Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

We linked to Dave Roberts' article in Vox earlier this week, about how President- elect Biden should run a blitz in the face of intransigent Republican opposition; here's an excerpt:

Biden’s best chance is to try to overwhelm the system the way Trump did, by doing so much that it’s impossible to make any one thing into a lasting story. He should launch so many simultaneous reforms that there’s no time for right-wing media to make up lies about all of them or for the Supreme Court to hear them all. He should ignore bad-faith attacks and stay relentlessly on message about what’s gotten done and what’s getting done next. He should, at every juncture, get caught trying to make government work better for ordinary people.

To succeed, all this must happen alongside Democratic Party efforts to improve messaging and media, get persistent party infrastructure on the ground in communities the party has neglected, and innovate on voter outreach and persuasion. (Aaron Strauss has some good ideas on that front.)

But Biden has something the rest of the party at the federal level does not have: the power to improve Americans’ lives in a visible way. More than anything else, cynicism about government’s ability to do that is corroding US politics. The best thing Biden can do, morally and politically, is act, as much and as fast as possible, and then talk about it, and do more of it, and talk about it more. (And he should be clear about exactly who stands in the way of bigger, better changes, and why his name is Mitch McConnell.)

We hope that's what the Biden team has in mind. He got an electoral mandate and he needs to use it. Also this:

 

A new Gallup poll finds that President-elect Joe Biden has a 55% favorable rating and a 41% unfavorable rating.

Joe Biden's already more popular than Trump's ever been. https://t.co/3Qse62vVrH

— Vaughn Sterling (@vplus) December 6, 2020

Geoffrey Kabaservice writes about the other side of the political equation, the permanent revolution of the perpetually aggrieved:

Trump’s permanent revolution has no fixed principles other than smashing a nebulous “deep state,” forcing all institutions of society to bend to its will, and waging never-ending war against Democrats, independents and non-Trump Republicans. It has become a perpetual grievance machine unwilling (and unable) to address those grievances through governance or the legislative process. And in refusing to accept Trump’s defeat, the conservative movement increasingly insists that the rule of law, truth and democracy are what the revolution says they are.

More than 70 million Americans voted for Trump. He and his supporters will indulge in an orgy of fantasies about a stolen election for years to come. Any Republicans who hope to succeed him as president will have to parrot his claims that he won in a landslide, that American democracy is corrupt and that Joe Biden is an illegitimate president.

When all is said and done, though, Trump lost reelection despite the political advantages that accrue to an incumbent president. That strongly suggests that he did not somehow repeal every law of political gravity. At some point, a party has to deliver more than grievance-mongering. The GOP’s donors will want something to show for their investments. The party’s constituents — especially the non-college-educated, working-class citizens who make up much of the Republican base — need the government’s help with their problems. And the party’s long-term viability may be in doubt if a strategy of mindless, implacable obstruction endangers the stability and prosperity of the country, causing too many voters to consider it an existential threat. Cynical political realism, if nothing else, suggests that the Republican Party can’t carry on forever as a permanent revolution.

There's no "meeting in the middle" with these nihilistic fantasists.  And they're determined more than ever to disenfranchise Democratic voters, just as they're determined to portray Biden as a somehow illegitimate president:

The shifts that led to this year’s surge in voting, in particular the broad expansion of voting options and the prolonged period for casting ballots, could forever alter elections and political campaigns in America, providing a glimpse into the electoral future.

A backlash from the right could prevent that, however. In many ways, the increase in voting is what Mr. Trump and the Republican Party are now openly campaigning against in their floundering bid to overturn his clear loss to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. — whose popular vote lead grew to seven million on Friday. Republicans have portrayed the burgeoning voting ranks as nefarious and the expanded access to voting options as ripe for fraud — despite the fact that the record turnout provided them numerous victories down ballot.

Though Mr. Trump and the party have not managed to prove a single claim of fraud in the courts — where they and their allies have lost or withdrawn dozens of cases — Republicans at the state level are vowing to enact a new round of voting restrictions to prevent what they claim — without evidence — is widespread fraud.

It's just a reminder that we need to continue to be aggressively pushing back on these un- democratic, un- American efforts, and that when we do, we win elections!

Finally, if it hasn't already become a habit to check out Infidel 753's link round- up, you should go over there right now for the best compendium of topics written about in the past week.  Then bookmark him so you don't have to be reminded by us every week!  You're welcome!

Tweets Of The Day -- Why We Must Vote

38% of Americans are just fine with an unhinged racist lunatic in control, which is why the other 62% of us have to make damned sure we show up at the polls this November

— Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) June 8, 2020

One of the 38%, a cowardly bully just like his hero, Bunker Boy:

In Whitefish, Montana, a young woman named Samantha Francine is confronted by a large white man with balled fists, shouting, "Black Lives Matter? Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!" She does not look away.

This is America, 2020.

(Photo by Grace Jensen) https://t.co/dq3Akejk3s pic.twitter.com/2kN4P7QgaL

— David Roberts (@drvox) June 7, 2020

The big story, and why it's not being told:

"The rise of right-wing authoritarianism is the headline story of US politics, but the domestic mainstream media is prevented by its own anachronistic habits and norms from telling it." https://t.co/5zUWGEycGS

— Brendan Nyhan (@BrendanNyhan) June 8, 2020



There are more of us than there are of them, and we have to make sure we crush them and their fascist, pusillanimous paladin in November.  We can't count on anybody else.  It's all on us.

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

Starting off with some nice news:

Dr. Christine Blasey Ford was honored with the ACLU’s Roger Baldwin Courage Award at the ACLU of Southern California’s annual Bill of Rights dinner Sunday night.
Ford, whose appearance was a surprise, was being recognized for her testimony during Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination process.

“I did one thing. When I came forward last September I did not feel courageous. I was simply doing my duty as a citizen.” Ford said at the ceremony Sunday night. [snip]

Loyola Law School professor Jessica Levenson says Ford’s testimony was and still is criticized by conservatives: “Some people thought she was lying. Some people thought embellishing. Some people thought there was a there there, but she was making too much of it. Basically, it was a long time ago and she needed to get over it.”

But the civil rights group says no one would lie and open themselves up to such public scrutiny.

“She spoke the truth and paid an incredible price for it. She was subjected to incredible vile hate and unspeakable threats.” said ACLU Executive Director Hector Villagra. [snip]

Dr. Ford asked the audience to believe Ambassador Marie Yavanovitch who testified during an impeachment inquiry hearing last week. And she says she chose to accept the award because it was the same distinction given to Anita Hill after Hill testified in Clarence Thomas’ confirmation process.

Dave Roberts has an interesting read about the ongoing "tribal epistemology" on the right, the effects of which we see damaging our country every day.  A few long excerpts:

Tribal epistemology happens when tribal interests subsume transpartisan epistemological principles, like standards of evidence, internal coherence, and defeasibility. “Good for our tribe” becomes the primary determinant of what is true; “part of our tribe” becomes the primary determinant of who to trust.

A circular logic, which has become quite familiar in the impeachment affair, emerges: Anyone who says anything contrary to the tribe marks themselves as an enemy of the tribe (cough *deep state* cough); enemies of the tribe cannot but trusted, so their testimony or evidence can be ignored. Thus, by definition, nothing that questions the tribal narrative can be trusted.

A decades-long effort on the right has resulted in a parallel set of institutions meant to encourage tribal epistemology. They mimic the form of mainstream media, think tanks, and the academy, but without the restraint of transpartisan principles. They are designed to advance the interests of the right, to tell stories and produce facts that support the tribe. That is the ur-goal; the rhetoric and formalisms of critical thinking are retrofit around it.  [snip]

Now everyone with any power on the right is deep in the bubble, right up to the president himself, who spends a considerable portion of his time watching and tweeting about Fox News. There are no more moderates or responsible Republicans behind the curtain, keeping an eye on the difference between tribal tall tales and reality. Fox natives are running the show, including the federal government. 

Roberts goes on to dissect the need for Republicans to maintain doubt and prevent consensus:

This is the story of American politics: a narrowly divided nation, with raw numbers on the side of the rising demographics in the left coalition but intensity and outsized political power on the side of the right coalition. Put in more practical terms, the right still has the votes and the cohesion to prevent a Senate impeachment conviction.  [snip]

All they need to do is to keep that close partisan split frozen in place. Above all, they need to ensure that nothing breaks through to the masses in the mushy middle, who are mostly disengaged from politics. They need to make sure no clear consensus forms, nothing that might find its way into pop culture, the way the entire nation eventually focused its attention on Nixon’s impeachment. 

We'll stop there, but there's more relating to the current impeachment that we see playing out already.

While we're at it, check out this Through The Looking Glass quote from The Dumb Don's Roy Cohn that perfectly illustrates the points made above:

“In waging a scorched-earth, no-holds-barred war against this administration, it is the left that is engaged in shredding norms and undermining the rule of law,” [Attorney General William "Low"] Barr told a room of attorneys at the annual gathering of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group that has been influential in determining President Donald Trump’s nominees for federal judges.  (our emphasis)

That's some powerful gaslighting there.  But judging from the looks of him, Barr has a lot of gas to light.

Speaker Pelosi has an offer nitwit crime family boss Donald "The Dumb Don" Trump can't will refuse:

“If he has information that is exculpatory, that means ex, taking away, culpable, blame, then we look forward to seeing it,” she said in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Trump “could come right before the committee and talk, speak all the truth that he wants if he wants,” she said. [Ed.:  love the way Pelosi continues to break down big words for the nitwit to digest.]

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer echoed that suggestion.

“If Donald Trump doesn’t agree with what he’s hearing, doesn’t like what he’s hearing, he shouldn’t tweet. He should come to the committee and testify under oath. And he should allow all those around him to come to the committee and testify under oath,” Schumer told reporters. He said the White House’s insistence on blocking witnesses from cooperating begs the question: “What is he hiding?”

One more look back at the latest Republican debacle produced by The Dumb Don, the Louisiana governor's race:

“If you had any doubt that Trump was a human repellent spray for suburban voters who have a conservative disposition, Republicans getting wiped out in the suburbs of New Orleans, Louisville and Lexington should remove it,” said Tim Miller, a Republican strategist and outspoken critic of the president.

The Louisiana results are a stinging rebuke for the president, because he spent so much time there and because Trump allies couldn’t chalk it up entirely to local factors as they did for Kentucky, where Mr. Bevin was deeply unpopular. And even before the Louisiana race was called on Saturday night, finger-pointing from the Capitol to the White House to Mr. Trump’s campaign broke out about why he spent so much political capital on the race in the first place.

Trump and his rotted- out Republican Party will have to lie, cheat and steal to win in 2020 -- and they'll certainly try.  But somehow, in 2018 and in this year's off elections in Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana and elsewhere, they're still coming up short.

As always, we end by highly recommending Infidel 753's link round- up to provide his usual cornucopia of "various interesting stuff" he found from the past week or so.  Infidel 753 also surveys how the impeachment hearings are playing in the right- wing's bubble, which mostly validate Roberts' observations, as well as his own thoughts about the impact (or lack thereof) of the hearings.