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Greg Sargent Profile picture
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21 May, 5 tweets, 3 min read
Memo to Joe Manchin: McConnell is telling Republicans to oppose the bipartisan 1/6 commission on grounds that it will hurt them in 2022. One party is abandoning democracy. Either Dems will defend it on a partisan basis or it won't happen at all. New piece:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
McConnell privately told Republicans to oppose the commission because it's too partisan.

For McConnell, nothing will count as a bipartisan commission unless it is badly hamstrung from focusing on the role of Trump and Republicans in inciting the attack:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/… ImageImage
Manchin still hopes 10 GOP senators will support the 1/6 commission.

But what if they don't?

The conclusion will be inescapable:

There can be no accounting into 1/6 that's both bipartisan and also a full and true accounting.

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/… Image
If McConnell gets his way, protecting democracy must inevitably be a partisan exercise. Dems will do it alone or not at all.

If so, how can Manchin keep backing the filibuster while insisting democracy can only be permissibly defended via bipartisanship?

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/… ImageImage
An important related point from @brianbeutler: If and when Republicans filibuster the commission, Democrats should treat this as an object lesson in the actual function the filibuster serves:

mailchi.mp/crooked.com/bi…

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More from @ThePlumLineGS

Greg Sargent Profile picture
19 May
Mark McCloskey is running for Senate in Missouri, and his chief selling point is that he brandished a gun at racial justice protesters. This again shows how essential a fantasy fiction version of the leftist threat has become to GOP identity. New piece:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Candidates often speak of a transformative experience that awakened their desire to serve the public.

McCloskey's version?

“God came knocking on my door disguised as an angry mob. It really woke me up."

That's quite a moment of divine inspiration!

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
The key ingredient is the complete unshackling of oneself from any empirical constraints in depicting the leftist threat.

The protests inspired this with peculiar force, as @lionel_trolling notes. But there's also a strain of religious fanaticism to it:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Read 4 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
13 May
Republicans are committing a monstrous crime against democracy. A massive campaign is underway to cover their tracks:

* Pretending they never fed the big lie

* Epic gaslighting re 1/6

* Mass voter suppression in name of 'election integrity"

My latest:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
A striking fact:

Lawmakers in *33 states* have justified voting restrictions with the bogus nonsense that voter "confidence" must be restored.

Of course, Trump and Republicans destroyed that confidence themselves.

(Via a great @MaggieAstor report)

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
@MaggieAstor We need to appreciate how comprehensive the GOP deception campaign truly is.

It includes Republicans piously claiming they just want to restore "confidence" in elections, to obscure their radicalization.

It also includes an Orwellian rewriting of 1/6:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Read 5 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
10 May
Stop saying Republicans are "cowards" who "fear Trump." This lets them off the hook in a very fundamental way. They *want* a future in which they treat hated election outcomes as subject to invalidation. They are building this future right now. New piece:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
One ally of Liz Cheney told @sbg1 that she is a "living reproach to all these cowards."

This got lots of buzz. But it's a weak frame. It implies Rs would prefer on principle to defend democracy and would do so if only they didn't fear the consequences:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
@sbg1 Anyone still claiming the problem is GOP "cowardice" should watch Rep Jim Banks on Fox.

He's the head of the Republican Study Committee, an influential position.

It's impossible to read his loathsome remarks in such an innocent way.

(h/t @atrupar)

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Read 5 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
2 May
1) My defense of liberalism and criticism of where we're falling short has generated a lot of thoughtful and interesting responses -- thanks for that! -- so I thought I'd do a thread with a bunch of further reading on this topic.
2) @HelenaRosenblat's lost history of liberalism captures a lot of the neglected ways in which liberals sought to develop a conception of the common good, which liberalism is constantly (and wrongly) criticized for lacking:

amazon.com/Lost-History-L…
@HelenaRosenblat 3) The great Stephen Holmes' "Anatomy of Antiliberalism" is a really useful cataloging of the criticisms thrown at liberalism over the centuries, and why they falter under scrutiny. Many critiques you hear today have their roots in these old arguments:

amazon.com/Anatomy-Antili…
Read 10 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
27 Apr
Two facts about this moment:

1) New Census data shows we're headed for long term demographic decline

2) Enormous numbers are begging for entry into this country, and we go to great lengths to turn them away.

Utter madness. Time to change this debate:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
I talked to demographer Bill Frey. Key points:

“These new Census numbers should reset the debate about what immigration means for this country."

“Modest increases in the birth rate, which is the most we can expect, won’t solve the demographic problem."

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Time to retire the wretched phrase "economic migrant."

Severe material deprivation is not somehow a "bad" reason to try to migrate. We need to lean harder into being part of actual regional solutions, for our own good.

cc @Noahpinion:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Read 4 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
20 Apr
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:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
@DouthatNYT Why are these big progressive policies proving so popular? My suggestions:

1) GOP is entirely checked out of the conversation, adrift in an alternate info universe.

2) Covid collapse stripped bare brutal economic realities that can no longer be ignored:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Read 4 tweets

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