The best explanation for the hidebound, milquetoast response of senior Democrats to creeping fascism – in fact, it’s starting to look like sprinting fascism – is they’re rich and profit from the way things are currently run, so it’s an I’m Alright Jack situation all the way down.
But it’s also the fact they are addicted to fairness and playing by the rules, so much so they are willing to sacrifice justice and their own voters. the Peanuts cartoon remains illustrative: the rules of the game are one person holds the football while the other person kicks it. You take turns. This seems like a fair rule and you want to play by the rules. But every time it is your turn to kick, the person holding the football pulls it away. What to do? First you protest and try to reason with them. But they continue to pull the football away. Do you continue to try to kick the football, or after about the third time, do you get up, walk back, and wallop the person who has repeatedly pulled the ball away, then take the football yourself?
A simple, straightforward solution to a simple, straightforward problem, one every child out in the schoolyard understands: you play by the rules. If you consistently break the rules, you get a beatdown. Simple. Yet it seems beyond the grasp of the Democrats who hold the highest offices in the country.
Of course, the New York Times would not report it as “Dems, often thwarted by GOP practices, reclaim football” but would report it as “Horrors, the Dems have forcibly taken the football! Let’s interview the people who kept pulling the ball away to see how they feel.” But by this point that kind of coverage is baked in, and good messaging by Dems could combat it. Hell, the media might even start to respect them, who knows?
Excellent stuff, Roy. I’m grateful for your analysis and clarity on things like this, because sometimes when I read comments at blogs I like and trust, from people who seem to be intelligent, informed, and staunchly Democrat, some of the comments make me feel like I’m losing my mind. There’s always a handful of them (sometimes more, sometimes less, depending where you go) whose main concern is cheering for the clueless Dem leadership and viciously attacking anyone who suggests maybe, just maybe they should adapt to the situation at hand, not pine for the days when Tip’n’Ronnie had drinks together.
It’s insane. But when your policies for the last 40 years haven’t really worked and your world is crumbling, it’s safest to pull out the lovingly well-worn list of grievances dating back to 1972 and start punching hippies, The Squad, “The Kids Today,” etc. Surely that will get those reasonable suburban republicans to reclaim their party, so everyone in DC can all go out for drinks together as they once did!
I think I'll leave at believing that the answer to what to do about the GOP shit pulling, so to speak, is essentially by submission to them and believing they're redeemable notwithstanding a couple of decades of proof to the contrary, well, as the Rude pUndit would put it, fuck that shit. It's a well documented failure so sure, let's double down on the complicity with and enabling of the GOP that brought us to this point with worse to come -- only how much worse is debatable.
As for poor Chait: Well, as a rule I equate being a pundit with being a bullshit artiste which is to say dishonest, a liar, in the name of getting that fame and fortune. The exceptions as far as I'm concerned are few and Chait isn't one of them.
Points to Roy for referencing the DLC; they're right up there behind the GOP for fucking over the nation. (Reminder: Before he was a beloved POTUS, Slick Willy Clinton led the DLC.)
I don't know if they even have it in them, but people opposed to the GOP have to get a lot meaner and a lot more cynical about this stuff if they want to be effective.
So why are Democrats? A good stand-alone question. I'll be one to my dying day, but I totally despair of the changes which need to happen in this benighted country arising in its current form.
I'm basically ignoring the hearings. They'll convince no one, change no minds, have no effect, make nothing better. It's a fundraising stunt at this point, from what I can tell.
That said, of course Chait think republicans will listen to democrats. He always paid a great deal of attention to advice from the GOP.
Jul 13, 2022·edited Jul 14, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso
I'm agog at the blinkardness and unwillingness to change of the Democratic Party (putatively progressive innit) — but if you think about it: this kind of nostalgia for the bipartisan fuzzy feelings and obsessing about decorum and partnership in the Democratic establishment is just as white supremacist & regressive in its own way. They long for a status quo that favors white monied comfort & they are confused when the other side, just as white & monied, will not reach back to them. This status quo was made possible by maintaining structures that cause inequality & injustice — and have the added bonus of casting the Dems as the heroes who swoop in with a means-tested bandaid to cover over all the injuries our systems creates.
Democrats - Democratic politicians - are afraid that if they emulate the fierceness of Republicans in trying to counter Republicans, they will precipitate the collapse of the house of cards governmental system we have under the Constitution. They reveal this in their talk about bipartisanship (which isn’t in the Constitution), their reluctance to denounce the Senate and the Electoral College (which are), their search for ways to talk about the Fascist Party which calling it what it is. I cringe when I hear them and the media refer to Trump and his supporters in and out of government as “crazy” or “deluded.” No, he and they are lyars and criminals. Their voters are criminals by proxy. Why of all the January 6th Committee members is it only Liz Cheney who explicitly calls Trump criminal? Maybe she knows her bridges are burned and there is no Republican Party to return to, so she can speak the truth. Meanwhile, does Merrick Garland care at all that he may become history’s scapegoat, the man who destroyed the rule of law (such as it is)? Hell, he doesn’t have to wait for the Committee, Mueller laid out the evidence for indicting an exPresident for the crimes he committed during the 2016 election. The fear that action will cause America to implode is guaranteeing that the fascists will succeed in blowing it up.
When I was attending a small Catholic high school, its library included a complete set of Allen Drury novels, set in the Advise and Consent metaverse. I read them all, and my memory is they got progressively more violent and whacko as they went on, ending with a Ted Kennedy stand-in winning the presidency, being led by the Russians into a war room and shown an overwhelming force ready to attack, and Teddy collapsing into a weeping puddle on the floor and immediately agreeing to an unconditional surrender. The novel ended with the Red Army marching down Pennsylvania Avenue while the heros raise a glass of scotch to the new Resistance. I guess that's where a love of principled bipartisanship leads you.
Though I would like to see from those decrying the feckless Democrats some examples of what Democratic politicians are supposed to be doing that isn't happening now. Bear in mind that about a third of eligible voters think politics is a tv reality show that has no effect on their lives. Will Democrats yelling harder change that?
If we're talking about old movies that have warped the brains of old liberals as much as West Wing warped the brains of younger libs, I'd like to suggest 12 Angry Men. The racists bully and shout, but Henry Fonda meets it all with calm reasonableness and a commitment to the facts and evidence, and prevails in the end. Just how it works in real life.
I look to George Lakoff's 'Don't Think Of An Elephant' and a quote (allegedly) by Vladimir Mayakovsky: 'The left must learn to use the tools of the right'... but those you cite won't shift their expressed position because, as said elsewhere, the milquetoast line reflects their economic comfort and the security baked into their niche (sic) readership where 'fairness' is the message we are all supposed to regurgitate as we sink into the mire.
Alternatively--hear me out--the idea of providing Republicans with an offramp could serve a useful purpose, in spite of the old Advise and Consent rhetoric (but sustained by it), a little more Yes, Minister: pushing the breakup of the GOP into Trumpy and non-Trumpy factions that can't work together.
The non-Trumpies have been a joke for the last 5-6 years, because there are obviously so few of them, and they're almost all keyboard commandos like Kristol and French. This is because a big plurality of Republican office holders have been allowed to stay ambiguous on the Trump subject. The proper goal of Druryism should be to force them to choose between civilization and savagery and break them up.
The only way to deal with the GOP is to utterly destroy it, and everyone in it, and salt the earth where it stood. Alas, we don't have a Democratic Party up to the task. R.I.P. America.
The best explanation for the hidebound, milquetoast response of senior Democrats to creeping fascism – in fact, it’s starting to look like sprinting fascism – is they’re rich and profit from the way things are currently run, so it’s an I’m Alright Jack situation all the way down.
But it’s also the fact they are addicted to fairness and playing by the rules, so much so they are willing to sacrifice justice and their own voters. the Peanuts cartoon remains illustrative: the rules of the game are one person holds the football while the other person kicks it. You take turns. This seems like a fair rule and you want to play by the rules. But every time it is your turn to kick, the person holding the football pulls it away. What to do? First you protest and try to reason with them. But they continue to pull the football away. Do you continue to try to kick the football, or after about the third time, do you get up, walk back, and wallop the person who has repeatedly pulled the ball away, then take the football yourself?
A simple, straightforward solution to a simple, straightforward problem, one every child out in the schoolyard understands: you play by the rules. If you consistently break the rules, you get a beatdown. Simple. Yet it seems beyond the grasp of the Democrats who hold the highest offices in the country.
Of course, the New York Times would not report it as “Dems, often thwarted by GOP practices, reclaim football” but would report it as “Horrors, the Dems have forcibly taken the football! Let’s interview the people who kept pulling the ball away to see how they feel.” But by this point that kind of coverage is baked in, and good messaging by Dems could combat it. Hell, the media might even start to respect them, who knows?
Excellent stuff, Roy. I’m grateful for your analysis and clarity on things like this, because sometimes when I read comments at blogs I like and trust, from people who seem to be intelligent, informed, and staunchly Democrat, some of the comments make me feel like I’m losing my mind. There’s always a handful of them (sometimes more, sometimes less, depending where you go) whose main concern is cheering for the clueless Dem leadership and viciously attacking anyone who suggests maybe, just maybe they should adapt to the situation at hand, not pine for the days when Tip’n’Ronnie had drinks together.
It’s insane. But when your policies for the last 40 years haven’t really worked and your world is crumbling, it’s safest to pull out the lovingly well-worn list of grievances dating back to 1972 and start punching hippies, The Squad, “The Kids Today,” etc. Surely that will get those reasonable suburban republicans to reclaim their party, so everyone in DC can all go out for drinks together as they once did!
I think I'll leave at believing that the answer to what to do about the GOP shit pulling, so to speak, is essentially by submission to them and believing they're redeemable notwithstanding a couple of decades of proof to the contrary, well, as the Rude pUndit would put it, fuck that shit. It's a well documented failure so sure, let's double down on the complicity with and enabling of the GOP that brought us to this point with worse to come -- only how much worse is debatable.
As for poor Chait: Well, as a rule I equate being a pundit with being a bullshit artiste which is to say dishonest, a liar, in the name of getting that fame and fortune. The exceptions as far as I'm concerned are few and Chait isn't one of them.
Points to Roy for referencing the DLC; they're right up there behind the GOP for fucking over the nation. (Reminder: Before he was a beloved POTUS, Slick Willy Clinton led the DLC.)
I don't know if they even have it in them, but people opposed to the GOP have to get a lot meaner and a lot more cynical about this stuff if they want to be effective.
So why are Democrats? A good stand-alone question. I'll be one to my dying day, but I totally despair of the changes which need to happen in this benighted country arising in its current form.
Bravo, Roy.
I'm basically ignoring the hearings. They'll convince no one, change no minds, have no effect, make nothing better. It's a fundraising stunt at this point, from what I can tell.
That said, of course Chait think republicans will listen to democrats. He always paid a great deal of attention to advice from the GOP.
Mark Lungo, this is for you:
You (like I) are sick of my rants and want to know what I actually prescribe.
Pretty much this: https://jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/we-are-not-alone-we-are-not-powerless?r=hdnf&utm_medium=ios
I'm agog at the blinkardness and unwillingness to change of the Democratic Party (putatively progressive innit) — but if you think about it: this kind of nostalgia for the bipartisan fuzzy feelings and obsessing about decorum and partnership in the Democratic establishment is just as white supremacist & regressive in its own way. They long for a status quo that favors white monied comfort & they are confused when the other side, just as white & monied, will not reach back to them. This status quo was made possible by maintaining structures that cause inequality & injustice — and have the added bonus of casting the Dems as the heroes who swoop in with a means-tested bandaid to cover over all the injuries our systems creates.
Little did anyone know know just how much the Senate would be willing to tolerate.
Democrats - Democratic politicians - are afraid that if they emulate the fierceness of Republicans in trying to counter Republicans, they will precipitate the collapse of the house of cards governmental system we have under the Constitution. They reveal this in their talk about bipartisanship (which isn’t in the Constitution), their reluctance to denounce the Senate and the Electoral College (which are), their search for ways to talk about the Fascist Party which calling it what it is. I cringe when I hear them and the media refer to Trump and his supporters in and out of government as “crazy” or “deluded.” No, he and they are lyars and criminals. Their voters are criminals by proxy. Why of all the January 6th Committee members is it only Liz Cheney who explicitly calls Trump criminal? Maybe she knows her bridges are burned and there is no Republican Party to return to, so she can speak the truth. Meanwhile, does Merrick Garland care at all that he may become history’s scapegoat, the man who destroyed the rule of law (such as it is)? Hell, he doesn’t have to wait for the Committee, Mueller laid out the evidence for indicting an exPresident for the crimes he committed during the 2016 election. The fear that action will cause America to implode is guaranteeing that the fascists will succeed in blowing it up.
When I was attending a small Catholic high school, its library included a complete set of Allen Drury novels, set in the Advise and Consent metaverse. I read them all, and my memory is they got progressively more violent and whacko as they went on, ending with a Ted Kennedy stand-in winning the presidency, being led by the Russians into a war room and shown an overwhelming force ready to attack, and Teddy collapsing into a weeping puddle on the floor and immediately agreeing to an unconditional surrender. The novel ended with the Red Army marching down Pennsylvania Avenue while the heros raise a glass of scotch to the new Resistance. I guess that's where a love of principled bipartisanship leads you.
Though I would like to see from those decrying the feckless Democrats some examples of what Democratic politicians are supposed to be doing that isn't happening now. Bear in mind that about a third of eligible voters think politics is a tv reality show that has no effect on their lives. Will Democrats yelling harder change that?
If we're talking about old movies that have warped the brains of old liberals as much as West Wing warped the brains of younger libs, I'd like to suggest 12 Angry Men. The racists bully and shout, but Henry Fonda meets it all with calm reasonableness and a commitment to the facts and evidence, and prevails in the end. Just how it works in real life.
I look to George Lakoff's 'Don't Think Of An Elephant' and a quote (allegedly) by Vladimir Mayakovsky: 'The left must learn to use the tools of the right'... but those you cite won't shift their expressed position because, as said elsewhere, the milquetoast line reflects their economic comfort and the security baked into their niche (sic) readership where 'fairness' is the message we are all supposed to regurgitate as we sink into the mire.
Alternatively--hear me out--the idea of providing Republicans with an offramp could serve a useful purpose, in spite of the old Advise and Consent rhetoric (but sustained by it), a little more Yes, Minister: pushing the breakup of the GOP into Trumpy and non-Trumpy factions that can't work together.
The non-Trumpies have been a joke for the last 5-6 years, because there are obviously so few of them, and they're almost all keyboard commandos like Kristol and French. This is because a big plurality of Republican office holders have been allowed to stay ambiguous on the Trump subject. The proper goal of Druryism should be to force them to choose between civilization and savagery and break them up.
The only way to deal with the GOP is to utterly destroy it, and everyone in it, and salt the earth where it stood. Alas, we don't have a Democratic Party up to the task. R.I.P. America.