world. The Mad King is gone, the madness persists.
My thought exactly. One has to wonder what is going through his little mind right now: play "nice" with trumpets or find a spine? What will he do when Ivanka runs against him? And you know she will, assuming she's not in prison.
At one time in the distant past, I used to actually like Marco Rubio. Now, I just have utter contempt for him. He's a political lightweight and Trump sycophant.
A failed coup is the only kind of coup one ought to be convicted for.
Otherwise, calling a coup "free speech" and saying "now it's time to unite" just because it failed means NO sort of coup is illegal, as you certainly can't prosecute a successful coup.
We know there was lots of "planning," or at least *energy* put into the insurrection, but I haven't heard a word about- nor can I fathom- how it could have been carried any further: if they had succeeded in corralling or killing our representatives, then what? Were they supposing would we have all just said, "Okay then, I guess they were *really* upset about the election results, so let's have four more years of Trump"?
THIS is EXACTLY it! What if this had happened? It was SO close? WHY aren't these people being asked this and be put on the record with an answer! Make them answer to this without being able to insert a snarky sound bite.
“... if Trump or his supporters do manage to put a dictator in charge...” When I read that my mind went to Ivanka. And then to Evita Peron. Very unsettling.
And I’m one of the 6000 North Carolinians changing my political affiliation from Republican to Independent. I no longer want my name associated with people (including my husband 😢) who support dt.
We lived together for 8 years and got married just last June, so I already knew his mindset. He's not a rabid T****** supporter, although the rest of his family is, so that helped. We've had fights, but we've been able to get past them for the most part. We just don't talk about it anymore, and I no longer respond if he does say something. I'm not connected to him on FB for that reason. If you'd like to talk privately, my email is kmkieva@gmail.com.
Evita's popularity was not enough to get her to power however as business and military opposition to her return as VP combined with a particularly virulent cancer did for her at the age of 33.
You are correct. I did a project on her for my South American history class. And it was her husband Juan Peron who was the Argentine dictator. Still, it’s chilling to think of Ivanka as the next in line. Based on his Fox News Sunday interview, Marco Rubio is frightened by her.
Trumpsky's divisiveness sunders many friendships and families. A great friend of five decades apparently is a Deplorable, straining our relations (as does my progressivism). The insurrection was too much for him, but he's still ranting about Dem election thieves. Sometimes I think about calling our Quaker alma mater to have them revoke his degree.
Welcome Suzanne! We need a few million more of you. We need to understand your transformation. We need to bring more out of the Republican darkness if we can.
I'm lucky in that my wife is no Trumper. Knowing who Trump is, and has always been, I cannot imagine how any person can support someone who raped his wife.
Part tacit approval, part intentional denial, if you ask me.
Trump clearly had intent (he coerced and threatened Georgia officials to overturn election results there; he often encouraged violence against anyone not supporting him; he invited thousands of armed protesters to rally in Washington DC on Jan. 6). Trump also had opportunity (as POTUS he persuaded/commanded his armed supporters on Jan. 6 to head for the Capitol building; too, it grows more clear by the day that some individuals inside the government were aiding rebellion). For Nikki Haley to say, “Give the man a break… move on,” is shameful, to say the least. She needs to be gone, along with the rest of the odious crew from South Carolina.
Following up here, to clarify. This may not be the most pristine description of what meant, but it will do:
"In the United States, there are specific elements of a crime that the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt in order to obtain a conviction at trial. The three specific elements (with exception) that define a crime which the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt in order to obtain a conviction: (1) that a crime has actually occurred (actus reus), (2) that the accused intended the crime to happen (mens rea) and (3) and concurrence of the two meaning there is a timely relationship between the first two factors."
Yes, but you’re preaching to the choir. This is the disease of the parallel universe that continues to exist in our politics and society. The more that these lies proliferate as they are clearly still doing, the more they erode our democratic institutions. I thought the nearly successful insurrection would surely “burst the bubble,” but clearly it hasn’t and this is very depressing and frightening. Will those involved be brought to justice? Will the rule of law and a thirst for truth and “character” that Republicans used to think was so important, be restored? I’m not sleeping so well, again.
For impeachment trial, I would have a huge portrait of the officer who was killed. This way when Republican speak at the trial, they have to look at his face, and when they speak the officers portrait is always in the backdrop.
Don't forget the portrait of Officer Eugene Goodman. He saved their sorry GOP apses from deadly consequences of their own traitorous folly. An American hero!
The number of executive actions for which the Biden Administration was prepared from day one is a demonstration of administrative competence made more apparent by the bungling lack of same in the previous administration. All this quietly accomplished in spite of the previous administration's acting to stall, stone-wall, and torpedo productive cooperation with Biden's transition team.
I have great confidence that the right people are in charge of the executive branch of the government.
I remain leery of an Executive who rules by EOs rather than passes legislation. The next President, on day-one, just issues a slew of EOs and turns everything around. I'm sure there are administrative costs to this simply in printing new orders for the agencies. It doesn't seem like a way we would want to govern in a democracy.
No that’s not how we want to govern. It’s a ping pong game every 4 years. But that’s what it’s come to with congressmen unwilling to work together. Filibustering their way through. Our legislative branch is in absolute disarray. I’m glad, for now, we have the EOs.
I agree with you. Would that we had a different political atmosphere in our legislative branch where government by legislation was more feasible. Obama tried to govern in such a way but the Republicans, the party of NO!, would have none of it.
I doubt that it was Biden's preferred course of action, nor should it be, but with the tremendous amount of damage that he encountered, coupled with the Republicans' demonstrated refusal to actively participate in repairing the carnage, it was what he had to do. In a perfect world, we'd never have encountered the nightmare that was Trump, nor his stable full of malicious enablers.
Thanks you for the reading recommendation, but I implied an understanding that this was a forced way of governing that doesn't do anyone any good. As to how we got here, believe, I know. Your snide remark is a sign of the level of criticism today. So sad.
No, criticism not meant. We all wish things did work the way we learned in "How A Bill Becomes A Law," but that was back in the early Jurassic, when most of them in the process weren't totally nuts.
Thank you for this column. I’m frustrated with my favorite news outlets (NYT, BBC) because they still publish Tr*mp related articles that don’t convey need to know information, but seem to continue to feed off of the sensation here tries to create. It’s such a low bar, I suppose. I don’t need or want to read about him. However, we do need to keep an eye on him and the rag-tag mob. I thank you for informing us about the important moves and counter moves and not the flash-bang distractions he lobs out every so often.
Thank you for saying this. I’ve been thinking of canceling my NYT subscription. They bear some responsibility for the T presidency in the first place (her emails!) and I’m disgusted that they’re moving down that path again.
Sadly, they've done some of the best Covid writing that I have seen. I'm not quite willing to give them up yet, although I may cancel and resubscribe on one of their cheap deals.
If it helps you to sleep better, the OFP, even just the idea, the notion, will likely go a ways toward splitting the Republican Party. In that regard, I'm all for it.
Trump is so lazy. We will find out soon enough that aides are quitting because they aren’t being paid and he’s enjoying cheating at golf too much to actually do anything else.
Vanity Fair has a good article on how he could make millions in a subscriber based enterprise. With secret service protection he won’t have to pay back the Russian loans brokered by Deutsche Bank.
Unfortunately for Trump, OFP has already been taken by the One Fidji Party and is used by the airforce "Operational Flight Program and by professional Football scouts "Overall Future Potential".....amongst others
However "Office of the F.......ing Pervert" seems to be available and fit or "Old Fort Prison" might suit him given his likely future.
I agree. The days immediately after inauguration day were the worst psychological days of the last four years for me. The specter of ugliness in America not only not tempering, but growing, Trump or no Trump, so dismantled my soul, I wrote this:
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer sounded big, strong and bold in his interview with Rachel Maddow this evening. The Democrats finally being strong and bold is heartening. With Minority Leader McConnell caving into Schumer on Senate rules, it seems McConnell also sees the advantage right now for the Senate to be bold and support business interests.
He didn't cave. He got what he wanted when DINO Senators Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema publicly stated they would never vote to kill the filibuster, thereby denying Shumer the majority vote needed to do so. Once we get enough real Democrats in the Senate in 2022, those two need to go to the same place Joe Lie-berman went.
I agree. The problem is 2022 is not a good opportunity for Democrats and taking/keeping the senate gets even harder going forward. So either we get more DINOs or become a permanent minority for the foreseeable future. It's frustrating to have Manchin effectively be the deciding vote in all this. There are just too many red states and any purple ones are just looking for excuses to go red again.
Of course he doesn't care but his political calculus just may somehow be aligned for the moment with Schuner's agenda to be bold on COVID to get business cranking again.
McConnell got promises from two democratic senators (Mansion & Synema) that they would not vote to remove the filibuster. He is betting that Schumer will not have the votes to overturn the filibuster between now and 2022. McConnell plans take back the Senate in 2022.
I think corporate donors are up his sleeve and strangling his neck to make him cooperate with Biden's orders and bills which will stabilize the economy - for them.
McConnell certainly has the courage of his lack of conviction. If the Senate rids us of Trumpsky by doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, I'll take it.
Fair enough, thank you both.. But one important factor may be the presidential ambitions of senate Repugs, which are enhanced if they shove Trumpsky aside. That would be right thing, wrong reason.
NB, here in MA we've been allowed to "hold our breath" only since 2016.
Really? Well, I hope Schumer is or becomes strong. He’s certainly been able to study a certain KY senator for years. Re-election in 2 years. Don’t let us down, Chuck. ❤️🤍💙
I think it is inevitable that the spheres in which the filibuster can be used will inevitably shrink as Biden's business comes to the floor. The Democrats against limliting its use will toe the line when faced with a choice of allowing stalemate and getting things done. Harris will do her job.
There's more to McConnell "caving" on the Rules issues than having two Democrats to support continued fiibuster options. I suspect big corporate donors threatened (again) to withhold or end his lobbying paychecks if he obstructed Biden's economic bills which will stabilize the country for business. Again, the oligarchs win, and a byproduct is America, for a change, doesn't lose.
Making trump’s impeachment stick feels like the only way out of his never ending downward spiral. To make him disappear off the political scene, that he should have never been a part of!
Thankfully, Biden is just getting to work. Cleaning up as much of the mess as he can as quickly as possible. Seems like two alternate universes at play, but at the same time. Crazy!
Glad your post is much earlier! Here’s to a good night’s sleep!
Add to all of Heather's summary Rachel Maddow's lengthy interview of Chuck Schumer last night. A friend described him afterwards as "almost giddy," which is accurate. Schumer is primed and prepped re making clear that the Dems are now in charge and will act accordingly. He seemed forthright in what he said, but could not be nudged into revealing specifics about what he and Dems have planned for circumventing the gigantic barrier that is Mitch McConnell.
Irony: While that taped interview was being played on MSNBC, Rachel inserted some real-time info, which is how we learned that McConnell not only blinked but caved (her words, not mine) on his quid pro quo demand that the filibuster remain as is. That, my friends, is a big WOW! in case you didn't know. Which you do, because you're all sentient beings.
I predict that today and the tomorrows thereafter are going to be eyeball-poppers. On we go!
He was definitely giddy. It was a fun interview to watch. They seem to have a good timeline for what they have planned, including holding all the maniacs accountable. I slept pretty well last night because of that.
I did, too. (Until I got up at 4:00 a.m. in time to queue up for MN's crazy new lottery system for getting vaccinations, but that's a whole other story.) To this point, I have been relatively neutral re Schumer. He won me over last night!
Mitch didn't really have a choice, all he could do was stall a little longer His 1st priority is to see if it's possible to get a conviction of Trump in the senate. He'll be counting votes, listening to his elephants and gauging Trump's strength. Mitch has a tense two weeks ahead of him.
Apparently, Schumer has sufficient experience in the tricks of the legislative process to enable him to get around McConnell ... and is willing to get what he wants done by a bit of horsetrading. True, McConnell "caved" but I suspect he got something in exchange. Possibly it had something to do with Hawley and Cruz?
We should all be cheering for T****'s Patriot Party. It will pull 2/3's of Republicans away for the GOP and usher in years of Democrats in control of D.C. By making a minority smaller than we are now facing might cause some problems in the states but the reverse will be true as well.
If T**** pulls it off it will create a stampede of GOP Senators to convict him and keep him out of running ever again. If the Patriot Party is created it will join a long list of doomed 3rd parties. The question is would this be like the events when the new Republicans ousted the Whigs?
These are just a few of the points made by Robert Kuttner over at The American Propect story "Trump’s Patriot Party—Bring It On!"
Mornin' Christopher. If the Senate convicts Trump it could stop him running himself but I would recommend that you examine the current situation in Poland. The government and Presidence are in the hands of "populist" right wing party recently maintained in power through a similarly biased electoral system supporting the minority power of the rural areas. The real power is not in the elected officials but in the non-elected chief of the ruling party.....twin brother of a past Country President killed in Katyn Forest memorial flight...Kascinski.
We are going to have to work to help President Biden and Bice President Harris. And we’ll have to work harder for the 2022 elections than we did for the 2018 ones. We must keep the country moving forward.
"Business republicans" don't seem as substantial a force as they sound here, but it's an interesting problem.
IG Farben and Krupp and friends found it perfectly possible to do business under a dictatorship even if they had hoped in advance to be better able to control the man they installed - and the kleptocratic "understandings" business routinely "organizes" with dark money, lobbyists rotating through agencies, etc. probably prepare them well for such a scenario.
During the long-fruitless efforts at peace in Belfast, it was often theorized that business interests would reign in the paramilitaries (how could the economy continue to function otherwise?) but the facts on the ground proved impervious to these incentives, at least for a long time.
Nevertheless Anne Applebaum argues that the best case we have for dealing with lawless insurgents is, if not business stability, at least getting to work on concrete local projects orthogonal to the political provocations.
I fear the story will be the inability of the country to function due to the filibuster, and Dems' inability to abolish it. Including even leftish pundits hand-waving about a theoretical abstract minority needing a voice as power oscillates hands (thinking of last week's Brookings talk https://www.brookings.edu/events/debating-the-future-of-the-filibuster/), when the fact on the ground is a permanent minority nakedly devoted to plutocratic, racist, misogynist and anti-democratic ends that holds all power for long stretches due to malapportionment and then *still* calls the shots even when an electoral trifecta by some miracle nevertheless manages for a brief window to actually reflect the will of the people.
I was just poised to cite Anne Applebaum's column. She provides tips for us ordinary Americans to pursue while waiting for the lawmakers to get their act together. Thanks, bealpeh.
McConnell does seem to have blinked a tiny bit this evening fwiw. It's agony to think that someone like Manchin (who praised Loeffler as a paragon of integrity) should have the whole voting majority coming hat in hand asking him what the country can and can't accomplish. I feel like LBJ for all his faults would have found a way to turn the Manchins and Sinemas in order to get things done. He'd have found *something* essential to them and traded it.
Business Republicans AKA Greenwich Republicans supported trump for the Republican presidential nomination.
How much of a substantial force are they? Someone can crunch the numbers of the 1% and how the "50 Richest Americans Are Worth as Much as the Poorest 165 Million."
For sure. I was reading the term here as socially and procedurally moderate biz people who vote R on pocketbook--the kind I see as having disappeared a while ago. The biz community and 1% since Reagan have been unhinged sociopaths eager to cynically weaponize racism, abortion, religion, fascism to preserve their immunity from the rule of law. They don't seem to care what system of government we have as it really doesn't affect them; they like Rs but corp Dems such as Bill Clinton and Obama were also *great* for them, so there's that. The group of current Rs repulsed by Trump insurrectionism seems small and weak and I doubt pragmatic pocketbook concerns drive them. Trump gets a lot of love from hedge fund mgrs and the S&P has been a pounding cheer for Trumpism oblivious to both political destabilization and the death and economic mayhem Trump's covid mismanagement wrought on ordinary Americans (never falling below July levels despite record deaths and 5-month crescendo of undermining confidence in democracy... "But the conspiracy started many months before, when Trump convinced his followers that only fraud could explain any election that didn’t result in his victory." - the S&P just *loved* *all* of it. https://talkingpointsmemo.com/feature/the-capitol-mob-was-only-the-finale-of-trumps-conspiracy-to-overturn-the-election).
I heard that line from Stephen Colbert when he was with Senator Elizabeth Warren in New Orleans. She was drinking another dreck beer and that was his comment. Her comment back to him was “well, bless your heart,” after they had just discussed the usage of that phrase as a passive aggressive insult. It was a priceless moment! She’s such a brilliant and authentic human being with... what is that word? Oh yes, INTEGRITY.
I never tire of sharing this quotation:
"There are but two parties now, Traitors & Patriots and I want hereafter to be ranked with the latter and, I trust, the stronger party."
-- Ulysses Grant, 1861
Grant was the general of freedom who vanquished the armies of slavery, and the president who expanded and defended freedom. We must summon similar spirit and resolve at this time.
The KKK is alive and well - at least in my home state of Florida. My great-grandfather built 3 Baptist churches in the northeastern corner of the state, where his grandparents came as homesteaders in the 19th century. Homesteading meant there - as throughout the North American continent - displacing and killing off the indigenous nations. There were 18 nations in Florida. My mother and lots of her friends and family are deeply loyal to the QAnon and other conspiracy theories, thinking of Trump as the second messiah. The inscription on her grandfather's tombstone in Palatka Florida's white cemetery - as my relatives and everyone else white called it: "A friend to his fellow man and a Lover of Christ." The big letters on the pediment: KKK.
That's a long way of saying that Grant did not vanquish the armies of slavery. It is our duty to do that.
Rosalind, you are correct that KKK sympathies have not been vanquished. Here in Oregon we have a sordid history with the KKK which reached a great strength in the 1920s, forcing Gov. Olcott in his gubernatorial run for a second term to have to choose between winning or speaking out against the Klan. To his credit, he chose to speak out against the Klan and he lost re-election. To his dying day, he never regretted that decision.
Well, today we have another skirmish in Oregon with deranged thinking as the Oregon GOP supports a false flag theory about the Jan 6 raid on the Capitol. The disturbing anti-democratic forces of history never seem to go away, lying dormant in the spinal fluid of the nation, popping out like a pandemic when the opportunity arises.
Are there any states without a sordid KKK history? I don't know the answer, so someone please help us out with any that have done better. thanks.
Does New York have one? If so, I'm sad to say I'm unaware.
Thats exactly what I was wondering. If so, have never heard or read about it - but somehow, I doubt NYS was squeaky clean either.
If you go onto Southern Poverty Law Center’s website, they trace hate groups throughout the US. I think it’s splc.org.
I intently read your story. Personal histories are often filled with details and nuance not available elsewhere. Thank you for sharing it with us. The steps you have taken from white nationalism, bigotry and conspiracies cause me to embrace you in spirit and appreciation.
Thank you, Fern. It's strange, how some children take in their environment differently than even their siblings. I was the little girl in Sunday School who sang "Jesus loves all the little children of the world: red and yellow, black and white - they are precious in his sight." I took that seriously - decided Jesus had it right and the grownups around me had it wrong. It's tough having a different reality from everyone else when you're small. What really saved me were the kids that were my friends: Jewish kids and Cuban refugee kids. The only ones I knew whose parents led them to reading and classical music.
Rosalind, both of my parents were victims of the Holocaust. They never claimed to be survivors because they were not in camps. My maternal grandparents were gassed in the camp called Chelmno, in a van with other people. My parents met in NY in 1946 and married after 6 weeks. They moved to a rural town in NC where my sister and I were raised. I saw the Ku Klux Klan only once but that was enough. It was when we were coming back from Temple and we had to go into a “round about” to get home. In that circle was approximately 12-15 men dressed in hoods, burning a cross. My parents were silent but their hearts were beating so hard. They owned a clothing store and you can imagine that these jerks were their customers.
Thank you for sharing your story, Marlene. A large part of my family and my friendship circle is Jewish. My daughter has a Jewish dad. It all feels very personal to me.
I married an Irish Catholic from CA 44 years ago. Our kids are JIrish.
FERN MCBRIDE just now
Rosalind, We have had some similar feelings and experiences in childhood, although mine were less sharp than yours. I had more time than most to consider the differences between me, my parents and the other girls on the block because my mother worked. Her influence on me was less as a result of that; I had more time to pursue my thoughts and interests. It is a lonely breach when you are young, and it became more tense when I became involved in civil rights in my preteens. For some of us the differences may be born in the bone.
Yes, that song struck me the same way. Although I gave up "Christianity", I have held onto many of the teachings of Christ. He was quite a progressive man. St. Paul, not so much.
My take on Paul: he was an entrepreneur. Jesus was a peacenik.
Thank you for the special reminder of that song. I remember singing it as a child too.
I too fondly remember that song from my all white church - so later I used those images of black, white, red, & yellow children during Black History month on my library display wall- the children holding hands - it spoke volumes about my school and the need for everyone to get along.
It's the prelude to Ray Stevens's "Everything is Beautiful," a pop-gospel hit in 1970.
I wondered how those who give the name “messiah” to a compulsive liar-virus super spreader- murderer-racist can possibly justify it. KKK genes go deep. Be careful!
What is your experience with the Klan? One hundred years ago, in places like Florida - one of the most brutal slave states - my family was there. Do you mean to say that I might be susceptible to the KKK gene? On the contrary - the racism of "nice white people" who call themselves Christians made me jump ship when I was just a child. It is the general myth of white supremacy that spawned and spawns the KKK. What most people don't know is that, in the ancient Greco-Roman world, white was the color of the barbarian northern tribes of Celts, Goths and Gauli (Paul's letter to the Galatians was to them). Brown was beautiful then. The European tribes, pale, blue-eyed, wild hair, too big and muscular, were - according to the historian Titus - fascinating but grotesque.
Rosalind, I think Gigi is concerned for your safety, I can't imagine anyone here thinks you have a buried predilection for racism. I do appreciate what you have been through. My sister and I walked away from an extremely racist and hateful family without any baggage that we can identify. When we hit puberty we suddenly became aware of the hatred fomented by our dad and backed away as best we could until we were able to leave home. We were lucky in that family on both sides of our parents were not known to be in any organized and violent groups. Our father came the closest, but he hated too many people of all kinds to ever participate in a white supremacy group, other than I would bet funding them. My husband and I were just discussing your point about Greco-Roman world earlier this week. It is very ironic.
My family history is rather different. An ancestor's name is on the Pennsylvania Memorial; we're related by marriage to US Grant; a great aunt worked for Vito Marcantonio; my de facto grandfather, mentor to my parents, was a Freedom Rider, partnering with John Lewis; Grinny (we couldn't pronounce Granny) marched with Rev Dr King in 1963; parents were Quakers dedicated to the NAACP and pacifism. I try to live up to their ideals through activism, but they set a high bar. I'm not gloating or bragging, just thankful for these roots of my raising. Unlike today's traitors who admire slavers and traitors, much of the North has a heritage worth embracing.
I am very grateful there were families like yours. Where would we be without them?
I completely relate to your family situation. You and your husband might be interested in the book one of my professors wrote - also our study text for our semester on Galatians: Galatians re-imagined - Reading with the eyes of the vanquished. Dr. Brigitte Kahl. She uses the imagery of the altar in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin which celebrated the Greco-Roman defeat over the Celtic Galatians in 225 BC. It is breathtaking and shows the Greeks as gods and goddesses, while the Celts are monsters.
Interesting. We will take a look. thanks!
Racism is learned, not inherited. Despite your family's past, you seem like a good mentor and role model. Your children chose their mother well!
It's my experience that people from the South who are Good People are better Good People than people from elsewhere in the country, because it's harder to do that down there.
When I was in Texas in 1968 running the Oleo Strut Coffeehouse at Fort Hood, we had an attorney, Davis Bragg. 4th-generation Texan, grad of Baylor, lifelong Southern progressive, long-term resident of Killeen - could have been a stand-in for Atticus Finch. The first time we went out to have dinner at his home, we found it waaaay out in the isolated countryside, and had to drive about half a mile back on the property to get to the house. I commented on how far back the house was from the road, to which he replied, "Yes, it's out of range." And that was when I knew me and Toto weren't in Kansas anymore.
Your attorney did a great job of overcoming the burden of the name "Davis Bragg."
Rosalind, I was responding to your original statement that some consider 45 as the second messiah. Huckabee Sanders and others in the admin made comments like that early on. I have no experience with the KKK, having been brought up in the north where racism was a little more subtle. I remember reading about the lynchings when I was young and being shocked that Eisenhower did not/could not put a stop to it. When I taught school there was a serious effort to stop bullying which obviously failed. Your post made me realize how deep the roots of hatred are, and I applaud you for speaking up. The previous and failed fascinating but grotesque potus set an example of threatening those who speak up. Thank you Linda and Ally for expressing my fear better than I did.
That is fascinating, about the white barbarians. I applaud you and others who have commented, for your ability to claim your own truth and walk away.
I read Gigi's comment as "watch your back". Be careful, man.
And the colour of grieving in China!
Sounds very much like any common-garden, budding dictator you might care to name....they all had their "fan clubs" and 5th columnists prior to installing themselves.
I know they were alive and busy when I used to live in Christmas, Florida.
Unfortunately his turn as President also included very significant corruption on the part of his nominees and supporterswhich he did little to control and paid the political price; he is remembered by historians as a being a weak and ineffective President far removed from his military glory and tarnishing somewhat his memory. He was also President overseeing a particularly nasty period for Native Americans following Little Big Horn.
Here is a kinder look at the Grant administration. "Most dramatically, Grant used both federal troops and the newly established Justice Department to fight terrorism against Southern blacks, particularly by the Ku Klux Klan, which had grown into a large and formidable force in the years after the Civil War. “By 1872, under Grant’s leadership,” Chernow writes, “the Ku Klux Klan had been smashed in the South,” although another group of the same name would emerge in 1915." Wait! There's more here:
https://www.history.com/news/ulysses-s-grant-president-accomplishments-scandals-15th-amendment
Many thanks, Lynell. I'll get into him in greater detail now. The period already fascinates me. I've just finished Goodwins Team of Rivals and will now start HCR's Death of Reconstruction before attacking Foner's Reconstruction. Christmas was a fruitful period for shortening my book "wish list" and the family is most cooperative!
I bought myself HCR's "How the South Won the Civil War" for Christmas. I'll be thrilled as soon as I can steal some time to start reading it! This community (you included!) has kept me so busy reading shared links, sparking questions that send me to the Google gods, I barely have time for anything else. Not complaining...just sayin'
I have already read all of HCR's other books. I love the community as a ressource too.
Absolutely!
I just finished “How the South Won the Civil War”. The book so enlightened me as to why we are at this point in time. Accountability for seditious acts against our democracy must happen whenever they occur.
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!
I was rapt by that book. The first of her books that I consumed. A real eye-opener
I also thought it was great. I listened to it on Audible. It was read by Heather herself and was just outstanding. I usually prefer “real” books but my schedule is so overwhelmingly busy that listening to it while doing other things (like eating lunch) was the only way I could make the time to “read” it. I am now listening to Heather’s Wounded Knee. Read by someone else but the content is so devastating it is a little easier to hear in a different voice.
The title alone caught my attention! I am expecting to learn more by reading, but trust that now having listened to her chats and reading her many Letters, that I will pass over being scared and head straight to informed and controlled angry.
I recently finished that book. It’s fascinating and I couldn’t put it down. Sadly though, one of my take-aways was that some things will never change.
I, too, have read her book about how the South won the civil war. I felt deeply sad, afterwards, thinking things will never change-especially when things like the Charlottesville riots and George Floyd and Breanna Taylor, etc, etc. happen, and of course Trumpism. But then I talk to my children-in their 20s and early 30s-and their friends, and I hear them speak about how of course equality really means equality, and I see we now have a Biden-Harris administration and I begin to feel hopeful, just a little bit.
I haven't read it yet, but your reaction reminds me of my thoughts and feelings while reading Chinese history at university. Human nature, red in tooth and claw, doesn't seem to have advanced a hell of a lot in the span of history.
I'm just now getting into HCR's books. I'm scared.
Oh no! I understand... I wasn’t scared because I didn’t know how much I didn’t know! But once you stick your toes in the water, you will dive into the deep end! I kept wondering, ‘what was I taught in high school? College? Maybe I was not so interested in History, but at 69 , I am determined to catch up. Thank God for Heather! And I border on obnoxious as I proselytize anyone and everyone who will give me 30 seconds or more!
Jump in! And please keep me (us) posted on your progress and thoughts!
Grant's comment in hindsight on Electoral College -
"In giving the South negro suffrage, we have given
the old slaveholders forty votes in the Electoral College. They keep those votes, but disfranchise the negroes. That is one of the gravest mistakes in the policy of Reconstruction. ... I am clear now that it would have been better for the North to have postponed suffrage, Reconstruction, State Governments, for ten years, and held the South in a territorial condition. ... It would have avoided the scandals of the State Governments, saved money, and enabled the Northern merchants, farmers, and laboring men to reorganize society in the South. But
we made our scheme, and must do what we can with it. Suffrage once given can never be taken away and all that remains for us now is to make good that gift by protecting those who have received it." *
https://archive.org/stream/cu31924014345379/cu31924014345379_djvu.txt
Thank you, Nancy. Grant is an underrated master of prose style. "I propose to move immediately on your works!"
It's really kind of sad. Even as they struggled to see black people with humanity, they still needed someone under their boot, and so that fell to the Native Americans.
Well, he didn't crush the Klan: he just drove it into hiding for awhile. Chernow meant well...
Thank you for this Lynell. Didn't know it was on the History Channel. I'll be ssure to watch it!😊
Good points Stuart, thank you, but I still rate Grant fairly high. In recent years the consensus on both general and president has swung in Grant's favor, not least due to vigorous support for the Freedpeople in his first term. (in the second the North lost the will to fight the "Redeemers" who murdered Reconstruction.) We need leaders like him in our current time of troubles. And maybe this time the traitors who admire slavers and traitors will be suppressed properly.
Indeed but it might be a flagrant case of the "Peter Principal", or as with Churchill, he had a role to play to save the nation supporting Lincoln and thereafter he was a little out of his depth. Taft was to my mind another case...a great support to Teddy Roosevelt but should then have gone to the Supreme Court rather than the Presdiency thereafter
Imagine how things might have been if Lincoln ran with Ben Butler instead of Johnson. Atrocious Andrew did much to thwart Reconstruction, properly construed as rebuilding democracy in America, not just rebuilding the Southern economy. Yet even Johnson's spirit rests easier knowing that he is no longer -- the Worst President Ever!
A long time to wait to improve, if ever so slightly your reputation. 100 years and AA is still being emulated...and bested at his ignominious game.
I surmise that they're more likely to roll in their graves. Being the worst seems a badge of honor to some of this type, no?
Here's the deal. It's not like Pierce, Buchanan, Johnson I, Harding, Nixon, Bush II suddenly got better. It's just that Trumpsky is so very much worse. And if (ye gods) he gets a second term, he'll be even worse than ... himself!
A tragedy if tRump claims "Patriots" for his new party's name, when surely "Traitors" is most fitting.
I haven't been so fond of the term "patriot" since the Patriot Act. Just as my neighbors who display huge American flags (often in tatters, never taken down at night or in bad weather - very poor flag protocol) are generally the same ones who had the big T**** signs, making the flag a symbol of division, naming products or parties "Patriot" seems to have the goal of getting rid of democracy and installing a strongman dictator.
Sadly...
I was thinking "Grifters", perhaps.............
A spin-off from the far-right National Front Party here in France is already doing just that!
A spectacular comment. Many thanks!
First, thank you so much for your posts. They are my favorite source of news and have gotten me through so many sleepless nights this year!
One thing about the post tonight, however: I’d caution you to think that the many people who have changed their voter affiliations from Republican are doing it because they are disgusted with Trump.
Quite to the contrary, many are doing it because the LOVE Trump and are angry with the Republican Party for insufficiently supporting him. I know this first hand because my father is one of the former Florida republicans who proudly did just this, and I know he is definitely typical of a “type” you might meet in Florida, which is one of many unique “types” of people I know in Florida who think Trump was the greatest president to ever walk the earth and are in complete denial of his lies.
The influx of newly registered NPA voters in Florida last year also concerned me for the same reason, which appears to have played out in the votes. As such, I looked up a few of the arrested insurrectionists on a site that allows you to search the voter registrations for people in several states and found that quite a few were registered NPA.
I suspect that the Patriot Party could become a legitimate third party, taking the 25-30% of Americans (who I think are Trump loyalists based on polls on various topics) with it. And I believe it is going to be popular with far more demographics than one might think.
I only hope the Senate can muster the courage to prevent him from becoming president again so that his party might lose steam before fully taking hold.
I've been thinking about the numbers. The election came out 81M to 74M. After Dec 6, it's not very likely that many of those 82M are going to switch to Republican. Any split in the Republican Party is going to have to share that 74M, and the Trump vote is now seriously tainted. I don't believe there were ever 74M Trumpites out there. An awful lot of them were business Republicans, elderly Eisenhower Republicans, and single-issue voters who were willing to overlook philandering and abuse of power, but who will draw the line at sedition. If we take at its face the "75% of Republicans think Trump sucks" figure some media has published, it could reduce that 74M to as little as 18M that will stay loyal to Trump. If we take your estimate of (say) 30% of all Americans as solid Trump supporters, that's 46M, with only 28M supporting the business Republicans.
Either way, as Heather has pointed out, the Republican Party is in deep trouble. The math no longer works for them, even with gerrymandering and voter suppression. If they try to reunite the split party, they'll lose a lot of the 28M to 56M non-Trump Republicans: the business community has already indicated what they think of Trumpism. If they allow the split to become two parties, neither split will have enough votes to hold Senate seats.
The Republicans' best strategy is to take Trump entirely out of the equation; convicting, then disqualifying him in the upcoming impeachment trial is the low-hanging fruit. All they need to pull together is a coalition of 17 Republican Senators to convict him. Trumpism is a personality cult, not a political party. If they can remove the Personality from any future runs, the cult will wither.
81M. It's late, and my proofreader elves have gone to bed....
We knew what you meant:)
It's still larger than 74m. You're counting just fine.
Make it so.
I concur with your notion, Natasha, of the so-called Patriot Party, as far as its legitimacy. I like the possibility of its potential to attract 25% of the electorate. However, I do not see it a threat to the growing Democratic Party base. I see it as a major threat to conservatism and the Republican Party.
First, I believe the Dems have learned from Obama’s first two years, that we will not sleep-walk into the mid-term election. We will grow an enthusiastic base. And we already see this energy playing out in the shifting winds of the political landscape ....
Georgia and Arizona offer stark contrasts of the polarities of our politics today. The two states have four sterling Senators, all Democrats! Let’s wrap our heads around that for a moment. And, the conservative movement and Republican Party in both states are doing their best to self-destruct. In each state, one of the newly elected Dem Senators will have to run again in 2022, and by then the disparity between Democrats and the loonies will be all the more stark.
This ‘civil war’ within conservatism has the potential to advance progressive prospects in 2022. For instance, In PA., the progressive and popular Lt Governor hs already announced his candidancy for the open Senate seat in ’22. His already strong brand can only be helped by the brouhaha in PA. politics that we all saw during the Nov. election. I suspect this dynamic will play out in many other states, as well.
I can only laugh with glee at this brouhahaha!
Capture Rob Portman's open Ohio seat in 2022. Sherrod needs like-minded company.
Rep. Tim Ryan comes to mind. He's tight with labor like Sherrod Brown and is even more a man of the people. He's progressive where it counts and speaks well on his feet. I think a matchup between him and Gym Jordan would end up with me having 2 Democratic Senators.
There are some solid Republicans to challenge Jordan if he runs. Haven't heard anything from Kasich yet but he burned his bridges with the T**** party so he may not even try.
I've been a Ryan fan ever.since he stood up an railed against the Iraq war, he's never disappointed.
Jordan can't even tie his own necktie. And it's Dim Jordan. Not Gym, Dim.
Ha! Yes!
Gym is a 13 year old boy dressed in a college freshman’s clothes. How he looks, acts, and sounds...
He is beyond repulsive.
Mostly bat-s*it crazy, scary, sad.
Amen. I went to school with Rob Portman and my brother was a friend of his. We don’t know what happened to him. My mother, who still lives in Ohio, has written him countless letters hoping he would “see the light,” remembering how wonderful and charitable his mother was. Looks like he finally had enough of the darkness.. who knows, but let’s hope the vacuum is filled by someone Sherrod can work with.
And yet he cites "partisan gridlock" in Washington as a reason for not running for re-election. He contributed to it! I just *hope* that not being beholden to the party will free him to vote for impeachment, but I am not holding my breath.
I think Portman had to make a biz decision. Fall in line or you don’t get the dark pac money from the billionaires for your election campaign. This makes impossible to compromise in DC. Which is how it’s supposed to work.
He did make a comment on our local NPR station this AM about now being free not to have to spend "the next two years fundraising."
I think he meant to say, "spend the next two years selling his soul to the Kochs and end democracy."
This has GOT to change!
Interesting.... I want to know more...
Jane Mayer, Dark Money
Jane Mayer, Democracy in Chains
I bet he votes to convict. By announcing he wont seek re election he doesn't have to go through the pain of of getting primary-ed by Jim Jordan.
OMG, I hope you’re right. My bandwidth is consumed with ending the filibuster, pressing BidenHarris and new Senate Majority Leader Schumer, and working for any Democrats running in 2022. Can’t seem to sleep. Can’t seem to stop worrying. Today, going out of my comfort zone and calling Congress. Sending first of my every day postcards to the White House, titled “Keep Your Promises” ❤️🤍💙
My biggest concern is the repubs stonewalling all legislation as usual. Not being able to organize the senate is a bad omen.
TaDa! Organized!
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/25/mitch-mcconnell-agrees-senate-filibuster-462466
Thanks for that idea. Where are you sending them to, specifically?
President Biden, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. 20500
I sure hope so! I can definitely see a likely scenario where that works out well for Democrats, especially if we can get Congress to work over the next few years and reduce the misinformation. And generally, I like the idea of having a third party, but the Patriot Party still makes me shudder!
If the GOP splits in half and hate each other. With no real opposition, what is going to contain the centrifugal forces in the current Democrat Alliance; holding together centrists and progressists?
Once the Republican madness is gone, the Democratic Centrists can become the Sane Republicans, and the Democratic Progressives can take over the Democratic party.
I think we need to come to a common understanding that the current Republican Party is neither conservative, nor democratic (small-d), nor entirely sane. It is a rogue separatist party, and is incapable of forging a coherent party platform or winning honest elections. What it stands for today certainly existed in the 1950's and 1960's, but it was in the madhouse fringes, and no one took it seriously.
Well said, Joseph. At their 2020 convention Repugs chose to have no platform. They officially stand for nothing.
Progress. Nothing like success and progress to maintain momentum.
Joe B today is giving a major address on race (and therefore class, crime, economy). He’s addressing s progressive agenda, in his style. I feel that Elizabeth and Bernie (my wing) are in line with Biden’s agenda. I anticipate AOC and friends will be on board.
Dems will squabble, even fiercely quarrel, but they (we) are not splitting. A full-strength major party with (some) recent tradition of reform is needed for the challenges ahead. Let the Repugs enjoy their own cannibal feast; I certainly will!
I keep hoping that Trump will be moving to prison for crimes committed in New York. I do know he will have to spend some time and money fighting at least three lawsuits.
Attorney Roberta Kaplan is about to make Trump’s life extremely difficult By Karen Heller January 18 at 5:00 AM CT
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/roberta-kaplan-lawyer-attorney-trump/2021/01/17/ae8890f2-50f8-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html%3foutputType=amp
I read that. I’m impatient... I’m wondering why things haven’t moved faster after he left office. I’m sure all of these lawsuits are a slow-moving process but I thought there would be more news about them.
So did I! I’m impatient about that, too. Subpoenas should be delivered and the deliveries splashed across the media.
I’m wondering if there is a strategy there... impeachment then grab him and drag him away...
If only. . . .
Makes excellent sense.
As a light blue longterm RINO, this is what I am seeing as well. The thinking of those re registering is to destroy the "old RINOs" and create the new Republican party. Which will be pure trumpism. My establishment Republican friends and family are in a "waiting it out" mode, condemning the violence but not the reason, looking to 2022 and 2024 to restore their power. The reality of a potential 3rd party splinter has not yet set in. I remind them of Ross Perot and The Reform Party of 1992 leading to the crushing defeat of HW Bush. The Little General managed to get 19% of the popular vote, primarily from other disaffected Republicans. These significant 3rd party fractures do not bode well for the party. At this point, I say good. Burn it down. It can no longer be salvaged. The insane have taken over the asylum, imagine that. Ha! Perhaps an actual compassionate conservative party will finally rise like a Phoenix from the ashes, but I am not holding my breath.
You are probably correct in your assumptions. However, the fact that some of the insurrectionists are identified as NPA does not always bear on their political affiliations. Many states do not require voters to declare their political party. If you looked for me in Georgia, there would be no political party declared - that information is not requested upon registration.
On 1/24, you posed a question about rural vs urban voters. I think you should pose one about politicians vs constituents. An except from today's LFAA reinforced this.
"Republicans who were hoping to pick up Trump’s supporters in future elections signed on to his challenge of the election outcome. For some of them, pushing the idea that there were questions about the election was a safe way to signal support for Trump and his supporters, knowing that argument would fail."
This bothers me for a couple of reasons. First, why sign up for a path of action they know will fall, and it will fail because it represents no good value to the nation? Second, many of these people are not focused on representing their constituents today but are considering their longer term political ambitions.
In an excellent but enraging column by Barry Friedman on 1/24, he covered the Sunday morning talk show circuit and the continued resistance of Rand Paul (KY), Marco Rubio (FL), and Mike Rounds (ND) to unequivocally say that the election was fair. Only Rounds, in a backhanded way, suggested that further investigation would "probably" conclude there was no significant fraud that would've changed the election at a starter our local level.
As I noted in my response to your rural vs urban voters question, it feels like there's a disconnect between how a representative votes in relation to what their constituents might vote. While it appears a majority of voters don't dispute the results, a large number of self identified Republicans believe the election was stolen, but have yet to provide any factual evidence to prove they're point. A second example is abortion rights. Approximately 75% of Americans support abortion rights, though they may differ about what conditions should be met. Since 75% of Americans aren't Republicans, that suggests some Republicans favor abortion rights. Yet the vast majority of GOP representatives support a conservative plank that is anti-abortion. A third example is DACA. About 74% of Americans support granting legal status to children of illegal immigrants, including 54% of Republicans. Why continue opposition to a program a plurality, if not majority, of your constituents support?
Are these people really representing their constituents? IMHO, it feels like candidates are using bait and switch tactics by selling themselves to voters in order to get elected, then voting in accordance with their party leadership or their donors, regardless of their constituents' preferences. I can't prove that with the time I have this morning but it seems to violate the premise of representative government.
If a representative is afraid to stand up in on behalf of their district or state in opposition to the party's leadership, they're in the wrong job. Is two years too short a term, given the amount of time representatives spend fund raising? In 2014, it inspired Represent.Us to craft a fake congressional candidate, Gil Fulbright, who starred in "honest political ads," and who started wearing logo patches for all his corporate sponsors like a NASCAR driver. "Listening to my constituents, legislating—these are things I don't do," Gil would say. "What I do is spend about 70 percent of my time raising funds for reelection."
The House passed the bill H.R. 1, the For the People Act, similar to the bill passed after the 2018 midterms, and now joined by S 1, passed by Democratic Senators. Each is aimed at reducing the influence and corruption in election laws, from voter suppression to dark money donations. The Center for Responsive Politics estimates $14B was spent trying to influence the 2020 elections. That's more than twice as much as was spent in 2016. "Nobody spends this kind of money without looking for something in return."
Do voters not pay attention to what their reps do? Why are people with low approval rating returned to office time after time? I don't know, but we're clearly not holding representatives to account frequently enough. I representatives respond only to moneyed interests, we no longer have a representative democracy in this country.
https://barrysfriedman.substack.com/p/will-nobody-speak-for-the-81283485?
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/06/17/americans-broadly-support-legal-status-for-immigrants-brought-to-the-u-s-illegally-as-children/
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/news/2019/11/07/476945/1400-organizations-individuals-voice-support-daca/
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a35296946/hr1-for-the-people-bill-reform-money-in-politics/
Great post. I did hear a never-trump republican hypothesize that gerrymandering is coming home to roost.
That would be phenomenal! Time to wake up sleeping vegetables!
I wonder how much of this has to do with gerrymandering, which helps put extremists in power and keeps so many elections uncompetitive. It also reminds me of this, which might or might not be relevant in this case: https://www.princeton.edu/~mgilens/Gilens%20homepage%20materials/Monkey%20Cage%20Blog%201/Economic%20Inequality%20and%20Political%20Power%20Part%201%20of%203.htm
As I pointed out above regarding North Carolina, gerrymandering has a lot to do with it. It's not clear how many states will have a fair redistricting plan by 2022 or 2024. If the disparity in NC is reflective of other states with more EC votes, then it's going to be an issue until it's resolved. And the GOP has no incentive to fix it.
In NC both the state Senate and House are Republican, with a Dem governor. Only because of a state Supreme Court ruling are we doing anything about it. Wisconsin has the same issue.
Martin Gilens' article is very interesting. The subject of the inverse relationship between inequality of wealth and tax reductions for the rich+democratic shortcomings has been validated internationally.
The question has always been "Are we electing Delegates or Representatives?" delegates have a mandate dictated by the people electing them and they effectively pursue and implement that mandate. Representatives "represent" their elects and effectively decide for them. Obviously when you elect representatives you gotta be very sure that they think and act like you. In the current 2 party system in which both Parties are extremely broad houses, how does one party or the other recognize "people who think like the electors"? From the extreme right of the GOP to the centre-right, Rino members their is absolutely no common ground. The same can be said for the Democrats!
I'm not sure either party is as ideologically broadly based as it once was or roughly 40% of the electorate wouldn't identify as Independent and an approximately equal percentage sit out most elections. The rest of your point is well taken and excellently made.
Delegates or Representatives? Indeed. An important distinction, thanks Stuart.
Thank you for stating so succinctly my own thoughts.
Gerrymandering has created safe zones for elected officials who only represent the will of the gerrymandered. It is a form of voter suppression that ignores the will of the people. If, for example, every democrat voted their politics in Wisconsin, it is so gerrymandered that only a republican can win, no matter how many democrats vote.
I don't believe they even represent the will of the gerrymandered. They only help keep that person in office because there are no challengers. When districts are more balanced due to straight forward geographical lines we'll see what happens. I personally don't believe voters are going to move all over just to find the "right" district.
Interestingly, Since c.2010 (Tea Party time), the gerrymander is succumbing to its own perverse but remorseless logic. Extreme gerrymandering creates incumbents who are perennially vulnerable to MORE extreme candidates. It gives us a new verb, "to primary," often rendered in passive form as "to be primaried." I'd trade language enrichment for fair politics in a heartbeat.
I agree with you. As the pandemic grew last spring and summer, I became so discouraged, wondering, “who represents my interest?” Not the county mayor, not my congressional representatives and not the president. My two senators originally supported the lie the election was rigged but backed off after nearly being held hostage. My rep still thinks so. I believe ppl vote for the familiar name because they don’t really know the person’s record. My husband thinks ppl think all representatives are crooked except mine.
Ouch! 'Tis a gift to be represented by Ms Warren, Mr Markey and Ms Pressley.
Good luck and stay well.
Republican Constituents don’t really exist. Only voters to be misled and big dark donors to pay for it.
In all this, do people who want to bring down democracy have a better idea...a better system ready to put in its place or do they want it all to crash and burn?
It is a sad day when you see on TV Senator Rubio, Republican from Florida, call the second impeachment trial of former president Trump stupid. What is truly stupid is the man put himself in a position to be impeached for a second time. That aside, what concerns me is what if the mob attacking the capital had succeeded? What would Rubio say about that? What if they had murdered Speaker Pelosi and hung Vice President Pence? What if the mob was able to reinstall Trump as President. What would Rubio say about that, it was smart? All Republicans should act as if Trump had overthrown the government. After all, five people died in the attempt. I haven't heard Rubio say anything about the dead.
Florida is deeply red with a few urban isles of blue. Republicans have locked up state government for many years. Rubio isn’t even the worst of the lot. Senator Scott is an out and out criminal, Gov. DeSantis is simply incompetent and utterly loyal to Trump. Now they want to name US 27 “Donald Trump Highway”. It’s like a bizarre parallel world. The Mad King is gone, the madness persists.
As a Florida resident, I couldn’t agree with you more! And I’ve also gotGus Bilirakis as my congressman. Not as wacky as Gaetz but trying hard.
Ted Yoho. Bah.
Rubio is the perfect person to speak to “stupid”.
My thought exactly. One has to wonder what is going through his little mind right now: play "nice" with trumpets or find a spine? What will he do when Ivanka runs against him? And you know she will, assuming she's not in prison.
At one time in the distant past, I used to actually like Marco Rubio. Now, I just have utter contempt for him. He's a political lightweight and Trump sycophant.
A failed coup is the only kind of coup one ought to be convicted for.
Otherwise, calling a coup "free speech" and saying "now it's time to unite" just because it failed means NO sort of coup is illegal, as you certainly can't prosecute a successful coup.
We know there was lots of "planning," or at least *energy* put into the insurrection, but I haven't heard a word about- nor can I fathom- how it could have been carried any further: if they had succeeded in corralling or killing our representatives, then what? Were they supposing would we have all just said, "Okay then, I guess they were *really* upset about the election results, so let's have four more years of Trump"?
What other outcomes might there have been?
I would love to see Emma Gonzalez beating Rubio a few years from now.
Rubies working overtime to get that Election cash from Drumf s account. Pretty sad
THIS is EXACTLY it! What if this had happened? It was SO close? WHY aren't these people being asked this and be put on the record with an answer! Make them answer to this without being able to insert a snarky sound bite.
“... if Trump or his supporters do manage to put a dictator in charge...” When I read that my mind went to Ivanka. And then to Evita Peron. Very unsettling.
And I’m one of the 6000 North Carolinians changing my political affiliation from Republican to Independent. I no longer want my name associated with people (including my husband 😢) who support dt.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻❤️🤍💙
We lived together for 8 years and got married just last June, so I already knew his mindset. He's not a rabid T****** supporter, although the rest of his family is, so that helped. We've had fights, but we've been able to get past them for the most part. We just don't talk about it anymore, and I no longer respond if he does say something. I'm not connected to him on FB for that reason. If you'd like to talk privately, my email is kmkieva@gmail.com.
Evita's popularity was not enough to get her to power however as business and military opposition to her return as VP combined with a particularly virulent cancer did for her at the age of 33.
You are correct. I did a project on her for my South American history class. And it was her husband Juan Peron who was the Argentine dictator. Still, it’s chilling to think of Ivanka as the next in line. Based on his Fox News Sunday interview, Marco Rubio is frightened by her.
Wee Marco is lucky that Emma Gonzalez is under 25. She'd take his seat away like a game of musical chairs.
I would LOVE to see that!
Might she run for other office in the meantime?
I’d support Emma!
Mr President David Hogg
Marco is frightened of his shadow.
Marco is a lily-livered two faced liar. He just needs to go!
As long as we get... who, to replace him? Is the Democratic Party willing to put in the work in Florida that they did in Georgia?
Shes definitely past her "consume by" date and needs taking of the shelf.
Ha!
She doesn’t appear to smart to me.
Well, she doesn’t have to be, for Florida Republicans. Just sayin...
That’s true...and just so crazy
Ivanka in a debate...ha! I’d pay to see that comedy show
I'm sorry to hear about your husband. Mine too. It sucks.
Yes. Yes it does. The last 4yrs of our 44yr marriage have been very trying, not sure if we can stay together much longer. How about you?
Trumpsky's divisiveness sunders many friendships and families. A great friend of five decades apparently is a Deplorable, straining our relations (as does my progressivism). The insurrection was too much for him, but he's still ranting about Dem election thieves. Sometimes I think about calling our Quaker alma mater to have them revoke his degree.
I am in a similar situation. I feel your pain.
Welcome Suzanne! We need a few million more of you. We need to understand your transformation. We need to bring more out of the Republican darkness if we can.
I'm lucky in that my wife is no Trumper. Knowing who Trump is, and has always been, I cannot imagine how any person can support someone who raped his wife.
Part tacit approval, part intentional denial, if you ask me.
Good for you! I've been independent of party affiliation all my life. Trust none of them, and hold all of them accountable.
Democracy first ♥️
Trump clearly had intent (he coerced and threatened Georgia officials to overturn election results there; he often encouraged violence against anyone not supporting him; he invited thousands of armed protesters to rally in Washington DC on Jan. 6). Trump also had opportunity (as POTUS he persuaded/commanded his armed supporters on Jan. 6 to head for the Capitol building; too, it grows more clear by the day that some individuals inside the government were aiding rebellion). For Nikki Haley to say, “Give the man a break… move on,” is shameful, to say the least. She needs to be gone, along with the rest of the odious crew from South Carolina.
Following up here, to clarify. This may not be the most pristine description of what meant, but it will do:
"In the United States, there are specific elements of a crime that the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt in order to obtain a conviction at trial. The three specific elements (with exception) that define a crime which the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt in order to obtain a conviction: (1) that a crime has actually occurred (actus reus), (2) that the accused intended the crime to happen (mens rea) and (3) and concurrence of the two meaning there is a timely relationship between the first two factors."
https://www.thoughtco.com/elements-of-a-crime-971562
Definition satisfied, but it isn’t necessary to convict on impeachment.
Following this discussion late--took a breather--impeachment/conviction is a political trial, not a criminal trial.
Yes, but you’re preaching to the choir. This is the disease of the parallel universe that continues to exist in our politics and society. The more that these lies proliferate as they are clearly still doing, the more they erode our democratic institutions. I thought the nearly successful insurrection would surely “burst the bubble,” but clearly it hasn’t and this is very depressing and frightening. Will those involved be brought to justice? Will the rule of law and a thirst for truth and “character” that Republicans used to think was so important, be restored? I’m not sleeping so well, again.
He threw her (her brother) under the bus, but she’s standing by her man. She disgusts me.
I must correct myself, it was her sister-in-law.
I wonder how she would have wanted to "move on" if she had been held hostage in the Capitol?
For impeachment trial, I would have a huge portrait of the officer who was killed. This way when Republican speak at the trial, they have to look at his face, and when they speak the officers portrait is always in the backdrop.
Don't forget the portrait of Officer Eugene Goodman. He saved their sorry GOP apses from deadly consequences of their own traitorous folly. An American hero!
Call Goodman to testify in person.
Brian Sicknick
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/us/politics/police-officer-killed-capitol.amp.html
The number of executive actions for which the Biden Administration was prepared from day one is a demonstration of administrative competence made more apparent by the bungling lack of same in the previous administration. All this quietly accomplished in spite of the previous administration's acting to stall, stone-wall, and torpedo productive cooperation with Biden's transition team.
I have great confidence that the right people are in charge of the executive branch of the government.
I remain leery of an Executive who rules by EOs rather than passes legislation. The next President, on day-one, just issues a slew of EOs and turns everything around. I'm sure there are administrative costs to this simply in printing new orders for the agencies. It doesn't seem like a way we would want to govern in a democracy.
No that’s not how we want to govern. It’s a ping pong game every 4 years. But that’s what it’s come to with congressmen unwilling to work together. Filibustering their way through. Our legislative branch is in absolute disarray. I’m glad, for now, we have the EOs.
Executive orders are the offspring of Congressional gridlock, or, more accurately, Repuglycan obstruction.
I agree with you. Would that we had a different political atmosphere in our legislative branch where government by legislation was more feasible. Obama tried to govern in such a way but the Republicans, the party of NO!, would have none of it.
Exactly. I just finished Obama’s post presidency book, volume 1, and it was a fair sad affair for him. He worked extremely hard.
I doubt that it was Biden's preferred course of action, nor should it be, but with the tremendous amount of damage that he encountered, coupled with the Republicans' demonstrated refusal to actively participate in repairing the carnage, it was what he had to do. In a perfect world, we'd never have encountered the nightmare that was Trump, nor his stable full of malicious enablers.
Well, when you can't govern otherwise, that's what you get. Perhaps you should re-read "How The Government Works Today" a second time.
Thanks you for the reading recommendation, but I implied an understanding that this was a forced way of governing that doesn't do anyone any good. As to how we got here, believe, I know. Your snide remark is a sign of the level of criticism today. So sad.
No, criticism not meant. We all wish things did work the way we learned in "How A Bill Becomes A Law," but that was back in the early Jurassic, when most of them in the process weren't totally nuts.
Thank you for this column. I’m frustrated with my favorite news outlets (NYT, BBC) because they still publish Tr*mp related articles that don’t convey need to know information, but seem to continue to feed off of the sensation here tries to create. It’s such a low bar, I suppose. I don’t need or want to read about him. However, we do need to keep an eye on him and the rag-tag mob. I thank you for informing us about the important moves and counter moves and not the flash-bang distractions he lobs out every so often.
Thank you for saying this. I’ve been thinking of canceling my NYT subscription. They bear some responsibility for the T presidency in the first place (her emails!) and I’m disgusted that they’re moving down that path again.
Sadly, they've done some of the best Covid writing that I have seen. I'm not quite willing to give them up yet, although I may cancel and resubscribe on one of their cheap deals.
Agreed, Lynell. I am sick to death of hearing about him.
“Office of the Former President.” I’m going to have trouble sleeping wondering what kind of shenanigans take place there.
This is an office set up to receive the checks of the true believers. Tr*mp is a new kind of evangelist fleecing his flock.
Goes with the "2nd coming, messiah" descriptions.
Bingo.
If it helps you to sleep better, the OFP, even just the idea, the notion, will likely go a ways toward splitting the Republican Party. In that regard, I'm all for it.
That office might be at Rikers Prison.
One can hope!
Trump is so lazy. We will find out soon enough that aides are quitting because they aren’t being paid and he’s enjoying cheating at golf too much to actually do anything else.
I think you may be right! Let the sheep follow him into the dark.
People are resigning their memberships at Mar-a-lago because they don't want to be associated
How sweet it is!
I don’t see him ever going back to real estate. I think it’s either jail or political entertainment fir cash. “politertainmemt”
Maybe, but real estate is still a nifty way to launder dirty money.
Vanity Fair has a good article on how he could make millions in a subscriber based enterprise. With secret service protection he won’t have to pay back the Russian loans brokered by Deutsche Bank.
Unfortunately for Trump, OFP has already been taken by the One Fidji Party and is used by the airforce "Operational Flight Program and by professional Football scouts "Overall Future Potential".....amongst others
However "Office of the F.......ing Pervert" seems to be available and fit or "Old Fort Prison" might suit him given his likely future.
Office of the Fascist President
Ha!
Our ability to sleep well seems to have lasted all of two days.
I agree. The days immediately after inauguration day were the worst psychological days of the last four years for me. The specter of ugliness in America not only not tempering, but growing, Trump or no Trump, so dismantled my soul, I wrote this:
The walls come crashing down
The soul soars to a zenith
To crash and sink to its nadir
Realizing the burden
It inevitably must bear
When Harmonia is suffocated
By the weight of Eris
Won’t be to long till it’s “office Of the former president from prison show”
Celebrity Inmate!
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer sounded big, strong and bold in his interview with Rachel Maddow this evening. The Democrats finally being strong and bold is heartening. With Minority Leader McConnell caving into Schumer on Senate rules, it seems McConnell also sees the advantage right now for the Senate to be bold and support business interests.
He didn't cave. He got what he wanted when DINO Senators Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema publicly stated they would never vote to kill the filibuster, thereby denying Shumer the majority vote needed to do so. Once we get enough real Democrats in the Senate in 2022, those two need to go to the same place Joe Lie-berman went.
I agree. The problem is 2022 is not a good opportunity for Democrats and taking/keeping the senate gets even harder going forward. So either we get more DINOs or become a permanent minority for the foreseeable future. It's frustrating to have Manchin effectively be the deciding vote in all this. There are just too many red states and any purple ones are just looking for excuses to go red again.
Manchin is a thorn.
Tell it straight. Thank you. ❤️🤍💙
But did McMurderer really cave? I just know that little evil mind of his has something up his sleeve.
Of course he doesn't care but his political calculus just may somehow be aligned for the moment with Schuner's agenda to be bold on COVID to get business cranking again.
The Republicans in the Senate are already campaigning AGAINST Biden's plans to deal with COVID.
I agree. When I read McTurtleneck had caved, my out loud response was ,"What does he have up his sleeve now?" You know he's ten steps ahead.
McConnell got promises from two democratic senators (Mansion & Synema) that they would not vote to remove the filibuster. He is betting that Schumer will not have the votes to overturn the filibuster between now and 2022. McConnell plans take back the Senate in 2022.
Gawwwd help us! Maybe if we are lucky, he will not have that chance.
I think corporate donors are up his sleeve and strangling his neck to make him cooperate with Biden's orders and bills which will stabilize the economy - for them.
McConnell certainly has the courage of his lack of conviction. If the Senate rids us of Trumpsky by doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, I'll take it.
Don't hold your breath waiting for ANY
Don't hold your breath waiting for ANY Republican to "do the right thing." It's against their DNA. You'll turn blue and die first.
Fair enough, thank you both.. But one important factor may be the presidential ambitions of senate Repugs, which are enhanced if they shove Trumpsky aside. That would be right thing, wrong reason.
NB, here in MA we've been allowed to "hold our breath" only since 2016.
Really? Well, I hope Schumer is or becomes strong. He’s certainly been able to study a certain KY senator for years. Re-election in 2 years. Don’t let us down, Chuck. ❤️🤍💙
AOC could take that seat.
I'm sure she's considering it. It would be amazing if she could win a Senate seat in a state like NY. I'd work for her campaign, that's for sure.
I think it is inevitable that the spheres in which the filibuster can be used will inevitably shrink as Biden's business comes to the floor. The Democrats against limliting its use will toe the line when faced with a choice of allowing stalemate and getting things done. Harris will do her job.
I like your optimism! Hope you are right.
There's more to McConnell "caving" on the Rules issues than having two Democrats to support continued fiibuster options. I suspect big corporate donors threatened (again) to withhold or end his lobbying paychecks if he obstructed Biden's economic bills which will stabilize the country for business. Again, the oligarchs win, and a byproduct is America, for a change, doesn't lose.
Making trump’s impeachment stick feels like the only way out of his never ending downward spiral. To make him disappear off the political scene, that he should have never been a part of!
Thankfully, Biden is just getting to work. Cleaning up as much of the mess as he can as quickly as possible. Seems like two alternate universes at play, but at the same time. Crazy!
Glad your post is much earlier! Here’s to a good night’s sleep!
Thank you, Heather!
Add to all of Heather's summary Rachel Maddow's lengthy interview of Chuck Schumer last night. A friend described him afterwards as "almost giddy," which is accurate. Schumer is primed and prepped re making clear that the Dems are now in charge and will act accordingly. He seemed forthright in what he said, but could not be nudged into revealing specifics about what he and Dems have planned for circumventing the gigantic barrier that is Mitch McConnell.
Irony: While that taped interview was being played on MSNBC, Rachel inserted some real-time info, which is how we learned that McConnell not only blinked but caved (her words, not mine) on his quid pro quo demand that the filibuster remain as is. That, my friends, is a big WOW! in case you didn't know. Which you do, because you're all sentient beings.
I predict that today and the tomorrows thereafter are going to be eyeball-poppers. On we go!
He was definitely giddy. It was a fun interview to watch. They seem to have a good timeline for what they have planned, including holding all the maniacs accountable. I slept pretty well last night because of that.
I need to go look up the replay because I need to be able to sleep better.
I did, too. (Until I got up at 4:00 a.m. in time to queue up for MN's crazy new lottery system for getting vaccinations, but that's a whole other story.) To this point, I have been relatively neutral re Schumer. He won me over last night!
Mitch didn't really have a choice, all he could do was stall a little longer His 1st priority is to see if it's possible to get a conviction of Trump in the senate. He'll be counting votes, listening to his elephants and gauging Trump's strength. Mitch has a tense two weeks ahead of him.
"...listening to his elephants..." Funny. Elephants and sycophants.
Thank you for this! It gives me hope.
You go, Chuck. But first, push those glasses farther up on your nose.
That's his style. He thinks it makes him look wise.
Schumer is shrewd, now that MM no longer has control, we’ll see what Schumer can accomplish.
"I believe in miracles".....repeat that often throughout your day!
Apparently, Schumer has sufficient experience in the tricks of the legislative process to enable him to get around McConnell ... and is willing to get what he wants done by a bit of horsetrading. True, McConnell "caved" but I suspect he got something in exchange. Possibly it had something to do with Hawley and Cruz?
If Hawley and Cruz are cut one micro-millimeter of slack--please complete this for me--I will _____ OR we will _____ OR Schumer will_____ OR...
I am right there with you!
Mitch must have gotten something in exchange for "caving." Maybe it's a chit he can use sometime in the future. Honestly, I don't know.
Could we please go back to the first blank? I'm losing track.
Better not be a deal re: those two!!
We should all be cheering for T****'s Patriot Party. It will pull 2/3's of Republicans away for the GOP and usher in years of Democrats in control of D.C. By making a minority smaller than we are now facing might cause some problems in the states but the reverse will be true as well.
If T**** pulls it off it will create a stampede of GOP Senators to convict him and keep him out of running ever again. If the Patriot Party is created it will join a long list of doomed 3rd parties. The question is would this be like the events when the new Republicans ousted the Whigs?
These are just a few of the points made by Robert Kuttner over at The American Propect story "Trump’s Patriot Party—Bring It On!"
https://prospect.org/blogs/tap/trump-patriot-party-bring-it-on/
Mornin'!
Mornin' Christopher. If the Senate convicts Trump it could stop him running himself but I would recommend that you examine the current situation in Poland. The government and Presidence are in the hands of "populist" right wing party recently maintained in power through a similarly biased electoral system supporting the minority power of the rural areas. The real power is not in the elected officials but in the non-elected chief of the ruling party.....twin brother of a past Country President killed in Katyn Forest memorial flight...Kascinski.
Mornin' back atcha and kudos for the comments.
Good Morning 🌞 bring it on alright
Great post and link...thanks, Christopher!
We are going to have to work to help President Biden and Bice President Harris. And we’ll have to work harder for the 2022 elections than we did for the 2018 ones. We must keep the country moving forward.
"Business republicans" don't seem as substantial a force as they sound here, but it's an interesting problem.
IG Farben and Krupp and friends found it perfectly possible to do business under a dictatorship even if they had hoped in advance to be better able to control the man they installed - and the kleptocratic "understandings" business routinely "organizes" with dark money, lobbyists rotating through agencies, etc. probably prepare them well for such a scenario.
During the long-fruitless efforts at peace in Belfast, it was often theorized that business interests would reign in the paramilitaries (how could the economy continue to function otherwise?) but the facts on the ground proved impervious to these incentives, at least for a long time.
Nevertheless Anne Applebaum argues that the best case we have for dealing with lawless insurgents is, if not business stability, at least getting to work on concrete local projects orthogonal to the political provocations.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/seditionists-need-path-back-society/617746/
I fear the story will be the inability of the country to function due to the filibuster, and Dems' inability to abolish it. Including even leftish pundits hand-waving about a theoretical abstract minority needing a voice as power oscillates hands (thinking of last week's Brookings talk https://www.brookings.edu/events/debating-the-future-of-the-filibuster/), when the fact on the ground is a permanent minority nakedly devoted to plutocratic, racist, misogynist and anti-democratic ends that holds all power for long stretches due to malapportionment and then *still* calls the shots even when an electoral trifecta by some miracle nevertheless manages for a brief window to actually reflect the will of the people.
I was just poised to cite Anne Applebaum's column. She provides tips for us ordinary Americans to pursue while waiting for the lawmakers to get their act together. Thanks, bealpeh.
McConnell does seem to have blinked a tiny bit this evening fwiw. It's agony to think that someone like Manchin (who praised Loeffler as a paragon of integrity) should have the whole voting majority coming hat in hand asking him what the country can and can't accomplish. I feel like LBJ for all his faults would have found a way to turn the Manchins and Sinemas in order to get things done. He'd have found *something* essential to them and traded it.
Business Republicans AKA Greenwich Republicans supported trump for the Republican presidential nomination.
How much of a substantial force are they? Someone can crunch the numbers of the 1% and how the "50 Richest Americans Are Worth as Much as the Poorest 165 Million."
https://twitter.com/yajones3/status/1297833329119465473?s=20
https://twitter.com/lisaabramowicz1/status/1314150175376658432?s=20
For sure. I was reading the term here as socially and procedurally moderate biz people who vote R on pocketbook--the kind I see as having disappeared a while ago. The biz community and 1% since Reagan have been unhinged sociopaths eager to cynically weaponize racism, abortion, religion, fascism to preserve their immunity from the rule of law. They don't seem to care what system of government we have as it really doesn't affect them; they like Rs but corp Dems such as Bill Clinton and Obama were also *great* for them, so there's that. The group of current Rs repulsed by Trump insurrectionism seems small and weak and I doubt pragmatic pocketbook concerns drive them. Trump gets a lot of love from hedge fund mgrs and the S&P has been a pounding cheer for Trumpism oblivious to both political destabilization and the death and economic mayhem Trump's covid mismanagement wrought on ordinary Americans (never falling below July levels despite record deaths and 5-month crescendo of undermining confidence in democracy... "But the conspiracy started many months before, when Trump convinced his followers that only fraud could explain any election that didn’t result in his victory." - the S&P just *loved* *all* of it. https://talkingpointsmemo.com/feature/the-capitol-mob-was-only-the-finale-of-trumps-conspiracy-to-overturn-the-election).
Thanks for the Applebaum article which I will use one of my three free articles to read. All of what you have so well said is gravely concerning.
Budweiser is skipping buying time during Super Bowl. According to Forbes, it is releasing a 90-second video today set to the tune "Lean on Me" featuring footage of the pandemic. https://www.forbes.com/sites/martyswant/2021/01/25/skipping-the-super-bowl-budweiser-is-donating-its-ad-dollars-to-covid-19-vaccine-awareness-efforts/?sh=2b1e3a193c17
Budweiser is swill but they do have some nice horses 🐴🐴🐴🐴 and any effort to fight this pandemic I see as a good thing.
Water and morning coffee are my only libations. Yes, I was/am only in it for the horses...
You & me both, Lynell - but we knew that, right?
What's the similarity between Budweiser and making love in a canoe?
They're both f***ing close to water.
I heard that line from Stephen Colbert when he was with Senator Elizabeth Warren in New Orleans. She was drinking another dreck beer and that was his comment. Her comment back to him was “well, bless your heart,” after they had just discussed the usage of that phrase as a passive aggressive insult. It was a priceless moment! She’s such a brilliant and authentic human being with... what is that word? Oh yes, INTEGRITY.
That episode was actually in Charleston, Stephen's hometown. https://www.eater.com/2020/2/27/21156092/stephen-colbert-interviews-elizabeth-warren-over-charleston-cuisine-before-primaries
That’s right! I had forgotten. And thank you for the link so I can watch it all over again. 😀
I adore both of them, so I knew the reference immediately. ;)
How are cowboy hats like hemorrhoids?
Sooner or later every apse-whole gets one.
But sometimes you just need a Bud Light Lime.
Here are some Budweiser ads of the past that should serve to sustain us: https://parade.com/641585/ccopelan/budweiser-clydesdales-21-best-super-bowl-commercials/
🙂
Thanks for the horsefix! Know I saw them all before, but worth re-watching.