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David Roberts

@drvolts

Jan 22

One thing that has bugged me about the debate over the filibuster is the tendency of the discourse to get mired in abstractions about majorities vs. minorities, and what the right level of protection is for minorities. This has marked US procedural arguments for decades, but ...

... it's worth noting that, for all those decades, the only minority whose rule is being defended is conservative patriarchal white Christian men & their wives -- ahem, "real Americans." That's always the minority with the "right" to influence beyond its numbers.

You better believe every RW reply guy who burps up "republic not a democracy" in response to procedural arguments would change his tune in a heartbeat if it were any other minority dominating national politics. If Dems could run the Senate with 45% of the nat'l population? Shit.

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David Roberts

@drvolts

Jan 21

Again & again, I think about the profound trauma this current era is inscribing on all of us -- and the fucked-up ways that trauma will express itself in coming years. npr.org/2022/01/20/107…

What I wish -- & maybe even briefly hoped was true, early on -- is that this extremely explicit demonstration of the need for solidarity would prompt compassion & a push for supportive social & economic policy. But now ...

... I've pretty much lost that hope & resigned myself to the fact that people generally respond to trauma in unhealthy ways. I expect we'll see *more* division, resentment, isolation, & social darwinism in coming years. Stress & anxiety make people more small-c conservative.

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David Roberts

@drvolts

Jan 20

The most predictable thing under the sun: if Democrats actually do start speaking the truth about Republican election-theft efforts, the Beltway press will accuse them of being rude & divisive & "politicizing" elections.

Trump: We're going to steal the election.

Biden: Republicans are going to steal the election.

Media: Biden, like Trump, has cast doubt on the integrity of the election.

Ahem.
wsj.com/articles/joe-b…

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David Roberts

@drvolts

Jan 19

I find pieces like this utterly surreal. Thousands of words on Biden's approval rating & at no point is the tone, tenor, or character of the media's coverage even *mentioned*. Everyone pretends voters are responding directly to what Biden actually does. washingtonpost.com/politics/biden…

The US political media treats itself as a transparent eyeball, simply reporting facts, not as a volitional agent directing the public's attention & coloring its perceptions. It's so common I don't think people even notice any more. But it's bizarre when you think about it.

The average individual's experience of most issues of political significance is 100% mediated. Even if you disagree with me about the character of the mediation in Biden's case (relentlessly negative), it's wild just to ignore mediation entirely as a factor.

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David Roberts

@drvolts

Jan 18

The argument about "how far left" the Dem Party has moved conflates two separate questions. One is where the party is ideologically-- that is, what it would do if given the power to act freely. The other is about the party's political posture, ie, how hard it is willing to fight.

If you simply look at the policies that draw majority support among Democratic elected officials, there's no question that the party has moved left in the last several decades. Universal pre-K, CTC, massive climate industrial policy, etc. -- the BBB Act is incredibly ambitious.

It's the other question that draws most online heat: whether GOP opposition is a sharp limit on Dem ambition ... or whether Dems are in some sense complicit, giving up too easily, rolling over, not seriously committed to (&/or lying about) their stated policy goals.

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David Roberts

@drvolts

Jan 17

The most striking thing about the entire pandemic, to me, is the raw, spontaneous, primal anger some people felt at being asked to make personal sacrifices in the name of the public good -- a kind of gut-level anti-solidarity.

Most arguments about masks & other restrictions had that vibe to me -- people groping to reverse-engineer epidemiological arguments to justify what was, in essence, a pre-verbal feeling: "how DARE you ask me to sacrifice for the collective. I will NOT & you can't make me."

This is the only way to make sense of the endless string of often self-contradictory arguments about alternative treatments, "herd immunity," transmissibility, private vs. gov't mandates, etc. etc.

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