I wrote this last night before going to bed … It feels apropos given today’s Letter.
At some point soon, either President Biden or Vice President Harris must confront the twin I-beams of insincerity and inaccuracy, supporting the Republican Party’s core arguments - the arguments they are using to pass legislation that makes it more diffi…
I wrote this last night before going to bed … It feels apropos given today’s Letter.
At some point soon, either President Biden or Vice President Harris must confront the twin I-beams of insincerity and inaccuracy, supporting the Republican Party’s core arguments - the arguments they are using to pass legislation that makes it more difficult for people to vote and to convince people that President Biden was not the duly-elected; the efforts to frighten citizens into believing that the Democratic party is attempting to create a Socialist state; the efforts to portray the Democrats as having no intention of governing in a bi-partisan manner – and by such accusations, asserting they have in fact made sincere efforts at bi-partisanship over the last decade or more.
Whether the issue is immigration, education, infrastructure, equality justice, voting rights and the environment (among others) - the Republican party has abandoned principled argument and descended into a campaign of unmitigated fabrication and dissembling.
America needs a civics lesson – a clear, honest – warts and all – session of truth telling.
That’s what I’ll be telling my Representatives this week, along with a note to the President.
I’ve shared this before with this audience - the Dems are too nice. Me included. But I’m changing and I hope they change before it is too late. The Dems need a sacrificial bullhorn - every four years. Someone who speaks succinctly yet firmly and with agency. This individual will get pummeled in the press so they need to be thick-skinned and not give a damn. But the person needs to be on the payroll of the Dem party and stick to the talking points and just HAMMER away at the lies, the bullshit, and the whiteness of the GOP. Of course this person can’t have presidential aspirations because they will need to call bullshit and get angry and enraged and be on all the morning shows to beat down all the lies. And honestly, maybe the first go-round needs to be a hetero-white-male. Why? Because the GOP can’t talk about him being hysterical or unhinged or un American or go back to where you came from.
Hammering and dipping into the Outrage bucket does not work for the 45loyalist crowd. The calm steamroller of progress will. Along with the constant messaging of Help is Here.
This is Bernie Sanders. He ran for President for the platform and was surprised at the traction he received. Unfortunately, Bernie's style of yelling all the time turns people off.
The Dems need to get angry and confrontational, I agree, but the big problem is getting traction with a media establishment that is far more comfortable sucking up to Republicans. It's been their default setting since the 1950's.
Every one of the impeachment managers is capable of the Big Hammer but it would be wasted with the media still so mesmerized by the massmurderer45 and trolls everywhere telling lies. They are more likely to listen to geniuses like Kim kardashian.
Buttigieg has an appeal, though he's not as progressive as I would like. Of course, Elizabeth Warren has been a stalwart. Ayanna Pressley is very impressive, as is my Congresswoman, Pramila Jayapal, who is chair of the Progressive caucus. The question that will come up over and over with all of these, though, is electability. Harris is pretty centrist for my taste, but she may well be our best hope.
I would suggest Tulsi Gabbard. She's highly-principled, honest, and experienced in administration and national service. She got a bad deal from Dem. HQ.
I agree! Democrats have been soft on Republican rhetoric and propaganda for too long. Find a way to diplomatically call it out for what it is and recognize the double standards adhered to by Republicans!
We need more than a civics lesson. The Democrats may have to take some kind of action to stop Republican falsehoods from overwheliming the country. Since we know that Trump has committed many crimes, perhaps he can be arrested and held incommunicado.
I read several books about Trump during the 2016 campaign. Michael D’antonio, Anthony Schwartz, Timothy O’Brien ( please excuse any misspelling of names) all indicated in their writings that even before he became president, Trump likely committed crimes in relation to building the casinos and other projects. He has been lying about his wealth and success from the get go. He was and still is a con man. Everyone knows he lies about anything and everything, but people still support him. What on earth will be said about this period in American history when it is examined in the future?
There is a very long tradition in the whole world of building vast amounts of capital by skirting laws and doing criminal acts. I think some of the former guy supporters respect his ability to get away with this and frankly want to be like him.
As scary as the big lie is, I think the tide has turned, thanks to a large number of very smart and dedicated government servants and politicians (POTUS, VPOTUS, Abrams, Schumer, Sanders, Warren, Klobuchar, Garland, Warnock, the squad, etc. ). They are a good team. As for Trump, I think we’ll have to wait for the SDNY as well as the new DOJ to figure this out. No doubt it will take time. I do wonder, though, how all of this voter suppression legislation does not violate the 15th amendment? Does anybody have an explanation for that?
I believe that the legislatures passing suppression legislation are portraying it as structural change that will make the vote more secure and more rational. They are full of crap, but SCOTUS has given every indication so far they are willing to accept this rationale and lean on states' right to control the manner in which elections are conducted. While they may acknowledge there is some discriminatory effect, without clear discriminatory intent they have signaled that they will not act. I consider this perfidy, cowardice, sophistry, and intellectual acrobatics, but it seems to be their stance.
SCOTUS is in really bad shape, unbalanced, steeped in prejudice, unrepresentative. I will give credit to “ageing” people (after all I am one) for a lifetime’s wisdom), but it is time for SCOTUS to acknowledge our current (and future) worlds: Term Limits!
60+ law suits claiming voter fraud, brought by the guy who is now under investigation by the SDNY, were laughed out of court. That's their position for permitting voter suppression? Really?
Exactly! Before the 2016 election, I did a bit of research. All it took was listening to one reporter (interviewed on Fresh Air), who recounted how Tя☭mp bankrupted casinos, to know that the man is a crook. May indictments and convictions catch up with him before he escapes this earth.
It's hard to believe that Trump's recklessness and the recklessness of his "team," does not reduce all of them to uncomplicated targets that are easy to indict.
Would make him into a martyr of the cause and deeply polarize the country. Besides, this sounds to me way too much like what Putin has done to Navalny. We don't do that here, though I understand the temptation.
And have always been. But to worsen and more clearly define the divide is the precise opposite of what Biden is attempting. It's a highwire act and I am less than sanguine about its effectiveness, but it does seem to be the best strategy in this moment.
You mean you think the people who invaded the Capitol with the expressed intention of hanging the vice president on a scafold which they constructed just outside the building for that purpose are "polarized" already?
I agree in general terms that it would be better not to appear to be persecuting a rival politician, but this is no ordinary politician we are dealing with. The man is perhaps more dangerous than you realize.
Do you understand that we could easily get to the point of needing a "plot to kill Hitler" if Trump were to get back into power? On Jan 6 he sent his idiot rabble to invade the capitol and kill legislators and the vice president for the crime of refusing to break the law. Next time he will not make such a mistake. His forces will be militarized and will walk all over the nice people of Washington DC (not even a state) before you can turn around. His second coup will be a fait accompli within hours.
If Trump is sent to prison by an ordinary court for his ordinary, non-political crimes, he will not be a political prisoner (as Navalny most certainly is) but rather simply a criminal serving a prison sentence for crimes like fraud and tax evasion.
Oh, heck, I wasn't saying the guy shouldn't be locked up, preferably for life, but "arrested and held incommunicado" is very Putinesque and, as with Navalny, would create of him a cause celebre. Last thing we want.
You are absolutely right. I expressed myself as though in a private meeting among conspirators. Of course I was joking!
Let me instead put it this way: a sentencing judge has the discretion to determine what prison a convicted criminal is sent to, and in the case of racketeering -- of which Trump may be guilty -- it is common to use restrictions in communication to prevent the racketeer from continuing to run his criminal operation from his prison cell.
Of course Trump should be sentenced by an ordinary judge and sent to an ordinary prison. Only the prosecutor need concern him/herself with the prison circumstances and will present such recommendations to the judge. An amicus brief might also serve a similar function.
Thanks for the clarification. That's a relief! And even if you hadn't been joking, I certainly understand the impulse. It is painful that he is still out there blathering.
I was really only talking about the suggestion that he be "arrested and kept incommunicado." That would be illegal and unconstitutional. Imprisoned legally and the key thrown away would be just dandy by me.
I think they are and have been doing this. The Biden/Harris message is a finely tuned calibration to reassure left voters while not polarizing those in the center and center-right. Biden has openly called out The Big Lie.
The bigger problem is that those who most need to hear your civics lesson are not listening and would not listen if it came from anyone with D after their names.
No, but I really admire that she is willing to put down a marker and stick to it. Some lines cannot be crossed and the insurrectionists, including the Insurrectionist-In-Chief, clearly did. Props to her for being willing to stick to her guns. Of course, she may be engaging in political calculation, figuring that this house of cards is going to fall and she may be the one left standing, but I still admire the gumption.
I can’t go so far as to admire Liz Cheney, instead, I believe she sees what her peers do not. She understands no one wins if democracy collapses. Much like no one wins a nuclear war.
Reid, I see your point. It's not unlike giving the 9/11 terrorists credit for knowing their own fate when they piloted those planes into the WTC. They were despicable in many ways, and also physically brave.
Liz Cheney is no friend. She understands that her party is jeopardizing its future. That is all. She is playing her part as the faux "opposition." Liz Cheney has referred to Democrats as “the party of anti-Semitism, the party of infanticide, the party of socialism”—hardly good-faith opposition with whom Democrats can cooperate on matters of deep concern to the country.
I was impressed with an advisor to President Biden, Anita Dunn, who I had never seen before. She was on Jake Tapper’s CNN show recently explaining the things the government needed doing and she did it so well I thought, I dropped a note off to the White House congratulating JB and KH on their first 100 days AND PLEASE HAVE ANITA DUNN BACK ON THE AIR-for her professionalism and sincerity.
"Dunn took the lead in the Obama administration's criticism of the Fox News Channel.[15][16]
In October 2009, she appeared on CNN's Reliable Sources and was asked to discuss a statement she made to Time magazine regarding Fox News, "it's opinion journalism masquerading as news."[17] She responded by saying, "if you were a Fox News viewer in the fall election, what you would have seen would have been that the biggest stories and biggest threats facing America were a guy named Bill Ayers and something called ACORN. The reality of it is that Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party."[18] She added, "And it's not ideological. Obviously, there are many commentators who have conservative, liberal, centrist, and everybody understands that. But I think what is fair to say about FOX and certainly the way we view it is that it really is more a wing of the Republican Party."[19]" Wickipedia
I concur— unfortunately most of the Americans who really need to hear the actual facts from our leaders aren’t listening to reasonable voices- instead are following the false narratives from the likes of the talking idiots on Fox et al. If Tucker doesn’t say it, it ain’t true. It feels like a losing battle where the disillusioned are concerned. They are determined to be right, I guess the fear of looking Stupid-for believing the trash and lies (news flash, they already do). It really wouldn’t seem possible in real life for almost half of American voters to have been brainwashed -but here we are thanks to the disgraced former occupant of the White House and unfortunately —social media.
Thanks for your comment and I hear you, but there is no brighter light to shine on this than that which emanates from the lectern at the White House.
If the President were to do this, the very act would demand a reply by Republican leadership; it would be covered in all media - left and right – and the fog of “opinion” or “feelings” about the truth of a matter (like the outcome of the 2020 election) would be cleared, maybe only for a moment, but in that window people just might think twice about swallowing whole, the misinformation many on the right are spewing.
To be clear, there are reasonable arguments in opposition to many of President Biden’s positions on a range of issues, arguments that could be made on principle, and the mere fact that people espouse those positions doesn’t mean they are disingenuous – just that we disagree. The problem presents itself when the rationale is simply false.
The President is under no legal or moral obligation to work with Republicans – he held out an olive branch to legislators to engage in the stuff of crafting laws, but he also decided to frame the word “bipartisan” in a nontraditional way.
Jen Psaki has explained this in the daily press briefings, but most people don’t follow those briefings. The President explaining what he means by “bipartisan – i.e., crafting and enacting legislation that appeals to citizens of all political persuasions – isn’t something McConnell and McCarthy are going to acknowledge.
If he goes over their heads, and those of the opinion journalists at Fox and One America, he might have a chance to break through. Or, it could all blow up and leave people more divided – there’s a risk, but the Republicans are doubling-down, as shown by the move to oust Representative Liz Cheney for challenging Trump’s continued false assertions about the 2020 elections. They want to rid themselves of any dissenting voices.
This appeared yesterday in a NYT story about Rep. Cheney, “Liz has attempted (is FAILING badly) to divide our party,” Representative Lance Gooden, Republican of Texas, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday, emulating Mr. Trump’s caustic Twitter style. “Trump is still the LEADER of the GOP, Liz! I look forward to her being removed SOON!”
Immigration in the current numbers is incompatible with decent employment and wages for American workers, and with environmental sustainability of the US and the globe. And with maintenance of the current quality of life in the US (which is not as good as it was 30 years ago, when the population was ~83 million (4 ny state equivalents) less than now, half of that due to immigration. Pew projects another ~100 million over the next five decades, 90% due to immigration, Biden's immigration plan would probably raise that some. But most Democrats don't worry about the numbers and the environmental impact--they dismiss the latter (my Rep, Katherine Clark is an example of this), and we're no longer the party of the working class.
In other words, our party has abandoned principled argument on immigration.
I wrote this last night before going to bed … It feels apropos given today’s Letter.
At some point soon, either President Biden or Vice President Harris must confront the twin I-beams of insincerity and inaccuracy, supporting the Republican Party’s core arguments - the arguments they are using to pass legislation that makes it more difficult for people to vote and to convince people that President Biden was not the duly-elected; the efforts to frighten citizens into believing that the Democratic party is attempting to create a Socialist state; the efforts to portray the Democrats as having no intention of governing in a bi-partisan manner – and by such accusations, asserting they have in fact made sincere efforts at bi-partisanship over the last decade or more.
Whether the issue is immigration, education, infrastructure, equality justice, voting rights and the environment (among others) - the Republican party has abandoned principled argument and descended into a campaign of unmitigated fabrication and dissembling.
America needs a civics lesson – a clear, honest – warts and all – session of truth telling.
That’s what I’ll be telling my Representatives this week, along with a note to the President.
I’ve shared this before with this audience - the Dems are too nice. Me included. But I’m changing and I hope they change before it is too late. The Dems need a sacrificial bullhorn - every four years. Someone who speaks succinctly yet firmly and with agency. This individual will get pummeled in the press so they need to be thick-skinned and not give a damn. But the person needs to be on the payroll of the Dem party and stick to the talking points and just HAMMER away at the lies, the bullshit, and the whiteness of the GOP. Of course this person can’t have presidential aspirations because they will need to call bullshit and get angry and enraged and be on all the morning shows to beat down all the lies. And honestly, maybe the first go-round needs to be a hetero-white-male. Why? Because the GOP can’t talk about him being hysterical or unhinged or un American or go back to where you came from.
Hammering and dipping into the Outrage bucket does not work for the 45loyalist crowd. The calm steamroller of progress will. Along with the constant messaging of Help is Here.
This is Bernie Sanders. He ran for President for the platform and was surprised at the traction he received. Unfortunately, Bernie's style of yelling all the time turns people off.
He also has way too many privileged, white, male, toxic followers. He needed to call out their abusive, sexist behavior and never did.
?
The Dems need to get angry and confrontational, I agree, but the big problem is getting traction with a media establishment that is far more comfortable sucking up to Republicans. It's been their default setting since the 1950's.
Every one of the impeachment managers is capable of the Big Hammer but it would be wasted with the media still so mesmerized by the massmurderer45 and trolls everywhere telling lies. They are more likely to listen to geniuses like Kim kardashian.
This is an excellent idea. Someone more “palatable “ than Bernie, whom even I found hard to listen to at times. Suggestions?
Buttigieg has an appeal, though he's not as progressive as I would like. Of course, Elizabeth Warren has been a stalwart. Ayanna Pressley is very impressive, as is my Congresswoman, Pramila Jayapal, who is chair of the Progressive caucus. The question that will come up over and over with all of these, though, is electability. Harris is pretty centrist for my taste, but she may well be our best hope.
I would suggest Tulsi Gabbard. She's highly-principled, honest, and experienced in administration and national service. She got a bad deal from Dem. HQ.
I didn't see your first share, Laurie. On board with all points you make here!
Laurie, I'm with you!
I agree—it’s hard to stay on the high road and fight them.
The Democrats need a political leader. The President needs to lead the party. It is that plain.
I agree! Democrats have been soft on Republican rhetoric and propaganda for too long. Find a way to diplomatically call it out for what it is and recognize the double standards adhered to by Republicans!
We need more than a civics lesson. The Democrats may have to take some kind of action to stop Republican falsehoods from overwheliming the country. Since we know that Trump has committed many crimes, perhaps he can be arrested and held incommunicado.
I read several books about Trump during the 2016 campaign. Michael D’antonio, Anthony Schwartz, Timothy O’Brien ( please excuse any misspelling of names) all indicated in their writings that even before he became president, Trump likely committed crimes in relation to building the casinos and other projects. He has been lying about his wealth and success from the get go. He was and still is a con man. Everyone knows he lies about anything and everything, but people still support him. What on earth will be said about this period in American history when it is examined in the future?
There is a very long tradition in the whole world of building vast amounts of capital by skirting laws and doing criminal acts. I think some of the former guy supporters respect his ability to get away with this and frankly want to be like him.
God bless you for being willing to read about that toxic man; I couldn't bring myself to do it. I actually think his crimes prior to his presidency will be our saving grace. He will almost certainly be indicted soon. https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/542691-john-dean-only-a-matter-of-how-many-days-until-trump-is-indicted
I’ve got my fingers and toes crossed hoping for a solid indictment someday.
( I think we may even need to cross our eyes-LOL)
Mine are already crossed from sheer anger and disbelief— luckily I think they’re capable of uncrossing.
As scary as the big lie is, I think the tide has turned, thanks to a large number of very smart and dedicated government servants and politicians (POTUS, VPOTUS, Abrams, Schumer, Sanders, Warren, Klobuchar, Garland, Warnock, the squad, etc. ). They are a good team. As for Trump, I think we’ll have to wait for the SDNY as well as the new DOJ to figure this out. No doubt it will take time. I do wonder, though, how all of this voter suppression legislation does not violate the 15th amendment? Does anybody have an explanation for that?
I believe that the legislatures passing suppression legislation are portraying it as structural change that will make the vote more secure and more rational. They are full of crap, but SCOTUS has given every indication so far they are willing to accept this rationale and lean on states' right to control the manner in which elections are conducted. While they may acknowledge there is some discriminatory effect, without clear discriminatory intent they have signaled that they will not act. I consider this perfidy, cowardice, sophistry, and intellectual acrobatics, but it seems to be their stance.
SCOTUS is in really bad shape, unbalanced, steeped in prejudice, unrepresentative. I will give credit to “ageing” people (after all I am one) for a lifetime’s wisdom), but it is time for SCOTUS to acknowledge our current (and future) worlds: Term Limits!
I oppose term limits in all their forms. But I could get behind a mandatory retirement age!
60+ law suits claiming voter fraud, brought by the guy who is now under investigation by the SDNY, were laughed out of court. That's their position for permitting voter suppression? Really?
I know, right? Their level of intellectual dishonesty is nothing short of breathtaking.
Voter suppression also violates the equal-protection clause of the 14A.
Exactly! Before the 2016 election, I did a bit of research. All it took was listening to one reporter (interviewed on Fresh Air), who recounted how Tя☭mp bankrupted casinos, to know that the man is a crook. May indictments and convictions catch up with him before he escapes this earth.
“Behind every fortune, there is a crime.” — Honore de Balzac 1799-1850
Arrested or not I sure hope he gets connected to severe consequences as the Guiliani investigation moves on—after all he was working for him.
It's hard to believe that Trump's recklessness and the recklessness of his "team," does not reduce all of them to uncomplicated targets that are easy to indict.
But it true— the corruption is so deep.
Would make him into a martyr of the cause and deeply polarize the country. Besides, this sounds to me way too much like what Putin has done to Navalny. We don't do that here, though I understand the temptation.
The abolitionists had it right: "Let justice be done, though the heavens may fall."
I would say we are already a deeply polarized nation.
And have always been. But to worsen and more clearly define the divide is the precise opposite of what Biden is attempting. It's a highwire act and I am less than sanguine about its effectiveness, but it does seem to be the best strategy in this moment.
You mean you think the people who invaded the Capitol with the expressed intention of hanging the vice president on a scafold which they constructed just outside the building for that purpose are "polarized" already?
I agree in general terms that it would be better not to appear to be persecuting a rival politician, but this is no ordinary politician we are dealing with. The man is perhaps more dangerous than you realize.
Do you understand that we could easily get to the point of needing a "plot to kill Hitler" if Trump were to get back into power? On Jan 6 he sent his idiot rabble to invade the capitol and kill legislators and the vice president for the crime of refusing to break the law. Next time he will not make such a mistake. His forces will be militarized and will walk all over the nice people of Washington DC (not even a state) before you can turn around. His second coup will be a fait accompli within hours.
If Trump is sent to prison by an ordinary court for his ordinary, non-political crimes, he will not be a political prisoner (as Navalny most certainly is) but rather simply a criminal serving a prison sentence for crimes like fraud and tax evasion.
Oh, heck, I wasn't saying the guy shouldn't be locked up, preferably for life, but "arrested and held incommunicado" is very Putinesque and, as with Navalny, would create of him a cause celebre. Last thing we want.
You are absolutely right. I expressed myself as though in a private meeting among conspirators. Of course I was joking!
Let me instead put it this way: a sentencing judge has the discretion to determine what prison a convicted criminal is sent to, and in the case of racketeering -- of which Trump may be guilty -- it is common to use restrictions in communication to prevent the racketeer from continuing to run his criminal operation from his prison cell.
Of course Trump should be sentenced by an ordinary judge and sent to an ordinary prison. Only the prosecutor need concern him/herself with the prison circumstances and will present such recommendations to the judge. An amicus brief might also serve a similar function.
Thanks for the clarification. That's a relief! And even if you hadn't been joking, I certainly understand the impulse. It is painful that he is still out there blathering.
Surely the difference would clearly be that these would not be tRumped up charges, but based on verifiable facts most NYkers have known for decades?
I was really only talking about the suggestion that he be "arrested and kept incommunicado." That would be illegal and unconstitutional. Imprisoned legally and the key thrown away would be just dandy by me.
I think they are and have been doing this. The Biden/Harris message is a finely tuned calibration to reassure left voters while not polarizing those in the center and center-right. Biden has openly called out The Big Lie.
The bigger problem is that those who most need to hear your civics lesson are not listening and would not listen if it came from anyone with D after their names.
Here's where we raise a glass to Liz Cheney. Unfortunately, they aren't listening to her, either.
No, but I really admire that she is willing to put down a marker and stick to it. Some lines cannot be crossed and the insurrectionists, including the Insurrectionist-In-Chief, clearly did. Props to her for being willing to stick to her guns. Of course, she may be engaging in political calculation, figuring that this house of cards is going to fall and she may be the one left standing, but I still admire the gumption.
I can’t go so far as to admire Liz Cheney, instead, I believe she sees what her peers do not. She understands no one wins if democracy collapses. Much like no one wins a nuclear war.
God, no, I don't admire her, merely that particular action which, political calculation aside, requires some serious guts to take.
I don't admire a representative who stands in opposition to DC statehood while her own state has far less population than does the District
Reid, I see your point. It's not unlike giving the 9/11 terrorists credit for knowing their own fate when they piloted those planes into the WTC. They were despicable in many ways, and also physically brave.
exactly, Diane. This is what it is
Liz Cheney is no friend. She understands that her party is jeopardizing its future. That is all. She is playing her part as the faux "opposition." Liz Cheney has referred to Democrats as “the party of anti-Semitism, the party of infanticide, the party of socialism”—hardly good-faith opposition with whom Democrats can cooperate on matters of deep concern to the country.
I was impressed with an advisor to President Biden, Anita Dunn, who I had never seen before. She was on Jake Tapper’s CNN show recently explaining the things the government needed doing and she did it so well I thought, I dropped a note off to the White House congratulating JB and KH on their first 100 days AND PLEASE HAVE ANITA DUNN BACK ON THE AIR-for her professionalism and sincerity.
"Dunn took the lead in the Obama administration's criticism of the Fox News Channel.[15][16]
In October 2009, she appeared on CNN's Reliable Sources and was asked to discuss a statement she made to Time magazine regarding Fox News, "it's opinion journalism masquerading as news."[17] She responded by saying, "if you were a Fox News viewer in the fall election, what you would have seen would have been that the biggest stories and biggest threats facing America were a guy named Bill Ayers and something called ACORN. The reality of it is that Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party."[18] She added, "And it's not ideological. Obviously, there are many commentators who have conservative, liberal, centrist, and everybody understands that. But I think what is fair to say about FOX and certainly the way we view it is that it really is more a wing of the Republican Party."[19]" Wickipedia
The woman behind the scenes all these years?! I agree D Munson!
I concur— unfortunately most of the Americans who really need to hear the actual facts from our leaders aren’t listening to reasonable voices- instead are following the false narratives from the likes of the talking idiots on Fox et al. If Tucker doesn’t say it, it ain’t true. It feels like a losing battle where the disillusioned are concerned. They are determined to be right, I guess the fear of looking Stupid-for believing the trash and lies (news flash, they already do). It really wouldn’t seem possible in real life for almost half of American voters to have been brainwashed -but here we are thanks to the disgraced former occupant of the White House and unfortunately —social media.
Thanks for your comment and I hear you, but there is no brighter light to shine on this than that which emanates from the lectern at the White House.
If the President were to do this, the very act would demand a reply by Republican leadership; it would be covered in all media - left and right – and the fog of “opinion” or “feelings” about the truth of a matter (like the outcome of the 2020 election) would be cleared, maybe only for a moment, but in that window people just might think twice about swallowing whole, the misinformation many on the right are spewing.
To be clear, there are reasonable arguments in opposition to many of President Biden’s positions on a range of issues, arguments that could be made on principle, and the mere fact that people espouse those positions doesn’t mean they are disingenuous – just that we disagree. The problem presents itself when the rationale is simply false.
The President is under no legal or moral obligation to work with Republicans – he held out an olive branch to legislators to engage in the stuff of crafting laws, but he also decided to frame the word “bipartisan” in a nontraditional way.
Jen Psaki has explained this in the daily press briefings, but most people don’t follow those briefings. The President explaining what he means by “bipartisan – i.e., crafting and enacting legislation that appeals to citizens of all political persuasions – isn’t something McConnell and McCarthy are going to acknowledge.
If he goes over their heads, and those of the opinion journalists at Fox and One America, he might have a chance to break through. Or, it could all blow up and leave people more divided – there’s a risk, but the Republicans are doubling-down, as shown by the move to oust Representative Liz Cheney for challenging Trump’s continued false assertions about the 2020 elections. They want to rid themselves of any dissenting voices.
This appeared yesterday in a NYT story about Rep. Cheney, “Liz has attempted (is FAILING badly) to divide our party,” Representative Lance Gooden, Republican of Texas, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday, emulating Mr. Trump’s caustic Twitter style. “Trump is still the LEADER of the GOP, Liz! I look forward to her being removed SOON!”
(Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/04/us/politics/liz-cheney-trump-republicans.html)
IMHO, we have more to lose by letting this baloney go on unchecked.
I like this. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley will be getting that missive this week.
I agree. Thank you.
Immigration in the current numbers is incompatible with decent employment and wages for American workers, and with environmental sustainability of the US and the globe. And with maintenance of the current quality of life in the US (which is not as good as it was 30 years ago, when the population was ~83 million (4 ny state equivalents) less than now, half of that due to immigration. Pew projects another ~100 million over the next five decades, 90% due to immigration, Biden's immigration plan would probably raise that some. But most Democrats don't worry about the numbers and the environmental impact--they dismiss the latter (my Rep, Katherine Clark is an example of this), and we're no longer the party of the working class.
In other words, our party has abandoned principled argument on immigration.