It will be of a piece with every right wing power grab since Bush v Gore, including the Garland blockade itself, and the answer should not be for liberals to be shocked, shocked by the unfairness of it all, but to resolve to use power in turn to set things right.
Trump broke the law and betrayed the country to win the election despite losing the popular vote. George W. Bush lost the popular vote, and only won the electoral college with the corrupt interference of his brother and SCOTUS.
The case for neutralizing the GOP theft of the courts for the sake of a rising generation that completely rejects their jurisprudence couldn't be stronger.
The central arguments for impeaching Trump are inclusive of his actual crimes, but an important tangential argument is that congressional Democrats need to be made to use power in ways they're uncomfortable with to prime them for what will be demanded of them in 2021 if they win.
The message to McConnell should not be "but you'll tear the country apart!"–a consequence he couldn't care less about, and may actually excite him–it's "to quote Brett Kavanaugh, 'what goes around, comes around.'"
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New: I don’t know how things will shake out early next year, but I think it was a mistake for Dems to agree to decouple certain domestic appropriations from defense (sorry, the “ladder approach”) as ransom to the GOP to avoid a Thanksgiving shutdown. offmessage.net/p/shoots-and-l…
This all happened very fast, and because the Freedom Caucus is mad and Republicans are cosplaying Street Fighter, most of the coverage has taken it as a given that Mike Johnson caved. I’m not so sure. offmessage.net/p/shoots-and-l…
Democrats have conceded “take it or leave it” leverage that comes with omnibus bills and clean CRs, allowing Republicans in principle to demagogue their way to full defense appropriations while shutting down or gutting other departments. offmessage.net/p/shoots-and-l…
SOME PROFESSIONAL NEWS: Thursday was my last day at Crooked Media, today I launch a new, independent venture. It’s called Off Message and I hope you’ll join me by subscribing. offmessage.net/p/welcome-to-o…
If you’ve followed my work in recent years, you know I’ve been consistently concerned that the liberal and Democratic Party tendency to hyper-caution is a bad fit for a zero-sum fight against authoritarianism. offmessage.net
At the same time, I’ve been heartened by the many exceptions. Most recently, the 1/6 Committee, the Fetterman campaign, Jack Smith, Fani Willis, the clear signal from 2022 voters that they will prioritize democracy and basic rights over any policy issue or picayune grievance.
Our media in response to a basically good jobs report, my god…
Ok, I went and looked. In March, 2019, BLS reported that the economy added 196,000 jobs. Here’s how the same media interpreted that finding for news consumers.
In August of the same year, the economy added 164,000, before revisions. Here’s the story the public heard about it.
I think another way to look at the dynamic Greg describes here is that McCarthy, other GOP leaders, Fox, et al have trapped themselves. They could get together, smoke-filled room style, and solve their collective-action problem, but refuse to. washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…
The Times, similarly, sees a story about Trump’s strength, but I see a mirror image story of GOP weakness.
The Times could’ve inverted the emphasis: DeSantis CRUSHES Trump among GOP voters who say Trump committed serious crimes. My takeaway isn’t really about how well or poorly DeSantis is doing vs Trump, it’s that there are so few GOP voters who know or admit Trump committed crimes.
Newsletter! (Yesterday’s.) I looked at the bafflement among It’s The Economy, Stupid liberals over why Joe Biden remains unpopular, despite a very strong economy. https://t.co/rCFqy2WxeKmailchi.mp/crooked.com/bi…
One possible explanation is, I think, pretty obvious… https://t.co/9XgiG6qbFWeepurl.com/gQH7lz
The best alternate explanation, consistent with the theory that a good economy helps incumbents like clockwork, is that there’s a lag between the economy becoming good and the public catching up. I hope it’s correct, but it’s a gamble and there are reasons to imagine it’s wrong.