The Democrats should cut loose their extremist "allies" on the cultural left, such as the BLM organization, "white guilt" race hustlers such as Ibram X. Kendi, Nikole Hannah-Jones and Robin DiAngelo, and "trans" advocates in schools who think that any kid who expresses anxiety about his/her gender should be pumped full of hormones and have some body parts chopped off - all without parental knowledge and consent, of course. Not only should they be cut loose, they should be denounced. Democrats would loose very few votes by doing so and gain a lot more.
Also, the federal government should set a positive example by abolishing all those reeducation camps called "diversity" or "equity" workshops. Cut them off like the gangrenous parts they are.
On Voting -- I totally agree that voting subversion is a bigger immediate problem than voting suppression. But y'all need to understand that a key voting bloc for Democrats is African Americans. Who have lived experience with voter suppression. Dems gotta work for them. Getting elected is at least as important as avoiding voter subversion.
Since I seem to be in the minority in thinking the NY law is an entirely reasonable one, here's an only slightly crazy idea:
Democrats should respond to this by proposing a Constitutional amendment that will explicitly bar non-citizens from voting at the state or federal level. Talk up how not imposing this at the local level is in keeping with conservative principles and federalism. Remind them that it's only the law in NY because the people of NY voted for it, and they're allowed to run their city just like the people in St. Trumpsville, Magazona are allowed to run theirs. Dare Republicans to oppose it.
This would cut off any talk of slippery slopes, and it would have the added bonus of exercising our entirely atrophied amendment process (which we could really stand to have running again).
I don’t know the best solution for the schools. What I do know is that lots of teachers are Covid positive and sick, lots of students are positive, lots of day care kids are positive, and lots of parents don’t have care for their quarantined tots and are struggling with work commitments. The Illinois Department of Public Health released data (yes, I know incomplete and not perfect) showing schools by far lead the pack in sources of transmission. I heard someone say, possibly on a Bulwark podcast, that “we know schools are not a vector” for transmission. Again, I do not have any solutions to propose; but the idea that schools are aok safe doesn’t seem to be the case at all.
About your guy Ruy Teixeira. He has some good ideas. BUT he diminishes their impact by framing them like I've framed this. He turns his first sentence into a throw-away by following it with "but" and a stronger statement that undercuts the first.
Police misconduct is wrong but crime is a real problem. That puts all the focus on crime and minimizes police misconduct. Using "and" instead of "but" gives weight to both assertions. That's convenient, since both things are true.
Perhaps my worst moments lately have come when trying to clarify for my old pals the difference between peaceful daylite protests and lawless nites of arson, riot and property damage. The same folk who thought 'defund the police' was a swell slogan, seem to accept the 'voting without citizenship' as a good idea. I especially like your language writing. This needs saying, I hope your advice is followed. Electoral suicide seems ill-understood by some of our brethren.
I tend to think we're just screwed given the inability of democrats to speak with even close to one voice. Everywhere I turn it's just Chaotic. The only hope I have right now is that Trump will not run for whatever reasons.
I see the Jan 6th committee as being too little, too late and it will be ineffective in gaining attention in the 202323 election and then will be disbanded. I can only hope Trump is found guilty in New York. If Garland is acting, he has a funny was of sending that message and whatever he does will be blunted by the 2022 group. Harris is not an effective candidate for the presidency even though her skills in the senate were impressive, The supreme Ct? ICK. COVID, double ICK. Infrastructure? No. The Climate? No.
Excellent read, Charlie. I almost cancelled my Bulwark subscription because though you are very, very good at calling out the right's derangement it seems the left's stupidity often gets a pass. Not so today! Biden is exactly the one to deliver this kind of common sense, plain, even handed message. It is 100% his brand and he'd be wise to find his way back to it.
It's also interesting how oblivious left, woke, urbanites can be regarding themselves. Left, woke and urban does not = white. In fact, urban bubbles are more diverse than ever. It still doesn't make them more than myopic bubbles. Your podcast back in March 2021 with David Shor was a great dive into the data on this.
One of the long term problems in our political culture is that it has prevented the formation of a party that actually represents centrist voters.
Any binary system tends to the extreme--most especially in its rhetoric.
In our current system, one of the two parties has become increasingly extreme and exclusionary. In certain ways, this actually increases their strength (given how our system works). It creates a stronger sense of identity (for those that are not excluded or who do not leave) and a unity of message and purpose.
The extremist elements of the other party have become more vocal and extreme in response. Extremism begets extremism in return. It becomes a vicious cycle.
This creates problems in the less exclusionary party, the less unified party... because (realistically) neither the extremists nor the centrists in the party have anywhere else viable (in our system) to go. Abandoning the party means abandoning power (especially for the extremists).
What we end up with is an extremist party (GoP), a party that is so diverse that it is sometimes hard to decide what they are (given the range between Manchin and the far left of the party, for example) and that can't, for the life of them, get their message together or that even REALLY knows what their message is (other than we aren't THOSE guys)... and then we have a whole bunch of people who want no part of either of these parties (mostly because the align ideologically more with one party, but find it disgusting or they simply do not identify with either party, for various reasons).
These people effectively have no representation... nor are they likely to get representation any time soon.
Waiting for the Democrats to become more centrist (especially rhetorically) is I think, wishful thinking... and much of their non-centrism is largely an artifact of the blogosphere and punditry and right wing agitprop. DO local Democrats do stupid things? Yes, but that is because they are local and responding to local pressures.
While it might actually do them some good electorally to be more "centrist," it is not something that is really possible in the current environment, due to a combination of factors.
Talk about solutions above. Everyday. All day. Every social media post. Flood the zone with twitter messages. Every time Trump does an interview. Biden, you talk about that interview. The same day. The second after. The race started months ago.
The problem is I don't think any Democrat at the state or local level is really going to listen to Biden(or the Bulwark for that matter) on this front. One possible exception. So far there have not been mass school closures in Washington, DC I think it would be fair to say until DC is a state and has formally elected an "executive" officer of such a state government Biden as President is still formally chief executive of Washington, DC and should make it clear that come hell or high water kids will be in physical in-person schools in the District of Columbia as long as he is in charge.
However, Art. IV, §4 states that "the United States shall guarantee to every State... a Republican Form of Government...." That has typically been read to mean a government chosen by electoral majorities. It arguably requires at least some branch of the federal government to insure against electoral coups in individual states. BTW, the SCOTUS has generally refused to involve itself in disputes under the clause.
Charlie, you've been around long enough to know that the Sister Souljah moment wasn't actually about policy. It was about showing suburbanites whose side he was on. It was also entirely about narrative. So with that in mind, I ask; what's the point of doing four of them? Is this just a framing device for a set of policy prescriptions? Because if so, I think the frame detracts more than it adds. If it's not a frame, I'm flabbergasted; "Joe Biden should fix all his problems by lighting up every single fault line his party has." This is not just pundit brain; this is pundit galaxy brain. If democracy depends on the coalition holding, maybe destroying the coalition is a bad idea?
Also, apropos of nothing, I want to note that the original Sister Souljah moment was actually pretty gross. You had a national environment where lynching jokes and powerful people singing about how "old times the are not forgotten" were still given a pass but similar jokes and hyperbole from obscure musicians became the subject of two minutes hate. And woe betide anyone who asked a Republican why they tolerated that garbage, because "how dare you imply I'm racist?" Maybe if you folks had been a bit better about actually noting racism in your own side, you wouldn't have gotten run out when your electorate got so soft to criticism that even civil disagreement felt like an attack on their personhood. Just saying, you can't solve a problem until you know where it came from, and I'm increasingly not convinced you do.
The Democrats should cut loose their extremist "allies" on the cultural left, such as the BLM organization, "white guilt" race hustlers such as Ibram X. Kendi, Nikole Hannah-Jones and Robin DiAngelo, and "trans" advocates in schools who think that any kid who expresses anxiety about his/her gender should be pumped full of hormones and have some body parts chopped off - all without parental knowledge and consent, of course. Not only should they be cut loose, they should be denounced. Democrats would loose very few votes by doing so and gain a lot more.
Also, the federal government should set a positive example by abolishing all those reeducation camps called "diversity" or "equity" workshops. Cut them off like the gangrenous parts they are.
.
Sykes: "Let’s start with the lowest of the low-hanging fruit: Schools"
Also Sykes: "Language: This one is almost too easy."
.
Thanks so much for the Fauci video. Paul is a dispicable man. Fauci nailed it with the "donate" pic.
On Voting -- I totally agree that voting subversion is a bigger immediate problem than voting suppression. But y'all need to understand that a key voting bloc for Democrats is African Americans. Who have lived experience with voter suppression. Dems gotta work for them. Getting elected is at least as important as avoiding voter subversion.
Since I seem to be in the minority in thinking the NY law is an entirely reasonable one, here's an only slightly crazy idea:
Democrats should respond to this by proposing a Constitutional amendment that will explicitly bar non-citizens from voting at the state or federal level. Talk up how not imposing this at the local level is in keeping with conservative principles and federalism. Remind them that it's only the law in NY because the people of NY voted for it, and they're allowed to run their city just like the people in St. Trumpsville, Magazona are allowed to run theirs. Dare Republicans to oppose it.
This would cut off any talk of slippery slopes, and it would have the added bonus of exercising our entirely atrophied amendment process (which we could really stand to have running again).
I don’t know the best solution for the schools. What I do know is that lots of teachers are Covid positive and sick, lots of students are positive, lots of day care kids are positive, and lots of parents don’t have care for their quarantined tots and are struggling with work commitments. The Illinois Department of Public Health released data (yes, I know incomplete and not perfect) showing schools by far lead the pack in sources of transmission. I heard someone say, possibly on a Bulwark podcast, that “we know schools are not a vector” for transmission. Again, I do not have any solutions to propose; but the idea that schools are aok safe doesn’t seem to be the case at all.
About your guy Ruy Teixeira. He has some good ideas. BUT he diminishes their impact by framing them like I've framed this. He turns his first sentence into a throw-away by following it with "but" and a stronger statement that undercuts the first.
Police misconduct is wrong but crime is a real problem. That puts all the focus on crime and minimizes police misconduct. Using "and" instead of "but" gives weight to both assertions. That's convenient, since both things are true.
https://www.catherinejohns.com/hold-onto-your-but/
Perhaps my worst moments lately have come when trying to clarify for my old pals the difference between peaceful daylite protests and lawless nites of arson, riot and property damage. The same folk who thought 'defund the police' was a swell slogan, seem to accept the 'voting without citizenship' as a good idea. I especially like your language writing. This needs saying, I hope your advice is followed. Electoral suicide seems ill-understood by some of our brethren.
I tend to think we're just screwed given the inability of democrats to speak with even close to one voice. Everywhere I turn it's just Chaotic. The only hope I have right now is that Trump will not run for whatever reasons.
I see the Jan 6th committee as being too little, too late and it will be ineffective in gaining attention in the 202323 election and then will be disbanded. I can only hope Trump is found guilty in New York. If Garland is acting, he has a funny was of sending that message and whatever he does will be blunted by the 2022 group. Harris is not an effective candidate for the presidency even though her skills in the senate were impressive, The supreme Ct? ICK. COVID, double ICK. Infrastructure? No. The Climate? No.
Just everywhere I look is a disaster.
Excellent read, Charlie. I almost cancelled my Bulwark subscription because though you are very, very good at calling out the right's derangement it seems the left's stupidity often gets a pass. Not so today! Biden is exactly the one to deliver this kind of common sense, plain, even handed message. It is 100% his brand and he'd be wise to find his way back to it.
It's also interesting how oblivious left, woke, urbanites can be regarding themselves. Left, woke and urban does not = white. In fact, urban bubbles are more diverse than ever. It still doesn't make them more than myopic bubbles. Your podcast back in March 2021 with David Shor was a great dive into the data on this.
One of the long term problems in our political culture is that it has prevented the formation of a party that actually represents centrist voters.
Any binary system tends to the extreme--most especially in its rhetoric.
In our current system, one of the two parties has become increasingly extreme and exclusionary. In certain ways, this actually increases their strength (given how our system works). It creates a stronger sense of identity (for those that are not excluded or who do not leave) and a unity of message and purpose.
The extremist elements of the other party have become more vocal and extreme in response. Extremism begets extremism in return. It becomes a vicious cycle.
This creates problems in the less exclusionary party, the less unified party... because (realistically) neither the extremists nor the centrists in the party have anywhere else viable (in our system) to go. Abandoning the party means abandoning power (especially for the extremists).
What we end up with is an extremist party (GoP), a party that is so diverse that it is sometimes hard to decide what they are (given the range between Manchin and the far left of the party, for example) and that can't, for the life of them, get their message together or that even REALLY knows what their message is (other than we aren't THOSE guys)... and then we have a whole bunch of people who want no part of either of these parties (mostly because the align ideologically more with one party, but find it disgusting or they simply do not identify with either party, for various reasons).
These people effectively have no representation... nor are they likely to get representation any time soon.
Waiting for the Democrats to become more centrist (especially rhetorically) is I think, wishful thinking... and much of their non-centrism is largely an artifact of the blogosphere and punditry and right wing agitprop. DO local Democrats do stupid things? Yes, but that is because they are local and responding to local pressures.
While it might actually do them some good electorally to be more "centrist," it is not something that is really possible in the current environment, due to a combination of factors.
Talk about solutions above. Everyday. All day. Every social media post. Flood the zone with twitter messages. Every time Trump does an interview. Biden, you talk about that interview. The same day. The second after. The race started months ago.
MESSAGING, MESSAGIN, MESSAGING.
The problem is I don't think any Democrat at the state or local level is really going to listen to Biden(or the Bulwark for that matter) on this front. One possible exception. So far there have not been mass school closures in Washington, DC I think it would be fair to say until DC is a state and has formally elected an "executive" officer of such a state government Biden as President is still formally chief executive of Washington, DC and should make it clear that come hell or high water kids will be in physical in-person schools in the District of Columbia as long as he is in charge.
Re the ECA: it's probably worth anticipating some challenges to the Act's constitutionality in the first place. US Constitution Article II defines Congress's role in presidential elections very narrowly (§1¶3) and would appear not to authorize it actually to contest slates of electors.https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:e2e3d3b4-add5-3574-8dd9-0aea5a5185aa
However, Art. IV, §4 states that "the United States shall guarantee to every State... a Republican Form of Government...." That has typically been read to mean a government chosen by electoral majorities. It arguably requires at least some branch of the federal government to insure against electoral coups in individual states. BTW, the SCOTUS has generally refused to involve itself in disputes under the clause.
Charlie, you've been around long enough to know that the Sister Souljah moment wasn't actually about policy. It was about showing suburbanites whose side he was on. It was also entirely about narrative. So with that in mind, I ask; what's the point of doing four of them? Is this just a framing device for a set of policy prescriptions? Because if so, I think the frame detracts more than it adds. If it's not a frame, I'm flabbergasted; "Joe Biden should fix all his problems by lighting up every single fault line his party has." This is not just pundit brain; this is pundit galaxy brain. If democracy depends on the coalition holding, maybe destroying the coalition is a bad idea?
Also, apropos of nothing, I want to note that the original Sister Souljah moment was actually pretty gross. You had a national environment where lynching jokes and powerful people singing about how "old times the are not forgotten" were still given a pass but similar jokes and hyperbole from obscure musicians became the subject of two minutes hate. And woe betide anyone who asked a Republican why they tolerated that garbage, because "how dare you imply I'm racist?" Maybe if you folks had been a bit better about actually noting racism in your own side, you wouldn't have gotten run out when your electorate got so soft to criticism that even civil disagreement felt like an attack on their personhood. Just saying, you can't solve a problem until you know where it came from, and I'm increasingly not convinced you do.