President Joe Biden has tried to move the country beyond the partisanship of the current Republican Party by focusing on making government work so that people forget their differences and direct their attention to rebuilding the country. It is not an easy task, especially when the Republicans illustrate, as they did with their votes on raising the debt ceiling, that they would happily tank the country if it means regaining power.
Dr. Richardson is doing a better job of strategic communications with the American public than Democrats. One of the smartest comments I have heard about Democratic messaging lately came recently from Laurence O’Donnell. He said, “Democrats need to stop selling the recipe and start selling the brownies.”
Please Democrats stop talking about the process and start talking about the actual benefits to people and families.
Practicing what we preach, how conversant are we with the benefits of the Build Back Better reconciliation bill? Quick, you can do it in 60 seconds, like Mehdi Hasan!
Michael Moore wrote about how to easily decrease the big number 3.5T. Only pay for one hearing aid, one eye, and one set of teeth, uppers or lowers, patients choice!
Actually, it might work. The ophthalmologist, audiologist and dentist would also be happy I think. They'd quickly figure out the buy one, get one free promotions.
I love Mehdi Hasan’s expression at the end of his 60 second explanation. I can recall that same expression on my face so many times after quickly reciting a rebuttal to my students after their complaints to a new initiative I would offer to boost their achievement which involved trust on their part that I know better than them because I’m the grown person in the room. Hahahahahaha!
Ellie, I have long appreciated your practical advocacy suggestions on LFAA and today (1/11/22) on Robert Hubbell's newsletter. I would like to connect with you by email to ask for further insights. My email is jpisauro47@gmail.com.
Donnie Deuch (sp?) said on MJ that they need to brand the for the people act much better, he recommended that it be called “The Children First Bill” since they are the heart ❤️ of where most of the benefits will ultimately end up. If we rebuild this nation into a fairer nation our children and grandchildren will benefit far more than we ever will. The Democrats need to get much better at branding what are basically very good ideas. Donnie is a marketing professional, he knows how to sell things, and this act needs to be sold to the nation, what ever they call it, it has to have a hook just like maga did for the clown. Let them try to argue against a bill named for helping children. The Democrats need to get to get a lot smarter, our nation desperately needs for them to get a lot smarter, the Republicans have their heads up their asses and are sitting ducks 🦆, this is almost a no brainer, but we may be watching a shoot your self in the foot contest, God I hope not.
Dems still think it’s normal politics. Not for decades, not since Rupert came on the scene. Frank Luntz taught republicans how to lie with style. W/Dickie became masters, and it’s been propaganda with pizazz ever since.
It's also got a lot that helps seniors - expanded medicare coverage, lower medicare drug prices, medicare available at age 60, support for home health care workers (who mostly take care of elders who need help due to age and/or illness).
You are absolutely right Grace! This bill is so much more, so needed and is spread out over 10 years currently. The best strategy I have heard is to reduce the program to five years to get the cost down but do everything in the bill. Once people see the benefit of the bill they won’t want it to Go away.
Actually the quote originated with Anat Shenker-Osorio who is an expert on messaging who was on the Laurence O'Donnell show. She's quite impressive! The Democrats need to listen to her.
She certainly got my attention, Cathy. I was half-listening to the show when she started speaking and within 30 seconds she had my full attention. Quite impressive, indeed! I’m glad you shared her full name. I had missed it. I want to follow her and read anything she has written recently. The Democrats definitely have a marketing problem, which shouldn’t be difficult to correct.
“Shouldn’t be difficult to correct???” Really, then why have I watched them flounder for decades? They don’t know there is a problem. Better figure it out quick, that old “scare word” socialism will kill us again, Truman warned us.
Shouldn’t be difficult to correct, because communicating value to stakeholders (or customers) is fundamental in business marketing. This is basic marketing communications. The proposed policies and programs are products. How are they going to sell their proposals to the American public? Know your “customers.” What’s important to people? What do they value? What can help improve their lives? For example, how will improving our infrastructure help you feel better, more secure and more enriched? Repeatedly communicate directly to every segment of the country, using every communication channel available, exactly how proposed programs and expenditures will benefit them and improve their lives. It baffles me that Democrats stumble repeatedly in the basics of communicating the specific value and benefits of proposed policies to American voters. The competition obstructs, distorts and lies, of course, which means the Democrats need to be ever more relentless, wide-reaching and on point in their communication. Evidently, Republicans aren’t concerned that their constituents will vote them out, even if the elected Republican isn’t delivering value and benefits to them. Democrats’ failed messaging yields power to Republicans. Even if Democrats can push through the obstruction to get their proposals passed, if they haven’t thoroughly communicated the meaningful value and benefits of the proposals and programs to the American public, they won’t get the benefit of their success in the next election.
Who is ‘THEY’ who don’t know there is a problem and have the means to correct it? Who names these things anyway? To whom shall we send our encouraging and enlightening - not scathing - letters?
they often talk as though they are running for office, rather than in office. they can't stop campaigning and citing poll numbers. still, pelosi and schumer are getting things done, and was that mcconnell who blinked? together, pelosi and schumer look like a good argument against term limits, a couple of bums you might not want to throw out.
They are always running for office. THAT is part of the problem. Especially in the House where the terms are absurdly short – it's a never ending cycle of banging the drum and fundraising.
"(Re)Elect Me!" They ALL say, "I'm the only one who can fix this!".
Yet here we sit on the same old stagnant pile of dog poo while Republican thugs bulldoze and destroy the Nation. Bravo, Democrat Leadership, bravo. Por nada.
In France we have to wait for 5 years as voters to get a word in edgewise with "elected representatives". if it is not by shortening the periodicity of elections that we get them to listen, then it has to be by obligatory and binding referendums or some such mechanism as otherwise this is no democracy, they just do as they please.
The two year term is particularly dangerous now on the GOP side since without abject fealty to you know who they get primaries by rabid knuckledraggers like oh, too many to name.
As a Democrat, as an Independent, as a progressive, as a concerned citizen, I need to know what brownies are in the Build Back Better bill better than I do. For anyone else who wants to up their game, here is one list:
I keep saying I want to get a few really good Kdg teachers I know to leave the classroom and get into politics. The Bigs need some of the lessons the Littles are getting when they are 5 yrs old.
And stop talking about polling numbers! Just talk to humans, about everyday life and listen . Just listen. Most fearful angry people want to talk and be heard more than they want to fight.
"Democrats need to stop selling the recipe and start selling the brownies."
It is not either/or. The return to regular order is an actual benefit to people and families. It is how our government provides for the general welfare.
Metaphors can obscure as well as enlighten. A rhetorical flourish may invoke all sorts distracting associations.
As unappetizing as the 'sausage making' of government may be, it brings people into the kitchen.
As as nice as brownies ex nihilo may sound, it has the dismissive air of 'let them eat cake'.
There is no doubt that the “sausage making” process (to use a metaphor) of crafting legislation through negotiations is important and challenging. However, those who represent us in Congress also need to sell the legislation being crafted to the public both to inform them and engender support for it. Describing in detail the negotiating process and its challenges may be decidedly unhelpful to both communicating the details of the package to inform constituents and build support for its passage. My point is simply that it would be far more effective messaging to tell me about what I am being sold, how it will benefit me, and why it’s important, than describing to me in detail how the damn thing was crafted.
But if you will persist with politics as consumerism, then may I point out that young voters and progressive voters, who Democrats need to sell their candidates and platform to, care very much about fair trade - ie how consumer products are made. And even the general public seems to be sold on artisanal, hand made, and craft brewed packaging as much or more than nutritional content labels - almost as though the process of manufacture is inherent to the value of the product. As of course it is.
Absolutely agree with you, Lin, regarding focus of young voters on consumerism. The rise of the “craft local brewery” and expansion of Saturday farmer’s markets is incredible. A huge draw for younger gen.
Thanks for this- so much has fallen on Joe Biden's shoulders. I wonder if people appreciate how much difference he has made- that he and his administration are the bulwarks that stand in the way of a potentially irreversible authoritarianism. It's always so much harder to offer hope than to peddle fear.
And how sad is that? So many people I know are blaming Biden for things he had absolutely nothing to do with - like higher gas prices. It is exhausting.
I agree, Lynn, people don't appreciate enough what President Biden is doing, in his efforts and his successes. I fault the media also. I almost can't watch PBS any more for the sense of doom and gloom they offer. Dr. Richardson is doing an amazing job of finding what's important each day and digging below the surface so as to inform us. Thank you, Dr. R!
Sally I have been disappointed in PBS as well. Every interview or announcement includes follow up questions pointing out the reporters doomsday prediction about why it won’t work out. It is a lower key version of the cable networks screeching the SKY is falling nightly.
Their follow up questions often indicate that they weren’t listening to what their guests had to say, I see this on the News Hour all the time especially from the host, I think they must have an agenda and are listening to their ear pieces on what questions to ask, so it’s get the question in even if it flys in the face of what was just said., it’s like she’s confused and doesn’t get what was just said. I’m 75 so I get being confused, the younger hosts seem to be much more in the moment.
"A lower key version of the cable network." Yes, Cathy, but as I have written here before, PBS is afraid to report more openly, because they believe they might go away from lack of funding from corporations which are the ones that give them enough funding to stay on the air.
I have not logged it, but it seems lately the Republican side is given more air time, and challenged very little. It used to be more often that people from both sides were on at the same time, split screen, and could respond to each other. Sometimes I suspected bias when one side was represented by a better-looking person very comfortable with being questioned, and the other side by someone less attractive and less articulate but more factual. In Reagan’s day, it was said that it was as if people watched him on TV with the sound off. Image matters.
I’m glad you brought up PBS. I was feeling the same way about their reporting. I am grateful for President Biden and believe he is working hard for our country.
Virginia and Sally, I'm with ya! Sometimes I've turned off the TV to keep from throwing something at it. The in depth reports, like those from Lisa Dejardins and Yamiche Alcindor, John Yang and others are what keep me coming back, but if Judy Woodruff retired tomorrow, it would be fine by me!
I love PBS in general but on the News Hour they over backwards too far, I assume trying to ensure no conservatives who appear on the show can claim to have been "silenced" or "cancelled." But when Judy Woodruff has a conservative on the show, I wish she would do a lot less of giving him/her an open platform to spout propaganda, and a lot more interrupting to challenge every time the conservative makes an assertion that is either a wild distortion or an outright lie.
Yes! It may be that if tough questions were going to be asked, people would refuse to be interviewed. Or maybe it is just the CPB board being Trump appointees. Having the R interviewed at length one day and the D another is “balanced” only if people see both shows.
Biden has an incredibly hard job, and I get the sense that he's working very hard and ably at it. I can't imaging having to try to herd Manchin and Synema, but he has individual meetings with them, asking them what they want. I can't imagine any of the other former candidates dealing with what he has to deal with.
I Want to add one thing. Hounding Sinema including into the bathroom is counterproductive. Prior to this it seemed like liberals were more respectful When trying to get their voice heard. I was greatly dismayed by the actions of those personally and physically hounding Sinema.
Yes, “hope” is necessary to the success of any difficult endeavor. We are helping to make the work easier when we can think positively about the task ahead, put our shoulders into the effort and then do what we can to help get it done. Fear and hopelessness are enemies that drain our energy and resolve and can lead us away from achieving our goals. Results are what matter to the American people and we’re definitely seeing progress now, if we consider the magnitude of the job ahead which is designed to help make our country a better place for all Americans and those yearning to be free all over the world. When you speak with or write to our governmental representatives please remind them that you understand that the goals they are striving to achieve aren’t easy…and that you appreciate their efforts. Certainly tell them how you feel and what you think, but also show empathy and understanding that you, and many, many people like you, know that we all in the same boat together that we are trying hard now, to row in the right direction, once again.
And we need to keep writing, calling and messaging that we see it! I for one am happy to pay more for milk , or to go out for dinner, if it means the vaccinated employees have affordable child care ,and are being paid a living wage.
My representatives are all Republicans. The state representatives and the congressman are only interested in being professional politicians who want to move from office to office. One of the state reps moved to my district so he could still run when districts got rearranged. That tells me he’s only interested in his political career.
My rep, McClintock, has never lived in the district despite promising that he would move if elected. He has been lying since day one, and is completely useless.
And hope and practicality and "stuff" such as distribution of goods, travel, taxation of the filthy rich, etc., isn't as sexy as incoherent tweets, and the latest "news" of groping and fondling by TFG. The media now needs to get on board and give headlines to what IS working, not to their "analysis" of the latest polls about Biden. IMO, I've heard a couple of so-called WH "reporters" this week literally doing their best to CREATE news out of thin air, none of it positive about Biden.
I love hearing all this positivity about Joe Biden and his very difficult missions on many fronts. It is especially refreshing to hear he's making some progress because I continue to read how his favorability is plummeting. I'm rooting hard for Joe Biden and the Dems to break through and show the country that we can make big differences.
Turned off CNN last night when they were arguing whether Biden's approval rating was really 50% or was it actally 45% or maybe 47.895361%. ENOUGH. You are continually reading this because media are continually pushing it. Let's focus on The Children First bill!!
Same on MSNBC. Biden has a multiple rolling s***show everyday. The fact that he is problem solving and governing through it all has earned my respect. The Republicans are, as usual, doing NOTHING. (but obstruction). They are too afraid of the FG and a batshit crazy base they can no longer control. I think priority number one is protecting voting rights, securing free and fair elections, especially at the state level, and supporting the decent, hard working public servants who ensure our polling places are safe and secure. Voting IS the foundation of our Democracy.
Mim, I agree, but the problem is that the Republicans aren't hearing any of the good news. It's not being aired on their platforms. All they hear is Biden's bankrupting the country, making US Americans sick, letting the border become over run by criminals, handing out money to lazy slackers, just to name a few things. How do we counter the MAGA message in a way that is strong without being insulting to the voters we need to reach?
In case someone underestimated the value of the proverb, Stuart…
“Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.
Americans, as a group, are not especially intelligent and can be readily entertained or fooled to produce financial benefit for someone.”(from Wikipedia)
Hmmm. Someone must have schooled the former to have that taped on his mirror.
It's not just Rs are not hearing it. Even the 'liberal' Washington Post and 'centrist' NYTimes devote most of their front pages to R talking points and contexts.
Yes! My frustration with this is growing. I subscribe to both, and keep wondering if I’d be better off subscribing to a series of Substacks instead. They learning nothing at all from 2016.
Billboards, mailers, handouts at MAGA events (for those brave enough to endure their vitriole—or worse), ads and personal appearances on right-wing media. There must be other means, too. Why the Dems have been so awful about tooting their own horn is beyond me.
Thought that when Teddy K kumbayed with W after they did indeed steal the election (James Baker and Roger Stone). Republicans thought they had committed enough fraud in 2020 to do it again. I was shocked that they didn’t pull it off, they sure tried. Wake up Dems, the water is about to boil
My feeling is that Joe Biden is playing a terrible hand as effectively and diligently as he can.
He’s done nothing to deserve this bashing in the polls. However, in all honesty part of it could have been expected. In his first two months in office, a) he wasn’t Trump and b) he got a major piece of legislation passed. It was unreasonable to expect that his popularity would remain at such a level. And then the withdrawal from Afghanistan triggered what is now an ongoing slide. And I think he will be vindicated mightily in the long run for that tough decision.
The problem is not branding or messaging or marketing. The problem is that the overall mandate the Democrats have is too slight to support massive legislation in this time of ‘politics as war’.
And this is war - for the very soul of a proud country. To even *start* winning this war, Trump, Trump’s politically ‘active’ children, Kushner, and all the legislator/conspirators of 1/6 must have the full force of the law come down on them.
At that point, the Democratic Party might be able to negotiate from a strong position with the Republicans.
Until then, they are, in T.J.’s splendid phrase, bringing a cucumber sandwich to a gunfight.
I’m an artist-its a second career for me that grew from my hobby of beadweaving learned as a child. This year, for the first time in more than 30 years, I have struggled to source multiple items such as glass beads and clasps. I had a brief conversation with my best wholesale supplier last June who explained the supply chain issue and bemoaned how much it was affecting his bottom line.
Rohit and his wife are originally from India. Both of them grew up in families that operated wholesale and retail jewelry supply businesses. I found them more than 20 years ago after searching high and low for a company that could say for certain it did not use child labor to finish its materials such as ear wires- a huge problem worldwide and one I’ve tried very hard to avoid.
My business is not even blip compared with the Home Depots of the world but I get how much the Port of Los Angeles’s backlog has affected businesses across this country and how much revenue has been lost by small business- who may need one box from one container that is God knows where either in LA or still sitting offshore.
For those businesses that depend on the supply chain to operate quickly and efficiently- and I’m talking Main Street, not Wall Street- this news is a god send. And while I will eat and have a solid roof over my head whether my jewelry sells or not, I know dozens of artists for whom that is not a given- they need to be able to make enough inventory, sell their wares at art fairs that don’t cancel last minute because of Covid and continue to be able to submit large wholesale orders for materials that arrive in a timely manner. They haven’t had that for several years and some of them are really hurting.
The Biden Administration has done an incredible job of focusing on the dozens of problems caused by COVID. They have had to do a million and one things on every front to fix the former guys’s incompetence and his continuing focus on destroying our democratic Republic. I have a much simpler job- work to get out the vote, and make and sell high-end beadwoven jewelry so I have more money to send to good candidates and organizations. I had two record setting weekends in a row sales wise in September. With today’s news, I’m hoping my wait- and the wait of millions of small businesses like mine- will return to weeks, not months. 2022 is looming….
Sheila - I greatly appreciate the personalized and human perspective that you offer in this post. The headline story of boxes sitting in ports is much more compelling when illuminated by the particular difficulties of those waiting down the line, especially the small businesses. Thank you.
Sheila, this was very well stated. The other issue impacting global supply chains, particularly large manufacturers is the Just in Time Manufacturing concept. The goal of JIT is for zero inventories to be held by an organization and its supply chain. When it works it completely and efficiently utilizes organizational capabilities and maximizes ROI (return on investment), until it crashes, which it has. Your beading suppliers may not practice JIT but someone in the supply chain might.
Good luck getting the supplies you need to make your art. I know how frustrated you must be.
I laughed when I saw this daria - JIT manufacturing is exactly the problem with the production of the Japanese seed beads I use. Frustrating yes but a first world problem easily solved temporarily by Etsy and Facebook marketplace. Turns out there are deep stashes of beads already here. Bonus for those who bought and never used, and for people like me who actually use thousands. Found some treasures too - never a bad thing. Thanks for the link.
Sheila, you only have to walk into a Michael’s or try to find those supplies at a local store to find how empty the shelves are. (Hobby Lobby is never entered.) Even favorite online merchants have out-of-stock on many items.
I hope you are still having good sales despite this. Often artists are the first to suffer. Our artists community was hit hard after 9/11 where no one was buying at the street fairs in the San Diego area.
Thanks for not going to Hobby Lobby! Its actually the closest “craft” store to me but I have never gone in and absolutely will not, no matter how desperately low I am on anything.
The shelves at my local Michael’s look moth eaten. I went in looking for paints with my adult daughter recently and felt sad looking at mostly bare shelves. Biden’s efforts to move more containers more swiftly will help businesses large and small! (And my sales are incredibly good right now- thanks for your concern)
Thankfully my Michael’s is 2 miles away and in with my grocery so always easy to run up to.
Glad to hear sales are good. I have started doing some Kumihimo again but need Findings which were woefully out of stock. And cord has gotten very hard to find when you only want small amounts and specific colors.
Tonight's letter demonstrates to perfection our global interconnectedness and the ties that bind us, whether on socio-economic or political levels. It reminds me of the words of the brave and radical journalist Anna Politkovskay who was assassinated in 2006. It's as though she is addressing our blinkered, destructive, and self-centered, right-wing politicians:
“Do you still think the world is vast? That if there is a conflagration in one place it does not have a bearing on another, and that you can sit it out in peace on your veranda admiring your absurd petunias?”
I’ve taken to to the visual of Republicans walking around the halls of Congress and their what must be boring offices with horse blinkers strapped on firmly.
John Adams on George Washington: ‘That Washington was not a scholar is certain. That he was illiterate, unlearned, unread for his station is equally beyond dispute.”
ThomasJefferson on John Adams: “He is distrustful, obstinate, excessively vain, and takes no counsel from anyone.”
James Buchanan on John Quincy Adams: “His disposition is as perverse and mulish as that of his father.”
Thomas Jefferson on Andrew Jackson: “He is the most unfit man I know for such a place…he is a dangerous man.”
Abraham Lincoln on James Polk: “A bewildered, confounded, and miserably perplexed man.”
Woodrow Wilson on Theodore Roosevelt: “He is the most dangerous man of our age. What’s the use of wasting good serviceable indignation on him?”
Theodore Roosevelt on Woodrow Wilson: “A damned Presbyterian hypocrite and a Byzantine logothete….An infernal skunk in the White House.”
Calvin Coolidge on Herbert Hoover: “That man has offered me unsolicited advice for the past six years, all of It bad.”
Lyndon Johnson on Dwight Eisenhower: “I don’t know how many times I pulled that bubbling, brainlack bubblehead’s chestnuts out of the fire and he never thanked me once.”
Lyndon Johnson on John F. Kennedy: “The enviably attractive nephew who sings an Irish ballad for the company and then winsomely disappears before the table clearing and dishwashing begin.”
Dwight Eisenhower on Lyndon Johnson: “He is a small man. He doesn’t have the depth of mind nor the breadth of vision to carry great responsibilities.”
Harry Truman on Richard Nixon: “Richard Nixon is a no-good lying bastard. He can lie out of both sides of his mouth at the same time, and if he ever caught himself telling the truth, he’d lie just to keep his hand in it.”
John F. Kennedy on Nixon: “He is a filthy, lying son of a bitch, and a very dangerous man.”
Lyndon Johnson on Gerald Ford: ‘Jerry Ford is so dumb that he can’t fart and chew gum at the same time.”
Gerald Ford on Jimmy Carter: “Jimmy Carter wants to speak loudly and carry a fly swatter.”
Next time ex-presidents assemble for a state funeral, you might wish to scrutinize the genuineness of their photo-op smiles. The ex-presidents would be prudent to recall John 8:7: “He that is without sin….”
Christine I agree that a wicked sense of humor is a welcome antidote to the bile and false facts that we encounter daily. I have three pages of ‘the stupidest things that politicians ever said’ that I would enjoy posting, if I can work out the details. Often I post when I’m up briefly in the middle of the night. Three pages is a lot to type at that hour. Perhaps I’ll post a page-and-a-half with the rest for another day. Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and you cry alone.
Please, post! I look forward to just about everything you write. I like your voice, and your experience give you a unique perspective that is interesting.
Kathy Thanks! I greatly enjoy participating in the comments related to Heather’s astonishingly perceptive and uncommonly sourced Letters. The informality of the comments encourages me to write from the heart rather than the head. Often, in the middle of the night, her Letter triggers a thought, I run with it for 15-to-20 minutes without any scholarly fact checking (I write on the first floor, my office library is on the second), post it, and then read it carefully the next morning over my first cup of coffee. On occasion I gasp and mutter “Did I really say that?” But among friends it doesn’t seem to matter.
So true! That’s why the only “ news” I watch is late-night comedy:)
Nixon memory….My friend’s dad was head of the local Repub party in RI and asked us to be Nixonettes ( yes, they were actually a thing) We decked out in red,white and blue,complete with the sparkly sash, and greeted Nixon at the airport for his 1972 visit.
Kathy Nixon had scored some foreign policy successes in China and Russia and he was viewed an ‘environmentalist ,’ since he supported the first Environment Day. To use his language, he didn’t give a s++t about the environment and did not block a Democratic Congress passing environmental legislation that politically made him look sensitive to the environment.
Also, his White House Plumbers Unit had deep sixed the strongest Democratic challenger, Ed Muskie, and George McGovern was a weak candidate who even muddled the naming of a vice president running mate. Nixon won by over 60% and all but one state (+ D. C.) I remember speaking with a friend of mine then working in the White House. The discussion came down to whether it was better to vote for a crook or a ‘fool.’ I stated that a crook was a crook, but a fool had the potential to change. It was lonely, in rock-ribbed Republican Greenwich CT, to be pro-McGovern. Our campaign organizing group numbered a tiny handful. My daughter, when she had a notebook with a McGovern sticker that she took to school, was treated almost like a leper by her classmates.
P. S. By late 1974 my Greenwich friends indicated that virtually no one at their country club had voted for Nixon in 1972. My, how the worm turns.
Despite The Washington Post and some other investigative reporting, the White House was able to stonewall on Watergate until after Nixon’s overwhelming re-election, after which they thought the matter would ooze away. This could have occurred, except for Judge Sirica, who thought that the guilty pleas by the five
Watergate burglars were covering up something devious and criminal in this White-House-described ‘third-rate burglary.’ McCord , working for CREP (Committee to Re-Elect the President)–called CREEP by many) was a former. Government intelligence professional who thought he had been serving his government at CREEP. In his mid-50s, he didn’t relish a long prison sentence. The tell-all-letter that he gave to Judge Sirica started the Watergate ball rolling down hill. The Erwin Senate hearing, and then the Saturday Night Massacre ultimately obliged Nixon to resign to avoid certain impeachment in the Senate.
WHAT I FIND FRIGHTENING IS THAT NIXON AND HIS TAKE-NO-PRISONERS GANG ALMOST GOT AWAY WITH THIS, except for Judge Sirica’s steadfast adherence to the law and the Constitution. In my view, Trump with his BIG LIE is still endeavoring to topple the Constitution. Can we count on the judiciary, especially the current Supreme Court?
I'm a bit skeptical of some of these, without documentation, although I'm pretty certain LBJ on Gerald Ford is correct. I do know that Nixon has spoken well of JFK and I think RFK.
I assure you that I sourced every one of these presidential comments for a public lecture on the American presidency in 2007. Whether all of these sources are spot-on-accurate is a vexing aspect of historical research. As a history professor from age 58 to 80, these comments passed my personal smell test
David I knew Nixon from being on the Nixon White House Enemies List, knowing Elliot Richardson who was the Attorney General catalyst of the Saturday Night Massacre, and when I had to make small talk with the wife of David Eisenhower, Julie Nixon Eisenhower. This is one of my favorite Nixon stories, when he was between political jobs working as a lawyer in New York. [Heard it from the brother of the carpet installer.]A carpet installer came to Nixon’s house in, I believe, Saddle River. Nixon, seemingly alone, greeted him at the door. Then he invited the installer to watch Jekyll and Hyde cartoons with him, which they did for nearly an hour. By the way, the Frost interview in 1977 was part of Nixon’s attempt to rehabilitate himself.
I'm envious! My parents hated Nixon with a passion. My father was an economist, and my mother had come close to getting a PhD in econ before she switched to Psych. We lived in Seattle 1960-61, I was 7, my best friend was Ralphie, whose grandfather was a founder of Nordstrom's (the first of which was in Seattle) and his mother was a high end interior decorator, who worked among others, for Ehrlichman--stuff I did not know at the time. I was for Kennedy, of course, and Ralphie was for Nixon. One day we were riding in the Chevy station wagon, my mother at the wheel, and my mother told this story for years afterwards. I said to Ralphie, "You shouldn't be for Nixon because he called that lady in California something like an economist."
I don't know what it is about Nixon--but I can't help liking the guy despite some horrible things he did (undermining the '68 election may be #1). He was a complex and difficult personality, and lost two brothers in his youth.
I have done a handful of CARtoons, including two with Nixon in them. One you can see at motorlegends.com (click on Cartoons). I think you can contact me directly thru there, and if you do, I'll send you the other.
Personally I prefer honesty to hypocrisy, though I acknowledge that these presidents were not Churchillian. If you are a student of British history, you will find similar, though more eloquent, statements by British leaders. As for the French—Ou la la!
Have a friend that refused to get vaccinated, was depending on strong vitamins, caught covid. Yes despite vitamins. She was suppose to return to work yesterday and had to go for a check up at the hospital. She’s home, on antibiotics, and using an inhaler. She has underlying health issues, as well. I wonder if she still thinks covid is “just a cold.”
With what seems like we’re surrounded by set backs and bad news, your letter gives hope! I know it doesn’t seem popular in Texas, but I love Biden! He had me at shut up during the debates!
Biden lost the popular vote in Texas in 2020, 52.06% to trump and 46.48% to Biden. But the number of your fellow Biden supporters was 5,259,126 people--nothing to sneeze at!
Reagan's anti government Big Lie paved the way for Trump's insurrection.
Reagan had political and policy motives. Amplifying anti government sentiments attracted unreconstructed Confederate populists to elect Republicans to serve the unconscionable plutocrats small government agenda. Under the McConnell regime, destroying the institutions of government itself -essentially opting out of the Constitution - gained momentum.
As we consider - and let's face it, judge - the Biden administration, it is good to keep listing its accomplishments. Yes, on policy objectives, but very importantly on restoring and renewing a working government.
And I think so even though I'm at odds with him over immigration--even though I think the insecure border is hurting the Democrats. The most important thing is saving our democracy, and everything else he's doing--mending the social safety net; infrastructure--will help with that. And he's working very ably on all that. I've never felt so supportive of a president since I was a little kid and JFK was president.
There is no substitute for Skill and Experience.I really feel bad for Biden . Not in my life time has our Country been so destabilized. There is a lot of Ppl that read this page and send letters and such to their Congressmen/Women . Might I suggest we send our encouragement and appreciation to President Biden.A little gratitude can go a long way. And it’s clear to me that this is going to be a ‘Up Hill’ for the remainder of 3yrs and 3 months. I’m really enjoying the ‘No Drama ‘. Not to mention my confidence level is higher.Thank you HCR also for helping us to stay grounded when others just want to seek and destroy.
And to also write those ordinary people in our daily lives. During covid isolation last year I personally thanked the garbage person and mail person for hanging in there during a scary time. You should have seen their faces light up.
All of us could sure use a small note of thanks for keeping up the good fight during this time.
So a big and sincere THANK YOU to all the folks in these comments sections for everything you do in the name of saving this Country for Democracy. Thank you for your wisdom, decency and humor. Thank you for your efforts and good energy.
100% Agree. Like Mr. Rogers always said” Look for the helpers “. I’m old and some days I still watch that show. So calming. Go ahead make fun of me. LOL !😊
Thanking everyone that I have interacted with from the mailman to any of the check out staff at any place I purchased from has been an automatic for me, it doesn’t matter who they are, they are helping me move through my life, their gratitude and smiles have been a huge reward.
Yep. Me too. It's how I was brought up. It seems especially important right now to counteract the awful things being said and done in America today. I also bought some nice stationary and am handwriting more letters and notes.
I’m going to contact the Dem’s National Office to see if they can put out a National Thank You card. Maybe with a ‘Thumbs Up ‘ logo ? And we all could sign. Just read yesterday that we Seniors will get the largest COLA raise in history. About $92.00 more . Yes Medicare will go up $10.00 more. But in the past our COLA was just paying for the increase of Medicare . Ask the Republican Voters how confident they feel about their ‘Entitlement check ‘ when Repubs are in Office.My husband and I paid in a collective 70 yrs of working. Like so many men he died young and never got his share. I get more because he was the ‘Higher Earner ‘. If it was up to Repubs that and Medicare would be gone ! As it stands now we have millions of homeless Seniors. Many sleeping in cars. That is morally wrong by any standard. Our parents had S.S., pensions, savings and homes that were affordable. And Medical Bills didn't put them out on the street. This is NOT okay. And those Advantage plans , well let’s just say they named them right. It’s to their ‘Advantage ‘. There great until you get really sick. I was getting a discount on a service the first yr. They took it all back the 2 Ed yr. I’m back in Original Medicare now. But if you’re in excellent health go for it ? Biden is working for the people ,not the party. Or a Mega Ego ! LOL ! Go Joe !
Kathy you don’t get rich on S.S.I was one of those people in 2006 when they were trying to get Ppl to sell their homes for more and buy a more expensive house . I saw ‘it’ coming. Payed down my little bit of Credit Card. Paid off my home.Started saving and that’s why I can afford to live on S.S. I warned everyone. No one would listen. I still don’t have debt. Why I say it will be Medical that will be my last hammering.Unless I drop. The 50 yr olds buying these 200K-300K homes won’t be able to retire.
US Americans are still stuck in front of the latest iteration of the tube. Now more than ever. Things never change
Howard Beale monologue from Network, 1976:
Directed by Sidney Lumet. Written by Paddy Chayefsky.
"Edward George Ruddy died today! Edward George Ruddy was the Chairman of the Board of the Union Broadcasting Systems and he died at eleven o'clock this morning of a heart condition, and woe is us, we're in a lot of trouble! So, a rich little man with white hair died. What does that got to do with the price of rice, right? And why is that woe to us? Because you people and sixty-two million other Americans are listening to me right now. Because less than three percent of you people read books! Because less than fifteen percent of you read newspapers! Because the only truth you know is what you get over this tube! Right now, there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew anything that didn't come out of this tube! This tube is the Gospel, the ultimate revelation! This tube can make or break Presidents, Popes, Prime Ministers! This tube is the most awesome goddamn force in the whole godless world! And woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people, and that's why woe is us that Edward George Ruddy died! Because this company is now in the hands of CCA, the Communication Corporation of America. There's a new chairman of the board, a man called Frank Hackett sitting in Mr. Ruddy's office on the 20th floor. And when the twelfth largest company in the world controls the most awesome goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what shit will be peddled for truth on this network?! So, you listen to me. Listen to me! Television is not the truth. Television's a goddamned amusement park! Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, sideshow freaks, lion tamers, and football players. We're in the boredom-killing business! So if you want the truth, go to God! Go to your gurus! Go to yourselves! Because that's the only place you're ever gonna find any real truth! But man, you're never gonna get any truth from us. We'll tell you anything you wanna hear. We lie like hell. We'll tell you that, uh, Kojak always gets the killer, and that nobody ever gets cancer at Archie Bunker's house. And no matter how much trouble the hero is in, don't worry, just look at your watch, at the end of the hour he's gonna win. We'll tell you any shit you want to hear. We deal in illusions, man! None of it is true! But you people sit there day after day, night after night, all ages, colors, creeds. We're all you know! You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here! You're beginning to think that the tube is reality and that your own lives are unreal! You do whatever the tube tells you, you dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube. You even think like the tube. This is mass madness, you maniacs! In God's name, you people are the real thing! We are the illusion! So turn off your television sets! Turn them off now! Turn them off right now! Turn them off and leave them off! Turn them off right in the middle of this sentence I am speaking to you now! Turn them off!"
Than stand up, open your window and shout, "I'm mad as he'll and I'm not going to take this anymore!"
Thank you for this quote. Growing up we only got two stations on our TV on a regular basis and watched tv together as a family for an hour in the evening. My father was careful to point out “garbage” when it came on the tube. If you didn’t like the chosen show for the evening you found something else to do. I am grateful for that upbringing and followed the same pattern when it was my turn to parent, no cable tv or Sat morn cartoons for us, and only one tv in the house, instead we were at the zoo or museum or park. All our children love to read and I hope they follow the same habit of living a life instead of watching an imagined life.
Elizabeth, we lived in DC metro and got several stations but according to my mother, our tv was always "broken". Like your family we were always at the zoo, museum or park, did arts and crafts and we read alot. Our daughter grew up without cable and junk tv so she never got hooked...she has never owned a television. She's a hiking, bicycling book worm!
We lived in the DC arear for a few years, so many wonderful things to do. When the children were pre-teens and clamoring for more tv access, I discovered the "vacation" switch on the back of the tv and our tv was periodically broken, lucky for me they weren't tech savvy and I got away with it for years.
So.....this morning I read that tRump is advising rethuglicans to not vote in 2022 or 2024 unless the "fraud of the 2020 election" is cleaned up. I'd like to believe that his base will do just that, clearing the way for getting more Dems into Congress, and more locally.
I heartily support Trump’s call for Republicans not to vote in 2022 and 2024 unless ‘the fraud of the 2020 election’ was cleaned up. (NO FRAUD AND THUS NO CLEAN UP)This echoes his call to Republicans in the January, 2021 Georgia Senate elections to stay home because of ‘fraud.’ This may have propelled two Democrats, a Black preacher and a young Jew, into the Senate, making McConnell the Minority Leader. His ‘not to vote’ appeal might, in part, offset the scurrilous Republican state efforts to limit the voting opportunities for non-white citizens. REPUBLICANS ABSTAIN FOR TRUMP IN 2022 & 2024!
“Biden is trying to move the country past the partisan battles of the past several years. He is also trying to show Americans Biden is trying to move the country past the partisan battles of the past several years. He is also trying to show Americans that the government is often not the problem, but rather a solution to one.that the government is often not the problem, but rather a solution to one.” Amen, Dr. R.! Amen! This letter of yours gives me hope! Thank you, as always, for your time, research, and letters!
I’m about to begin my third winter reading Heather’s remarkable letters. I haven’t commented often because I usually read these letters first thing, on my phone, in bed, still half asleep. But I’ve been thinking about this long string of morning meetings with Heather. Through those first wintry months of 2019-2020, I found a glimmer of hope in Heather’s lucidity. Rational people would see what she has seen, I thought, and rational people will move forward. Gradually that hope turned into my watching Heather, the brilliant historian, show us how the country had emerged from messes and mistakes in the past. On the best days, Heather showed us how the story might end and how we might move on. During these last weeks, though, I think we’ve taken a third and different turn—not how history helps us see our way out of the present crisis but rather how history sounds alarms—signals that warn us that we are headed into a rat’s nest.
But today’s letter takes history’s long view. So thank you, Heather, for slowing us down.
Mainstream Media seems to be reporting very little of the good things Biden is doing to put government back in the drivers seat of regulating corporations. Mainstream media is all corporate. They want corporations to regulate government and to essentially destroy it. Mainstream media had their most desirable president--one beyond their wildest imagination-- in Donald Trump. He destroyed government and people alike, and mainstream media got very rich selling "news" based on outrage and fear.
I had heard of the minimum global tax of 15% which I hope will be passed by Congress quickly, but I did not know about the Supply Chain Disruption Task Force and Biden's efforts to alleviate that problem. Good for Biden! And thank you, Dr. Richardson.
I heard an expert start his opinion tonight on BBC World News with “Why didn’t he [Biden] do it sooner?” Nothing was said about how many players must participate in order to break up the logjam. Ticks me off.
Jen Psaki had a good response to this question in her press briefing, something to the effect that a task force was set up early in his administration and has been working on this issue, the press is just now noticing.
Elizabeth W., the media are not being as helpful as I would like. Please, media outlets, stop taking up time showing tapes and otherwise covering the antics and histrionics of DJT.
When we say “media,” let’s be clear when we mean BROADCAST media. The written word is still the best way in the USA to consume truthful, fact-based, corroborated news. And reading contains less drama and histrionics and hysteria and rage.
Or if they do, give equal time in same segment to activities of each of the other former presidents . Every time! People will start scheduling their naps
From reading elsewhere, the task force was set up in either June or July but only recently publicized by the Biden administration. There were a number of entities to work with, none of which are under control of the federal government, so the task force was primarily working to facilitate agreements among those entities. I'm pretty sure there are other undertakings by the administration which aren't being touted publicly until & unless there's something substantive to announce.
The reason is obvious, the supply chain is normally the domain of the private sector. When it became clear the problem was escalating and they couldn’t fix it alone, Biden stepped in to broker a multi partner solution.
Diane Love, very true, but the broadcast media, including PBS, have been focusing on Biden’s alleged delay in doing this, not on the whos, the wheres, the back stories, and all those other annoying and un-sexy explanations for the timing. As I’ve said before, from your words to Republican voters’ ears! 😉
"But Biden’s push forward is bearing fruit." Seven of the most welcome words I've heard.
The story has been mostly about how effective the Republicans have been at jamming the doors, spilling glue on the floor, and generally gumming up the works. Just to hear that the basic Biden Plan is starting to bear fruit is wonderfully uplifting. Nothing succeeds like success.
If I've heard about the 130-nation minimum tax before, it simply didn't register. That's wonderful news.....
Dr. Richardson is doing a better job of strategic communications with the American public than Democrats. One of the smartest comments I have heard about Democratic messaging lately came recently from Laurence O’Donnell. He said, “Democrats need to stop selling the recipe and start selling the brownies.”
Please Democrats stop talking about the process and start talking about the actual benefits to people and families.
Anand Giridharadas wrote on Oct. 1 exactly that, to talk about the Thing instead of the government process.
https://the.ink/p/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about?r=1o0sa&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&utm_source=
Practicing what we preach, how conversant are we with the benefits of the Build Back Better reconciliation bill? Quick, you can do it in 60 seconds, like Mehdi Hasan!
https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan/status/1445906136813608960?s=20
Michael Moore wrote about how to easily decrease the big number 3.5T. Only pay for one hearing aid, one eye, and one set of teeth, uppers or lowers, patients choice!
Michael More’s humor can be painful.
Actually, it might work. The ophthalmologist, audiologist and dentist would also be happy I think. They'd quickly figure out the buy one, get one free promotions.
I KNOW dentists, cause I have one. And they charge me as IF I had a full set of teeth!! Wuz up w THIS, I tell them --- and they just laugh at me
https://www.michaelmoore.com/p/how-to-win-manchin-and-sinema-over
🤣 The Manchin Plan.
😎
Fabulous, Ellie!
I love Mehdi Hasan’s expression at the end of his 60 second explanation. I can recall that same expression on my face so many times after quickly reciting a rebuttal to my students after their complaints to a new initiative I would offer to boost their achievement which involved trust on their part that I know better than them because I’m the grown person in the room. Hahahahahaha!
Thank you, Ellie!
I retweeted.
Thanks for these Ellie!!
Ellie, I have long appreciated your practical advocacy suggestions on LFAA and today (1/11/22) on Robert Hubbell's newsletter. I would like to connect with you by email to ask for further insights. My email is jpisauro47@gmail.com.
Ellie Kona started it.
Carville said the same thing. Children, climate, health benefits.
Donnie Deuch (sp?) said on MJ that they need to brand the for the people act much better, he recommended that it be called “The Children First Bill” since they are the heart ❤️ of where most of the benefits will ultimately end up. If we rebuild this nation into a fairer nation our children and grandchildren will benefit far more than we ever will. The Democrats need to get much better at branding what are basically very good ideas. Donnie is a marketing professional, he knows how to sell things, and this act needs to be sold to the nation, what ever they call it, it has to have a hook just like maga did for the clown. Let them try to argue against a bill named for helping children. The Democrats need to get to get a lot smarter, our nation desperately needs for them to get a lot smarter, the Republicans have their heads up their asses and are sitting ducks 🦆, this is almost a no brainer, but we may be watching a shoot your self in the foot contest, God I hope not.
After all, children have heartbeats, eh?
Dems still think it’s normal politics. Not for decades, not since Rupert came on the scene. Frank Luntz taught republicans how to lie with style. W/Dickie became masters, and it’s been propaganda with pizazz ever since.
It's also got a lot that helps seniors - expanded medicare coverage, lower medicare drug prices, medicare available at age 60, support for home health care workers (who mostly take care of elders who need help due to age and/or illness).
It’s the paid family leave bill.
It’s the free community college bill.
It’s the universal Pre-K bill.
It’s the dental, vision and hearing coverage bill.
It’s the child tax benefit bill.
It’s the cheaper medicines bill.
It’s the corporations pay taxes bill.
It’s the save the environment bill.
Yes! And the media keep calling it a spending bill. Thanks, guys.
You are absolutely right Grace! This bill is so much more, so needed and is spread out over 10 years currently. The best strategy I have heard is to reduce the program to five years to get the cost down but do everything in the bill. Once people see the benefit of the bill they won’t want it to Go away.
Now that wasn't hard, right? Eight ways Democrats will make life better.
Actually the quote originated with Anat Shenker-Osorio who is an expert on messaging who was on the Laurence O'Donnell show. She's quite impressive! The Democrats need to listen to her.
She certainly got my attention, Cathy. I was half-listening to the show when she started speaking and within 30 seconds she had my full attention. Quite impressive, indeed! I’m glad you shared her full name. I had missed it. I want to follow her and read anything she has written recently. The Democrats definitely have a marketing problem, which shouldn’t be difficult to correct.
Fly her to DC for a meeting with the communication team. Now!
They have a communications team??? Ditto your comment.
She will be speaking on The Last Word again tonight, 10/14.
Thank you
“Shouldn’t be difficult to correct???” Really, then why have I watched them flounder for decades? They don’t know there is a problem. Better figure it out quick, that old “scare word” socialism will kill us again, Truman warned us.
Shouldn’t be difficult to correct, because communicating value to stakeholders (or customers) is fundamental in business marketing. This is basic marketing communications. The proposed policies and programs are products. How are they going to sell their proposals to the American public? Know your “customers.” What’s important to people? What do they value? What can help improve their lives? For example, how will improving our infrastructure help you feel better, more secure and more enriched? Repeatedly communicate directly to every segment of the country, using every communication channel available, exactly how proposed programs and expenditures will benefit them and improve their lives. It baffles me that Democrats stumble repeatedly in the basics of communicating the specific value and benefits of proposed policies to American voters. The competition obstructs, distorts and lies, of course, which means the Democrats need to be ever more relentless, wide-reaching and on point in their communication. Evidently, Republicans aren’t concerned that their constituents will vote them out, even if the elected Republican isn’t delivering value and benefits to them. Democrats’ failed messaging yields power to Republicans. Even if Democrats can push through the obstruction to get their proposals passed, if they haven’t thoroughly communicated the meaningful value and benefits of the proposals and programs to the American public, they won’t get the benefit of their success in the next election.
Who is ‘THEY’ who don’t know there is a problem and have the means to correct it? Who names these things anyway? To whom shall we send our encouraging and enlightening - not scathing - letters?
Anat Shenker-Osorio:
wordstowinby-pod.com
https://twitter.com/anatosaurus
Anat Shenker-Osiris &Jenn Psaki sure can sell.
Democrats need to stop bring cucumber sandwiches to shootouts.
Exactly, TC. Let’s switch to those “Godfather” subs loaded with meat, veggies, and dressing.
they often talk as though they are running for office, rather than in office. they can't stop campaigning and citing poll numbers. still, pelosi and schumer are getting things done, and was that mcconnell who blinked? together, pelosi and schumer look like a good argument against term limits, a couple of bums you might not want to throw out.
Term limits, the second-dumbest idea in American politics, after the balanced budget amendment and ahead of third parties.
They are always running for office. THAT is part of the problem. Especially in the House where the terms are absurdly short – it's a never ending cycle of banging the drum and fundraising.
"(Re)Elect Me!" They ALL say, "I'm the only one who can fix this!".
Yet here we sit on the same old stagnant pile of dog poo while Republican thugs bulldoze and destroy the Nation. Bravo, Democrat Leadership, bravo. Por nada.
In France we have to wait for 5 years as voters to get a word in edgewise with "elected representatives". if it is not by shortening the periodicity of elections that we get them to listen, then it has to be by obligatory and binding referendums or some such mechanism as otherwise this is no democracy, they just do as they please.
The two year term is particularly dangerous now on the GOP side since without abject fealty to you know who they get primaries by rabid knuckledraggers like oh, too many to name.
Daria, off topic, but now that travel from Mexico to the US is open, will you be coming state-side?
Perhaps, for a visit🌷
It's because they're all the high school student council members, grown up.
Thanks BruceC for posing this challenge.
As a Democrat, as an Independent, as a progressive, as a concerned citizen, I need to know what brownies are in the Build Back Better bill better than I do. For anyone else who wants to up their game, here is one list:
LOWER COSTS
Lower Child Care Costs
Lower Higher Education Costs
Lower Prescription Drug Costs
Lower Health Care Costs
Lower Housing Costs
CUT TAXES
Tax Cuts for Families with Children
Tax Cuts for Workers without Children
CREATE JOBS
Workforce Training
Clean Energy Jobs
Investments in Teachers and Schools
Nice tray of brownies there. For a short paragraph with summary details in each of these areas, see the source of this list, https://www.whitehouse.gov/build-back-better/.
See also House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's https://www.majorityleader.gov/content/points-know-build-back-better-act.
How many Democrats are trachers? The role of a teacher is to disseminate information. Maybe we need more law teachers like Warren in Congress.
It would make an improvenent over third rate Holkywood stars.
I keep saying I want to get a few really good Kdg teachers I know to leave the classroom and get into politics. The Bigs need some of the lessons the Littles are getting when they are 5 yrs old.
Speaker Pelosi often talks about learning her people management skills as a mother and grandmother.
And stop talking about polling numbers! Just talk to humans, about everyday life and listen . Just listen. Most fearful angry people want to talk and be heard more than they want to fight.
"Democrats need to stop selling the recipe and start selling the brownies."
It is not either/or. The return to regular order is an actual benefit to people and families. It is how our government provides for the general welfare.
Metaphors can obscure as well as enlighten. A rhetorical flourish may invoke all sorts distracting associations.
As unappetizing as the 'sausage making' of government may be, it brings people into the kitchen.
As as nice as brownies ex nihilo may sound, it has the dismissive air of 'let them eat cake'.
There is no doubt that the “sausage making” process (to use a metaphor) of crafting legislation through negotiations is important and challenging. However, those who represent us in Congress also need to sell the legislation being crafted to the public both to inform them and engender support for it. Describing in detail the negotiating process and its challenges may be decidedly unhelpful to both communicating the details of the package to inform constituents and build support for its passage. My point is simply that it would be far more effective messaging to tell me about what I am being sold, how it will benefit me, and why it’s important, than describing to me in detail how the damn thing was crafted.
As I said it is not either/or.
But if you will persist with politics as consumerism, then may I point out that young voters and progressive voters, who Democrats need to sell their candidates and platform to, care very much about fair trade - ie how consumer products are made. And even the general public seems to be sold on artisanal, hand made, and craft brewed packaging as much or more than nutritional content labels - almost as though the process of manufacture is inherent to the value of the product. As of course it is.
Absolutely agree with you, Lin, regarding focus of young voters on consumerism. The rise of the “craft local brewery” and expansion of Saturday farmer’s markets is incredible. A huge draw for younger gen.
Agree with both-and. Much more inclusive regarding diff generations.
Geez, lin, you need a cuppa Joe, or a walk around the block. Maybe a hug.
I’m not sure why this condescending remark, but honestly. I think what we all need is a sausage and a brownie.
Hmm ... The emphasis seems to be on personal feelings rather than strategy and tactics. That is a problem in politics.
Spot on, lin.
Like only 1600 deaths/day vs 16,000
How do we get the ear of the President and his market people?
Call the White House Phone Numbers.
Comments: 202-456-1111.
Switchboard: 202-456-1414. TTY/TTD.
Comments: 202-456-6213.
Visitor’s Office: 202-456-2121
It is Our House after all.
FYI a group of HCR Substackers has formed to turn good discussion here into good activism. For more info, email:
heathersherd@gmail.com
Great idea and info
Tweet relentlessly?
100% Bruce!
Amen
I completely agree. James Carville said as much in his interview with Ari Melber yesterday. No doubt the Whitehouse needs a better messaging machine.
Thanks for this- so much has fallen on Joe Biden's shoulders. I wonder if people appreciate how much difference he has made- that he and his administration are the bulwarks that stand in the way of a potentially irreversible authoritarianism. It's always so much harder to offer hope than to peddle fear.
Because he simply goes about the country’s business rather than creating constant drama and bloviating, they don’t.
And how sad is that? So many people I know are blaming Biden for things he had absolutely nothing to do with - like higher gas prices. It is exhausting.
People absolutely do not appreciate his efforts. Which is a huge part of our problem!
Heather, the dems NEED your wisdom, perspective and voice. Thank you for all you do!
I agree, Lynn, people don't appreciate enough what President Biden is doing, in his efforts and his successes. I fault the media also. I almost can't watch PBS any more for the sense of doom and gloom they offer. Dr. Richardson is doing an amazing job of finding what's important each day and digging below the surface so as to inform us. Thank you, Dr. R!
Sally I have been disappointed in PBS as well. Every interview or announcement includes follow up questions pointing out the reporters doomsday prediction about why it won’t work out. It is a lower key version of the cable networks screeching the SKY is falling nightly.
Their follow up questions often indicate that they weren’t listening to what their guests had to say, I see this on the News Hour all the time especially from the host, I think they must have an agenda and are listening to their ear pieces on what questions to ask, so it’s get the question in even if it flys in the face of what was just said., it’s like she’s confused and doesn’t get what was just said. I’m 75 so I get being confused, the younger hosts seem to be much more in the moment.
Judy Woodruff has never impressed me.
It was on this forum that I learned about the former administration’s installation of cronies on the CPB board. Shocked! Shocked!
Damn
"A lower key version of the cable network." Yes, Cathy, but as I have written here before, PBS is afraid to report more openly, because they believe they might go away from lack of funding from corporations which are the ones that give them enough funding to stay on the air.
I have not logged it, but it seems lately the Republican side is given more air time, and challenged very little. It used to be more often that people from both sides were on at the same time, split screen, and could respond to each other. Sometimes I suspected bias when one side was represented by a better-looking person very comfortable with being questioned, and the other side by someone less attractive and less articulate but more factual. In Reagan’s day, it was said that it was as if people watched him on TV with the sound off. Image matters.
It’s Gov funded also.
https://www.cpb.org/your-feedback/contact/contact
Thank You Christy.
Ally!
I’m glad you brought up PBS. I was feeling the same way about their reporting. I am grateful for President Biden and believe he is working hard for our country.
And even he admitted he will make mistakes. Grateful for his efforts every day
Virginia and Sally, I'm with ya! Sometimes I've turned off the TV to keep from throwing something at it. The in depth reports, like those from Lisa Dejardins and Yamiche Alcindor, John Yang and others are what keep me coming back, but if Judy Woodruff retired tomorrow, it would be fine by me!
Yes Yamiche keeps me watching .
My husband and I are big Yamiche fans and not just because she is so beautiful. We pay close attention when she speaks.
We all got make our values and opinions known. Speak up to be heard over the yelling from the minority. https://www.cpb.org/your-feedback/contact/contact
I am tited of arguments with intelligent friends whose prime weapon is, " But on Morning Edition..."
I love PBS in general but on the News Hour they over backwards too far, I assume trying to ensure no conservatives who appear on the show can claim to have been "silenced" or "cancelled." But when Judy Woodruff has a conservative on the show, I wish she would do a lot less of giving him/her an open platform to spout propaganda, and a lot more interrupting to challenge every time the conservative makes an assertion that is either a wild distortion or an outright lie.
Yes! It may be that if tough questions were going to be asked, people would refuse to be interviewed. Or maybe it is just the CPB board being Trump appointees. Having the R interviewed at length one day and the D another is “balanced” only if people see both shows.
ugh same here and I have an on going donation subscription to PBS and NPR no matter. NPR is the same, what happened to straight news reporting.
Biden has an incredibly hard job, and I get the sense that he's working very hard and ably at it. I can't imaging having to try to herd Manchin and Synema, but he has individual meetings with them, asking them what they want. I can't imagine any of the other former candidates dealing with what he has to deal with.
Manchin is right about one thing. Elect more liberals!
I Want to add one thing. Hounding Sinema including into the bathroom is counterproductive. Prior to this it seemed like liberals were more respectful When trying to get their voice heard. I was greatly dismayed by the actions of those personally and physically hounding Sinema.
And President Biden and team just keep on keeping on. The hope machine in action.
"Hope is that thing with feathers," wrote Emily Dickinson.
Yes, “hope” is necessary to the success of any difficult endeavor. We are helping to make the work easier when we can think positively about the task ahead, put our shoulders into the effort and then do what we can to help get it done. Fear and hopelessness are enemies that drain our energy and resolve and can lead us away from achieving our goals. Results are what matter to the American people and we’re definitely seeing progress now, if we consider the magnitude of the job ahead which is designed to help make our country a better place for all Americans and those yearning to be free all over the world. When you speak with or write to our governmental representatives please remind them that you understand that the goals they are striving to achieve aren’t easy…and that you appreciate their efforts. Certainly tell them how you feel and what you think, but also show empathy and understanding that you, and many, many people like you, know that we all in the same boat together that we are trying hard now, to row in the right direction, once again.
And we need to keep writing, calling and messaging that we see it! I for one am happy to pay more for milk , or to go out for dinner, if it means the vaccinated employees have affordable child care ,and are being paid a living wage.
My representatives are all Republicans. The state representatives and the congressman are only interested in being professional politicians who want to move from office to office. One of the state reps moved to my district so he could still run when districts got rearranged. That tells me he’s only interested in his political career.
Sad but true that many seem to run for the job just to have the job, not to do the job.
My representative in CA50 didn’t bother to move. He just used his mother’s address. This has to change.
My rep, McClintock, has never lived in the district despite promising that he would move if elected. He has been lying since day one, and is completely useless.
And should not be legal.
Yes... Back to Mom, and give him a pacifier.
You're hitting the problem on the head here.
Professionals. Professional politicians.
The professional has swallowed the human, like the Wolf swallowed Grandma, and there's not much man (or woman) left for the world to see
Diogenes wouldn't find a man in broad daylight. A searchlight wouldn't help.
Maybe a stethoscope might pick up a plaintive human cry, somewhere inside the polit-golem...
Maybe the poor lost things need to be sent back to Mom... to start all over again.
I would ask you to move here to San Francisco except clearly you are needed in North Carolina!
Carpe' Diem! Seize the day!
And hope and practicality and "stuff" such as distribution of goods, travel, taxation of the filthy rich, etc., isn't as sexy as incoherent tweets, and the latest "news" of groping and fondling by TFG. The media now needs to get on board and give headlines to what IS working, not to their "analysis" of the latest polls about Biden. IMO, I've heard a couple of so-called WH "reporters" this week literally doing their best to CREATE news out of thin air, none of it positive about Biden.
I love hearing all this positivity about Joe Biden and his very difficult missions on many fronts. It is especially refreshing to hear he's making some progress because I continue to read how his favorability is plummeting. I'm rooting hard for Joe Biden and the Dems to break through and show the country that we can make big differences.
Turned off CNN last night when they were arguing whether Biden's approval rating was really 50% or was it actally 45% or maybe 47.895361%. ENOUGH. You are continually reading this because media are continually pushing it. Let's focus on The Children First bill!!
Same on MSNBC. Biden has a multiple rolling s***show everyday. The fact that he is problem solving and governing through it all has earned my respect. The Republicans are, as usual, doing NOTHING. (but obstruction). They are too afraid of the FG and a batshit crazy base they can no longer control. I think priority number one is protecting voting rights, securing free and fair elections, especially at the state level, and supporting the decent, hard working public servants who ensure our polling places are safe and secure. Voting IS the foundation of our Democracy.
YES.
I’m in!
The Dems need to loudly and repeatedly broadcast their accomplishments.
Mim, I agree, but the problem is that the Republicans aren't hearing any of the good news. It's not being aired on their platforms. All they hear is Biden's bankrupting the country, making US Americans sick, letting the border become over run by criminals, handing out money to lazy slackers, just to name a few things. How do we counter the MAGA message in a way that is strong without being insulting to the voters we need to reach?
You come back Mencken's quote about the adviseability of underestimating the intelligence of Americans
In case someone underestimated the value of the proverb, Stuart…
“Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.
Americans, as a group, are not especially intelligent and can be readily entertained or fooled to produce financial benefit for someone.”(from Wikipedia)
Hmmm. Someone must have schooled the former to have that taped on his mirror.
It's not just Rs are not hearing it. Even the 'liberal' Washington Post and 'centrist' NYTimes devote most of their front pages to R talking points and contexts.
Yes! My frustration with this is growing. I subscribe to both, and keep wondering if I’d be better off subscribing to a series of Substacks instead. They learning nothing at all from 2016.
But their influence is all over the place, despite being vilified by the right
Deport Rupert, or shut his Schitt-spewing operation
Daria:
Billboards, mailers, handouts at MAGA events (for those brave enough to endure their vitriole—or worse), ads and personal appearances on right-wing media. There must be other means, too. Why the Dems have been so awful about tooting their own horn is beyond me.
Mim: It's beyond me as well. There are times where being aggressive is a must.
How can the Democratic media people not understand the urgency of enumerating the accomplishments of Biden now more than ever in our history?
Win the war. Then the major public achievements can be completed (infrastructure, voting rights).
Then others will trumpet all your achievements. They will certainly be substantial and beneficial.
Focusing on messaging now will produce nothing of substance. It’s preaching only to the choir.
This is a terrible, full on struggle. And the click is ticking agonizingly.
*Please*, let’s not be distracted by ‘messaging’. It is a chimera. Chasing a ghost when the barbarians have already been inside the gates.
Thought that when Teddy K kumbayed with W after they did indeed steal the election (James Baker and Roger Stone). Republicans thought they had committed enough fraud in 2020 to do it again. I was shocked that they didn’t pull it off, they sure tried. Wake up Dems, the water is about to boil
We can!
What Has Joe Biden Done As President? The Full List Of His Accomplishments
October 13, 2021 by Oliver Willis
Tracking what Joe Biden has accomplished since becoming the 46th president of the United States on January 20, 2021.
As of October 2021 there are 99 verified accomplishments for Biden on the comprehensive list.
My feeling is that Joe Biden is playing a terrible hand as effectively and diligently as he can.
He’s done nothing to deserve this bashing in the polls. However, in all honesty part of it could have been expected. In his first two months in office, a) he wasn’t Trump and b) he got a major piece of legislation passed. It was unreasonable to expect that his popularity would remain at such a level. And then the withdrawal from Afghanistan triggered what is now an ongoing slide. And I think he will be vindicated mightily in the long run for that tough decision.
The problem is not branding or messaging or marketing. The problem is that the overall mandate the Democrats have is too slight to support massive legislation in this time of ‘politics as war’.
And this is war - for the very soul of a proud country. To even *start* winning this war, Trump, Trump’s politically ‘active’ children, Kushner, and all the legislator/conspirators of 1/6 must have the full force of the law come down on them.
At that point, the Democratic Party might be able to negotiate from a strong position with the Republicans.
Until then, they are, in T.J.’s splendid phrase, bringing a cucumber sandwich to a gunfight.
Actually, his poll numbers are climbing again. For good and ill, we have short memories.
Polls have no use in assessing reality.
I’m an artist-its a second career for me that grew from my hobby of beadweaving learned as a child. This year, for the first time in more than 30 years, I have struggled to source multiple items such as glass beads and clasps. I had a brief conversation with my best wholesale supplier last June who explained the supply chain issue and bemoaned how much it was affecting his bottom line.
Rohit and his wife are originally from India. Both of them grew up in families that operated wholesale and retail jewelry supply businesses. I found them more than 20 years ago after searching high and low for a company that could say for certain it did not use child labor to finish its materials such as ear wires- a huge problem worldwide and one I’ve tried very hard to avoid.
My business is not even blip compared with the Home Depots of the world but I get how much the Port of Los Angeles’s backlog has affected businesses across this country and how much revenue has been lost by small business- who may need one box from one container that is God knows where either in LA or still sitting offshore.
For those businesses that depend on the supply chain to operate quickly and efficiently- and I’m talking Main Street, not Wall Street- this news is a god send. And while I will eat and have a solid roof over my head whether my jewelry sells or not, I know dozens of artists for whom that is not a given- they need to be able to make enough inventory, sell their wares at art fairs that don’t cancel last minute because of Covid and continue to be able to submit large wholesale orders for materials that arrive in a timely manner. They haven’t had that for several years and some of them are really hurting.
The Biden Administration has done an incredible job of focusing on the dozens of problems caused by COVID. They have had to do a million and one things on every front to fix the former guys’s incompetence and his continuing focus on destroying our democratic Republic. I have a much simpler job- work to get out the vote, and make and sell high-end beadwoven jewelry so I have more money to send to good candidates and organizations. I had two record setting weekends in a row sales wise in September. With today’s news, I’m hoping my wait- and the wait of millions of small businesses like mine- will return to weeks, not months. 2022 is looming….
Sheila - I greatly appreciate the personalized and human perspective that you offer in this post. The headline story of boxes sitting in ports is much more compelling when illuminated by the particular difficulties of those waiting down the line, especially the small businesses. Thank you.
Sheila, this was very well stated. The other issue impacting global supply chains, particularly large manufacturers is the Just in Time Manufacturing concept. The goal of JIT is for zero inventories to be held by an organization and its supply chain. When it works it completely and efficiently utilizes organizational capabilities and maximizes ROI (return on investment), until it crashes, which it has. Your beading suppliers may not practice JIT but someone in the supply chain might.
Good luck getting the supplies you need to make your art. I know how frustrated you must be.
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/management_concepts/just_in_time_manufacturing.htm
I laughed when I saw this daria - JIT manufacturing is exactly the problem with the production of the Japanese seed beads I use. Frustrating yes but a first world problem easily solved temporarily by Etsy and Facebook marketplace. Turns out there are deep stashes of beads already here. Bonus for those who bought and never used, and for people like me who actually use thousands. Found some treasures too - never a bad thing. Thanks for the link.
Sheila, I'm a beader myself, but mine is just a hobby.
However, I buy from artisans from all over the world and the same message has been going around.
Also, it seems that our postal service isn't the only one having delivery slowed down and costs going up.
I've heard from people in Australia, Canada and France about the shortages and long delivery times.
And like you, I'm pretty secure financially, but I do have a few friends who are struggling.
My local bead store has seen an influx of people wanting to take classes, but it's hard get them to take them when they can't get the supplies needed.
Hoping we turn the corner on covid and things can get somewhat back to normal.
Sheila, you only have to walk into a Michael’s or try to find those supplies at a local store to find how empty the shelves are. (Hobby Lobby is never entered.) Even favorite online merchants have out-of-stock on many items.
I hope you are still having good sales despite this. Often artists are the first to suffer. Our artists community was hit hard after 9/11 where no one was buying at the street fairs in the San Diego area.
Thanks for not going to Hobby Lobby! Its actually the closest “craft” store to me but I have never gone in and absolutely will not, no matter how desperately low I am on anything.
The shelves at my local Michael’s look moth eaten. I went in looking for paints with my adult daughter recently and felt sad looking at mostly bare shelves. Biden’s efforts to move more containers more swiftly will help businesses large and small! (And my sales are incredibly good right now- thanks for your concern)
Thankfully my Michael’s is 2 miles away and in with my grocery so always easy to run up to.
Glad to hear sales are good. I have started doing some Kumihimo again but need Findings which were woefully out of stock. And cord has gotten very hard to find when you only want small amounts and specific colors.
Dear Heather,
Tonight's letter demonstrates to perfection our global interconnectedness and the ties that bind us, whether on socio-economic or political levels. It reminds me of the words of the brave and radical journalist Anna Politkovskay who was assassinated in 2006. It's as though she is addressing our blinkered, destructive, and self-centered, right-wing politicians:
“Do you still think the world is vast? That if there is a conflagration in one place it does not have a bearing on another, and that you can sit it out in peace on your veranda admiring your absurd petunias?”
I’ve taken to to the visual of Republicans walking around the halls of Congress and their what must be boring offices with horse blinkers strapped on firmly.
😂😂😂
Amazing; accurate. Thanks for sharing that quote!
Of course!
I love this quote! Thanks!
You're most welcome! It's a favorite of mine.
What did past presidents think of one another?
John Adams on George Washington: ‘That Washington was not a scholar is certain. That he was illiterate, unlearned, unread for his station is equally beyond dispute.”
ThomasJefferson on John Adams: “He is distrustful, obstinate, excessively vain, and takes no counsel from anyone.”
James Buchanan on John Quincy Adams: “His disposition is as perverse and mulish as that of his father.”
Thomas Jefferson on Andrew Jackson: “He is the most unfit man I know for such a place…he is a dangerous man.”
Abraham Lincoln on James Polk: “A bewildered, confounded, and miserably perplexed man.”
Woodrow Wilson on Theodore Roosevelt: “He is the most dangerous man of our age. What’s the use of wasting good serviceable indignation on him?”
Theodore Roosevelt on Woodrow Wilson: “A damned Presbyterian hypocrite and a Byzantine logothete….An infernal skunk in the White House.”
Calvin Coolidge on Herbert Hoover: “That man has offered me unsolicited advice for the past six years, all of It bad.”
Lyndon Johnson on Dwight Eisenhower: “I don’t know how many times I pulled that bubbling, brainlack bubblehead’s chestnuts out of the fire and he never thanked me once.”
Lyndon Johnson on John F. Kennedy: “The enviably attractive nephew who sings an Irish ballad for the company and then winsomely disappears before the table clearing and dishwashing begin.”
Dwight Eisenhower on Lyndon Johnson: “He is a small man. He doesn’t have the depth of mind nor the breadth of vision to carry great responsibilities.”
Harry Truman on Richard Nixon: “Richard Nixon is a no-good lying bastard. He can lie out of both sides of his mouth at the same time, and if he ever caught himself telling the truth, he’d lie just to keep his hand in it.”
John F. Kennedy on Nixon: “He is a filthy, lying son of a bitch, and a very dangerous man.”
Lyndon Johnson on Gerald Ford: ‘Jerry Ford is so dumb that he can’t fart and chew gum at the same time.”
Gerald Ford on Jimmy Carter: “Jimmy Carter wants to speak loudly and carry a fly swatter.”
Next time ex-presidents assemble for a state funeral, you might wish to scrutinize the genuineness of their photo-op smiles. The ex-presidents would be prudent to recall John 8:7: “He that is without sin….”
Kennedy and Truman were right about Nixon, and Jefferson was right about Jackson.
Great respite from the mundane, Keith. Love quotes today appearing on forum.
Christine I agree that a wicked sense of humor is a welcome antidote to the bile and false facts that we encounter daily. I have three pages of ‘the stupidest things that politicians ever said’ that I would enjoy posting, if I can work out the details. Often I post when I’m up briefly in the middle of the night. Three pages is a lot to type at that hour. Perhaps I’ll post a page-and-a-half with the rest for another day. Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and you cry alone.
Please, post! I look forward to just about everything you write. I like your voice, and your experience give you a unique perspective that is interesting.
Kathy Thanks! I greatly enjoy participating in the comments related to Heather’s astonishingly perceptive and uncommonly sourced Letters. The informality of the comments encourages me to write from the heart rather than the head. Often, in the middle of the night, her Letter triggers a thought, I run with it for 15-to-20 minutes without any scholarly fact checking (I write on the first floor, my office library is on the second), post it, and then read it carefully the next morning over my first cup of coffee. On occasion I gasp and mutter “Did I really say that?” But among friends it doesn’t seem to matter.
Dang you are lucid in the middle of the night! Keep the comments coming, although I wish you better sleep.
“Laugh and the world laughs with you”
So true! That’s why the only “ news” I watch is late-night comedy:)
Nixon memory….My friend’s dad was head of the local Repub party in RI and asked us to be Nixonettes ( yes, they were actually a thing) We decked out in red,white and blue,complete with the sparkly sash, and greeted Nixon at the airport for his 1972 visit.
Kathy Nixon had scored some foreign policy successes in China and Russia and he was viewed an ‘environmentalist ,’ since he supported the first Environment Day. To use his language, he didn’t give a s++t about the environment and did not block a Democratic Congress passing environmental legislation that politically made him look sensitive to the environment.
Also, his White House Plumbers Unit had deep sixed the strongest Democratic challenger, Ed Muskie, and George McGovern was a weak candidate who even muddled the naming of a vice president running mate. Nixon won by over 60% and all but one state (+ D. C.) I remember speaking with a friend of mine then working in the White House. The discussion came down to whether it was better to vote for a crook or a ‘fool.’ I stated that a crook was a crook, but a fool had the potential to change. It was lonely, in rock-ribbed Republican Greenwich CT, to be pro-McGovern. Our campaign organizing group numbered a tiny handful. My daughter, when she had a notebook with a McGovern sticker that she took to school, was treated almost like a leper by her classmates.
P. S. By late 1974 my Greenwich friends indicated that virtually no one at their country club had voted for Nixon in 1972. My, how the worm turns.
Thanks, Keith. So interesting!
I was a naive 13–year-old in East Greenwich, RI. A couple years ago I gave away the sparkly sash to a Nixon-loving Repub.
Despite The Washington Post and some other investigative reporting, the White House was able to stonewall on Watergate until after Nixon’s overwhelming re-election, after which they thought the matter would ooze away. This could have occurred, except for Judge Sirica, who thought that the guilty pleas by the five
Watergate burglars were covering up something devious and criminal in this White-House-described ‘third-rate burglary.’ McCord , working for CREP (Committee to Re-Elect the President)–called CREEP by many) was a former. Government intelligence professional who thought he had been serving his government at CREEP. In his mid-50s, he didn’t relish a long prison sentence. The tell-all-letter that he gave to Judge Sirica started the Watergate ball rolling down hill. The Erwin Senate hearing, and then the Saturday Night Massacre ultimately obliged Nixon to resign to avoid certain impeachment in the Senate.
WHAT I FIND FRIGHTENING IS THAT NIXON AND HIS TAKE-NO-PRISONERS GANG ALMOST GOT AWAY WITH THIS, except for Judge Sirica’s steadfast adherence to the law and the Constitution. In my view, Trump with his BIG LIE is still endeavoring to topple the Constitution. Can we count on the judiciary, especially the current Supreme Court?
This is rich.
Keith, you made my day!!
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
I'm a bit skeptical of some of these, without documentation, although I'm pretty certain LBJ on Gerald Ford is correct. I do know that Nixon has spoken well of JFK and I think RFK.
I assure you that I sourced every one of these presidential comments for a public lecture on the American presidency in 2007. Whether all of these sources are spot-on-accurate is a vexing aspect of historical research. As a history professor from age 58 to 80, these comments passed my personal smell test
Remember key to Nixon, “speaking out of both sides of his mouth.” Tricky.
Really?
I know about Nixon from seeing him interviewed fairly long after he was out of office, by David Frost.
David I knew Nixon from being on the Nixon White House Enemies List, knowing Elliot Richardson who was the Attorney General catalyst of the Saturday Night Massacre, and when I had to make small talk with the wife of David Eisenhower, Julie Nixon Eisenhower. This is one of my favorite Nixon stories, when he was between political jobs working as a lawyer in New York. [Heard it from the brother of the carpet installer.]A carpet installer came to Nixon’s house in, I believe, Saddle River. Nixon, seemingly alone, greeted him at the door. Then he invited the installer to watch Jekyll and Hyde cartoons with him, which they did for nearly an hour. By the way, the Frost interview in 1977 was part of Nixon’s attempt to rehabilitate himself.
I'm envious! My parents hated Nixon with a passion. My father was an economist, and my mother had come close to getting a PhD in econ before she switched to Psych. We lived in Seattle 1960-61, I was 7, my best friend was Ralphie, whose grandfather was a founder of Nordstrom's (the first of which was in Seattle) and his mother was a high end interior decorator, who worked among others, for Ehrlichman--stuff I did not know at the time. I was for Kennedy, of course, and Ralphie was for Nixon. One day we were riding in the Chevy station wagon, my mother at the wheel, and my mother told this story for years afterwards. I said to Ralphie, "You shouldn't be for Nixon because he called that lady in California something like an economist."
I don't know what it is about Nixon--but I can't help liking the guy despite some horrible things he did (undermining the '68 election may be #1). He was a complex and difficult personality, and lost two brothers in his youth.
I have done a handful of CARtoons, including two with Nixon in them. One you can see at motorlegends.com (click on Cartoons). I think you can contact me directly thru there, and if you do, I'll send you the other.
And I gotta say, I love your story about watching the cartoons!
Amen.
It seems to me to be one more way of disparaging the faith in our leaders and our government.
Personally I prefer honesty to hypocrisy, though I acknowledge that these presidents were not Churchillian. If you are a student of British history, you will find similar, though more eloquent, statements by British leaders. As for the French—Ou la la!
Have a friend that refused to get vaccinated, was depending on strong vitamins, caught covid. Yes despite vitamins. She was suppose to return to work yesterday and had to go for a check up at the hospital. She’s home, on antibiotics, and using an inhaler. She has underlying health issues, as well. I wonder if she still thinks covid is “just a cold.”
With what seems like we’re surrounded by set backs and bad news, your letter gives hope! I know it doesn’t seem popular in Texas, but I love Biden! He had me at shut up during the debates!
Thank you Heather!
Biden lost the popular vote in Texas in 2020, 52.06% to trump and 46.48% to Biden. But the number of your fellow Biden supporters was 5,259,126 people--nothing to sneeze at!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidential_election_in_Texas
Reagan's anti government Big Lie paved the way for Trump's insurrection.
Reagan had political and policy motives. Amplifying anti government sentiments attracted unreconstructed Confederate populists to elect Republicans to serve the unconscionable plutocrats small government agenda. Under the McConnell regime, destroying the institutions of government itself -essentially opting out of the Constitution - gained momentum.
As we consider - and let's face it, judge - the Biden administration, it is good to keep listing its accomplishments. Yes, on policy objectives, but very importantly on restoring and renewing a working government.
Well said. I do think Biden is going to do well for us.
And I think so even though I'm at odds with him over immigration--even though I think the insecure border is hurting the Democrats. The most important thing is saving our democracy, and everything else he's doing--mending the social safety net; infrastructure--will help with that. And he's working very ably on all that. I've never felt so supportive of a president since I was a little kid and JFK was president.
There is no substitute for Skill and Experience.I really feel bad for Biden . Not in my life time has our Country been so destabilized. There is a lot of Ppl that read this page and send letters and such to their Congressmen/Women . Might I suggest we send our encouragement and appreciation to President Biden.A little gratitude can go a long way. And it’s clear to me that this is going to be a ‘Up Hill’ for the remainder of 3yrs and 3 months. I’m really enjoying the ‘No Drama ‘. Not to mention my confidence level is higher.Thank you HCR also for helping us to stay grounded when others just want to seek and destroy.
And to also write those ordinary people in our daily lives. During covid isolation last year I personally thanked the garbage person and mail person for hanging in there during a scary time. You should have seen their faces light up.
All of us could sure use a small note of thanks for keeping up the good fight during this time.
So a big and sincere THANK YOU to all the folks in these comments sections for everything you do in the name of saving this Country for Democracy. Thank you for your wisdom, decency and humor. Thank you for your efforts and good energy.
Thank You.
100% Agree. Like Mr. Rogers always said” Look for the helpers “. I’m old and some days I still watch that show. So calming. Go ahead make fun of me. LOL !😊
Thanking everyone that I have interacted with from the mailman to any of the check out staff at any place I purchased from has been an automatic for me, it doesn’t matter who they are, they are helping me move through my life, their gratitude and smiles have been a huge reward.
Yep. Me too. It's how I was brought up. It seems especially important right now to counteract the awful things being said and done in America today. I also bought some nice stationary and am handwriting more letters and notes.
Yes to this! Thank you
Thank you for posting this. There is so much in this community that fills my life.
Love this. Great reminder that it is just as important to tell/write people when they are doing good as when they need improvement.
I’m going to contact the Dem’s National Office to see if they can put out a National Thank You card. Maybe with a ‘Thumbs Up ‘ logo ? And we all could sign. Just read yesterday that we Seniors will get the largest COLA raise in history. About $92.00 more . Yes Medicare will go up $10.00 more. But in the past our COLA was just paying for the increase of Medicare . Ask the Republican Voters how confident they feel about their ‘Entitlement check ‘ when Repubs are in Office.My husband and I paid in a collective 70 yrs of working. Like so many men he died young and never got his share. I get more because he was the ‘Higher Earner ‘. If it was up to Repubs that and Medicare would be gone ! As it stands now we have millions of homeless Seniors. Many sleeping in cars. That is morally wrong by any standard. Our parents had S.S., pensions, savings and homes that were affordable. And Medical Bills didn't put them out on the street. This is NOT okay. And those Advantage plans , well let’s just say they named them right. It’s to their ‘Advantage ‘. There great until you get really sick. I was getting a discount on a service the first yr. They took it all back the 2 Ed yr. I’m back in Original Medicare now. But if you’re in excellent health go for it ? Biden is working for the people ,not the party. Or a Mega Ego ! LOL ! Go Joe !
Damn, I wish I got Social Security.
Kathy you don’t get rich on S.S.I was one of those people in 2006 when they were trying to get Ppl to sell their homes for more and buy a more expensive house . I saw ‘it’ coming. Payed down my little bit of Credit Card. Paid off my home.Started saving and that’s why I can afford to live on S.S. I warned everyone. No one would listen. I still don’t have debt. Why I say it will be Medical that will be my last hammering.Unless I drop. The 50 yr olds buying these 200K-300K homes won’t be able to retire.
US Americans are still stuck in front of the latest iteration of the tube. Now more than ever. Things never change
Howard Beale monologue from Network, 1976:
Directed by Sidney Lumet. Written by Paddy Chayefsky.
"Edward George Ruddy died today! Edward George Ruddy was the Chairman of the Board of the Union Broadcasting Systems and he died at eleven o'clock this morning of a heart condition, and woe is us, we're in a lot of trouble! So, a rich little man with white hair died. What does that got to do with the price of rice, right? And why is that woe to us? Because you people and sixty-two million other Americans are listening to me right now. Because less than three percent of you people read books! Because less than fifteen percent of you read newspapers! Because the only truth you know is what you get over this tube! Right now, there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew anything that didn't come out of this tube! This tube is the Gospel, the ultimate revelation! This tube can make or break Presidents, Popes, Prime Ministers! This tube is the most awesome goddamn force in the whole godless world! And woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people, and that's why woe is us that Edward George Ruddy died! Because this company is now in the hands of CCA, the Communication Corporation of America. There's a new chairman of the board, a man called Frank Hackett sitting in Mr. Ruddy's office on the 20th floor. And when the twelfth largest company in the world controls the most awesome goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what shit will be peddled for truth on this network?! So, you listen to me. Listen to me! Television is not the truth. Television's a goddamned amusement park! Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, sideshow freaks, lion tamers, and football players. We're in the boredom-killing business! So if you want the truth, go to God! Go to your gurus! Go to yourselves! Because that's the only place you're ever gonna find any real truth! But man, you're never gonna get any truth from us. We'll tell you anything you wanna hear. We lie like hell. We'll tell you that, uh, Kojak always gets the killer, and that nobody ever gets cancer at Archie Bunker's house. And no matter how much trouble the hero is in, don't worry, just look at your watch, at the end of the hour he's gonna win. We'll tell you any shit you want to hear. We deal in illusions, man! None of it is true! But you people sit there day after day, night after night, all ages, colors, creeds. We're all you know! You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here! You're beginning to think that the tube is reality and that your own lives are unreal! You do whatever the tube tells you, you dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube. You even think like the tube. This is mass madness, you maniacs! In God's name, you people are the real thing! We are the illusion! So turn off your television sets! Turn them off now! Turn them off right now! Turn them off and leave them off! Turn them off right in the middle of this sentence I am speaking to you now! Turn them off!"
Than stand up, open your window and shout, "I'm mad as he'll and I'm not going to take this anymore!"
"Did you know that in a universe full of wonders, humans have managed to invent boredom" -Terry Pratchett.
Thank you for this quote. Growing up we only got two stations on our TV on a regular basis and watched tv together as a family for an hour in the evening. My father was careful to point out “garbage” when it came on the tube. If you didn’t like the chosen show for the evening you found something else to do. I am grateful for that upbringing and followed the same pattern when it was my turn to parent, no cable tv or Sat morn cartoons for us, and only one tv in the house, instead we were at the zoo or museum or park. All our children love to read and I hope they follow the same habit of living a life instead of watching an imagined life.
Elizabeth, we lived in DC metro and got several stations but according to my mother, our tv was always "broken". Like your family we were always at the zoo, museum or park, did arts and crafts and we read alot. Our daughter grew up without cable and junk tv so she never got hooked...she has never owned a television. She's a hiking, bicycling book worm!
We lived in the DC arear for a few years, so many wonderful things to do. When the children were pre-teens and clamoring for more tv access, I discovered the "vacation" switch on the back of the tv and our tv was periodically broken, lucky for me they weren't tech savvy and I got away with it for years.
😄! Boy, you and my mom were sneaky! I agree, growing up in DC metro was the gift of a lifetime.
Hell not he'll!
So.....this morning I read that tRump is advising rethuglicans to not vote in 2022 or 2024 unless the "fraud of the 2020 election" is cleaned up. I'd like to believe that his base will do just that, clearing the way for getting more Dems into Congress, and more locally.
More tR;/ians not voting? Excellent strategy.
I heartily support Trump’s call for Republicans not to vote in 2022 and 2024 unless ‘the fraud of the 2020 election’ was cleaned up. (NO FRAUD AND THUS NO CLEAN UP)This echoes his call to Republicans in the January, 2021 Georgia Senate elections to stay home because of ‘fraud.’ This may have propelled two Democrats, a Black preacher and a young Jew, into the Senate, making McConnell the Minority Leader. His ‘not to vote’ appeal might, in part, offset the scurrilous Republican state efforts to limit the voting opportunities for non-white citizens. REPUBLICANS ABSTAIN FOR TRUMP IN 2022 & 2024!
I thought this was sooooo funny when we heard it on Rachel's show last nite......so did she. I must be missing something.
What we're all "missing" is how truly stupid tRump is.
“Biden is trying to move the country past the partisan battles of the past several years. He is also trying to show Americans Biden is trying to move the country past the partisan battles of the past several years. He is also trying to show Americans that the government is often not the problem, but rather a solution to one.that the government is often not the problem, but rather a solution to one.” Amen, Dr. R.! Amen! This letter of yours gives me hope! Thank you, as always, for your time, research, and letters!
"Ever to Excel" is not a motto; is a nightly accomplishment in the letters; thank you Professor.
Not only trying it, he is doing it
I’m about to begin my third winter reading Heather’s remarkable letters. I haven’t commented often because I usually read these letters first thing, on my phone, in bed, still half asleep. But I’ve been thinking about this long string of morning meetings with Heather. Through those first wintry months of 2019-2020, I found a glimmer of hope in Heather’s lucidity. Rational people would see what she has seen, I thought, and rational people will move forward. Gradually that hope turned into my watching Heather, the brilliant historian, show us how the country had emerged from messes and mistakes in the past. On the best days, Heather showed us how the story might end and how we might move on. During these last weeks, though, I think we’ve taken a third and different turn—not how history helps us see our way out of the present crisis but rather how history sounds alarms—signals that warn us that we are headed into a rat’s nest.
But today’s letter takes history’s long view. So thank you, Heather, for slowing us down.
Well stated and interesting perspective as a reader. Thank you, Ann.
Mainstream Media seems to be reporting very little of the good things Biden is doing to put government back in the drivers seat of regulating corporations. Mainstream media is all corporate. They want corporations to regulate government and to essentially destroy it. Mainstream media had their most desirable president--one beyond their wildest imagination-- in Donald Trump. He destroyed government and people alike, and mainstream media got very rich selling "news" based on outrage and fear.
Could you please describe, Ed, what you mean by “Mainstream Media”?
I had heard of the minimum global tax of 15% which I hope will be passed by Congress quickly, but I did not know about the Supply Chain Disruption Task Force and Biden's efforts to alleviate that problem. Good for Biden! And thank you, Dr. Richardson.
I heard an expert start his opinion tonight on BBC World News with “Why didn’t he [Biden] do it sooner?” Nothing was said about how many players must participate in order to break up the logjam. Ticks me off.
Nothing will ever satisfy them, SaraT. Complain complain complain. Smell the dang flowers being delivered directly to our doors, people.
Mmmmmm, Fresh. Thank you President Biden AND multitude of forces for good necessary to get anything done.
Love "Smell the damn flowers being delivered directly to our doors, people."
Jen Psaki had a good response to this question in her press briefing, something to the effect that a task force was set up early in his administration and has been working on this issue, the press is just now noticing.
Elizabeth W., the media are not being as helpful as I would like. Please, media outlets, stop taking up time showing tapes and otherwise covering the antics and histrionics of DJT.
When we say “media,” let’s be clear when we mean BROADCAST media. The written word is still the best way in the USA to consume truthful, fact-based, corroborated news. And reading contains less drama and histrionics and hysteria and rage.
Or if they do, give equal time in same segment to activities of each of the other former presidents . Every time! People will start scheduling their naps
From reading elsewhere, the task force was set up in either June or July but only recently publicized by the Biden administration. There were a number of entities to work with, none of which are under control of the federal government, so the task force was primarily working to facilitate agreements among those entities. I'm pretty sure there are other undertakings by the administration which aren't being touted publicly until & unless there's something substantive to announce.
The reason is obvious, the supply chain is normally the domain of the private sector. When it became clear the problem was escalating and they couldn’t fix it alone, Biden stepped in to broker a multi partner solution.
Diane Love, very true, but the broadcast media, including PBS, have been focusing on Biden’s alleged delay in doing this, not on the whos, the wheres, the back stories, and all those other annoying and un-sexy explanations for the timing. As I’ve said before, from your words to Republican voters’ ears! 😉
Yes indeed, our messaging falls short once again. This is a huge accomplishment worthy of bragging rights. So let’s brag!
Yes indeed! I’m trying.
Me too, but President Biden knows the job. And has repeatedly expressed that he is aware of the pace of predictable fault finding.
"But Biden’s push forward is bearing fruit." Seven of the most welcome words I've heard.
The story has been mostly about how effective the Republicans have been at jamming the doors, spilling glue on the floor, and generally gumming up the works. Just to hear that the basic Biden Plan is starting to bear fruit is wonderfully uplifting. Nothing succeeds like success.
If I've heard about the 130-nation minimum tax before, it simply didn't register. That's wonderful news.....