csmonitor--2020-11-30--In a tough season, how Philadelphia Eagles fans are keeping the faith

They ’ re looking to the future , too .
Next season , Tom Brady ’ s coming to town with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers , and there ’ s a big on-the-road matchup with the Las Vegas Raiders .
“ Everyone ’ s going to Vegas , ” predicts Michael Diaz of The Green Legion , which organizes events and travel for Philadelphia sports fans .
Here in Philadelphia , the pandemic has segmented the community once flocking to the game and packing bars , Jersey Shore decks , city apartment gatherings , and family parties .
But people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in 2020 , of course .
For Ms. Kurtz , game day is now all about family .
They brought the TV outside and raised a tent for the season opener .
Ms. Kurtz ’ s mom , who spent much of the spring isolated in assisted living , told the family when they were watching the game one recent Sunday , “ I love this.
” Before this year , Deb Kurtz went to Eagles games with her 24-year-old son , typically arriving in Philadelphia by 9 a.m. to make the tailgate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , they traveled to two or three away games a year .
This is no year to be an Eagles fan , and not only because they ’ re having such a bad season .
As elsewhere in sports , the coronavirus can dominate the game .
Lincoln Financial Field is eerily quiet , its only attendees cardboard , its fan noise engineered .
Gone is the team ’ s anthem , “ Fly , Eagles Fly ” – a rousing , 70,000-voice love song taught to babies ( in good years at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it brings a proud tear to the eye of everyone who was within a snowball ’ s distance of these parts in 2018 .
That was when a second-string QB with a silly trick play swiped the Super Bowl from the mighty New England Patriots .
That was when fans lined the sidewalks 10 deep for a victory parade and committed to memory the expletive-laden speech from the team ’ s center Jason Kelce , who dressed in homage to another Philadelphia love : the Mummers Parade .
Maybe you had to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the antithesis of the football experience , maybe the team ’ s off year is an acceptable time for it .
During the few brief weeks some fans were allowed in the stadium , many took a pass .
“ If you ’ re not high-fiving , if you ’ re not tailgating , if you ’ re not dancing around , I ’ m really not that interested in it , ” explains Michael Diaz , devoted season ticket holder and spokesman for The Green Legion , which organizes events and travel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s a lot of “ everyone ” in sports here , as in , “ What ’ s everyone doing for the game ?
” But COVID-19 has assailed the hearth around which much of the city gathers on Sundays .
( And today , when the Eagles play the Seattle Seahawks in the “ Monday Night Football ” slot . )
The pandemic has broken things down , segmenting the vast and interconnected community once flocking to the game and packing bars , Jersey Shore decks , city apartment gatherings , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Fly ” has become a potential superspreader .
But people are adapting to COVID-19 days .
Deb Kurtz of Pennsylvania ’ s Lancaster County cut her teeth on football , a family passion .
She was the game day buddy of her late father , a season ticket holder .
The legendary Eagles flanker Tommy McDonald came to her wedding .
Now a widow , she ’ s gone to games with her 24-year-old son , Wyatt , typically arriving in Philly by 9 a.m. to make the tailgate rounds .
With roughly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ traveled to two or three away games a year .
There ’ s also been the occasional wedding of fellow fans , or a special , non-game-related group vacation .
These people are family , Ms. Kurtz explains .
“ I could count on these people .
They ’ d probably give you their last dollar if they had to.
” This year , Ms. Kurtz spends game day with her real family , whose COVID-19 circle is tight .
They brought the TV outside and raised a tent for the season opener @ @ @ @ @ @ @ person with her brother , to the chagrin of her sister-in-law .
Her father-in-law , being a Dallas Cowboys fan , is not welcome , or at least that ’ s what they ’ re telling people .
Her mom , who spent much of the spring isolated in assisted living , told the family when they were watching the game one recent Sunday , “ I love this.
” In the bleak days of March , Ms. Kurtz formed a Facebook page for her traveling group , and now they meet each @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this month , they were in no rush to talk Eagles , instead catching up with each other ’ s week .
When talk turned to the recent elections , Ms. Kurtz firmly pivoted to the Birds and the pace picked up , with the same surly commiserating normally done in person : The injuries .
The bad trades .
The coaching problems .
There was profanity , hyperbole , teasing , and trash talk – all the angst of The Fan interspersed with reliving sports highlights past .
What makes football such @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s the values : motivation , overcoming adversity , getting knocked down and getting back up .
The great Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi famously compared the game to life itself : It “ teaches that work , sacrifice , perseverance , competitive drive , selflessness and respect for authority is the price that each and every one of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.
” Plus , the game is easy to understand ( according to fans , at least ) .
And it ’ s easy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happens on a Sunday .
People can disagree vigorously , can argue about play-calling , the pass rush , or other points seemingly trivial without damage to a friendship .
And there ’ s the overt patriotism – the flyovers , the show of first responder pride , especially the national anthem .
Of course the anthem itself has been the center of a controversy so heated that it is widely seen as the cause of NFL ratings declines in recent years .
Whether or not taking a knee during the national anthem @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2016 to draw attention to racial inequities – is disrespectful to the nation , the flag , or veterans , the injecting of politics into the game alienates many who see sports as a unifier across racial lines .
Business has fallen 90 % this year for Joe Abruzzo , longtime owner of Bayou Bar & Grill in Philadelphia , which fans usually pack to the rafters on game day .
He believes football ’ s drift into politics contributed to the drop .
Whether the Bayou will survive the virus and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ here to relax and be entertained , ” he says , “ and it ’ s really hard for people to come in without bringing in what ’ s outside – ‘ this player said this and this one said that.
’ ” The fact of being fellow fans typically bridges identity differences , especially when it comes to playing heated rivals .
For the Eagles , that would be the all-American , multi-Super Bowl-winning , do-no-wrong Cowboys .
“ Our livelihoods and our values and the direction of the country don ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and a strong geographic/cultural identity and an us-vs.-them mentality actually spice up the whole enterprise , ” observed Mike Sielski in his Philadelphia Inquirer sports column recently .
When one city sports executive recently suggested a reimagining of the Philadelphia fan – retiring the lunch bucket , battery-throwing , jail-in-the-stadium stereotype for a “ New Philadelphia ” narrative focusing on the arts , culture , education , and diversity – he got an old-Philly-style boo .
“ The blinkered passion for the local teams , the fan base ’ s long institutional @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a big part of what makes Philadelphia sports so much fun , ” wrote Mr. Sielski .
For some actual , on-field fun , fans here look to the future .
Maybe the team will rebuild ?
Get healthy ?
Welcome back Travis Fulgham , the receiver who came out of nowhere to become this year ’ s silver lining ?
Next season , Tom Brady ’ s coming to town with the Buccaneers , and there ’ s a big on-the-road matchup with the Las Vegas Raiders .
“ Everyone ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mr. Diaz .
Everyone here knows that the thing with feathers is hope .

They’re looking to the future, too. Next season, Tom Brady’s coming to town with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and there’s a big on-the-road matchup with the Las Vegas Raiders. “Everyone’s going to Vegas,” predicts Michael Diaz of The Green Legion, which organizes events and travel for Philadelphia sports fans.
Here in Philadelphia, the pandemic has segmented the community once flocking to the game and packing bars, Jersey Shore decks, city apartment gatherings, and family parties. But people like Ms. Kurtz are adapting.
In this challenging year, what’s a sports fan to do when even their favorite team is down and out? Like many others, Philadelphia Eagles fans are persevering as they adapt their traditions to a social distanced world.
Not in 2020, of course. For Ms. Kurtz, game day is now all about family. They brought the TV outside and raised a tent for the season opener. Ms. Kurtz’s mom, who spent much of the spring isolated in assisted living, told the family when they were watching the game one recent Sunday, “I love this.”
Before this year, Deb Kurtz went to Eagles games with her 24-year-old son, typically arriving in Philadelphia by 9 a.m. to make the tailgate rounds. With roughly 30 other regulars, they traveled to two or three away games a year.
This is no year to be an Eagles fan, and not only because they’re having such a bad season.
As elsewhere in sports, the coronavirus can dominate the game. Lincoln Financial Field is eerily quiet, its only attendees cardboard, its fan noise engineered. Gone is the team’s anthem, “Fly, Eagles Fly” – a rousing, 70,000-voice love song taught to babies (in good years at least). In normal times, it brings a proud tear to the eye of everyone who was within a snowball’s distance of these parts in 2018. That was when a second-string QB with a silly trick play swiped the Super Bowl from the mighty New England Patriots. That was when fans lined the sidewalks 10 deep for a victory parade and committed to memory the expletive-laden speech from the team’s center Jason Kelce, who dressed in homage to another Philadelphia love: the Mummers Parade.
Maybe you had to be there.
Why We Wrote This In this challenging year, what’s a sports fan to do when even their favorite team is down and out? Like many others, Philadelphia Eagles fans are persevering as they adapt their traditions to a social distanced world.
But if social distance is the antithesis of the football experience, maybe the team’s off year is an acceptable time for it. During the few brief weeks some fans were allowed in the stadium, many took a pass. “If you’re not high-fiving, if you’re not tailgating, if you’re not dancing around, I’m really not that interested in it,” explains Michael Diaz, devoted season ticket holder and spokesman for The Green Legion, which organizes events and travel for Philadelphia sports fans.
There’s a lot of “everyone” in sports here, as in, “What’s everyone doing for the game?” But COVID-19 has assailed the hearth around which much of the city gathers on Sundays. (And today, when the Eagles play the Seattle Seahawks in the “Monday Night Football” slot.) The pandemic has broken things down, segmenting the vast and interconnected community once flocking to the game and packing bars, Jersey Shore decks, city apartment gatherings, and family parties. “Fly, Eagles Fly” has become a potential superspreader.
But people are adapting to COVID-19 days. Deb Kurtz of Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County cut her teeth on football, a family passion. She was the game day buddy of her late father, a season ticket holder. The legendary Eagles flanker Tommy McDonald came to her wedding. Now a widow, she’s gone to games with her 24-year-old son, Wyatt, typically arriving in Philly by 9 a.m. to make the tailgate rounds. With roughly 30 other regulars, they’ve traveled to two or three away games a year. There’s also been the occasional wedding of fellow fans, or a special, non-game-related group vacation. These people are family, Ms. Kurtz explains. “I could count on these people. They’d probably give you their last dollar if they had to.”
Sabina Louise Pierce/Special to The Christian Science Monitor View caption Hide caption During the pandemic, Deb Kurtz has hosted a Zoom gathering on Thursdays called “Thirsty Thursdays.” The participants are fellow Philadelphia Eagles fans who before 2020 traveled to two or three away games a year.
This year, Ms. Kurtz spends game day with her real family, whose COVID-19 circle is tight. They brought the TV outside and raised a tent for the season opener. Now she heatedly argues football in person with her brother, to the chagrin of her sister-in-law. Her father-in-law, being a Dallas Cowboys fan, is not welcome, or at least that’s what they’re telling people. Her mom, who spent much of the spring isolated in assisted living, told the family when they were watching the game one recent Sunday, “I love this.”
In the bleak days of March, Ms. Kurtz formed a Facebook page for her traveling group, and now they meet each week via Zoom. One Thursday evening this month, they were in no rush to talk Eagles, instead catching up with each other’s week. When talk turned to the recent elections, Ms. Kurtz firmly pivoted to the Birds and the pace picked up, with the same surly commiserating normally done in person: The injuries. The bad trades. The coaching problems. There was profanity, hyperbole, teasing, and trash talk – all the angst of The Fan interspersed with reliving sports highlights past.
What makes football such a magnet? Some say it’s the values: motivation, overcoming adversity, getting knocked down and getting back up. The great Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi famously compared the game to life itself: It “teaches that work, sacrifice, perseverance, competitive drive, selflessness and respect for authority is the price that each and every one of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.”
Plus, the game is easy to understand (according to fans, at least). And it’s easy to plan for, since it usually happens on a Sunday. People can disagree vigorously, can argue about play-calling, the pass rush, or other points seemingly trivial without damage to a friendship.
Sabina Louise Pierce/Special to The Christian Science Monitor View caption Hide caption Before this year, Deb Kurtz (right) attended Philadelphia Eagles games, but with the COVID-19 pandemic, her family has switched to socially distanced backyard tailgating and watching the game together at her home in Pennsylvania's Lancaster County.
And there’s the overt patriotism – the flyovers, the show of first responder pride, especially the national anthem. Of course the anthem itself has been the center of a controversy so heated that it is widely seen as the cause of NFL ratings declines in recent years. Whether or not taking a knee during the national anthem – a movement Colin Kaepernick began in 2016 to draw attention to racial inequities – is disrespectful to the nation, the flag, or veterans, the injecting of politics into the game alienates many who see sports as a unifier across racial lines.
Business has fallen 90% this year for Joe Abruzzo, longtime owner of Bayou Bar & Grill in Philadelphia, which fans usually pack to the rafters on game day. He believes football’s drift into politics contributed to the drop. Whether the Bayou will survive the virus and the politics is unclear. “People come here to relax and be entertained,” he says, “and it’s really hard for people to come in without bringing in what’s outside – ‘this player said this and this one said that.’”
The fact of being fellow fans typically bridges identity differences, especially when it comes to playing heated rivals. For the Eagles, that would be the all-American, multi-Super Bowl-winning, do-no-wrong Cowboys. “Our livelihoods and our values and the direction of the country don’t depend on the outcomes of ballgames, and a strong geographic/cultural identity and an us-vs.-them mentality actually spice up the whole enterprise,” observed Mike Sielski in his Philadelphia Inquirer sports column recently.
Get stories that
empower and uplift daily. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads.
When one city sports executive recently suggested a reimagining of the Philadelphia fan – retiring the lunch bucket, battery-throwing, jail-in-the-stadium stereotype for a “New Philadelphia” narrative focusing on the arts, culture, education, and diversity – he got an old-Philly-style boo. “The blinkered passion for the local teams, the fan base’s long institutional memory, the self-identification as underdogs – is a big part of what makes Philadelphia sports so much fun,” wrote Mr. Sielski.
For some actual, on-field fun, fans here look to the future. Maybe the team will rebuild? Get healthy? Welcome back Travis Fulgham, the receiver who came out of nowhere to become this year’s silver lining? Next season, Tom Brady’s coming to town with the Buccaneers, and there’s a big on-the-road matchup with the Las Vegas Raiders. “Everyone’s going to Vegas,” predicts Mr. Diaz. Everyone here knows that the thing with feathers is hope.


csmonitor--2020-12-01--Trump’s surprising multiracial appeal: Lessons for both parties

An underlying message for both parties : Don ’ t assume racial groups are political monoliths .
Still , it remains to be seen if these Republican inroads can be repeated and expanded once Mr. Trump is off the stage .
Mr. Walker , while not saying which candidate he voted for , says he understands the appeal Mr. Trump had .
“ You know what , he did send money when people really needed it and he did confront foreigners , who do come and take some of our jobs , ” says Mr. Walker .
“ I appreciate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the overall presidential race , and the vast majority of Black votes nationwide , went to Democrat Joe Biden .
Yet Mr. Trump improved his share of African American voters by an estimated 2 to 4 percentage points over 2016 .
There were 40 to 50 point swings toward Mr. Trump in other Democratic constituencies , including among Latinos in South Florida and the Rio Grande Valley in Texas and Native Americans in North Carolina .
This year , Japour Walker says , a number of his neighbors – mostly Black men like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The young Black chef saw his fellow Jacksonville residents help the president notch a convincing win in Florida .
As he slings a backpack stuffed with his kitchen knives over his shoulder , Japour Walker sets out from his modest Florida ranch in one of Jacksonville ’ s Black working-class neighborhoods .
Donning a “ Black Panther ” pullover on a chilly morning , the 30-something chef ’ s hike to work takes him through commercial alleys studded with grease-stained tire shops and food trucks selling crab patties , a local delicacy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a man on a bicycle hawking pork chops from a red duffel bag .
The bulk of Mr. Walker ’ s neighbors here along the Trout River on the city ’ s northern margin have traditionally voted Democratic .
Yet this year , while Mr. Walker declines to share his own ballot choice , he says a surprising number of his neighbors – mostly Black men like him – pulled the lever for the leader of the Republican Party .
They helped President Donald Trump notch a convincing win in Florida , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has trended red in recent cycles .
While the vast majority of Black voters helped Democrat Joe Biden win the White House , Mr. Trump improved his share by an estimated 2 to 4 percentage points over 2016 – capturing about 1 in 5 Black male voters in parts of Florida .
There were 40 to 50 point swings toward Mr. Trump in other Democratic constituencies , including among Latinos in South Florida and the Rio Grande Valley in Texas and Native Americans in North Carolina .
“ You know what , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it , and he did confront foreigners , who do come and take some of our jobs , ” says Mr. Walker .
“ I appreciate him for that.
” Despite his defeat at the polls , Mr. Trump ’ s gain of Black and Latino voters has raised fears among Democrats and hope among Republicans .
“ The joke is that the GOP is really assembling the multiracial working-class coalition that the left has always dreamed of , ” David Shor , a Democratic polling and data expert , told Politico .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ demographic ground , Republicans like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio see “ the future of the GOP ” in what he calls in all-caps these “ AMERICANS ” : the multiethnic and multiracial working class .
The underlying advice for both parties : Don ’ t assume racial groups are monoliths or that you can take for granted that someone is going to vote a particular way based on their racial identity .
The shift wasn ’ t enough to reelect the president , who lost the Electoral College by 306 votes to 232 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 6 million , but Mr. Trump ’ s appeal to these voters became part of a GOP incursion that saw the Democrats lose ground in House seats , while control of the Senate hinges on two January runoff races in Georgia .
What remains to be seen is whether the gains can be repeated and expanded once Mr. Trump is off the stage .
“ This is nobody ’ s father ’ s Republican Party – it ’ s Trump ’ s party , ” says J. Michael Bitzer , a political scientist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ North Carolina .
“ The base is always very willing to accept whatever he puts out , but it ’ s the establishment elites trying to figure out what they do now .
If it ’ s personality-driven , how do you replicate that ?
” Those gains , compared with 2016 , may also have been complicated by President Trump ’ s unwillingness to concede his loss to President-elect Biden .
As part of the effort to overturn the election , the Trump campaign and supporters of the president filed several dozen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters in majority Black cities like Detroit , Milwaukee , and Philadelphia without presenting evidence of widespread fraud in court .
All but one of the lawsuits have resulted in failure or withdrawal for the Trump campaign and GOP .
Meanwhile , a group of Detroit voters filed suit against the Trump campaign under the Voting Rights Act for trying to disenfranchise them .
“ We can clearly see in this election that Black voters faced the pandemic , demonstrations , and [ other obstacles ] to cast @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Wilson , an American studies professor at the University of Southern California , in an email .
“ The strident and desperate attempt by the Republican party to reject hundreds of thousands of legally cast ballots of Black Americans damages not just the GOP ’ s ability to garner sizable numbers of votes from Black citizens but will have a lasting and poisonous effect on our democracy.
” What the long-term effects of efforts to disenfranchise voters in majority Black cities might be is unknown .
Black and Latino Americans who voted for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but rather personality : his unwillingness to back off , a penchant for the hustle , and a pugilistic sensibility .
Mr. Trump ’ s “ policies spoke for themselves in the Black community , and most Black people want nothing to do with that , ” says Nathaniel Q. Smith , CEO of Partnership for Southern Equity , an Atlanta-based nonprofit that promotes racial equity and shared prosperity .
“ But a lot of [ Black Americans ] have drunk the Kool-Aid , not who [ Trump ] is , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ idea .
Wealth , opulence , machismo – he represents all of these things to a certain segment of the community .
It allows people to be more comfortable moving forward toward a more uncertain world.
” “ I don ’ t believe that Republicans ” can build a blue-collar populist party , “ but it ’ s up to the Democratic party to not take what has happened in the past for granted , ” says Mr. Smith , in Atlanta .
“ Just like we need to understand where white folks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Biden needs to understand why these percentages of Latino and Black men voted for Trump .
That ’ s the most important question to answer.
” In a postelection caucus call , moderate Virginia Rep. Abigail Spanberger , who flipped a Republican seat in 2018 and won reelection , urged Democrats to refrain from using phrases like “ defund the police ” and socialism – not only because they can be exploited for political gain , but because they clash head-on with working-class values .
“ I want a job , not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voter in Savannah , Georgia , told the Monitor recently .
In “ Trump ’ s Democrats , ” a just-published book , researchers Stephanie Muravchik and Jon Shields found both unsettled economies and a fighting spirit .
Troubling for Democrats is what Ms. Muravchik sees as an “ eclipse ” of local politics .
She recalls a lifelong Democrat who gravitated toward the Republican Party after realizing , with a sense of shock , that her anti-abortion stance clashed with the Democratic Party platform .
What ’ s more , “ in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a pervasive honor culture , where [ especially ] men have to defend their reputation for toughness in the face of any kind of threat , and that is something that informs their intimate lives , ” says Ms. Muravchik .
“ The director of one rec center said that one game that is sometimes a problem that boys play is a slapping game , where they take turns slapping each other until somebody breaks down .
So we said , ‘ Are these troubled kids ?
’ ‘ No , they ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ That also plays out at the political level , where the mayor embodied an ethos of ‘ If someone takes a shot and you don ’ t punch back , it shows your weakness and they roll over you.
’ ” Even though she often had different political beliefs than her subjects , “ I came away filled with a lot of admiration for these people that are pushing a boulder up a hill to figure out how to help ... other people who share the community with them and this commitment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Muravchik , a visiting assistant professor of government at Claremont McKenna College in California .
While the pair studied mainly the white working class in places like Johnston , Rhode Island , their findings appear to inform what happened on Nov. 3 to other lower-income Americans angling for an American dream , says Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar , who represents areas along the U.S. border with Mexico .
What resonated in the Southwest “ Much of the Rio Grande Valley has demographics similar to some of Trump ’ s strongholds in white rural @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ It ’ s homogenous , but not white , mainly Hispanic , rural , religious , patriotic , socially conservative , and hurting economically.
” This year Representative Cuellar saw a strong primary challenge from a progressive opponent .
He persevered and eked out a narrow victory on Nov. 3 .
Hardly a monolith , Latino voters broke in different ways – with Latinos in Arizona and the Upper Midwest helping propel Mr. Biden to victory in battleground states .
Among Venezuelans and Cubans who broke for Mr. Trump in South Florida @ @ @ @ @ @ @ applied or not , rose through the clutter of political ads .
Some who gained citizenship legally resent those who come here without documentation and support Mr. Trump ’ s hard-line immigration policies .
And the summer ’ s slogan “ defund the police ” did not play well along the border , where state , local , and national law enforcement are major employers .
On a victory tour through Texas ’ 28th Congressional District last week , voter after voter cornered Representative Cuellar to ask about the law enforcement grants now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He assured them that those grants are still coming .
Mr. Trump ’ s willingness to fight for the working class “ hit home – that ’ s real stuff , ” says Congressman Cuellar .
“ I also heard in Spanish , ‘ He sent me a little check , he got me food.
’ ... And he was able to touch deep-rooted fears or memories of socialism.
” The same trends played out in Native American strongholds .
The Navajo Nation helped flip Arizona for Mr. Biden – the first time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the 1960s .
But its vice president , Myron Lizer , recently said that values like hard work , family , and ranching seems to now align more with Republicans than Democrats .
The fiercely independent Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina had been Democratic stalwarts , but 70 % of them voted for Mr. Trump on Nov. 3 .
“ I definitely know that Trump made some inroads with those groups this time , but it always surprised me that Democrats did so well with them in the first place , ” says @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scientist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville .
“ It reminds me of something Lee Atwater would always say : How come Democrats are basically trying to tell poorer and working-class constituencies , ‘ If you vote Republican , you vote against your own interests ’ ?
Atwater would say that those values of the flag , those cultural values , are important , too .
If the Democrats move too far left , they may lose on a lot of these cultural issues.
” If patriotism and honor culture are animating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mathematician Robb Sinn at the University of North Georgia in Dahlonega crunched Bureau of Labor Statistics figures for clues .
The weekly wage for Americans in the 10th percentile of earners , of which minorities make up a greater share , grew by $ 4.24 per quarter in the first three years of the Trump presidency , compared with an average of 88 cents of gains per quarter across Barack Obama ’ s eight years .
Although higher-income groups saw weekly wages grow by larger dollar amounts , the gains in the 10th @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other group .
The Trump economy also attracted 400,000 new Black wage-earners per year during his presidency ; Mr. Obama averaged 250,000 , Mr. Sinn found .
No matter their race , blue-collar workers “ don ’ t need advanced statistical analysis , ” says Mr. Sinn .
“ They ’ re , like , ‘ Hey , I was getting raises , I was doing better , I could take my kids to Disney.
’ If their finances are better , they remember that .
This shows what actually happened with real @ @ @ @ @ @ @ actually going on at those kitchen tables.
” But can Republicans capitalize on Mr. Trump ’ s achievements among working-class minorities ?
Without a Trumpian figure , such efforts will struggle , argues Mr. Sinn .
Nevertheless , he adds , “ I ’ m old enough to remember when the Republican Party was out of touch with the working class .
Now it seems like the roles have reversed .
”

An underlying message for both parties: Don’t assume racial groups are political monoliths. Still, it remains to be seen if these Republican inroads can be repeated and expanded once Mr. Trump is off the stage.
Mr. Walker, while not saying which candidate he voted for, says he understands the appeal Mr. Trump had. “You know what, he did send money when people really needed it and he did confront foreigners, who do come and take some of our jobs,” says Mr. Walker. “I appreciate him for that.”
President Trump lost the election but surprised many by making new Republican inroads with Black and Latino voters. Whether or not the gain can be maintained, it's a reminder that no demographic constituency is monolithic.
Of course, the overall presidential race, and the vast majority of Black votes nationwide, went to Democrat Joe Biden. Yet Mr. Trump improved his share of African American voters by an estimated 2 to 4 percentage points over 2016. There were 40 to 50 point swings toward Mr. Trump in other Democratic constituencies, including among Latinos in South Florida and the Rio Grande Valley in Texas and Native Americans in North Carolina.
This year, Japour Walker says, a number of his neighbors – mostly Black men like him – voted for President Donald Trump. The young Black chef saw his fellow Jacksonville residents help the president notch a convincing win in Florida.
As he slings a backpack stuffed with his kitchen knives over his shoulder, Japour Walker sets out from his modest Florida ranch in one of Jacksonville’s Black working-class neighborhoods.
Donning a “Black Panther” pullover on a chilly morning, the 30-something chef’s hike to work takes him through commercial alleys studded with grease-stained tire shops and food trucks selling crab patties, a local delicacy. On the corner there’s a man on a bicycle hawking pork chops from a red duffel bag.
The bulk of Mr. Walker’s neighbors here along the Trout River on the city’s northern margin have traditionally voted Democratic.
Why We Wrote This President Trump lost the election but surprised many by making new Republican inroads with Black and Latino voters. Whether or not the gain can be maintained, it's a reminder that no demographic constituency is monolithic.
Yet this year, while Mr. Walker declines to share his own ballot choice, he says a surprising number of his neighbors – mostly Black men like him – pulled the lever for the leader of the Republican Party. They helped President Donald Trump notch a convincing win in Florida, a swing state that, like Ohio, has trended red in recent cycles. While the vast majority of Black voters helped Democrat Joe Biden win the White House, Mr. Trump improved his share by an estimated 2 to 4 percentage points over 2016 – capturing about 1 in 5 Black male voters in parts of Florida. There were 40 to 50 point swings toward Mr. Trump in other Democratic constituencies, including among Latinos in South Florida and the Rio Grande Valley in Texas and Native Americans in North Carolina.
“You know what, he did send money when people really needed it, and he did confront foreigners, who do come and take some of our jobs,” says Mr. Walker. “I appreciate him for that.”
Despite his defeat at the polls, Mr. Trump’s gain of Black and Latino voters has raised fears among Democrats and hope among Republicans. “The joke is that the GOP is really assembling the multiracial working-class coalition that the left has always dreamed of,” David Shor, a Democratic polling and data expert, told Politico. Given a rural white base slowly losing demographic ground, Republicans like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio see “the future of the GOP” in what he calls in all-caps these “AMERICANS”: the multiethnic and multiracial working class. The underlying advice for both parties: Don’t assume racial groups are monoliths or that you can take for granted that someone is going to vote a particular way based on their racial identity.
The shift wasn’t enough to reelect the president, who lost the Electoral College by 306 votes to 232 and the popular vote by more than 6 million, but Mr. Trump’s appeal to these voters became part of a GOP incursion that saw the Democrats lose ground in House seats, while control of the Senate hinges on two January runoff races in Georgia.
Patrik Jonsson/The Christian Science Monitor View caption Hide caption Japour Walker stops to chat on his walk to work in Jacksonville, Florida, on Nov. 18, 2020. Many Black working-class Americans like him, particularly men, joined Latinos and Native Americans in boosting President Trump's election numbers compared with 2016, impeding some hoped-for Democratic gains.
What remains to be seen is whether the gains can be repeated and expanded once Mr. Trump is off the stage.
“This is nobody’s father’s Republican Party – it’s Trump’s party,” says J. Michael Bitzer, a political scientist at Catawba College, in Salisbury, North Carolina. “The base is always very willing to accept whatever he puts out, but it’s the establishment elites trying to figure out what they do now. If it’s personality-driven, how do you replicate that?”
Those gains, compared with 2016, may also have been complicated by President Trump’s unwillingness to concede his loss to President-elect Biden. As part of the effort to overturn the election, the Trump campaign and supporters of the president filed several dozen lawsuits in battleground states that sought to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters in majority Black cities like Detroit, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia without presenting evidence of widespread fraud in court. All but one of the lawsuits have resulted in failure or withdrawal for the Trump campaign and GOP. Meanwhile, a group of Detroit voters filed suit against the Trump campaign under the Voting Rights Act for trying to disenfranchise them.
“We can clearly see in this election that Black voters faced the pandemic, demonstrations, and [other obstacles] to cast their votes,” says Francille Rusan Wilson, an American studies professor at the University of Southern California, in an email. “The strident and desperate attempt by the Republican party to reject hundreds of thousands of legally cast ballots of Black Americans damages not just the GOP’s ability to garner sizable numbers of votes from Black citizens but will have a lasting and poisonous effect on our democracy.”
The appeal of toughness
What the long-term effects of efforts to disenfranchise voters in majority Black cities might be is unknown. Black and Latino Americans who voted for Mr. Trump cite, not Republican policy, but rather personality: his unwillingness to back off, a penchant for the hustle, and a pugilistic sensibility.
Mr. Trump’s “policies spoke for themselves in the Black community, and most Black people want nothing to do with that,” says Nathaniel Q. Smith, CEO of Partnership for Southern Equity, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that promotes racial equity and shared prosperity. “But a lot of [Black Americans] have drunk the Kool-Aid, not who [Trump] is, but what he represents, which is an idea. Wealth, opulence, machismo – he represents all of these things to a certain segment of the community. It allows people to be more comfortable moving forward toward a more uncertain world.”
“I don’t believe that Republicans” can build a blue-collar populist party, “but it’s up to the Democratic party to not take what has happened in the past for granted,” says Mr. Smith, in Atlanta. “Just like we need to understand where white folks are coming from who voted for Trump, Biden needs to understand why these percentages of Latino and Black men voted for Trump. That’s the most important question to answer.”
In a postelection caucus call, moderate Virginia Rep. Abigail Spanberger, who flipped a Republican seat in 2018 and won reelection, urged Democrats to refrain from using phrases like “defund the police” and socialism – not only because they can be exploited for political gain, but because they clash head-on with working-class values.
“I want a job, not a stimulus check,” one Black voter in Savannah, Georgia, told the Monitor recently.
In “Trump’s Democrats,” a just-published book, researchers Stephanie Muravchik and Jon Shields found both unsettled economies and a fighting spirit.
Troubling for Democrats is what Ms. Muravchik sees as an “eclipse” of local politics. She recalls a lifelong Democrat who gravitated toward the Republican Party after realizing, with a sense of shock, that her anti-abortion stance clashed with the Democratic Party platform.
What’s more, “in these parts of the country there is a pervasive honor culture, where [especially] men have to defend their reputation for toughness in the face of any kind of threat, and that is something that informs their intimate lives,” says Ms. Muravchik. “The director of one rec center said that one game that is sometimes a problem that boys play is a slapping game, where they take turns slapping each other until somebody breaks down. So we said, ‘Are these troubled kids?’ ‘No, they’re just ordinary kids around the city.’ That also plays out at the political level, where the mayor embodied an ethos of ‘If someone takes a shot and you don’t punch back, it shows your weakness and they roll over you.’”
Even though she often had different political beliefs than her subjects, “I came away filled with a lot of admiration for these people that are pushing a boulder up a hill to figure out how to help ... other people who share the community with them and this commitment to each other,” says Ms. Muravchik, a visiting assistant professor of government at Claremont McKenna College in California.
While the pair studied mainly the white working class in places like Johnston, Rhode Island, their findings appear to inform what happened on Nov. 3 to other lower-income Americans angling for an American dream, says Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar, who represents areas along the U.S. border with Mexico.
What resonated in the Southwest
“Much of the Rio Grande Valley has demographics similar to some of Trump’s strongholds in white rural communities,” says Representative Cuellar. “It’s homogenous, but not white, mainly Hispanic, rural, religious, patriotic, socially conservative, and hurting economically.”
This year Representative Cuellar saw a strong primary challenge from a progressive opponent. He persevered and eked out a narrow victory on Nov. 3.
Hardly a monolith, Latino voters broke in different ways – with Latinos in Arizona and the Upper Midwest helping propel Mr. Biden to victory in battleground states. Among Venezuelans and Cubans who broke for Mr. Trump in South Florida, memories of socialism, whether fairly applied or not, rose through the clutter of political ads. Some who gained citizenship legally resent those who come here without documentation and support Mr. Trump’s hard-line immigration policies. And the summer’s slogan “defund the police” did not play well along the border, where state, local, and national law enforcement are major employers.
On a victory tour through Texas’ 28th Congressional District last week, voter after voter cornered Representative Cuellar to ask about the law enforcement grants now that Mr. Biden will be president. He assured them that those grants are still coming.
Mr. Trump’s willingness to fight for the working class “hit home – that’s real stuff,” says Congressman Cuellar. “I also heard in Spanish, ‘He sent me a little check, he got me food.’ ... And he was able to touch deep-rooted fears or memories of socialism.”
The same trends played out in Native American strongholds. The Navajo Nation helped flip Arizona for Mr. Biden – the first time the state voted for a Democrat since the 1960s. But its vice president, Myron Lizer, recently said that values like hard work, family, and ranching seems to now align more with Republicans than Democrats. The fiercely independent Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina had been Democratic stalwarts, but 70% of them voted for Mr. Trump on Nov. 3.
“I definitely know that Trump made some inroads with those groups this time, but it always surprised me that Democrats did so well with them in the first place,” says J. Miles Coleman, a political scientist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. “It reminds me of something Lee Atwater would always say: How come Democrats are basically trying to tell poorer and working-class constituencies, ‘If you vote Republican, you vote against your own interests’? Atwater would say that those values of the flag, those cultural values, are important, too. If the Democrats move too far left, they may lose on a lot of these cultural issues.”
When wages are rising
If patriotism and honor culture are animating, so are kitchen table issues.
Mathematician Robb Sinn at the University of North Georgia in Dahlonega crunched Bureau of Labor Statistics figures for clues. The weekly wage for Americans in the 10th percentile of earners, of which minorities make up a greater share, grew by $4.24 per quarter in the first three years of the Trump presidency, compared with an average of 88 cents of gains per quarter across Barack Obama’s eight years. Although higher-income groups saw weekly wages grow by larger dollar amounts, the gains in the 10th and 25th percentiles were larger than any other group.
The Trump economy also attracted 400,000 new Black wage-earners per year during his presidency; Mr. Obama averaged 250,000, Mr. Sinn found.
Get stories that
empower and uplift daily. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads.
No matter their race, blue-collar workers “don’t need advanced statistical analysis,” says Mr. Sinn. “They’re, like, ‘Hey, I was getting raises, I was doing better, I could take my kids to Disney.’ If their finances are better, they remember that. This shows what actually happened with real blue-collar workers. It shows what was actually going on at those kitchen tables.”
But can Republicans capitalize on Mr. Trump’s achievements among working-class minorities? Without a Trumpian figure, such efforts will struggle, argues Mr. Sinn. Nevertheless, he adds, “I’m old enough to remember when the Republican Party was out of touch with the working class. Now it seems like the roles have reversed.”


csmonitor--2020-12-01--What a Biden focus on ‘American values’ means for ties with Russia

He says he ’ s expecting a clearer and unambiguous message from Washington to Moscow .
“ I ’ m hoping Biden tells Putin : ‘ Get out of Ukraine , stop interfering in our and other countries ’ elections , and stop committing gross human right abuses on your own people , ’ ” says Mr. Kramer .
“ And when you do all that , give me a call.
” “ What the Blinken selection for secretary of state and other choices for the national security team tell me is that we ’ ll see something a little @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the place of human rights and values in the Biden foreign policy , and I ’ d expect to see that shift in U.S.-Russia relations as well , ” says David Kramer , a former assistant secretary of state under President George W. Bush .
Yet while U.S. allies and partners are already welcoming America ’ s impending return to a more traditional and internationalist leadership role , U.S. adversaries will almost certainly be less happy .
And perhaps none , foreign policy experts say , more than Vladimir Putin ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a commitment to alliances are expected to be pillars of Antony Blinken ’ s foreign policy vision as President-elect Joe Biden ’ s pick for secretary of state .
During his time as deputy secretary of state at the end of the Obama administration , Antony Blinken became known as the values guy – constantly underscoring in staff meetings , Washington speeches , and while traveling abroad how American values of democracy and human rights are at the core of U.S. foreign policy and global leadership .
“ We are not the leader @ @ @ @ @ @ @ always right , or because we ’ re universally liked , or because we can dictate outcomes , ” Mr. Blinken said in a June 2015 speech at the Center for a New American Security in Washington .
“ It ’ s because we strive to the best of our ability to align our actions with our principles , and because American leadership has a unique ability to mobilize others and to make a difference.
” That focus on American values , plus an accompanying commitment to strengthen and lead alliances from Europe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the twin pillars of Mr. Blinken ’ s foreign policy vision as he takes the helm of the State Department next year as President-elect Joe Biden ’ s secretary of state .
Yet while U.S. allies and partners are already welcoming America ’ s impending return to a more traditional and internationalist conception of its leadership role , U.S. adversaries will almost certainly be less happy about the reorientation .
And perhaps none of those adversaries will be more unsettled by a robust U.S. return to the global stage and efforts to reestablish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , than the Russia of Vladimir Putin .
Mr. Putin has worked hard over recent years to undermine U.S. alliances – particularly with Europe – as well as faith in and the spread of such American values as democratic governance and universal human rights .
Moreover , he has taken advantage of a U.S. pullback from leadership – for example in Syria or in diplomacy with Iran – to advance Russian geopolitical goals .
So to the extent Mr. Biden ’ s foreign policy intends to challenge the recent advances of adversaries like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ while reemphasizing American values , a more combative U.S.-Russia relationship is very likely on the horizon , experts in big-power relations say .
“ It ’ s already quite clear from what Biden said during the campaign and since the election as he ’ s announced his national security team that he ’ s going to put America ’ s alliances and the values component front and center in his foreign policy , ” says Charles Kupchan , a senior fellow in U.S. foreign policy and European affairs at the Council on Foreign @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make a point to stress his commitment to America ’ s allies and to democracy and freedom , ” he adds , “ and that will stick in the craw of the Russians and others who have seized on a move away from those commitments.
” It is not as though U.S.-Russia relations have enjoyed an extended honeymoon that is about to come to a screeching halt , experts say .
Despite what Mr. Kupchan calls President Donald Trump ’ s “ affection ” for Mr. Putin , the Trump administration has also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sales of offensive weaponry to Ukraine ’ s besieged government , which still finds parts of its territory occupied by Russia .
The problem , he says , is that there has been no clear policy guiding U.S. action toward Russia – with the president indulging his “ friend ” Mr. Putin while top White House advisers and many in Congress have taken a more confrontational and punitive approach .
“ We haven ’ t had a Russia policy under Trump , we ’ ve had a mess .
Under Biden there will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mr. Kupchan , who served as the National Security Council ’ s senior director for European Affairs in the Obama-Biden administration .
And as in Mr. Biden ’ s overall foreign policy approach , a Russia policy is likely to elevate expectations in terms of human rights and acceptable international behavior in any diplomatic outreach , some international relations veterans say .
“ What the Blinken selection for secretary of state and other choices for the national security team tell me is that we ’ ll see something a little more active and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of human rights and values in the Biden foreign policy , and I ’ d expect to see that shift in U.S.-Russia relations as well , ” says David Kramer , a former assistant secretary of state for democracy , human rights , and labor under President George W. Bush .
Mr. Kramer says he ’ s expecting a clearer and unambiguous message from Washington to Moscow .
“ I ’ m hoping Biden tells Putin : ‘ Get out of Ukraine , stop interfering in our and other countries ’ elections , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on your own people , ’ ” says Mr. Kramer , now a senior fellow in the Vaclav Havel Program for Human Rights and Diplomacy at Florida International University in Miami .
“ ‘ And when you do all that , give me a call.
’ ” Since Mr. Biden ’ s victory a month ago , more speculation has focused on how the new president might deal with the other major adversary in global affairs , China .
Mr. Biden is expected to adopt some of the more confrontational stance toward Beijing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ eschewing the overall cooperative approach from the early Obama years that envisioned ushering a rising giant to the table of Western-modeled global leadership .
Similarly , when it comes to Russia , the Biden administration is not expected to rekindle old hopes of welcoming Moscow to the table of Western democracies .
A common theme Mr. Blinken espoused during the presidential campaign is that a Biden administration would not engage the world “ as it was in 2009 , or even in 2017 ” when the Obama team left office .
Thus there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reset ” with Mr. Putin , as Mr. Blinken ( and his boss ) have turned more hawkish on Russia .
The question will be how much attention the new administration will be able to give to setting a more confrontational tone , as Mr. Biden focuses on domestic issues , from the pandemic to rebuilding the economy .
“ Over the last few years , and from Ukraine to Venezuela , the Russians pushed into new areas and in increasingly provocative ways , but they didn ’ t meet with a lot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S. , says Nikolas Gvosdev , a professor of national security affairs at the U.S .
Naval War College in Newport , Rhode Island .
“ If a Biden administration does take a tougher stand and adopts more punitive measures , ” he adds , “ it will cause Putin to recalculate the cost of his actions and perhaps to recalibrate.
” But even if Mr. Putin is prompted to “ become more cautious down the road , ” Mr. Gvosdev says he also would not be surprised to see Mr. Putin use @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to take some bold steps .
For example : rushing to complete the final 100 kilometers of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Western Europe , or a provocative confrontation or two with U.S. forces in the Baltic .
The point , Mr. Gvosdev says , would be to establish that Moscow can also play tough if there ’ s going to be a more hawkish team in Washington pursuing a more activist human rights agenda .
The incoming Biden foreign policy team is indeed expected to underscore democratic governance and a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ human rights from the narrow focus on religious freedom pursued by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo .
But at the same time , the sheer enormity of the domestic challenges awaiting Mr. Biden means no one should expect a rush to bold actions on the global front , most foreign policy experts say .
“ The Biden team is largely pragmatic in orientation , so they ’ re not going to be looking either to carry out regime change or to use lofty promises to cajole adversaries into changing their stripes , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a professor of international affairs at Georgetown University .
For U.S.-Russia relations , that pragmatism means cooperation could be limited to arms control – perhaps a quick five-year extension of the New START Treaty , which expires in early February – and perhaps some effort to work together in the Arctic .
Mr. Blinken has also spoken of using Mr. Putin ’ s discomfort with Russia ’ s growing dependence on the Chinese giant to its east to encourage a more cooperative relationship .
“ I do think we ’ ll see even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the quasi-alliance that has emerged between Russia and China , ” Mr. Kupchan says .
But no one expects such underlying concerns to prompt a friendlier Mr. Putin any time soon .
“ Anyone hoping for more cooperation between the U.S. and Russia had better rein in those expectations , ” says Mr. Kramer .
“ You ’ re about to be very disappointed .
”

He says he’s expecting a clearer and unambiguous message from Washington to Moscow. “I’m hoping Biden tells Putin: ‘Get out of Ukraine, stop interfering in our and other countries’ elections, and stop committing gross human right abuses on your own people,’” says Mr. Kramer. “And when you do all that, give me a call.”
“What the Blinken selection for secretary of state and other choices for the national security team tell me is that we’ll see something a little more active and more elevated in terms of the place of human rights and values in the Biden foreign policy, and I’d expect to see that shift in U.S.-Russia relations as well,” says David Kramer, a former assistant secretary of state under President George W. Bush.
From the transactional to the multilateral. President-elect Biden's choice of Antony Blinken for secretary of state has put U.S. allies and adversaries on notice: Alliances and values are back as foreign policy priorities.
Yet while U.S. allies and partners are already welcoming America’s impending return to a more traditional and internationalist leadership role, U.S. adversaries will almost certainly be less happy. And perhaps none, foreign policy experts say, more than Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
A focus on values and a commitment to alliances are expected to be pillars of Antony Blinken’s foreign policy vision as President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for secretary of state.
During his time as deputy secretary of state at the end of the Obama administration, Antony Blinken became known as the values guy – constantly underscoring in staff meetings, Washington speeches, and while traveling abroad how American values of democracy and human rights are at the core of U.S. foreign policy and global leadership.
“We are not the leader of first choice because we’re always right, or because we’re universally liked, or because we can dictate outcomes,” Mr. Blinken said in a June 2015 speech at the Center for a New American Security in Washington. “It’s because we strive to the best of our ability to align our actions with our principles, and because American leadership has a unique ability to mobilize others and to make a difference.”
That focus on American values, plus an accompanying commitment to strengthen and lead alliances from Europe to Asia, are expected to form the twin pillars of Mr. Blinken’s foreign policy vision as he takes the helm of the State Department next year as President-elect Joe Biden’s secretary of state.
Why We Wrote This From the transactional to the multilateral. President-elect Biden's choice of Antony Blinken for secretary of state has put U.S. allies and adversaries on notice: Alliances and values are back as foreign policy priorities.
Yet while U.S. allies and partners are already welcoming America’s impending return to a more traditional and internationalist conception of its leadership role, U.S. adversaries will almost certainly be less happy about the reorientation.
And perhaps none of those adversaries will be more unsettled by a robust U.S. return to the global stage and efforts to reestablish moral leadership, foreign policy experts say, than the Russia of Vladimir Putin.
Mr. Putin has worked hard over recent years to undermine U.S. alliances – particularly with Europe – as well as faith in and the spread of such American values as democratic governance and universal human rights. Moreover, he has taken advantage of a U.S. pullback from leadership – for example in Syria or in diplomacy with Iran – to advance Russian geopolitical goals.
So to the extent Mr. Biden’s foreign policy intends to challenge the recent advances of adversaries like Russia and do so by fortifying alliances while reemphasizing American values, a more combative U.S.-Russia relationship is very likely on the horizon, experts in big-power relations say.
“It’s already quite clear from what Biden said during the campaign and since the election as he’s announced his national security team that he’s going to put America’s alliances and the values component front and center in his foreign policy,” says Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow in U.S. foreign policy and European affairs at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.
“Biden will make a point to stress his commitment to America’s allies and to democracy and freedom,” he adds, “and that will stick in the craw of the Russians and others who have seized on a move away from those commitments.”
Not a policy, but a “mess”
It is not as though U.S.-Russia relations have enjoyed an extended honeymoon that is about to come to a screeching halt, experts say. Despite what Mr. Kupchan calls President Donald Trump’s “affection” for Mr. Putin, the Trump administration has also ramped up sanctions against Russia and approved sales of offensive weaponry to Ukraine’s besieged government, which still finds parts of its territory occupied by Russia.
The problem, he says, is that there has been no clear policy guiding U.S. action toward Russia – with the president indulging his “friend” Mr. Putin while top White House advisers and many in Congress have taken a more confrontational and punitive approach.
“We haven’t had a Russia policy under Trump, we’ve had a mess. Under Biden there will be a Russia policy,” says Mr. Kupchan, who served as the National Security Council’s senior director for European Affairs in the Obama-Biden administration.
Joshua Roberts/Reuters View caption Hide caption Antony Blinken, President-elect Joe Biden's nominee for secretary of state, speaks at Mr. Biden's announcement of his national security nominees and appointees at his transition headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, Nov. 24, 2020.
And as in Mr. Biden’s overall foreign policy approach, a Russia policy is likely to elevate expectations in terms of human rights and acceptable international behavior in any diplomatic outreach, some international relations veterans say.
“What the Blinken selection for secretary of state and other choices for the national security team tell me is that we’ll see something a little more active and more elevated in terms of the place of human rights and values in the Biden foreign policy, and I’d expect to see that shift in U.S.-Russia relations as well,” says David Kramer, a former assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor under President George W. Bush.
Mr. Kramer says he’s expecting a clearer and unambiguous message from Washington to Moscow. “I’m hoping Biden tells Putin: ‘Get out of Ukraine, stop interfering in our and other countries’ elections, and stop committing gross human right abuses on your own people,’” says Mr. Kramer, now a senior fellow in the Vaclav Havel Program for Human Rights and Diplomacy at Florida International University in Miami. “‘And when you do all that, give me a call.’”
No Russia “reset”
Since Mr. Biden’s victory a month ago, more speculation has focused on how the new president might deal with the other major adversary in global affairs, China. Mr. Biden is expected to adopt some of the more confrontational stance toward Beijing that President Trump has instituted, while eschewing the overall cooperative approach from the early Obama years that envisioned ushering a rising giant to the table of Western-modeled global leadership.
Similarly, when it comes to Russia, the Biden administration is not expected to rekindle old hopes of welcoming Moscow to the table of Western democracies. A common theme Mr. Blinken espoused during the presidential campaign is that a Biden administration would not engage the world “as it was in 2009, or even in 2017” when the Obama team left office.
Thus there will be no talk of a “reset” with Mr. Putin, as Mr. Blinken (and his boss) have turned more hawkish on Russia.
The question will be how much attention the new administration will be able to give to setting a more confrontational tone, as Mr. Biden focuses on domestic issues, from the pandemic to rebuilding the economy.
“Over the last few years, and from Ukraine to Venezuela, the Russians pushed into new areas and in increasingly provocative ways, but they didn’t meet with a lot of resistance or pushback” from the U.S., says Nikolas Gvosdev, a professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. “If a Biden administration does take a tougher stand and adopts more punitive measures,” he adds, “it will cause Putin to recalculate the cost of his actions and perhaps to recalibrate.”
But even if Mr. Putin is prompted to “become more cautious down the road,” Mr. Gvosdev says he also would not be surprised to see Mr. Putin use the waning days of the Trump administration to take some bold steps. For example: rushing to complete the final 100 kilometers of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Western Europe, or a provocative confrontation or two with U.S. forces in the Baltic.
The point, Mr. Gvosdev says, would be to establish that Moscow can also play tough if there’s going to be a more hawkish team in Washington pursuing a more activist human rights agenda.
Pragmatic orientation
The incoming Biden foreign policy team is indeed expected to underscore democratic governance and a return to a more universalist conception of human rights from the narrow focus on religious freedom pursued by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. But at the same time, the sheer enormity of the domestic challenges awaiting Mr. Biden means no one should expect a rush to bold actions on the global front, most foreign policy experts say.
“The Biden team is largely pragmatic in orientation, so they’re not going to be looking either to carry out regime change or to use lofty promises to cajole adversaries into changing their stripes,” says Mr. Kupchan, who is also a professor of international affairs at Georgetown University.
For U.S.-Russia relations, that pragmatism means cooperation could be limited to arms control – perhaps a quick five-year extension of the New START Treaty, which expires in early February – and perhaps some effort to work together in the Arctic.
Mr. Blinken has also spoken of using Mr. Putin’s discomfort with Russia’s growing dependence on the Chinese giant to its east to encourage a more cooperative relationship.
“I do think we’ll see even more of the U.S. strategy to loosen the quasi-alliance that has emerged between Russia and China,” Mr. Kupchan says.
Get stories that
empower and uplift daily. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads.
But no one expects such underlying concerns to prompt a friendlier Mr. Putin any time soon.
“Anyone hoping for more cooperation between the U.S. and Russia had better rein in those expectations,” says Mr. Kramer. “You’re about to be very disappointed.”


csmonitor--2020-12-01--Richard III struggled against his two brothers for the crown

Thomas Penn ’ s 2011 book , “ Winter King : The Dawn of Tudor England ” was a biography of Henry VII and the founding of the Tudor dynasty that rose from the wreckage of the ruinous Wars of the Roses between the houses of York and Lancaster .
Aided by the tireless machinations of his mother , the Lady Margaret Beaufort ( subject of “ Uncrowned Queen : The Fateful Life of Margaret Beaufort , Tudor Matriarch , ” a terrific biography by Nicola Tallis ) , Henry was able to maneuver events to the Battle of Bosworth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from Richard III , the last Yorkist king .
In his new book , “ The Brothers York : A Royal Tragedy , ” Penn turns away from the victor and toward the war itself , recounting the York/Lancaster clash by focusing on the three York brothers : Edward , George , and Richard .
“ Contemporaries acknowledged that these were three men of unusual gifts : shoulder to shoulder , they were practically invincible , ” writes Penn .
As readers familiar with the Wars of the Roses ( or with Shakespeare @ @ @ @ @ @ @ know , the “ royal tragedy ” in this case was the fact that these brothers were only rarely willing to stand shoulder to shoulder .
Some readers will perhaps be startled to be reminded that there were three York brothers instead of two .
Tall , resplendent , roisterous King Edward IV has a strong legacy ; stooped , scheming Richard III is infamous ; but who exactly is that George guy ?
Much of his popular fame springs from the manner of his death .
For his part in a plot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was drowned in what Penn clarifies as a sweet Greek wine called malvasia .
“ Even at the last , Edward had been unable to resist indulging in one of his typical poor jokes , ” Penn writes .
“ It was a gag of exquisite tastelessness.
” The horror of fratricide is merely the price of admission to the family drama Penn here relates .
By the time Edward has George murdered , readers have already watched these two and Richard plot against and brood about each other for hundreds of pages @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as a storyteller make those pages as enjoyable an account of this chaotic period in English history as anything since Thomas Costain ’ s “ The Last Plantagenets ” nearly 60 years ago .
And despite George ’ s sociopathic cowardice and Edward ’ s fratricidal callousness , the villain of any volume like “ The Brothers York ” will always be Richard .
In the book ’ s first half , he ’ s an undoubtedly brave but somewhat slippery figure , and like most biographers , Penn can scarcely disguise his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s villains .
But as the narrative moves forward , as Richard steadily accumulates wealth and influence under his brother ’ s watchful tutelage , the intensity of the drama increases .
When Edward dies in April 1483 ( aged only 40 , but Penn raises no shadow of suspicion over his brother , who appeared to have a solid alibi ) , that drama reaches something of a climax .
Richard is regarded by all as the steady hand who will guide his little nephew , now King Edward V , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ As Penn narrates , William Hastings , a powerful Edward supporter , marveled at this peaceful transfer of power , commenting that it had been achieved with as little bloodshed “ as might have come from a cut finger.
” Richard soon compensated for this lack of blood by having Hastings unceremoniously decapitated .
Penn remarks that Richard found Hastings ’ lack of loyalty confusing and overwhelming – a level of annoyance that does not seem to merit resorting to the broadsword , but the story quickly moves on to the main event @ @ @ @ @ @ @ murder of the princes in the Tower .
By the summer of 1483 , the two young princes were widely feared to be dead ; according to one contemporary witness , Londoners would “ burst forth into tears and lamentations ” when the young king 's name was mentioned .
Sentiment had never been particularly warm toward Richard ; now it turned completely against him .
“ Having lived through the violent upheavals of recent years , people weren ’ t easily shocked , ” Penn writes .
“ But if , following @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spring , many in the Yorkist establishment had shuffled hesitatingly into line , widespread reports that the two blameless royal children had been killed while in his care convinced them that their initial misgivings had been right.
” The story of “ The Brothers York ” is of course destined to end where that of “ Winter King ” begins : at Bosworth Field , when Richard is defeated and hacked to death by Henry ’ s forces .
Thomas Penn has told that story with such sweep and enthusiasm that his book @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by Dan Jones and Desmond Seward .
The central hypothetical – how might history have changed if these three brothers had been at all fraternal – remains unanswerable , but Penn ’ s book makes it enormously enjoyable to ponder .

Thomas Penn’s 2011 book, “Winter King: The Dawn of Tudor England” was a biography of Henry VII and the founding of the Tudor dynasty that rose from the wreckage of the ruinous Wars of the Roses between the houses of York and Lancaster. Aided by the tireless machinations of his mother, the Lady Margaret Beaufort (subject of “Uncrowned Queen: The Fateful Life of Margaret Beaufort, Tudor Matriarch,” a terrific biography by Nicola Tallis), Henry was able to maneuver events to the Battle of Bosworth Field, where he wrested the crown from Richard III, the last Yorkist king.
In his new book, “The Brothers York: A Royal Tragedy,” Penn turns away from the victor and toward the war itself, recounting the York/Lancaster clash by focusing on the three York brothers: Edward, George, and Richard. “Contemporaries acknowledged that these were three men of unusual gifts: shoulder to shoulder, they were practically invincible,” writes Penn. As readers familiar with the Wars of the Roses (or with Shakespeare’s relevant history plays) will know, the “royal tragedy” in this case was the fact that these brothers were only rarely willing to stand shoulder to shoulder.
Some readers will perhaps be startled to be reminded that there were three York brothers instead of two. Tall, resplendent, roisterous King Edward IV has a strong legacy; stooped, scheming Richard III is infamous; but who exactly is that George guy? Much of his popular fame springs from the manner of his death. For his part in a plot against Edward’s reign, George was drowned in what Penn clarifies as a sweet Greek wine called malvasia. “Even at the last, Edward had been unable to resist indulging in one of his typical poor jokes,” Penn writes. “It was a gag of exquisite tastelessness.”
The horror of fratricide is merely the price of admission to the family drama Penn here relates. By the time Edward has George murdered, readers have already watched these two and Richard plot against and brood about each other for hundreds of pages, and Penn’s superb gifts as a storyteller make those pages as enjoyable an account of this chaotic period in English history as anything since Thomas Costain’s “The Last Plantagenets” nearly 60 years ago.
And despite George’s sociopathic cowardice and Edward’s fratricidal callousness, the villain of any volume like “The Brothers York” will always be Richard. In the book’s first half, he’s an undoubtedly brave but somewhat slippery figure, and like most biographers, Penn can scarcely disguise his fascination with this most infamous of Shakespeare’s villains. But as the narrative moves forward, as Richard steadily accumulates wealth and influence under his brother’s watchful tutelage, the intensity of the drama increases.
When Edward dies in April 1483 (aged only 40, but Penn raises no shadow of suspicion over his brother, who appeared to have a solid alibi), that drama reaches something of a climax. Richard is regarded by all as the steady hand who will guide his little nephew, now King Edward V, until the boy comes of age. As Penn narrates, William Hastings, a powerful Edward supporter, marveled at this peaceful transfer of power, commenting that it had been achieved with as little bloodshed “as might have come from a cut finger.” Richard soon compensated for this lack of blood by having Hastings unceremoniously decapitated. Penn remarks that Richard found Hastings’ lack of loyalty confusing and overwhelming – a level of annoyance that does not seem to merit resorting to the broadsword, but the story quickly moves on to the main event of Richard’s villainy: the murder of the princes in the Tower.
Get stories that
empower and uplift daily. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads.
By the summer of 1483, the two young princes were widely feared to be dead; according to one contemporary witness, Londoners would “burst forth into tears and lamentations” when the young king's name was mentioned. Sentiment had never been particularly warm toward Richard; now it turned completely against him. “Having lived through the violent upheavals of recent years, people weren’t easily shocked,” Penn writes. “But if, following Richard's brutal assumption of power that spring, many in the Yorkist establishment had shuffled hesitatingly into line, widespread reports that the two blameless royal children had been killed while in his care convinced them that their initial misgivings had been right.”
The story of “The Brothers York” is of course destined to end where that of “Winter King” begins: at Bosworth Field, when Richard is defeated and hacked to death by Henry’s forces. Thomas Penn has told that story with such sweep and enthusiasm that his book easily takes its place alongside similar volumes by Dan Jones and Desmond Seward. The central hypothetical – how might history have changed if these three brothers had been at all fraternal – remains unanswerable, but Penn’s book makes it enormously enjoyable to ponder.


csmonitor--2020-12-01--Contradicting Trump, Barr dismisses fraud allegations

Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday the Justice Department has not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election .
His comments in an interview with The Associated Press come despite President Donald Trump ’ s repeated baseless claims that the election was stolen , Mr. Trump ’ s effort to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election , and his refusal to concede his loss to President-elect Joe Biden .
Mr. Barr said United States attorneys and FBI agents have been working to follow up specific complaints and information they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ve uncovered no evidence that would change the outcome of the election .
Mr. Barr was headed to the White House later for a previously scheduled meeting .
“ To date , we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election , ” Mr. Barr said .
The comments are especially direct coming from Mr. Barr , who has been one of the president ’ s most ardent allies .
Before the election , he had repeatedly raised the notion that mail-in voter fraud @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the coronavirus pandemic as Americans feared going to polls and instead chose to vote by mail .
Shortly after Mr. Barr ’ s statement was published , Mr. Trump tweeted out more baseless claims of voter fraud .
And his attorney Rudy Giuliani and his campaign issued a scathing statement claiming that , “ with all due respect to the Attorney General , there hasn ’ t been any semblance ” of an investigation .
Last month , Mr. Barr issued a directive to U.S. attorneys across the country allowing them to pursue @ @ @ @ @ @ @ irregularities if they existed before the 2020 presidential election was certified , despite no evidence at that time of widespread fraud .
That memorandum gave prosecutors the ability to go around longstanding Justice Department policy that normally would prohibit such overt actions before the election was certified .
Soon after it was issued , the department ’ s top elections crime official announced he would step aside from that position because of the memo .
The Trump campaign team led by Mr. Giuliani has been alleging a widespread conspiracy by Democrats to dump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with no evidence .
They have filed multiple lawsuits in battleground states alleging that partisan poll watchers didn ’ t have a clear enough view at polling sites in some locations and therefore something illegal must have happened .
The claims have been repeatedly dismissed , including by Republican judges who have ruled the suits lacked evidence .
Local Republicans in some battleground states have followed Mr. Trump in making similar unsupported claims .
Mr. Trump has railed against the election in tweets and in interviews though his own administration has said the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Mr. Trump recently allowed his administration to begin the transition over to Mr. Biden , but has still refused to admit he lost .
The issues Mr. Trump ’ s campaign and its allies have pointed to are typical in every election : Problems with signatures , secrecy envelopes , and postal marks on mail-in ballots , as well as the potential for a small number of ballots to be miscast or lost .
But they ’ ve also requested federal probes into the claims .
Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell spun @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , German servers storing U.S. voting information , and election software created in Venezuela “ at the direction of Hugo Chavez , ” the late Venezuelan president who died in 2013 .
Ms. Powell has since been removed from the campaign ’ s legal team after an interview she gave where she threatened to “ blow up ” Georgia with a “ biblical ” court filing .
Mr. Barr didn ’ t name Ms. Powell specifically but said : “ There ’ s been one assertion that would be systemic fraud and that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ programmed essentially to skew the election results .
And the [ Department of Homeland Security ] and DOJ have looked into that , and so far , we haven ’ t seen anything to substantiate that.
” He said people were confusing the use of the federal criminal justice system with allegations that should be made in civil lawsuits .
He said such a remedy for those complaints would be a top-down audit conducted by state or local officials , not the U.S. Justice Department .
“ There ’ s a growing tendency @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sort of a default fix-all – and people don ’ t like something , they want the Department of Justice to come in and ‘ investigate , ’ ” Mr. Barr said .
He said first of all there must be a basis to believe there is a crime to investigate .
“ Most claims of fraud are very particularized to a particular set of circumstances or actors or conduct .
They are not systemic allegations .
And those have been run down ; they are being run down , ” Mr. Barr @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and potentially cover a few thousand votes .
They have been followed up on.
” In the campaign statement , Mr. Giuliani claimed the had gathered “ ample evidence of illegal voting in at least six states , which they have not examined.
” “ We have many witnesses swearing under oath they saw crimes being committed in connection with voter fraud .
As far as we know , not a single one has been interviewed by the DOJ .
The Justice Department also hasn ’ t audited any voting machines or used @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” he said .
The witnesses Mr. Giuliani has pointed to in the past included Jessy Jacob , identified as a City of Detroit employee , who said in an affidavit filed in court that she saw other workers coaching voters to cast ballots for Joe Biden and the Democrats .
But a judge who denied a bid to block the certification of Detroit-area election results noted that Ms. Jacob ’ s claims of misconduct and fraud included no “ date , location , frequency , or names of employees ” and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ allegations after the unofficial results indicated Biden had won Michigan .
This story was reported by The Associated Press .

Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday the Justice Department has not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
His comments in an interview with The Associated Press come despite President Donald Trump’s repeated baseless claims that the election was stolen, Mr. Trump’s effort to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election, and his refusal to concede his loss to President-elect Joe Biden.
Mr. Barr said United States attorneys and FBI agents have been working to follow up specific complaints and information they’ve received, but they’ve uncovered no evidence that would change the outcome of the election. Mr. Barr was headed to the White House later for a previously scheduled meeting.
“To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election,” Mr. Barr said.
The comments are especially direct coming from Mr. Barr, who has been one of the president’s most ardent allies. Before the election, he had repeatedly raised the notion that mail-in voter fraud could be especially vulnerable to fraud during the coronavirus pandemic as Americans feared going to polls and instead chose to vote by mail.
Shortly after Mr. Barr’s statement was published, Mr. Trump tweeted out more baseless claims of voter fraud. And his attorney Rudy Giuliani and his campaign issued a scathing statement claiming that, “with all due respect to the Attorney General, there hasn’t been any semblance” of an investigation.
Last month, Mr. Barr issued a directive to U.S. attorneys across the country allowing them to pursue any “substantial allegations” of voting irregularities if they existed before the 2020 presidential election was certified, despite no evidence at that time of widespread fraud. That memorandum gave prosecutors the ability to go around longstanding Justice Department policy that normally would prohibit such overt actions before the election was certified. Soon after it was issued, the department’s top elections crime official announced he would step aside from that position because of the memo.
The Trump campaign team led by Mr. Giuliani has been alleging a widespread conspiracy by Democrats to dump millions of illegal votes into the system with no evidence. They have filed multiple lawsuits in battleground states alleging that partisan poll watchers didn’t have a clear enough view at polling sites in some locations and therefore something illegal must have happened. The claims have been repeatedly dismissed, including by Republican judges who have ruled the suits lacked evidence. Local Republicans in some battleground states have followed Mr. Trump in making similar unsupported claims.
Mr. Trump has railed against the election in tweets and in interviews though his own administration has said the 2020 election was the most secure ever. Mr. Trump recently allowed his administration to begin the transition over to Mr. Biden, but has still refused to admit he lost.
The issues Mr. Trump’s campaign and its allies have pointed to are typical in every election: Problems with signatures, secrecy envelopes, and postal marks on mail-in ballots, as well as the potential for a small number of ballots to be miscast or lost.
But they’ve also requested federal probes into the claims. Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell spun fictional tales of election systems flipping votes, German servers storing U.S. voting information, and election software created in Venezuela “at the direction of Hugo Chavez,” the late Venezuelan president who died in 2013. Ms. Powell has since been removed from the campaign’s legal team after an interview she gave where she threatened to “blow up” Georgia with a “biblical” court filing.
Mr. Barr didn’t name Ms. Powell specifically but said: “There’s been one assertion that would be systemic fraud and that would be the claim that machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results. And the [Department of Homeland Security] and DOJ have looked into that, and so far, we haven’t seen anything to substantiate that.”
He said people were confusing the use of the federal criminal justice system with allegations that should be made in civil lawsuits. He said such a remedy for those complaints would be a top-down audit conducted by state or local officials, not the U.S. Justice Department.
“There’s a growing tendency to use the criminal justice system as sort of a default fix-all – and people don’t like something, they want the Department of Justice to come in and ‘investigate,’” Mr. Barr said.
He said first of all there must be a basis to believe there is a crime to investigate.
“Most claims of fraud are very particularized to a particular set of circumstances or actors or conduct. They are not systemic allegations. And those have been run down; they are being run down,” Mr. Barr said. “Some have been broad and potentially cover a few thousand votes. They have been followed up on.”
In the campaign statement, Mr. Giuliani claimed the had gathered “ample evidence of illegal voting in at least six states, which they have not examined.”
“We have many witnesses swearing under oath they saw crimes being committed in connection with voter fraud. As far as we know, not a single one has been interviewed by the DOJ. The Justice Department also hasn’t audited any voting machines or used their subpoena powers to determine the truth,” he said.
The witnesses Mr. Giuliani has pointed to in the past included Jessy Jacob, identified as a City of Detroit employee, who said in an affidavit filed in court that she saw other workers coaching voters to cast ballots for Joe Biden and the Democrats.
Get stories that
empower and uplift daily. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads.
But a judge who denied a bid to block the certification of Detroit-area election results noted that Ms. Jacob’s claims of misconduct and fraud included no “date, location, frequency, or names of employees” and that she only came forward with her allegations after the unofficial results indicated Biden had won Michigan.
This story was reported by The Associated Press.