Today's Edition

May 13, 2021

          As the GOP continues its descent into madness, Biden continues the work of governing the nation. In response to the ransomware attack that shut down the Colonial Pipeline, Biden issued an executive order that mandated long-overdue protections against hacking. See WhiteHouse.gov, “President Signs Executive Order Charting New Course to Improve the Nation’s Cybersecurity and Protect Federal Government Networks.” Biden was forced to exercise his executive authority because Congress has refused to act to protect the nation from criminal syndicates and nation-sponsored cyberattacks. Under the order, all software purchased by the federal government must comply with federal cybersecurity standards. Software vendors will be motivated to comply with the federal standards because they will serve as a de facto gold seal of approval. See NYTimes, “Biden Signs Executive Order to Bolster Federal Government’s Cybersecurity.” As noted in the Times, small businesses have objected to the cost of software security improvements, while large businesses have objected to the intrusion of the federal government in their business operations. Those objections seemed petty after only four days of gasoline shortages in the Southeast and along the Eastern Seaboard. See WaPo, “Colonial Pipeline systems resumes operations but Southeast still reeling from panic buying and gas price spikes.”

          Shortly after releasing the executive order, Biden met with congressional leaders (including McConnell and McCarthy) to discuss Biden’s infrastructure bill. Despite Biden’s repeated attempts to involve Republican leaders in good faith negotiations, they have adamantly refused Biden’s invitations. Mitch McConnell announced after the meeting that raising taxes to pay for the infrastructure improvements was a “red line” that Republicans would not cross. See Politico, “Republicans draw ‘red line’ for Biden in Oval Office showdown.” Oh! I almost forgot: McConnell also wants to continue discussing what constitutes “infrastructure.” I admire Biden’s optimism, but he should not waste more time dealing with GOP leadership that is engaged in bad faith delay. Biden should make his case to the American people and then call for Congress to act.

          We need no further evidence of the GOP’s bad faith than their shocking efforts to rewrite the history of the January 6th Insurrection. At a hearing of the House Oversight Committee, Republican members of the committee described the insurrection as “a normal tourist visit.” See CBSNews, "Normal tourist visit": Some Republicans downplay January 6 riot amid Democratic objections.” Another GOP member (Jody Hice), said: “It was Trump supporters who lost their lives that day, not Trump supporters who were taking the lives of others.” Talking Points Memo, “Republicans At Jan. 6 Hearing Try To Paint Trump And His Followers As The True Victims.” Rep. Paul Gosar complained that the “government has even enlisted Americans to turn in their own neighbors.” Really? Americans are not supposed to report violent criminals to the government if the criminals are Trump supporters? GOP Rep. Pat Fallon said,

          Our friends in the mainstream media are quite fond of labeling January 6 as an insurrection or even a rebellion. But are those descriptions accurate, or are they hyperbolic?

          Let me answer Rep. Fallon’s rhetorical question: It is accurate to describe an assault on the Capitol that was intended to stop the count of the Electoral votes as “an insurrection” and as “a rebellion.” Apparently, Republicans believe that the American people are (a) idiots incapable of remembering events that occurred only four months ago, and (b) do not own televisions, smartphones, and computers that are capable of playing video of the assault on the Capitol. GOP efforts to whitewash the January 6th Insurrection are part of the effort to perpetuate the Big Lie. As long as Republicans continue to claim that Joe Biden is not the duly elected president of the United States, Democrats have no reasonable basis for believing that Republicans will negotiate in good faith on anything.

           Which brings us to the unceremonious dismissal of Liz Cheney from her leadership position in the House GOP caucus. As many commentators have noted, the GOP caucus resorted to a voice vote to oust Cheney because a recorded vote would have shown that Cheney still enjoys support among the caucus. Five members of the caucus demanded a recorded vote, but McCarthy refused and gaveled the meeting to an abrupt end after calling for a voice vote. See MSN, “Vote to oust Liz Cheney took only 16 minutes. Here's what happened.” The ignominy of the rushed vote was exacerbated by the temporarily-victorious Donald Trump, who had the bad manners to dance on Cheney’s political grave. Trump wrote on his hokey website, “Liz Cheney is a bitter, horrible human being. . . . She has no personality . . . .” We can only hope that when members of the House GOP caucus look at themselves in the mirror on Thursday morning, they are repulsed by what they have become.

          The good news for Democrats is that Cheney ‘will not go gentle into that good night,’ but will instead rage against the hostile takeover of the GOP by Trump. After her ouster, Cheney said that she will “do everything [to ensure that Trump] never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office.” See also NBCNews, “Cheney vows to lead fight to break Trump's grip on GOP.” Good! The longer that Republicans are fighting among themselves, the better for their Democratic opponents.

          Several readers sent a copy of an op-ed in Politico (by Jeff Greenfield) that dismisses Democratic hopes that the GOP will dissolve in a civil war. See Politico, “A GOP Civil War? Don’t Bet On It.” I find the article unpersuasive. It describes the ouster of Cheney as a “spat.” Really? Seemed like a coup to me. But more to the point, Greenfield asserts that the GOP is “united” because it is under the firm “control” of Trump. That sounds like the GOP civil war has been fought and lost by the moderates— who are voting with their feet to become Independents. As I noted last week, during Trump’s tenure, the percentage of voters who self-identify as Republicans decreased from 31% to 25% between February 2017 and February 2021.  The notion of a “civil war” is a straw man argument. The GOP is engaged in a war of attrition in which the survivors of a small and shrinking party remain loyal to Trump. Why anyone would believe that is a path to victory is beyond me.

          Let me make a retroactive attempt to bring order to my rambling thoughts: On a day when Republicans again demonstrated that they are not legitimate partners in national governance, Joe Biden remains focused on defending America and investing in its future. If you are like me, you experienced a wave of nausea when listening to members of Congress describe an assault on the Capitol as a “tour” and suggest that there is something wrong with reporting violent criminals to the government. The depravity of congressional Republicans continues to be offset by the decency of Joe Biden. It could have been otherwise—a fact that should motivate us to work harder than we did in 2020.

More Republican bills to censor teachers.

          I reported yesterday on a bill in the Texas legislature that says teachers cannot be compelled to discuss “current events” or “controversial issues of public policy.” I described the bill as a restraint on speech. Several readers noted that the bill was not a restraint on what teachers could say, but rather, a restraint on what they could be compelled to say. For reasons too lengthy to discuss here, the effect of the Texas legislation is to ban discussion of current events or public policy in Texas schools. But in case you were misled by the convoluted nature of the Texas legislation, Arizona has taken a more direct approach. Under an amendment to Senate Bill 1532, any Arizona teacher who

          chooses to discuss controversial issues of public policy or social affairs . . .  shall present these issues from diverse and contending perspectives without giving deference to any one perspective.

          If a teacher fails to give equal weight to “controversial issues,” the teacher can be fined $5,000 for each violation. Hmm. . . so is the question of which candidate won the 2020 presidential election a “controversial issue” that the teacher must present from a “diverse and contending perspective”? What about the question of whether rioters who broke into the Capitol to stop the count of the Electoral ballots violated the law? Must the teacher also present the view that the rioters could have been innocent tourists who believed the Capitol was open to the public despite the phalanx of police armed in riot gear in front of the Capitol? The Republican Party has devolved into the Thought Police, using the threat of ruinous penalties to intimidate teachers into silence. As I said yesterday, the Arizona and Texas bills would be routine fare in North Korea. In the United States, they are an affront to the Constitution.

An unhappy follow-up on the special election in the 6th Congressional District in Texas

         GOP Rep. Ron Wright of the 6th Congressional District died in office in February. A special election took place earlier this month to fill the vacant seat. That race represented the only chance for Democrats to flip a House seat from red to blue before the 2022 midterms. You will recall that no Democratic candidate made it into the run-off, in part because turnout among Democrats was 14%. The day after the election, I wrote a newsletter that excoriated the Democratic establishment for sitting on the sidelines in the special election. See Today's Edition (May 3, 2021). At the time, I believed that the lack of support from the national party was due to lack of organization. I was wrong.

          I am disturbed to report that the Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, said yesterday that the DCCC intentionally ignored the race. In a story in National Law Journal on Wednesday, Maloney, said

          We made a conscious decision not to invest in that race. . . . the Republicans invested a ton of money in that race.  We are not going to play in districts we can’t win.

          Here’s a suggestion for Rep. Maloney: If you are going to abandon a district to Republican control, can you please let us know in advance so that the Democratic faithful don’t “invest their money . . . in districts we can’t win?” An even better suggestion is this: Don’t concede a single race to Republicans. Such defeatist thinking can become self-fulfilling and sends the wrong message to an anxious base that is looking for leaders who are willing to mount an aggressive fight to retain the House in 2022. The national party must, of course, make tough decisions about allocation of resources when dozens of close races are competing for money. But 6th District was the only race that offered a chance to add a seat to the Democratic margin in the House. It was a missed opportunity that should give the DCCC cause for introspection.

Concluding thoughts.

Democrats won in 2020 because they turned out in record numbers—in large part because they recognized the threat posed by Trump. In 2022, Trump will be on every ballot as the overlord who controls the GOP candidate. In the same way, Trump’s enforcers will be on every ballot: Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Kevin McCarthy, Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz, and Josh Hawley. We must convey urgency to every Democrat within the sound of our voice and the reach of our online presence. Please do your part to rally the troops. The midterms are upon us and we must act with dispatch. Tell a friend!

          Talk to you tomorrow!