newrepublic--2020-10-02--Democrats Have a Chance to Hit Trump on Jobs

According to Friday ’ s official jobs report—the last one that the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release before November ’ s election—the economy gained around 800,000 jobs in September .
Since these results were slightly better than what economists had predicted , it ’ s probably a safe bet that Trump will seize upon the numbers as proof of his exceptional economic stewardship , as he has in the past .
( “ Under this Administration , America is on track to witness the fastest labor market recovery from any economic crisis in history , ” the White House @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rate remained at a dismal 8.4 percent . )
But dire news rode in right on the eve of the report ’ s release : Airlines announced tens of thousands of layoffs after a new stimulus package stalled again in Congress , with more losses likely on the way .
Earlier this week , Disney , too , said it was laying off as many as 28,000 employees nationwide .
No matter what the official jobs report suggests , the country is still barely treading water in an economic crisis that Trump and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in alleviating .
Trump has maintained some oddly durable public opinion advantages over Biden in terms of his handling of the economy , but here in the election ’ s stretch run , Democrats have the perfect opportunity to hammer Trump on jobs , particularly in light of some bleak signs that the recovery from the current recession will be vastly more unequal than the last .
Yet Democrats ’ attention seems to be wandering .
In the wake of this week ’ s presidential debate—a miserable slog that mostly annoyed viewers and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over Biden and moderator Chris Wallace—Trump ’ s critics have chosen to go after him for something that ’ s hardly revelatory : his lack of decorum .
Appearing on Morning Joe on Wednesday , Nancy Pelosi , incredibly , even managed to compliment Republicans of yesteryear while criticizing Trump .
“ The country needs a strong Republican Party , ” she said .
“ It ’ s done so much for our country , and to have it be hijacked as a cult at this time is really a sad thing for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that America is now facing , I would submit that a weakened Republican Party doesn ’ t rank especially high .
Others have fixated on the president ’ s failure to disavow white supremacists during the debate .
“ All Republican lawmakers defending President Trump—and all Americans planning to vote for him over the next five weeks—must be made to confront a simple truth : They are supporting a candidate who embraces violent white supremacists , ” Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank declared .
On Thursday , MSNBC ’ s Steve Benen echoed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be easy for the president to go through the motions , condemn white supremacists and other right-wing radicals in no uncertain terms , and leave others to speculate about his sincerity , ” he wrote .
“ But Trump apparently doesn ’ t want to.
” But if Trump ’ s conduct during the debate—and his Proud Boy elbow-rubbing in particular—was unquestionably ugly , it was also entirely predictable .
Given his long-standing penchant for winking in the direction of the far right , I suspect there aren ’ t all that many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that Trump is a boor or that he ’ s not terribly inclined to condemn an enthusiastic ( if hateful ) segment of his base .
Rather , the make-or-break issue over the next few weeks probably won ’ t be the Proud Boys—who are , for their part , a group of violent dummies who struggle mightily to assemble a rally of a few hundred supporters—but whether the Democrats can demonstrate the utter brokenness of the economy and the callousness of the Trump administration ’ s approach to it .

Americans still tend to think of Republicans as more adept at handling the economy than Democrats, and it’s been difficult for Democrats to dislodge that perception. Even at the nadir of the current recession, as my colleague Alex Shephard wrote last month, Trump still held a slight edge on the economy in polls of voters. Yet, at the same time, unemployment remains high despite the slight uptick in jobs over the last two months, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis recently found that the expiration at the end of July of the $600 federal unemployment insurance supplement—which congressional Republicans and the White House have staunchly refused to reinstate—sapped an estimated $667 billion from the U.S. economy.
The human cost of the economic crash also appears to be sharpening. In addition to food banks still overwhelmed by demand and state unemployment offices backed up for weeks, up to 179 million Americans could soon face shutoffs of water, power, and other utilities as a result of unpaid bills during the pandemic, according to The Washington Post. Whatever on-paper improvements to the economy Trump and the Republicans can point to will likely ring hollow with those skirting the edge of financial ruin.
But Democrats will have to make this case if they want to bring about Trump’s ouster. And so the time and attention lavished on listing all the ways that Trump violated the norms of this week’s debate, rather than pressing him on why a new stimulus has stalled, makes it likelier that the president will successfully convince Americans that he’s saving the economy, rather than consigning the majority of Americans to further hardship. Trump’s Proud Boys imbroglio has garnered a significant share of negative attention; the pile-on has been enabled. Rather than focus on the wounds the president has inflicted on himself, Democrats should take care that the wounds he’s inflicted on the nation receive the same share of outrage.


newrepublic--2020-10-02--The Anti-Filibuster Armies are Mounting Up

The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has , unsurprisingly , intensified conversations in Democratic circles about the structural obstacles that a Biden presidency would inevitably face .
Whether or not Biden chooses to acknowledge as much , passing , implementing , and defending the major items of his policy agenda will require , at minimum , eliminating the Senate filibuster and , most likely , reforming what will soon be a 6-3 conservative Supreme Court .
As helpful as it would be for Biden to make a public case for these proposals himself , it will mostly be up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
To that end , organizers are already mobilizing to ensure pivotal lawmakers understand that reform has become a non-negotiable demand for the party ’ s activists .
On Wednesday , Fix Our Senate , a large coalition of organizations established earlier this year to push Democrats on eliminating the Senate filibuster , kicked their advocacy campaign into high gear with a livestream that featured a remarkable testimonial roll call as leaders of groups ranging from the NAACP to the Sunrise Movement offered up issue-based cases for moving to simple majority rule .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ for policy at Brady : United Against Gun Violence , for instance , spoke about the filibuster as an obstacle to popular gun control measures .
“ I sat in the gallery in 2013 when the filibuster was used to prevent a universal background check—just a law that makes it so that a background check has to be done when you ’ re selling a weapon , ” he said .
“ We ’ ve got to do better .
This isn ’ t abstract .
This is tangible .
This is life @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a Hero , speaking about the defeat of the public option in 2009 , agreed .
“ If it had become law , the public option would have covered tens of millions of people by now , creating huge pressure on the private sector to rein in costs and improve the quality of coverage , ” he said .
“ Instead the public option died in the Senate .
It had the support of more than 51 senators , but it was killed by the anti-democratic , racist filibuster .
A decade later @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ever.
” Tefere Gebre , Executive Vice President of the AFL-CIO reached back even further into the Democratic Party ’ s legislative past .
“ In the early 1990s , we were told that if we worked our butts off and we elected progressives into the House and the Senate , we would get anti-strike replacement legislation , ” he recalled .
“ Never happened .
The excuse was the filibuster .
And again , in 2009 , in a year of hope and change , our hopes were dashed .
And we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that would have leveled the playing field for working people .
Again , because of the filibuster and the fear of the filibuster.
” “ Sisters and brothers , ” he continued , “ this is serious .
We have to win this election .
We have to get progressives in office after the election .
But we have to ask , what ’ s the point of winning elections , if we can ’ t govern after we win ?
This is what this fight is about .
”

Warren and Merkley also took time to dismantle some of the main arguments against the filibuster’s elimination and to illustrate the unique burden it places on Democrats. “Think about the flip side of this,” Warren said. “What is it that Mitch McConnell wants to accomplish by being in the Senate? What does he want to do? Cut taxes and confirm judges for lifetime appointments. Neither one of those is subject to the filibuster. So, look at how that works. If we want to help people, if we want to strengthen unions, if we want to provide health care, if we want to protect Dreamers, if we want to increase social security, Mitch gets a veto. If Mitch wants to cut taxes again for the rich and the powerful or confirm racist, anti–health care, anti-voting judges to the court, do we get a veto? No.”
“We are in this situation,” Merkley added later, “where if they want to pass something else in the future, they’re happy to change the rules again. They’ve done it time and time again. So nothing we’re doing now makes it more likely that they’ll do something in the future. Because every time they run into the obstacle, they eliminate it.” These points are already starting to change the minds of Senate moderates like Delaware’s Chris Coons.
Eli Zupnick, spokesperson for Fix Our Senate, told The New Republic that he was particularly encouraged by a recent interview with Montana Senator Jon Tester. “He told National Review that he is open to changes if Republicans do nothing but obstruct the agenda that people support,” he said. “So I feel good. I feel like more and more people understand what is at stake. More and more people understand how the issues that they care about—from climate change to immigration, to gun safety, economic inequality—are connected to the Senate rule that could block any progress on them.”


newrepublic--2020-10-02--The Real Deep State Is Trump

The Real Deep State Is Trump

“ There is no sense of deference in the administration to what is scientific fact and evidence-based policies , ” Koh stressed .
“ The president has repeatedly criticized the CDC and the FDA .
We ’ re in the worst public health crisis in our country in a century .
At a time like this , you need to turn to the top health experts.
” Instead , Trump has mounted a series of attacks on the CDC and its director , Robert Redfield , particularly after Redfield testified to Congress about the severely flawed federal response to Covid-19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a Senate panel that wearing a mask could be more effective in slowing the spread of Covid-19 than a vaccine when it ultimately arrives .
He noted , as well , that a vaccine is unlikely to be widely available until the end of the second or the third quarter next year .
None of this sat well with the president , who promptly set out to undermine the counsel of a premier health official .
Just hours after Redfield ’ s testimony , Trump staged a White House press briefing where he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the CDC director “ had made a mistake ” and that the “ mask is not as important as the vaccine.
” In lieu of consistently and fully endorsing the CDC ’ s directives on mask wearing , social distancing , and other recommendations , Trump opted in August to recruit a new senior Covid adviser , Dr. Scott Atlas , a radiologist who lacks public health or infectious disease experience .
Atlas touts mask-free responses to the pandemic such as the “ herd immunity ” approach variously adopted in Sweden and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and at great enhanced risk of mass Covid transmission .
In keeping with those of the other custodians of the Trumpian deep state , Atlas ’ s chief credentials are ideological : He ’ s a fellow at Stanford University ’ s right-wing Hoover Institute and a frequent Fox News commentator .
Atlas ’ s views have especially irked Redfield , who was overheard on a flight telling someone that “ everything he says is false , ” as NBC News first disclosed and Redfield confirmed .
Even before Atlas arrived , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and alter CDC guidance on the risks of reopening schools this fall , according to Olivia Troye , a former top aide to Vice President Mike Pence .
Public health experts are increasingly shocked by Trump ’ s politicized policies about Covid-19 , which they say endanger the fight against the pandemic .
“ If this is a war , we have a commander in chief who has been serving with partisans from the other side—the side that enhances the effectiveness of the virus , ” says Dr. Jeffrey Koplan , who ran @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now leads a global health program at Emory University .
The politicized nonresponse to the Covid crisis means that Trump and his chosen inner circle refuse to “ reinforce the scientists ” —and that , Koplan notes , “ is clearly something that gives the virus an additional opportunity.
” The risks of Trump ’ s unfounded claims were underscored by a September poll showing that two-thirds of Americans say they won ’ t take a vaccine as soon as it ’ s available .
Those numbers bear out Redfield ’ s testimony @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vaccine prognostications .
“ Unless we reverse that level of ( public ) distrust , the pandemic will go on indefinitely , ” Koh predicted .
With the election looming , Trump and his tight coterie of loyalists are closing ranks to tar critics inside and outside the administration with the broad brush of deep state .
Trump loyalists seem to be accelerating their attacks on key administration officials , including FBI Director Wray .
Just a day after Wray ’ s September 24 testimony to a Senate panel that FBI officials “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election , whether it ’ s by mail or otherwise , ” Trump ’ s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows laid into him in a CBS interview .
“ With all due respect to Director Wray , he has a hard time finding emails in his own FBI , let alone figuring out whether there ’ s any kind of voter fraud.
” Meadows reprised the attack a few days later in another CBS interview .
“ That ’ s my problem with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ They need to investigate ” claims of voter fraud “ and make sure that the voting populace—make sure that their vote counts and no one else ’ s does.
” Once more , the White House ’ s effort to conjure deep state detractors serves mostly to distract attention from an actual election-related conspiracy hiding ( more or less ) in plain sight : the renewed specter of Russian interference in the 2020 election cycle .
The FBI and intelligence veterans see growing signs that the Kremlin is exploiting Trump ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its own campaign to scramble the final weeks of the American election so as to hurt Biden and foment distrust in the electoral process .
Earlier in September , FBI Director Wray testified twice before congressional committees about intelligence that Russia is aiming to “ denigrate Biden ” and “ sow divisiveness and discord.
” Wray also reported that the Kremlin is using social media and “ proxies , state media , online journals ” to hurt Biden .
And in late September , the FBI and DHS jointly warned that foreign actors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mimicking unfounded charges by Trump , like the president ’ s allegation that mail-in ballots will lead to “ massive electoral fraud and a rigged 2020 election.
” CIA veterans also report that we ’ re now witnessing ample cross-fertilization between the conspiratorial messages spread by Trump and Moscow .
“ Trump ’ s efforts to deflect from criticism that he is aligned with Russian interests are increasingly difficult to avoid , ” John Sipher says .
“ He has shown a pattern of mouthing Kremlin talking points and disinformation to the point @ @ @ @ @ @ @ material for Putin ’ s intelligence services .
Unlike 2016 , the Russians hardly have to invent disinformation—instead , they can simply quote and amplify Trump ’ s own words in order to stoke chaos and create confusion in the U.S. electorate.
” “ Conspiracy theories are the domain of the ignorant and uneducated , who long for an explanation for events or circumstances that are beyond their grasp , ” says Marc Polymeropoulos , who spent 26 years in the CIA ’ s senior intelligence service .
“ When politicians adopt them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ national level , they are weapons that can be used for malicious purposes , and hostile intelligence services can weaponize these conspiracy theories , with the assistance of our politicians ( wittingly or unwittingly ) , and can cause mayhem and chaos for their adversaries.
” “ Trump ’ s obsession with the deep state falls in this category , ” Polymeropoulos explains .
“ He finds that anyone who objects to his policies or beliefs—most of which are far outside the mainstream of traditional rational thinking—are deep staters who want to block @ @ @ @ @ @ @ simple , he observes—and can be easily repurposed to damage the credibility of any agency or official the Trump administration chooses to designate as its foe of the moment .
“ The [ intelligence community ] assesses that Russia is our enemy—there you go , it ’ s the deep state again .
He believes in a new drug to fight Covid , yet the CDC and FDA say that there are not enough trials to state conclusively that the drug works .
Again , the deep state is blocking his agenda.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to adapting deep state credos to serve the bald political agenda of the Trump White House and his campaign—except to acknowledge that the Trumpian version of the deep state keeps defying hard evidence and science , while operating without accountability and transparency .
Regardless of how the balloting plays out in next month ’ s election , it seems clear that a key legacy of Trump ’ s presidency can be summed up in one simple phrase : “ The deep state—c ’ est moi .
”

Public health experts are increasingly shocked by Trump’s politicized policies about Covid-19, which they say endanger the fight against the pandemic.
“If this is a war, we have a commander in chief who has been serving with partisans from the other side—the side that enhances the effectiveness of the virus,” says Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, who ran the CDC from 1998 to 2002 and now leads a global health program at Emory University. The politicized nonresponse to the Covid crisis means that Trump and his chosen inner circle refuse to “reinforce the scientists”—and that, Koplan notes, “is clearly something that gives the virus an additional opportunity.”
The risks of Trump’s unfounded claims were underscored by a September poll showing that two-thirds of Americans say they won’t take a vaccine as soon as it’s available. Those numbers bear out Redfield’s testimony before Congress debunking Trump’s upbeat vaccine prognostications. “Unless we reverse that level of (public) distrust, the pandemic will go on indefinitely,” Koh predicted.
With the election looming, Trump and his tight coterie of loyalists are closing ranks to tar critics inside and outside the administration with the broad brush of deep state.
Trump loyalists seem to be accelerating their attacks on key administration officials, including FBI Director Wray. Just a day after Wray’s September 24 testimony to a Senate panel that FBI officials “have not seen, historically, any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election, whether it’s by mail or otherwise,” Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows laid into him in a CBS interview. “With all due respect to Director Wray, he has a hard time finding emails in his own FBI, let alone figuring out whether there’s any kind of voter fraud.” Meadows reprised the attack a few days later in another CBS interview. “That’s my problem with Director Wray,” Meadows said. “They need to investigate” claims of voter fraud “and make sure that the voting populace—make sure that their vote counts and no one else’s does.”
Once more, the White House’s effort to conjure deep state detractors serves mostly to distract attention from an actual election-related conspiracy hiding (more or less) in plain sight: the renewed specter of Russian interference in the 2020 election cycle. The FBI and intelligence veterans see growing signs that the Kremlin is exploiting Trump’s constant invocation of election fraud to expand its own campaign to scramble the final weeks of the American election so as to hurt Biden and foment distrust in the electoral process.
Earlier in September, FBI Director Wray testified twice before congressional committees about intelligence that Russia is aiming to “denigrate Biden” and “sow divisiveness and discord.” Wray also reported that the Kremlin is using social media and “proxies, state media, online journals” to hurt Biden. And in late September, the FBI and DHS jointly warned that foreign actors led by Russia are spreading disinformation and mimicking unfounded charges by Trump, like the president’s allegation that mail-in ballots will lead to “massive electoral fraud and a rigged 2020 election.”
CIA veterans also report that we’re now witnessing ample cross-fertilization between the conspiratorial messages spread by Trump and Moscow. “Trump’s efforts to deflect from criticism that he is aligned with Russian interests are increasingly difficult to avoid,” John Sipher says. “He has shown a pattern of mouthing Kremlin talking points and disinformation to the point where he has become a source of material for Putin’s intelligence services. Unlike 2016, the Russians hardly have to invent disinformation—instead, they can simply quote and amplify Trump’s own words in order to stoke chaos and create confusion in the U.S. electorate.”
“Conspiracy theories are the domain of the ignorant and uneducated, who long for an explanation for events or circumstances that are beyond their grasp,” says Marc Polymeropoulos, who spent 26 years in the CIA’s senior intelligence service. “When politicians adopt them, particularly those with followings at a national level, they are weapons that can be used for malicious purposes, and hostile intelligence services can weaponize these conspiracy theories, with the assistance of our politicians (wittingly or unwittingly), and can cause mayhem and chaos for their adversaries.”
“Trump’s obsession with the deep state falls in this category,” Polymeropoulos explains. “He finds that anyone who objects to his policies or beliefs—most of which are far outside the mainstream of traditional rational thinking—are deep staters who want to block his agenda.”
The underlying logic is simple, he observes—and can be easily repurposed to damage the credibility of any agency or official the Trump administration chooses to designate as its foe of the moment. “The [intelligence community] assesses that Russia is our enemy—there you go, it’s the deep state again. He believes in a new drug to fight Covid, yet the CDC and FDA say that there are not enough trials to state conclusively that the drug works. Again, the deep state is blocking his agenda.”
There’s no apparent outer limit to adapting deep state credos to serve the bald political agenda of the Trump White House and his campaign—except to acknowledge that the Trumpian version of the deep state keeps defying hard evidence and science, while operating without accountability and transparency. Regardless of how the balloting plays out in next month’s election, it seems clear that a key legacy of Trump’s presidency can be summed up in one simple phrase: “The deep state—c’est moi.”


newrepublic--2020-10-02--The Real Legacy of a Demagogue

The Real Legacy of a Demagogue

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor , a Spanish Civil War veteran from Florida named John Hovan enlisted in the Navy , serving for three and a half years before he received an honorable discharge .
After the war , Hovan worked as a civilian shoe repairman at the Quonset Point Naval Air Station in Rhode Island , until one day he was abruptly fired .
“ This ship ’ s service officer came to me and said he had to tell me something , ” Hovan told me in 2009 .
“ ‘ Look , I ’ ve gotten @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you go , and I can ’ t get any answers why.
’ ” Hovan soon learned the reason : President Harry Truman ’ s Loyalty Program , an executive order that Truman signed in March 1947 to root out Communists and other “ subversives ” in the federal government .
Hovan , who died in 2014 , was part of a contingent of American volunteers that came to be called the Abraham Lincoln Brigade .
They had gone to Spain in the late 1930s to defend a left-leaning , democratically elected government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy .
The Lincoln Brigade had been organized by the Communist Party USA and the Comintern , and Hovan , like many of the volunteers , had been a member of the party .
For years after his firing , he was harassed by FBI agents .
“ They came to the house all the time , ” he told me .
“ They came , too , when I was working at the textile mill .
They were waiting for me out at the parking lot , trying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1958 , Hovan was subpoenaed to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee , which had been established 20 years earlier .
Asked if he was a member of the Communist Party , Hovan invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination .
After his testimony , a local paper ran an article headlined “ John Hovan , Communist , ” and his house was firebombed and painted with swastikas .
Hovan was one of nearly 3,000 workers fired between 1947 and 1956 , the peak years of Truman ’ s order , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and , in addition to the firings , pushed 12,000 people to resign .
The Loyalty Program escalated the Red Scare and helped pave the way for its most notorious practitioner , Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy , whose life is chronicled in Larry Tye ’ s new biography , Demagogue .
Tye , a former Boston Globe reporter , was granted access to previously sealed material from McCarthy ’ s archives ( at Marquette University , McCarthy ’ s alma mater ) by McCarthy ’ s family and to the unpublished memoirs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Jim Juliana , a former FBI agent and McCarthy ’ s lead Senate investigator , by their families .
Although deeply researched , Tye ’ s portrait of McCarthy is highly conventional , steeped in the perspective of liberal anti-communism .
A recurring theme of Demagogue is that McCarthy represents a familiar strain in American politics , on both the left and the right .
Donald Trump , Tye writes , is “ the latest in a bipartisan queue of fanatics and hate peddlers who have tapped into America ’ s deepest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ between McCarthy and other politicians are facile ( Huey Long ) ; sometimes they are more apt ( as with Trump , his main target ) .
But though he draws a rich , complex picture of McCarthy ’ s life , Tye ’ s emphasis on personality comes at the expense of a deeper analysis of the bipartisan tradition of anti-communism—the “ long shadow ” promised in the book ’ s subtitle .
The most consequential legacy of McCarthyism is not the return of a bullying , authoritarian personality to high political @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ideas and policies in the United States by means of red-baiting .
That tradition predates McCarthy ’ s arrival in national politics and postdates his death , and many of the limits it imposes on our politics remain with us today .
Joe McCarthy grew up on a farm in Grand Chute , Wisconsin , a small town near Green Bay .
One of seven children of Irish Catholic parents , he attended a one-room schoolhouse through eighth grade and then began working on his family ’ s farm .
He later enrolled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ four years of education into a single year .
His ambitions and his Catholicism led him to enroll at Marquette , a Jesuit university , where he got a bachelor ’ s degree and a law degree in five years .
In 1936 , at the age of 28 , he ran for district attorney in Shawano County , in northern Wisconsin , as a Democrat and a self-described “ militant New Dealer.
” He lost , but three years later he was elected to a circuit court judgeship .
During World War @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , where he served as an intelligence officer and also volunteered for combat missions , sometimes as an aerial gunner on bombing missions .

The most consequential legacy of McCarthyism is not the return of a bullying, authoritarian personality to high political office, but the persistent suppression of left-leaning ideas and policies in the United States by means of red-baiting.
In 1944, McCarthy ran for U.S. Senate as a Republican, launching his campaign while he was still in the Marines (a violation of military rules). He billed himself as “Tail-Gunner Joe” and exploited and exaggerated his military record. He lost the race in a landslide, but two years later, he ran against the Progressive legend Robert M. “Young Bob” La Follette Jr., in the Republican primary. Young Bob, a son of Wisconsin Governor and Senator Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette, and a key figure in the New Deal’s social welfare and public works programs, was running for his fifth term and barely campaigned against the tenacious and dirty McCarthy. (Another rival dropped his plans to run after McCarthy threatened to publicize his recent divorce.) McCarthy beat LaFollette by 5,000 votes. By then, Young Bob had become a vocal red-baiter, describing Communists and “fellow travelers” as “vermin” who were “infesting and polluting liberal thought,” as he wrote in an article in The Progressive, the magazine founded by his father. LaFollette’s piece, a thinly veiled attack on McCarthy’s Democratic opponent in the general election, probably helped McCarthy win a landslide victory. Young Bob wound up voting for him, too.
Initially, McCarthy expressed moderate views on the Soviet Union. “Russia does not want war and is not ready to fight one,” he said shortly after his election. “Stalin’s proposal for world disarmament is a great thing, and he must be given credit for being sincere about it.” A self-styled country rube, McCarthy resented his patrician Senate colleagues, even as he partook in the spoils (fancy restaurants, lavish gifts) of his office. Eager for attention, McCarthy attempted to gain fame in 1949, when he took up the cause of a group of Nazi war criminals—during the Battle of the Bulge, they had massacred nearly 100 American soldiers who had surrendered. McCarthy led a public campaign that alleged, baselessly, that Army investigators were acting out of vengeance. (McCarthy singled out Jewish investigators; he also referred to Jews as “sheenys” and “hebes” and called one of his staffers “useless, no good, just a miserable little Jew.”)
McCarthy’s defense of the war criminals won him notoriety, but few admirers. He didn’t attract positive national attention until February 1950, when he gave a Lincoln Day speech at the Women’s Republican Club of Wheeling, West Virginia. During the talk, he held up a piece of paper claiming that 205 people “were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department.” In fact, according to McCarthy’s personal secretary, the list contained only a few scribbled notes on another topic: housing for war veterans. “Joe gave us a call not too long after the speech,” William Randolph Hearst Jr., a friend of McCarthy’s, later said. “And you know what? He didn’t have a damn thing on that list. Nothing. He said, ‘My God, I’m in a jam.… I shot my mouth off. So what am I gonna do now?’”


newrepublic--2020-10-02--Biden Should Be Worried

Biden Should Be Worried

On Tuesday night , President Donald Trump delivered a typically over-the-top boast during his debate against Joe Biden : “ I ’ m the one that brought back football.
” He must have been yearning for a return to normalcy—for packed Big Ten football stadiums filled with fans overstuffed and often over-lubricated from a morning of maskless tailgating .
But during the worst pandemic October since 1918 , when 200,000 Americans died from influenza , normalcy , alas , means that presidents and first ladies can get sick .
The stunning revelation overnight that Trump had tested positive capped six @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and demonizing over Covid-19 .
Before the White House released the news , there was a hard-to-dispute truth about the 2020 presidential race : Joe Biden enjoyed a solid lead by almost every measure .
Nate Silver , among the most cautious of the polling analysts , gave Biden an 80 percent chance of prevailing in the Electoral College .
Trump ’ s out-of-control debate performance squandered one of his last opportunities to catch up .
And there had been private talk among Republicans about when to bail on Trump , in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s Senate majority .
Now everything about the election is scrambled , even if Trump makes a fast recovery from this debilitating and too often fatal disease .

Suddenly, it will be Biden’s conduct under the microscope. For the next week or so, political analysts will be debating whether Biden resumed campaigning too quickly and too enthusiastically. Every TV image of Biden will be scrutinized as to whether the 77-year-old former vice president looks healthy and whether he appears vigorous enough to lead the nation at a time of wrenching crises.
Donald Trump—who has mocked the infirmities of others and could barely muster words of mourning for John McCain and John Lewis—is not the world’s most sympathetic patient. But it is still conceivable that his poll numbers could tick up because of some rally-around-the-bedside sentiment. Boris Johnson’s approval ratings jumped sharply in April after he was hospitalized for the virus—though, to be fair, his government was already being praised for its handling of a national lockdown. And at least Johnson has some mastery of the English language, not to mention fragments of classical Greek, while all languages (even English) often appear Greek to Trump.
Fox News and all the other satellites that revolve around Trump live off the Umbrage Industry—as they are always taking public offense over something that Democrats or liberals or a stray barista said. What the arrival of Covid-19 into the Oval Office guarantees is that the right-wing talk-show chorus will soon be screaming about the left’s insensitive remarks about Trump’s health.


newrepublic--2020-10-02--Trump’s “Greatest Recovery in History” Is Wheezing Out

The president was in denial , and now his sunny assessment of the situation is disproven .
No , I ’ m not talking about the news that President Donald Trump and the first lady tested positive for Covid-19 not long after Trump mocked Joe Biden for excessive mask-wearing and insisted that America was “ rounding the final turn in the pandemic.
” Though he got that wrong , too .
I wish the first couple a speedy recovery .
Rather , I ’ m talking about Trump ’ s claim , in those same September 7 remarks in which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ final turn on Covid-19 , that “ we ’ re currently witnessing the fastest labor market recovery from an economic crisis in history—world history.
” Setting aside Trump ’ s made-up “ greatest in history ” claim , which by now we ’ re all well conditioned to interpret as bullshit , labor market recovery was relatively fast last month .
But nobody expected that would continue—and it hasn ’ t .
This morning , the Labor Department reported that the economy added 661,000 jobs in September—less than half as many as it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ months .
The unemployment rate went down a little , to 7.9 percent , but only because there was a steep decline in labor-force participation .
That metric for women , in particular , dropped to its lowest level since 1987 , because schools can ’ t reopen and women still provide most childcare in this country .

This was entirely foreseen. The president’s own son has been remote-schooling since the start of the school year. In a fortunate bit of news, Barron has tested negative for the virus, but his exposure to his mother (and possibly his father; it’s unclear how often the two see one another) means he won’t be permitted to return to his high school this month, as planned, because he’ll have to quarantine.
Beyond this bit of predictable upheaval on the jobs front, the larger problem is the administration’s strong preference for magical thinking over close attention to economic fundamentals. Trump’s delusional belief that the labor market would instantly recover from a pandemic that his administration handled with greater incompetence and corruption than anyone would have thought possible is one of the chief reasons that he’s expected to lose his reelection bid. He may well receive the news from a hospital bed.
If so, Trump won’t be the only one suffering. His fanciful depiction of an overnight jobs recovery has also caused incalculable suffering to working people and to the economy as a whole.


newrepublic--2020-10-02--Trump’s History of Deception Magnifies the Chaos of His Covid-19 Diagnosis

Here ’ s what we know so far : President Donald Trump tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday .
He ’ s experiencing “ mild ” symptoms , according to the White House , though these were apparently significant enough to prevent him from participating in a phone call that was the only official event on his Friday schedule .
First lady Melania Trump , who is also quarantining herself , announced that she had also tested positive and was symptomatic .
A wave of high-level government officials who came in contact with Trump have either tested negative or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that former Vice President Joe Biden , who shared a stage with Trump two days before the president tested positive , has tested negative for the virus , as has his running mate , Kamala Harris .
Beyond that , Americans are in the dark .
It ’ s unclear where or how Trump contracted the virus .
It ’ s also unclear to whom he may have spread it before he tested positive .
He is notoriously averse to mask-wearing , social distancing , and other basic precautions to reduce the virus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cavalier disregard of the pandemic is such that White House officials reached out to reporters in July to express concerns about their own safety .
After top aide Hope Hicks tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday morning , Trump took part in a fundraising event with donors in New Jersey without a mask or other safety measures .
The New York Times reported that White House officials had hoped to keep Hicks ’ s diagnosis from becoming public .
Given this White House ’ s posture toward transparency and the media , it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ how Americans would have learned about Trump ’ s condition if reporters hadn ’ t learned about Hicks ’ s positive test result .
That posture is also a cause for concern going forward .
Trump and his inner circle have given Americans no reason to take them at their word about matters of national consequence .
That mistrust is toxic in the best of circumstances ; it can be dangerous in the worst of them .
Obfuscation about the president ’ s health is already a hallowed American tradition .
In 1893 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the upper jaw of Grover Cleveland while sailing on a yacht off the coast of New York .
Woodrow Wilson suffered from a stroke in 1919 that left him mostly incapacitated for the remainder of his second term .
Franklin D. Roosevelt ’ s health declined so rapidly in his third term that one doctor who examined him predicted he wouldn ’ t survive a fourth term ; Roosevelt died one year later of a cerebral hemorrhage .
Others , including Dwight Eisenhower , John F. Kennedy , and Ronald Reagan , downplayed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump ’ s penchant for medical secrecy goes further than that of any of his immediate predecessors .
When he first ran for office in 2016 , the Trump campaign released an effusive letter from his personal doctor that said Trump “ will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency ” and that “ his physical strength and stamina are extraordinary.
” The doctor , Harold Bornstein , admitted two years later that it was false .
“ He dictated that whole letter , ” he told CNN in 2018 .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ letter .
I just made it up as I went along.
” Trump ’ s most recent public assessment by White House doctors simply summarized a year ’ s worth of medical appointments as opposed to a full physical exam .

And then there’s the incident in November 2019, when Trump made a hasty, unplanned trip to Walter Reed Medical Center with the White House doctor. While the White House claimed at the time it was part of his annual physical, later reporting suggested that it may have been much more serious than officials publicly claimed. A book released earlier this year by a New York Times journalist reported that Mike Pence was told to be on “standby” during the episode. “It never ends!” Trump wrote on Twitter, after the book’s reporting became public. “Now they are trying to say that your favorite President, me, went to Walter Reed Medical Center, having suffered a series of mini-strokes. Never happened to THIS candidate—FAKE NEWS.” (The book did not mention ministrokes.)
Many people who contract the coronavirus either experience few to no symptoms or make a full recovery from them. Others face more severe symptoms and a more grueling path to recovery. Trump’s diagnosis is concerning because he falls into so many risk groups for the virus: He is 74 years old, visibly overweight, and does not regularly exercise or maintain a healthy diet. Covid-19 is also known for its sudden, sharp downturns in patients. Across the Atlantic, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson went from working through the symptoms at 10 Downing Street to entering the intensive care unit of a London hospital within a 24-hour span.
Trump’s leadership style also complicates matters. This is a president who struggles to run the government under the best of circumstances. Some of his top staffers have reportedly worked to countermand or slow-walk his orders when they disagree with them, as documented in the Mueller Report and countless news articles over the last four years. If Trump’s condition worsens, will government officials be able to tell if directives from the White House actually came from Trump? Historians now believe that Woodrow Wilson’s wife, first lady Edith Wilson, became an acting president of sorts after a stroke left the president incapacitated in 1919; some suggest this arrangement lasted until he left office in 1921. At the height of the Watergate scandal, Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger instructed military officials not to carry out any nuclear launch orders from the despondent Richard Nixon without the approval of Henry Kissinger or himself.


newrepublic--2020-10-02--You Don’t Have to Pray for Trump

You Don’t Have to Pray for Trump

Late Thursday evening , President Trump ( or possibly NBA reporter Shams Charania ) broke the news that both he and first lady Melania Trump had tested positive for the coronavirus .
The ramifications stemming from a positive test are gargantuan .
Joe Biden , having faced Trump in the initial presidential debate on Tuesday , has so far tested negative but will likely need to be tested again ; so , too , will the hundreds of people with whom Trump and aide Hope Hicks have been in close contact , often maskless , over the past 48 hours @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most useful for calculating obscene executive bonuses , opened this morning and immediately dipped 400 points .
Vice President Mike Pence , who tested negative , will have to be prepped on what will happen should he need to step into the presidency if Trump ’ s condition worsens or , well , he dies .
But at the end of the day , you can ’ t change any of that .
It ’ s happening .
The only thing any of us can really control for is how we feel , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has erupted among the punditry about the Right Way to respond to this news .
The facts : The president ’ s wanton attitude toward mask-wearing , social distancing , and mandatory shutdowns—and the subsequent inaction by those in elected office who supported him—have contributed to the loss of more than 200,000 lives in this country .
Trump has not shown a modicum of responsibility or regret for his actions ; instead , he spent the summer and early fall politicizing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and prodding his white supremacist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a Bad Man , is what I ’ m saying .
After months of exacerbating a deadly pandemic , the president has now caught the thing he called a hoax .
Do you really have to feel bad for him ?
In the immediate aftermath of his announcement , the Beltway crowd offered a resounding “ Yes !
” MSNBC ’ s Rachel Maddow asked those that pray to pray for the Trumps ’ “ speedy and complete recovery.
” Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said they , too , would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Knowers like Jeff Greenfield wondered aloud if the morally prudent move for Biden included a temporary suspension of his campaign .
On the right , a senior editor at The Federalist intoned about how their church prays for every president and elected leader .
Permanent 24-year-old Ben Shapiro sarcastically commented on how heinously he expected the aforementioned “ blue-checkmark Left ” would respond .

Trump’s positive test does not, and should not, alter one’s preexisting feelings about him, because they were and are a reflection of a painful lived reality, one that is not materially altered by a wealthy man most people will never meet coming down with the coronavirus. If you were pissed or outraged at Trump before Thursday night, that anger has likely not dissipated between then and now; it’s just been briefly abetted by either a sliver of schadenfreude or a pang of guilt. And both responses are fine! He’s going to recover, or he won’t. Your reaction, ultimately, doesn’t matter in the scheme of things.
The emotional response to a situation like this is going to be understandably complex and varied. The weight of Trump’s mortality will supersede the actions of his administration for many, while others see it as karmic justice, and others will sit on the fence, unsure of whether giving in to these kinds of emotions is only to condemn themselves. The truth is, there is no right way to feel or respond to this kind of news, and there’s little use in positing oneself as the arbiter of what a proper response looks like. If you want to pray, fine. If you want to dance a little jig in your kitchen, fine.


newrepublic--2020-10-02--The President and His Country Club Pals Still Have the Best Defense Against Covid

Just a few days ago , Trump flashily procured a mask from his jacket pocket during his debate with Biden to indicate his openness to wearing one .
“ I put a mask on when I think I need it , ” he said grandly .
But a few hours after a high-dollar fundraiser at his golf course in Bedminster , New Jersey , on Thursday , the White House announced that Trump and Melania had both tested positive for Covid-19 .
At the event , Trump and more than a few attendees had naturally gone unmasked , and it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ At one prior event at the same golf course , a mostly maskless audience had booed a reporter who asked about masks , an outburst that Trump then described as a “ peaceful protest , ” to yet more cheers from the crowd .
Throughout the pandemic , the media ’ s coverage of American anti-mask sentiment has mostly focused on the spectacle of gun-toting “ don ’ t tread on me ” Ammon Bundy types .
But the recent Bedminster incident exposes a different type of mask-flouting that ’ s in some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the wealth-induced recklessness of the country club anti-mask set , or the people who have convinced themselves that their money has sufficiently insulated them from possible exposure and who know they ’ ll have access to top-notch medical care even if they do happen to fall sick .
As a local news channel reported , tickets to Trump ’ s Thursday fundraiser ranged in price from $ 50,000 to $ 250,000 .
Those anti-maskers weren ’ t , in other words , flyover-country blue-collar workers railing against science or government overreach ; they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ afford to be careless .
Predictably , a number of donors who came into contact with Trump at the event have started panicking upon hearing of his diagnosis , which doesn ’ t quite explain why they were willing to meet privately with ( and throw money at ) the same president who ’ s continuously downplayed the severity of the pandemic .
( Though one can guess . )
If the pandemic threw the entire country into havoc , it also hit the working class the hardest .
As Labor Institute co-founder @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remains perhaps the greatest predictor of who dies from Covid-19 , and that , in turn , has led to grim racial disparities in Covid death rates .
Affluent people are , as we know , more likely to be able to work from home and have resources like paid sick leave and health insurance .
But even beyond that , the well-off are much less likely to suffer from the underlying conditions that lead to serious Covid-19 complications , including diabetes , obesity , and heart disease ( all of which , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ poverty ) .
It ’ s easy to rail against masks and social distancing when you ’ re not working a service job that puts you in close contact with the public ; it ’ s perhaps just as easy to forgo a mask when you know your wealth probably insulates you in multiple ways from the worst effects of the virus .
Despite what I ’ m sure are now the fervent wishes of plenty of Democrats , Trump could very well make a full and speedy recovery , much like his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who both contracted Covid-19 earlier this year and emerged relatively unscathed .
The same goes for any of his country club buddies who may happen to test positive after a photo op with their president .
It ’ s hard to make the case , as Trump did on Thursday night , that “ the end of the pandemic is in sight , ” but it ’ s clear that a certain kind of immunity already exists for the rich .

Just a few days ago, Trump flashily procured a mask from his jacket pocket during his debate with Biden to indicate his openness to wearing one. “I put a mask on when I think I need it,” he said grandly. But a few hours after a high-dollar fundraiser at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Thursday, the White House announced that Trump and Melania had both tested positive for Covid-19. At the event, Trump and more than a few attendees had naturally gone unmasked, and it wasn’t the first time. At one prior event at the same golf course, a mostly maskless audience had booed a reporter who asked about masks, an outburst that Trump then described as a “peaceful protest,” to yet more cheers from the crowd.
Throughout the pandemic, the media’s coverage of American anti-mask sentiment has mostly focused on the spectacle of gun-toting “don’t tread on me” Ammon Bundy types. But the recent Bedminster incident exposes a different type of mask-flouting that’s in some ways more pernicious. That’s the wealth-induced recklessness of the country club anti-mask set, or the people who have convinced themselves that their money has sufficiently insulated them from possible exposure and who know they’ll have access to top-notch medical care even if they do happen to fall sick. As a local news channel reported, tickets to Trump’s Thursday fundraiser ranged in price from $50,000 to $250,000. Those anti-maskers weren’t, in other words, flyover-country blue-collar workers railing against science or government overreach; they were rich coastal elites who could literally afford to be careless. Predictably, a number of donors who came into contact with Trump at the event have started panicking upon hearing of his diagnosis, which doesn’t quite explain why they were willing to meet privately with (and throw money at) the same president who’s continuously downplayed the severity of the pandemic. (Though one can guess.)


newrepublic--2020-10-02--Of Course Donald Trump Got Covid-19

Of Course Donald Trump Got Covid-19

Two days ago , standing on the debate stage with Joe Biden , President Trump repeatedly downplayed the severity of Covid-19 .
He blew past the fact that more than 200,000 Americans have died from the pandemic in the past year , dismissed the recommendations of top scientists , and mocked his opponent for wearing a face mask .
“ I don ’ t wear face masks like him , ” Trump said of Biden .
“ Every time you see him , he ’ s got a mask .
He could be speaking 200 feet away … and he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ ve ever seen.
” Now , with 32 days to go until the election , Trump himself has Covid-19 .
He , his wife Melania , and top aide Hope Hicks all tested positive on Thursday night , following a rally during which none of them wore masks .
Calling in to Sean Hannity ’ s show , the president characteristically blamed members of the military and law enforcement for spreading the virus .
Later that evening , he tweeted that he and the first lady would be quarantining for the foreseeable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about the electoral implications of the president ’ s diagnosis .
There will be no rallies , the lifeblood of his flailing campaign , for at least two weeks and possibly for the rest of the election .
Some are already questioning if this could , ultimately , be good for the president .
Boris Johnson ’ s popularity shot up after he contracted the virus in April—could Trump ’ s do the same ?
Should Joe Biden shut down his own campaign in deference to the president ’ s diagnosis ?
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but they miss the larger point .
Trump ’ s diagnosis is the culmination of months of recklessness and failure , the ultimate , inevitable end of his administration ’ s disastrous response to a global pandemic .
And that is what should be the decisive factor in the election this November .
Over that period , the president spent nearly all of his energy trying to downplay the effects the virus has had on the country—hundreds of thousands dead , millions unemployed .
First , as detailed most recently in Bob @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by doing nothing .
He has said he wanted to prevent “ panic , ” but it seems abundantly clear that what he really wanted was to prevent a decline in his already dismal political prospects .
( It ’ s a pattern that has played out this week , with White House aides reportedly hoping they could keep news of Hicks ’ s positive diagnosis from the press . )
Fearing that a pandemic would destroy the economy and his best shot at reelection , Trump waffled as cases began piling up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his administration abdicated leadership , leaving governors and state-level officials scrambling .

Preventative measures, notably masks and lockdowns, have been consistently discouraged by the White House. Masks are unmanly, they don’t work; lockdowns are worse than the virus itself. White House staffers notoriously went maskless in deference to Trump’s disdain for masks; according to The New York Times, that has all changed: “Several staff members who have avoided masks were suddenly wearing them.” For the last four months, the president has held large rallies—some indoors, including one that may have led to the death of Herman Cain—despite warnings from experts.
Trump has, throughout, acted as if his political future is more important than the safety of the country. He has not mourned the lives lost or put forth a plan to slow the virus’s spread. Trump has acted as if the virus didn’t exist, as if it couldn’t possibly affect him. It has been a deadly message to his supporters.
Above all, his actions over the past year reflect his extraordinary selfishness and cruelty. Other people get the virus. People in blue states get it. People of color get it. The elderly get it. Donald J. Trump doesn’t get it—he can go about his life however he pleases, ignoring the devastation around him. Even though Hicks was showing symptoms on Wednesday, Trump went to a fundraiser on Thursday, where he did not wear a mask.


newrepublic--2020-10-02--The Anti-Filibuster Armies Are Mounting Up

The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has , unsurprisingly , intensified conversations in Democratic circles about the structural obstacles that a Biden presidency would inevitably face .
Whether or not Biden chooses to acknowledge as much , passing , implementing , and defending the major items of his policy agenda will require , at minimum , eliminating the Senate filibuster and , most likely , reforming what will soon be a 6–3 conservative Supreme Court .
As helpful as it would be for Biden to make a public case for these proposals himself , it will mostly be up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
To that end , organizers are already mobilizing to ensure pivotal lawmakers understand that reform has become a non-negotiable demand for the party ’ s activists .
On Wednesday , Fix Our Senate , a large coalition of organizations established earlier this year to push Democrats on eliminating the Senate filibuster , kicked its advocacy campaign into high gear with a livestream that featured a remarkable testimonial roll call , as leaders of groups ranging from the NAACP to the Sunrise Movement offered up issue-based cases for moving to simple majority rule @ @ @ @ @ @ @ president for policy at Brady : United Against Gun Violence , for instance , spoke about the filibuster as an obstacle to popular gun control measures .
“ I sat in the gallery in 2013 when the filibuster was used to prevent a universal background check—just a law that makes it so that a background check has to be done when you ’ re selling a weapon , ” he said .
“ We ’ ve got to do better .
This isn ’ t abstract .
This is tangible .
This is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Be a Hero , speaking about the defeat of the public option in 2009 , agreed .
“ If it had become law , the public option would have covered tens of millions of people by now , creating huge pressure on the private sector to rein in costs and improve the quality of coverage , ” he said .
“ Instead , the public option died in the Senate .
It had the support of more than 51 senators , but it was killed by the anti-democratic , racist filibuster .
A @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is worse than ever.
” Tefere Gebre , executive vice president of the AFL-CIO , reached back even further into the Democratic Party ’ s legislative past .
“ In the early 1990s , we were told that if we worked our butts off and we elected progressives into the House and the Senate , we would get anti–strike replacement legislation , ” he recalled .
“ Never happened .
The excuse was the filibuster .
And again , in 2009 , in a year of hope and change , our hopes were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Employee Free Choice Act that would have leveled the playing field for working people .
Again , because of the filibuster and the fear of the filibuster.
” “ Sisters and brothers , ” he continued , “ this is serious .
We have to win this election .
We have to get progressives in office after the election .
But we have to ask , what ’ s the point of winning elections , if we can ’ t govern after we win ?
This is what this fight is about .
@


newrepublic--2020-10-05--How Wisconsin Became a Bastion of White Supremacy

Organized labor was once the bedrock of Milwaukee ’ s European immigrant community .
My grandfather , George Prijic , was a card-carrying member of the Milwaukee bricklayer ’ s union for more than 50 years .
His daughter , my mother , was a proud member of the Wisconsin public teachers ’ union for more than 30 years .
In the spring of 2011 , she protested Scott Walker ’ s union-busting legislation at the state Capitol , shoulder to shoulder with thousands of fellow educators , state workers , and students .
Unfortunately , Wisconsin is also the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the state ’ s recent political history has been shaped by a group of white men ( and occasionally , white women ) who have picked up the conservative culture wars where McCarthyism left off .
They cleared and sodded the field that became Trump ’ s golf course , all while insisting that they weren ’ t involved in the game .
Look at Scott Walker , who , with other GOP governors in states like North Carolina , co-authored the instruction manual for his party ’ s voter disenfranchisement strategy .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Staff Reince Priebus , who slunk out of the West Wing after six months on the job without even a book deal to show for it .
In 2019 , Vice President Mike Pence swore in Priebus as an ensign in the Navy Reserve—a rank usually reserved for recent college graduates rather than 47-year-old political operatives .
Priebus beat out 37 other candidates to become a naval human resources officer , despite the fact that he had no prior military experience .
Or look at former House Speaker Paul Ryan , a self-mythologizing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his party ’ s grievance politics while convincing the Washington press corps he was but a humble wonk .
Ryan likes to tell friendly reporters that the only reason he stayed in Washington after Trump ’ s election was to protect the nation from the president ’ s own worst impulses .
By Ryan ’ s telling , he acted as the noble statesman , throwing himself on the grenade of the Trump presidency ( an act of self-sacrifice that entailed securing a tax windfall for the country ’ s richest people ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ difficult to catch on camera as the mythical Hodag , offering little to no comment on police brutality or Black Lives Matter or Trump ’ s racist appeals , even as Kenosha , his own district of 20 years , went up in flames .
Wisconsin hasn ’ t always been this way .
But a lot can change , quickly , when powerful people , feeding off the dark forces of this country ’ s racist politics , are willing to wrest power away from workers by any means necessary .
If @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happen anywhere .
Still , I have to believe my home state can return to its liberal roots .
To think otherwise would be a disgrace to my grandfather , who laid brick upon brick toward a future better than this .

Unfortunately, Wisconsin is also the birthplace of Senator Joseph McCarthy, and the state’s recent political history has been shaped by a group of white men (and occasionally, white women) who have picked up the conservative culture wars where McCarthyism left off. They cleared and sodded the field that became Trump’s golf course, all while insisting that they weren’t involved in the game. Look at Scott Walker, who, with other GOP governors in states like North Carolina, co-authored the instruction manual for his party’s voter disenfranchisement strategy. Look at former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, who slunk out of the West Wing after six months on the job without even a book deal to show for it. In 2019, Vice President Mike Pence swore in Priebus as an ensign in the Navy Reserve—a rank usually reserved for recent college graduates rather than 47-year-old political operatives. Priebus beat out 37 other candidates to become a naval human resources officer, despite the fact that he had no prior military experience.
Or look at former House Speaker Paul Ryan, a self-mythologizing machine who stuck a smiley face on his party’s grievance politics while convincing the Washington press corps he was but a humble wonk. Ryan likes to tell friendly reporters that the only reason he stayed in Washington after Trump’s election was to protect the nation from the president’s own worst impulses. By Ryan’s telling, he acted as the noble statesman, throwing himself on the grenade of the Trump presidency (an act of self-sacrifice that entailed securing a tax windfall for the country’s richest people). These days, Ryan is as difficult to catch on camera as the mythical Hodag, offering little to no comment on police brutality or Black Lives Matter or Trump’s racist appeals, even as Kenosha, his own district of 20 years, went up in flames.
Wisconsin hasn’t always been this way. But a lot can change, quickly, when powerful people, feeding off the dark forces of this country’s racist politics, are willing to wrest power away from workers by any means necessary. If it can happen here, it can happen anywhere. Still, I have to believe my home state can return to its liberal roots. To think otherwise would be a disgrace to my grandfather, who laid brick upon brick toward a future better than this.


newrepublic--2020-10-05--Is Donald Trump Dying?

Is Donald Trump Dying?

To hear it from the president ’ s physicians , Donald Trump is probably the healthiest hospitalized Covid-19 patient in America .
He may be on a regimen of heavy-duty drugs , but he is barely symptomatic .
He may be entombed in Walter Reed National Medical Center ’ s presidential suite , but , apparently for the first time in his presidency , asked for “ documents to review.
” He was doing so well , in fact , that his discharge seemed imminent .
Covid-19 symptoms often get worse in the second week ; Trump was on track @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In an attempt to project his strength , a hoarse and shaky Trump on Sunday announced he was planning a “ little surprise ” for the supporters camped outside the hospital—and subsequently held himself a mini-parade that would surely make Kim Jong Un proud .
Leaks and media reports provide a much different picture , however .
We know that the president has had a fever and that he has been treated with supplemental oxygen on at least two occasions—and that his oxygen saturation level may have dipped below 90 percent , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ know that the president ’ s vital signs were believed to be , at one point , “ very concerning.
” He is being treated with a number of drugs ( none of which , notably , is hydroxychloroquine , the supposed miracle drug he spent most of the spring hyping ) reserved for patients in serious or critical condition .
These drugs also suggest he may have pneumonia .
But the briefings from the president ’ s physician Sean Conley have distinct North Korean vibes—they are relentlessly cheery and dishonest .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seems , knows anything for sure .
The president may be extremely ill—or he may not .
All we know with any certainty is what we ’ ve known all along : that Trump is deeply dishonest and incompetent and only cares about himself , a combination that has put people ’ s lives at risk , up to and including the Secret Service agents who paraded him around on Sunday afternoon .
Trump ’ s medical team ’ s credibility was destroyed less than 24 hours after the president entered Walter Reed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the public that Trump was in good health and that his condition was rapidly improving .
He no longer had a fever and had not received supplemental oxygen .
It only took minutes for that narrative to fall apart .
Shortly after the press conference , the White House pool was briefed by a “ source familiar with the president ’ s health ” —later revealed to be White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows—that the situation was , in fact , dire : “ The president ’ s vitals over the past @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the next 48 hours will be critical in terms of his care .
We ’ re still not on a clear path to a full recovery.
” It ’ s not clear why Meadows undercut Conley .
At any rate , Meadows would quickly change his tune , adopting Conley ’ s mix of bald lies and optimism .
Meanwhile , we learned that the president had received supplemental oxygen ( meaning Conley lied during Saturday ’ s briefing ) , that his oxygen levels had dropped on at least two occasions , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with drugs suggesting his condition was serious .
Then , later that night , the administration released pictures of Trump “ working , ” which included a shot of him apparently writing on a blank piece of paper .

To hear it from the president’s physicians, Donald Trump is probably the healthiest hospitalized Covid-19 patient in America. He may be on a regimen of heavy-duty drugs, but he is barely symptomatic. He may be entombed in Walter Reed National Medical Center’s presidential suite, but, apparently for the first time in his presidency, asked for “documents to review.” He was doing so well, in fact, that his discharge seemed imminent. Covid-19 symptoms often get worse in the second week; Trump was on track to conquer them in only four days. In an attempt to project his strength, a hoarse and shaky Trump on Sunday announced he was planning a “little surprise” for the supporters camped outside the hospital—and subsequently held himself a mini-parade that would surely make Kim Jong Un proud.
Leaks and media reports provide a much different picture, however. We know that the president has had a fever and that he has been treated with supplemental oxygen on at least two occasions—and that his oxygen saturation level may have dipped below 90 percent, a sign of significant infection. We know that the president’s vital signs were believed to be, at one point, “very concerning.” He is being treated with a number of drugs (none of which, notably, is hydroxychloroquine, the supposed miracle drug he spent most of the spring hyping) reserved for patients in serious or critical condition. These drugs also suggest he may have pneumonia. But the briefings from the president’s physician Sean Conley have distinct North Korean vibes—they are relentlessly cheery and dishonest.


newrepublic--2020-10-05--The Best Way to Protect Immigrants From the Whims of Politics

Unlike criminal or civil courts , our nation ’ s immigration courts are housed under the Department of Justice .
And so the decisions and operations of these courts are subject to the whims of politics .
Any time an immigration judge decides an immigrant ’ s fate in the United States , that decision is subject to change , based on the caprice of the attorney general .
If the nation ’ s top attorney objects to a decision , they have the latitude to reverse it and issue a binding precedent for all immigration courts .
During the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ structure poses have become viscerally apparent .
The administration has referred at least 15 immigration cases to the attorney general for precedent-setting rewrites .
Trump ’ s first attorney general , Jeff Sessions , reversed decades of asylum precedence by denying victims of domestic or gang violence the right to qualify for asylum .
He limited continuances , which allowed foreign nationals to postpone their court cases while they waited for the U.S .
Citizenship and Immigration Services to adjudicate their applications .
Sessions also limited judges ’ ability to terminate cases and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to temporarily remove cases from their docket—allowing the backlog to balloon to nearly 1.5 million cases .
Attorney General William Barr ’ s term brought even more change .
He ended judges ’ ability to hold bond hearings for arriving asylum-seekers , forcing Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to hold people in custody while their cases are pending—sometimes for years .
Barr made it more difficult for an asylum-seeker ’ s family members to seek protection unless they could show that they had personally been persecuted .
He also expanded his own power , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he is able to set new , binding precedents .
“ The level of direct interference exercised by this administration has far surpassed any other administration before , ” said A. Ashley Tabaddor , president of the National Association of Immigration Judges .
The administration influences the courts not only on a macro level—for instance , by setting up tent courts at the border—but also on a minute level , through micromanagement of judges ’ dockets and setting case quotas and deadlines .
Nevertheless , in many ways the Trump administration has merely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exerted influence of its own over immigration courts , changing their enforcement priorities ; reshuffling their dockets ; and , in some cases , causing years-long delays .
According to the Migration Policy Institute , under the Obama administration , the attorney general self-referred four decisions for rewrite .

Even before the Trump administration, the construction of the immigration courts differed in crucial ways from that of criminal or even civil courts. Immigrants can be held for as long as their case takes to be adjudicated—sometimes years. In other words, people who haven’t committed crimes can be sentenced to indefinite detention. Unlike in other courts, the burden is on the individual to prove that they shouldn’t be detained. And among judicial systems, these immigration courts are an entirely paper system–currently holding more than one and a half million files.
Prior to the 1980s, immigration judges were under the supervision of the same agency that prosecuted immigration cases. Since 1983, when the Executive Office for Immigration Review was created, the courts have been what’s known as Article II courts, nested under the authority of the president.* For decades, advocates have said that this structure is the root of the problem. Except for one congressional bill introduced in the 1980s, there has been little movement on the issue.
While there are several models of what an independent court might look like, supporters have coalesced around the Article I structure, modeled like the country’s bankruptcy courts. As Tabaddor explained, the court would be legislated by Congress as a standalone court, prohibiting the executive branch to use it as an extension of its law enforcement priorities. The court’s top judges would be appointed by the executive, but staggered, so that every president’s administration appoints appellate judges via Senate confirmation.


newrepublic--2020-10-05--The Right’s Farcical Denial of Systemic Racism

Lately , right-wingers have been on something of a tear denying the existence of “ systemic racism.
” Harvard government professor Harvey Mansfield , writing on the conservative Wall Street Journal op-ed page , Andrew McCarthy in National Review , and Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute , all have argued that systemic racism is nothing but a term designed to lay a guilt trip on white people and also explain away the continuing failure of Black people to take responsibility for their own inadequacies .
To right-wingers , racism only matters when it is conscious and deliberate ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or institutional simply doesn ’ t count in their worldview .
And as individualists , they think we are all masters of our own fate : If people are poor , it is basically their own fault .
Therefore , systemic racism is an impossibility .
The number of true racists in society is trivially small , conservatives believe , and all evidence that Black people are economically disadvantaged just shows that they don ’ t work hard enough or save enough , have too many children out of wedlock , or are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ playbook here is clear : Always identify some reason for racially disparate life outcomes that lets white people off the hook and lays the responsibility for their circumstances squarely on Black people themselves .
It ’ s a classic case of blaming-the-victim rhetoric .
It is undeniable , however , that Black people are materially worse off than white people in a variety of ways indisputably documented in objective data .
A new report on household income from the Census Bureau shows that the median income ( the exact middle of the distribution @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 45,438 in 2019 , versus $ 72,204 for white households .
The poverty rate was 18.8 percent for Blacks but only 7.3 percent for non-Hispanic whites .
These gaps have existed for decades .
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics , African Americans have had lower earnings and higher unemployment for as far back as there is data .
One reason : Research shows that employers are less likely to interview job applicants with Black-sounding names than those with white-sounding names .
It ’ s even the case that Black taxi drivers @ @ @ @ @ @

A new report from the Federal Reserve examines home ownership and net wealth. It shows that Black families have a fraction of the wealth of white families and considerably lower homeownership rates. The two are correlated because housing is a key source of wealth. According to the Fed, at every age, Black families are considerably less likely to be homeowners than white families. This is a key reason why the median net wealth of white families was $188,200 last year, but for Black families, it was just $24,100.
It might seem that this is largely a lifestyle choice—some people prefer to rent while others would rather own a home. But this ignores the fact that government policy dating back to the New Deal systematically disadvantaged Blacks. A just-published study in the American Sociological Review reviews the sordid history of racist housing policy.
Among the causes: The National Housing Act of 1934 established the Federal Housing Administration to guarantee private mortgages and make them more widely available and on much better terms than had been the case previously. The goal was to stimulate home-building to create jobs. Although there was no explicit racist intent in its creation, there was a deeply racist result in the way it operated in practice. Because the FHA favored single-family homes in racially homogeneous neighborhoods, it drained the cities of their white middle class. The FHA also instituted a practice known as “redlining” that effectively made homeownership out of reach for African Americans and other minorities. It would not insure loans in the places where they lived, thus creating ghettoes in all our major cities, ringed by lily-white suburbs.


newrepublic--2020-10-05--Populism Is the Key to Climate Action

Populism Is the Key to Climate Action

Forty-nine percent of West Virginians are “ worried ” about global warming , and 64 percent think citizens should be doing more to address it .
That ’ s in the state that ’ s least worried about climate change—everywhere else , the numbers are higher still .
Getting people to care about climate change isn ’ t the primary problem anymore ( although it would always help to see those numbers grow ) .
The upcoming battle is over what sort of story voters craft around climate : whom they blame for the problem ; what action they will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and politicians can work together against fossil fuel industry influence to make a new , low-carbon society .
A review paper published in September by researchers at Yale ’ s Climate Change Communication lab tried to summarize and organize what we know about how to persuade people to support robust climate policy .
While more research is needed , useful themes are already emerging from the data .
It ’ s enough , if climate-motivated donors and activists have the will , to launch a full-scale strategy to make the most of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ year at which , according to estimates from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , catastrophe could become unavoidable .
And since right now the Democratic Party is the only major party remotely interested in robust climate policy , this will mean changing Democratic tactics as well .
One of the first and clearest lessons from the YCCC review is that lasting changes—shifts in beliefs firm enough to hold over time , and withstand counter-arguments—demand deep engagement .
To do that , one effective strategy is the “ deep canvas , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ non-judgmental conversation with a stranger about an important issue .
In theory , this could occur between friends or acquaintances .
From the activist ’ s perspective , the formula generally is that , in a conversation by phone or in person lasting around ten minutes , the canvasser shares a personal story that does not always relate to the issue at hand , but simply connects to a human feeling—a time you were helped out by someone else , or experienced loss .
Then the canvasser asks the subject to share a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this exchange , tries to guide the conversation to immigration , the humanity of transgender people , November ’ s election , or for our purposes , the need for urgent climate action .
This seems to work better than any other activity identified so far at swaying people from a politics of isolation to one of empathy .
A new podcast called To See Each Other , from the grassroots network People ’ s Action , provides a poignant example of deep canvassing in rural Michigan .
A white man named Ed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ minimum wage , but when asked if the wage should include undocumented immigrants , he gave a firm “ no.
” Ed was then asked about a time when he was in need of support , so he described his own struggle with addiction , homelessness , and incarceration , and how it affected his relationships with his family .
As the conversation deepened , it emerged that Ed ’ s own father was an immigrant , and fled factory labor as a child .
The canvasser asked him to consider the struggle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ light of his father ’ s own story ; reflecting on this altered Ed ’ s position completely .

One of the first and clearest lessons from the YCCC review is that lasting changes—shifts in beliefs firm enough to hold over time and withstand counterarguments—demand deep engagement. To achieve that, one effective strategy is the “deep canvas,” a political buzzword for a vulnerable, nonjudgmental conversation with a stranger about an important issue. In theory, this could occur between friends or acquaintances. From the activist’s perspective, the formula generally is that in a conversation by phone or in person lasting around 10 minutes, the canvasser shares a personal story that does not always relate to the issue at hand, but simply connects to a human feeling—a time you were helped out by someone else or experienced loss. Then the canvasser asks the subject to share a story of their own and, after this exchange, tries to guide the conversation to immigration, the humanity of transgender people, November’s election, or for our purposes, the need for urgent climate action. This seems to work better than any other activity identified so far at swaying people from a politics of isolation to one of empathy.
A new podcast called To See Each Other, from the grassroots network People’s Action, provides a poignant example of deep canvassing in rural Michigan. A white man named Ed confirmed his support for a $15 minimum wage, but when asked if the wage should include undocumented immigrants, he gave a firm “no.” Ed was then asked about a time when he was in need of support, so he described his own struggle with addiction, homelessness, and incarceration, and how it affected his relationships with his family. As the conversation deepened, it emerged that Ed’s own father was an immigrant, and fled factory labor as a child. The canvasser asked him to consider the struggle of today’s undocumented immigrants in light of his father’s own story; reflecting on this altered Ed’s position completely.


newrepublic--2020-10-05--How a Radical Black Tradition Could Buoy Biden in Michigan

In an expansive lot in northwest Detroit , at the corner of 6 Mile and San Juan , roughly 100 people gathered on a Sunday afternoon in August for a pair of events .
The first was an “ All Black Lives Matter ” rally .
The second was the weekly meeting for Detroit Will Breathe , a coalition that has been at the forefront of Detroit ’ s uprisings in response to the grisly police murder of George Floyd in May .
At the time of this writing , the city has seen more than 130 consecutive days of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a new wrinkle .
Detroit Will Breathe had to decide whether it would endorse Joe Biden , the Democratic nominee , for president .
It wasn ’ t a long discussion .
“ I think that it is really important for us to build a movement that is completely independent , ” said Tristan Taylor , an organizer with DWB .
Nakia Wallace , co-organizer with Taylor , put it plainly : The role of long-term activists is to be “ prepared to do what we need to do to get our demands @ @ @ @ @ @ @ truth is , ” she added , “ Joe Biden isn ’ t prepared to do shit for us unless we make him.
” DWB ’ s decision to remain outside the electoral fight , which has been framed as a do-or-die contest for American democracy by no less an eminence than Barack Obama , may seem counterproductive .
Bill Clinton summed up this view in his eulogy for civil rights titan John Lewis , clucking that “ there were two or three years there , where the movement went a little too @ @ @ @ @ @ @ end , John Lewis prevailed.
” The implication was that Stokely Carmichael ’ s more radical politics would have led the civil rights movement to a dead end—and that today ’ s activists would do well to mind the lessons of their forebears .
But this distorts what actually happened .
The civil rights struggle landed its most devastating blows against racial injustice by wielding independent political power , a strategy championed at one time by both Lewis and Carmichael .
As it turns out , through almost no effort of his own @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fall from the nationwide uprising that has reframed the debate around racial justice and further eroded Donald Trump ’ s standing with mainstream America .
And nowhere is that kind of cavalry needed more urgently than in Michigan , a crucial brick in the Democrats ’ so-called blue wall that crumbled on Election Night in 2016 .

If the Democrats win Michigan in 2020, it will not be because of anything they or Biden have done for Black people—indeed, Biden & co. appear to be retreating to the old strategy of appealing to white moderates, despite the fact that Black voters gave him the edge he needed to emerge triumphant in the primary. Preliminary evidence suggests the ploy could pay off in Michigan, as Biden makes up ground with those voters. But if he also benefits from a windfall of Black votes, it will be because of another theory of political power that was operating in the party’s shadow.
Michigan has long been a critical theater in the battle for the Democratic Party’s soul. It was here that conservative figures like George Wallace amassed cultlike followings among white voters. Wallace, Alabama’s segregationist governor, won the 1972 Democratic Party primary in Michigan as the champion of suburban fury, cleaning up with residents eager to express “their anti-busing solidarity by flocking to Wallace’s banner,” as Rick Perlstein writes in Nixonland. Between its viciously segregated geography and its deep pockets of economic misery, Michigan is an easy target for the sort of divide-and-conquer politics perfected by figures like Wallace and Ronald Reagan and eventually Trump. In response, Democrats triangulated to win some of those voters back by doing their best Republican impersonation.
Michigan is an easy target for the sort of divide-and-conquer politics perfected by figures like Wallace and Ronald Reagan and eventually Trump.
This puts Black Michiganders in a terrible bind but also clarifies things. Frymer describes two ways that the awful fusion of racism and the two-party system can be overturned. One is massive electoral reform. The other, he told me, “is when there are movements that are active” and force the interests of Black communities onto center stage. He highlighted the abolitionist era, as well as the period between 1964 and 1966, as “years of great progress” when “movements pushed the progressive party to the left” and set off seismic changes in the country’s politics. Today’s organizers take this vital lesson as their creed: Every significant step the country has taken toward justice begins not with great men signing documents but with ordinary people gathering and demanding a better world.


newrepublic--2020-10-05--Would the GOP Use Trump’s Covid Diagnosis to Start a War?

One of the funniest responses to the president ’ s announcement that he had tested positive for the coronavirus was assuredly not meant to be laughed at .
Florida Senator Marco Rubio issued a stern warning on Twitter in his toughest tough-guy voice : “ Any adversary who views news of @ POTUS testing positive as an opportunity to test the United States would be making a grave mistake.
” This weightless collection of threatening sounds is a characteristic statement from Rubio , a true thought leader among the class of Republican politicians who have substituted “ posting ” for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it is a truly pathetic example of the form .
Rubio may picture himself staring down Iran or North Korea , daring them to try something , but the real audience for that sort of rhetoric is domestic .
Politicians like Rubio need to convince Americans that we face constant external danger that requires eternal vigilance , regular shows of strength , and a Pentagon budget immune to audits or cuts .
Meanwhile , in actual America , in the midst of a pandemic exacerbated by a ruinous absence of basic competence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the president was rushed to the hospital in a helicopter—with the White House seemingly waiting for the markets to close so as not to spook them—after contracting a deadly virus solely because he was too stubborn and stupid to wear a mask consistently or to avoid spending time in enclosed environments with crowds of strangers .
A hostile foreign power is less likely to “ test the United States ” right now than it is to enact the old Onion story about the FBI uncovering an “ Al-Qaeda Plot To Just Sit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” America ’ s primary adversary , the one that could inflict the most real damage on this country , is its own political system and the irresponsible , stupid , craven people who operate within it .

But as Rubio showed us, there is no display of American failure and self-inflicted weakness large or embarrassing enough for our hawks not to respond to with risible belligerence. The audience for this sort of talk may be minuscule—Rubio is one of a few politicians whose primary political strategy is to attempt to graft 2014 conservative politics onto 2020 as everything breaks or burns—but that doesn’t mean that messaging will always sound as toothless and feeble as Rubio’s attempt does.
There is one dark scenario I was trying not to entertain as Twitter spent the weekend speculating about the president’s condition, in the absence of any reliable information or trustworthy spokespeople. If things get worse for Trump (or for those who were infected after spending time with him), a lot of powerful people are going to want to find an external enemy to blame for our national humiliation. Because we are in many respects a very stupid and frequently psychotic country, it is worryingly possible that our ruling elite will respond to a serious threat to their well-being—a threat to their very lives—by lashing out.
The impulse is already on display. Embattled Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler, best known for engaging in suspicious stock trading at the very outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, was already trying out some jingoism mere hours after the Trump news broke. “Remember: China gave this virus to our President @realDonaldTrump and First Lady @FLOTUS,” she wrote on Twitter. Then, after a line break for emphasis: “WE MUST HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE.”


newrepublic--2020-10-06--Melania Trump’s Charmed Pandemic Life

Melania Trump’s Charmed Pandemic Life

Last week , Melania Trump managed to avert a potential P.R .
disaster by contracting Covid-19 .
On Thursday , CNN released audio secretly recorded by Melania ’ s former friend and adviser Stephanie Wolkoff , in which the first lady complained about her treatment by the media ; claimed that immigrant children lied in order to gain asylum ; and griped , maybe fairly , that decorating the White House for Christmas was bullshit .
The story received some early pickup but was soon swallowed by the news that the first couple had both tested positive for the virus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weekend enacting increasingly bizarre and dangerous performances meant to demonstrate his apparent rugged health , from Walter Reed Hospital , Melania convalesced quietly at the White House .
She was , as chief of staff Stephanie Grisham told USA Today earlier this week , “ doing well in the residence and had stayed in contact with the president by phone.
” In the days since , we ’ ve witnessed a familiar cycle of coverage that positions her as a foil to the president—a first lady making responsible choices in contrast to her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a committed right-wing fan base , but as Vox ’ s Anna North recently wrote , she has also always enjoyed a certain degree of sympathy from liberals who have clung to the fantasy that she ’ s simply a hostage of her evil husband .
While the “ Free Melania ” mania cooled a bit after her “ I really don ’ t care ” jacket incident , more recently she ’ s enjoyed some positive press for ( sometimes ) donning a mask while her husband has railed against them and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ White House .
“ Melania is aware of the dangers of Covid-19 , ” a White House source told CNN .
“ Potentially exposing others is not a risk she would take.
” But her bare-minimum response to the coronavirus—wearing a mask , staying isolated after testing positive—doesn ’ t offset her complicity in an administration that ’ s consistently downplayed the pandemic , botched wide-scale testing early on , and attempted to bully states into rash reopenings .
She ’ s also , as it happens , able to self-isolate in five-star @ @ @ @ @ @ @ earlier this week , the Trumps have the option of spending their quarantine in a “ picturesque solarium ” in the White House .
“ It ’ s this beautiful big room overlooking the south lawn , and it ’ s very open and airy and has beautiful views of the Washington Monument , ” author Kate Andersen Brower told the magazine .
Meanwhile , a second stimulus bill containing extended eviction protections for the rest of America continues to idle in Congress , and Trump has said that his administration won ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ until after the election .
The Trumps ’ dual Covid-19 recoveries—and , in fact , the entire outbreak among the extended Trump camp—demonstrate the absurd disconnect between the people in charge of the coronavirus response and those who have borne the brunt of the pandemic .
Trump , of course , received top-notch medical care and experimental treatments unavailable to nearly anyone else ( not least of all the 12 million people who may have lost health insurance during the pandemic ) , and so naturally tweeted upon his discharge , “ Don @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Don ’ t let it dominate your life .
”

On Monday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who had gone maskless during a number of press events, announced that she had tested positive, called herself an “essential worker,” and vowed, “I will begin the quarantine process and will continue working on behalf of the American People remotely.” When millions of other people with white-collar jobs have been working remotely for over half a year—and actual essential workers have been in harm’s way over the same period—it’s difficult to find the decision particularly commendable.
The point isn’t that Melania or anyone else in the Trump camp should be ejected from a luxury convalescence but, rather, that their cushy recoveries offer an instructive look at just how few resources most Americans have when it comes to weathering Covid-19. On the same day that Melania went into isolation, the Labor Department released a jobs report that showed that some 800,000 women had dropped out of the workforce, likely as a result of increased caregiving obligations during lockdowns and the persistent wage gap. “Throughout the year, there have been signs of women buckling under the burden of unpaid labor while juggling full-time jobs,” The New York Times reported. Add to that the millions of people still trying to navigate unemployment, struggling to pay utility bills, or working unsafe frontline jobs, and the president’s triumphant “I feel better than I did 20 years ago!” sounds almost as if he’s trying to tank his own reelection.
And Melania, despite some tepid attempts at tact, is unwilling to offer anything more substantial than “prayers” to less fortunate Covid patients. It would be one thing if the Trumps attempted to leverage their highly irregular pandemic experiences to generate support for universal health care, guaranteed housing, or national paid leave policies. But in the absence of that, when Melania recently tweeted “Please be sure you are staying safe & we will all get through this together,” it hardly seemed possible that she was addressing anyone outside of the other members of the Trump camp. We’ve heard how she talks when she thinks the public isn’t listening, after all.