Watching the march of Republican Stalinism is certainly depressing. In Michigan, Republican activist Nancy Tiseo wanted Trump to declare martial law in 2020. She’s now an election canvasser. I have a strange feeling she may not be impartial in her work.
It’s tempting to just assume Republican totalitarianism is inevitable, but that’s partly because Republicans work to make it a self-fulfilling prophecy. Matt Gaetz, for example, claiming that the far right will take over the House in 2022. But the truth is, except for 2004 Democrats have won the popular vote in every election of the past 30 years. That doesn’t count for as much as it should in our messed up electoral system but it’s not inconsequential. Whether it will be enough to overcome Republican fascism is unknown — but it’s worth trying. I’ve started reading up on ways to encourage turnout and do other things to contribute. More than I contribute by blogging.
I think No More Mr. Nice Blog is right about this: Republicans and their right-wing media machine work to make any liberal with a bad opinion the embodiment of all liberals and Democratic policies, everywhere. Democrats don’t make the counter-argument that everyone still in the Republican Party supports Trump and the coup. “The result is that the Republican Party is a party that’s run by extremists but is perceived as moderate, while the Democratic Party is run by moderates but is perceived as extremist.” Similarly they’re an anti-American party that successfully paints Democrats as opposing American values. That’s something I can push back against, though obviously I have a very small platform. But I’ve always believed pointing out the right-wing emperor has no clothes is worth doing, just to put an alternative view out there.
Another problem, WaPo‘s Dana Milbank says, is that press coverage of Biden is as negative or worse than Trump got in the middle of the pandemic. LGM adds commentary. LGM also cites the Afghanistan withdrawal as an example: the coverage was negative despite the lack of any alternative beyond “stay there forever.” Just as the media’s take is often “the economy is tanking” when jobless claims are at record lows. And now we’re having complaints — not at all influenced by sexism, I’m sure — that Kamala Harris doesn’t use bluetooth enough. This kind of thing can definitely affect the election so it’s one more hurdle to keeping our democracy.
Now, some links:
Republicans remain committed to no gun control measures of any sort, which is damn extremist. But it seems Sen. Chuck Grassley considers school shootings like the recent one in Michigan less horrifying than inconveniencing gun owners. So we teach kids active shooter drills or close the schools. But never mind, Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro explains that the teachers not stopping the kid is because they’re liberals (see what I mean about blaming our side for everything?).
It is of course bad to prosecute political adversaries purely out of politics. The people involved in the Jan. 6 coup attempt deserve prosecution but Merrick Garland ain’t having it.
An ICE program to enlist sheriffs across America to report dangerous immigrants unsurprisingly generated racism, profiling and abuse.
Two lawyers who filed Stop The Steal lawsuits will have to pay more than $100,000 to cover the legal fees of people they sued. Even outside Stopping the Steal Sidney “the Kraken” Powell remains an incompetent grifter. However she’s very successful at raising cash from suckers.
A right-winger criticized his school and got coddled by the legislature. Minority students got much less sympathy.
“How can you detain an enemy combatant when there’s no war going on?”
Cop shows have obsessed for years about guilty suspects getting off through legal technicalities. What happens when innocent people stay in jail because of technicalities?
“Corruption is bipartisan. Support for anti-corruption measures is less so.” — a look at a new Biden administration paper on fighting corruption.
Florida’s Education Department has removed an anti-bullying page with links to LGBTQ resources. No surprise: the right-wing has a history of opposing anti-bullying efforts because then they can’t push around gays.
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