By all means we must be doing our work and staying this course of election victories. Not with hatred or malice towards our foes but with steely eyed determination to succeed! It is very easy to get distracted with so many examples of autocracy being thrown at us almost by the hour if not the day. But we must not be distracted.
I listened to the "two for Democracy" in Tennessee as they pointed so eloquently the way for us in the immediate future. Both Justins are our now leaders and our orators for what is right, good and just for all!
Keep your eyes and ears on our victories and they have been grand of late. These will continue if we do not lapse in our commitment to Democracy for all!
Excellent advice, Al Ross III. The sector of America that has lost its way, is not indicative of the majority of people. They are an insidious sideshow distraction, that will move on over time, As you say, staying the course is the way forward.
"millions of Americans who are exhausted by the corruption " is exactly what we are feeling. Why does it feel like there are almost daily scandals and ethical issues reported about our government elected and appointed officials. Don't get me wrong; I am glad they are being exposed. Shine the light into these dark holes.
And why does it feels lop sided towards the Republicans? Is that part of the Republican ethos? They talk 'rule or law' and 'family values' and 'transparency' and 'weaponizing politics' and then they go out and do just those things.
SCOTUS is supposed to be our highest court in the land and they tolerate members who do not measure up to ethical standards an employer would expect from the people they hire, or the members of a church would expect from their pastor. It is not unfair to expect people we pick for these important positions to be held to a high standard. Those that can not meet that mark don't deserve our trust.
And I loved Thomas's comment about following the 'new rules' moving forward. THEY ARE NOT NEW! They have been there. They are even in the Constitution regarding emoluments. It doesn't take a mental genius to know that doesn't only apply to gifts from foreign powers.
Your conclusion about the necessity of “activated Americans turning out” should be every Democracy lovers credo until we see a light at the end of the tunnel we now face ourselves in. Turning out means to find your unique way of contributing to stopping the tide of hate, indifference and intimidation. We can speak out, write, march, call , no matter how small your contribution is, to show where the path of authoritarianism leads.
Unless and until justice Thomas and Ginni Thomas are brought to justice -no one will believe in justice and no one will believe in the Supreme Court of the land.
What gets me is the irony of supposed populists not really caring about real people. Or is that hypocrisy? Will voters catch on? "We won't be fooled again."
All of this! Argh!!! And another mass shooting! And every person speaking at the podium this morning praising the police! Righty so, but the first sentence??? As he was being introduced, I was thinking about what I would say if I were governor--“I am furious! Furious that this happened!!! This will not stand!!!” And then he too praised the defenders! Lastly he mourned the victims and spoke of mental health issues!!! 🤬 Everything Everything Everything politics!!! All of this!!! I’m just exhausted by it all!!!
Right on Steve. These corrupt and deeply cynical actions will not succeed. Now that the shock of the deeply malignant attitudes of this cult are so plainly evident, we are watching a civics lesson play out. Perhaps this pain was needed to remind us of our responsibilities.
Apr 10, 2023·edited Apr 10, 2023Liked by Steven Beschloss
Thank you Steven for you timely and informative writing. The burden of dishonesty and denials that swirl around Republicans is staggering, as is their blatant self-serving belief in the 'right' to entitlement. Logical and informed people are able to see through their smoke screen. Know that it will eventually choke them out.
The key is to increase the voting base for Democrats, and continue to encourage young people to vote. The defeated incumbent in Wisconsin reacted much like Trump, who never fails to unload his immature litany of critiques and insults, which serves no good purpose. Don't lose heart. The gun issue can be addressed. Look to the examples in other countries which have abandoned assault-style firearms: New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the European Union. In New Zealand, Lawmakers across party lines voted overwhelmingly to ban military-grade semi-automatics and assault-style weapons, following the massacre in Christchurch that killed 50 worshippers. As of May 1, 2020 the Government of Canada prohibited over 1,500 models of assault-style firearms, as well as certain components of some newly-prohibited firearms, e.g. magazine size and capacity. As of May 2022, people CANNOT buy, sell, or transfer handguns within Canada; nor can they bring newly acquired handguns into this country. A national handgun freeze was first announced alongside Bill C-21, the strongest gun control measures in over 40 years. Much of the gun legislation in my home country of Canada has been in direct response to the mass shootings in the United States. Republicans who say they can't do more, should know this.
It is really dispiriting to watch the Thomas saga unfold - by that I mean the drip drip of tiny pieces of scattered information that don’t seem headed for any kind of satisfactory demand for accountability from both of them. It’s practically a side show at the moment when in normal times the apparent amorality of a Supreme Court Justice and the destructive political machinations of his wife would be center stage in this country.
The GOP has been out of touch with the majority of Americans for a long time. They yell the loudest, take over state legislatures, get their SCOTUS judges confirmed all to advance their agenda - as they scream loudly about indoctrination, socialism, woke-ness - they are doing it all - but replace socialism with FASCISM. They obviously don’t care about the Constitution, the laws of this country at all. They are not patriots, they do not care about the country and its citizens - they care about themselves, their power and WHO THEY SERVE. And as they say we Democrats serve George Soros (!) since he’s the only one they can come up with - we can list many GOP donors who do influence with their money. Clarence Thomas should never have been confirmed to SCOTUS after Anita Hill - but because she was a woman, a black woman, she was disregarded and he was confirmed and now we see what that means - his activist wife who wanted to overturn the 2020 election - and he jointing with Alito to overturn Roe. The majority of Americans want gun control, access to reproductive care that includes abortion and contraception (everything Alito and Thomas are against). The GOP is going to continue to lose elections as long as they ignore the majority of Americans. The base is is small, the donors are small - and keeping them happy is all they do. Americans will vote in 2024 and show the GOP they are out of touch, out of step with the majority of Americans. Ok - got that off my chest!
While the news about the disastrous Republican Party is making headlines, for once we went a whole week without any news about the Orange perpetrator creating havoc. It’s been a nice change to not hear or see his name and face in the media! Alleluia!
If voters' concerns are being ignored, then why do they elect these power, money seekers out only for themselves? How for heaven's sake is a Ted Cruz continually elected? Even his colleagues don' t like him, yet there he is,putting out an Easter message calling for living in fellowship with each other while airing an Easter day TV ad calling for donations to save the nation from radical Democrats.
I believe we all have some conservative views along with liberal ones. I know I do. And through the ages, people's actions, thoughts, feelings, have basically remained the same. My 1300s Scot &
English ancestors got hungry, had gardens, flowers, cleaned house, hated to get up in the morning. In other words, the old everybody puts their pants on one leg at a time remains true as years pass. It is technology that has advanced uniting a world. There are those who are truly evil, others who are loony tunes (Santos says Democrats want to ban toilet paper !) but for the most part, people are good. In the end, they want to do the right thing. Yes, now and then, demagogues have shown up, misled many for awhile, (there are those who, can you believe it, equate trump with Jesus. They probably apply "He is risen" to winning the 2024 election) but they become old news. The day after trump was arrested, no newspapers had him on the top half of the front page. People move on-that attention span thing. And after all, do we really want leaders who fight with Elmo?
Good luck getting DOJ off its ass and do something about the Thomas Traitors. You'd think Biden would want DOJ to do something, but f you think that, you are wrong.
Runfast, your comment about the DOJ made me wonder if there’s something they can do, so I’ve given it some thought, and so far, I don’t think there’s anything DOJ can do about Thomas because as far as I know he hasn’t committed a crime. He accepted gifts worth a small fortune and didn’t report it, but that’s not a crime. He also refused to recuse himself from ruling on a case that involved his wife. Both of those behaviors are extremely unethical to be sure, but since they aren’t crimes, the only recourse available is to impeach.
The problem with impeachment is, the House has to get the ball rolling and formally impeach, then the senate more or less conducts a trial. Since we have a
republican majority in the House, they’re not going
to impeach him. That’s the reality.
The only thing left is to add justices to the court to
balance it evenly between republicans & democrats.
Given the underhanded way in which the last few justices were added to the court, I doubt any dems or independents would have a problem with that.
But republicans will scream bloody murder.
The next question is, do we care if republicans scream? My first reaction is, hell no! But wait,
there’s a presidential election coming up. If
someone could guarantee right now that a Dem
would win the next presidential election, I bet the Supreme court would be expanded in a heartbeat.
Currently, President Biden isn’t doing well in the polls. In my opinion it’s because of the incessant
disinformation coming from the political right. The
extreme right continually weaves an alternate reality.
They never let up and they never respond to people who point out factual truth. In fact, truth is 100% unimportant and irrelevant to the right.
I wish I knew what the extreme right expects to get from destruction of our democracy. Many of them probably haven’t even given much thought to it--they jumped on the fascist bandwagon for their own
personal reasons or personal pathologies without a clue about where it’s going.
Actually, I don’t think the extremists will win. It’s
just a matter of how long we have to endure this insanity. Believe it or not, the problem in large part is, there aren’t enough voters paying attention yet.
C’mon Steven. This polarization is exactly what you and the progressive left want. Division with a bullhorn. Deplorable no? The right plays on the same stupid things. Until we can find our inner Eisenhower we will collectively live in an altered state where the facts check in, but don’t check out. “ We” are the losers and time is slowly, for now, killing U.S. a better headline would have been “and the Progressive left Rejection”. Division is the game and “ we” are the mark.
Pedanttic puerile pusillanimous pap. You can't be serious if you bothsides any of this. It's pure GOP. What we on the "left" want is to be left alone to be ourselves. We don't want Christians making laws that force us to bow to their religious dictates.
By all means we must be doing our work and staying this course of election victories. Not with hatred or malice towards our foes but with steely eyed determination to succeed! It is very easy to get distracted with so many examples of autocracy being thrown at us almost by the hour if not the day. But we must not be distracted.
I listened to the "two for Democracy" in Tennessee as they pointed so eloquently the way for us in the immediate future. Both Justins are our now leaders and our orators for what is right, good and just for all!
Keep your eyes and ears on our victories and they have been grand of late. These will continue if we do not lapse in our commitment to Democracy for all!
Excellent advice, Al Ross III. The sector of America that has lost its way, is not indicative of the majority of people. They are an insidious sideshow distraction, that will move on over time, As you say, staying the course is the way forward.
"millions of Americans who are exhausted by the corruption " is exactly what we are feeling. Why does it feel like there are almost daily scandals and ethical issues reported about our government elected and appointed officials. Don't get me wrong; I am glad they are being exposed. Shine the light into these dark holes.
And why does it feels lop sided towards the Republicans? Is that part of the Republican ethos? They talk 'rule or law' and 'family values' and 'transparency' and 'weaponizing politics' and then they go out and do just those things.
SCOTUS is supposed to be our highest court in the land and they tolerate members who do not measure up to ethical standards an employer would expect from the people they hire, or the members of a church would expect from their pastor. It is not unfair to expect people we pick for these important positions to be held to a high standard. Those that can not meet that mark don't deserve our trust.
And I loved Thomas's comment about following the 'new rules' moving forward. THEY ARE NOT NEW! They have been there. They are even in the Constitution regarding emoluments. It doesn't take a mental genius to know that doesn't only apply to gifts from foreign powers.
Your conclusion about the necessity of “activated Americans turning out” should be every Democracy lovers credo until we see a light at the end of the tunnel we now face ourselves in. Turning out means to find your unique way of contributing to stopping the tide of hate, indifference and intimidation. We can speak out, write, march, call , no matter how small your contribution is, to show where the path of authoritarianism leads.
Unless and until justice Thomas and Ginni Thomas are brought to justice -no one will believe in justice and no one will believe in the Supreme Court of the land.
Let’s call the “gifts” to Clarence Thomas by his benefactor, Harlan Crow, what they truly are: bribes.
Words matter.
What gets me is the irony of supposed populists not really caring about real people. Or is that hypocrisy? Will voters catch on? "We won't be fooled again."
Thank you once again Steven, my friend.
All of this! Argh!!! And another mass shooting! And every person speaking at the podium this morning praising the police! Righty so, but the first sentence??? As he was being introduced, I was thinking about what I would say if I were governor--“I am furious! Furious that this happened!!! This will not stand!!!” And then he too praised the defenders! Lastly he mourned the victims and spoke of mental health issues!!! 🤬 Everything Everything Everything politics!!! All of this!!! I’m just exhausted by it all!!!
Right on Steve. These corrupt and deeply cynical actions will not succeed. Now that the shock of the deeply malignant attitudes of this cult are so plainly evident, we are watching a civics lesson play out. Perhaps this pain was needed to remind us of our responsibilities.
Thank you Steven for you timely and informative writing. The burden of dishonesty and denials that swirl around Republicans is staggering, as is their blatant self-serving belief in the 'right' to entitlement. Logical and informed people are able to see through their smoke screen. Know that it will eventually choke them out.
The key is to increase the voting base for Democrats, and continue to encourage young people to vote. The defeated incumbent in Wisconsin reacted much like Trump, who never fails to unload his immature litany of critiques and insults, which serves no good purpose. Don't lose heart. The gun issue can be addressed. Look to the examples in other countries which have abandoned assault-style firearms: New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the European Union. In New Zealand, Lawmakers across party lines voted overwhelmingly to ban military-grade semi-automatics and assault-style weapons, following the massacre in Christchurch that killed 50 worshippers. As of May 1, 2020 the Government of Canada prohibited over 1,500 models of assault-style firearms, as well as certain components of some newly-prohibited firearms, e.g. magazine size and capacity. As of May 2022, people CANNOT buy, sell, or transfer handguns within Canada; nor can they bring newly acquired handguns into this country. A national handgun freeze was first announced alongside Bill C-21, the strongest gun control measures in over 40 years. Much of the gun legislation in my home country of Canada has been in direct response to the mass shootings in the United States. Republicans who say they can't do more, should know this.
It is really dispiriting to watch the Thomas saga unfold - by that I mean the drip drip of tiny pieces of scattered information that don’t seem headed for any kind of satisfactory demand for accountability from both of them. It’s practically a side show at the moment when in normal times the apparent amorality of a Supreme Court Justice and the destructive political machinations of his wife would be center stage in this country.
The GOP has been out of touch with the majority of Americans for a long time. They yell the loudest, take over state legislatures, get their SCOTUS judges confirmed all to advance their agenda - as they scream loudly about indoctrination, socialism, woke-ness - they are doing it all - but replace socialism with FASCISM. They obviously don’t care about the Constitution, the laws of this country at all. They are not patriots, they do not care about the country and its citizens - they care about themselves, their power and WHO THEY SERVE. And as they say we Democrats serve George Soros (!) since he’s the only one they can come up with - we can list many GOP donors who do influence with their money. Clarence Thomas should never have been confirmed to SCOTUS after Anita Hill - but because she was a woman, a black woman, she was disregarded and he was confirmed and now we see what that means - his activist wife who wanted to overturn the 2020 election - and he jointing with Alito to overturn Roe. The majority of Americans want gun control, access to reproductive care that includes abortion and contraception (everything Alito and Thomas are against). The GOP is going to continue to lose elections as long as they ignore the majority of Americans. The base is is small, the donors are small - and keeping them happy is all they do. Americans will vote in 2024 and show the GOP they are out of touch, out of step with the majority of Americans. Ok - got that off my chest!
While the news about the disastrous Republican Party is making headlines, for once we went a whole week without any news about the Orange perpetrator creating havoc. It’s been a nice change to not hear or see his name and face in the media! Alleluia!
If voters' concerns are being ignored, then why do they elect these power, money seekers out only for themselves? How for heaven's sake is a Ted Cruz continually elected? Even his colleagues don' t like him, yet there he is,putting out an Easter message calling for living in fellowship with each other while airing an Easter day TV ad calling for donations to save the nation from radical Democrats.
I believe we all have some conservative views along with liberal ones. I know I do. And through the ages, people's actions, thoughts, feelings, have basically remained the same. My 1300s Scot &
English ancestors got hungry, had gardens, flowers, cleaned house, hated to get up in the morning. In other words, the old everybody puts their pants on one leg at a time remains true as years pass. It is technology that has advanced uniting a world. There are those who are truly evil, others who are loony tunes (Santos says Democrats want to ban toilet paper !) but for the most part, people are good. In the end, they want to do the right thing. Yes, now and then, demagogues have shown up, misled many for awhile, (there are those who, can you believe it, equate trump with Jesus. They probably apply "He is risen" to winning the 2024 election) but they become old news. The day after trump was arrested, no newspapers had him on the top half of the front page. People move on-that attention span thing. And after all, do we really want leaders who fight with Elmo?
Good luck getting DOJ off its ass and do something about the Thomas Traitors. You'd think Biden would want DOJ to do something, but f you think that, you are wrong.
Runfast, your comment about the DOJ made me wonder if there’s something they can do, so I’ve given it some thought, and so far, I don’t think there’s anything DOJ can do about Thomas because as far as I know he hasn’t committed a crime. He accepted gifts worth a small fortune and didn’t report it, but that’s not a crime. He also refused to recuse himself from ruling on a case that involved his wife. Both of those behaviors are extremely unethical to be sure, but since they aren’t crimes, the only recourse available is to impeach.
The problem with impeachment is, the House has to get the ball rolling and formally impeach, then the senate more or less conducts a trial. Since we have a
republican majority in the House, they’re not going
to impeach him. That’s the reality.
The only thing left is to add justices to the court to
balance it evenly between republicans & democrats.
Given the underhanded way in which the last few justices were added to the court, I doubt any dems or independents would have a problem with that.
But republicans will scream bloody murder.
The next question is, do we care if republicans scream? My first reaction is, hell no! But wait,
there’s a presidential election coming up. If
someone could guarantee right now that a Dem
would win the next presidential election, I bet the Supreme court would be expanded in a heartbeat.
Currently, President Biden isn’t doing well in the polls. In my opinion it’s because of the incessant
disinformation coming from the political right. The
extreme right continually weaves an alternate reality.
They never let up and they never respond to people who point out factual truth. In fact, truth is 100% unimportant and irrelevant to the right.
I wish I knew what the extreme right expects to get from destruction of our democracy. Many of them probably haven’t even given much thought to it--they jumped on the fascist bandwagon for their own
personal reasons or personal pathologies without a clue about where it’s going.
Actually, I don’t think the extremists will win. It’s
just a matter of how long we have to endure this insanity. Believe it or not, the problem in large part is, there aren’t enough voters paying attention yet.
C’mon Steven. This polarization is exactly what you and the progressive left want. Division with a bullhorn. Deplorable no? The right plays on the same stupid things. Until we can find our inner Eisenhower we will collectively live in an altered state where the facts check in, but don’t check out. “ We” are the losers and time is slowly, for now, killing U.S. a better headline would have been “and the Progressive left Rejection”. Division is the game and “ we” are the mark.
Please please please the mantra -the lifeblood of the right -begins with the evil twins racism & Misogyny -that's where the divide begins.
Instead of saying “it’s not me it’s you” why not offer solutions to the divisiveness in our country?
Pedanttic puerile pusillanimous pap. You can't be serious if you bothsides any of this. It's pure GOP. What we on the "left" want is to be left alone to be ourselves. We don't want Christians making laws that force us to bow to their religious dictates.