Biden made a good showing in Debate # 1, but his Town Hall performance tonight was a MUCH greater success!
I hope that the Biden campaign charts a course for Debate #2, scheduled to take place one week from now, that allows Biden to continue to show his strong ethical and public policy- making strengths.
Trump, at this point in his political career, is primarily a bar brawler, and a very ugly and belligerent one at that.
The Biden team have to negotiate terms for the final Debate so that Biden, rather than Trump, get to dictate the debate protocol.
If Trump refuses to abide by the protocol, then the Biden team would be wise to exit the debate and move to a conversation that resembles that of this evening.
Thank you Heather for this clear summation of tonight's debates. I watched alittle of both, but settled on the Biden Town Hall. It was reassuring to hear Biden put forth a plan in lieu of watching Trump throw blame and make his free airtime about him and not this Country. It was rather delightful to see Savannah Guthrie pin Trump to the wall, something other interviewers tend not to do.
However I do want to thank you explicitly for today's History Chat. I was unable to watch it in its entirety today due to a meeting . I did re-watch it this evening. It was superb, as always. Your conclusion positively broke my heart. I watched it with tears streaming as you opened up how difficult this current situation is for a Historian to maneuver through. Finer point being, a Historian of your caliber who truly cares about what is on the table for fellow Americans. Please know, your assessment, or more so, your compassion was taken to heart and forever appreciated. Thank you Heather.
Tyrannical regimes get control of the media, and the first threat they go after is the intelligencia. That will be all of us, even if we don’t have 600,000 followers. Yes, it’s scary and sobering.
And however big a challenge we are finding it to be to get out the vote, prevention now of tyrannical control is easier than underground resistance and international warfare would be after a tyrannical regime has become established.
Absolutely. I felt the same way. Your honest assessment of what the real potential of the election results could do to our democracy, our country, and us really shook me. I am so afraid of ‘him’ and the world who sees him as legit and a good thing.
Wasn't Biden a relief? Finally a voice to listen to, complete sentences, rational thoughts, empathy, plans. Please, let the Democrats take back the white house, the Senate and anything else they can get their votes on.
Thank you for your continued, excellent coverage of daily events. I have been reading and sharing your letters for over a year now. I’ve thought of printing them and putting them all together in a binder so I can look over them and see all the craziness that has occurred in our country this past year or so. Absolutely impossible to keep up with without your letters.
That being said, when Biden said, “But...I hope that it doesn’t say that we are as racially, ethnically, and religiously at odds with one another as it appears the president wants us to be...”, as part of his answer to the question by Stephanopoulos of what he would think if he lost to Trump, I reflected on people I know personally who are strongly at odds with others and don’t appear to want to come together as a country of people who are different in many ways. I have a friend who makes all her decisions based on what her pastor says, another friend who has lost most of her friends due to them believing all democrats are evil and hate their country,(because they are liberals), and another friend who left his church because of the support of many of his fellow church members for Trump, whom my friend believes is tearing our country apart. (I agree with him.) These people are not willing to accept differences nor do they want to communicate. I am afraid that we have indeed become as divided as Trump says and it will take years to soften, or heal that divide. It isn’t going to magically change overnight even if Biden wins. If Biden wins, (I so hope he does), he has a difficult road ahead of him as well as the rest of us who want a United country, not a divided one.
I keep thinking of the New Testament verse from Matthew, which says “ And the King shall answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these my brothers, you have done it to me.”. For professed Christians it’s a useful reminder to look out for the common weal, rather than simply one’s own financial benefit.
Deborah, yes! One of the lessons of the Pandemic is a palpable reminder of our interdependence. This could renew a sense of the common good. For some it has. Those who resist seem to think "common good" is code for a non-democratic Socialism.
I remember thinking that the 300+ firefighters who entered the burning towers of the World Trade Center on 9/1/1 never thought to ask the people they were helping, are you a Democrat? Or a Republican? They risked and lost their lives for their fellow Americans, their fellow human beings.
That makes me think of Mr. Rogers telling the story of how his mom told him to look at the 'helpers' in times of despair. People who truly care about others don't concern themselves much about differences, do they?
Trump is so incredibly vile, as are the Republicans who have fallen in line behind him. My belief is that Biden would win if all things were fair and equal, but with all of the cheating and voter suppression the Republicans have been engaged in, I am really worried. I do not think our country can survive another four years of this.
Trust in the election judges. Many of them have been doing this for years, are older, get paid little so do the work out of a desire to serve their country. I think the news about cheating and voter fraud is largely coming from trumps camp and is designed to make us distrust the process. Voter suppression is real but the people are fighting back and waiting in long lines and voting early to overcome this. Voter suppression is real but the people are fighting back and waiting in long lines and voting early to overcome this. I believe strongly that a Blue Wave is coming. Believe it’s possible, Sue! Believe it’s possible and imagine it. Imagine President Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris. Imagine a Democratic Majority in the Senate and the House. I can see it and I am so hopeful for America! 🙏🏽💙🌊🇺🇸
Delicious irony: trump ran for president, not expecting to win, to “improve his brand.” And in the end he not only DID NOT do so, he may well end up in jail.
When the Mango Moron jets around the country in Air Force One, a Boeing 747 that must cost thousand of dollars for every flight, in order to make his whistle campaign stops at airports to his devoted followers, WHO PAYS THE BILL? Is it the RNC, who rightfully would cover the cost of a campaign trip, or the American taxpayer, on the grounds that it is a Presidential visit to his constituents? I would like to see an accounting of these expenses, but it will probably be like his answer to the question of his Coronavirus test before the first debate.
This is a very early Business Insider article. His frequent flyer status doesn't give the taxpayers any discount, and I don't recall seeing anything mentioning the RNC covering any of it. They still owe many cities hundreds of thousands (if not more by this date) for extra security when he graces them with his magnificence.
Thank you again Professor for your summary. I voted yesterday and selected all blue candidates. I live in a mostly minority precinct and was encouraged with the turnout and the efficiency of the voting place. We must Vote the republicans out. NC will turn blue
Thank you for the concise summary, HCR. The Republican party is showing its seamy underbelly with their lack of compassion for the struggles of everyday Americans. Trump and his sycophants are acting like renters who are about to be evicted for not paying rent so they're going to trash the place out of spite. Pardon my language but what a bunch of shit heels!
On a lighter note, Tik Tokkers, et al, were banding together much like when they all reserved tickets to 45's rally. They planned to tune into Biden's Town Hall on ALL of their devices (phones, laptops, TV etc.) to give Joe Biden a huge bump viewership numbers. Way to hit Trump where it hurts most; his fragile ego.
Nixon's behavior was criminal but his party opposed him in the Senate when it came out. I think the turning point was Gingrich's Contract on America. Gingrich, who loudly called out Bill Clinton's sexual sins and pretended to be of good character, while leaving his first wife for another woman while his wife was in the hospital with cancer.
Nixon also enlarged Fed Gov expenditure and the defecit and in those days this was still "a red rag to the bull" to the Goldwaterites. Eisenhower also had a long-lasting wartime affaire with his English secretary by the way.
In many ways Teddy Roosevelt became an anti-money President too with his Trust busting. They hated this Republican Presidant as if he was Democrat...what an insult!
They all pale in comparison. I was so much younger, caught up in my career, no way as interested in the politics of the day as I am now... but Newt was such a joke, I thought it was such an anomaly, and a low point for Republicans. Geez!?!
This time, with Trump, they got somebody doing much of what they want whom they hadn't paid, but they can't control him. He's doing it strictly for himself. They had put their money on McConnell etc and that's what will remain....the placement of "Right-wing" judges favoring the "corporate" position. Next time they'll back somebody they can control....if we let them.
“Burning Down the House” is about Gingrich. I never liked him, but I didn’t know he SET OUT to tear down dem speakers of the house but he thought it was way past time for repubs to govern again (I didn’t remember it, but the book said the Dems had had the house for like 40 years. Newt set out to destroy.)
And Ed Meese, one of Reagan's controllers, chief of Staff at the WH and paid before, during and ever since by Koch, in the prior years......and then there is the funding of Goldwater to add to the long list. The Republican Party has represented the "rich"in one way or another since Andrew Johnson and the death of Lincoln. There have just been a very few short interludes when they were wrongfooted by their support for GOP Presidential candidates......Eisenhower for instance.
The absence of Eisenhower in any Republican "history" always reminds me of how far the Republicans have traveled away from honest decency. Instead, we have to watch politicians betray Americans in real-time while some Americans blindly applaud the betrayal. If Eisenhower stepped into the events of today, he would be appalled.
Indeed I'm sure he would;they weren't exactly "decent" before him either. Only the "practicalities" of the 1939-45 war effectively ended the segregation of the Buffalo Soldiers...and Hoover was far from being "long forgotten"!
I'm not suggesting that there were no failures, that's a given with humans. I'm suggesting that overall Eisenhower provided a model that has been abandoned.
Unfortunately you can expext neither freedom of speech nor a comprehension of the historical context either on social media or many other channels these days. We didn't before have the avalanche of hate that now affects anyone "offending" either against precepts of "political correctness" or any other mind destroying ideology if you dare expose any personal opinion or fact-based argument.
It's funny but the current Democrats now represent their own pre-civil war worst nightmare...the coming together of the Afro-American, "non-propertied" (or non-plantation owner) whites with other "undesireables" to overturn the control by the moneymen of government.
I think it has been a very long, slow decrepitude of the collective Republican soul.
Dr. Richardson can correct me on this -- she would be the expert in the room -- but I believe the modern Republican Party dates to the 1930's. The Republicans of the late 1800's were a very different beast than the modern party, and (of course) the Republicans prior to the Civil War were Whigs, not Republicans. The Republican Party was strongly identified with the economic policies of the 1890's through 1920's, which ended in the Great Depression and WWII, with FDR -- a Democrat -- at the helm. As I understand it, we came very close to losing our democracy under FDR: he was being pressured to suspend the constitution and become a dictator, in order to stop the spread of Communism in the US and quell the Farm Rebellion. Instead, he -- and his advisors -- implemented a hybrid capitalist/socialist economic model with major concessions to Farm and Labor, including substantial banking reform, the 40-hour week, legalized unions, abolition of child labor, and many other things we take for granted as part of our working world. These policies were extremely popular, and -- contrary to all dire predictions from the Republicans -- highly successful.
From my take, the Republican Party ossified in the 1940's as the "opposition party." Even when they had power, they were looking backward, not forward, trying to undo what they saw as the "excesses" of the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party was sympathetic in the 1960's to Equal Rights for women and blacks, sustaining Social Security, advancing public health, abolishing poverty, winning the space race and landing on the moon; in the 1970's, addressing the looming energy crisis, climate change and species extinction, overpopulation, consumer protection; in the 1990's, the Internet and novel trade partnerships in a newly multi-polar world after the collapse of the USSR.
I cannot think of ANY equivalent initiatives from the Republican side. The big expenditures by the Republicans were imagined by the Democrats, and then either derided and defunded, or turned to warfare, by the Republicans. I would be happy to be corrected on this, as I'm well-aware I'm biased: I'd like to see ANY collection of Republican initiatives since 1950 that show the kind of forward-looking vision of just the Apollo Project alone.
Barring such correction, I'll simply say that the Republicans since the 1940's have been looking exclusively backward, acting -- at their very best -- as a cautionary drag on the excessive ebullience of the Democrats.
Republicans have not had any forward-looking vision for the country for eighty years, while the Democrats flooded us with visions, maybe too many.
Republicans have consequently (since the 1940's) had trouble attracting votes. They have no vision; they are not attractive. So all of their focus has been on collecting votes by any other means possible. Dog-whistle politics. Fear-mongering. Pandering to single-issue voters with hot-button issues. Pandering to the oligarchs. Gerrymandering. Poison pill legislation. Corruption. Sycophancy. And now -- soullessness.
This year, they did not even bother with a "platform." They stand for exactly nothing. Their "win," should they get one, is entirely engineered, entirely synthetic, entirely soulless. It is not American. It's just business.
Mr. Nemeth, your writing is as concise and compelling as Professor Richardson’s. I don’t know if I can think of any legislation advanced by Republicans that feels visionary and expansive. I remember my parents telling us (my siblings and me) that our president, Jimmy Carter, had asked us to turn down the heat, drive less, unplug our appliances to conserve energy, and we felt like we were part of something important—even in a time of restriction. And they were appalled when Reagan took down the solar panels at the White House that Carter had erected.
I am biased, though, too, and not as well-read as you are. You inspire me to read more.
PBS on Wednesday evening had a clip of dt saying that while he expects to stay president, it's possible he will lose the election and that's okay with him. I suspect it's him being shrewd rather than a true reflection of his feeling or intentions. I still believe there is little he and his crew won't do to extend his "leadership."
I spell revenge ‘AMY CONEY BARRETT’ I still am trying to catch my breath over the hearings. Thank goodness Biden did such a good job. But I am still traumatized from the hearings. It’s like when I got diagnosed with a serious disease a few years back. I can’t shake the horror of this reality.
I will resume making phone calls but the weight on my heart and head is overwhelming.
Thank you, as I say every day, for being here, putting it all together for us, and providing us with a safe house to gather together.
According to Fox, during his time Donald also mouthed the words "I denounce white supremacy." Anyone who believes that, is looking for excuses to go along with him. But he certainly might be looking for the best way to handle a resounding defeat at the polls, one that would allow him to keep his millions of marks and continue to con them.
Shrewd! It sounds antinomical as it suggests a high degree of intelligence, a fine analysis of the situation and deliberate construction of a message. Sly, inconsequent, cunning, devious, hypocritical or speaking without due thought and consideration for the meaning and impact of his words.....most certainly.
I was recently moved by an interview with AOC in which she noted that young people of her generation don't know about "bipartisanship." There has been no experience of bipartisanship in their lives. That the absence of this experience represents a generational gap. Young people don't have a longing for a "vintage fantasy" of bipartisanship that brought about transformative change for working people. In their experience bipartisanship got us into the Iraq war, student debt, endless war, bank bailouts, expanded military, larger give-aways to Wall St, expanded fossil fuel infrastructures, racial injustice, and economic injustice for working people. What actually brought about transformative change was Democratic majorities, not bipartisanship! Bipartisanship for the sake of bipartisanship is not a virtue. It depends on what we are trying to accomplish and what we are using that bipartisanship for. This electorate, at this time in history---and for the first time for young people---wants Democrats to deliver transformative, bold change in the lives of working class Americans. However she is characterized, AOC keeps reminding up of our history and our mission.
She is actually on to something. When you think of how we got into this soup, it is because the Republicans cheated. Cheated on gerrymandering. Cheated on stymying Obama's judicial appointments. And so many more. Democrats let them because they were under the impression that moderation was the way forward. And look where we are now.
Here's my question about the Court and the ACA, and the GOP nefarious plan to undo it with Miss Amy's help.
If Biden wins AND Dems take the Senate, why couldn't the ACA be reconstructed as a new entity, fixing the bits that have been shown to be problematic, and presenting it as brand new legislation? I'm assuming the Court, in its current (with Amy) configuration, would say it's unconstitutional, but what, specifically, could they legally get away with? Is it possible that this would tie the Court's hands, or not?
And if the legislative branch “creates” it, doesn’t it become constitutional? Only legislators can create and enact policy she says. I haven’t read about this case to know why the ACA could be “unconstitutional.” Can anyone tell me? I will look it up otherwise but I love reading these posts.
I’m hoping TCinLA and Russell Munves can become friends! 💙🌊
I can think of about 300 million things besides an *advertising campaign* to help us “defeat despair” over the coronavirus — PPE. Vaccine Research. Wage Replacement. ...
Even a Basket Of Kittens for every family would be a better use of *our* money!
Thanks for your tireless efforts to give us clarity. I know I am not alone in thinking, if it weren’t for you, our oracle of historic reference and grounding, we would be spinning into insanity. I hope you have been taking care of yourself. Hopefully soon you will be able to take a well-deserved rest.
The town halls were a good moment to see what a difference we are faced with. Biden was a realistic reminder of what a president should do for us and Trump was a nightmare friggin reality show. America loves its reality shows, but its time to change the channel and get back to reality itself.
The original debate was a shitshow because one guy was there to debate and the other was there to set the world ablaze. Without having to battle the constant haranguing and adolescent tactics, Biden was able to show us the way a president should lead.
I was struck by the similarity of tRump’s EMPHATIC statement that the repubs would protect coverage for pre-existing conditions in a new healthcare plan, and the EQUALLY EMPHATIC statements in 2016 that they would not put through the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice close to an election. There is NO WAY IN HELL anyone should believe anything they say!!!
“Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.”
Heather,
Thanks for a very fine column!
Biden made a good showing in Debate # 1, but his Town Hall performance tonight was a MUCH greater success!
I hope that the Biden campaign charts a course for Debate #2, scheduled to take place one week from now, that allows Biden to continue to show his strong ethical and public policy- making strengths.
Trump, at this point in his political career, is primarily a bar brawler, and a very ugly and belligerent one at that.
The Biden team have to negotiate terms for the final Debate so that Biden, rather than Trump, get to dictate the debate protocol.
If Trump refuses to abide by the protocol, then the Biden team would be wise to exit the debate and move to a conversation that resembles that of this evening.
Your definition of Trump as a “bar brawler” is excellent!
Thank you Heather for this clear summation of tonight's debates. I watched alittle of both, but settled on the Biden Town Hall. It was reassuring to hear Biden put forth a plan in lieu of watching Trump throw blame and make his free airtime about him and not this Country. It was rather delightful to see Savannah Guthrie pin Trump to the wall, something other interviewers tend not to do.
However I do want to thank you explicitly for today's History Chat. I was unable to watch it in its entirety today due to a meeting . I did re-watch it this evening. It was superb, as always. Your conclusion positively broke my heart. I watched it with tears streaming as you opened up how difficult this current situation is for a Historian to maneuver through. Finer point being, a Historian of your caliber who truly cares about what is on the table for fellow Americans. Please know, your assessment, or more so, your compassion was taken to heart and forever appreciated. Thank you Heather.
From Thursday's chat: "...If it does happen [Trump wins] , I don't expect yoi will be hearing from people like me any longer."
Tyrannical regimes get control of the media, and the first threat they go after is the intelligencia. That will be all of us, even if we don’t have 600,000 followers. Yes, it’s scary and sobering.
And however big a challenge we are finding it to be to get out the vote, prevention now of tyrannical control is easier than underground resistance and international warfare would be after a tyrannical regime has become established.
When I heard that, MaryPat, it really shook me up.
That started the waterworks for me....
Me too. 😭
Absolutely. I felt the same way. Your honest assessment of what the real potential of the election results could do to our democracy, our country, and us really shook me. I am so afraid of ‘him’ and the world who sees him as legit and a good thing.
“BUT IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE,” Said a bunch of Germans in the 1930s.
Wasn't Biden a relief? Finally a voice to listen to, complete sentences, rational thoughts, empathy, plans. Please, let the Democrats take back the white house, the Senate and anything else they can get their votes on.
Thank you for your continued, excellent coverage of daily events. I have been reading and sharing your letters for over a year now. I’ve thought of printing them and putting them all together in a binder so I can look over them and see all the craziness that has occurred in our country this past year or so. Absolutely impossible to keep up with without your letters.
That being said, when Biden said, “But...I hope that it doesn’t say that we are as racially, ethnically, and religiously at odds with one another as it appears the president wants us to be...”, as part of his answer to the question by Stephanopoulos of what he would think if he lost to Trump, I reflected on people I know personally who are strongly at odds with others and don’t appear to want to come together as a country of people who are different in many ways. I have a friend who makes all her decisions based on what her pastor says, another friend who has lost most of her friends due to them believing all democrats are evil and hate their country,(because they are liberals), and another friend who left his church because of the support of many of his fellow church members for Trump, whom my friend believes is tearing our country apart. (I agree with him.) These people are not willing to accept differences nor do they want to communicate. I am afraid that we have indeed become as divided as Trump says and it will take years to soften, or heal that divide. It isn’t going to magically change overnight even if Biden wins. If Biden wins, (I so hope he does), he has a difficult road ahead of him as well as the rest of us who want a United country, not a divided one.
I keep thinking of the New Testament verse from Matthew, which says “ And the King shall answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these my brothers, you have done it to me.”. For professed Christians it’s a useful reminder to look out for the common weal, rather than simply one’s own financial benefit.
Deborah, yes! One of the lessons of the Pandemic is a palpable reminder of our interdependence. This could renew a sense of the common good. For some it has. Those who resist seem to think "common good" is code for a non-democratic Socialism.
This is a verse that has been going through my mind frequently!!!
I remember thinking that the 300+ firefighters who entered the burning towers of the World Trade Center on 9/1/1 never thought to ask the people they were helping, are you a Democrat? Or a Republican? They risked and lost their lives for their fellow Americans, their fellow human beings.
That makes me think of Mr. Rogers telling the story of how his mom told him to look at the 'helpers' in times of despair. People who truly care about others don't concern themselves much about differences, do they?
Trump is so incredibly vile, as are the Republicans who have fallen in line behind him. My belief is that Biden would win if all things were fair and equal, but with all of the cheating and voter suppression the Republicans have been engaged in, I am really worried. I do not think our country can survive another four years of this.
Trust in the election judges. Many of them have been doing this for years, are older, get paid little so do the work out of a desire to serve their country. I think the news about cheating and voter fraud is largely coming from trumps camp and is designed to make us distrust the process. Voter suppression is real but the people are fighting back and waiting in long lines and voting early to overcome this. Voter suppression is real but the people are fighting back and waiting in long lines and voting early to overcome this. I believe strongly that a Blue Wave is coming. Believe it’s possible, Sue! Believe it’s possible and imagine it. Imagine President Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris. Imagine a Democratic Majority in the Senate and the House. I can see it and I am so hopeful for America! 🙏🏽💙🌊🇺🇸
Sorry about the double sentence. I didn’t mean to emphasize that, I was using talk to text and thought it didn’t work. 💙🌊💙🌊💙🌊
No, we cannot.
Delicious irony: trump ran for president, not expecting to win, to “improve his brand.” And in the end he not only DID NOT do so, he may well end up in jail.
And his brand will have the touch of "death" to it...and be anathema to all "marketeers".
From your lips to the goddesses' ears.
Just a quick question...this has been bugging me.
When the Mango Moron jets around the country in Air Force One, a Boeing 747 that must cost thousand of dollars for every flight, in order to make his whistle campaign stops at airports to his devoted followers, WHO PAYS THE BILL? Is it the RNC, who rightfully would cover the cost of a campaign trip, or the American taxpayer, on the grounds that it is a Presidential visit to his constituents? I would like to see an accounting of these expenses, but it will probably be like his answer to the question of his Coronavirus test before the first debate.
This is a very early Business Insider article. His frequent flyer status doesn't give the taxpayers any discount, and I don't recall seeing anything mentioning the RNC covering any of it. They still owe many cities hundreds of thousands (if not more by this date) for extra security when he graces them with his magnificence.
https://www.businessinsider.com/air-force-one-travel-costs-president-trump-2017-2
Thank you again Professor for your summary. I voted yesterday and selected all blue candidates. I live in a mostly minority precinct and was encouraged with the turnout and the efficiency of the voting place. We must Vote the republicans out. NC will turn blue
Thank you for the concise summary, HCR. The Republican party is showing its seamy underbelly with their lack of compassion for the struggles of everyday Americans. Trump and his sycophants are acting like renters who are about to be evicted for not paying rent so they're going to trash the place out of spite. Pardon my language but what a bunch of shit heels!
On a lighter note, Tik Tokkers, et al, were banding together much like when they all reserved tickets to 45's rally. They planned to tune into Biden's Town Hall on ALL of their devices (phones, laptops, TV etc.) to give Joe Biden a huge bump viewership numbers. Way to hit Trump where it hurts most; his fragile ego.
Hurray tik tokkers! Does anyone know yet how that worked?
When did elected Republicans collectively sell their souls? 😔
About 1995, I think, under Newt's 'leadership'.
Yes, Newt was almost as vile as trump. I think we need to go back further, though, to Nixon.
Nixon's behavior was criminal but his party opposed him in the Senate when it came out. I think the turning point was Gingrich's Contract on America. Gingrich, who loudly called out Bill Clinton's sexual sins and pretended to be of good character, while leaving his first wife for another woman while his wife was in the hospital with cancer.
Nixon also enlarged Fed Gov expenditure and the defecit and in those days this was still "a red rag to the bull" to the Goldwaterites. Eisenhower also had a long-lasting wartime affaire with his English secretary by the way.
In many ways Teddy Roosevelt became an anti-money President too with his Trust busting. They hated this Republican Presidant as if he was Democrat...what an insult!
Yes, I can remember exactly how I felt at the time.
They all pale in comparison. I was so much younger, caught up in my career, no way as interested in the politics of the day as I am now... but Newt was such a joke, I thought it was such an anomaly, and a low point for Republicans. Geez!?!
This time, with Trump, they got somebody doing much of what they want whom they hadn't paid, but they can't control him. He's doing it strictly for himself. They had put their money on McConnell etc and that's what will remain....the placement of "Right-wing" judges favoring the "corporate" position. Next time they'll back somebody they can control....if we let them.
Dear Lord....
“Burning Down the House” is about Gingrich. I never liked him, but I didn’t know he SET OUT to tear down dem speakers of the house but he thought it was way past time for repubs to govern again (I didn’t remember it, but the book said the Dems had had the house for like 40 years. Newt set out to destroy.)
Nixon "disappointed" the moneymen too in part!
Not "was," "is." He's still slithering his way through clubs, offices, and policy meetings.
Ugh
And Ed Meese, one of Reagan's controllers, chief of Staff at the WH and paid before, during and ever since by Koch, in the prior years......and then there is the funding of Goldwater to add to the long list. The Republican Party has represented the "rich"in one way or another since Andrew Johnson and the death of Lincoln. There have just been a very few short interludes when they were wrongfooted by their support for GOP Presidential candidates......Eisenhower for instance.
The absence of Eisenhower in any Republican "history" always reminds me of how far the Republicans have traveled away from honest decency. Instead, we have to watch politicians betray Americans in real-time while some Americans blindly applaud the betrayal. If Eisenhower stepped into the events of today, he would be appalled.
Indeed I'm sure he would;they weren't exactly "decent" before him either. Only the "practicalities" of the 1939-45 war effectively ended the segregation of the Buffalo Soldiers...and Hoover was far from being "long forgotten"!
I'm not suggesting that there were no failures, that's a given with humans. I'm suggesting that overall Eisenhower provided a model that has been abandoned.
An endangered breed indeed! Like the white and black R(h)ino.
I made a meme once that would now be banned on facebook:
THE ONLY GOOD REPUBLICAN IS A DEAD REPUBLICAN
Of course I refer to Dwight Eisenhower
the only decent republican in my lifetime
Unfortunately you can expext neither freedom of speech nor a comprehension of the historical context either on social media or many other channels these days. We didn't before have the avalanche of hate that now affects anyone "offending" either against precepts of "political correctness" or any other mind destroying ideology if you dare expose any personal opinion or fact-based argument.
It's funny but the current Democrats now represent their own pre-civil war worst nightmare...the coming together of the Afro-American, "non-propertied" (or non-plantation owner) whites with other "undesireables" to overturn the control by the moneymen of government.
When Ronnie Reagan showed them the way.
I think it has been a very long, slow decrepitude of the collective Republican soul.
Dr. Richardson can correct me on this -- she would be the expert in the room -- but I believe the modern Republican Party dates to the 1930's. The Republicans of the late 1800's were a very different beast than the modern party, and (of course) the Republicans prior to the Civil War were Whigs, not Republicans. The Republican Party was strongly identified with the economic policies of the 1890's through 1920's, which ended in the Great Depression and WWII, with FDR -- a Democrat -- at the helm. As I understand it, we came very close to losing our democracy under FDR: he was being pressured to suspend the constitution and become a dictator, in order to stop the spread of Communism in the US and quell the Farm Rebellion. Instead, he -- and his advisors -- implemented a hybrid capitalist/socialist economic model with major concessions to Farm and Labor, including substantial banking reform, the 40-hour week, legalized unions, abolition of child labor, and many other things we take for granted as part of our working world. These policies were extremely popular, and -- contrary to all dire predictions from the Republicans -- highly successful.
From my take, the Republican Party ossified in the 1940's as the "opposition party." Even when they had power, they were looking backward, not forward, trying to undo what they saw as the "excesses" of the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party was sympathetic in the 1960's to Equal Rights for women and blacks, sustaining Social Security, advancing public health, abolishing poverty, winning the space race and landing on the moon; in the 1970's, addressing the looming energy crisis, climate change and species extinction, overpopulation, consumer protection; in the 1990's, the Internet and novel trade partnerships in a newly multi-polar world after the collapse of the USSR.
I cannot think of ANY equivalent initiatives from the Republican side. The big expenditures by the Republicans were imagined by the Democrats, and then either derided and defunded, or turned to warfare, by the Republicans. I would be happy to be corrected on this, as I'm well-aware I'm biased: I'd like to see ANY collection of Republican initiatives since 1950 that show the kind of forward-looking vision of just the Apollo Project alone.
Barring such correction, I'll simply say that the Republicans since the 1940's have been looking exclusively backward, acting -- at their very best -- as a cautionary drag on the excessive ebullience of the Democrats.
Republicans have not had any forward-looking vision for the country for eighty years, while the Democrats flooded us with visions, maybe too many.
Republicans have consequently (since the 1940's) had trouble attracting votes. They have no vision; they are not attractive. So all of their focus has been on collecting votes by any other means possible. Dog-whistle politics. Fear-mongering. Pandering to single-issue voters with hot-button issues. Pandering to the oligarchs. Gerrymandering. Poison pill legislation. Corruption. Sycophancy. And now -- soullessness.
This year, they did not even bother with a "platform." They stand for exactly nothing. Their "win," should they get one, is entirely engineered, entirely synthetic, entirely soulless. It is not American. It's just business.
Mr. Nemeth, your writing is as concise and compelling as Professor Richardson’s. I don’t know if I can think of any legislation advanced by Republicans that feels visionary and expansive. I remember my parents telling us (my siblings and me) that our president, Jimmy Carter, had asked us to turn down the heat, drive less, unplug our appliances to conserve energy, and we felt like we were part of something important—even in a time of restriction. And they were appalled when Reagan took down the solar panels at the White House that Carter had erected.
I am biased, though, too, and not as well-read as you are. You inspire me to read more.
Thank you.
PBS on Wednesday evening had a clip of dt saying that while he expects to stay president, it's possible he will lose the election and that's okay with him. I suspect it's him being shrewd rather than a true reflection of his feeling or intentions. I still believe there is little he and his crew won't do to extend his "leadership."
What’s most scary to me is my long-held fear, which Heather has alluded to, is Trump’s revenge, which activities may be already underway.
I spell revenge ‘AMY CONEY BARRETT’ I still am trying to catch my breath over the hearings. Thank goodness Biden did such a good job. But I am still traumatized from the hearings. It’s like when I got diagnosed with a serious disease a few years back. I can’t shake the horror of this reality.
I will resume making phone calls but the weight on my heart and head is overwhelming.
Thank you, as I say every day, for being here, putting it all together for us, and providing us with a safe house to gather together.
Believe in the BLUE WAVE.
💙🌊
According to Fox, during his time Donald also mouthed the words "I denounce white supremacy." Anyone who believes that, is looking for excuses to go along with him. But he certainly might be looking for the best way to handle a resounding defeat at the polls, one that would allow him to keep his millions of marks and continue to con them.
Shrewd! It sounds antinomical as it suggests a high degree of intelligence, a fine analysis of the situation and deliberate construction of a message. Sly, inconsequent, cunning, devious, hypocritical or speaking without due thought and consideration for the meaning and impact of his words.....most certainly.
I was recently moved by an interview with AOC in which she noted that young people of her generation don't know about "bipartisanship." There has been no experience of bipartisanship in their lives. That the absence of this experience represents a generational gap. Young people don't have a longing for a "vintage fantasy" of bipartisanship that brought about transformative change for working people. In their experience bipartisanship got us into the Iraq war, student debt, endless war, bank bailouts, expanded military, larger give-aways to Wall St, expanded fossil fuel infrastructures, racial injustice, and economic injustice for working people. What actually brought about transformative change was Democratic majorities, not bipartisanship! Bipartisanship for the sake of bipartisanship is not a virtue. It depends on what we are trying to accomplish and what we are using that bipartisanship for. This electorate, at this time in history---and for the first time for young people---wants Democrats to deliver transformative, bold change in the lives of working class Americans. However she is characterized, AOC keeps reminding up of our history and our mission.
She is actually on to something. When you think of how we got into this soup, it is because the Republicans cheated. Cheated on gerrymandering. Cheated on stymying Obama's judicial appointments. And so many more. Democrats let them because they were under the impression that moderation was the way forward. And look where we are now.
AOC gives me hope for the future.
Here's my question about the Court and the ACA, and the GOP nefarious plan to undo it with Miss Amy's help.
If Biden wins AND Dems take the Senate, why couldn't the ACA be reconstructed as a new entity, fixing the bits that have been shown to be problematic, and presenting it as brand new legislation? I'm assuming the Court, in its current (with Amy) configuration, would say it's unconstitutional, but what, specifically, could they legally get away with? Is it possible that this would tie the Court's hands, or not?
Great question!
And if the legislative branch “creates” it, doesn’t it become constitutional? Only legislators can create and enact policy she says. I haven’t read about this case to know why the ACA could be “unconstitutional.” Can anyone tell me? I will look it up otherwise but I love reading these posts.
I’m hoping TCinLA and Russell Munves can become friends! 💙🌊
I can think of about 300 million things besides an *advertising campaign* to help us “defeat despair” over the coronavirus — PPE. Vaccine Research. Wage Replacement. ...
Even a Basket Of Kittens for every family would be a better use of *our* money!
Merde! You'll be giving Trump new ideas.
Thanks for your tireless efforts to give us clarity. I know I am not alone in thinking, if it weren’t for you, our oracle of historic reference and grounding, we would be spinning into insanity. I hope you have been taking care of yourself. Hopefully soon you will be able to take a well-deserved rest.
The town halls were a good moment to see what a difference we are faced with. Biden was a realistic reminder of what a president should do for us and Trump was a nightmare friggin reality show. America loves its reality shows, but its time to change the channel and get back to reality itself.
The original debate was a shitshow because one guy was there to debate and the other was there to set the world ablaze. Without having to battle the constant haranguing and adolescent tactics, Biden was able to show us the way a president should lead.
I was struck by the similarity of tRump’s EMPHATIC statement that the repubs would protect coverage for pre-existing conditions in a new healthcare plan, and the EQUALLY EMPHATIC statements in 2016 that they would not put through the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice close to an election. There is NO WAY IN HELL anyone should believe anything they say!!!
“Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.”