Let's stop saying the 1/6 commission is the victim of "partisan infighting." Only one side wants a real accounting. The party of Trump, Stop the Steal and Marjorie Taylor Green cannot credibly pretend its objections are about its structure. My latest: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Until Republicans fully admit to these three things, they can't participate in a genuine accounting:
* Insurrection was incited by Trump
* Rioters were inspired by lies that Republicans themselves fueled
The battle over the commission is constantly portrayed as devolving into “partisan” politics. But only one side actually wants a real accounting. This wild imbalance will remain until Republicans are prepared to fully renounce all these pathologies:
For a deep dive into this kind of deranged anti-leftism, here's @lkatfield chronicling how Trumpy intellectuals are trafficking in it extensively, creating "disorientation and distrust that destroys the very possibility of liberal democracy."
Never forget: Trump told us that if Biden won, he'd fall prey to the radical left, driving us into depression. Instead, a broad Dem center-left is crafting ambitious solutions that are very popular, and Rs are the ones sinking into extremism. New piece: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
The next phase of Biden's plan, the caregiving phase, will include another $1 trillion in spending.
This draws heavily on core insights of progressive economics, which is why I think @DouthatNYT is off in claiming Biden is primarily repurposing Trumpism:
@RonWyden Some GOP senators want Democrats to do a separate bill focused just on "real" infrastructure. But Republicans won't raise corporate tax rates to pay for it.
Some Democrats see this as a trap. I gamed out how this might work here:
Trump's poison continues to harm our virus response. He suggested for a year that taking covid seriously constituted disloyalty that would lend aid and comfort to his enemies.
Vaccine-reluctant GOP voters recently interviewed by @ddiamond echoed Trump:
@JVLast Corporate defenses of voting rights are a problem for Republicans. They shed a harsh light on the GOP's slide into radicalization, which could alienate suburbanites and provoke a Dem countermobilization.
@DavidAFrench 2) As @DavidAFrench notes, each of these are being attacked for different things. MLB and companies like Delta are faulted for criticizing the Georgia voting law, Big Tech for supposed suppression of conservative viewpoints.
@DavidAFrench 3) But in all these cases, @DavidAFrench argues, these are forms of speech. That’s what MLB is doing by pulling the game, and what private platforms moderating content are doing.
And conservative voices *aren’t actually* being suppressed:
Phony populist Josh Hawley is now claiming "woke" corporations are victimizing people like him for merely defending "election integrity" in Georgia. Yes, the leader of the effort to subvert Biden's electors really said that. I unloaded a rant in response: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Here's Josh Hawley's full quote. It's just steaming wretched nonsense.
No sympathizer with the new "conservative populism" should accept this. It's truly deranged:
What's galling is Hawley is using the rhetoric of empowerment (protecting conservative voters' agency from woke elites) to defend actual efforts to disempower people via voter suppression.