Take a moment and try in your mind and in your heart to calculate the enormity of the human suffering created by the failure of our government to rise to the challenge of this COVID crisis, a failure fed by their greed, self-interest and willful ignorance.
Try to imagine the hundreds of thousands dead, the millions among their immediate families and friends, the tens of millions who have lost their jobs or suffered economically, gone hungry, gone to bed wracked with anxiety about what tomorrow will bring.
Imagine if it was you and your family. Perhaps it has been. Then imagine another and another. When does your mind start to boggle. After how many deaths, how much loss, how much fear, how much apprehension and uncertainty?
Seriously, try to take it in. Create in your mind the landscape of loss and deprivation. Then, understand that it was all avoidable. It was a choice made by a few politicians because they thought it served them and their careers and their friends and their donors.
Think of it, millions cast into hell. All out of the greed and cynicism of a handful of people, the President, Senator McConnell, and their enablers. Other countries controlled the virus and took care of their people--because that's what countries are supposed to do.
We failed. We were betrayed.

Now think we can reverse that on January 5 in Georgia. We can reverse that if just a couple members of the GOP decide to work with the new president to help the people--their constituents.
We are a couple of votes in the Senate away from decency and hope. That sounds like politics. But it is the practical reality of the moment we face. A couple of votes more--from Georgia or from Senators who put conscience and values first--and we can exit this Hell.

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More from @djrothkopf

27 Dec
@ianbremmer With respect, it's not that simple. For decades the right have been engineering institutional changes (gerrymandering, packing courts, working to take over legislatures, increasing the corporate money flows through Citizens United etc., suppressing votes, etc.)...
@ianbremmer They have worked hard to enable a minority to gain influence (abetted by flaws in our Constitution). Since the elimination of the fairness doctrine and pulling strings to help Murdoch gain his US licenses during Reagan, they have created an alternative reality media bubble.
@ianbremmer And they have actively promoted policies that increased the power and wealth of their sponsors among the few and promoted division below. Have the needs of regular Americans been ignored? Of course. Look at our social safety nets compared to every other developed country.
Read 5 tweets
24 Dec
So, we have a little holiday treat from @DeepStateRadio. Some of the liveliest conversations about politics & the world take place in the kitchen. So we thought we would try an experiment-listening to 2 very smart people talk about our crazy times while actually baking together.
The recipe is simple: Take one brilliant comedian known for letting the world know what she thinks, one former food writer for The NY Times & Newsweek who is also a baker and journalism professor, and let them dissect everything from Trump to the Kardashians.
Oh, and let them bake lemon bars despite one of the participants being way too famous to actually know much about baking. The result is the pilot for #TheSecretLifeofCookies featuring the wonderful @kathygriffin & my also great sister @MarissaRothkopf. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/too…
Read 4 tweets
19 Dec
As others have observed, the ideology of the GOP has become about one thing only: maintaining power. For them that single goal transcends values, historical traditions, decency, ethics & the law. So the important question to ask is "why?"
Power has always been attractive & offered rich benefits to the powerful. But in our system, power is held not by parties or individuals but by the people In a 2-party system the idea was that to reflect the will of the people power might shift back & forth between parties.
But it is clear that the GOP feels they no longer can hold onto power within that system. The electorate is changing. The times are changing. Their ideologies have no place in America's future. So they are turning to illegal means to hold onto power...
Read 4 tweets
19 Dec
Bigger scandal? The failure of the admin to develop & implement an effective plan for distributing the vaccine? Holding back vaccine supplies from blue states? Continuing failure to have a plan to contain the virus? Failure of Congress to assist those devastated by pandemic?
The president's silence & inaction in the face of this unprecedented disaster largely of his making? Or the president's silence and inaction in the face of what may be the larger cyber attack in US history? His silence--yet again--to criticize or penalize Russia for the attack?
Wait, what about the on-going coup attempt by Trump and his supporters? Might it be the breaking news that Kushner siphoned off campaign funds for distribution to the Trump clan? Or, possibly, will it be the waves of pardons for the undeserving and corrupt Trump will initiate?
Read 4 tweets
18 Dec
When I think of the suffering & pain caused by Trump, Pence, Kushner and their regime, when I think of those who have died or suffered due to their selfishness & calculated cruelty, I have to admit, I don't feel that charitable about them cutting to the front of the vaccine line.
Yes, it is good to have examples of leaders embracing the vaccine. But when those same "leaders" minimize the threat of the pandemic and refuse to do the bare minimum such as wearing a mask to send a message of decency to their followers, they don't qualify for the assignment.
The display is one of grotesque hypocrisy made worse by them claiming credit for the vaccines (which they are not due--Pfizer were not part of Operation Warp Speed and they have made some terrible management decisions about ordering vaccines and preparing for their distribution).
Read 5 tweets
17 Dec
Something remarkable is happening in the Biden Administration--a cabinet that really does look like America.

The following is just off the top of my head and is sure to miss some important breakthroughs. Please add and adjust as you see fit.
First woman Vice President: @KamalaHarris
First woman of color Vice President: @KamalaHarris
First Asian-American Vice President: @KamalaHarris
First woman Secretary of the Treasury: @JanetYellen
First person of color Secretary of Defense: Lloyd Austin
First Native American cabinet secretary: @RepDebHaaland
First woman to lead US intelligence community: Avril Haines
First Out LGBTQ cabinet secretary: @PeteButtigieg
Youngest national security advisor in almost 50 years: @JakeJSullivan
Read 5 tweets

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