How could so many people believe Trump’s claims about the 2020 election after so much evidence exposed the lies? History offers an answer.
open.substack.com/pub/steveinske…
This is the latest of my regular emails—on our divided past and present. Subscribe at:
steveinskeep.substack.com

A “ten-thousand-year war” — H.W. Brands’ book on the wars of the American West is a hell of a summer read.

https://t.co/xY40BxmwLDopen.substack.com/pub/steveinske…
This is the latest of ny regular emails, which I propose to send directly to you. Take a free or paid subscription here:
.steveinskeep.substack.com

“Defendant pushed officials in certain states to ignore the popular vote; disenfranchise millions of voters; dismiss legitimate electors; and ultimately, cause [his election] by illegitimate electors.” Courts will decide if it was a crime, but as a list of facts, it all happened. The indictment lists officials Trump's personally appointed who told him he lost: DOJ leaders; the director of national intelligence; DHS cybersecurity officials; White House lawyers; his own campaign officials; his own Vice President. Again as a list of facts, this all happened.

Finally realized the issue - Twitter is quiet quitting.

Subscribe here for a regular email from me:

steveinskeep.substack.com Here’s a sample, from today: Declarations of Independence

steveinskeep.substack.com/p/declarations…

It’s the cover!

Differ We Must: How Lincoln Succeeded in a Divided America

In 16 meetings with people who differed with him, he matched wits with allies and enemies alike.

Without these encounters he wouldn’t be the Lincoln we know.

Out 10/3. Preorder:
https://t.co/L6PvropbUwpenguinrandomhouse.com/books/670070/d… “The control of republics depends on the number, not the quality, of the voters. This is not a government of saints. It has a large sprinkling of sinners.” - Thaddeus Stevens

In Differ We Must, Lincoln tries to make a majority among the sinners. Preorder:
penguinrandomhouse.com/books/670070/d…

Jacinda Ardern's resignation in New Zealand drew more attention, but the fall of Vietnam's president is meaningful, as we heard from @bill_hayton on @MorningEdition @NPR. The US counts on Vietnam as a trading partner and potential counterweight to China.
npr.org/2023/01/19/114… Vietnam's Communist Party pushed out the president for a corruption scandal, but Hayton sees something bigger: "The public security ministry and the Communist Party hardliners [are] really using these corruption scandals to push out the more liberal wing of the party."

Biden’s reputation for competence has had a better 2022 than 2021. The Griner release being the latest example of an act that required patience, persistence, focus and discretion (no matter who the president was; much of the work in any administration is by career professionals.) The president looked worse in 2021—the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan; the stalling of much of his legislative agenda; and a kick-start of inflation. But even at the time, the military partly redeemed the Kabul departure with an evacuation of more than 100,000 people.

Could Democrats avert a debt ceiling crisis in 2023 by extending the debt limit this year, in the lame duck session? @CoryBooker says on @MorningEdition he would "hope" to do this, but there is a crowded agenda and party leaders haven't said if they will try it. @NPR In the lame duck, which might be the Democrats' last chance to legislate before R's take a chamber, @CoryBooker says "a lot of things" are "urgent for Democrats": writing "marriage equality" into law, making a child tax credit "permanent," and "confirming a lot of judges."

In “The Crimean War,” historian Orlando Figes writes of the 1850’s, when Russia’s Tsar Nicholas I fought other European powers—driven by a mix of imperial self-interest, Eastern Orthodox religious fervor, and a feeling of grievance that Western powers were so, so unfair. More: these pages show how the British press pushed for war, launching profitable roles for themselves as overt political actors that partisan US media continue today. A challenge for many pols is when to obey, engage, use or ignore the outrage machines.

PR advisers tell politicos, unwisely: “Don’t answer the question you are asked; answer the question you wish you were asked.” Much social media and partisan media seem to follow a variation: “Don’t answer the other side’s argument. Answer an argument you think you can dunk on.” If you’re going to answer questions at all, it’s best to answer them, and do so if possible in a forum where you can get out the answer. If the question is based on a false premise (“When did you become a satanist?”) of course you can call out the false premise.

The Cherokee Nation is trying to claim its non-voting seat in Congress, promised in a treaty in 1835. Here my colleague @jmsummers talks with the designated rep, Kim Tehee. And I want you to listen to the jaw-dropping story she tells at the end. @NPR npr.org/2022/09/28/112… She calmly mentions that every part of her life has been touched in some way by federal policy, including the city where she grew up. This, she says, is why she wants there to be a Cherokee representative.

This isn't an unusual thought. Generations of people have said that some people are unqualified or ill informed, and it's "insane to allow" them to vote. Since Mr. Kelly remarks on history here, a few notes follow on the history of this idea.

https://twitter.com/JesseKellyDC/status/1562117437482475520

At the country's founding, relatively few people could vote: white male property owners, with some exceptions. Relatively small elites held most power. However, some took the words of the Declaration for what they meant and soon expanded voting rights, however unevenly.

Cheney: Trump took advice on election night "from an apparently inebriated Rudy Giuliani" to just claim he won despite obvious evidence he hadn't. "Hundreds of our countrymen are facing criminal charges" because they believed Trump's lies, Cheney says.

Recently re-read the Dred Scott decision from 1857. It's an originalist decision. It takes on the Declaration's phrase, "all men are created equal." The decision concedes that "all men" would include Black people in 1857, but alleges the Founders meant something less in 1776. Some Founders enslaved Black people, wrote Justice Roger Taney. So they must not have intended to say "the enslaved African race" was "equal" with whites. If they did, they'd be hypocrites! And Taney said they were such great men they could not possibly have been hypocrites!

A fact about Rwanda's genocide has always stuck with me: the ruling party caused much of the killing simply by going on the radio and telling ethnic Hutus that ethnic Tutsis must be killed (along with Hutus who disapproved). Many people listened, and dismembered their neighbors. The government also used organized militias. But a lot of the killing was done by ordinary people who were urged by their media to get out there and exterminate those who were defined as a threat.

Merrick Garland, in a rare interview, is asked by our excellent @johnson_carrie if he'd shy away from 1/6 evidence that points to Trump or aides: "We are not avoiding cases that are political... What we are avoiding is making decisions on a political basis, on a partisan basis." More Garland on the 1/6 probe: "This is the most urgent investigation in the history of the Justice Department. It is the most resource intensive. We've thrown 70 prosecutors from DC, another 70 from across the country. Every FBI office... is working on this matter." @NPR

Did not go into this conversation knowing that historian Roger Loweinstein would find a comparison between Jefferson Davis and Vladimir Putin, but he stuck the landing. @MorningEdition @NPR npr.org/2022/03/09/108… "We're facing Vladimir Putin, who obviously bet his energy weapon would be enough to frighten and maybe completely shut down any meaningful resistance from the West. And it seems, if I'm not being too optimistic, that that Putin overplayed his energy hand."

One of the best @MorningEdition producers moves on. Proud to have worked with @_toriwhitley at home and abroad - they give a few highlights here, which is modest; could easily have named more. Early in their time we reported from Iran: I believed in Tori then and now.

https://twitter.com/_toriwhitley/status/1499742818079752194

It’s hard when a valued colleague moves on, but I can’t feel sad about it because I care about them. It’s the Great Resignation. It’s okay for anyone to seek new opportunities—and your move creates an opportunity for other talented and ambitious colleagues coming after you.

Sen. @BenSasse of Senate intel committee, on @MorningEdition, urges US to share real-time intelligence with Ukraine: “We are sending them intelligence, but we have lawyers delaying the process... we shouldn't let technicalities get in the way.” More @BenSasse: “Putin threatens that real-time actionable intelligence is tantamount to being engaged in the war… Not true.”
Q. Is that what the lawyers are doing, making sure the United States does not go over some legal tripwire into being actively involved in a war?

“As this gets bogged down in urban warfare, the Russians will [likely] move to more heavy-handed tactics,” says @jeffaedmonds. But if they do, it “will actually make it harder for them to achieve their political goals.” @MorningEdition @NPR npr.org/2022/02/28/108… In Syria, Russia used “thermobaric weapons,” which draw oxygen out of the air for a sustained explosion. “These are the weapons they used in Aleppo. Aleppo’s very peaceful now because most of the population is dead.” @jeffaedmonds @MorningEdition @NPR

Romney says some very nearly betray their country for "shock value," to get "eyeballs," and "maybe make a little more money for them or their network."

https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1497950261368791041

Romney also offered a critique of Biden’s approach so far: “The Biden administration has done some things very well and some things not so well. The not-so-well side is, they continued the policy of prior administrations not to provide the defensive weapons Ukraine needed…”