103 Comments

I laugh whenever I hear a Republican say they are afraid that people will not go back to work if they receive the extra $600/month. Unemployment benefits don't last forever. And if people are evicted and left homeless, they will be applying for other programs trying to get help. And theses programs have experienced cuts federally or if they are at the state level, face cuts due to decreased budgets due to the pandemic. The landlords are in a bind as they still have their expenses to pay which may result in foreclosures for them. Another loss of income. And more hits to the economy. I know that these are extraordinary times, but times of revolution and change take place in extraordinary times. I am not an economist, but it does not appear that the Republican economic theories are holding up really well.

As a Kentuckian, I have been trying to make McConnell unemployed for years. He has been in Kentucky more the last few weeks campaigning. Normally we don't see him milling with the masses. However, given the track record of people voting against their own self-interest, I will not hold out hope of getting him out of office. My absolutely favorite vision for the future is to wake up the day after the election and find 45, McConnell, and the others gone.

Expand full comment

On top of all these concerning developments, there are reports that the U.S. Postal Service is slowing delivery of mail. The implications for everyday life (small businesses, people who get medicines by mail, and so on) are significant. But what about the Nov. 3 election in the middle of an out-of-control pandemic and more people voting by mail? It's hardly a coincidence now that Trump has his handpicked guy running the USPS. For some reason, this development (I live in Portland) has made me more anxious than any other lately in the daily deluge of increasingly dire news. Professor, please weigh in on the implications. https://fortune.com/2020/07/24/usps-mail-delivery-postmaster-general-louis-dejoy-us-postal-service/

Expand full comment

Note: Republicans have had a Democratic proposal for TWO months. We know they refuse to take up anything Dems propose. But they can’t even agree among THEMSELVES for Pete’s sake. Every time I read anything that says we might not be rid of trump in January, I absolutely panic and have to talk myself down.

Expand full comment

The founders of our country intended that we experiment with separation of powers and co-equal parts of government. The conflict among the branches started immediately upon inception, which is really a good thing. This notion of separation of powers is not easy and requires constant vigilance and a willingness to engage in the experiment.

That said, our founders also understood the importance of a free press to inform the public and help keep the power struggles and the powerful in check. They could not have foreseen today's technology that allows entertainers to pass as part of the fourth estate. Nor could they imagine the ability of foreign powers to infiltrate and influence the public through today's technology.

While we have not yet devised a plan to separate entertainment passing as news or to thrash foreign trash from valid information, we have this 'Letters from an American', which represent the best within the fourth estate. Thanks to HCR and other true educators and journalists we have insightful, useful, and actionable information. These letters and the hundreds of comments from reader give me more than hope that our democracy will survive. It gives me confidence in our people that the spirit of democracy and the willingness to engage in the experiment of checks and balances of government continues. May this never end. Thanks HRC.

Expand full comment

You shattered my peaceful morning in Waldoboro with the (as-usual) brilliant insight that allowing evictions is yet another link in Republicans’ savage voter-suppression strategy. I start every day by reading your extraordinary letters whether it’s gonna ruin my day or not. Cancel my intended boat ride. I’ve got work to do! 👏

Expand full comment

Judging by outcomes it appears the Republicans want most Americans to drop dead. And virus cases are doubling every 43 days.

Expand full comment

"...the ($600/week) is taxable, so some of it will have to be given back next April." I did not know that. They giveth and they taketh away. Always. ALWAYS. trump Republicans are like vacuum cleaners. They suck up to him and Hoover up money.

Expand full comment

I’ve had a loose quote bouncing around in my head for several months now. I’m not sure where it came from, but I can’t get it out of my head. “It’ll happen slowly at first, and then all at once.”

Expand full comment

So many ways to ensure minority rule. Suppress the vote is the best option (thank you Supreme Court): evict people so they are less likely to vote; kill or cripple the US Post Office; cancel voter registrations; cancel vote by mail. In a pinch, there's always Russian interference: Trump has had six conversations with Putin since March (say what?????)

Expand full comment

Just heard an interview with Timothy Snyder, prof of history at Yale. He wrote “On Tyranny.” We ought to read it. Some of the signs are already upon us. Anyone here read it yet?

Expand full comment

Both my mom & dad lived during the Great Depression. They both recounted how they went hungry. I remember seeing black & white movies of that era, with ppl having all their furniture out on the sidewalk as they were evicted from their city tenements. It was a dreadful decade that took WWII to get the world working again.

And in the Hoover tradition, it seems the Repugnant Party is still content to let ppl live on the streets and starve rather than open up the coffers and give relief. So, we get to live that dreadful history all over again, hopefully with a caring president to try to figure out how to stabilize the economy in this pandemic without killing off much of the population. If we do not wrest this government from the Repugnant party in November, I am afraid that we are doomed.

I am surviving on Social Security and Medicare. So far my life has not changed that much, but it looks like the Fat Cats in the Repugnant Party may even end that if they get more time and I too will be starving out on the street.

Expand full comment

For so many of the people I know or disagree with, the vote to them is one issue. Against abortion, stand for Israel, fewer environmental restrictions, ... All dumpty and co-conspirators have to say is I’m for Christianity, and boom they’ve got that persons vote. That voter ignores all the intricacies if the enormous situation, and votes republican like their daddy did. It’s unnerving! Thank you for the intricacies! Vote people! 💙

Expand full comment

McConnell's Senate is now totally disfunctional riven by Republican factions: the one fighting for "ideological purity" and the other trying to save their power. Is this the start of a split? The price that the people will pay is horrendous!

Expand full comment

For a supplemental bit of uplift, the Portland Wall of Veterans:

https://twitter.com/alexandrachalup/status/1286888247789051905?s=21

Expand full comment

Time to go console myself by watching some videos from Republicans Against Trump. I take the time to thank each one of them. I’ve also signing up to be an Election worker. I have a 3 hr class to take this coming week.

Expand full comment

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot! The Republican's inability, so far, to renew the extra $600 per week to the unemployed doesn't help their "return to business as usual" scenario as the impact of the absence of this element of consumer spending for 20 million unemployed (round figures estimate....17,8 million in June plus 1,4 miliion in the first 2 weeks of July) is up to $12 Billion per week concentrated in areas where uncertainty is already holding back or rendering impossible much spending. The natural result is further unemployment, business failure and fiscal shortages reinforcing growing levels of poverty in the area. If you add to this up to 20 million families put out of their homes.........not a feature necessarily designed to improve the macro-economic situation either, regardless of it's disasterous human consequences! It is totally counterproductive in terms of McConnell's aims from every point of view......apart from those that he thus manages to discourage from voting! I would have thought, though, that the negative economic impact and consequent electoral fallout generated by the Senate's inertia on the "New Relaunch Expenditure" bill would far outway any local difficulties that it might occasion any Democratic candidate.......Idem the postal slowdown's impact on mail-in voting.

Expand full comment