1. John Kerry spoke at Yale Tuesday. From what I can tell, the former senator and secretary of state was talking about the politics of 2011, not the politics of 2018.
2. He lamented the rise of tribalism in politics, the degradation of collegiality in the Senate, and the overall decline of civility in government and society. In brief, he sounded like a guy who wants to run for president. Per WNPR:
3. Kerry: “I think it’s fair to say, particularly given the last few weeks in Washington … we’re in some trouble,” Kerry told his interviewer, journalist Thomas Friedman. “It’s bothered me a lot. I’ve watched the progressive deterioration of the traditional workings of
4. Kerry: the Senate, and it’s just become worse and worse.” He described Donald Trump as effectively having carried out a “hostile takeover of the Republican party.”
5. Kerry is wrong about Trump. The president is not a cause of Republican madness. He is a symptom. But that’s not what bothers me about his remarks.
6. What bothers me is the implication that next month’s elections could be the beginning of a return to normalcy, whatever that means. It won’t be. Per WNPR:
7. WNPR: Kerry believes that domestic upheaval is eroding American leadership around the world. “That is now at risk, and I think we have to reclaim it. And in 35 days we have the first course-correction election in which we can do that,” he told the audience at
8. WNPR: Yale School of Management. “And then over time, if you all will be engaged and people will exercise their citizenship, we can reclaim our country. That’s how it works.”
9. There is no going back. I know some would like that. I know some liberals in particular would like that. But I just don’t see how the Dems can return to a position in which it defends institutions and norms that were not working for most people, here and around the world.
10. While we may not like, or may hate, what the current president is doing, no serious person can argue credibly in favor of the pre-Trump status quo, not in any way that resonates with a majority.
11. Look, Barack Obama and the Democrats saved the nation after the 2007-2008 panic. That much is clear. But what’s also clear is most people hated the way the Obama administration protected those responsible for megatons of wealth vanishing.
12. They were beside themselves with rage on witnessing Wall Street bankers avoid prosecution. They were apoplectic when bankers enriched themselves more at taxpayer expense. As Neil Irwin said on the anniversary of the collapse:
13. @Neil_Irwin: It’s hard to overstate how deeply Americans despised their government’s response to the global financial crisis. It has helped shape the last decade of American politics, fueling distrust of powerful institutions and speeding a drift toward ideological extremes.
14. That’s only one reason we can’t go back.
15. Now we have a new SCOTUS. Brett Kavanaugh is almost certainly going to rule w/ the 4 other conservative justices agnst every sort of liberal priority: voting rights, reproductive rights, virtually anything that empowers citizens to participate fully in a democratic republic.
16. With Kavanaugh’s confirmation came the completion of a plan hatched long ago to erode the postwar order to the point of shattering so that the will of the many matters less than the will of the few: an old, white, and very rich few.
17. With Kavanaugh, America’s socioeconomic fabric is on track to look like Brazil’s in a few decades.
18. And it's going to get worse. @ritholtz said: As memories of the crisis fade as the economy recovers, we find the seeds of the next crisis are already being planted.
19. Ritholtz: They are the exact same issues of debt and mismanaging risk and not understanding our own limitations. Failing to learn from our prior experiences, we seem doomed to repeat them. We only have ourselves to blame.
20. What does “tribalism” mean in this context? Kerry is clearly referring to the GOP’s fascist tendencies. But those opposing the GOP are vulnerable to the same accusation.
21. The Democrats, some say, are tribal, too. Since everyone is as bad as everyone else, politics becomes nihilism. Reporters favoring “balance” encourage this toxic perspective.
22. No. One of these “tribes” is better than the other. One of these tribes serves power. One of these tribes serves, or should serve, full political equality. One enables dominion over the many. One liberates the res publica, the common good.
23. While the Republicans tap the rich, the old and the zealous, the Democrats should be tapping Occupy Wall Street, Sandy Hook Promise, Black Lives Matter, and now #MeToo—
24. in other words, social justice movements that were and are fighting the norms and institutions that John Kerry suggests are worth defending.
25. This is why we can’t go back.
I hope the midterms prove that point.
I hope the midterms prove that point.
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