This morning, conservative pundit William Kristol wrote in The Bulwark what a number of us have been saying for a while now, and it dovetails cleanly with the current Republican attempt to suppress voting. Kristol warns that our democracy is in crisis. For the first time in our history, we have failed to have a peaceful transfer of power. The Republican Party launched a coup—which fortunately failed—and “now claims that the current administration is illegitimately elected, the result of massive, coordinated fraud. The logical extension of this position would seem to be that the American constitutional order deserving of our allegiance no longer exists.”
"I cannot emphasize enough how dangerous this is." I might be forgetting, but I don't remember Heather writing this sentence in any of the hundreds of letters she's written these past 17 months. How is it possible that we voted him out, that we won the Senate, and yet it seems we are in more danger than ever? How is it possible that rather than see that as a call to back away from these lies, to back away from all of this poisonous anti-democratic white supremacist horror, they've double down? Quadrupled down? I am spent. I hope I can get unspent so that I can do whatever I can, but I am spent.
How is it possible? I think this is actually a function of federalism, in that while the Democrats have (narrowly) won a majority in the federal elections, the Republicans still hold a majority of state political offices. And the states, especially after Shelby, have near-absolute control over access to voting.
Here in Georgia, this aspects fills me with despair. Despite no evidence of election insecurity, widespread disapproval from the public, impassioned alarm from the Democratic minority, my legislature is quickly moving ahead with voter suppression measures similar to those HCR mentioned above. The fact that the Republican-led Secretary of State's office found no fraud and the election procedures were overhauled just a few years ago has no bearing on the machinations of the Republicans in my House and Senate.
The despair? It come from realizing that the Republicans in my state legislature (italics here) do not care what I think and they do not want to protect my interests (end italics), because since I didn't vote for them, I am their enemy. In a very real sense, I have already been disenfranchised. No matter how many letters I write or how much money I donate, I will never affect the actions of a Republican representative.
The are no longer interested in democracy, because if a political party is never willing to lose and never willing to be wrong, they will never be able to participate in a democratic government. Their vision has shrunken, they will never be better than oligarchs.
Yes. Yes. This is how it is possible, yes. I didn't literally not know how. THIS is how. But still....how can it be this bad? How can THEY be this bad as human beings? So many so powerful. I cannot accept it. My mind cannot. I cannot give up. And yet, as you say, such despair. And terror. OK. It's almost 4 in the morning. I'd better shut up now.
I suggest people check out some of the series on the History Channel about Hitler and WWII. What I learned in school in the history books 50-60 years ago doesn't tell the whole story. It's frightening to see the similarities between the republican party of today and the rise of Hitler.
Janet I’m watching Rick Steve’s show on fascism and I almost didn’t because I’ve read so much about wwI and I but the interviews and footage is such a great synopsis. Thank you!
Everyone should watch RS on European fascism. Even those well-versed in the subject will learn something new. Whether in this special or his regular programs, Rick always has the right perspective, the right touch.
Yes, Janet. It's not that I don't remember. I am a second generation American Jew with great aunts, uncles, and cousins who were tortured and murdered. It beyond "remembering," in a sense, because I was born into this knowledge.
And yet. I am having great difficulty fully believing that it is happening, or could easily happen, here in the US. I understand the mechanics of it now (poo pooed the concerns before Trump, but not anymore of course), I'm just having difficulty dealing with it, fully in my bones believing it.
This is where my family came for safety. Before the war and after. This is America. Not that as Jews we didn't know that danger always lurks -- in quieter ways than it does for people of color -- but no Jew of a certain background can ever feel completely safe. But that that danger could be on the threshold of having the upper hand?
It's causing me intense cognitive dissonance. Emotional dissonance, if that is such a thing. I will continue to do what I can to fight. There's no other choice. I'm not someone who can just go "cultivate my own garden" -- tho my garden is one of the few places where I can feel a measure of freedom from this and sometimes I DO wish I could just stay there. But I cannot.
I have been part of the quiet resistance these past four years, writing postcards to voters, making phone calls to lawmakers, giving small amounts of money to whomever I thought best. I know that there was a small army of us who made a difference in this way, rarely getting attention (not sexy, women writing postcards), but crucial to helping accomplish what we did. And I will continue. It's just extremely disheartening and outright frightening right now.
Naomi, although I am not Jewish, I share your concerns, and they are tied to WWII. I was born during the war, and my earliest contact with adult conversation dealt with its horrors. We knew several Jewish people who managed to escape the Holocaust, and had neighbors who had spent years in DP camps in Europe, finally managing to make it to this country. The wife told my mother that I taught her son to speak English - apparently, my bossy nature was revealed at an early age! I still am horrified by these stories, and a visit to Auschwitz haunts me to this day. I, too, believe that these hideous fascists would jump at the chance to impose their sickness on us. Until the last four years, I never believed it was possible, but the hate-mongering is happening, and is incumbent upon all of us to educate our friends and renounce this filth. The army is larger than we think, so we can continue with the postcards, donations, and phone calls. Most of Germany didn't see it coming, but we have the benefit of hindsight.
Dearest Nomi, I cannot even begin to imagine. Your response of “intense cognitive . . . Emotional dissonance” to the vision of danger we may be seeing on the horizon feels heartbreaking. Cultivating our gardens nourishes not only our bodies but also our souls. And, I feel that is important work.
Meanwhile, on this day our Supreme Court hears what may be described as voting rights arguments and appears to be leaning toward restriction it may be time for a louder resistance.
...Supported and funded by a cabal that has been infiltrating our government for decades and are now well-placed throughout, including propaganda media and cyber warfare tearing us apart. We also have normalized anti-democracy, egregious behaviors and not called them out every single day beginning with "shooting someone on 5th Ave" and allowing a tyrant king to meet alone with a dangerous dictator and his minions.
We could solve some fraction of this to move forward by ousting the fricking seditionists we are allowing to make laws in our democracy, pretending they are normal people. That is what hurts my brain the most. Why have we standing for this and struggling to be "bi-partisan?" Thank you, Heather, for stating what the reality is, finally. We have been in a Constitutional crisis for years. And now the radical fanatics are normalized. The heads of this snake (cult leader and his SS machine) need to be removed, immediately.
Freedom of speech, for some, must be earned after proving and signing on to the overthrow of our democracy. Dems, progressives, independents and republicans who respect our Democracy need to act swiftly. Swiftly, I have been saying for years.
Our Justice system must act as quickly as our COVID response is finally acting.
We started the process when Andrew Johnson allowed the Southern Aristocracy back into power after the Civil War by simply declaring their allegieance to the Republic!
I finished reading "Dark Money" last night. Over the years William Kristol has been part of the Koch program. I find it ironic that he's now trying to fix the problem he helped make.
I have never understood why a person who uses the language: "shooting someone on 5th Ave", could be considered remotely acceptable as a Presidential candidate, let alone a “failed” businessman. Politicians need to be held to a different standard if you will. We all often say things we do not mean - a joke, trying to be “clever” - and the fallout is possibly minimal. We apologize, hopefully learn, and move on. In politics a different standard is and should be required. I have never understood the attitude: “Oh he didn’t really mean it!” I am probably naive, but that’s what my father taught me: “If you dont meant it, keep your mouth shut!”
Well, I have been obsessed since I was a child in how fascist regimes and cults rise. What T***p did to 30% of our population was textbook. He used his rallies, Twitter and Fox (as did Russian cyber warfare of bots and trolls) to target ripe populations ready for a messianic leader. He carefully messaged them with propaganda (neurolinguistic programming) in a very repetitive manner and used chanting and collectivized programming. Notice, he held rallies tweets continually throughout his presidency to maintain that mind control--was that not strange? That "shoot someone on Park Ave," in my mind was his big test to see if the brainwashing had solidified. It was a HUGE success. He and totalitarianism won at the moment and a sane America lost. Even the MSM bought it and did not make a big deal out of any of his propagandist techniques and spreading of lies and fear and division. This is how tyranny spreads and how a people are exploited. The lack of reaction in our country during the 2016 campaign after that most shocking of statements
was the pivotal moment in our history. At least it was for me.
Oh, it started long before Trump. They have been using the same rhetoric since the inception of the Republic. White supremacism has never left us, it just became more effective and vocal over the past 20 years. Xenophobia and racism became de rigueur after 9/11 and have grown in power ever since.
Exactly. Trump was just a bigger megaphone and gave people permission to do the same and mainly for his subbing the rule of law. Our founding father's were white supremacists!
Bookstores and libraries are my natural habitat. Do you run or work in a bookstore, or recommend to someone else's? Since we're both in MA, I'd consider giving you some business (but not "the business").
Thanks for the book recomendation. I think Heather has mentioned that title by Arendt, or maybe you did a few days ago. I'm still on lockdown but my pile of economics, politics and History books goes down one and then up two.
Someone else mentioned it a couple of weeks ago; now I endorse their endorsement. I believe Arendt pioneered the idea that the political spectrum is a circle, not a line. That places totalitarians like Hitler and Stalin next to each other, not at opposite ends.
And giving permission for people to vent their darkest prejudices. Great comments from everyone recommending different books and programs. I suggest reading Gellately's Backing Hitler, showing how the German public largely supported and cheered on the horrors of the Third Reich.
A decade ago I met my state senator for a drink to talk about my no longer being a lobbyist, and starting my new business. But before we could talk about my future, he was just giddy to talk about his: He and his Republican pals in the Michigan legislature had just finished gerrymandering. "We'll be in office forever!" That was the day I stopped voting Republican. My friend had gone over to the dark side, but he saw it all as a great, fun game. We have term limits in this state. He was soon gone.
I live in a Democratic stronghold, Maryland, where the Congressional Districts are outrageously gerrymandered. You only need to look at Dist 3, to get the idea. Gerrymandering and it's "giddy" delight is non-partisan. Whichever party is in control of the state gerrymanders it to their favor, thus planning to rule "forever." What is surprising is that a Republican won the Governorship. Oops. The state House and Senate remain Democratic. I'm grateful, but I'm now anti-party and pro-independent. I don't know that my choice makes a difference, but I vote carefully and I feel better.
I'm in the 5th - recently I got a letter that was pro-gerrymandering. MD Democrats are in a tough spot - keeping things as they are keeps it safely Democratic but we are suppose to (rightly so) be anti-gerrymandering. What is good for the goose I guess - which means we might find ourselves a swing state yet!
That great democrat, Thomas Jefferson, claimed that most citizens were inately capable of distinuishing wrong from right and would ultimately do the right thing. This was why he claimed "all men are created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights." And those who were deficient in knowing wrong from right could be educated. And that enormous task continues 245 years later.
With each undemocratic excess committed by the Trumpublicans, a few real Republicans might begin to see the basic difference between right and wrong and I hope modify their views. It will take a long time, but it will happen and the party of Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower will resume its rightful place, getting rid of the CPAC trash which now dominates it, just as the racist trash which dominated the Democratic Party up until the 1960's was ultimately gotten rid of.
I saw a movement at the CPAC event to start a new party, "The Patriots." If the trumpers succeed in breaking off from "The Republicans", rather than keeping control of it, could that be a good thing and the beginning of their demise?
“Evil is banal”-Hannah Arendt. Evil is ordinary. All ordinary people are capable of cruelty, of atrocities, of just following orders, and of looking away.
This is exactly the situation in my state, Florida. In his response to my last letter to Rick Scott, he spewed The Big Lie and more. Our Governor was #2 pick for President in 2024 behind 45 among CPAC attendees. And add at least one more thing, gerrymandering. Heck, add dark money. I see no other solution than doing away with the filibuster in order to pass necessary legislation. I have never been so involved in politics but I am a young retiree and feel compelled to do so to ensure my retirement remains secure!
I’m with you, Daria. I now have 3 forms of heart arrhythmia. My heart is literally broken by all this nonsense. I can only read so much these days. Hoping the heart electrician can fix me soon. In the meantime, I read Heather’s letters and not much more pertaining to the news.
Huge uphill battle. I'm putting my efforts into Nikki Fried's campaign. She hasn't yet announced a run for Governor, but it's a matter of time. Florida is an expensive media market so she will need national support. Anybody here on Twitter can follow her here:
Agree!! I’m listening to the Lincoln project podcasts and their mission is to secure our democracy. The cast consists of former republicans who in 2020 spent $81B to oust 45 and are eager to do the same to these congressional trumpists who call themselves “republicans”, all the while trying to destroy our country, and betraying to their oath to defend our constitution.
Watch the videos, fine. I enjoy them myself. But please don't donate. The Lincoln Project are anti-Trump, but they are still small government Republicans. Not to mention the sexual predation and money management scandals that have arisen among the founding group.
Kelly, I sometimes think Florida is a lost cause. I have also written to Scott and Rubio to no avail. But almost even worse is my congressman, Gus Bilirakis, who puts out a newsletter each week. He spews partisan garbage and then has the nerve to say he is the most bi-partisan congressman in the House. I nearly throw up reading it. And then today I read a post from a Florida FB group saying that DeSantis has a good chance of being re-elected. I am frustrated and really don't know what to do.
In Florida, if you follow how the Republicans used Spanish media print, radio, social media and TV claiming the Democrats were socialists and won the Cuban and Hispanic vote. Start now and use that same strategy to fight back. Talk to Democratic mayors and enlist their support. Build fir the future and take back your state like Stacy did in Georgia. Its proof this can be done!
Ha! You could've been communications consultant for Nikki Fried, the only statewide elected Dem in Florida. She put this out yesterday where she not only defines herself as a Capitalist, she says it in Spanish!
Most FL Repugs are a lost cause, but don't surrender the whole state to them. Join with Dems and progressives to build an alliance to bring more responsive, responsible government to FL. It's a Herculean task but the rewards are great.
Santorum’s been licking DT boots. He’s gonna keep lickin da boot to win the nomination for VP. Now reimagine the Jan 6th riot with Dick Rick presiding over the senate.
A harsh critic of Santorum once said he wasn't fit to live with pigs. I defended him by saying he IS fit to live with pigs. (That's bad luck for the world's swine.)
I am with you - here in Idaho our legislature just passed (both houses) into law the most restrictive requirement for any voter initiative in the country requiring 100% of districts sign on. Unlike Georgia we have no active engaged resistance. We have a few pissed off white women (in my view). Without the federal government, ie; LGBT rights, common core, ADA, Abortion we would be in the dark ages. Oh we are. 50th in the nation in school spending, 17 yr olds conceal carry. Shaking my fist in an empty room.
I have a bunch of friends who want to partition out Oregon to become "Western Idaho". They should just go there and revel in their whiteness, maleness, cisgendereredness, and gunliness.
I'm so sorry. I have a lot of dear family in Idaho that I used to visit at least monthly and for the past 20 years. Just a 5 hour drive for me. I haven't been back in almost two years. It's become extremely difficult for me to be around them anymore as they have become more blazen in their language and views as ever before. They used to hold their cards to their chest when I was around. No longer. A relative sent me a photo of her at church on Ash Wednesday in the beautiful cathedral in Boise. The majority of parishioners were not social distancing or wearing masks. The Pope issued ashes to be sprinkled on the tops of heads this year so as not to touch the forehead, yet the bishop and priest in Boise still put ashes on people's foreheads. I know this sounds trivial, but these little insidious type behaviors undermine my sanity and my hope.
It is maddening that some in the Catholic Church blatantly disregard what the Pope is saying. After Pope Francis came out in support of getting vaccinated, the archbishop of New Orleans decided to tell his parishioners not to. Not only does this put people at risk, it certainly undermines the "pro-life" stance that they are touting. I guess pro-life only pertains to fetuses. And, yes, I can say this because I am Catholic. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/02/archdiocese-new-orleans-johnson-vaccine/
Horribly sad. Makes me sick. At my local cathedral, and the little tiny country church I went to during my lunch hour for Ash Wednesday, pews were blocked off, disinfectant and paper towels every where, everyone is masked (even clergy), ashes were sprinkled on heads, and on and on.
Boise is a modern city but outnumbered and surrounded by the always first and easiest to fool by demagoguery, the country folks. It’s sad, and Ammon Bundy has radicalized large swaths of the population surrounding Boise.
Agree. I was raised Catholic. New Orleans cardinal is like many, he has fallen prey to the demagoguery. His religion is not catholic any more. His religion is now DT.
Pope Francis, John XXIII, two truly fine men working a compromised environment with the world’s greatest classical music and architecture - that protects the worst, harms the best, and cons the con, as for Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, Easter, Christmas and Holy Cow, let’s face it, if you want fantasy, why leave it to Hollywood, make one up, start your own church and make a movie, call it The Chosen and film yourself... enough dark humor for a cold day in March. Spring is coming...
It’s getting to a point where I think Pope Francis (Argentinian?and what party looked the other way and supported Pinochet in neighboring Chile?) he will take the initiative, and Lead Catholics away from the Republicans. Has to, morally, now.
Ambassador Alan John Blinken lives in Ketchum, Idaho. His first cousin is Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, son of Brother Donald, another ambassador. The Blinkens know. Their great grandfather Meier was a good writer from Ukraine. We are in trouble. Never Again? How about Trump? Hawley? Cruz? The crazies of now? Mussolini was elected. Hitler was elected. It’s happening again. Wake up, America. The beaten grifter in chief may not be lying this time. Our only tool is education. He’s still breathing. Covid-19 did not take him.
Yes, education is the key tool. Thomas Jefferson included it in the eptaph he designed for his gravestone as one of the three ideals in which he strongly believed: "Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and the Father of the University of Virginia."
And North Dakota residents are ok with this - keeping them in the dark about how their votes counted in a presidential election? Or are they just not paying any attention?
Some oligarchs are very happy. Ted Cruz wouldn’t mind being our oligarch. This is real and if I die and our country is left in their hands, I’ll be miserable knowing my son will have to suffer through a dictatorship.
As Stacey Abrams so aptly pointed out, Brad Raffensperger defended the elections, not because he was supporting voter rights, but was instead was defending his shiny, new, expensive voting machines. Immediately after the election, he was busily planning to purge the voter rolls, and went from there to "assuring that the security of elections was fair" by limiting absentee ballots, demanding picture ID accompany them, removing drop boxes, etc. Don't give up yet, we still have Stacey, and we must do all that we can to help her. They'll continue to try to undermine any Democratic efforts, so we have to try not to be so "democratic" and use any and all means to cut them off at their knees! They were never trying to protect our interests, and never will, but we can't give up, Dan.
Agree about Brad R, but his actions are helpful beyond the deplorable intentions. Trumpsky's illegal GA phone call, recorded and documented, may be the straw that breaks his camel's back. (Where have we heard that before?)
I was so busy slinging mud, that I neglected to point out this very important fact. Brad recorded the call, if only to cover his butt. It will at least keep the Former Guy busy trying to keep the (his) fat out of the fire, so to speak. Thank you for being the cunning voice of reason, TPJ.😊
I’m in GA as well, the only reason GA is considered purple or blue is if we have free and fair elections, if you take away free and fair, we remain a solidly red state. That should say something about the state of democracy here in GA, and if that can be true here, then it can be true in TX, AZ, NC etc. I feel that our nation is in mortal danger.
I agree that our democracy has been greatly weakened by the DT term. He was working hard every day to dis mantle and discredit our institutions and our norms of civility. His efforts unfortunately have been very effective. I think that even if he is ultimately sent to jail he’ll still be working from there as much as he can to continue to wield power. But I also think we need to spend less attention on his evil machinations and ring kissers and support all of the work the Biden team is engaged in—they have so much damage to undo. Nothing is easy or fast in terms of the rules and protocols of our democratic system. In some respects I believe we need some patience.
"The fact that the Republican-led Secretary of State's office found no fraud and the election procedures were overhauled just a few years ago has no bearing on the machinations of the Republicans in my House and Senate."
This is the consequence of ignoring the truth and believing the BIG LIE made by their master. This was happening well before Trump, but Trump seems to have given the entire Republican party guts to follow along and strive to grab as much power as possible. They are using this lie to manipulate and gaslight Americans who have similar wants and needs and those who don't really care or understand the current threat.
I live in Georgia too! One more week and I will be cleared to protest! Got my 2nd vaccination. Heard there was a sit in at the Capital last Friday! I wish I was a less passionate person. I want to punch one of these lawmakers.
I wonder if their ears are ringing — they can’t hear us and I don’t think they are monitoring HCR’s newsletter but somebody might be curious enough to have a staffer see what we’re thinking— probably not
If they will not judge themselves, History will judge them worse than Joe McCarthy. They are willfully and knowingly violating their oaths of office, turning their backs on democracy. I believe that we have to prosecute the members who gave tours to rioters prior to Jan 6th. They aided and abetted, as the "inside man" they helped insurrectionist "case the joint" before Jan 6th. They must be held accountable, prosecuted. They must be voted out of Congress.
As I reply to u on my iPad I’m listening to Christopher Wray testifying to the senate about the insurrection. He’s certainly on board to prosecute every single one of them and he said the numbers are growing.
I believe this is already in the works. The DC AG is laying the groundwork, and examining the videos of tours being conducted for the insurrectionists on 1/6, and the insiders who were conducting them.
I agree—I’m watching Christopher Wray answer Lindsey Graham’s question. I googled Wray and he’s a republican worth between 20–to 40 ish million$. I admire
him though. He’s a good leader and so smart and he actually does something important. Linds3y tried to look like he would be willing to give him more resources. He didn’t seem to want to talk about the specifics of the attack.
You are correct. Same in Wisconsin. Why wasn't voting rights legislation on the docket first thing? It should be passed and signed by now. It's not like they had to write new bills. Remember all those bills Dems threw into the Senate knowing they'd never get a vote? Pass them again, one after the other, and suspend the filibuster (if not outright end it) to pass them now and sign them into law. Things can change any minute. Do it now. (Need edit feature.)
I was struck by that line too, Nomi. Professor Richardson may have said it before, I can’t recall, but there was an urgency in her voice this morning that shook me.
That our political climate could worsen daily, is something we had become accustomed to over the last four years. We thought, it turns out naively, that the worst was over when our new President was elected. Then January 6th – and it appears all bets are off. The Radical Republican Party (Party of Trump) has doubled-down as you said, and fully embraced the politics of their spiritual forebears – those who designed and perpetuated Jim Crow America.
I don’t know if you caught yesterday’s White House Press Conference, but I was moved by the urgency of the opening statement by the new Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas. His graphic description of the gutting of that department under the previous administration paints a clear and devastating picture of the harm done by Trump, Miller, and their accomplices. And that is just one example.
What can we do? First, center ourselves, then do an inventory of everyone we know who might share our concerns and marshal our resources to bring pressure on our elected officials to pass S-1 and the John Lewis Voting Rights Bill.
The Biden Administration has a lot on its plate, but we must put pressure on the Administration and Congress to pass these Bills. And then, we will have something like a level playing field on which to rebuild the country.
There is much work to be done, many battles to wage and little time to waste.
If we ousted the seditionists and obstructionists, we might be able to do something without wasting so much precious time. They are laughing at us that this coup is so easy. Because we act like we are dealing with rationals beings rather than homegrown terrorists and Nazis supported by very hostile foreign entities.
The New York Times has also covered the issue – and our own experience in the 2016 election is a prime example.
Money and assistance are moving across borders to expand the influence of the Far Right. How much of that is coming into the US (Russia aside) as opposed to originating from the US, I don’t know, but I would be very interested to learn more.
As far as “ousting” people from office – which is what I take it you mean to say – beyond voting them out or convicting them of a crime, I don’t believe we have much in the way of options. I’m not sure how much appetite the Justice Department has for prosecuting sitting members of Congress. I’d rather have fair voting and districting rules and vote them out. Civics education would also go a long way toward pointing out the dangerous and unconstitutional nature of their activities.
A final thought: The people who are behind the voter suppression laws, and those is Congress and elsewhere who are perpetuating the Big Lie, are, by and large, rationale. They know what they are doing, and we would be putting ourselves at a disadvantage by underestimating them.
In the 1930s, when Hitler’s Nazis were developing a strategy for dealing with / marginalizing/ dehumanizing its Jewish citizens, they looked to the laws and practices of Jim Crow America for guidance. Curiously, the rejected some of the more extreme practices finding them too severe. Until, of course, they threw their rule book out the window and started gassing people. Isabel Wilkerson discusses this at some length in "Caste".
There is a thread in the BLM movement that harkens back to that time, that follows the escalation from dehumanization to elimination. Reminding the world that Black lives are at risk – every hour of every day – is IMO, something that has not yet sunk in deeply enough. People recoil from the use of the term, but your evocation of the Nazis in this context, is apt.
Dooley, you state: "I'm not sure how much appetite the Justice Department has for prosecuting sitting members of Congress. I’d rather have fair voting and districting rules and vote them out."
Therein lies the problem. To hell with not prosecuting sitting members if Congress. If one of their number has committed a crime, especially one attached to their role as a Representative or Senator, they need to be charged and prosecuted. The same goes for a Cabinet member, and should hold for the president and vice president as well. Criminal charges were not filed against Trump because of "The Memo", not a law. We have allowed politicians, Republican politicians most especially, to push the envelope further and further every administration since Nixon. And in return, they have done nothing more than take advantage of the optics everyone is so afraid of sullying AND the fact that we Democrats simplify don't (or haven't had) have the stomach to fight back dirty and mean. Voting alone is NOT, at this point, going to rout out the rot.
To this end: if there is an evidence that conclusively shows a member of Congress was instrumental in the 6th of January Insurrection they better damned sight be charged and arrested. Honest to God, how much more and how much longer are we going to treat criminals in office as though they are above the law? I mean, some of the attempts at election tampering alone should have been enough to charge and prosecute both Graham and Trump. It's gone too far. As far as the Republican party is concerned Law & Order are for Democrats/Progressives and BIPOCs and not for white Republicans easily identifiable by their abhorrence to anything that remotely resembles Truth and Equality. We need to recognize what's happening and fight it any way we can.
"if there is an evidence that conclusively shows a member of Congress was instrumental in the 6th of January Insurrection they better damned sight be charged and arrested."
Yes. And it continues to anger me that seditionist Cruz et al. are not only permitted to remain in Congress but are allowed to question witnesses in hearings. They should be ejected and their voices silenced.
Dammit, Daria, I want to buy you a drink! Or a happy hour zoom. I totally appreciate RDooley, but I absolutely recoil at waiting till the next election. No way. We need justice to be meted out and take our country out of their power. Now. We have waiting five years for justice. Is this morality just a woman thing?
And I agree if, as you say "... there is an evidence that conclusively shows a member of Congress was instrumental in the 6th of January Insurrection..."
Anything less than that, anything vague or political, and we will have jumped down a rabbit hole with hellish implications. If DOJ can get a Grand Jury to indict - then yes. But - my personal political opinion (which is worth zilch!) - is that it would be a stretch for DOJ to go after a sitting member for the January 6th Riot.
They went after a number of them during ABSCAM, and Jefferson of LA and Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins. And DJT not around to pardon them now. I have to keep hope alive.
I was shocked when I read "Hitler's American Model" and learned that the Nazis looked to Jim Crow America for guidance on their treatment of the Jews. I want to say more about this but I don't have the words yet.
The seditionists need to be expelled from office for their aid to the insurrectionists and for their intent to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. I agree that we cannot underestimate the adversary here; they will stop at NOTHING to exert their power and control.
I think a lot is going to come out about foreign money into American PACs. The NRA gave 10 million to Romney's 2012 campaign. In 2016 it gave DT 30 Million. We haven't heard much the case of Paul Erikson, Maria Butitna, Aleksandr Torshin. All operatives, fostering contacts, funneling donations to campaigns via the NRA. The NRA has political protection and laws keeping everything secrete so it doesn't have to disclose political donations. All of this and other "legalized" corruption needs to be brought into the light before 2022 election cycle.
R, I will come back to this comment and your links. I have had to cut way back on reading the past two months. Personal stresses compounding the stress of reading incessantly about all this forced me to limit things greatly. For me, it's a almost impossible balancing game. I cannot be too disconnected, yet the stress of endless reading about these horrors is not helpful.
But I think we need to be realistic. When we focus our rage on things that simply will not happen, such as prosecuting members of Congress, it diverts our attention from things we can do.
I'm not giving up on prosecuting insurrection leaders, whether in Congress or the 45 admin. If AG Garland determines to go in that direction and evidence is sufficient, I believe he will act. It's not revenge or retaliation from Dems; it's essential to protect democracy.
I agree 1000%. I'm focusing on HR-1, HR-4 and S-1 right now and have already started working for a candidate for Senate in NC to fill Richard Burr's place. I'm in Madison Cawthorn's district which is not only red, but rural red = no swing voters. I would like think we could flip it but he is getting so much exposure and will virtually impossible to beat... for now.
Fascists have a history of allying themselves with the business conservatives to seize power administratively. Once they have power they take all over of it. Those they can not silence by intimidation, they jail, or murder. When HCR says @how dangerous” I think this is what she means.
While we got a dose of hope, we got no relief in Florida. It hasn't stopped and Florida is chief among those Republican legislatures moving forward with voter suppression. Avril Haines yesterday on NPR said the same re National Intelligence being gutted.
If you haven't read Michael Lewis's 2018 book, "The Fifth Risk" you should do so. It's about DJT's dismantling of all levels of government. He wrote "The Big Short" about the financial crisis which was made into the movie.
HCR's words are indeed a clarion to action. Voter suppression, abetted by the SCOTUS, will continue ... and the answer to that is a massive program to get out the vote, even if it means doing it the old fashioned way, with long lines at polling places from dawn to dusk in States where voting early, by mail or via a dropbox becomes restricted.
The other battle is the against the danger posed by armed domestic terrorist groups. They must be squelched by Federal law and troops, if necessary. George Washington sent troops to put down the Whiskey Rebllion raised by Pennsylvanians who objected to high taxes on booze. That isn't near as bad as storming the Capitol and objecting to the democratic process which they claim has been corrupted. (It actually HAS been corrupted but by those who allow lies to take on credibility, but that's another subject.)
I will volunteer to drive people to the polls. I would have done it in November and in the runoffs, but for Covid. I'm now armed with Two doses of Moderna!
I agree completely. We cannot become complacent. Here is what I see in my crystal ball: Warnock loses in 2022 and the Rs retake the Senate. The president's party always loses House seats in midterm elections, so the Rs narrow the Ds majority in 2022. 25 Republican state legislatures enact voter suppression legislation and gerrymander their new congressional districts to ensure winning more of those House seats and continue their blatant racist, antidemocratic attacks on voting. And in 2024, the Rs nominate a slightly less repugnant autocrat and win the presidency. These are very, very real possibilities. The situation is dire. The filibuster must go. I think Biden is playing this moment exactly right in largely ignoring the bleating of the Rs that he is not being bipartisan, the rankest hypocrisy I can imagine.
We can do this, but it is going to take all of our energies every moment from now until the 2024 presidential elections.
As frightening and disturbing as it is, I, too, am grateful that now the light is on. And although we cover our faces and recoil in horror at the true danger, we can understand that ignorance is not bliss. Now we need to look around and see where and how we can help.
Businesses and banks are critical to any move toward integrity. Heartening to see the profit-takers back off after 1.6
This would be a great place to put energies--encouraging, supporting, and thanking those concerns that make public their withdrawal of support for sedition and treason.
Contrasted with the banks and businesses who continue to support fox and oan, rt, and whatever else is out there, to call it out, name it, withdraw support (q.v., the list someone posted in these letters r/t the advertisers for fox)
I recognize the threat, but would encourage everyone to be emboldened, not discouraged. We need to fight and organize. Look at it this way, the republicans manage to stay in lockstep, regardless that they're the minority. With all of the dysfunction within their party, they're presenting a united front outwardly, for the most part. We absolutely must be emboldened, and not give in to defeatism. Focus on what our majority can accomplish, even with the hamstringing locally.
In Oregon we have had the Neighborhood Leadership Program by County for the past few years. I became involved a month before the 2020 election. I was amazed at how effective their system is in getting out the vote one neighborhood at a time. As neighborhood leader I only call/contact Democratic voters around me. We have some wonderful county leaders who are already recruiting/interviewing school board candidates for the May election. I think Republicans have been doing something like this for some time.
So you know....our county increased voting by 90%. Of the 40 people I had on my list, all but 5 people voted in the last election. So it works! This program makes me feel like I'm doing something positive in carrying out my duty as citizen.
We've had similar experience here in Georgia, thanks to brilliant Stacey Abrams. People need to know that grassroots can change things and nobody should be intimidated. The spectre of the KKK is just that - a spectre.
It also give one courage to know there are 'like-minded' people living fairly close by - people you may not know and who might be feeling alone and intimidated as well.
I once attended a regional peace conference where we were told that even in the most war-torn areas of the world, there are people of peace. What we need to do is let them know they are not alone- that are people of peace supporting them.
I am too. I shut the whole world out as much as possible yesterday.... I am discouraged and amazed that we are here. Yes, Heather’s statement about how precarious our situation is woke me up and my insides are buzzing. What the heck happened with Ben Sasse?! Yes, I am extremely concerned.
Yesterday I suddenly remembered Stanley Kubrick’s film Clockwork Orange— in the beginning of the film some arrogant young thugs barge into a home and casually kill a human being— I was so scared when I saw this part of the film and I later read that this was essentially a prophecy of the future. Now I’m worried the prophecy has come full circle and these are our militias’ thugs who will run rampant.
Even if they used toothpicks to hold them open their arrogant brains wouldn’t process it—all they care about is posturing for their like thinking base so they get re-elected.
Exactly my thoughts, Nomi! 🙏🏻 I’m alerting my Insta group and at Vote Save America’s helpful website for calling Congress. The last year was grueling, but Trump has unleashed demons who won’t go away without more fighting. 🇺🇸❤️🤍💙
So, the problem is how does a minoritarian and anti-democratic party maintain such a firm grip on political power? They have a very solid base of popular support during elections. I heard a good possible explanation for this on a recent episode of The Ralph Nader Radio Hour, when he had Thom Hartmann on as his guest. Thom laid out the timeline of changes that occurred in local radio station operations resulting from regulatory changes made during the Reagan administration. He mentions the end of the fairness doctrine, but far more consequential were changes to restrictions on station ownership, which led to giant corporations, Clear Channel Communications in particular, consolidating ownership across the country. Prior to that there were a diversity of owners and a diversity of opinions being broadcast. But once all the stations were standardized, in the name of efficiency of course, that diversity of ideas was strangled. He mentioned seeing one of the corporate bigwigs at an industry event, and asking if he could get on their network, as an experienced radio host with proven advertising sponsors. The reply was, "Never!" Since Thom Hartmann advocates for policies that could raise taxes on corporations. And so the wide scale brainwashing begins. It was a very interesting show.
It is possible for one thing by use of the modern version of the filibuster honed to a fine art by Mitch McConnell and the people he leads. They have become willing to use whatever means they can to cling to power and since they are a minority, those means are often outside the norms of government and dancing on the edge of the rule of law. When the latter happens, they seek changes in those laws to legitimize their actions. That is why court stacking has been a priority for them.
Democrats continue to operate within the boundaries of those norms and rules. So the playing field is not even. I keep thinking about that and always conclude that it is why I am a Democrat. I’m not naive but continue to hope that doing things in a people centered way will prevail in the end.
I am currently reading “Kill Switch” by Adam Jentleson. It makes the case for reforming the filibuster and provides a detailed history of how we got to this point.
Reforming the filibuster would stand a better chance than trying to eliminate it. Manchin and others would fight elimination. I'm with you in hoping to continue to manage things a people-centered way, but we have to be more crafty in planning our strategy.
She has several times called out events and trends that she felt posed the possibility of danger to democratic processes. I agree, though, that this time her callout seemed especially intense.
I follow what is going on at the state level (not all states, but some I am connected with, and some others I follow because of the trends they illustrate). And what I see in many of these is frightening. Insurrectionists are moving into state-level Constitutional institutions, and then working to shift the energy into dealing with anti-democratic postures and actions. They are also taking over politics at local levels. That has future implications, as those people then move into party politics, moving the Republicans further along the radical line, which they are desperate to maintain. So... undermining state legislative processes, using various means, including disruption and violence, as we have already seen.
I agree with you. I follow down ballot elections and officials in my state, especially locally, from city council to school board members. I see it and it is damn scary.
I don't always post HCR on Facebook but that stark sentence jumped out to me as well. That's not standard HCR. What also shook me was the Twitter link at the bottom showing CPAC's priorities. We need to rest up because we have the fight of our lives in front of us in 2022. A year is a nanosecond in politics and we need to start now, especially with HR-1 and S-1. That's where they will skewer us.
The biggest thing that we have is modern technology that they didn’t have in 1876. The words from the Republicans are really the same: They want to make all of the decisions and to hell with democracy. The only Republican president, in my lifetime, to have made any sense of what was going on in the world was Eisenhower. Too bad he chose Tricky Dick as his VP.
Today, I decided to watch a little of C-Span’s hearing on Merrick Garland. I was seething at Mike Lee and Cruz’s statements about how Garland never answered their questions. Thank goodness for Amy Klobuchar who set them straight! Cruz must be scared of Garland. Fake45 should be also. Praying this will be the seditionists last hurrah when Garland, Letitia, and Cyrus get through with them.
The wind is fierce this morning. We need to be fierce and laser focused. When Trump became President the news media made him legitimate by not calling him out on his lies. He continues to lie and Cruz and Hawley and others support the lies. Call the lies !! Call CPAC out for what it is a forum to perpetuate the lies and destroy our Democracy.
Saying Joe Biden is not the legitimate President is Not only a lie it is treason. Let’s name it. Joe Biden is the legitimate President of the United States and for Trump to continue to question it is treasonous. He is igniting his supporters for more insurrection. He needs to be held accountable. Enter Merrick Garland. The news in its effort to be fair perpetuates the lies and contributes to legitimizing corruption.
Yes let’s be fastidious with our language. Garland is strong and we need every brain cell focused on the fact the Biden has chosen a wonderful team of American leaders who are actually governing now not just tweeting and rabble rousing. And our former guy can’t even tweet anymore and the word is he’s bored out of his mind down there. And who care anyway about that colorful, very limited former guy. We shss as ll prevail. Democracy will prevail.
Here’s my wishful thinking: Republicans who are horrified at what their party has become will either form a 3rd party or join the democratic party. Either one of these may weaken the party of ****p followers.
I think for me this is the biggest mystery. Where are the Rs who find all of this repugnant? I wish the Lincoln Project had been a real third-party movement it seemed set to become rather than cover for a few self-serving people. There have to be people in that party, and lots of them, who hate the lies and ugliness, but it's hard to hear them.
Being fastidious with our language, though, means not calling this type of speech treason. It is despicable, inciting, dishonest, mendacious, self-serving twaddle. But it's not treason. It's free speech and protected, as it should be.
Reid, I think it IS treason. Here's the definition. 45 has levied war against us (note Jan. 6) and continues to give comfort and inspiration to those who would overthrow our system of govt. He certainly has adhered to our enemies (Saudi Arabia, Russia, N Korea, etc) I believe there would be MORE than two witnesses in this country who would stand up to him in court. "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court."
GOP rejection of Biden's victory is part of an ongoing, concerted effort to undermine the legitimate government and its functions. Since that provides aid and comfort to America's enemies, it IS treason.
I think Trump is clearly guilty of incitement of an insurrection. But treason is a much higher bar. He is, in fact, a treasonous SOB, but I don't think the DOJ will touch that charge with a ten foot pole.
Dr. Richardson, thank you (again) for articulating the issue so clearly: "Perhaps because it is impossible to imagine, we seem largely to have normalized that the former president of the United States refused to accept his loss in the 2020 election and enlisted a mob to try to overturn the results. Along with his supporters, he continues to insist that he won that election and that President Joe Biden is an illegitimate usurper."
Didn't we "normalize" this "big lie" when during the impeachment trial, Trump was not forced to appear physically by subpoena before Congress and answer for inciting an insurrection? Didn't we show that Trump was indeed "above" Congress and above the law? Are we not doing much the same thing as we are with Saudi Arabia, where we use the euphemism "recalibration" instead of demanding accountability for the butchery of a U.S. based-journalist? Wouldn't the term "emboldened" best describe both Trump and Prince MBS moving forward, astounded by our fear to substantially react? We gift Trump four years to build an army with 70 million followers, all while we gloat at his debt and myriad impending lawsuits, and worry ourselves silly about whether to end the Senate filibuster in order to pass any meaningful legislation. Which Party is delusional?
I'm pretty sure that Biden will be harder still on SA. Last week's actions are just the opening round of his foreign policy. And MBS will feel the sting of being bypassed for a long time. Ignoring him to go directly to his own father (not just the Saudi head of state) is a profound insult. For him the only things likely more humiliating than treating him like a child are treating him like a dog or a woman. He gets the silent treatment from Biden, who knows how to use silence eloquently and effectively.
Yes, during the past 4 years we may have started to forget how much successful foreign policy depends on nuance, and (Biden has) knowledge of the culture of the players.
The amazing career of Talleyrand has fascinated me since I was a pup. He was the only major figure to serve every French government from Louis XVI through the July Monarchy (1774-1838). Unlike Louis XVIII, he forget nothing AND remembered everything. Thanks for drawing attention to him with your perspective from le Francophonie authentique. ( Struggling w/ gender agreement as usual.)
Obviously his ability to survive didn't incite only praise. But he was assuedly the master of making himself absolutely essential when the politicians suffered from a low horizen and blinkered vision.
I used to organize with my eldest chatterbox granddaughter when she was about 10 a competition to see who could stay silent the longest. She would win of course....as she has to win in every competition in life even now she is 20!....and beat her record in every subsequent contest wher i wanted to "get my revenge". What peace we had, silence for 30 minutes on end. It was wonderful....and she was happy as a lark for having "beaten" her grandfather!
Ah, the Who-can-be-silent-the-longest game. Such temporary relief for harried parents on a family trip with restless kids in the backseat. Thanks for the memory.
And a lot More "respectful" than she is with her parents. She knows this one can't be "turned" . It gives her a good frame of reference. Now she's a budding model, fashion designer, journalist and astounding effective networker...a future "The Devil Wore Prada" i fear!
Yeah but don't you know a senate "trial" is not a REAL trial. Ugh, i heard this so many times...NOW is the time to have a REAL DOJ, with a REAL trial, with REAL consequences for attempting a criminal act. His criminal act failed, he is SUCH a lover. Time to LOCK HIM UP.
Time to have televised, REAL trials, with real juries and real witnesses and defendants and perps subpoenaed and forced to attend. Time for Lady Justice to come out swinging her damned scales like Annie Oakley ready for business with these outlaws. Time for the feminine to step up to this disastrous plate and mete out justice and morality for our country.
What do the terrorists have planned for March 4th—in two days? Has the FBI been watching them? Are we prepared?
I have witnessed, in a front row seat, the criminal justice system not working. The poor go to prison. The rich go free. No one was crying for justice until it was their family member.
The drug war was/is a political war, a race war and a war against single moms. That political war is fueled by white male insecurity and entitlement. Plantation owners feel victimized when their entitalment is challenged. Their fear of sharing power results in hate. Equality has the Constitution, but they have the guns.
Check this site out that I found. An ongoing listing of all the legal actions pending against DJT. It makes me feel good to read through it all and hope that at least one will stick:
In some regards, history might be a little less than kind to Obama's Presidency. From the outside looking in, we admired the man but were not over impressed with his approach to the wider world.
Sadly, I agree. He had to deal with the fact he was the first black president. And, to some degree, it hobbked him. His presidency must be viewed through that lense.
I always grind my teeth and growl when someone urges the "audacity of hope." What we needed, and need, is the courage of action. Obama was "out-played" so many times as he hoped everyone would play nice.
Yep. I guess what I liked about it is controlling nuclear proliferation by controlling the source of materials. Seems a more efficient and effective approach than a signed treaty. At some level even so you have to trust some people. What a messed up world we're in right now. May you live in interesting times as the Chinese say.
Obama's international (and domestic) approach was quite impressive. But he didn't -- couldn't -- achieve enough thanks to GOP obstruction. I still think Obama's great, but also greatly disappointing.
Pres. Obama came across as naive domestically as well - he got snookered by McC's R's pretending to work with him while they were doing what they had said out loud they would do, oppose him above all other goals.
In retrospect Obama made a major mistake in not publicizing and pursuing Russian interference. Dems shouldn't be nonpartisan when faced with the most rank partisanship.
I'm not sure that President Obama keeping quiet because Senator McConnell refused to join a bipartisan statement cuts the mustard so to speak. How does that sit with President Obama's oath of office?
I think you're exactly right! But aren't we being too generous to say "hobbled" when we mean politicized? The Intelligence community had a triple failure: first to be caught totally off guard, second to prove incapable of protecting us against a foreign enemy engaging in cyberattacks, and third to succumb to internal political pressure and keep the American public in the dark during a foreign attack on our elections. I know that the drama in all this is a political party that (still) invites a foreign actor to interfere in our elections, but what do you all think about the integrity of our embattled CIA and FBI who still seem incapable of admitting the full extent of their failure?
The Intelligence community were very much aware of the it. President Obama decided not to make it public because he wanted to be regarded as not interfering in the election in any way and the Gang of 8 in the Congress were all too happy to go along with him on this.
So yes some of us found out about it, some kept quiet about it for strategic reasons, some refused to believe it and some just kept lying about it-I want Biden’s administration to give Putin hell in the form of a multiple series of impediments to his agenda that don’t penalize the poor Russians —one might be a strategic drone strike on his golden palace —oops.
I think of this a lot too. "We" had no idea, but American intelligence certainly did. As we contemplate the possibility that the real reason law enforcement and intelligence didn't protect Congress was that the mob was there at the invitation at the President, it has to remind us that FBI and CIA kept the intelligence of Russian interference from us because of pressure from fellow Republicans.
The impeachment process is meant to do one thing: remove a person from office. It is not intended to be a criminal trial, and thus the rules are different.
All American citizens are delusional in believing we live in a democratic republic. To succeed in this would require that we abolish our empire and military industrial congressional complex and most importantly see that white supremacy is still hiding everywhere in plain sight as bedrock under our countrymen’s lack of self esteem and empathy.
The actions of the former president and the attendees at CPAC are classic actions of abusers. Forgive me, I'm a therapist. The abuser never backs down from terrorizing, whether subtly or violently, except to groom or reward the people in their power.
One of the most powerful tools of the abuser is that the people who they are abusing can't believe that abusers are doing what they are doing--it is so out of the realm of accepted behavior, and the motives seem so extreme--as in the January 6 coup.
We all know it was a coup attempt. But we are simultaneously trying to understand and believe that it really happened, while still trying to believe it's not a sign of things to come, and still trying to believe we can stop the abuser's actions and put an end to the escalating abuse.
Seen through the lens of understanding the actions and arsenals of abusers, yes, our nation of laws is in danger of a terrible beating or worse.
The other thing about abusers, Pam is the abused always think the abuser will find (usually) his way and change. I think we've fallen into that misguided belief and still have not recognized that the abuser will never change.
Agree Pam. Also a therapist here. I'd like to ad to your astute comment that Bundy Lee has a good body of work on DJT and his malignant narcissism -- starting with the book that came out a couple of years ago 'The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump'. She wrote a piece in Scientific American recently on the followers of such a person and what it will take to move away from such behavior. It's a fascinating read:
On a side note, and just for a sense of some relief from this madness, here is a site dedicated to keeping a running list of pending cases of legal action against DJT.
Thank you for sharing this article on shared psychosis. Everyone, and I really mean *everyone*, should read it. I am a practicing FNP-DNP and am also actively within 1.5 semesters of completing a post graduate degree as a PMHNP. I find the arguments put forth in this article to be compelling and quite terrifying in light is his non-conviction of impeachment, as well as the CPAC debacle with its Nazi symbol stage. They / he might as well be shouting their intent from every rooftop in the nation, and those of us not with him are behaving in the classic pattern of the abused “unable to see the harm that is being done to them. After a while, the magnitude of the deception conspires with their own psychological protections against pain and disappointment. This causes them to avoid seeing the truth.” While this passage in the article refers to his supporters, I also feel it applies to us / non-supporters. The repeated comments here today about how people didn’t realize the situation until Heather’s current letter should be a wake up call that many of us have been unable to see the truth as well: that we have been and remain in serious danger of losing our democracy, our nation. I try to avoid being a doomsayer. I understand that there is so much collective trauma and grief from both the past four years and the pandemic that people are desperate for hope. I don’t want to take away anyone’s hope but we must wake up and realize, regardless of our current trauma and grief, that he and his followers are hell bent on our absolute destruction. We ignore this in favor of our hope for Biden’s presidency at our peril. The article also makes clear the necessary course of action, “active intervention to stop him from achieving any number of destructive outcomes for the nation, including the establishment of a shadow presidency. He will have no limit, which is why I have actively advocated for removal and accountability, including prosecution.” and “ (1) Removal of the offending agent (the influential person with severe symptoms). (2) Dismantling systems of thought control—common in advertising but now also heavily adopted by politics. And (3) fixing the socioeconomic conditions that give rise to poor collective mental health in the first place.”
We must convince the two Democratic Senators opposed to ending the filibuster to see the error of their ways. We MUST pass national voter laws stopping voter suppression and gerrymandering.
I say take Manchin and Sinema aside. Find out what they have to have to vote in favor of eliminating the filibuster (“earmarks” have been reinstated in Congress for those who earn them). I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop that will turn this anti-democratic tide: indictments out of NY and of those “upstream” for the insurrection. Let’s start this ball rolling.
I am hopeful also that states (there are several) with strong cases against Trump et al will act on them, and soon. (I also secretly hope Trump drops dead so we can watch the ensuing food fight.) As a woman whose year in 2020 started with a physical assault, I hate to bring this up, but the timing on the charges against Cuomo seems awfully coincidental. I don't even like the man, but why now?
As during the previous 4 years, we must write to and call our senators and representatives to insist that they make this happen. It's as vital now as it was then to maintain the volume and power of our own voices!!!
The junior senator of North Carolina, my home state, was previously Speaker of the House of the NC General Assembly. He helped to pass the voter suppression laws written with surgical precision to negatively impact Black voters. The grossly gerrymandered districts produced Republican supermajorities in the NC House and Senate, which then went on to make war on public education and the poor with some of the stingiest unemployment benefits in the nation. His name is Thom Tillis. He’s not much of a listener.
The Rev Barber is a moral and honorable man. I have N.C. friends who have been arrested with him while protesting. I’ve never been arrested and admire their courage.
Me, too, Gwen. Useless POS in a suit. He's every inch the opportunist. I saw him at a town hall meeting once when he was still in the NC House and it was obvious he was going to pander to the money.
We have a very short window to pass legislation to protect our democracy. If that means old school, back room bargaining and arm twisting with Manchin & Sinema to get it done, so be it. The filibuster has to go.
Since you’re advocating going “old school” to get it done, with the stakes so high I would even consider looking the other way if they were to incorporate some good old fashioned blackmail to get them to change their position. Desperate times, and all that. And don’t try to convince me that the other side isn’t using the same tactic to suit their ends as well.
Mississippi, where I live, is a state with Republicans as a single, dominant party. It is currently featured in three stories in The Washington Post. One refers to my congressman who is accused of using campaign funds as a personal slush fund. The second is a story about the inability of families to afford diapers for their children. The third is about people in Jackson being without water for going on three weeks. These stories perfectly illustrate the consequences of minority rule.
Like many others, I breathed big sighs of relief after the November, and again after the state by state certification of the electoral votes, then (after a very scary assault on the Capitol) once again after the electoral votes were certified by the Congress. At the same time, our democracy does seem more fragile than I have ever experienced in my 70 years. The Big Lie is truly too crazy to parody. It seems more like a dystopian nightmare. Have the Republicans (almost) all lost their sense of right and wrong? How can they sleep at night? What will their children and grandchildren think of them? I have no answers, only hope that the voters of our country, if not the GOP invertebrates, will come to their senses and relegate Trumpism to a deserving dustbin of history, along with and all who enable and adhere to this cult of devil worship.
We have to view the inauguration as the starting line, not the finish line. And this race is no sprint, it is an endurance race to save our nation from those who would destroy her and shape her to their awful image.
Finally, The Letters from an American wrote it plainly through the words of William Kristol , “a dangerous, anti-democratic faction” of the Republican Party “is not committed in any serious way to the truth, the rule of law, or the basic foundations of our liberal democracy.” 'He warns that our democracy is in crisis.' Our Democracy is in Crisis. This must be foremost in our minds. It is real. Our lives as citizens of the USA must recognize what is at stake.
Trump, Hawley, Cruz, Blackburn, Cotton, Meadows and Lee may seem at times like cartoon characters, as they forcefully mouth such outlandish lies, but they are real. If you are familiar with some of the fascist leaders in the 20th century: Gentile, Mussolini, Hitler, Gorman, Himmler, and Goebbels, perhaps the Republican Gang will appear to be as dangerous as they are in fact.
Working locally is more important that ever. Local and state governments are where the voter suppression laws have been reignited. The Democratic Party must put a lot more eggs in that basket. The participation of community organizations, media, college campuses, universities and citizens is crucial to keeping our democracy alive. Going small is as important as going big.
Totally agree. We cannot lose sight for even a moment that these fascists are REAL and they have corporate support and fear and hate democracy. The January 6 terrorist attack was , and is, the starting line, for all of us. And democracy MUST win this race.
As another writer at the Bulwark, Tim Miller, pointed out yesterday, the truth is CPAC *is* the Republican Party, and all those "rubes" and "kooks" that one sees at CPAC that people like he were laughing about before 2015 were there all along.
I've referred to this article written by Richard Hofstadter 67 years ago, which explains these people perfectly:
Unlike most of the liberal dissent of the past, the new dissent not only has no respect for non-conformism, but is based upon a relentless demand for conformity. It can most accurately be called pseudo-conservative — I borrow the term from the study of The Authoritarian Personality published five years ago by Theodore W. Adorno and his associates — because its exponents, although they believe themselves to be conservatives and usually employ the rhetoric of conservatism, show signs of a serious and restless dissatisfaction with American life, traditions and institutions. They have little in common with the temperate and compromising spirit of true conservatism in the classical sense of the word, and they are far from pleased with the dominant practical conservatism of the moment as it is represented by the Eisenhower Administration. Their political reactions express rather a profound if largely unconscious hatred of our society and its ways — a hatred which one would hesitate to impute to them if one did not have suggestive clinical evidence.
From clinical interviews and thematic apperception tests, Adorno and his co-workers found that their pseudo-conservative subjects, although given to a form of political expression that combines a curious mixture of largely conservative with occasional radical notions, succeed in concealing from themselves impulsive tendencies that, if released in action, would be very far from conservative. The pseudo-conservative, Adorno writes, shows “conventionality and authoritarian submissiveness” in his conscious thinking and “violence, anarchic impulses, and chaotic destructiveness in the unconscious sphere. . . . The pseudo conservative is a man who, in the name of upholding traditional American values and institutions and defending them against more or less fictitious dangers, consciously or unconsciously aims at their abolition.”
CPAC and the AFPAC conference for white supremacists and Neo-Nazis that went on alongside it prove that the contemporary Republican Party is indeed THE ENEMY OF AMERICA.
I never thought I'd be writing these words but = Bill Kristol is right. Go read what he wrote, you'll see.
I don't think that there IS anything that could be called "the contemporary Republican party" right now. Just competing fragments.
But I am grateful that you passed on the article by Richard Hofstadter. I don't believe I've read it before. I was a wee thing at the time it was published, and though I was introduced to Hofstadter by a insightful (and delightfully radical) polysci teacher in college, that was not one of our readings. My conscious life encompasses Eisenhower at one end and Trump at the other (I barely remember Truman), and the article describes the observed and experienced de-evolution of the Republican party very accurately. I understand Kristol's disillusionment, and I also see it in the Republicans I know, many of whom no longer identify with what they used to proudly call the GOP. It is that no longer. Perhaps out of people like them, a new conservative party will emerge. We need them, this counterbalance, to test ideas and proposals, to keep us on an even keel, exploring and questioning.
I also urge people to read the piece by Bill Kristol, and not dismiss it out of hand. With people like Cruz, Hawley, et al, cynicism is essential. But others have something we need to hear. And we need to keep our own humility close at hand while we're listening.
Yeah, we may disagree with them, but in my experience dealing with them forced me to dive deeper and hone my arguments sharper, because they were Serious Opponents. People you could respect while disagreeing. The laws of aerodynamics work also in politics: the eagle can't fly on just one wing.
Thank you Heather for staying on this. It is a big relief that Biden is president (and IMO doing a fabulous job) but we cannot afford to take our foot off the gas!
The comparison between the Jim Crow era and now is indeed disturbing. It could become even worse if that unjust system extends to the entire country. (It already does for countless Black Americans.) As Dr Richardson knows, segregation didn't rely just on discriminatory laws and kangaroo verdicts like the Emmett Till case. Its cornerstone was legal and extralegal violence -- often horrifically brutal as with Till's lynching. It was a commonly-used option, made more frequent because perpetrators rarely were held to account.
So too in the present moment. The white supremacist insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol, drawing instinctively from past experience, felt entitled to violence almost as a birthright. That heritage must be denied them in the future. The storm troopers of Jan 6 will meet severe justice, but punishing the foot solders is the easy part; we need a minutely thorough investigation going wherever it leads, including the highest-level conspirators. The notion of "cancel culture" is silly and specious -- except for the imperative to cancel treason in all its forms.
Jim Crow all over again. Entitlement by white boys to use violence to get their way. Classic abuser mentality. Welcome to the Republiqan party (I did see GQP above, and also like that one.)
"Perhaps because it is impossible to imagine, we seem largely to have normalized that the former president of the United States refused to accept his loss in the 2020 election and enlisted a mob to try to overturn the results."
For those of us who live and/or work in Washington, things are far from normal. My office behind a 17' fence topped with razor wire, and patrolled by armed National Guard is not normal. Most of the country is detached from daily life in Washington.
That goes the other way too. DC residents live in a bubble that doesn't always feel recession the way the rest of the country does. (Off topic: One more reason for term limits. Living in DC disconnects our elected from the people they claim to represent)
Even though the news reports indicate little if anything for tomorrow, the Trumpublicans, Qool-Aid intoxicated, and rad-right still believe their supreme commander will be inaugurated as the rightful president on March 4. They've made it clear they are not backing down, and that they have the resources to follow through.
"I cannot emphasize enough how dangerous this is." I might be forgetting, but I don't remember Heather writing this sentence in any of the hundreds of letters she's written these past 17 months. How is it possible that we voted him out, that we won the Senate, and yet it seems we are in more danger than ever? How is it possible that rather than see that as a call to back away from these lies, to back away from all of this poisonous anti-democratic white supremacist horror, they've double down? Quadrupled down? I am spent. I hope I can get unspent so that I can do whatever I can, but I am spent.
How is it possible? I think this is actually a function of federalism, in that while the Democrats have (narrowly) won a majority in the federal elections, the Republicans still hold a majority of state political offices. And the states, especially after Shelby, have near-absolute control over access to voting.
Here in Georgia, this aspects fills me with despair. Despite no evidence of election insecurity, widespread disapproval from the public, impassioned alarm from the Democratic minority, my legislature is quickly moving ahead with voter suppression measures similar to those HCR mentioned above. The fact that the Republican-led Secretary of State's office found no fraud and the election procedures were overhauled just a few years ago has no bearing on the machinations of the Republicans in my House and Senate.
The despair? It come from realizing that the Republicans in my state legislature (italics here) do not care what I think and they do not want to protect my interests (end italics), because since I didn't vote for them, I am their enemy. In a very real sense, I have already been disenfranchised. No matter how many letters I write or how much money I donate, I will never affect the actions of a Republican representative.
The are no longer interested in democracy, because if a political party is never willing to lose and never willing to be wrong, they will never be able to participate in a democratic government. Their vision has shrunken, they will never be better than oligarchs.
Yes. Yes. This is how it is possible, yes. I didn't literally not know how. THIS is how. But still....how can it be this bad? How can THEY be this bad as human beings? So many so powerful. I cannot accept it. My mind cannot. I cannot give up. And yet, as you say, such despair. And terror. OK. It's almost 4 in the morning. I'd better shut up now.
How did the nazis rise? How did that aberration occur. Just the same way ours is— a raving leader spouting racist words to welcome hoards.
Some of us have some memory of our education about the rise of fascism in Europe. Many do not. Compelling watching for all—
https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/tv-show/fascism
I suggest people check out some of the series on the History Channel about Hitler and WWII. What I learned in school in the history books 50-60 years ago doesn't tell the whole story. It's frightening to see the similarities between the republican party of today and the rise of Hitler.
Janet I’m watching Rick Steve’s show on fascism and I almost didn’t because I’ve read so much about wwI and I but the interviews and footage is such a great synopsis. Thank you!
Everyone should watch RS on European fascism. Even those well-versed in the subject will learn something new. Whether in this special or his regular programs, Rick always has the right perspective, the right touch.
Yes, Janet. It's not that I don't remember. I am a second generation American Jew with great aunts, uncles, and cousins who were tortured and murdered. It beyond "remembering," in a sense, because I was born into this knowledge.
And yet. I am having great difficulty fully believing that it is happening, or could easily happen, here in the US. I understand the mechanics of it now (poo pooed the concerns before Trump, but not anymore of course), I'm just having difficulty dealing with it, fully in my bones believing it.
This is where my family came for safety. Before the war and after. This is America. Not that as Jews we didn't know that danger always lurks -- in quieter ways than it does for people of color -- but no Jew of a certain background can ever feel completely safe. But that that danger could be on the threshold of having the upper hand?
It's causing me intense cognitive dissonance. Emotional dissonance, if that is such a thing. I will continue to do what I can to fight. There's no other choice. I'm not someone who can just go "cultivate my own garden" -- tho my garden is one of the few places where I can feel a measure of freedom from this and sometimes I DO wish I could just stay there. But I cannot.
I have been part of the quiet resistance these past four years, writing postcards to voters, making phone calls to lawmakers, giving small amounts of money to whomever I thought best. I know that there was a small army of us who made a difference in this way, rarely getting attention (not sexy, women writing postcards), but crucial to helping accomplish what we did. And I will continue. It's just extremely disheartening and outright frightening right now.
Naomi, although I am not Jewish, I share your concerns, and they are tied to WWII. I was born during the war, and my earliest contact with adult conversation dealt with its horrors. We knew several Jewish people who managed to escape the Holocaust, and had neighbors who had spent years in DP camps in Europe, finally managing to make it to this country. The wife told my mother that I taught her son to speak English - apparently, my bossy nature was revealed at an early age! I still am horrified by these stories, and a visit to Auschwitz haunts me to this day. I, too, believe that these hideous fascists would jump at the chance to impose their sickness on us. Until the last four years, I never believed it was possible, but the hate-mongering is happening, and is incumbent upon all of us to educate our friends and renounce this filth. The army is larger than we think, so we can continue with the postcards, donations, and phone calls. Most of Germany didn't see it coming, but we have the benefit of hindsight.
Dearest Nomi, I cannot even begin to imagine. Your response of “intense cognitive . . . Emotional dissonance” to the vision of danger we may be seeing on the horizon feels heartbreaking. Cultivating our gardens nourishes not only our bodies but also our souls. And, I feel that is important work.
Meanwhile, on this day our Supreme Court hears what may be described as voting rights arguments and appears to be leaning toward restriction it may be time for a louder resistance.
What shall we do?
And we should all be compelled to watch, dare we repeat it. Thank you (I think) for this link.
I watched this when it originally aired. Excellent, and frightening. It should be required in all school curriculums (but will not be).
Thank you for posting the link about Rick Steves. Straight forward History.
Watched this after work today. Powerful and relevant.
...Supported and funded by a cabal that has been infiltrating our government for decades and are now well-placed throughout, including propaganda media and cyber warfare tearing us apart. We also have normalized anti-democracy, egregious behaviors and not called them out every single day beginning with "shooting someone on 5th Ave" and allowing a tyrant king to meet alone with a dangerous dictator and his minions.
We could solve some fraction of this to move forward by ousting the fricking seditionists we are allowing to make laws in our democracy, pretending they are normal people. That is what hurts my brain the most. Why have we standing for this and struggling to be "bi-partisan?" Thank you, Heather, for stating what the reality is, finally. We have been in a Constitutional crisis for years. And now the radical fanatics are normalized. The heads of this snake (cult leader and his SS machine) need to be removed, immediately.
Freedom of speech, for some, must be earned after proving and signing on to the overthrow of our democracy. Dems, progressives, independents and republicans who respect our Democracy need to act swiftly. Swiftly, I have been saying for years.
Our Justice system must act as quickly as our COVID response is finally acting.
We started the process when Andrew Johnson allowed the Southern Aristocracy back into power after the Civil War by simply declaring their allegieance to the Republic!
I finished reading "Dark Money" last night. Over the years William Kristol has been part of the Koch program. I find it ironic that he's now trying to fix the problem he helped make.
Yes, indeed!
Now check out “Thieves of State”
I have never understood why a person who uses the language: "shooting someone on 5th Ave", could be considered remotely acceptable as a Presidential candidate, let alone a “failed” businessman. Politicians need to be held to a different standard if you will. We all often say things we do not mean - a joke, trying to be “clever” - and the fallout is possibly minimal. We apologize, hopefully learn, and move on. In politics a different standard is and should be required. I have never understood the attitude: “Oh he didn’t really mean it!” I am probably naive, but that’s what my father taught me: “If you dont meant it, keep your mouth shut!”
Well, I have been obsessed since I was a child in how fascist regimes and cults rise. What T***p did to 30% of our population was textbook. He used his rallies, Twitter and Fox (as did Russian cyber warfare of bots and trolls) to target ripe populations ready for a messianic leader. He carefully messaged them with propaganda (neurolinguistic programming) in a very repetitive manner and used chanting and collectivized programming. Notice, he held rallies tweets continually throughout his presidency to maintain that mind control--was that not strange? That "shoot someone on Park Ave," in my mind was his big test to see if the brainwashing had solidified. It was a HUGE success. He and totalitarianism won at the moment and a sane America lost. Even the MSM bought it and did not make a big deal out of any of his propagandist techniques and spreading of lies and fear and division. This is how tyranny spreads and how a people are exploited. The lack of reaction in our country during the 2016 campaign after that most shocking of statements
was the pivotal moment in our history. At least it was for me.
Oh, it started long before Trump. They have been using the same rhetoric since the inception of the Republic. White supremacism has never left us, it just became more effective and vocal over the past 20 years. Xenophobia and racism became de rigueur after 9/11 and have grown in power ever since.
Exactly. Trump was just a bigger megaphone and gave people permission to do the same and mainly for his subbing the rule of law. Our founding father's were white supremacists!
Yup
Early answers to this question still remain among the best.
H Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
W Shirer, The Rise & Fall of the Third Reich
Yes TPJ— I’ll put them on our book store list!
Once again I feel like Lucy in the chocolate factory!
Bookstores and libraries are my natural habitat. Do you run or work in a bookstore, or recommend to someone else's? Since we're both in MA, I'd consider giving you some business (but not "the business").
Thanks for the book recomendation. I think Heather has mentioned that title by Arendt, or maybe you did a few days ago. I'm still on lockdown but my pile of economics, politics and History books goes down one and then up two.
Someone else mentioned it a couple of weeks ago; now I endorse their endorsement. I believe Arendt pioneered the idea that the political spectrum is a circle, not a line. That places totalitarians like Hitler and Stalin next to each other, not at opposite ends.
And giving permission for people to vent their darkest prejudices. Great comments from everyone recommending different books and programs. I suggest reading Gellately's Backing Hitler, showing how the German public largely supported and cheered on the horrors of the Third Reich.
Thank you— I’ll look into that too— we have so many books piled ever but that’s fun.
A decade ago I met my state senator for a drink to talk about my no longer being a lobbyist, and starting my new business. But before we could talk about my future, he was just giddy to talk about his: He and his Republican pals in the Michigan legislature had just finished gerrymandering. "We'll be in office forever!" That was the day I stopped voting Republican. My friend had gone over to the dark side, but he saw it all as a great, fun game. We have term limits in this state. He was soon gone.
I live in a Democratic stronghold, Maryland, where the Congressional Districts are outrageously gerrymandered. You only need to look at Dist 3, to get the idea. Gerrymandering and it's "giddy" delight is non-partisan. Whichever party is in control of the state gerrymanders it to their favor, thus planning to rule "forever." What is surprising is that a Republican won the Governorship. Oops. The state House and Senate remain Democratic. I'm grateful, but I'm now anti-party and pro-independent. I don't know that my choice makes a difference, but I vote carefully and I feel better.
I'm in the 5th - recently I got a letter that was pro-gerrymandering. MD Democrats are in a tough spot - keeping things as they are keeps it safely Democratic but we are suppose to (rightly so) be anti-gerrymandering. What is good for the goose I guess - which means we might find ourselves a swing state yet!
Good for you, I’m from Michigan, it breaks my heart.
That great democrat, Thomas Jefferson, claimed that most citizens were inately capable of distinuishing wrong from right and would ultimately do the right thing. This was why he claimed "all men are created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights." And those who were deficient in knowing wrong from right could be educated. And that enormous task continues 245 years later.
Hopefully everyone on the list serv voted for public education even if it meant higher property taxes.
I'm totally in favor of public education. Please raise my taxes.
Those who "are deficient" remain so.
With each undemocratic excess committed by the Trumpublicans, a few real Republicans might begin to see the basic difference between right and wrong and I hope modify their views. It will take a long time, but it will happen and the party of Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower will resume its rightful place, getting rid of the CPAC trash which now dominates it, just as the racist trash which dominated the Democratic Party up until the 1960's was ultimately gotten rid of.
I saw a movement at the CPAC event to start a new party, "The Patriots." If the trumpers succeed in breaking off from "The Republicans", rather than keeping control of it, could that be a good thing and the beginning of their demise?
I keep hoping for sanity and decency. I hope I live to see it. Thanks, Jacob, you're right.
Um, no, still there - just switched parties.
“Evil is banal”-Hannah Arendt. Evil is ordinary. All ordinary people are capable of cruelty, of atrocities, of just following orders, and of looking away.
No! Don’t shut up... ever! You are right, this is so awful!
I’m scratching my head along with you.
This is exactly the situation in my state, Florida. In his response to my last letter to Rick Scott, he spewed The Big Lie and more. Our Governor was #2 pick for President in 2024 behind 45 among CPAC attendees. And add at least one more thing, gerrymandering. Heck, add dark money. I see no other solution than doing away with the filibuster in order to pass necessary legislation. I have never been so involved in politics but I am a young retiree and feel compelled to do so to ensure my retirement remains secure!
You are right.....but the Dems had better win big in 2022 or all this is gone again.
Bone weary of fighting.
I am too. There are days now where I don't read a damn thing except fiction. I don't even open my tablet.
Hang in there, Daria, knowing you’re not alone. Read selectively, take care of yourselve, and stay involved. We need you.
In a chorus, singers take turns taking breaths and rests, so the music continues to flow strong and seamless. That's what we do for each other here.
I’m with you, Daria. I now have 3 forms of heart arrhythmia. My heart is literally broken by all this nonsense. I can only read so much these days. Hoping the heart electrician can fix me soon. In the meantime, I read Heather’s letters and not much more pertaining to the news.
I never turn on the television until after dinner. However, we can't be deterred! That's what they want.
I have missed your voice, Daria, but I understand the need for self-protection. Be well.
Go to the gym, get stronger.
Exactly. Or run 3 miles and ur as right as rain.
Huge uphill battle. I'm putting my efforts into Nikki Fried's campaign. She hasn't yet announced a run for Governor, but it's a matter of time. Florida is an expensive media market so she will need national support. Anybody here on Twitter can follow her here:
Check out Nikki Fried on Twitter.
Florida’s 12th Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Working to keep Florida growing. https://twitter.com/nikkifried?s=20
Please see my other post....DeSantis looks like he is strong going into the governor's election.
Ugh
Agree!! I’m listening to the Lincoln project podcasts and their mission is to secure our democracy. The cast consists of former republicans who in 2020 spent $81B to oust 45 and are eager to do the same to these congressional trumpists who call themselves “republicans”, all the while trying to destroy our country, and betraying to their oath to defend our constitution.
Yes, they are worthy of supporting!
Watch the videos, fine. I enjoy them myself. But please don't donate. The Lincoln Project are anti-Trump, but they are still small government Republicans. Not to mention the sexual predation and money management scandals that have arisen among the founding group.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/12/lincoln-project-scandal-468984
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/31/us/politics/john-weaver-lincoln-project-harassment.html
Dems are Going to have to take Florida in 2024..
Kelly, I sometimes think Florida is a lost cause. I have also written to Scott and Rubio to no avail. But almost even worse is my congressman, Gus Bilirakis, who puts out a newsletter each week. He spews partisan garbage and then has the nerve to say he is the most bi-partisan congressman in the House. I nearly throw up reading it. And then today I read a post from a Florida FB group saying that DeSantis has a good chance of being re-elected. I am frustrated and really don't know what to do.
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/408216-poll-shows-ron-desantis-reelection-prospects-looking-good?fbclid=IwAR348m1vmQxZFaefWvAxYhWUfR6YHkJfxeqvWwCNn6rBFv2yUhUYVz0z-jg
In Florida, if you follow how the Republicans used Spanish media print, radio, social media and TV claiming the Democrats were socialists and won the Cuban and Hispanic vote. Start now and use that same strategy to fight back. Talk to Democratic mayors and enlist their support. Build fir the future and take back your state like Stacy did in Georgia. Its proof this can be done!
Ha! You could've been communications consultant for Nikki Fried, the only statewide elected Dem in Florida. She put this out yesterday where she not only defines herself as a Capitalist, she says it in Spanish!
https://twitter.com/nikkifried/status/1366772347571757057?s=20
Most FL Repugs are a lost cause, but don't surrender the whole state to them. Join with Dems and progressives to build an alliance to bring more responsive, responsible government to FL. It's a Herculean task but the rewards are great.
My Rep does the same! John Rutherford
Santorum’s been licking DT boots. He’s gonna keep lickin da boot to win the nomination for VP. Now reimagine the Jan 6th riot with Dick Rick presiding over the senate.
Oof. I'd rather not.
Oh, what a turd he is. Even more unelectable than Pence.
A harsh critic of Santorum once said he wasn't fit to live with pigs. I defended him by saying he IS fit to live with pigs. (That's bad luck for the world's swine.)
At least pigs give humanity their insulin. Sanatorium ( or Santis) just give insolence.
Nah. Pigs are smart. It wasn’t Dan Savage, was it?
oops, I get Santis and Santorim confused! Birds of a fascist feather
Gary Death Sentence, Rick Sanatorium
I am with you - here in Idaho our legislature just passed (both houses) into law the most restrictive requirement for any voter initiative in the country requiring 100% of districts sign on. Unlike Georgia we have no active engaged resistance. We have a few pissed off white women (in my view). Without the federal government, ie; LGBT rights, common core, ADA, Abortion we would be in the dark ages. Oh we are. 50th in the nation in school spending, 17 yr olds conceal carry. Shaking my fist in an empty room.
I have a bunch of friends who want to partition out Oregon to become "Western Idaho". They should just go there and revel in their whiteness, maleness, cisgendereredness, and gunliness.
Sounds great as long as they stay there....
Altho it does sound sad for a beautiful part of the country, doesnt it?
OK as long as it doesn't produce a proto-fascist 51st state.
One of my favorite authors refers to them as "the American Taliban."
Absolutely no difference. Maybe less eye liner.
Who’s that? It’s spot in. AL QUEDAHO
I'm so sorry. I have a lot of dear family in Idaho that I used to visit at least monthly and for the past 20 years. Just a 5 hour drive for me. I haven't been back in almost two years. It's become extremely difficult for me to be around them anymore as they have become more blazen in their language and views as ever before. They used to hold their cards to their chest when I was around. No longer. A relative sent me a photo of her at church on Ash Wednesday in the beautiful cathedral in Boise. The majority of parishioners were not social distancing or wearing masks. The Pope issued ashes to be sprinkled on the tops of heads this year so as not to touch the forehead, yet the bishop and priest in Boise still put ashes on people's foreheads. I know this sounds trivial, but these little insidious type behaviors undermine my sanity and my hope.
It is maddening that some in the Catholic Church blatantly disregard what the Pope is saying. After Pope Francis came out in support of getting vaccinated, the archbishop of New Orleans decided to tell his parishioners not to. Not only does this put people at risk, it certainly undermines the "pro-life" stance that they are touting. I guess pro-life only pertains to fetuses. And, yes, I can say this because I am Catholic. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/02/archdiocese-new-orleans-johnson-vaccine/
Horribly sad. Makes me sick. At my local cathedral, and the little tiny country church I went to during my lunch hour for Ash Wednesday, pews were blocked off, disinfectant and paper towels every where, everyone is masked (even clergy), ashes were sprinkled on heads, and on and on.
Hang on! My brother and his family live there in Boise and they are wonderful and progressive. ❤️
Boise is a modern city but outnumbered and surrounded by the always first and easiest to fool by demagoguery, the country folks. It’s sad, and Ammon Bundy has radicalized large swaths of the population surrounding Boise.
Agree. I was raised Catholic. New Orleans cardinal is like many, he has fallen prey to the demagoguery. His religion is not catholic any more. His religion is now DT.
😡
I agree because I was Catholic.
Pope Francis, John XXIII, two truly fine men working a compromised environment with the world’s greatest classical music and architecture - that protects the worst, harms the best, and cons the con, as for Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, Easter, Christmas and Holy Cow, let’s face it, if you want fantasy, why leave it to Hollywood, make one up, start your own church and make a movie, call it The Chosen and film yourself... enough dark humor for a cold day in March. Spring is coming...
It’s getting to a point where I think Pope Francis (Argentinian?and what party looked the other way and supported Pinochet in neighboring Chile?) he will take the initiative, and Lead Catholics away from the Republicans. Has to, morally, now.
That is sad in the county where the cathedral is 1 in 10 people in Ada county have been confirmed With Covid.
Wow. Yeah, I love my ID family. I truly do. But they are really messing up regarding the Covid and their DJT support. It's crazy to me.
I’m also struck by the abortion issue having fallen to the lowest level of importance to the GQP, proving, I think, that it was just a ruse anyway.
I think they take opposition to abortion almost for granted. There's less need to discuss a universal consensus.
Ambassador Alan John Blinken lives in Ketchum, Idaho. His first cousin is Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, son of Brother Donald, another ambassador. The Blinkens know. Their great grandfather Meier was a good writer from Ukraine. We are in trouble. Never Again? How about Trump? Hawley? Cruz? The crazies of now? Mussolini was elected. Hitler was elected. It’s happening again. Wake up, America. The beaten grifter in chief may not be lying this time. Our only tool is education. He’s still breathing. Covid-19 did not take him.
Yes, education is the key tool. Thomas Jefferson included it in the eptaph he designed for his gravestone as one of the three ideals in which he strongly believed: "Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and the Father of the University of Virginia."
"epitaph" ... my error.
Thank you for sharing, such disturbing and sad news....your last line is as chilling as Heather’s tone today. It needs to be stated and felt!
It seems we have a race to the bottom going on. States are trying to outdo each other in the restrictiveness of the laws they are passing. One is worse than the next, and some are downright unbelievable. Look at what is happening in North Dakota. (thanks to Daria Wilbur for posting this on another site). https://lawandcrime.com/politics/north-dakota-senate-passes-bill-to-hide-future-presidential-vote-counts-from-public-view-until-after-electoral-college-meets/?fbclid=IwAR0_ivev96ib-GmJNUKMP4QCb07No2iTrjwFObEUHVoj0bksdCzf2TEL3Jo
😡
And North Dakota residents are ok with this - keeping them in the dark about how their votes counted in a presidential election? Or are they just not paying any attention?
Truly sickening. I guess the only good thing about it is that ND only has 3 EC votes.
Subtract 1 senator from every state where cattle outnumber people.
Some oligarchs are very happy. Ted Cruz wouldn’t mind being our oligarch. This is real and if I die and our country is left in their hands, I’ll be miserable knowing my son will have to suffer through a dictatorship.
Cruz could never make it business, so to get to oligarch level he became a boot licker.
As Stacey Abrams so aptly pointed out, Brad Raffensperger defended the elections, not because he was supporting voter rights, but was instead was defending his shiny, new, expensive voting machines. Immediately after the election, he was busily planning to purge the voter rolls, and went from there to "assuring that the security of elections was fair" by limiting absentee ballots, demanding picture ID accompany them, removing drop boxes, etc. Don't give up yet, we still have Stacey, and we must do all that we can to help her. They'll continue to try to undermine any Democratic efforts, so we have to try not to be so "democratic" and use any and all means to cut them off at their knees! They were never trying to protect our interests, and never will, but we can't give up, Dan.
Agree about Brad R, but his actions are helpful beyond the deplorable intentions. Trumpsky's illegal GA phone call, recorded and documented, may be the straw that breaks his camel's back. (Where have we heard that before?)
I was so busy slinging mud, that I neglected to point out this very important fact. Brad recorded the call, if only to cover his butt. It will at least keep the Former Guy busy trying to keep the (his) fat out of the fire, so to speak. Thank you for being the cunning voice of reason, TPJ.😊
"Cunning voice of reason" is a fine compliment. Thanks N!
PS, we're gonna need a bigger fire for all that fat.
If the fat catches fire 🔥 it will be a roaring conflagration.
Feel the burn takes on a whole new meaning, doesn't it? We're not talking about building muscle.
Donate to FairFight. Weekly.
Yes indeed.
I’m in GA as well, the only reason GA is considered purple or blue is if we have free and fair elections, if you take away free and fair, we remain a solidly red state. That should say something about the state of democracy here in GA, and if that can be true here, then it can be true in TX, AZ, NC etc. I feel that our nation is in mortal danger.
I agree that our democracy has been greatly weakened by the DT term. He was working hard every day to dis mantle and discredit our institutions and our norms of civility. His efforts unfortunately have been very effective. I think that even if he is ultimately sent to jail he’ll still be working from there as much as he can to continue to wield power. But I also think we need to spend less attention on his evil machinations and ring kissers and support all of the work the Biden team is engaged in—they have so much damage to undo. Nothing is easy or fast in terms of the rules and protocols of our democratic system. In some respects I believe we need some patience.
Well said.
"The fact that the Republican-led Secretary of State's office found no fraud and the election procedures were overhauled just a few years ago has no bearing on the machinations of the Republicans in my House and Senate."
This is the consequence of ignoring the truth and believing the BIG LIE made by their master. This was happening well before Trump, but Trump seems to have given the entire Republican party guts to follow along and strive to grab as much power as possible. They are using this lie to manipulate and gaslight Americans who have similar wants and needs and those who don't really care or understand the current threat.
The only characterization I'd disagree with here is "guts." It was permission. They don't have any guts - that would take moral fortitude.
I live in Georgia too! One more week and I will be cleared to protest! Got my 2nd vaccination. Heard there was a sit in at the Capital last Friday! I wish I was a less passionate person. I want to punch one of these lawmakers.
I'm here in GA, and your words say exactly how I feel right now.
Oh, this mirrors what’s going on here in AZ...so depressing
They are aspiring oligarchs.
"eager boot lickers"
I wonder if their ears are ringing — they can’t hear us and I don’t think they are monitoring HCR’s newsletter but somebody might be curious enough to have a staffer see what we’re thinking— probably not
If they will not judge themselves, History will judge them worse than Joe McCarthy. They are willfully and knowingly violating their oaths of office, turning their backs on democracy. I believe that we have to prosecute the members who gave tours to rioters prior to Jan 6th. They aided and abetted, as the "inside man" they helped insurrectionist "case the joint" before Jan 6th. They must be held accountable, prosecuted. They must be voted out of Congress.
As I reply to u on my iPad I’m listening to Christopher Wray testifying to the senate about the insurrection. He’s certainly on board to prosecute every single one of them and he said the numbers are growing.
I believe this is already in the works. The DC AG is laying the groundwork, and examining the videos of tours being conducted for the insurrectionists on 1/6, and the insiders who were conducting them.
Better to surprise them by refusing to be "democratic." We don't need more than the current sprinkling of trolls.
I agree—I’m watching Christopher Wray answer Lindsey Graham’s question. I googled Wray and he’s a republican worth between 20–to 40 ish million$. I admire
him though. He’s a good leader and so smart and he actually does something important. Linds3y tried to look like he would be willing to give him more resources. He didn’t seem to want to talk about the specifics of the attack.
Eager and persistent boot lickers
You are correct. Same in Wisconsin. Why wasn't voting rights legislation on the docket first thing? It should be passed and signed by now. It's not like they had to write new bills. Remember all those bills Dems threw into the Senate knowing they'd never get a vote? Pass them again, one after the other, and suspend the filibuster (if not outright end it) to pass them now and sign them into law. Things can change any minute. Do it now. (Need edit feature.)
I was struck by that line too, Nomi. Professor Richardson may have said it before, I can’t recall, but there was an urgency in her voice this morning that shook me.
That our political climate could worsen daily, is something we had become accustomed to over the last four years. We thought, it turns out naively, that the worst was over when our new President was elected. Then January 6th – and it appears all bets are off. The Radical Republican Party (Party of Trump) has doubled-down as you said, and fully embraced the politics of their spiritual forebears – those who designed and perpetuated Jim Crow America.
I don’t know if you caught yesterday’s White House Press Conference, but I was moved by the urgency of the opening statement by the new Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas. His graphic description of the gutting of that department under the previous administration paints a clear and devastating picture of the harm done by Trump, Miller, and their accomplices. And that is just one example.
What can we do? First, center ourselves, then do an inventory of everyone we know who might share our concerns and marshal our resources to bring pressure on our elected officials to pass S-1 and the John Lewis Voting Rights Bill.
The Biden Administration has a lot on its plate, but we must put pressure on the Administration and Congress to pass these Bills. And then, we will have something like a level playing field on which to rebuild the country.
There is much work to be done, many battles to wage and little time to waste.
If we ousted the seditionists and obstructionists, we might be able to do something without wasting so much precious time. They are laughing at us that this coup is so easy. Because we act like we are dealing with rationals beings rather than homegrown terrorists and Nazis supported by very hostile foreign entities.
Hello Penelope - Your comment is thought-provoking.
The Far-Right movement is indeed international – Anne Applebaum has done some terrific reporting on the subject in the Washington Post around the rise of the Spanish Vox party: (https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/opinions/spains-far-right-vox-party-shot-from-social-media-into-parliament-overnight-how/?utm_term=.29212d6d0a30&itid=lk_inline_manual_41)
There is also a Q&A in WAPO with Ms. Applebaum in which she discusses some strategies for pushing back. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/05/08/anne-applebaum-answers-your-questions-about-rise-spains-vox-party/)
The New York Times has also covered the issue – and our own experience in the 2016 election is a prime example.
Money and assistance are moving across borders to expand the influence of the Far Right. How much of that is coming into the US (Russia aside) as opposed to originating from the US, I don’t know, but I would be very interested to learn more.
As far as “ousting” people from office – which is what I take it you mean to say – beyond voting them out or convicting them of a crime, I don’t believe we have much in the way of options. I’m not sure how much appetite the Justice Department has for prosecuting sitting members of Congress. I’d rather have fair voting and districting rules and vote them out. Civics education would also go a long way toward pointing out the dangerous and unconstitutional nature of their activities.
A final thought: The people who are behind the voter suppression laws, and those is Congress and elsewhere who are perpetuating the Big Lie, are, by and large, rationale. They know what they are doing, and we would be putting ourselves at a disadvantage by underestimating them.
In the 1930s, when Hitler’s Nazis were developing a strategy for dealing with / marginalizing/ dehumanizing its Jewish citizens, they looked to the laws and practices of Jim Crow America for guidance. Curiously, the rejected some of the more extreme practices finding them too severe. Until, of course, they threw their rule book out the window and started gassing people. Isabel Wilkerson discusses this at some length in "Caste".
There is a thread in the BLM movement that harkens back to that time, that follows the escalation from dehumanization to elimination. Reminding the world that Black lives are at risk – every hour of every day – is IMO, something that has not yet sunk in deeply enough. People recoil from the use of the term, but your evocation of the Nazis in this context, is apt.
Thus was deketed and reposted to edut name error.
R
Dooley, you state: "I'm not sure how much appetite the Justice Department has for prosecuting sitting members of Congress. I’d rather have fair voting and districting rules and vote them out."
Therein lies the problem. To hell with not prosecuting sitting members if Congress. If one of their number has committed a crime, especially one attached to their role as a Representative or Senator, they need to be charged and prosecuted. The same goes for a Cabinet member, and should hold for the president and vice president as well. Criminal charges were not filed against Trump because of "The Memo", not a law. We have allowed politicians, Republican politicians most especially, to push the envelope further and further every administration since Nixon. And in return, they have done nothing more than take advantage of the optics everyone is so afraid of sullying AND the fact that we Democrats simplify don't (or haven't had) have the stomach to fight back dirty and mean. Voting alone is NOT, at this point, going to rout out the rot.
To this end: if there is an evidence that conclusively shows a member of Congress was instrumental in the 6th of January Insurrection they better damned sight be charged and arrested. Honest to God, how much more and how much longer are we going to treat criminals in office as though they are above the law? I mean, some of the attempts at election tampering alone should have been enough to charge and prosecute both Graham and Trump. It's gone too far. As far as the Republican party is concerned Law & Order are for Democrats/Progressives and BIPOCs and not for white Republicans easily identifiable by their abhorrence to anything that remotely resembles Truth and Equality. We need to recognize what's happening and fight it any way we can.
"if there is an evidence that conclusively shows a member of Congress was instrumental in the 6th of January Insurrection they better damned sight be charged and arrested."
Yes. And it continues to anger me that seditionist Cruz et al. are not only permitted to remain in Congress but are allowed to question witnesses in hearings. They should be ejected and their voices silenced.
Amen.
To hell with not prosecuting sitting members of Congress [and the Cabinet]."
Let justice be done, though the heavens may fall.
Yes, I think we are too ruled by fear and scared to do anything. If we do not try, it may be all over.
Totally agree.
Gawd, I edit, a bus goes by and it's worse than before!
Sticky keyboard today, Daria? "Nevertheless, she persisted."
Kleep the ocmments ocming!
Dammit, Daria, I want to buy you a drink! Or a happy hour zoom. I totally appreciate RDooley, but I absolutely recoil at waiting till the next election. No way. We need justice to be meted out and take our country out of their power. Now. We have waiting five years for justice. Is this morality just a woman thing?
Take them out now and let them rot in Guantanamo.
I got the point, Daria - not to worry.
And I agree if, as you say "... there is an evidence that conclusively shows a member of Congress was instrumental in the 6th of January Insurrection..."
Anything less than that, anything vague or political, and we will have jumped down a rabbit hole with hellish implications. If DOJ can get a Grand Jury to indict - then yes. But - my personal political opinion (which is worth zilch!) - is that it would be a stretch for DOJ to go after a sitting member for the January 6th Riot.
They went after a number of them during ABSCAM, and Jefferson of LA and Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins. And DJT not around to pardon them now. I have to keep hope alive.
Why? Does being an elected federal official grant immunity from punishment for crimes? Oh well, yes, I guess it does—viz., the ex-president.
Exactly. What would be their crime?--not their intents, which were obvious.
I was shocked when I read "Hitler's American Model" and learned that the Nazis looked to Jim Crow America for guidance on their treatment of the Jews. I want to say more about this but I don't have the words yet.
The seditionists need to be expelled from office for their aid to the insurrectionists and for their intent to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. I agree that we cannot underestimate the adversary here; they will stop at NOTHING to exert their power and control.
I think a lot is going to come out about foreign money into American PACs. The NRA gave 10 million to Romney's 2012 campaign. In 2016 it gave DT 30 Million. We haven't heard much the case of Paul Erikson, Maria Butitna, Aleksandr Torshin. All operatives, fostering contacts, funneling donations to campaigns via the NRA. The NRA has political protection and laws keeping everything secrete so it doesn't have to disclose political donations. All of this and other "legalized" corruption needs to be brought into the light before 2022 election cycle.
Don't under estimate the amount of money in super PACs from our own oligarchs...remember the Koch Brothers secret fund raisers.
Lots of $$$ there; how did the NRA come by it? It's not all American, that's for sure. Hint: follow the money to Moscow, of course.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/27/politics/nra-russians-ties-president-2016-election/index.html
R, I will come back to this comment and your links. I have had to cut way back on reading the past two months. Personal stresses compounding the stress of reading incessantly about all this forced me to limit things greatly. For me, it's a almost impossible balancing game. I cannot be too disconnected, yet the stress of endless reading about these horrors is not helpful.
Take care of yourself - that's the most important thing.
Qanon has taken hold in Ireland too.
Watch out for that pizza joint on O'Connell Street ....
Oh no. Geez
But I think we need to be realistic. When we focus our rage on things that simply will not happen, such as prosecuting members of Congress, it diverts our attention from things we can do.
I'm not giving up on prosecuting insurrection leaders, whether in Congress or the 45 admin. If AG Garland determines to go in that direction and evidence is sufficient, I believe he will act. It's not revenge or retaliation from Dems; it's essential to protect democracy.
Then we are in a mess, because the knowledge that they are untouchable will up their game.
We need to start at the bottom. Control the lowest levels of government, where the initial debasement of democracy are now happening.
I agree 1000%. I'm focusing on HR-1, HR-4 and S-1 right now and have already started working for a candidate for Senate in NC to fill Richard Burr's place. I'm in Madison Cawthorn's district which is not only red, but rural red = no swing voters. I would like think we could flip it but he is getting so much exposure and will virtually impossible to beat... for now.
Fascists have a history of allying themselves with the business conservatives to seize power administratively. Once they have power they take all over of it. Those they can not silence by intimidation, they jail, or murder. When HCR says @how dangerous” I think this is what she means.
While we got a dose of hope, we got no relief in Florida. It hasn't stopped and Florida is chief among those Republican legislatures moving forward with voter suppression. Avril Haines yesterday on NPR said the same re National Intelligence being gutted.
https://www.npr.org/2021/03/01/972475762/transcript-nprs-full-interview-with-dni-avril-haines
I'm expecting that reports will come out about the gutting of ALL the departments. Have those been gathered in one place yet?
If you haven't read Michael Lewis's 2018 book, "The Fifth Risk" you should do so. It's about DJT's dismantling of all levels of government. He wrote "The Big Short" about the financial crisis which was made into the movie.
I missed that, thanks.
Yes. At least two battles:
HCR's words are indeed a clarion to action. Voter suppression, abetted by the SCOTUS, will continue ... and the answer to that is a massive program to get out the vote, even if it means doing it the old fashioned way, with long lines at polling places from dawn to dusk in States where voting early, by mail or via a dropbox becomes restricted.
The other battle is the against the danger posed by armed domestic terrorist groups. They must be squelched by Federal law and troops, if necessary. George Washington sent troops to put down the Whiskey Rebllion raised by Pennsylvanians who objected to high taxes on booze. That isn't near as bad as storming the Capitol and objecting to the democratic process which they claim has been corrupted. (It actually HAS been corrupted but by those who allow lies to take on credibility, but that's another subject.)
Remember that some states are trying to reduce or completely eliminate dropboxes, leaving the medically fragile or the infirm unable to vote.
I will volunteer to drive people to the polls. I would have done it in November and in the runoffs, but for Covid. I'm now armed with Two doses of Moderna!
Nancy, you are an inspiration.
You're too nice. Must bee the MA connection :-).
https://thetriad.thebulwark.com/p/bidens-future-has-two-parts?r=3sb12&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=copy
I agree completely. We cannot become complacent. Here is what I see in my crystal ball: Warnock loses in 2022 and the Rs retake the Senate. The president's party always loses House seats in midterm elections, so the Rs narrow the Ds majority in 2022. 25 Republican state legislatures enact voter suppression legislation and gerrymander their new congressional districts to ensure winning more of those House seats and continue their blatant racist, antidemocratic attacks on voting. And in 2024, the Rs nominate a slightly less repugnant autocrat and win the presidency. These are very, very real possibilities. The situation is dire. The filibuster must go. I think Biden is playing this moment exactly right in largely ignoring the bleating of the Rs that he is not being bipartisan, the rankest hypocrisy I can imagine.
We can do this, but it is going to take all of our energies every moment from now until the 2024 presidential elections.
First step is to smash your crystal ball.
What?
I like the acronym RRP, which could also stand for the Red Rat Party 🐀
Can't beat GQP, though!
Thanks, R. This is helpful.
https://thetriad.thebulwark.com/p/bidens-future-has-two-parts?r=3sb12&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=copy
For me, and others who recognize the threat, it's a relief to see the danger openly recognized.
As frightening and disturbing as it is, I, too, am grateful that now the light is on. And although we cover our faces and recoil in horror at the true danger, we can understand that ignorance is not bliss. Now we need to look around and see where and how we can help.
Amen.
I have expressed all along my pleasure at seeing businesses display signs that assist me in knowing where NOT to spend my money!
Businesses and banks are critical to any move toward integrity. Heartening to see the profit-takers back off after 1.6
This would be a great place to put energies--encouraging, supporting, and thanking those concerns that make public their withdrawal of support for sedition and treason.
Contrasted with the banks and businesses who continue to support fox and oan, rt, and whatever else is out there, to call it out, name it, withdraw support (q.v., the list someone posted in these letters r/t the advertisers for fox)
I recognize the threat, but would encourage everyone to be emboldened, not discouraged. We need to fight and organize. Look at it this way, the republicans manage to stay in lockstep, regardless that they're the minority. With all of the dysfunction within their party, they're presenting a united front outwardly, for the most part. We absolutely must be emboldened, and not give in to defeatism. Focus on what our majority can accomplish, even with the hamstringing locally.
In Oregon we have had the Neighborhood Leadership Program by County for the past few years. I became involved a month before the 2020 election. I was amazed at how effective their system is in getting out the vote one neighborhood at a time. As neighborhood leader I only call/contact Democratic voters around me. We have some wonderful county leaders who are already recruiting/interviewing school board candidates for the May election. I think Republicans have been doing something like this for some time.
So you know....our county increased voting by 90%. Of the 40 people I had on my list, all but 5 people voted in the last election. So it works! This program makes me feel like I'm doing something positive in carrying out my duty as citizen.
We've had similar experience here in Georgia, thanks to brilliant Stacey Abrams. People need to know that grassroots can change things and nobody should be intimidated. The spectre of the KKK is just that - a spectre.
It also give one courage to know there are 'like-minded' people living fairly close by - people you may not know and who might be feeling alone and intimidated as well.
I once attended a regional peace conference where we were told that even in the most war-torn areas of the world, there are people of peace. What we need to do is let them know they are not alone- that are people of peace supporting them.
A forum like this one helps us to realize that we're not alone. We can do this together.
Wondrous work!
I am too. I shut the whole world out as much as possible yesterday.... I am discouraged and amazed that we are here. Yes, Heather’s statement about how precarious our situation is woke me up and my insides are buzzing. What the heck happened with Ben Sasse?! Yes, I am extremely concerned.
I think Sasse believes Garland will prosecute Trump. I wish he was right, but I doubt it.
So why would he not want Trump prosecuted?
I have confidence in Merrick Garland. He is the seditionists' worst nightmare. They will rue they day they blocked him from the Supreme Court!
This will be when we get to see the moscow boy regret he refused Garland a supreme court hearing
Sasse is just a hand wringer who would like people to think he’s a deep thinker.
thank you...I couldn't have said it better!
Yesterday I suddenly remembered Stanley Kubrick’s film Clockwork Orange— in the beginning of the film some arrogant young thugs barge into a home and casually kill a human being— I was so scared when I saw this part of the film and I later read that this was essentially a prophecy of the future. Now I’m worried the prophecy has come full circle and these are our militias’ thugs who will run rampant.
I was thinking if the film during the impeachment trial- I wished they could hold Hawley’s and Paul’s eyes open to look at the video footage.
They’re hopeless
Even if they used toothpicks to hold them open their arrogant brains wouldn’t process it—all they care about is posturing for their like thinking base so they get re-elected.
Exactly my thoughts, Nomi! 🙏🏻 I’m alerting my Insta group and at Vote Save America’s helpful website for calling Congress. The last year was grueling, but Trump has unleashed demons who won’t go away without more fighting. 🇺🇸❤️🤍💙
So, the problem is how does a minoritarian and anti-democratic party maintain such a firm grip on political power? They have a very solid base of popular support during elections. I heard a good possible explanation for this on a recent episode of The Ralph Nader Radio Hour, when he had Thom Hartmann on as his guest. Thom laid out the timeline of changes that occurred in local radio station operations resulting from regulatory changes made during the Reagan administration. He mentions the end of the fairness doctrine, but far more consequential were changes to restrictions on station ownership, which led to giant corporations, Clear Channel Communications in particular, consolidating ownership across the country. Prior to that there were a diversity of owners and a diversity of opinions being broadcast. But once all the stations were standardized, in the name of efficiency of course, that diversity of ideas was strangled. He mentioned seeing one of the corporate bigwigs at an industry event, and asking if he could get on their network, as an experienced radio host with proven advertising sponsors. The reply was, "Never!" Since Thom Hartmann advocates for policies that could raise taxes on corporations. And so the wide scale brainwashing begins. It was a very interesting show.
It is possible for one thing by use of the modern version of the filibuster honed to a fine art by Mitch McConnell and the people he leads. They have become willing to use whatever means they can to cling to power and since they are a minority, those means are often outside the norms of government and dancing on the edge of the rule of law. When the latter happens, they seek changes in those laws to legitimize their actions. That is why court stacking has been a priority for them.
Democrats continue to operate within the boundaries of those norms and rules. So the playing field is not even. I keep thinking about that and always conclude that it is why I am a Democrat. I’m not naive but continue to hope that doing things in a people centered way will prevail in the end.
I am currently reading “Kill Switch” by Adam Jentleson. It makes the case for reforming the filibuster and provides a detailed history of how we got to this point.
Reforming the filibuster would stand a better chance than trying to eliminate it. Manchin and others would fight elimination. I'm with you in hoping to continue to manage things a people-centered way, but we have to be more crafty in planning our strategy.
https://thetriad.thebulwark.com/p/bidens-future-has-two-parts?r=3sb12&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=copy
This article is interesting and on your topic as well.
Nomi, I do not recall Heather using that specific language either. Seeing that warning in her Letter just now made my blood run cold.
She has several times called out events and trends that she felt posed the possibility of danger to democratic processes. I agree, though, that this time her callout seemed especially intense.
I follow what is going on at the state level (not all states, but some I am connected with, and some others I follow because of the trends they illustrate). And what I see in many of these is frightening. Insurrectionists are moving into state-level Constitutional institutions, and then working to shift the energy into dealing with anti-democratic postures and actions. They are also taking over politics at local levels. That has future implications, as those people then move into party politics, moving the Republicans further along the radical line, which they are desperate to maintain. So... undermining state legislative processes, using various means, including disruption and violence, as we have already seen.
I agree with you. I follow down ballot elections and officials in my state, especially locally, from city council to school board members. I see it and it is damn scary.
Yes. This was Heather's most stark and pointed warning I've read over the course of her Letters.
HCR has used that phrase in recent previous newsletters!
I know she's said similar, I just don't remember it being quite this strong. But maybe I'm wrong. Either way, this is soul-sucking.
The center does not hold.
Also, how can the few more "normal" Republicans be such wusses?
Because they don't exist - not as Republicans anyway, having been driven out.
I don't always post HCR on Facebook but that stark sentence jumped out to me as well. That's not standard HCR. What also shook me was the Twitter link at the bottom showing CPAC's priorities. We need to rest up because we have the fight of our lives in front of us in 2022. A year is a nanosecond in politics and we need to start now, especially with HR-1 and S-1. That's where they will skewer us.
The biggest thing that we have is modern technology that they didn’t have in 1876. The words from the Republicans are really the same: They want to make all of the decisions and to hell with democracy. The only Republican president, in my lifetime, to have made any sense of what was going on in the world was Eisenhower. Too bad he chose Tricky Dick as his VP.
Today, I decided to watch a little of C-Span’s hearing on Merrick Garland. I was seething at Mike Lee and Cruz’s statements about how Garland never answered their questions. Thank goodness for Amy Klobuchar who set them straight! Cruz must be scared of Garland. Fake45 should be also. Praying this will be the seditionists last hurrah when Garland, Letitia, and Cyrus get through with them.
The wind is fierce this morning. We need to be fierce and laser focused. When Trump became President the news media made him legitimate by not calling him out on his lies. He continues to lie and Cruz and Hawley and others support the lies. Call the lies !! Call CPAC out for what it is a forum to perpetuate the lies and destroy our Democracy.
Saying Joe Biden is not the legitimate President is Not only a lie it is treason. Let’s name it. Joe Biden is the legitimate President of the United States and for Trump to continue to question it is treasonous. He is igniting his supporters for more insurrection. He needs to be held accountable. Enter Merrick Garland. The news in its effort to be fair perpetuates the lies and contributes to legitimizing corruption.
Yes let’s be fastidious with our language. Garland is strong and we need every brain cell focused on the fact the Biden has chosen a wonderful team of American leaders who are actually governing now not just tweeting and rabble rousing. And our former guy can’t even tweet anymore and the word is he’s bored out of his mind down there. And who care anyway about that colorful, very limited former guy. We shss as ll prevail. Democracy will prevail.
Here’s my wishful thinking: Republicans who are horrified at what their party has become will either form a 3rd party or join the democratic party. Either one of these may weaken the party of ****p followers.
I think for me this is the biggest mystery. Where are the Rs who find all of this repugnant? I wish the Lincoln Project had been a real third-party movement it seemed set to become rather than cover for a few self-serving people. There have to be people in that party, and lots of them, who hate the lies and ugliness, but it's hard to hear them.
I, too, am very disappointed in what has happened with The Lincoln Project.
Being fastidious with our language, though, means not calling this type of speech treason. It is despicable, inciting, dishonest, mendacious, self-serving twaddle. But it's not treason. It's free speech and protected, as it should be.
Reid, I think it IS treason. Here's the definition. 45 has levied war against us (note Jan. 6) and continues to give comfort and inspiration to those who would overthrow our system of govt. He certainly has adhered to our enemies (Saudi Arabia, Russia, N Korea, etc) I believe there would be MORE than two witnesses in this country who would stand up to him in court. "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court."
GOP rejection of Biden's victory is part of an ongoing, concerted effort to undermine the legitimate government and its functions. Since that provides aid and comfort to America's enemies, it IS treason.
That's a stretch. Not that I don't wish we could make it stick, but I don't think any court in the land would back that reasoning.
I think Trump is clearly guilty of incitement of an insurrection. But treason is a much higher bar. He is, in fact, a treasonous SOB, but I don't think the DOJ will touch that charge with a ten foot pole.
Absolutely.
Dr. Richardson, thank you (again) for articulating the issue so clearly: "Perhaps because it is impossible to imagine, we seem largely to have normalized that the former president of the United States refused to accept his loss in the 2020 election and enlisted a mob to try to overturn the results. Along with his supporters, he continues to insist that he won that election and that President Joe Biden is an illegitimate usurper."
Didn't we "normalize" this "big lie" when during the impeachment trial, Trump was not forced to appear physically by subpoena before Congress and answer for inciting an insurrection? Didn't we show that Trump was indeed "above" Congress and above the law? Are we not doing much the same thing as we are with Saudi Arabia, where we use the euphemism "recalibration" instead of demanding accountability for the butchery of a U.S. based-journalist? Wouldn't the term "emboldened" best describe both Trump and Prince MBS moving forward, astounded by our fear to substantially react? We gift Trump four years to build an army with 70 million followers, all while we gloat at his debt and myriad impending lawsuits, and worry ourselves silly about whether to end the Senate filibuster in order to pass any meaningful legislation. Which Party is delusional?
I'm pretty sure that Biden will be harder still on SA. Last week's actions are just the opening round of his foreign policy. And MBS will feel the sting of being bypassed for a long time. Ignoring him to go directly to his own father (not just the Saudi head of state) is a profound insult. For him the only things likely more humiliating than treating him like a child are treating him like a dog or a woman. He gets the silent treatment from Biden, who knows how to use silence eloquently and effectively.
Yes, during the past 4 years we may have started to forget how much successful foreign policy depends on nuance, and (Biden has) knowledge of the culture of the players.
I love even the word nuance—it’s so French and reminds me of subtle things like excellent diplomacy.
Not many Talleyrands around these days....still too many Bismarks still.....
quotes:
"Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts". (Talleyrand)
"The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood."(Bismark)
The amazing career of Talleyrand has fascinated me since I was a pup. He was the only major figure to serve every French government from Louis XVI through the July Monarchy (1774-1838). Unlike Louis XVIII, he forget nothing AND remembered everything. Thanks for drawing attention to him with your perspective from le Francophonie authentique. ( Struggling w/ gender agreement as usual.)
Obviously his ability to survive didn't incite only praise. But he was assuedly the master of making himself absolutely essential when the politicians suffered from a low horizen and blinkered vision.
Yes silence can be one of the most powerful weapons—I’m in the middle of giving my son a silent treatment.
I used to organize with my eldest chatterbox granddaughter when she was about 10 a competition to see who could stay silent the longest. She would win of course....as she has to win in every competition in life even now she is 20!....and beat her record in every subsequent contest wher i wanted to "get my revenge". What peace we had, silence for 30 minutes on end. It was wonderful....and she was happy as a lark for having "beaten" her grandfather!
Ah, the Who-can-be-silent-the-longest game. Such temporary relief for harried parents on a family trip with restless kids in the backseat. Thanks for the memory.
I bet she’s a lovely 20 year old who lover her smart grandfather very much.
And a lot More "respectful" than she is with her parents. She knows this one can't be "turned" . It gives her a good frame of reference. Now she's a budding model, fashion designer, journalist and astounding effective networker...a future "The Devil Wore Prada" i fear!
We have a budding 20 year old fashion designer granddaughter from my husband’s eldest son. I loved that film about the fierce Anna Wintour.
Yes, TPJ. Your remarks resemble my thinking.
Morning and thanks, Lynell!!
Great minds think alike, and then there's us.
Teehee...then I'm in good company!
Whenever your name appears in LFAA, I start imagining our next family visit to Harpers Ferry near you.
Yeah but don't you know a senate "trial" is not a REAL trial. Ugh, i heard this so many times...NOW is the time to have a REAL DOJ, with a REAL trial, with REAL consequences for attempting a criminal act. His criminal act failed, he is SUCH a lover. Time to LOCK HIM UP.
Time to have televised, REAL trials, with real juries and real witnesses and defendants and perps subpoenaed and forced to attend. Time for Lady Justice to come out swinging her damned scales like Annie Oakley ready for business with these outlaws. Time for the feminine to step up to this disastrous plate and mete out justice and morality for our country.
What do the terrorists have planned for March 4th—in two days? Has the FBI been watching them? Are we prepared?
I have witnessed, in a front row seat, the criminal justice system not working. The poor go to prison. The rich go free. No one was crying for justice until it was their family member.
The drug war was/is a political war, a race war and a war against single moms. That political war is fueled by white male insecurity and entitlement. Plantation owners feel victimized when their entitalment is challenged. Their fear of sharing power results in hate. Equality has the Constitution, but they have the guns.
May we have the audacity of hope
Better yet, may we have the courage of action. The "hope" thing is just a holding place with no commitment or responsibility.
There are millions more of us.
Important reminder
Loser loser loser! Ugh
I need a 😂 emoji for this one.
I was worried about you.
Furious fat finger, effect spoiled, echoes of my father telling me to lighten up...
Oh, do I hate when that happens. I cannot post here from my phone very easily, so I at least don't have my PC assuming what words I want to use!
Check this site out that I found. An ongoing listing of all the legal actions pending against DJT. It makes me feel good to read through it all and hope that at least one will stick:
https://www.justsecurity.org/75032/litigation-tracker-pending-criminal-and-civil-cases-against-donald-trump/
Valuable resource, thanks T.
Hopefully Dr R writes again soon on SA. We want more perspective from your experience.
Remember though we also in 2016 had no idea Russia would undermine our election with its hacking efforts into social media.
The FBI saw at least some of it happening. President Obama kept quiet because Mitch McConnell refused to join a bipartisan statement against it.
In some regards, history might be a little less than kind to Obama's Presidency. From the outside looking in, we admired the man but were not over impressed with his approach to the wider world.
Sadly, I agree. He had to deal with the fact he was the first black president. And, to some degree, it hobbked him. His presidency must be viewed through that lense.
I always grind my teeth and growl when someone urges the "audacity of hope." What we needed, and need, is the courage of action. Obama was "out-played" so many times as he hoped everyone would play nice.
Without hope, people may despair of taking action. One supports the other.
Ya, we are not either/or, rather both/and
One of the best things Obama did quite quietly was set up an international agreement to control the supply of nuclear materials.
Unfortunately it's not very clear what that achieved as things stand.
Yep. I guess what I liked about it is controlling nuclear proliferation by controlling the source of materials. Seems a more efficient and effective approach than a signed treaty. At some level even so you have to trust some people. What a messed up world we're in right now. May you live in interesting times as the Chinese say.
Obama's international (and domestic) approach was quite impressive. But he didn't -- couldn't -- achieve enough thanks to GOP obstruction. I still think Obama's great, but also greatly disappointing.
Pres. Obama came across as naive domestically as well - he got snookered by McC's R's pretending to work with him while they were doing what they had said out loud they would do, oppose him above all other goals.
Mitch needs to be removed immediately. Blatant obstructionist to a functional democracy years whilst filling judge seats with his comrades.
Wish that would happen. But remember the "wise" people of Kentucky just re-elected him.
McTurtle et al stole the KY senate election through massive fraud. Investigations, please. Plural!
And his pockets with cash
In retrospect Obama made a major mistake in not publicizing and pursuing Russian interference. Dems shouldn't be nonpartisan when faced with the most rank partisanship.
I'm not sure that President Obama keeping quiet because Senator McConnell refused to join a bipartisan statement cuts the mustard so to speak. How does that sit with President Obama's oath of office?
But the Intelligence community should have been aware of it. I shouldn't imagine for a moment that it just started in 2016
they were quite aware, but were hobbled by GOP obstruction and Obama's desire to appear neutral.
I think you're exactly right! But aren't we being too generous to say "hobbled" when we mean politicized? The Intelligence community had a triple failure: first to be caught totally off guard, second to prove incapable of protecting us against a foreign enemy engaging in cyberattacks, and third to succumb to internal political pressure and keep the American public in the dark during a foreign attack on our elections. I know that the drama in all this is a political party that (still) invites a foreign actor to interfere in our elections, but what do you all think about the integrity of our embattled CIA and FBI who still seem incapable of admitting the full extent of their failure?
The Intelligence community were very much aware of the it. President Obama decided not to make it public because he wanted to be regarded as not interfering in the election in any way and the Gang of 8 in the Congress were all too happy to go along with him on this.
Or have so many operatives in the republican party and in high places.
So yes some of us found out about it, some kept quiet about it for strategic reasons, some refused to believe it and some just kept lying about it-I want Biden’s administration to give Putin hell in the form of a multiple series of impediments to his agenda that don’t penalize the poor Russians —one might be a strategic drone strike on his golden palace —oops.
Commonality of financial interests and life philosophy.
I think of this a lot too. "We" had no idea, but American intelligence certainly did. As we contemplate the possibility that the real reason law enforcement and intelligence didn't protect Congress was that the mob was there at the invitation at the President, it has to remind us that FBI and CIA kept the intelligence of Russian interference from us because of pressure from fellow Republicans.
The Cheeto had also been messing with intelligence in ways no other prez would have dared to make it his own tool.
Rules of Evidence (6th Amendment) do not apply in impeachment hearings, it seems. https://www.npr.org/2019/10/01/766176669/legal-experts-say-the-right-to-confront-accusers-does-not-apply-to-impeachment
That is insane and must be changed with so many things...all at once.
The impeachment process is meant to do one thing: remove a person from office. It is not intended to be a criminal trial, and thus the rules are different.
Annie's right. One size (mode) of justice does not fit all.
All American citizens are delusional in believing we live in a democratic republic. To succeed in this would require that we abolish our empire and military industrial congressional complex and most importantly see that white supremacy is still hiding everywhere in plain sight as bedrock under our countrymen’s lack of self esteem and empathy.
Mr. Steinberg, you are so right on. The building of the militias for the next four years is a frightening consideration.
The actions of the former president and the attendees at CPAC are classic actions of abusers. Forgive me, I'm a therapist. The abuser never backs down from terrorizing, whether subtly or violently, except to groom or reward the people in their power.
One of the most powerful tools of the abuser is that the people who they are abusing can't believe that abusers are doing what they are doing--it is so out of the realm of accepted behavior, and the motives seem so extreme--as in the January 6 coup.
We all know it was a coup attempt. But we are simultaneously trying to understand and believe that it really happened, while still trying to believe it's not a sign of things to come, and still trying to believe we can stop the abuser's actions and put an end to the escalating abuse.
Seen through the lens of understanding the actions and arsenals of abusers, yes, our nation of laws is in danger of a terrible beating or worse.
The other thing about abusers, Pam is the abused always think the abuser will find (usually) his way and change. I think we've fallen into that misguided belief and still have not recognized that the abuser will never change.
Yes, this! Also analogous to domestic abuse is how the abuse becomes normalized.
I'm thinking, too, that the abused are told and begin to believe that the violence is their "fault."
"I'll stop hitting you if you stop provoking me."
Agree Pam. Also a therapist here. I'd like to ad to your astute comment that Bundy Lee has a good body of work on DJT and his malignant narcissism -- starting with the book that came out a couple of years ago 'The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump'. She wrote a piece in Scientific American recently on the followers of such a person and what it will take to move away from such behavior. It's a fascinating read:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-shared-psychosis-of-donald-trump-and-his-loyalists/
On a side note, and just for a sense of some relief from this madness, here is a site dedicated to keeping a running list of pending cases of legal action against DJT.
https://www.justsecurity.org/75032/litigation-tracker-pending-criminal-and-civil-cases-against-donald-trump/
Thank you for sharing this article on shared psychosis. Everyone, and I really mean *everyone*, should read it. I am a practicing FNP-DNP and am also actively within 1.5 semesters of completing a post graduate degree as a PMHNP. I find the arguments put forth in this article to be compelling and quite terrifying in light is his non-conviction of impeachment, as well as the CPAC debacle with its Nazi symbol stage. They / he might as well be shouting their intent from every rooftop in the nation, and those of us not with him are behaving in the classic pattern of the abused “unable to see the harm that is being done to them. After a while, the magnitude of the deception conspires with their own psychological protections against pain and disappointment. This causes them to avoid seeing the truth.” While this passage in the article refers to his supporters, I also feel it applies to us / non-supporters. The repeated comments here today about how people didn’t realize the situation until Heather’s current letter should be a wake up call that many of us have been unable to see the truth as well: that we have been and remain in serious danger of losing our democracy, our nation. I try to avoid being a doomsayer. I understand that there is so much collective trauma and grief from both the past four years and the pandemic that people are desperate for hope. I don’t want to take away anyone’s hope but we must wake up and realize, regardless of our current trauma and grief, that he and his followers are hell bent on our absolute destruction. We ignore this in favor of our hope for Biden’s presidency at our peril. The article also makes clear the necessary course of action, “active intervention to stop him from achieving any number of destructive outcomes for the nation, including the establishment of a shadow presidency. He will have no limit, which is why I have actively advocated for removal and accountability, including prosecution.” and “ (1) Removal of the offending agent (the influential person with severe symptoms). (2) Dismantling systems of thought control—common in advertising but now also heavily adopted by politics. And (3) fixing the socioeconomic conditions that give rise to poor collective mental health in the first place.”
We must convince the two Democratic Senators opposed to ending the filibuster to see the error of their ways. We MUST pass national voter laws stopping voter suppression and gerrymandering.
I say take Manchin and Sinema aside. Find out what they have to have to vote in favor of eliminating the filibuster (“earmarks” have been reinstated in Congress for those who earn them). I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop that will turn this anti-democratic tide: indictments out of NY and of those “upstream” for the insurrection. Let’s start this ball rolling.
I am hopeful also that states (there are several) with strong cases against Trump et al will act on them, and soon. (I also secretly hope Trump drops dead so we can watch the ensuing food fight.) As a woman whose year in 2020 started with a physical assault, I hate to bring this up, but the timing on the charges against Cuomo seems awfully coincidental. I don't even like the man, but why now?
America is just one happy meal away from that catharsis. Which one will it be? Happy happy meal, people!
As during the previous 4 years, we must write to and call our senators and representatives to insist that they make this happen. It's as vital now as it was then to maintain the volume and power of our own voices!!!
The junior senator of North Carolina, my home state, was previously Speaker of the House of the NC General Assembly. He helped to pass the voter suppression laws written with surgical precision to negatively impact Black voters. The grossly gerrymandered districts produced Republican supermajorities in the NC House and Senate, which then went on to make war on public education and the poor with some of the stingiest unemployment benefits in the nation. His name is Thom Tillis. He’s not much of a listener.
I suspect that the only way to deal with NC is to work hard at the local level. It will take some time.
One of my favorite Americans, Rev Wm Barber, is a tarheel. He's been fighting the good fight for a long time.
The Rev Barber is a moral and honorable man. I have N.C. friends who have been arrested with him while protesting. I’ve never been arrested and admire their courage.
Jennifer, I can think of several other things Tillis is, none of them printable in a family forum..................😝
He is a horror. I write to him frequently and receive the same wordy boilerplate from him every time.
Me, too, Gwen. Useless POS in a suit. He's every inch the opportunist. I saw him at a town hall meeting once when he was still in the NC House and it was obvious he was going to pander to the money.
We have a very short window to pass legislation to protect our democracy. If that means old school, back room bargaining and arm twisting with Manchin & Sinema to get it done, so be it. The filibuster has to go.
Since you’re advocating going “old school” to get it done, with the stakes so high I would even consider looking the other way if they were to incorporate some good old fashioned blackmail to get them to change their position. Desperate times, and all that. And don’t try to convince me that the other side isn’t using the same tactic to suit their ends as well.
Mississippi, where I live, is a state with Republicans as a single, dominant party. It is currently featured in three stories in The Washington Post. One refers to my congressman who is accused of using campaign funds as a personal slush fund. The second is a story about the inability of families to afford diapers for their children. The third is about people in Jackson being without water for going on three weeks. These stories perfectly illustrate the consequences of minority rule.
I was in Jackson one weekend and thoroughly enjoyed your city. I heard about the ongoing water shortage there last night. It must be so hard.
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! Seems Stacey Abrams' work is not done. We must follow her lead.
Like many others, I breathed big sighs of relief after the November, and again after the state by state certification of the electoral votes, then (after a very scary assault on the Capitol) once again after the electoral votes were certified by the Congress. At the same time, our democracy does seem more fragile than I have ever experienced in my 70 years. The Big Lie is truly too crazy to parody. It seems more like a dystopian nightmare. Have the Republicans (almost) all lost their sense of right and wrong? How can they sleep at night? What will their children and grandchildren think of them? I have no answers, only hope that the voters of our country, if not the GOP invertebrates, will come to their senses and relegate Trumpism to a deserving dustbin of history, along with and all who enable and adhere to this cult of devil worship.
We have to view the inauguration as the starting line, not the finish line. And this race is no sprint, it is an endurance race to save our nation from those who would destroy her and shape her to their awful image.
Ally, beautifully expressed, and right on the button. Thank you for bringing us back to the point.
A loud toot on the tuba in favor of Ally's comment.
FERN MCBRIDE just now
Finally, The Letters from an American wrote it plainly through the words of William Kristol , “a dangerous, anti-democratic faction” of the Republican Party “is not committed in any serious way to the truth, the rule of law, or the basic foundations of our liberal democracy.” 'He warns that our democracy is in crisis.' Our Democracy is in Crisis. This must be foremost in our minds. It is real. Our lives as citizens of the USA must recognize what is at stake.
Trump, Hawley, Cruz, Blackburn, Cotton, Meadows and Lee may seem at times like cartoon characters, as they forcefully mouth such outlandish lies, but they are real. If you are familiar with some of the fascist leaders in the 20th century: Gentile, Mussolini, Hitler, Gorman, Himmler, and Goebbels, perhaps the Republican Gang will appear to be as dangerous as they are in fact.
Working locally is more important that ever. Local and state governments are where the voter suppression laws have been reignited. The Democratic Party must put a lot more eggs in that basket. The participation of community organizations, media, college campuses, universities and citizens is crucial to keeping our democracy alive. Going small is as important as going big.
Totally agree. We cannot lose sight for even a moment that these fascists are REAL and they have corporate support and fear and hate democracy. The January 6 terrorist attack was , and is, the starting line, for all of us. And democracy MUST win this race.
Amen, sister!
As another writer at the Bulwark, Tim Miller, pointed out yesterday, the truth is CPAC *is* the Republican Party, and all those "rubes" and "kooks" that one sees at CPAC that people like he were laughing about before 2015 were there all along.
I've referred to this article written by Richard Hofstadter 67 years ago, which explains these people perfectly:
Unlike most of the liberal dissent of the past, the new dissent not only has no respect for non-conformism, but is based upon a relentless demand for conformity. It can most accurately be called pseudo-conservative — I borrow the term from the study of The Authoritarian Personality published five years ago by Theodore W. Adorno and his associates — because its exponents, although they believe themselves to be conservatives and usually employ the rhetoric of conservatism, show signs of a serious and restless dissatisfaction with American life, traditions and institutions. They have little in common with the temperate and compromising spirit of true conservatism in the classical sense of the word, and they are far from pleased with the dominant practical conservatism of the moment as it is represented by the Eisenhower Administration. Their political reactions express rather a profound if largely unconscious hatred of our society and its ways — a hatred which one would hesitate to impute to them if one did not have suggestive clinical evidence.
From clinical interviews and thematic apperception tests, Adorno and his co-workers found that their pseudo-conservative subjects, although given to a form of political expression that combines a curious mixture of largely conservative with occasional radical notions, succeed in concealing from themselves impulsive tendencies that, if released in action, would be very far from conservative. The pseudo-conservative, Adorno writes, shows “conventionality and authoritarian submissiveness” in his conscious thinking and “violence, anarchic impulses, and chaotic destructiveness in the unconscious sphere. . . . The pseudo conservative is a man who, in the name of upholding traditional American values and institutions and defending them against more or less fictitious dangers, consciously or unconsciously aims at their abolition.”
CPAC and the AFPAC conference for white supremacists and Neo-Nazis that went on alongside it prove that the contemporary Republican Party is indeed THE ENEMY OF AMERICA.
I never thought I'd be writing these words but = Bill Kristol is right. Go read what he wrote, you'll see.
Gonna be war, testing whether we are still a country founded on laws. We all know now we were not founded on equality.
Right and we are aware of the rarity and fragility of a true democracy.
Please, no.
I don't think that there IS anything that could be called "the contemporary Republican party" right now. Just competing fragments.
But I am grateful that you passed on the article by Richard Hofstadter. I don't believe I've read it before. I was a wee thing at the time it was published, and though I was introduced to Hofstadter by a insightful (and delightfully radical) polysci teacher in college, that was not one of our readings. My conscious life encompasses Eisenhower at one end and Trump at the other (I barely remember Truman), and the article describes the observed and experienced de-evolution of the Republican party very accurately. I understand Kristol's disillusionment, and I also see it in the Republicans I know, many of whom no longer identify with what they used to proudly call the GOP. It is that no longer. Perhaps out of people like them, a new conservative party will emerge. We need them, this counterbalance, to test ideas and proposals, to keep us on an even keel, exploring and questioning.
I also urge people to read the piece by Bill Kristol, and not dismiss it out of hand. With people like Cruz, Hawley, et al, cynicism is essential. But others have something we need to hear. And we need to keep our own humility close at hand while we're listening.
Yeah, we may disagree with them, but in my experience dealing with them forced me to dive deeper and hone my arguments sharper, because they were Serious Opponents. People you could respect while disagreeing. The laws of aerodynamics work also in politics: the eagle can't fly on just one wing.
Well put, TC.
Truer words... Republican Party is indeed THE ENEMY OF AMERICA.
Thank you Heather for staying on this. It is a big relief that Biden is president (and IMO doing a fabulous job) but we cannot afford to take our foot off the gas!
It is a relief that Biden is president! I'm beginning to think it's almost miraculous, as well
Any clue to why Sasse voted against Merrick Garland?
His behavior has been erratic at best. My suspicion is there are a few skeletons in his closet. Merrick could open some closet doors.
I wondered that too. He has taken several positions that seem at odds with his principled stance against TRump.
I had the same question.
I’m wondering about that, too.
That’s what I want to know!?
The comparison between the Jim Crow era and now is indeed disturbing. It could become even worse if that unjust system extends to the entire country. (It already does for countless Black Americans.) As Dr Richardson knows, segregation didn't rely just on discriminatory laws and kangaroo verdicts like the Emmett Till case. Its cornerstone was legal and extralegal violence -- often horrifically brutal as with Till's lynching. It was a commonly-used option, made more frequent because perpetrators rarely were held to account.
So too in the present moment. The white supremacist insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol, drawing instinctively from past experience, felt entitled to violence almost as a birthright. That heritage must be denied them in the future. The storm troopers of Jan 6 will meet severe justice, but punishing the foot solders is the easy part; we need a minutely thorough investigation going wherever it leads, including the highest-level conspirators. The notion of "cancel culture" is silly and specious -- except for the imperative to cancel treason in all its forms.
P Dray, At the Hands of Persons Unknown
L Litwack, Trouble in Mind
D Oshinsky, Worse Than Slavery
T Tyson, The Blood of Emmett Till
Jim Crow all over again. Entitlement by white boys to use violence to get their way. Classic abuser mentality. Welcome to the Republiqan party (I did see GQP above, and also like that one.)
We still have so much to do. Where to begin. A longer rest would have been nice.
Agree, there is no rest for the weary!
"Perhaps because it is impossible to imagine, we seem largely to have normalized that the former president of the United States refused to accept his loss in the 2020 election and enlisted a mob to try to overturn the results."
For those of us who live and/or work in Washington, things are far from normal. My office behind a 17' fence topped with razor wire, and patrolled by armed National Guard is not normal. Most of the country is detached from daily life in Washington.
That goes the other way too. DC residents live in a bubble that doesn't always feel recession the way the rest of the country does. (Off topic: One more reason for term limits. Living in DC disconnects our elected from the people they claim to represent)
Even though the news reports indicate little if anything for tomorrow, the Trumpublicans, Qool-Aid intoxicated, and rad-right still believe their supreme commander will be inaugurated as the rightful president on March 4. They've made it clear they are not backing down, and that they have the resources to follow through.
I'm holding my breath on March 4. I wouldn't put anything past these lunatics.
Ohhh—I forgot about Match 4.
I don't know about Match 4, but we sure could use the speed of a Mach 4 in our justice system to clean out the Seditionist Party.