“The ultimate measure of a man.”

January 17, 2022

[Audio version here.]

          Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s monument in Washington D.C. includes inscriptions of his most powerful statements.  One seems apt on the week that the Senate will fail to pass voting rights protections that were at the core of Dr. King’s mission.  He said,

          The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

          Dr. King’s insight into the “ultimate measure of a man” was born of a lifetime spent in challenge and controversy.  He was only 39-years old when he died, but his influence will shape America for centuries to come.  We have endured five years of unsettling political turmoil and may experience a decade more.  Amidst that turmoil, it is difficult to see the path forward and discern the timeline to ultimate victory—a state of affairs that is anxiety producing, at the very least.

          We are called to continue the work of Dr. King during times of challenge and controversy.  What will we do?  Will we surrender to predictions of disaster?  Will our spirit break because of the moral failures and lack of integrity of some among us?  Will we discourage others with our self-pity—or will we inspire them with our determination in the face of defeat?  Our actions over the next four years will inscribe our answers to those questions in the archives of American history.

          Dr. King’s observation about the measure of a man was an exhortation to rise above disappointment and defeat.  The apparent failure to pass voting rights legislation has been the biggest disappointment of Biden’s first year in office.  That challenge will take our measure.  Some have already fallen short, panicking and predicting doom to anyone who will listen.  The headlines over the weekend were absurd and insulting to the millions of Americans who aren’t giving up because of a temporary setback.  I will not repeat them (or link to them), but I will note that anytime a headline writer resorts to 72-point font in ALL CAPS, you can be certain that they are exploiting bad news to boost revenue.

          So, without repeating the headlines and stories that many readers have forwarded to me over the weekend, let simply say, “No,” America is not on the brink of the “unthinkable,” it has not “just lost 2022 and 2024,” we did not just witness the “death of democracy,” nor will we witness it in 2022 if Republicans take back Congress.  And let’s please remind ourselves that polls are not elections, that candidates can (and do) change political momentum.  Remember that time in 2020 when Joe Biden finished 4th in the New Hampshire primary?  If he accepted that loss as an unchangeable indicator of his political fortunes, he would have quit.  Thankfully, he did not.

          Even seasoned Democratic politicians are making rash statements that are born of frustration and anger, so it is understandable that rank-and-file Democrats will do so, as well.  The apparent failure to create a carve-out for voting rights legislation was a bitter disappointment.  But with perspective, we can see that the final vote on the filibuster this week was predictable and knowable on the first day of Biden’s tenure.  That does not remove the sting of disappointment over a year’s worth of unsuccessful effort to change the result, but it should remind us that the outcome this week is neither shocking nor unexpected.

          The failure to break the filibuster this week is not the end—it is only the beginning.  Let’s acknowledge a plain truth—that no Democratic candidate will be elected to the Senate in the future unless they campaign on a pledge to end the filibuster.  It is only a matter of time until Democrats eliminate the filibuster.  It will happen, and the most important thing we can do in the interim is to contest and win every other office up and down the ballot to protect the right to vote as much as possible in the absence of federal guarantees.

          We cannot afford the luxury of pity—too many people are depending on us.  Don’t give up.  I am not, and millions of other Democrats are not, either.  Join us as we attempt to live up to the measure of a man who showed us the way forward—unyielding determination in the face of challenge and controversy.

A preview of 2022.

          For those nervous about 2022, two developments over the weekend show that Republicans are doubling down on messages that have a strong appeal to a shrinking minority of Americans.  Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin ran as a “not-Trump” traditional GOP conservative candidate palatable to to Independents.  On his first day in office, Youngkin dropped all pretense and fell in line with Trumpian orthodoxy.  On his first day in office, Youngkin

ended mask mandates in public schools, dropped vaccine requirements for state workers, and barred the teaching of critical race theory.  He also withdrew the state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

          In the span of an hour, Youngkin managed to threaten the health, safety, and lives of schoolchildren in Virginia by exposing them to the coronavirus and by increasing the likelihood that they will face a future of climate extremes caused by greenhouse gas emissions.  Youngkin has declared sides in the war between misinformation and the wellbeing of his constituents.  He can no longer hide behind slick campaign ads that portray him as a “moderate businessman” who wants to protect Virginians.  As he said after signing eleven executive orders, “Virginia is open for business”—but at the expense of schoolchildren who must rely on adults to protect their best interests.  That hardly seems like the actions of a “moderate” Republican who cares about citizens of his state.

          Trump traveled to Arizona to make a much-anticipated public appearance at a rally.  As expected, Trump focused much of his attention on re-litigating the 2020 election—hardly a winning strategy for 2022 and 2024.  Indeed, Trump’s appearance was filled with outlandish lies that will become fodder for media take-downs, as soon as the media tires of beating up on Biden for trying to achieve historic legislation to protect the right of citizens to vote.

          Among the falsehoods that Trump uttered (per the NYTimes), he claimed (a) that “the left” is denying vaccines to white Americans; (b) that the “Cyber Ninja” audit of the Arizona presidential ballots in one county showed that there were “tens of thousands” of illegal ballots, and (c) that Nancy Pelosi rejected his offer of 10,000 National Guard troops to protect the Capitol.  Each of these falsehoods is easily disprovable and should add to the accumulating evidence that Trump has lost his grip on reality.  Tell a friend.

The Supreme Court’s vaccine mandate decision.

          Last Thursday, the Supreme Court invalidated work-place vaccine mandates on the laughable theory that OSHA is powerless to regulate threats that exist inside and outside of the workplace.  The decision was another example of Justices who claim to be bound by the text of statute replacing the text with their political and religious agendas.  But the extent to which the Court has adopted an “anti-vaxxer” agenda as promoted by Fox News is coming into sharper focus.  Adam Serwer reviews the recent hearing in the employer vaccine mandate case and highlights the shocking and ignorant statements made by several Supreme Court Justices during oral argument.  As Serwer explains, the statements made by the reactionary Justices neatly follow the coverage of vaccines by Fox entertainers posing as journalists.  See Adam Serwer, The Atlantic, “The Conservative Justices Have Drunk the Anti-vax Kool-Aid.”

          The disturbing aspect of this story, as Serwer notes, is Trump frequently issued executive orders based on Fox programming on the preceding day.  It now seems that the reactionary justices are deciding cases by repeating misinformation they gather from Fox News:

It seemed like a comical absurdity: the most powerful nation in the world being run by a guy screaming at his television from the couch.  And yet, it’s not clear that the honorable justices of the Supreme Court are all that different.

          The Supreme Court has lost its legitimacy as a judicial institution.  Accepting that fact for what it is, Democrats should not allow the Court to be a captive of the Republican Party.  Democrats should expand the Court to release it from the death grip of the reactionary majority.

A great way to help register millions of first-time voters: The Civics Center.

          Over the weekend, I interviewed the founder of The Civics Center, Laura Brill.  The Civics Center is a non-partisan organization dedicated to registering the 3.7 million high school students who become eligible to vote each year.  When those new voters are registered, they show up at the polls at an astounding 86%!  The interview is here:  Today’s Edition Podcast, “The Civics Center with Laura Brill.”

          If you are interested in having an immediate, significant impact in registering voters, The Civics Center is the organization for you!  I especially urge parents of high-school students and educators to listen to the podcast.  As Laura explains, in some schools, a student-led registration campaign will generate 600-700 new voters!  Think about the effort that would go into registering 700 voters at a table on the street or at a mall.

          The Civics Center website has wonderful resources—such as “button” to be added to a school’s website to allow students to register, a “Democracy in a Box” kit for students, a sample school policy regarding voter registration drives for students, and much more.  The Civics Center needs adults to serve as advisors, who “adopt a school.”

          Also, the Center is embarking on an ambitious project to bring youth voter registration rates to parity with other voters by 2028.  This is an ambitious project that is looking for an anchor donor.  If you are interested in helping in any capacity, an informational meeting for interested volunteers will take place on Thursday, January 27th at 3:00 PM EST / 12:00 PM PST.  Register for the informational session here.

Concluding Thoughts.

          Many readers are sending worried emails about Joe Biden’s falling approval ratings.  Of course, we should pay attention to trends in polls, and not put too much weight in any single poll.  (The Rasmussen polling results are notoriously biased against Democrats.) But we can’t wish away bad polling, and Biden’s favorability has dropped sharply in the last six months.  But we should also recognize that we are suffering through a winter of discontent, and that Joe Biden is the vessel into which Americans are pouring their disappointment and weariness.  If anyone else were in the Oval Office at this moment, the dynamic would be no different—so let’s not panic.

          As we emerge from the latest surge of the coronavirus and the divisive debates over the BBB and voting rights bills recede into the background, the accomplishments of Biden’s first year in office will come into sharper focus—as will the outlandish, destructive, and conspiracy fueled platforms of Republicans seeking office in 2022.  It is easy to feel bad about one’s own challenges if you ignore the fact that your opponents face even more daunting challenges.  We can’t rely on Republicans to beat themselves, but neither should we ascribe to them superhuman qualities that don’t exist.  We can beat them.  We did so in 2018 and 2020.  We can do so again—but only if we stop worrying about predictions of disaster and get to work, confident in the knowledge that our message is the more attractive one being offered to the American people.

          Talk to you tomorrow!