Don’t give up! (A pep talk.)

October 19, 2023

         This is a pep talk to my family (and myself). You can listen in.

          We are living through an extraordinary time. The world is being rocked by multiple overlapping crises: The terrorist attack on Israel on October 7; Israel’s subsequent declaration of war on Hamas; protests throughout the Middle East sparked by a Hamas missile strike on a hospital in Gaza; the ongoing war against the Ukrainian people by Vladimir Putin; the inability of the majority party in the House to elect a Speaker; the possibility of a government shutdown before Thanksgiving; upcoming elections in Virginia and Ohio that will serve as bellwethers for 2024; the hottest year (2023) and hottest month (July) since scientists began keeping climate records; and a new term of the US Supreme Court that could fundamentally reshape American society and personal liberties (or not).

          That’s a lot.

          It is easy to feel overwhelmed, to withdraw, to look away.

          Don’t.

          Emotional exhaustion and intentional disengagement are the goals of bad-faith tactics used by Republicans to undermine democracy. During a time when Republicans should be joining Democrats in a national unity government, they continue to push an extremist agenda. When Rep. Tom Cole nominated Jim Jordan for Speaker of the House on Wednesday morning, Cole said that one of Jordan’s leading qualifications is that he is committed to cutting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. The media yawned.

          Our generation has one job: To endure, to abide, to keep the faith until this moment of reactionary extremism subsides. If we can do that, we will leave our heirs a healthier, stronger democracy.

          This pep talk is prompted by a recent Pew Research poll and a personal anecdote. Let’s start with the anecdote and expand from there.

          My wife and I saw an acquaintance for the first time in four years. We have never discussed politics with this acquaintance—because it was clear that she was a Trump supporter (before the COVID shutdown). At some point in our conversation today, the acquaintance said, “I have given up on politics. I won’t talk about it. I am done with it.”

          A survey by Pew Research (“Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics”) confirms that millions of Americans are feeling the same way as our acquaintance. Dan Pfeiffer discussed the Pew survey in his Substack newsletter, The Message Box, The Poll that May Explain our Insane Politics.

          As explained by Pfeiffer, the Pew survey shows the following:

• 65% of respondents describe themselves as “exhausted” when thinking about politics.

• 55% say they are “angry” about American politics.

• Only 4% say politics makes them feel hopeful.

• Pew also asked people to describe American politics in one word. The second most common description was “corrupt”—behind the first-place finisher, “divisive.”

          It is no wonder that people want to disengage and look away. The events in the Middle East, Ukraine, and the US Congress are exacerbating pre-existing feelings of exhaustion, anger, and divisiveness.

          Exhaustion is the point of MAGA extremism. Republicans say:

Impeach Trump? We’ll impeach Joe Biden, Merrick Garland, Jack Smith, Alejandro Mayorkas, and Christopher Wray.

Indict Trump? We’ll indict Hunter Biden, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and Joe Biden.

Recognize the equality of LGBTQ people? We’ll legalize discrimination against them.

Protect Americans from a deadly virus? We’ll undermine trust in science.

Fight human-caused climate change? We will make it illegal to discuss climate change in the classroom.

          We must recognize those responses as a mind game designed to make us give up and go away.

          We have one job: To endure, to abide, to keep the faith until this moment of reactionary extremism subsides. If we can do that, we will leave to our heirs a healthier, stronger democracy.

          We can do that. We must do so. We have no other choice.

          No matter how much you want to give up and look away, don’t.

          Don’t.

Joe Biden’s visit to Israel.

          Joe Biden visited Israel on Wednesday. In the span of seven hours, he gave four speeches, which can be accessed here: Speeches and Remarks Archives | The White House.

          Among the many important things Biden said during his visit, the excerpts below are the most important. In a few short passages, President Biden covered a lot of ground. He said hard things. He discussed difficult topics. And he did so on Israeli soil, face-to-face with President Netanyahu, and on a live broadcast to the Israeli people.

          Biden said,

You can’t look at what has happened here to your mothers, your fathers, your grandparents, sons, daughters, children—even babies—and not scream out for justice.  Justice must be done.

But I caution this: While you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it.

After 9/11, we were enraged in the United States. And while we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes.

[Israel’s response] requires being deliberate. It requires asking very hard questions.  It requires clarity about the objectives and an honest assessment of whether the path you are on will achieve those objectives.

The vast majority of Palestinians are not Hamas. Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people. Hamas uses innocents—innocent families in Gaza as human shields, putting their command centers, their weapons, their communications tunnels in residential areas.

The Palestinian people are suffering greatly as well. We mourn the loss of innocent Palestinian lives.  Like the entire world, I was outraged and saddened by the enormous loss of life yesterday in the hospital in Gaza.

Based on the information we’ve seen to date, it appears to be the result of an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza.

The United States unequivocally stands for the protection of civilian life during conflict, and I grieve—I truly grieve for the families who were killed or wounded by this tragedy.

The people of Gaza need food, water, medicine, shelter.

Today, I asked the Israeli cabinet—who I met with for some time this morning—to agree to the delivery of lifesaving humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza. Based on the understanding that there will be inspections and that the aid should go to civilians, not to Hamas, Israel agreed that humanitarian assistance can begin to move from Egypt to Gaza.

          The media is filled with criticism from commentators saying, “President Biden should say XYZ” or “ABC.”

          On Wednesday, Biden said everything his critics have been clamoring for.

          He said it in Israel.

          Face-to-face with Prime Minister Netanyahu.

          To the Israeli people.

          In a maddeningly complicated situation, President Biden has been an honest, transparent broker. No other American president has played such a critical role during a war in the Middle East.

The media’s coverage of the explosion near the Al Ahli hospital.

          In the first hours after the explosion at the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza, many media outlets repeated a statement by the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza assigning blame for the explosion to the Israeli Defense Force.

          There is now strong evidence that the explosion was caused by a Hamas missile. The US National Security Council and the Israeli Defense Force have both released detailed statements assessing the evidence regarding the source of the missile. In addition, media analysts like Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo have reviewed open-source reporting (mainly video evidence from surveillance cameras) and concluded that the available public evidence suggests a missile fired from within Gaza was the likely source of the strike. See Talking Points Memo, Fog of War, Rush to Judgment and the Day After.

          In short, dozens of media outlets rushed to judgment, published unverified information, inflamed tensions in the Middle East, and have done nothing to retract their baseless reporting. Instead, inaccurate details are “revised,” and the stories are shown as “updated”—with no acknowledgment that the outlet previously reported inaccurate information.

          Some of those same outlets are now characterizing the explosion as a “He said, she said” dispute, even though Israel has identified the evidence in support of its conclusion while Hamas has failed to do so. That enormous difference in the quality of the evidence is being ignored by the media in an apparent effort to be “balanced”—after leaning heavily against Israel on the prior day. See Gary Rosenblatt’s Substack newsletter, Between the Lines, Why Israel Loses The Media Wars.

          The media failed miserably in reporting on one of the biggest stories in the first weeks of the war. Let’s hope that eager reporters and click-hungry headline writers understand that their rush to judgment is playing out in the streets of the Middle East—and may result in more death and destruction than if the facts had been reported based on the limited knowledge available.

Jim Jordan fails for a second time in bid to be elected Speaker.

          In his second attempt to be elected speaker, Jim Jordan lost a net of two votes—garnering only 199 votes in his bid to be elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. But the fact that a member who may have participated in the coup as a co-conspirator and who failed to cooperate with the J6 investigation could win 199 votes from Republicans speaks to the shameful state of the Republican Party.

          As noted above, Jordan was nominated by Rep. Tom Cole, who said that Jordan wanted

to get at the real drivers of debt, and we all know what they are. We all know it's Social Security, we all know it's Medicare, we all know it's Medicaid.

          It should be no point of pride for Republicans that Jim Jordan’s priority is to cut social safety-net programs that ensure health and quality of life for nearly two hundred million workers. Moreover, Rep. Cole misrepresented the status of Social Security, which has a net surplus over the life of the program. See Congressional Research Service, Social Security Overview. (“Over its 88-year history, the program has collected $26.40 trillion and paid out $23.57 trillion, leaving trust fund asset reserves of about $2.83 trillion.”)

          In the past, the federal government borrowed money from the Social Security Trust Fund. In the last decade, Social Security has asked the federal government to repay money that the government borrowed from Social Security. That—according to Tom Cole—is a “driver of debt.” Obviously, Cole doesn’t understand how Social Security is funded.

          But in raising the issue, Cole did everyone a favor. He reminded Americans that Jim Jordan is a social Darwinist who wants to attack the elderly, ill, and workers in order to protect the wealthiest taxpayers.

          It has been apparent to all Americans for weeks that Republicans do not have a governing majority. And yet, Republicans continue to waste time on vanity campaigns by candidates unfit to be members of Congress, much less the leader of the House of Representatives.

Opportunity for Reader engagement.

I received this note from Walk the Walk USA:

Walk the Walk USA is hosting an event on Wednesday, October 25, at 5:30 PM Pacific with its grassroots partner, the Public Policy and Education Fund of New York. Please join us in critical work in New York and across the country right now to win up and down the ballot next year.

Walk the Walk USA focuses on relational organizing in specific geographic districts, where each new registered voter will have a significant national impact in the long and short term.  Registering, empowering, and relationally mobilizing voters of color who form the base of the Democratic party—rather than contributing to big TV ad buys, or even top-of-the-ticket candidates—is a much more powerful approach. Join us as we “walk the walk” to reach voters where they live!

Register here:  HERE.

Concluding Thoughts.

         We have one job: To endure until this moment of reactionary extremism subsides. If we can do that, we will leave to our heirs a healthier, stronger democracy.

 Talk to you tomorrow!