It's incredible to see the whole conservative movement crucify Bill Barr, who has arguably done more than any other person alive to shield Trump from legal harm and weaponize the law against his enemies, solely because he said, there's nothing I can do to overturn this election.
It's pretty chilling when you think about the implications of it.
We've reached the point where the GOP zeitgeist views anything short of actively overthrowing democracy as treachery and disloyalty to the cause.
Let's say that Bill Barr HAD overturned the election. That still wouldn't have been enough. Republicans would call him an establishment swamp creature because he refused to arrest Joe Biden.
Or let's say he did arrest Joe Biden. Then it would be, he refused to execute him.
Or let's say that somehow, in some nightmare scenario, Bill Barr nullified the election, arrested Joe Biden, and had him publicly shot by firing squad. Then Republicans would be howling, THAT WAS ONLY ONE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE! WHERE ARE THE DEATH CAMPS FOR THE LIBERALS?
I think if the Trump era has taught us anything, it's that there are some people in this country — not all, but some — who will go as far as they are allowed to go.
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The reason smart conservatives attack the media for their reporting on Trump that they KNOW is accurate and damning is pretty simple: if they didn't, they'd have to admit that everything liberals have been saying about the Republican Party for decades is right.
The GOP has become a hollowed-out vessel for plutocrats that made a devil's bargain with neo-Nazis and theocrats to pull up the ladder of democracy behind them.
For years these "serious" conservatives called us hysterical for warning that's where it was heading. Well, it was.
Beyond the group of Never Trump conservatives who had the guts to admit we were right and leave the GOP, there's another group of cowards like Rich Lowry and Hugh Hewitt, who know what Trump is doing to their party but are too invested in the power they've won to admit any of it.
Off the top of my head, the electoral result of such a map would be *at least* 396 electors for Democrats.
They'd win every state won by Obama 2008 and Biden 2020, plus Missouri. Maybe Montana and Texas too, but I think they'd still be red, just REALLY close.
One of the crazier things that would stand out on this map would be, West Virginia is within 5 points!
Essentially, it would just be Biden's result in Monongalia County, and Gore's result in every other county.
Oklahoma would also be interesting. While it consistently votes GOP by over 20 points, the *areas* Dems get their votes has shifted a lot. Combining Gore's vote in the tribal areas and Little Dixie with Biden's in OKC/Tulsa would make it much closer, but still probably like R+10.
But I also think that Democrats have nothing to apologize for by blocking Mitch McConnell's proposal, because it's literally worse than nothing.
First, McConnell's refusal to offer a penny of debt relief to municipal governments — when their budget shortfall is specifically because businesses that make up the tax base are shut down by COVID — is reprehensible and is explicitly intended to cripple Democratic areas.
Second, McConnell is demanding unconditional reauthorization of PPP, which was a jungle gym of fraud and abuse and funneled billions into corporate executives' pockets while doing little to actually maintain jobs.
But the REAL dealbreaker is his so-called "liability" provisions.
It would be profoundly stupid to abandon a state that has voted Democratic in 2 of the last 4 elections, has been single digits in all four races, has a Democratic senator, had a closely contested gubernatorial race in 2018, and where Democrats have won 3 row election since 2016.
It is true that Donald Trump was a uniquely suited politician for Ohio — his trade rhetoric appealed to white union voters.
It is also true that Ohio votes to the right of the nation, and that it is changing at the regional level in ways that helped Republicans in 2016 and 2020.
None of this means that Ohio is no longer a competitive state, though.
I feel like many people are basing their doomcasts about Ohio solely because Obama gave them unrealistic expectations about how it normally votes, when 2016 and 2020 are closer to its historical norm.
Poll after poll after poll is clear. The public supports funding social services that fill some roles police currently have, but they DON'T support defunding the police.
I don't care if you think those are the same thing. Voters don't.
There are neighborhoods in some cities where police are actually *underfunded* for their essential roles, and response times are low for people reporting crimes, accidents, etc.
Police nonresponse hurts POC as much as police brutality. Defund activists have no answer for this.
"BuT wE dOn'T lItErAlLy MeAn GeT rId Of ThE pOlIcE!"
Then find a new damn slogan, because at least some of the people chanting it with you do, in fact, literally mean that. nytimes.com/2020/06/12/opi…
What's interesting about Minnesota is that it was a rural, "prairie-populist" state 40 years ago, back when Democrats won those kinds of states — and gradually morphed into a state of suburban white-collar professionals, just as Democrats started winning *those* kinds of states.
I can't think of any analogue for Republicans.
There's not really a state that went from heavily suburban to heavily rural, timed perfectly such that it had each makeup when it was favorable to the GOP.
Minnesota isn't usually the first state you'd think of if asked to name a blue state — you probably be more likely to say New York, California, or Massachusetts.
But since 1960, Minnesota has gone blue in more elections than any of those states!