American Politics from 2019 on

[JimC]

Dracula in charge of the blood bank!

[Tero]

[Tero]

The democrats will only win elections on and off as the GOP leaders are largely repulsive. Trump only won as "outsider." Policy is apparently nothing. And they may be right. The party is too weak even to raise national minimal wage

Lainey Newman and Theda Skocpol provide timely insight into the relationship between the decline of unions and the shift of working-class voters away from Democrats. Drawing on interviews, union newsletters, and ethnographic analysis, they pinpoint the significance of eroding local community ties and identities. Using western Pennsylvania as a case study, Newman and Skocpol argue that union members’ loyalty to Democratic candidates was as much a product of the group identity that unions fostered as it was a response to the Democratic Party’s economic policies. As the social world around organized labor dissipated, conservative institutions like gun clubs, megachurches, and other Republican-leaning groups took its place.

Rust Belt Union Blues sheds new light on why so many union members have dramatically changed their party politics. It makes a compelling case that Democrats are unlikely to rebuild credibility in places like western Pennsylvania unless they find new ways to weave themselves into the daily lives of workers and their families.

Rust Belt Union Blues: Why Working-Class Voters Are Turning Away from the Democratic Party Hardcover – September 19, 2023

[Tero]

keithedwards
38m38 minutes ago
FYI the republicans are about to defend Gaetz the same way they defended Kavanaugh.
They’ll say it’s the “deep state” out to stop a warrior who intends on dismantling it

thatguycollo
18m18 minutes ago
The people who make $700 an hour have convinced the people who make $25 an hour that the problem is the people who make $7.50 an hour.

aaron.rupar
2h2 hours ago
It's notable to me that after years of fear-mongering about trans women playing sports, Republican leaders are now so emboldened that they won't even acknowledge that trans people exist. Almost like it was never really about sports.

aaron.rupar
2m2 minutes ago
Anna Paulina Luna just lied on CNN that the allegations about Matt Gaetz came out just now to sink his AG nomination, when in fact they have been circulating for more than three years. Disappointing that host Boris Sanchez let her get away with it.

frenemy_of_the_people
1habout an hour ago
Staffers: “Small-town America is struggling. We need to do something to help them!”
Trump: “How about we deport all the immigrants, depriving them of the workers they need to succeed and decimating their local economies?”
Staffers: “Brilliant idea, sir!”

[Tero]

Candidate must appear manly and strong. Does this include having sex with multiple teens? Only if your party controls the Senate and are all Trump loyalists.

Opinion | Lessons From the Last Time a Cabinet Nominee Was Defeated on the Floor

The last time a nominee was rejected on the floor of the Senate was in 1989, when John Tower lost a bid to become Defense secretary. He was burdened by accusations of alcoholism and sexual misconduct (an allegation that applies to multiple Trump picks), as well as a prickly personality that alienated some of his one-time Senate colleagues.

Several of Trump’s choices, particularly Matt Gaetz’s nomination for attorney general, would seem to inspire similar sentiment among Republican senators. But that doesn’t mean Gaetz or his fellow Cabinet hopefuls will face the same outcome as Tower.

Democrats held the majority; 52 Democrats and one Republican — Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas — voted against Tower. Just three Democrats crossed the aisle to join 44 Republicans to back him. Had Bush’s party controlled the Senate, he likely would have gotten Tower confirmed.

Finally, the Republican majority in the next Senate is wholly different from the majority Trump faced in his first term — in good part because Trump helped shape it.

In other words, the landscape of the Senate, which Trump helped to shape, suggests that the astonishing, almost contemptuous challenge Trump has made — confirm my picks or I will recess appoint them without your votes — is likely to succeed.

Trump means to do what he said he wants to do: He has picked Cabinet choices who represent the same disdain for “expertise” and “qualifications” that has defined Trump’s worldview. And his political clout has given him a Senate that may be willing to surrender its constitutional power in a way that would once have been unimaginable.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/ ... d-00190207

[Tero]

The somewhat low numbers of voters for Harris are actually not low. Enough people showed up because it was an important election. Harris got more votes than Trump did in 2016 where he only won by the electoral college. He got 62,984,828.

The low information voters showed up in good numbers, even though the total voters were about the same as 2016 and earlier national elections. They got to decide who the president is based on "I'm somewhat worse off than I was in 2020 and I have no idea about the economy, really." They do not quite understand inflation. Young voters do not recall inflation in their lives and the rest sort of forget what happened in 2008 or the Reagan era. We had inflation. My first mortgage was at 13% under Reagan. What happens after inflation is that the wages slowly creep up so that you can keep the economy running. The voter does not notice that. The prices NEVER come down except some goods that had an issue (eggs...bird flu) or because production was low in the pandemic.

https://esapolitics.blogspot.com/2024/1 ... mp-ii.html

[Tero]

Speak for America, Democrats
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/speak-for- ... transition

No, the Constitution’s mandate that cabinet appointees get through Senate confirmation as a check on the president’s power is not designed to be optional.

No, the law does not allow Trump to invoke the military against peaceful protesters and “blue” cities (the Posse Comitatus Act forbids it).

No, Trump can’t just abolish the Department of Education or manufacture a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for Musk’s use as a playground—both houses of Congress would have to agree to do those things, including a supermajority in the Senate.

No, bullying the media into submission is not legal—it actually gets a special shoutout under the First Amendment.

And the president still has the power in this moment to stave off some of the worst of what’s to come.

Biden could preemptively pardon DOJ, FBI, legislative, judicial, and other government employees who participated in the Trump investigations for any federal crimes that the likes of Gaetz and crew might cook up against them (much can be done to ruin lives before a court or a jury gets the chance to stop it).

Biden could declassify information bearing on the Mar-a-Lago case involving Trump’s taking and hiding of national security information from the White House in 2020, putting it before the public and leaving it protected for posterity in the National Archives.

Biden could publicly call on Republicans in the Senate—and remember, he was himself a senator for decades—to resist the temptation to abdicate their constitutional duty at Trump’s whims.

Biden could invite governors to Washington, D.C., for a summit to devise a plan to protect the states—and the nation—against the worst of what Trump has in store for us all.

not sure abot any pre-emptive pardons

[Tero]

www.nytimes.com pete-buttigieg-trump-democrats.html
Pete scolds us:
"Mr. Buttigieg’s most direct admonition to the gathered Democrats, at a Washington hotel, was for them to not allow themselves to be so outraged by the Trump administration that they would neglect working for their constituents."

“We cannot be mesmerized by the worst things that we see happening,” Mr. Buttigieg said. “We will be inclined to react with shock by some things that are done precisely with the intent of shocking us, we need to move very quickly through the shock.”
"In a subsequent conversation with Symone D. Sanders-Townsend, a former aide to Vice President Kamala Harris who now hosts a weekend show on MSNBC, Mr. Buttigieg predicted that Republicans would be quick to take credit when factories that will produce batteries for electric vehicles opened during Mr. Trump’s presidency. Those factories, he noted, were funded in part by legislation Mr. Biden signed.

“Mark my words,” Mr. Buttigieg said. “I will be there to remind folks who made sure these projects happened.”

[Tero]

If Pam Bondi is Attorney General in 2028, they will not allow a vote count where Democrats win. The courts will resist but she will use all possible legal force. Even though the Presidency (and DOJ) have no power over elections. The Supreme Court does. Based on...no constituion.
https://www.threads.net/@adamschiffca/p ... hUqydzUJ1w

[Tero]

[Tero]

"The morning after the election, I was talking with a friend who said something that made me pause: “The American people aren’t buying what the Dems are selling.” At the time I acknowledged the notion but filed it away for closer inspection, once the shock wore off.

"Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party were selling hope and freedom, upholding the rule of law, saving democracy. What’s not to buy? With the benefit of lots of discussion, reading, watching, and thinking over the past 17 days, it became apparent that that analysis is incomplete.

"It isn’t that the American people didn’t buy what Harris was selling; they didn’t know what she was selling. The increasingly powerful right-wing media championed her opponent’s message while distorting hers. And millions of Americans bought it."
"If you only read The New York Times or watch CNN or so-called legacy networks such as CBS News, you might be surprised to learn there is a vast right-wing media ecosystem that goes well beyond Fox News. Founded in 1996, Fox is the granddaddy of the far-right media but has since been joined by Newsmax and One America News Network. This media universe also includes Sinclair Broadcasting, which owns hundreds of radio and TV stations — reaching 40% of the viewing public — and newspapers, including the recently purchased Baltimore Sun; iHeartMedia, which dominates right-wing talk radio and podcasting; Trinity and Bott Radio, two massive Christian broadcasting networks; social media platforms like Trump’s own Truth Social and X, owned by Trump bestie Elon Musk; and a multitude of hugely popular far-right podcasts."

"The 2024 election may have been the inflection point when the right-wing media’s influence finally eclipsed the mainstream media. That is a major reason a convicted felon won with just under 50% of the popular vote."

https://steady.substack.com/p/a-big-win-for-propaganda

[Sean Hayden]

I’m glad we’re getting it. But surely there’s still something missing. It’s the really ugly bit: there’s a reason disinformation performs better than more traditional media. Remember the traditional media hasn’t just decided to become less relevant, it’s losing. It’s not as competitive, and that’s going to have a lot to do with who we are as people. So craft all the messaging you like, if it doesn’t gain traction in our psyche it’s doomed.

[Tero]

Senator blames Ddmocrats for losing workers.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/whose ... ass-to-win

Instead, Ohio was won with...money.

[Tero]

"I Watched Orbán Destroy Hungary’s Democracy. Here’s My Advice for the Trump Era":
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/ ... s-00191281

Modern-day autocracies come to power through elections, leading to electoral autocracies. These regimes are built from within the democratic system.

This is what Orbán did so successfully, which is why he has inspired other autocrats. America’s radical conservatives have been paying attention. Steve Bannon has called Orbán “Trump before Trump.”

— Anti-Elitism. We can also expect the culture war to escalate. Orbán passed legislation cracking down on universities in an effort to reduce the influence of liberal ideas. Vance has also declared universities “the enemy” and advised that “the closest that conservatives have ever gotten to successfully dealing with left-wing domination of universities is Viktor Orbán’s approach in Hungary.”

— Anti-Immigrant. It is also clear that Trump will continue his anti-immigrant tirades and attempt to deport millions of illegal immigrants. While in Eastern Europe, radical right populist leaders showed up before Europe’s migrant crisis, hostility toward immigration is nevertheless a favorite far-right topic. Populists create intricate narratives about the self-inflicted decline of the West, weakened by a “liberal virus” and losing out in the global competition of civilizations. These narratives are particularly potent because they also activate racial stereotypes and fears concerning historical minorities, not just new immigrants.

— Economic Nationalism. From climate-change policies to free trade agreements, liberal and centrist economic policies have also become frequent punching bags. Trump’s love affair with tariffs and his trade war with China mirrors Orbán’s fight against economic globalization. While the practical impact of Orbán’s economic nationalism is limited in Hungary, it is crucial for maintaining support among working-class Hungarians, who are otherwise relative losers of Orbán’s policies.

[Tero]

More:

Once the narratives have taken hold, the autocratic leader can change the hardware that runs the country. Most of these steps are incremental and might even be defensible on their own. But together, they build a formidable institutional power base that can keep the leader and his party in power permanently.

Manipulating electoral rules and district boundaries to benefit the ruling party is a strategy that Orbán imported from the U.S. The state of Georgia is a case in point, where Republicans have increased their power to change electoral results they deem fraudulent. In Congress, Republicans have proposed far-reaching legislation that could allow Republicans to twist the electoral process to their advantage in future election cycles.

Orbán consolidated media control through centralized propaganda, market pressure and loyal billionaires. In the U.S., in addition to the already powerful empire of Rupert Murdoch, several recent examples show the power of friendly tycoons over the media. Elon Musk is a good case study; he used Twitter-turned-X to bolster right-wing populists and now stands to gain much from his relationship with Trump. This mirrors Orbán’s strategy to forge a strong alliance with the country’s billionaires for mutual protection and support.

Fighting for media pluralism and independence is vital. Investigative journalism helps, but it tends to preach to the converted. There need to be news channels and media outlets for getting messages across to non-metropolitan areas dominated by far-right news sources. Liberal-minded billionaires should not sit idly by as they did in Hungary, watching the right take over the media. The New Right is also significantly more embedded in social media than liberals are. Those of us who favor democracy cannot let Elon Musks and Andrew Tates control the public discourse. Progressive influencers: Time to log in and post away — there’s a narrative battle to win.

Countering populist power structures requires first defeating populist narratives — a battle the anti-populist center is losing. The demise of Hungary’s once-strong left-liberal elites, now completely overpowered by the right, should serve as a stark warning, which leads us to the most important battleground: the Democratic Party.

To win the fight against autocracy, above all, the Democratic Party must reconnect with the working class to preserve liberal institutions. There are simply not enough educated moderate suburbanites for an electoral majority.