Those on the right fear that progressives will bring Socialism to the US. Those on the left fear that conservatives will bring Fascism. Neither fear reflects the broad continuum of political positions. Heather Cox Richardson offers a clear and nuanced perspective on these concerns. It’s not an either-or choice, except in propaganda.
Songs of Democracy
The popular uprising against authoritarianism, tyranny, and deception has given rise to parody in song. The talent matches the cleverness. Enjoy!
The COVID-19 pandemic should not have become a political issue. But it is. Disregard for the practices that protect others became an expression of right-wing individualism. Late in the 2020 campaign the right began advocating for abandonment of the curve-flattening practices that slow contagion. Driven by the desire to restart the retail economy, GOP leadership flaunted maskless super-spreader events. While experts rallied to oppose this wrong-headed notion, the President persisted.
Coronavirsu Rhapsody lyracizes the issue.
Updated 210115
strengthening our democracy
The past four years the past twelve years have brought the fragility of our democracy to the fore. We are part of a pivotal moment in US history and it behooves us all to examin why this is so.
Here is an interview with Danielle Allen of Harvard. It’s worth watching and discussing.
How we went wrong
“Denial is not a river in Egypt.” This joke has become a cliche among those who understand addiction. But willful blindness to reality is not exclusive to addictive behavior. Reality has a way of biting those who deny it, as President Trump is demonstrating as he fights his personal infection with the COVID-19 virus.
Though few ordinary citizens think much about it, our government at all levels is big on being prepared. We have an Office of Emergency Management at city, state, and federal levels that seeks to anticipate what will be needed when emergencies arrive.
Detailed plans are made that establish the systems needed to coordinate first responders and mobilize needed resources before, during, and following an emergency. The COVID-19 pandemic was not unanticipated. Plans were made. But they were largely ignored.
Mail-in doublespeak
While he publicly disparages mail-in ballots, his mailings to GOP voters say something else: “Important Notice: Requesting your General Election Ballot is a safe and secure way to guarantee your voice is heard.” Yup, that’s right, if you are a Republican he wants you to know it your mail-in ballot is safe and secure, despite anything he may be saying on TV.
This is the third GOP sponsored mailing in three weeks that has provided an appliction form for the mail-in ballot.
Here is PBS’s excellent program on the reliability of the Mail in ballot.
Since the original posting of this article, Trump supporter Brian Fitzpatrick has added his mailer to the other three offering a mail-in ballot application.
No Helmet, no mask = free [not!]
In the world of bikers, rules about wearing helmets are often considered overreach. One of the pleasures of motorcycles is being out in the elements: feeling the alternation of cool and warm air on your face, smelling fields and forests as you pass. The helmet is a barrier.
Likewise, the COVID-19 mask is shunned. But neither of these items of safety gear is for the wearer alone. Accidents and contagion affect many more people. This two sentence news item from Time Magazine dramatically underscores the far-reaching social consequences of ignoring precautions.
Fun loving, party hardy, macho bikers have cost society more that 12 billion ($12,000,000,000) plus spreading suffering that’s impossible to quantify.
I haven’t heard how the town of Sturgis is doing. Could it have been worth it when the economic benefits are accounted for? This is a preview and a demo of what may happen this fall. The administration continues to downplay the threat. The president and his faithful followers continue to scorn mask use. Yes, he’s grudgingly begun to appear wearing a mask, but he makes no bones about not liking it.
Meanwhile the death rate hovers at 5,000 souls a week and experts estimate it will rise from the present 200,000 total to over 400,000 in December. At one point the president and some of his staff proffered the idea of letting COVID-19 run its course so that herd immunity could develop and the people’s lives (and the all-important economy) could return to normal. The Lincoln Project has vividly panned this bad idea in a recent political ad.
The ad is over-the-top harsh, and my initial reaction was that it’s deceptive. But then I considered the president’s actions of late. He’s pressured the CDC to recommend NOT testing people who are not symptomatic. He’s holding maskless rallies in indoor venues. He’s pressured schools to open before they are prepared to do so safely. The GOP legislature hasn’t passed enabling legislation, so the Democratic Governor’s mitigation rules have been declared unconstitutional. The President routinely contradicts his own experts’ assessments of risks and the timeline for vaccine protection. And he’s attacking mail-in ballots to necessitate in-person voting at crowded polling places.
All of those acts would be consistent with a plan to reopen and briefly enjoy the election week illusion of normalcy while COVID-19 does its grim work. Although millions would eventually die, the surviving 99% would be “fine.”
Teflon Don no more
It didn’t need to be this way.
It doesn’t need to be this way.
The President is accountable, but the propaganda and disinformation coming from Fox News and Sinclair Broadcasting shield his base from reality.
In March, 63% of Fox News regulars, polled by the non-partisan Pew Research Center’s Election News Pathways Project said the president’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic was “excellent”. Just 23% of average Americans – and a mere 2% of MSNBC regulars – agreed.
The Guardian
Denial has been lethal for tens of thousands because the US did not and does not have a coherent strategy for limiting contagion. The economic cost will be many multiples of what is might have been limited to judging from the experience of more successful countries.
Source: Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Center
This cumulative curve of deaths per 100,000 population continuse to have a steep rise. Testing indicates a rising trend in positive results as a percent of those tested — and indicator of accelerating spread. Business and school openings will tend to increase contagion.
Political Violence
The violence that has marked the BLM protests is deplorable. Data shows that right-wing violence exceeds radical left-wing violence about two-fold, although DHS has attempted to suppress that fact in reporting on violence.
Now we see a coordinated effort by people close to DJT, and DJT himself, to incite violence.
September 14, 2020
Today’s big story is the growing threat of violence on the part of Trump loyalists in the administration, including the president himself. On September 10, Trump’s friend and adviser Roger Stone appeared on Infowars, the show run by the far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Convicted of lying to…
I’ve been urging those I correspond with to look past the words at the actions. I also urge that we look at the character of the people involved. Roger Stone in this instance. He boasts about (and markets) his talent for lying to manipulate elections. And then there are all the Russian operatives.
God Save America.
Unthinkable? The Warnings Signs are here
Historians are seeing the parallels between authoritarian takeovers of european democracies, and what’s happening in America. It can’t happen here, we are inclined to think.
But those who study history aren’t so sanguine. They aren’t lulled into complacency by the normalcy of work, home life, entertainment, … all the stuff that remains routine, except for COVID-19 of course.
Timothy Snyder, the Levin Professor of History at Yale University, distilles his concerns into a short, punchy book. “Today our political order faces new threats, not unlike the totalitarianism of the twentieth century,” he warns.
Historian Heather Cox Richardson echoes the same sentiment, most explicitly in this recent post on her blog “Letters from an American.”
September 6, 2020
Earlier this week, New York Times columnist Farhad Manjoo warned that American democracy is ending. He pointed to political violence on the streets, the pandemic, unemployment, racial polarization, and natural disasters, all of which are destabilizing the country, and noted that Republicans appear t…
Here is the article by Farhad Manjoo that Richardson opens with. Manjoo came to America from South Africa and he’s seen that the blessings of democracy can be lost more easily that most Americans think.
There are more authors concerned about authoritarian tyranny and the demise of democracy:
Lots of Laughs
An obscure story that DJT had mini-strokes and was rushed to Walter Reed was dismissed by most of us as speculation and rumor. When the story resurfaced with the embellishment that VP Pence has been alerted to be ready to assume presidential powers, DJT fired off a flurry of angry tweets that brought the story back into the mainstream.
When Bret Baier of the Fox News Channel asked Pence about the event, Pence said he didn’t “recall” if he had been asked to be on standby.
Does that ring true? When your main official job is to be prepared to assume the president’s duties and then, after three and a half years of staying informed and ready, you are actually alerted that the moment may be at hand, a hugely significant and dramatic event if it ever happens, wouldn’t it tend to stand out and be memorable?
Pence’s lie is transparent and laughable. Of course, the effect of DJT’s gratuitous tweets, and Pence’s obvious dodge, is to confirm beyond any reasonable doubt that the rumor was fact, not fake news.
It must be hard to live in that world of illusion, smoke, and mirrors, immersed in a perpetual fog bank where one needs to keep track of what the “alternative facts” are.
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