“Which America do people want to live in?”

April 14, 2022

[Audio Version here]

          Remember that time—three days ago—when the NYTimes revealed that Jared Kushner received a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia only six months after leaving the Trump administration? If you do recall that piece of ancient history, congratulations! You get extra points if you recall that Kushner was in charge of U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia—raising the obvious implication that Saudi Arabia was “paying off” Kushner for favorable treatment. It is possibly the most significant political scandal in American history but has been forgotten in the 12-minute news cycle that passes for journalism in the U.S.

          If Republicans gain control of either chamber of Congress, they will spend years investigating whether private citizen Hunter Biden was given access to legal business opportunities because his last name is Biden. Democrats can’t let “Jared’s $2 billion payoff scandal” die. Demanding accountability is the right result for legal and moral reasons—and has the virtue of being the politically smart thing to do.

True, the sheer volume of Trump family crimes makes it hard to keep up with the firehose of corruption they have directed at the Constitution. But let’s at least make an effort! Maybe Democrats can split up into teams instead of demanding that Adam Schiff lead every investigation into the latest Trump scandal. When people ask about Hunter Biden’s laptop, we should respond, “We’ll trade Hunter’s laptop for Kushner’s encrypted texts with Mohammed bin Salman.”

          As I said earlier this week, it’s time for Democrats to go on the offensive. Letting this scandal evaporate without a whimper is political malpractice. Don’t let that happen. Tell a friend.

Shocking new evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 election!

          Trump was right. There was voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election—by Trump’s Chief of Staff—and prominent Big Lie promoter—Mark Meadows. Meadows was stricken from North Carolina’s voter rolls because he was also registered to vote in Virginia! See Talking Points Memo, Meadows Nixed From North Carolina Voter Roll Amid Probe. Per TPM, the Director of the Macon County Board of Elections

found records that the former Trump official was registered in Virginia and North Carolina. . . . Meadows did not disclose [to Virginia] his voter registration in Macon County. Meadows’ omission prevented Virginia election officials from notifying North Carolina officials about the double registration.

          The disclosure comes amid an investigation of whether Meadows was a resident of North Carolina when he voted in that state (for Trump) in the 2020 presidential election. Trump is right. Voter fraud is a huge issue, and Democrats should be talking about Meadows’ “double registration” in 2020. Who wants to volunteer for the “Mark Meadow Voter Fraud” team?

The Supreme Court: How bad will it get?

          Jennifer Rubin published an article in WaPo today in which she tries to raise the alarm about the impending dismantling of civil liberties by the reactionary majority on the Supreme Court. See WaPo, The Supreme Court may be setting the stage for the mother of all culture clashes. Rubin attempts to exhort Democrats to action, declaring that Democrats must highlight the stark choices being presented to the American people in 2022:

Democrats must use this to contrast their party with Republicans: Forward vs. backward. Progress vs. chaos. Respect vs. bullying. Freedom vs. theocracy. Such a message would transcend race, especially among Americans with the most to lose.“Which America do people want to live in?” may be the defining question for the upcoming election and many to follow.

          Rubin is not resorting to hyperbole when she asks, “Which America do people want to live in?” Missouri is considering legislation to allow Missouri’s citizens to sue doctors who provide abortions to Missouri residents outside of Missouri. For example, if a Missouri resident travels to Illinois for an abortion, other Missouri residents could sue the Illinois doctor for violation of the Missouri anti-abortion law. Thus, the anti-abortion movement has quickly moved from “Let the states decide” to “Let Missouri decide—for everyone.” As Rubin writes, our civil liberties will be controlled by

[t]hose desperate White, Christian Americans who fear that the America they knew is slipping from their grasp . . . [and who] do not intend to let democracy stand in the way of their political and social dominance.

          Would the law under consideration in Missouri be unconstitutional? Missouri Republicans are not bothered by that trifle. The Texas anti-abortion law is plainly unconstitutional but remains in effect, thanks to the religious protectionism of the reactionary majority. And it will get worse. Much.

If we want to choose which America we will live in, we must act with greater urgency and enthusiasm in the upcoming election cycles. We need a larger majority in the Senate to appoint more justices to the Supreme Court. We need to reform the Court, including the imposition of an enforceable code of ethics.

Mississippi celebrates “Confederacy Heritage Month.”

          The Governor of Mississippi once again declared April “Confederacy Heritage Month.” See MSN, Mississippi Governor and Republicans Celebrate ‘Confederacy Heritage Month’. The Confederacy existed to perpetuate the institution of slavery. Celebrating that “heritage” is an insult to every American, but especially to the descendants of enslaved people in Mississippi, as well as all Blacks in America.

          The Governor of Mississippi is clearly embarrassed by this annual celebration of the defense of slavery and tried to conceal the existence of the proclamation. The governor’s proclamation was not posted to any government website but instead appeared on the Facebook page of a local chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. How did that group obtain a copy of the official proclamation? The governor isn’t saying.

          Not to be outdone, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis prepared a congressional district map for the Florida legislature that eliminates at least one majority Black district. See Politico, DeSantis to push through new Florida map that will bring big GOP gains. As noted by Politico, Republican legislators were reluctant to make the changes that DeSantis has now proposed because they “could run counter to Florida’s Fair Districts standards approved by voters. Those standards maintain minority districts cannot be “diminished’ when they are redrawn.”

Remember, this is the guy who wants to be the GOP standard bearer in 2024—and he wants to do everything he can to dilute the voting power of Florida’s Black citizens.

Response to my criticism of The Hill article about a “biblical disaster.”

          I received a lot of positive response to my criticism of The Hill’s article proclaiming a disaster of biblical proportions for Democrats in 2022. But one reader sent a note that extended my criticism to its logical target: the panic-inducing Democratic fundraising emails. The reader wrote,

But it might be time to call out all the sensationalist emails that Democratic politicians send me, five times a day. How can I support people who lie regularly about polling, existential threats to democracy and whatever else they think we will click on. I have sent all of them to spam, and contribute to broader causes.

          The reader makes a good point. Democratic fundraising emails are objectively awful. And, though it hurts me to say this, emails from Speaker Pelosi are among the worst offenders. I just received an email from Speaker Pelosi with the subject line “MASSIVE loss.” The email was filled with bolded, underlined text in fire-engine red that explained that the MASSIVE loss was that Republicans had outraised Democrats “massively” in the last quarter. But Speaker Pelosi went on to explain that we could “SAVE our majority from a Republican takeover” if she could convince only “eight more Founding Members” to sign up by midnight.”

          I am a big fan of Speaker Pelosi, who will be remembered as one of the greatest Speakers in our nation’s history. But she needs to fire her fundraising firm if that email is the best they can do. Emails like that hurt the Speaker and cause exhaustion, cynicism, and panic. Let’s stop the madness—PLEASE!

Podcast interview with Airlift Fund.

          My interview with Ruth Jaeger of Airlift Fund is here: Airlift Fund | Today’s Edition Podcast. Airlift focuses on supporting local grassroots organizations involved in voter registration and turnout. Giving to local organizations can be an effective way to allocate your resources in swing states—but researching worthy organizations is difficult to do. That’s where Airlift comes in, vetting local organizations in advance and checking on results after-the-fact. Check out the interesting interview. Note: Ruth also asks for volunteers with financial, marketing, and web design experience.

Concluding Thoughts.

          Two readers responded to my rant about The Hill’s article with helpful references to resources that empower consumers of news. One reader directed me to The Future of Media Project run out of Harvard University. The Project maintains several helpful indices relating to media ownership and political donations. See, e.g., Index of U.S. Mainstream Media Ownership. Check out the corporate / individual ownership and political donations of your most trusted news sources. You might be surprised by some of the information. Forewarned is forearmed!

          Another reader directed me to the News Literacy Project. I highly recommend that you spend some time exploring the Project’s website, which is brimming with thoughtful and effective ways to educate yourself and others about being intelligent consumers of news in the internet age. Here is the mission statement of the News Literacy Project:

[The Project is] a nonpartisan national education nonprofit, provides programs and resources for educators and the public to teach, learn and share the abilities needed to be smart, active consumers of news and information and equal and engaged participants in a democracy.

          Which America would I choose? I would choose an America in which voters were “smart, active consumers of news and equal, engaged participants in democracy.” Can you imagine the difference if we made even modest progress towards that ideal? The first step is to transform ourselves into those “smart, active consumers” of news. It takes effort, but winning the information war is critical to defending democracy.

          Talk to you tomorrow!