thenation--2020-11-06--Joe Biden: The Decency Is the Point

Joe Biden: The Decency Is the Point

As Never Trumper Rick Wilson put it early on in this four-year nightmare , everything Donald Trump touches dies—or # ETTD , as the hashtag had it .
Right now , the miserable president is managing to kill much of the joy Democrats ought to be feeling over Joe Biden and Kamala Harris ’ s historic win .
We are still waiting for major news outlets to call the race for Biden-Harris , hours after it became obvious that Trump lost in Arizona , Nevada , Georgia , and , most importantly , Pennsylvania , given what we know about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Even in Trump counties , in all four states , they ’ re mostly mail-ins coming from Democrats , and they are little by little dooming him . )
Still , despite the near-certainty of that win , many of us remain in a defensive crouch waiting for the onslaught of lies and lawsuits designed to obscure the legitimate outcome of this long race .
They can ’ t succeed , but they can make it a very long month .
Luckily , most of the media isn ’ t having it .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ during network news hours to spew lies about “ illegal votes ” Thursday night , almost all of them cut away and began to instead immediately fact-check him , rather than just broadcast his pernicious delusions .
CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale tweeted : “ I ’ ve read or watched all of Trump ’ s speeches since 2016 .
This is the most dishonest speech he has ever given.
” That ’ s the good news : Unlike in 2000 , when networks and news outlets seemed befuddled by the Florida recount and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ systematically missing the central story—the disenfranchisement of the state ’ s black voters in county after county , leading to Al Gore ’ s supposed “ loss ” —this time around they don ’ t seem to be falling for the GOP ’ s con .
Trump Doesn ’ t Have a Path to Victory Through the Courts Biden Is Piling Up a Popular-Vote Mandate for Ending Trumpism There ’ s more good news : Sometime just before dawn , Biden took a narrow lead in Georgia thanks to ballots from Clayton County @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Lewis , who didn ’ t get to see this day .
When I saw that fact , that happy omen , I realized Lewis would want all of us to find joy in this moment .
So choose joy this weekend—and worry about GOP obstruction on Monday .
Here ’ s why : It looks like Biden will win decisively .
He is on a path to take the Electoral College by the same margin Trump did four years ago , 306 to 262 .
Only instead of losing the popular vote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did to Hillary Clinton , Biden will probably wind up with a popular-vote lead of more than 6 million , once all the outstanding California ballots come in .
He did it by remaking the “ blue wall ” of Wisconsin , Michigan , and Pennsylvania that Hillary Clinton lost narrowly—but he also apparently won two states Democrats have long dreamed of turning blue : Arizona and Georgia .
Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has to be one of the first people Biden thanks .
Not only has she worked tirelessly to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ turned Georgia blue—even if she lost her 2018 race by a narrow 55,000 votes—she set up a situation in which Democrats can yet take the Senate .
Both Democratic Senate challengers , Jon Ossoff and the Rev .
Raphael Warnock , eked their way into a January runoff with the GOP incumbents .
Their win would give Democrats a 50-50 tie , which would be broken by apparent Vice President–elect Kamala Devi Harris .
We must also not let Trump destroy the thrill of electing our first female vice president , who happens @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Indian immigrant mother .
I very much wish Shyamala Gopalan Harris , along with John Lewis , could celebrate this moment .
Gopalan Harris , a single mom and scientist , played her own role in making her daughter ’ s shining success possible .
Four years ago , many of us grieved the loss of our dream of electing our first female president ; today , the dream is alive again , as Harris becomes the presumptive front-runner for 2024 or 2028 .
I give you permission : Let ’ s feel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ honest , a year ago , I much preferred the idea of President Harris , or President Elizabeth Warren , to President Joe Biden .
And I let my preference for a female president blind me to Biden ’ s political strengths .
I wrote an unnecessarily snarky piece ; I just did not believe he could win .
He felt like a reach backward when we needed to move into the future , with his old-timey approach to… let ’ s just call it personal space , especially women ’ s , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which seemed delusional .
But apparently a whole lot of people found his message , calling for a return to normalcy and decency , exactly what was needed .
Trump may have survived Covid personally , but his presidency did not .
It has been poignant , and fitting , to see his election night margin of “ victory ” be steadily eroded by a blue wave of mail-in ballots .
They ’ re messages of hope from Democrats trying to protect themselves from Covid , and also protect their country from Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , by using absentee ballots in record numbers—even despite Trump ’ s Postal Service ’ s obstruction .
Biden turned out to be the right man for this moment .
His life has been defined by loss—from the death of his wife and daughter when he first went to the Senate , to the excruciating passing of his son Beau in 2015—making him a reassuring presence on the campaign trail in this year when we ’ ve lost 235,000 Americans , and will lose more still .
He met people ’ s fears @ @ @ @ @ @ @ those who ’ d lost loved ones with his trademark warmth .
The Atlantic ’ s Adam Serwer created another touchstone of Trump-era commentary with his piece “ The Cruelty Is The Point ” back in October 2018 .
By contrast , Biden ’ s decency is the point : It allowed him to unify the Democratic Party , to forge strong personal and even policy bonds with Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to his left , and to make his toughest debate critic , Harris , his vice presidential partner , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could ever trust her .
Yes , I still worry Biden will be too close to Republicans and corporate America , but for now , I ’ ll luxuriate in decency .
We ’ ll be looking at the demographic data behind the Biden-Harris win for a long time .
Unfortunately , many polls were once again wrong , especially in Senate races .
The result is alarming : Not only is Biden still likely to face Mitch McConnell as the obstructionist majority leader—at least until Warnock and Ossoff win their races—he will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Thom Tillis , who instead of being punished for their craven defense of Trump in the last four years were rewarded .
Let ’ s be clear : Trump ’ s voter turnout helped save some vulnerable GOP senators , as well as knock off some vulnerable Democratic House members , even if he couldn ’ t save himself .
Thus Republicans right now have little incentive to try to get Trump to face reality and stand down ; Graham , shamefully , even suggested Thursday night that they should look at options @ @ @ @ @ @ @ award their states to Trump .
( On Friday , he backed away from that . )
Meanwhile , Georgia ’ s GOP secretary of state has already announced that he will oversee a recount of that state ’ s votes , even if it ’ s not yet clear that it ’ s legally required .
Nevertheless , let ’ s celebrate the overwhelming number of people who braved Covid and threats of violence and retribution from Republicans to come out to try to save democracy .
We are almost certainly going @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the realm of 160 million voters—roughly two-thirds of potential voters and maybe 80 percent of registered voters .
We are going to have our first female vice president .
We are going to have an adult back in the White House .
There will be some rough days ahead , whether because of Trump ’ s deranged refusal to leave , or standard-issue Republican obstruction , even if he willingly departs .
Let ’ s store up some joy and energy to fight those battles .
Two days ago , I blamed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outcome .
Watching these blue ballots wash in , I ’ m proud of us .
We didn ’ t do everything we needed to , but ousting Trump was the necessary precondition for what must come next .
People get ready .

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As Never Trumper Rick Wilson put it early on in this four-year nightmare, everything Donald Trump touches dies—or #ETTD, as the hashtag had it. Right now, the miserable president is managing to kill much of the joy Democrats ought to be feeling over Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s historic win. We are still waiting for major news outlets to call the race for Biden-Harris, hours after it became obvious that Trump lost in Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and, most importantly, Pennsylvania, given what we know about where the outstanding ballots lie. (Even in Trump counties, in all four states, they’re mostly mail-ins coming from Democrats, and they are little by little dooming him.)
Still, despite the near-certainty of that win, many of us remain in a defensive crouch waiting for the onslaught of lies and lawsuits designed to obscure the legitimate outcome of this long race. They can’t succeed, but they can make it a very long month.
Luckily, most of the media isn’t having it. When the remarkably deranged president came out during network news hours to spew lies about “illegal votes” Thursday night, almost all of them cut away and began to instead immediately fact-check him, rather than just broadcast his pernicious delusions. CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale tweeted: “I’ve read or watched all of Trump’s speeches since 2016. This is the most dishonest speech he has ever given.”
That’s the good news: Unlike in 2000, when networks and news outlets seemed befuddled by the Florida recount and too often parroted GOP claims, while systematically missing the central story—the disenfranchisement of the state’s black voters in county after county, leading to Al Gore’s supposed “loss”—this time around they don’t seem to be falling for the GOP’s con. Related Articles Trump Doesn’t Have a Path to Victory Through the Courts Elie Mystal Biden Is Piling Up a Popular-Vote Mandate for Ending Trumpism John Nichols
There’s more good news: Sometime just before dawn, Biden took a narrow lead in Georgia thanks to ballots from Clayton County, home of civil rights icon John Lewis, who didn’t get to see this day. When I saw that fact, that happy omen, I realized Lewis would want all of us to find joy in this moment. So choose joy this weekend—and worry about GOP obstruction on Monday.
Here’s why: It looks like Biden will win decisively. He is on a path to take the Electoral College by the same margin Trump did four years ago, 306 to 262. Only instead of losing the popular vote by almost 3 million, as Trump did to Hillary Clinton, Biden will probably wind up with a popular-vote lead of more than 6 million, once all the outstanding California ballots come in. He did it by remaking the “blue wall” of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania that Hillary Clinton lost narrowly—but he also apparently won two states Democrats have long dreamed of turning blue: Arizona and Georgia.
Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has to be one of the first people Biden thanks. Not only has she worked tirelessly to overcome voter suppression and, apparently, turned Georgia blue—even if she lost her 2018 race by a narrow 55,000 votes—she set up a situation in which Democrats can yet take the Senate. Both Democratic Senate challengers, Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock, eked their way into a January runoff with the GOP incumbents. Their win would give Democrats a 50-50 tie, which would be broken by apparent Vice President–elect Kamala Devi Harris. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Current Issue View our current issue
We must also not let Trump destroy the thrill of electing our first female vice president, who happens to be a black woman with an Indian immigrant mother. I very much wish Shyamala Gopalan Harris, along with John Lewis, could celebrate this moment. Gopalan Harris, a single mom and scientist, played her own role in making her daughter’s shining success possible. Four years ago, many of us grieved the loss of our dream of electing our first female president; today, the dream is alive again, as Harris becomes the presumptive front-runner for 2024 or 2028. I give you permission: Let’s feel that joy right now!
To be honest, a year ago, I much preferred the idea of President Harris, or President Elizabeth Warren, to President Joe Biden. And I let my preference for a female president blind me to Biden’s political strengths. I wrote an unnecessarily snarky piece; I just did not believe he could win. He felt like a reach backward when we needed to move into the future, with his old-timey approach to… let’s just call it personal space, especially women’s, and his repeated promises of bipartisanship, which seemed delusional. But apparently a whole lot of people found his message, calling for a return to normalcy and decency, exactly what was needed.
Trump may have survived Covid personally, but his presidency did not. It has been poignant, and fitting, to see his election night margin of “victory” be steadily eroded by a blue wave of mail-in ballots. They’re messages of hope from Democrats trying to protect themselves from Covid, and also protect their country from Trump’s deliberate mishandling of the crisis, by using absentee ballots in record numbers—even despite Trump’s Postal Service’s obstruction. Biden turned out to be the right man for this moment. His life has been defined by loss—from the death of his wife and daughter when he first went to the Senate, to the excruciating passing of his son Beau in 2015—making him a reassuring presence on the campaign trail in this year when we’ve lost 235,000 Americans, and will lose more still. He met people’s fears of the disease and the heartbreak of those who’d lost loved ones with his trademark warmth.
The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer created another touchstone of Trump-era commentary with his piece “The Cruelty Is The Point” back in October 2018. By contrast, Biden’s decency is the point: It allowed him to unify the Democratic Party, to forge strong personal and even policy bonds with Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to his left, and to make his toughest debate critic, Harris, his vice presidential partner, when some Democrats openly asked how he could ever trust her. Yes, I still worry Biden will be too close to Republicans and corporate America, but for now, I’ll luxuriate in decency.
We’ll be looking at the demographic data behind the Biden-Harris win for a long time. Unfortunately, many polls were once again wrong, especially in Senate races. The result is alarming: Not only is Biden still likely to face Mitch McConnell as the obstructionist majority leader—at least until Warnock and Ossoff win their races—he will also face senators like Lindsey Graham and Thom Tillis, who instead of being punished for their craven defense of Trump in the last four years were rewarded. Let’s be clear: Trump’s voter turnout helped save some vulnerable GOP senators, as well as knock off some vulnerable Democratic House members, even if he couldn’t save himself. Thus Republicans right now have little incentive to try to get Trump to face reality and stand down; Graham, shamefully, even suggested Thursday night that they should look at options like having Republican legislatures overrule electors and award their states to Trump. (On Friday, he backed away from that.) Meanwhile, Georgia’s GOP secretary of state has already announced that he will oversee a recount of that state’s votes, even if it’s not yet clear that it’s legally required.
Nevertheless, let’s celebrate the overwhelming number of people who braved Covid and threats of violence and retribution from Republicans to come out to try to save democracy. We are almost certainly going to wind up with record turnout, in the realm of 160 million voters—roughly two-thirds of potential voters and maybe 80 percent of registered voters. We are going to have our first female vice president. We are going to have an adult back in the White House. There will be some rough days ahead, whether because of Trump’s deranged refusal to leave, or standard-issue Republican obstruction, even if he willingly departs. Let’s store up some joy and energy to fight those battles. Two days ago, I blamed “us” for the then-uncertain election outcome. Watching these blue ballots wash in, I’m proud of us. We didn’t do everything we needed to, but ousting Trump was the necessary precondition for what must come next. People get ready.


Trump’s Dangerous Endgame

This tiring election season doesn ’ t seem like it will ever end , as the vote count slowly trudges forward .
But where the count is heading is now clear : The remaining votes in Georgia and Philadelphia are all in heavily Democratic areas .
Joe Biden is on track to become the next president of the United States .
One way to gauge the probable outcome of the vote count is to listen to the rage coming from Republicans .
Donald Trump gave a press briefing on Thursday night where he laid out his claims , which have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was being stolen from him .
“ If you count the legal votes , I easily win , ” Trump said .
“ If you count the illegal votes , they can try to steal the election from us.
” Trump sounded exhausted during the speech , which managed to be paradoxically lethargic in delivery even as it was incendiary in messaging .
“ I ’ ve been talking about mail-in voting for a long time , ” Trump asserted .
“ It ’ s really destroyed our system .
It ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ corrupt , even if they aren ’ t by nature , but they become corrupt .
It ’ s too easy.
” Trump added , “ Detroit and Philadelphia , known as two of the most corrupt political places anywhere in our country easily , can not be responsible for engineering the outcome of a presidential race , a very important presidential race.
” The most disturbing part of the briefing came when Trump noted that his supporters were becoming violent in response to not being allowed to enter into counting rooms .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ paper on all of the windows so you can ’ t see in , and the people that are banned are very unhappy and become somewhat violent.
” It ’ s hard not to read these comments as anything other than a threat .
By Ignoring Latino Voters , Biden Has Made the Election Too Close The Next Battle Is to Stop Trump From Sabotaging the Count Trump ’ s comments were a farrago of lies .
In a fact-check , the AP noted , “ One allegation after another had no basis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that election officials in Pennsylvania and Detroit tried to ban election observers from polling stations.
” A few of Trump ’ s erstwhile allies have pushed back against Trump ’ s allegation of evidence .
The reporting side of Fox News has been adamant in insisting there is “ no evidence ” of the corruption that Trump alleges , although the opinion side of the cable network has frequently aired views supporting the president .
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie has been the most prominent Republican to break with Trump .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” Christie told ABC News .
“ This kind of thing , all it does is inflame without informing .
And we can not permit inflammation without information.
” But Christie ’ s mild rebuke was a lonely one .
With rare exceptions , the overwhelming message from Republicans and the right-wing media has been support of Trump ’ s claims .
When and How Joe Biden Should Declare Victory South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham went on Fox News to say , “ I ’ m here tonight to stand with President @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Philadelphia were “ crooked as a snake.
” Graham also suggested that Republican state legislators in Pennsylvania throw out the votes and decide who should get the state ’ s electoral votes .
Former House majority leader Newt Gingrich went on Fox News to call for Attorney General Bill Barr to arrest Pennsylvania election workers .
“ You are watching an effort to steal the presidency of the United States , ” Gingrich said .
House minority leader Kevin McCarthy conflated the congressional results with the presidential ones .
“ They didn ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lost 15 and President Trump won this election , ” he told Fox News .
McCarthy added , “ What ’ s very interesting here and shows more of the fraud : Not one Republican incumbent lost…How would President Trump lose in an atmosphere like that ?
” As Politico reporter Tim Alberta summed it up on Thursday night , “ The last 3 hours on Fox News has been a parade of fire-breathing Republicans ranting and raving about dark rooms and troves of ballots and a lack of transparency… and it ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ any actual knowledge about the specifics of what ’ s happening on the ground.
” This campaign to delegitimize the election results is unlikely to stop Joe Biden from becoming president .
As my colleague Elie Mystal has persuasively argued , Trump ’ s litigation is too ludicrous to achieve the goals sought , even with the most sympathetic of courts .
You can use the courts to steal a close election , but Biden ’ s eventual victory is not likely to be close .
The real endgame is not to change @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a poisoned chalice , a victory tainted by allegations of corruption that will be believed by tens of millions of Americans who voted for Trump .
Trump is preparing a stabbed-in-the-back myth so that he and his supporters don ’ t have to acknowledge the legitimacy of Biden ’ s presidency .
These unfounded allegations of corruption and election theft run the risk of inciting violence .
Trump is aware of this risk , as his own remarks indicate .
But he ’ s clearly willing to see others get hurt to salve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a political comeback in 2024 .
The Election Isn ’ t Over Until Trump ’ s Gone On Thursday night , Philadelphia ’ s WPVI reported that “ police are investigating an alleged plot to attack the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia ” where the votes are being counted .
Trump ’ s endgame for the election is shaping up clearly : He will claim victory and muddy the waters by suggesting the votes against him were fraudulent .
This might provoke sporadic political violence , but it will also make Trump a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is on the cusp of securing the presidency , but Trump is already hard at work to undermine the next administration .
There ’ s long been a hope among anti-Trump forces that in a moment of crisis , leading Republicans would break with him .
That hasn ’ t happened so far , with a few negligible exceptions .
Nor is a Republican break with Trump likely .
The myth of the stolen election is on its way to becoming Republican gospel .

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This tiring election season doesn’t seem like it will ever end, as the vote count slowly trudges forward. But where the count is heading is now clear: The remaining votes in Georgia and Philadelphia are all in heavily Democratic areas. Joe Biden is on track to become the next president of the United States.
One way to gauge the probable outcome of the vote count is to listen to the rage coming from Republicans. Donald Trump gave a press briefing on Thursday night where he laid out his claims, which have no factual basis, that the election was being stolen from him. “If you count the legal votes, I easily win,” Trump said. “If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.”
Trump sounded exhausted during the speech, which managed to be paradoxically lethargic in delivery even as it was incendiary in messaging. “I’ve been talking about mail-in voting for a long time,” Trump asserted. “It’s really destroyed our system. It’s a corrupt system and it makes people corrupt, even if they aren’t by nature, but they become corrupt. It’s too easy.” Trump added, “Detroit and Philadelphia, known as two of the most corrupt political places anywhere in our country easily, cannot be responsible for engineering the outcome of a presidential race, a very important presidential race.”
The most disturbing part of the briefing came when Trump noted that his supporters were becoming violent in response to not being allowed to enter into counting rooms. Trump said, “They put a paper on all of the windows so you can’t see in, and the people that are banned are very unhappy and become somewhat violent.” It’s hard not to read these comments as anything other than a threat. More From Jeet Heer The Indigenous Roots of Robbie Robertson’s Rock and Roll Revolution August 14, 2023 Why Does This Racist Keep Getting Silicon Valley Money? August 11, 2023 When Phallocrats Go Limp August 4, 2023
Trump’s comments were a farrago of lies. In a fact-check, the AP noted, “One allegation after another had no basis in fact, such as his accusation that election officials in Pennsylvania and Detroit tried to ban election observers from polling stations.”
A few of Trump’s erstwhile allies have pushed back against Trump’s allegation of evidence. The reporting side of Fox News has been adamant in insisting there is “no evidence” of the corruption that Trump alleges, although the opinion side of the cable network has frequently aired views supporting the president.
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie has been the most prominent Republican to break with Trump. “We heard nothing today about any evidence,” Christie told ABC News. “This kind of thing, all it does is inflame without informing. And we cannot permit inflammation without information.” Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
But Christie’s mild rebuke was a lonely one. With rare exceptions, the overwhelming message from Republicans and the right-wing media has been support of Trump’s claims. Election 2020 When and How Joe Biden Should Declare Victory John Nichols
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham went on Fox News to say, “I’m here tonight to stand with President Trump.” Graham claimed the elections in Philadelphia were “crooked as a snake.” Graham also suggested that Republican state legislators in Pennsylvania throw out the votes and decide who should get the state’s electoral votes.
Former House majority leader Newt Gingrich went on Fox News to call for Attorney General Bill Barr to arrest Pennsylvania election workers. “You are watching an effort to steal the presidency of the United States,” Gingrich said.
House minority leader Kevin McCarthy conflated the congressional results with the presidential ones. “They didn’t defeat one Republican incumbent and they lost 15 and President Trump won this election,” he told Fox News. McCarthy added, “What’s very interesting here and shows more of the fraud: Not one Republican incumbent lost…How would President Trump lose in an atmosphere like that?”
As Politico reporter Tim Alberta summed it up on Thursday night, “The last 3 hours on Fox News has been a parade of fire-breathing Republicans ranting and raving about dark rooms and troves of ballots and a lack of transparency… and it’s obvious that none of them have any actual knowledge about the specifics of what’s happening on the ground.” Current Issue View our current issue
This campaign to delegitimize the election results is unlikely to stop Joe Biden from becoming president. As my colleague Elie Mystal has persuasively argued, Trump’s litigation is too ludicrous to achieve the goals sought, even with the most sympathetic of courts. You can use the courts to steal a close election, but Biden’s eventual victory is not likely to be close.
The real endgame is not to change the election results but to hand Biden a poisoned chalice, a victory tainted by allegations of corruption that will be believed by tens of millions of Americans who voted for Trump. Trump is preparing a stabbed-in-the-back myth so that he and his supporters don’t have to acknowledge the legitimacy of Biden’s presidency.
These unfounded allegations of corruption and election theft run the risk of inciting violence. Trump is aware of this risk, as his own remarks indicate. But he’s clearly willing to see others get hurt to salve his ego—and perhaps prepare the path for a political comeback in 2024. Election 2020 The Election Isn’t Over Until Trump’s Gone John Nichols
On Thursday night, Philadelphia’s WPVI reported that “police are investigating an alleged plot to attack the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia” where the votes are being counted.
Trump’s endgame for the election is shaping up clearly: He will claim victory and muddy the waters by suggesting the votes against him were fraudulent. This might provoke sporadic political violence, but it will also make Trump a martyr in a righteous cause. Biden is on the cusp of securing the presidency, but Trump is already hard at work to undermine the next administration.
There’s long been a hope among anti-Trump forces that in a moment of crisis, leading Republicans would break with him. That hasn’t happened so far, with a few negligible exceptions. Nor is a Republican break with Trump likely. The myth of the stolen election is on its way to becoming Republican gospel.


thenation--2020-11-06--Texas Democrats Thought 2020 Would Be a Banner Year. Instead, It Was a Catastrophe.

Headed into election night , Democrats were bullish about their chances of flipping the Texas House , seizing a handful of GOP congressional seats , and maybe even delivering the state ’ s 38 electoral votes to Joe Biden .
After promising gains in 2018 , Texas Democrats had support from national leadership , well-funded candidates , and grassroots enthusiasm .
They also had what they thought to be a clear pathway to power centered on the state ’ s purpling suburbs .
And there was sky-high turnout in early voting , including millions of new voters that the party @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Texas .
But once again , Democrats ’ high hopes were decimated .
Their goal of making further inroads in suburban districts proved to be an expensive pipe dream that could ultimately put Democrats in a deeper hole than before .
Seizing the Texas House was the top priority for the state party , and for many national Democratic-allied groups .
Hoping to prevent another decade of GOP gerrymandering , Democrats pumped tens of millions of dollars into a massive coordinated effort that sought to wrest a lever of state government from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two decades .
The plan was centered on the nine suburban districts where Beto O ’ Rourke beat Ted Cruz in 2018 , as well as expanding support into more districts—as many as 22 in all—where O ’ Rourke was relatively competitive .
In anticipation of success , four Democrats announced their candidacy for speaker in the last week and a half .
Launching his bid on Election Day , El Paso Representative Joe Moody pronounced : “ Before the day is done , Democrats will take the Texas House.
” But the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chamber did not loosen at all , as Republicans made an aggressive push in the homestretch to protect their majority .
While there are still a few tight races that have not yet been called , it ’ s possible that Democrats will have a net gain of zero seats .
Democrats may well lose all but one of the nine seats that O ’ Rourke carried in 2018 , along with every other contested state House race .
The two remaining Dallas Republican state representatives , Angie Chen Button and Morgan Meyer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first to fall , but held on with minuscule leads .
In Collin County , which Democrats saw as a key suburban battleground , Republican incumbent Matt Shaheen leads by just 1,000 votes .
Meyer ’ s Democratic opponent conceded Wednesday , but the other two races have not yet been called .
The one seat that Democrats did win by ousting Houston Representative Sarah Davis , a relatively moderate Republican in the House who supports abortion rights , was negated in a nearby Harris County district where first-term Democrat Gina Calanni lost @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she beat in 2018 .
The climb to a House majority required winning in strongly gerrymandered GOP districts , but nobody publicly predicted that Democrats would flop like this .
Meanwhile , the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had made Texas its biggest battleground , targeting several congressional districts largely centered around Austin , Houston , and the suburbs of North Texas around Dallas .
As of Wednesday morning , Republicans likely held on to all 10 seats that Democrats made a play for .
Then there were the statewide elections .
Polling in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Biden running neck-and-neck with Donald Trump in Texas .
But with nearly all the votes in , Trump won the state by six percentage points .
That this was the closest presidential margin since 1996 is small comfort for Democrats .
Despite a big urban turnout , Biden ’ s margins were nowhere near large enough to counteract the deep-red rural vote .
Another worrisome trend for Democrats was Biden ’ s dire underperformance along the Texas-Mexico border , including the Rio Grande Valley , which has been wracked by Covid-19 .
Local @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has neglected the region , and in this election it largely focused on suburbs hundreds of miles away .
While Biden mostly matched total votes from previous elections , he underperformed Clinton ’ s 2016 margin in Cameron and Hidalgo—the two urban counties in the Valley—by about 10 points as the Republican vote surged .
Biden did even worse in rural Starr County , where the margin swung in Trump ’ s favor by nearly 30 points , and Zapata County , where Trump won by a few hundred votes .
Democratic US @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against John Cornyn was another blow .
While she was not expected to win , it was seen as a competitive race .
But Cornyn easily skated to victory by 10 percentage points , outperforming Trump , while Hegar lagged behind Biden .
Trump Doesn ’ t Have a Path to Victory Through the Courts One of the biggest takeaways from the election is that there is a clear ceiling for Democrats in the growing suburbs .
In 2018 , suburban voters proved allergic to Cruz , Trump , or both , by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and then flipping back to the Republican side further down the ballot .
It ’ s not yet clear how Biden did in specific districts , but he ran ahead or near O ’ Rourke in places like Fort Bend County , Collin County , and Tarrant County—home to many of the targeted House districts—while Democrats continued to suffer down-ballot .
Democrats ’ electoral failure—and failure to manage expectations—is a gut punch to the burgeoning liberal grassroots .
Now , Republican dominance of state government remains unfettered , as is the GOP ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years to come in the next redistricting cycle .

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was reported in collaboration the Texas Observer.
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Headed into election night, Democrats were bullish about their chances of flipping the Texas House, seizing a handful of GOP congressional seats, and maybe even delivering the state’s 38 electoral votes to Joe Biden.
After promising gains in 2018, Texas Democrats had support from national leadership, well-funded candidates, and grassroots enthusiasm. They also had what they thought to be a clear pathway to power centered on the state’s purpling suburbs. And there was sky-high turnout in early voting, including millions of new voters that the party has long insisted would turn the tide in Texas.
But once again, Democrats’ high hopes were decimated. Their goal of making further inroads in suburban districts proved to be an expensive pipe dream that could ultimately put Democrats in a deeper hole than before.
Seizing the Texas House was the top priority for the state party, and for many national Democratic-allied groups. Hoping to prevent another decade of GOP gerrymandering, Democrats pumped tens of millions of dollars into a massive coordinated effort that sought to wrest a lever of state government from Republicans for the first time in nearly two decades. The plan was centered on the nine suburban districts where Beto O’Rourke beat Ted Cruz in 2018, as well as expanding support into more districts—as many as 22 in all—where O’Rourke was relatively competitive. In anticipation of success, four Democrats announced their candidacy for speaker in the last week and a half. Launching his bid on Election Day, El Paso Representative Joe Moody pronounced: “Before the day is done, Democrats will take the Texas House.” Related Article Portland Reelected ‘Tear Gas Ted’—but Still Wants Police Reform Zoë Carpenter
But the GOP’s grip on the lower chamber did not loosen at all, as Republicans made an aggressive push in the homestretch to protect their majority. While there are still a few tight races that have not yet been called, it’s possible that Democrats will have a net gain of zero seats. Democrats may well lose all but one of the nine seats that O’Rourke carried in 2018, along with every other contested state House race. The two remaining Dallas Republican state representatives, Angie Chen Button and Morgan Meyer, were expected to be among the first to fall, but held on with minuscule leads. In Collin County, which Democrats saw as a key suburban battleground, Republican incumbent Matt Shaheen leads by just 1,000 votes. Meyer’s Democratic opponent conceded Wednesday, but the other two races have not yet been called. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
The one seat that Democrats did win by ousting Houston Representative Sarah Davis, a relatively moderate Republican in the House who supports abortion rights, was negated in a nearby Harris County district where first-term Democrat Gina Calanni lost in a rematch against the GOP incumbent she beat in 2018.
The climb to a House majority required winning in strongly gerrymandered GOP districts, but nobody publicly predicted that Democrats would flop like this. Meanwhile, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had made Texas its biggest battleground, targeting several congressional districts largely centered around Austin, Houston, and the suburbs of North Texas around Dallas. As of Wednesday morning, Republicans likely held on to all 10 seats that Democrats made a play for. Current Issue View our current issue
Then there were the statewide elections. Polling in the final weeks of the campaign showed Biden running neck-and-neck with Donald Trump in Texas. But with nearly all the votes in, Trump won the state by six percentage points. That this was the closest presidential margin since 1996 is small comfort for Democrats. Despite a big urban turnout, Biden’s margins were nowhere near large enough to counteract the deep-red rural vote.
Another worrisome trend for Democrats was Biden’s dire underperformance along the Texas-Mexico border, including the Rio Grande Valley, which has been wracked by Covid-19. Local organizers have long warned that the party has neglected the region, and in this election it largely focused on suburbs hundreds of miles away. While Biden mostly matched total votes from previous elections, he underperformed Clinton’s 2016 margin in Cameron and Hidalgo—the two urban counties in the Valley—by about 10 points as the Republican vote surged. Biden did even worse in rural Starr County, where the margin swung in Trump’s favor by nearly 30 points, and Zapata County, where Trump won by a few hundred votes.
Democratic US Senate candidate MJ Hegar’s race against John Cornyn was another blow. While she was not expected to win, it was seen as a competitive race. But Cornyn easily skated to victory by 10 percentage points, outperforming Trump, while Hegar lagged behind Biden. Related Article Trump Doesn’t Have a Path to Victory Through the Courts Elie Mystal
One of the biggest takeaways from the election is that there is a clear ceiling for Democrats in the growing suburbs. In 2018, suburban voters proved allergic to Cruz, Trump, or both, by casting their vote for O’Rourke and then flipping back to the Republican side further down the ballot. It’s not yet clear how Biden did in specific districts, but he ran ahead or near O’Rourke in places like Fort Bend County, Collin County, and Tarrant County—home to many of the targeted House districts—while Democrats continued to suffer down-ballot.
Democrats’ electoral failure—and failure to manage expectations—is a gut punch to the burgeoning liberal grassroots. Now, Republican dominance of state government remains unfettered, as is the GOP’s ability to lock in majorities for years to come in the next redistricting cycle.


thenation--2020-11-08--The Biden-Harris Victory Brings ‘An Outpouring of Joy, Hope, Renewed Faith’

Madison , Wis.—The car horns started honking to the rhythm of the chant “ This is what democracy looks like !
” People came out of the houses and apartments , banging on pots and pans .
Cheers went up .
The music rose .
Fireworks exploded .
There was no sigh of relief when the news came that Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. had finally defeated Donald Trump .
There was jubilant recognition of the fact that , as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris declared at Saturday night ’ s victory party in Wilmington , Del.
, “ When our very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ election , with the very soul of America at stake , and the world watching , you ushered in a new day for America.
” This was a spontaneous celebration that Biden noted when—after taking the Wilmington stage to the tune of Bruce Springsteen ’ s “ We Take Care of Our Own ” —the President-elect expressed surprise and delight that “ tonight , we ’ re seeing all over this nation , all cities in all parts of the country , indeed across the world , an outpouring of joy , of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bring a better day.
” From Monument Square in Portland , Maine , to Pershing Square in Los Angeles , a nationwide block party erupted on Saturday .
People waved “ Biden ” flags , they pumped up the volume on boom boxes , and they danced to Queen ’ s “ We Are the Champions ” and YG & Nipsey Hussle ’ s “ FDT.
” It was cathartic .
It was ecstatic .
After all the tense weeks leading up the November 3 election , and all the tense days of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on their “ Vote !
Vote !
Vote !
” masks and their “ Team Joe ” T-shirts and their “ We ’ ve Got Her Back !
” Kamala Harris stickers and hit the streets .
Recalling that Donald Trump had sought to undermine trust in the voting and vote counting processes of Pennsylvania ’ s largest city by claiming , “ Bad things happen in Philadelphia , ” people gathered in the city that put Biden over the top with signs announcing , “ Good Things Happen in Philadelphia.
” Outside @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Lives Matter Plaza , where just months ago peaceful protesters were gassed to make way for a presidential photo-op , and sang , “ Na na na na , na na na na , hey hey , goodbye.
” And everywhere people showed up with handmade signs that taunted the former reality-TV star with his “ The Apprentice ” catchphrase : “ You ’ re fired !
” Georgia Voters Can Put an End to Mitch McConnell ’ s Grim Reaping When and How Joe Biden Should Declare Victory Biden Is Piling Up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this wasn ’ t just about beating Trump .
This was a collective expression of the sentiment that Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders gave voice to when he heard the news Saturday and said , “ Thank God , democracy won out !
” “ Today we celebrate the power of the people , ” declared Jennifer Epps-Addison , who was on the Capitol Square in Madison , Wis. , for a Saturday morning “ Voters Decide ” rally that , after word came of the call for Biden , turned into a party @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the making .
Epps-Addison , the veteran Wisconsin activist who now serves as network president and co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy , wasn ’ t just celebrating the beginning of the end of Trump ’ s presidency .
“ This election will go down in history , ” she explained .
“ Joe Biden has won with more votes than any other president in the history of this country ; the United States has elected the first Black and Indian American woman as vice president ; and millions more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ election than ever before , despite a raging pandemic and the hurdles of voter intimidation , suppression , and misinformation put in their way.
” Those words resonated in Wisconsin , a state with a progressive history that in 2016 was one of the three “ Blue Wall ” states that abandoned decades-long patterns of voting for Democrats for president and backed Trump in 2016 .
Wisconsin , Michigan , and Pennsylvania tipped the Electoral College balance to Trump four years ago , and from then on progressives in those states carried a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ off , as first Wisconsin , then Michigan , and , finally , Pennsylvania came home to the Democratic fold .
After CNN ’ s Wolf Blitzer announced at 11:24 a.m. on the East Coast that Pennsylvania had gone for Biden , the news swept across the time zones of a nation where the Biden-Harris ticket was winning the popular vote by more than four million ballots but still needed to close the deal in the Electoral College .
Pennsylvania took Biden over the 270 mark , but people across the country all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
That was especially true in Wisconsin .
“ I can ’ t mask my feelings on this historic day !
” announced US Representative Gwen Moore , the Milwaukee Democrat who kicked off this summer ’ s virtual Democratic National Convention in that city .
Like Detroit and Philadelphia , Milwaukee delivered essential votes for the Biden-Harris ticket that defeated a president who devoted much of his campaign to savage attacks on “ Democratic cities.
” So , too , did Madison , the historic liberal bastion of Wisconsin where people have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ streets for the Women ’ s March that protested the 45th president ’ s inauguration , for demonstrations against Trump ’ s attacks on immigrants and refugees , and for rallies calling for his impeachment .
Most of those gatherings took place outside the majestic state Capitol , where the great Midwestern progressive Robert M. La Follette once served as governor , and where the efforts of a lesser Midwestern governor , Scott Walker , to undo La Follette ’ s legacy in 2011 inspired mass protests .
The crowds came again on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the steps of the Capitol and pumped up the volume .
High school students waved rainbow banners .
Grandmothers wore “ Do it for Ruth ” T-shirts .
A flag-waving car caravan organized by the immigrant rights and labor rights group Voces de la Frontera circled the Square .
Black Lives Matter activists cheered for Biden and Harris and for a speaker ’ s message that , “ We ’ re going to micromanage this administration… make sure they get the job done.
” Joe Biden : The Decency Is the Point @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to keep the pressure on .
“ As the Biden/Harris administration takes office , they are faced with a clear mandate from the people : They must take action to turn the tide of the Covid-19 pandemic , lead us out of this economic crisis to an economy that works for all , take bold steps towards advancing racial justice , implement humane immigration policies , transform our justice system , make up for lost ground in fighting climate change , and ensure quality healthcare for all , ” said Epps-Addison .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bold progressive vision , and overcome at every turn those—in Congress and in the judiciary—who will try to use their power to undermine the will of the people .
That means we have more work to do.
” Yes , more work to do .
But also , as Gwen Moore says , a celebration of of the power of the people who have ended “ the chapter of the cruel , callous , and corrupt Trump administration .
The nightmare is finally over .
”

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M adison, W is.—The car horns started honking to the rhythm of the chant “This is what democracy looks like!” People came out of the houses and apartments, banging on pots and pans. Cheers went up. The music rose. Fireworks exploded. There was no sigh of relief when the news came that Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. had finally defeated Donald Trump. There was jubilant recognition of the fact that, as Vice President–elect Kamala Harris declared at Saturday night’s victory party in Wilmington, Del., “When our very democracy was on the ballot in this election, with the very soul of America at stake, and the world watching, you ushered in a new day for America.”
This was a spontaneous celebration that Biden noted when—after taking the Wilmington stage to the tune of Bruce Springsteen’s “We Take Care of Our Own”—the president-elect expressed surprise and delight that “tonight, we’re seeing all over this nation, all cities in all parts of the country, indeed across the world, an outpouring of joy, of hope, renewed faith that tomorrow will bring a better day.”
From Monument Square in Portland, Me., to Pershing Square in Los Angeles, a nationwide block party erupted on Saturday. People waved “Biden” flags. They pumped up the volume on boom boxes and they danced to Queen’s “We Are the Champions” and YG & Nipsey Hussle’s “FDT.” It was cathartic. It was ecstatic. After all the tense weeks leading up the November 3 election, and all the tense days of counting the ballots, finally people put on their “Vote! Vote! Vote!” masks and their “Team Joe” T-shirts and their “We’ve Got Her Back!” Harris stickers and hit the streets.
Recalling that Donald Trump had sought to undermine trust in the voting and vote-counting processes of Pennsylvania’s largest city by claiming, “Bad things happen in Philadelphia,” people gathered in the city that put Biden over the top with signs announcing, “Good Things Happen in Philadelphia.” Outside the White House, crowds filled Black Lives Matter Plaza, where just months ago peaceful protesters were gassed to make way for a presidential photo-op, and sang, “Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, goodbye.” And everywhere people showed up with handmade signs that taunted the former reality-TV star with his The Apprentice catchphrase: “You’re fired!” More From John Nichols A GOP Debate Without Trump Is the Definition of Pointlessness August 11, 2023 A Win for Abortion Rights, a Win for Democracy: Ohio Voters Reject Issue 1 August 9, 2023 The Biggest Threat to Donald Trump Could Be the Constitution Itself August 4, 2023
But this wasn’t just about beating Trump. This was a collective expression of the sentiment that Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders gave voice to when he heard the news Saturday and said, “Thank God, democracy won out!”
“Today we celebrate the power of the people,” declared Jennifer Epps-Addison, who was on the Capitol Square in Madison, Wis., for a Saturday morning “Voters Decide” rally that, after word came of the call for Biden, turned into a party that in many senses had been four years in the making. Epps-Addison, the veteran Wisconsin activist who now serves as network president and co–executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy, wasn’t just celebrating the beginning of the end of Trump’s presidency. “This election will go down in history,” she explained. “Joe Biden has won with more votes than any other president in the history of this country; the United States has elected the first Black and Indian American woman as vice president; and millions more people turned out to vote in this election than ever before, despite a raging pandemic and the hurdles of voter intimidation, suppression, and misinformation put in their way.” Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
Those words resonated in Wisconsin, a state with a progressive history that in 2016 was one of the three “blue wall” states that abandoned decades-long patterns of voting for Democrats for president and backed Trump in 2016. Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania tipped the Electoral College balance to Trump four years ago, and from then on, progressives in those states carried a burden. This week they threw it off, as first Wisconsin, then Michigan, and, finally, Pennsylvania came home to the Democratic fold. Current Issue View our current issue
After CNN’s Wolf Blitzer announced at 11:24 am on the East Coast that Pennsylvania had gone for Biden, the news swept across the time zones of a nation where the Biden-Harris ticket was winning the popular vote by more than 4 million ballots but still needed to close the deal in the Electoral College. Pennsylvania took Biden over the 270 mark, but people across the country all knew they’d done their part.
That was especially true in Wisconsin. “I can’t mask my feelings on this historic day!” announced US Representative Gwen Moore, the Milwaukee Democrat who kicked off this summer’s virtual Democratic National Convention in that city. Like Detroit and Philadelphia, Milwaukee delivered essential votes for the Biden-Harris ticket that defeated a president who devoted much of his campaign to savage attacks on “Democratic cities.”
So, too, did Madison, the historic liberal bastion of Wisconsin where people have over the past four years filled the streets for the Women’s March that protested the 45th president’s inauguration, for demonstrations against Trump’s attacks on immigrants and refugees, and for rallies calling for his impeachment. Most of those gatherings took place outside the majestic state capitol, where the great Midwestern progressive Robert M. La Follette once served as governor, and where the efforts of a lesser Midwestern governor, Scott Walker, to undo La Follette’s legacy in 2011 inspired mass protests. The crowds came again on Saturday. deejays set up on the steps of the capitol and pumped up the volume. High school students waved rainbow banners. Grandmothers wore “Do it for Ruth” T-shirts. A flag-waving car caravan organized by the immigrant rights and labor rights group Voces de la Frontera circled the square. Black Lives Matter activists cheered for Biden and Harris and for a speaker who promised, “We’re going to micromanage this administration…make sure they get the job done.” Celebration Time Joe Biden: The Decency Is the Point Joan Walsh
No doubt, it will be necessary to keep the pressure on. “As the Biden/Harris administration takes office, they are faced with a clear mandate from the people: They must take action to turn the tide of the Covid-19 pandemic, lead us out of this economic crisis to an economy that works for all, take bold steps towards advancing racial justice, implement humane immigration policies, transform our justice system, make up for lost ground in fighting climate change, and ensure quality health care for all,” said Epps-Addison. “They will need to lead with a bold progressive vision, and overcome at every turn those—in Congress and in the judiciary—who will try to use their power to undermine the will of the people. That means we have more work to do.”
Yes, more work to do. But also, as Gwen Moore says, a celebration of the power of the people who have ended “the chapter of the cruel, callous, and corrupt Trump administration. The nightmare is finally over.”


thenation--2020-11-08--The Biden-Harris Victory Brings ‘an Outpouring of Joy, Hope, Renewed Faith’

adison , is.—The car horns started honking to the rhythm of the chant “ This is what democracy looks like !
” People came out of the houses and apartments , banging on pots and pans .
Cheers went up .
The music rose .
Fireworks exploded .
There was no sigh of relief when the news came that Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. had finally defeated Donald Trump .
There was jubilant recognition of the fact that , as Vice President–elect Kamala Harris declared at Saturday night ’ s victory party in Wilmington , Del.
, “ When our very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ election , with the very soul of America at stake , and the world watching , you ushered in a new day for America.
” This was a spontaneous celebration that Biden noted when—after taking the Wilmington stage to the tune of Bruce Springsteen ’ s “ We Take Care of Our Own ” —the president-elect expressed surprise and delight that “ tonight , we ’ re seeing all over this nation , all cities in all parts of the country , indeed across the world , an outpouring of joy , of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bring a better day.
” From Monument Square in Portland , Me.
, to Pershing Square in Los Angeles , a nationwide block party erupted on Saturday .
People waved “ Biden ” flags .
They pumped up the volume on boom boxes and they danced to Queen ’ s “ We Are the Champions ” and YG & Nipsey Hussle ’ s “ FDT.
” It was cathartic .
It was ecstatic .
After all the tense weeks leading up the November 3 election , and all the tense days of counting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their “ Vote !
Vote !
Vote !
” masks and their “ Team Joe ” T-shirts and their “ We ’ ve Got Her Back !
” Harris stickers and hit the streets .
Recalling that Donald Trump had sought to undermine trust in the voting and vote-counting processes of Pennsylvania ’ s largest city by claiming , “ Bad things happen in Philadelphia , ” people gathered in the city that put Biden over the top with signs announcing , “ Good Things Happen in Philadelphia.
” Outside the White House @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , where just months ago peaceful protesters were gassed to make way for a presidential photo-op , and sang , “ Na na na na , na na na na , hey hey , goodbye.
” And everywhere people showed up with handmade signs that taunted the former reality-TV star with his The Apprentice catchphrase : “ You ’ re fired !
” Georgia Voters Can Put an End to Mitch McConnell ’ s Grim Reaping When and How Joe Biden Should Declare Victory Biden Is Piling Up a Popular-Vote Mandate for Ending @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about beating Trump .
This was a collective expression of the sentiment that Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders gave voice to when he heard the news Saturday and said , “ Thank God , democracy won out !
” “ Today we celebrate the power of the people , ” declared Jennifer Epps-Addison , who was on the Capitol Square in Madison , Wis. , for a Saturday morning “ Voters Decide ” rally that , after word came of the call for Biden , turned into a party that in many senses had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Epps-Addison , the veteran Wisconsin activist who now serves as network president and co–executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy , wasn ’ t just celebrating the beginning of the end of Trump ’ s presidency .
“ This election will go down in history , ” she explained .
“ Joe Biden has won with more votes than any other president in the history of this country ; the United States has elected the first Black and Indian American woman as vice president ; and millions more people turned out to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , despite a raging pandemic and the hurdles of voter intimidation , suppression , and misinformation put in their way.
” Those words resonated in Wisconsin , a state with a progressive history that in 2016 was one of the three “ blue wall ” states that abandoned decades-long patterns of voting for Democrats for president and backed Trump in 2016 .
Wisconsin , Michigan , and Pennsylvania tipped the Electoral College balance to Trump four years ago , and from then on , progressives in those states carried a burden .
This @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first Wisconsin , then Michigan , and , finally , Pennsylvania came home to the Democratic fold .
After CNN ’ s Wolf Blitzer announced at 11:24 am on the East Coast that Pennsylvania had gone for Biden , the news swept across the time zones of a nation where the Biden-Harris ticket was winning the popular vote by more than 4 million ballots but still needed to close the deal in the Electoral College .
Pennsylvania took Biden over the 270 mark , but people across the country all knew they ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ especially true in Wisconsin .
“ I can ’ t mask my feelings on this historic day !
” announced US Representative Gwen Moore , the Milwaukee Democrat who kicked off this summer ’ s virtual Democratic National Convention in that city .
Like Detroit and Philadelphia , Milwaukee delivered essential votes for the Biden-Harris ticket that defeated a president who devoted much of his campaign to savage attacks on “ Democratic cities.
” So , too , did Madison , the historic liberal bastion of Wisconsin where people have over the past @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Women ’ s March that protested the 45th president ’ s inauguration , for demonstrations against Trump ’ s attacks on immigrants and refugees , and for rallies calling for his impeachment .
Most of those gatherings took place outside the majestic state capitol , where the great Midwestern progressive Robert M. La Follette once served as governor , and where the efforts of a lesser Midwestern governor , Scott Walker , to undo La Follette ’ s legacy in 2011 inspired mass protests .
The crowds came again on Saturday .
deejays @ @ @ @ @ @ @ capitol and pumped up the volume .
High school students waved rainbow banners .
Grandmothers wore “ Do it for Ruth ” T-shirts .
A flag-waving car caravan organized by the immigrant rights and labor rights group Voces de la Frontera circled the square .
Black Lives Matter activists cheered for Biden and Harris and for a speaker who promised , “ We ’ re going to micromanage this administration…make sure they get the job done.
” Joe Biden : The Decency Is the Point No doubt , it will be necessary to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Biden/Harris administration takes office , they are faced with a clear mandate from the people : They must take action to turn the tide of the Covid-19 pandemic , lead us out of this economic crisis to an economy that works for all , take bold steps towards advancing racial justice , implement humane immigration policies , transform our justice system , make up for lost ground in fighting climate change , and ensure quality health care for all , ” said Epps-Addison .
“ They will need to lead with a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ every turn those—in Congress and in the judiciary—who will try to use their power to undermine the will of the people .
That means we have more work to do.
” Yes , more work to do .
But also , as Gwen Moore says , a celebration of the power of the people who have ended “ the chapter of the cruel , callous , and corrupt Trump administration .
The nightmare is finally over .
”


thenation--2020-11-09--Celia Paul Sits for Her Own Portrait

Celia Paul Sits for Her Own Portrait

Celia Paul cried throughout her first sessions modeling for Lucian Freud .
“ The experience of being naked disarmed me , ” Paul writes in her new memoir , Self-Portrait .
She describes sitting for him as a tortuous experience and the sense of his scrutiny as overpowering .
“ I felt like I was at the doctor ’ s or in hospital , or in the morgue.
” At one point , he tells her that her breasts reminded him of eggs ; then he boils one , slices it in half , and places it in a dish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to lie still while he paints it .
1 This became Freud ’ s Naked Girl With Egg ( 1980-81 ) , a strange and slightly surreal work that one critic noted was emblematic of Freud ’ s interest in female genitalia , a painting that “ turns the body inside out and drags the mystery into the daylight.
” The mystery dragged into the daylight was Paul ’ s body , naked and splayed on a black bedspread , as she cups her breast with her hand .
Her eyes are turned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that we see mostly their whites .
In front of her , on a small table , is the egg , looking like a pair of disembodied breasts or yellow eyes.2 The naked girl and the famous artist : It ’ s an old story and perhaps predictable arrangement of roles for Freud , the much older and more famous painter , and Paul , his beautiful younger lover ; he paints and she sits for him .
And yet .
The concept of sitting occurs over and over again in Paul ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not as static as Naked Girl With Egg might lead us to believe .
Nor is sitting as simple as it might seem .
“ The act of sitting is not passive , ” Paul writes , describing it , at times , as almost a form of intense meditation , one that requires its own kind of focus.3 Self-Portrait might be read as a series of sittings over the course of a lifetime .
Paul sits for Freud many times throughout their relationship , but he also sits for her .
So @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Paul is just starting out as a painter , her mother sits for her and cries because she feels like her daughter is treating her as an object .
But as Paul ’ s career continues , sitting becomes something of a vocation for her mother ; she takes the train twice a week to London to sit for her daughter in her studio .
Time passes , the roles and the balance of power alter , and so the acts of sitting and painting change , too .
There are traditional narratives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the genius and his muse .
Paul tells us that , in her life , this story was at least partly true : She was the naked girl on the bedspread , weeping and overexposed .
But it is part of a longer story that she is telling about herself and Freud and others in her life , about the painter and those she paints .
In Self-Portrait , Paul is her own subject , but so are the shifting conditions of subjecthood and objecthood , the changing relationships between the painter and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1959 in Trivandrum , India .
Her father was a missionary and later a minister in rural England .
Paul learned to paint while at boarding school .
When she was 16 , after a teacher noticed her talent , she went away to the Slade School of Art in London .
There , two years later , she met Freud , then 55 and a visiting tutor at the school .
She showed him some drawings and a painting she had done , and he invited her back to his flat to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he kissed her , she writes , she was a little frightened .
Slowly , they became romantically involved , as she moved from rented room to rented room in London , waiting for him to call .
Their love was rooted in painting—both the act of putting paint to canvas and a shared devotion to art as the primary purpose of their lives .
Their relationship was also turbulent .
He often had other lovers , and she occasionally did , too .
He had a daughter roughly her age .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reason she wrote this book was to tell the story of their relationship on her terms : “ By writing about myself in my own words , I have made my life my own story .
Lucian , particularly , is part of my story rather than , as is usually the case , me being portrayed as part of his.
” 5 Her telling of this story is characterized by a certain matter-of-factness .
She incorporates old journal entries and letters , which float to the surface of the narrative with a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and his paintings .
Paul ’ s prose is at once unflinching and direct as well as reticent , full of gaps .
She tells us the details of a delicious meal she and Freud shared at a bistro but not quite how she was feeling or why she acted a certain way .
She also reflects on a period when she was living in London , drinking heavily and sleeping around , trashing her quiet landlord ’ s beautiful house , but she doesn ’ t really tell us where these seemingly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t explain herself ; there is a kind of dialectic between directness and reticence in her work , as she reports the facts but obscures the motivations .
It made me think about portrait painting : After all , what is a portrait if not a painting of a surface , an outer layer that hints at something deeper ?
In her written portrait of herself , Paul exercises a kind of control in the acts of revelation and withholding.6 In many ways , this is not a book about Freud but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about the particular intensities and tediums of her work , its relationship to life , and its peculiar power dynamics .
She describes , too , the sacrifices and tensions that she sees as inherent in being a woman artist .
Paul is nearly ascetic about her work , even to this day at age 60 .
She chooses not to live with her current husband in order to preserve her privacy and time for painting .
For the same reason , when she and Freud had a son , Frank , she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his primary caretaker was her mother .
She does not apologize for this , nor does she valorize it .
She simply relays the circumstances of her life , what felt necessary and what did not , what allowed her to paint and what she gave up to do so .
7 The interplay between solitude and proximity , between separation and closeness , factors into all of her close relationships .
In a piece by her son for an exhibition catalog , which Paul excerpts , he writes : 8 Isolation is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ peace of mind… .
Her studio , which no-one else may enter without permission , is a mass of splintered floorboards , paint spatters and canvases , but , like [ her ] bedroom , it ’ s devoid of any adornments which others might find necessary for a sense of self-assurance .
One might conclude from this that my mum is an entirely self-subsistent person , yet she feels separation keenly , as well as a deep guilt that her need for solitude precludes her from being as hospitable as she would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ made a kind of peace with the unusual domestic arrangements of his childhood and with his mother ’ s need for solitude .
He has come to understand that her choices were not easy for her .
And yet Paul implies—again , somewhat reticently—that he did not always feel so settled in her choices , and neither did she .
She describes the experience of painting a portrait of her young son perched on his grandmother ’ s lap , as well as the sense that something about the arrangement of their roles @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it might be wrong and suspect for me to be standing looking at him , where I had placed him , lower than me on my mother ’ s knee , ” she writes .
“ I should have been the one who was sitting .
I sensed that he felt this , too , and that there ’ s a trace of indignation in his regard , and a hint of hurt pride.
” When he was a teenager , Frank started to refuse to sit for her , even becoming angry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she was making sketches of him sleeping .
It was a rejection , perhaps , of the feeling of being somehow used .
Later in life , though , he began to sit for her once again , listening to audiobooks while she painted him.10 So it goes : the flux of sitting and painting .
Paul looks back to a time in her early years with Freud when she tried to paint a portrait of him , which simply wouldn ’ t come together .
“ I think I felt , at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Lucian ’ s subject , he wasn ’ t mine , ” she writes .
She only finished the painting many years later , after his death.11 The last portrait Freud did of Paul before their relationship finally came to a painful end was called Painter and Model .
In it , she is painting a nude male model ; she is dressed in a paint-covered smock , stepping on a tube of paint and brandishing her brush .
It is a clear reversal of the traditional gender roles in art , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ control of the male body .
“ I felt honoured that Lucian should represent me in the powerful position of the artist : his recognition was deeply significant to me , ” she writes .
“ But underlying my pride , I felt wistful that I was no longer represented as the object of desire.
” It is not so straightforward after all , the shedding of the objectification that bothered her so much in the beginning .
Paul distills these tensions masterfully , and her book does something that painting alone can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and portraits in a way that allows us to see the relationships from different angles and at different times .
She fluctuates between subject and object , not just in her relationship with Freud but even in her own conception of herself and how she would like to be seen.12 After Freud died in 2011 , Paul writes , she wanted to paint something about what he meant to her .
She called this work Painter and Model , and it is something of an updated version of the one he did of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ self-portrait , giving the title a new frisson of meaning .
Paul sits and looks straight ahead , wearing a similar spattered smock , the paint tubes scattered around her feet .
She is older and looks a bit stoic , somewhere between happy and sad , but peaceful.13 This version is more visually muted than Freud ’ s—it ’ s darker in color and has a single figure , and there is no action frozen on the canvas .
It does not have quite the same obvious thrill of upturned power dynamics @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over a lounging male nude .
In this portrait , she is simply sitting .
But of course , as she has told us , this is not so simple at all .
Of all the paintings in the book , this one perhaps crystallizes most essentially the act of sitting , which animates so much of Paul ’ s work .
It also manages to capture most clearly that strange liminal space she occupies , that perhaps we all occupy , moving between subject and object , caught in a flux of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ canvas.14

Celia Paul cried throughout her first sessions modeling for Lucian Freud. “The experience of being naked disarmed me,” Paul writes in her new memoir, Self-Portrait. She describes sitting for him as a tortuous experience and the sense of his scrutiny as overpowering. “I felt like I was at the doctor’s or in hospital, or in the morgue.” At one point, he tells her that her breasts reminded him of eggs; then he boils one, slices it in half, and places it in a dish in front of her. She has to lie still while he paints it. 1 Books in Review Self-Portrait By Celia Paul Buy this book
This became Freud’s Naked Girl With Egg (1980-81), a strange and slightly surreal work that one critic noted was emblematic of Freud’s interest in female genitalia, a painting that “turns the body inside out and drags the mystery into the daylight.” The mystery dragged into the daylight was Paul’s body, naked and splayed on a black bedspread, as she cups her breast with her hand. Her eyes are turned upward toward something in the distance so that we see mostly their whites. In front of her, on a small table, is the egg, looking like a pair of disembodied breasts or yellow eyes.2
The naked girl and the famous artist: It’s an old story and perhaps predictable arrangement of roles for Freud, the much older and more famous painter, and Paul, his beautiful younger lover; he paints and she sits for him. And yet. The concept of sitting occurs over and over again in Paul’s book, and these roles are not as static as Naked Girl With Egg might lead us to believe. Nor is sitting as simple as it might seem. “The act of sitting is not passive,” Paul writes, describing it, at times, as almost a form of intense meditation, one that requires its own kind of focus.3
Self-Portrait might be read as a series of sittings over the course of a lifetime. Paul sits for Freud many times throughout their relationship, but he also sits for her. So do all of her sisters. When Paul is just starting out as a painter, her mother sits for her and cries because she feels like her daughter is treating her as an object. But as Paul’s career continues, sitting becomes something of a vocation for her mother; she takes the train twice a week to London to sit for her daughter in her studio. Time passes, the roles and the balance of power alter, and so the acts of sitting and painting change, too. There are traditional narratives about the painter and his subject, the genius and his muse. Paul tells us that, in her life, this story was at least partly true: She was the naked girl on the bedspread, weeping and overexposed. But it is part of a longer story that she is telling about herself and Freud and others in her life, about the painter and those she paints. In Self-Portrait, Paul is her own subject, but so are the shifting conditions of subjecthood and objecthood, the changing relationships between the painter and the painted.4 Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
Celia Paul was born in 1959 in Trivandrum, India. Her father was a missionary and later a minister in rural England. Paul learned to paint while at boarding school. When she was 16, after a teacher noticed her talent, she went away to the Slade School of Art in London. There, two years later, she met Freud, then 55 and a visiting tutor at the school. She showed him some drawings and a painting she had done, and he invited her back to his flat to show her one of his. When he kissed her, she writes, she was a little frightened. Slowly, they became romantically involved, as she moved from rented room to rented room in London, waiting for him to call. Their love was rooted in painting—both the act of putting paint to canvas and a shared devotion to art as the primary purpose of their lives. Their relationship was also turbulent. He often had other lovers, and she occasionally did, too. He had a daughter roughly her age. In the prologue, Paul states that one reason she wrote this book was to tell the story of their relationship on her terms: “By writing about myself in my own words, I have made my life my own story. Lucian, particularly, is part of my story rather than, as is usually the case, me being portrayed as part of his.” 5
Her telling of this story is characterized by a certain matter-of-factness. She incorporates old journal entries and letters, which float to the surface of the narrative with a particular intensity, and images of her and his paintings. Paul’s prose is at once unflinching and direct as well as reticent, full of gaps. She tells us the details of a delicious meal she and Freud shared at a bistro but not quite how she was feeling or why she acted a certain way. She also reflects on a period when she was living in London, drinking heavily and sleeping around, trashing her quiet landlord’s beautiful house, but she doesn’t really tell us where these seemingly out-of-character impulses sprang from. She doesn’t explain herself; there is a kind of dialectic between directness and reticence in her work, as she reports the facts but obscures the motivations. It made me think about portrait painting: After all, what is a portrait if not a painting of a surface, an outer layer that hints at something deeper? In her written portrait of herself, Paul exercises a kind of control in the acts of revelation and withholding.6
In many ways, this is not a book about Freud but rather one about painting. Paul writes about the particular intensities and tediums of her work, its relationship to life, and its peculiar power dynamics. She describes, too, the sacrifices and tensions that she sees as inherent in being a woman artist. Paul is nearly ascetic about her work, even to this day at age 60. She chooses not to live with her current husband in order to preserve her privacy and time for painting. For the same reason, when she and Freud had a son, Frank, she did not live with the child; his primary caretaker was her mother. She does not apologize for this, nor does she valorize it. She simply relays the circumstances of her life, what felt necessary and what did not, what allowed her to paint and what she gave up to do so. 7
Family Group, Celia Paul, 1980. (By Celia Paul)
The interplay between solitude and proximity, between separation and closeness, factors into all of her close relationships. In a piece by her son for an exhibition catalog, which Paul excerpts, he writes: 8
Isolation is deeply important to my mum’s peace of mind…. Her studio, which no-one else may enter without permission, is a mass of splintered floorboards, paint spatters and canvases, but, like [her] bedroom, it’s devoid of any adornments which others might find necessary for a sense of self-assurance. One might conclude from this that my mum is an entirely self-subsistent person, yet she feels separation keenly, as well as a deep guilt that her need for solitude precludes her from being as hospitable as she would like to be.9
Frank seems to have made a kind of peace with the unusual domestic arrangements of his childhood and with his mother’s need for solitude. He has come to understand that her choices were not easy for her. And yet Paul implies—again, somewhat reticently—that he did not always feel so settled in her choices, and neither did she. She describes the experience of painting a portrait of her young son perched on his grandmother’s lap, as well as the sense that something about the arrangement of their roles was strange. “I felt that it might be wrong and suspect for me to be standing looking at him, where I had placed him, lower than me on my mother’s knee,” she writes. “I should have been the one who was sitting. I sensed that he felt this, too, and that there’s a trace of indignation in his regard, and a hint of hurt pride.” When he was a teenager, Frank started to refuse to sit for her, even becoming angry when he discovered in her sketchbook that she was making sketches of him sleeping. It was a rejection, perhaps, of the feeling of being somehow used. Later in life, though, he began to sit for her once again, listening to audiobooks while she painted him.10
So it goes: the flux of sitting and painting. Paul looks back to a time in her early years with Freud when she tried to paint a portrait of him, which simply wouldn’t come together. “I think I felt, at the time, that although I was Lucian’s subject, he wasn’t mine,” she writes. She only finished the painting many years later, after his death.11
My Sister in Mourning, Celia Paul, 2015–16.
The last portrait Freud did of Paul before their relationship finally came to a painful end was called Painter and Model. In it, she is painting a nude male model; she is dressed in a paint-covered smock, stepping on a tube of paint and brandishing her brush. It is a clear reversal of the traditional gender roles in art, a radical image of a woman artist in control of the male body. “I felt honoured that Lucian should represent me in the powerful position of the artist: his recognition was deeply significant to me,” she writes. “But underlying my pride, I felt wistful that I was no longer represented as the object of desire.” It is not so straightforward after all, the shedding of the objectification that bothered her so much in the beginning. Paul distills these tensions masterfully, and her book does something that painting alone cannot, linking all of these sittings and portraits in a way that allows us to see the relationships from different angles and at different times. She fluctuates between subject and object, not just in her relationship with Freud but even in her own conception of herself and how she would like to be seen.12
After Freud died in 2011, Paul writes, she wanted to paint something about what he meant to her. She called this work Painter and Model, and it is something of an updated version of the one he did of her. But this one is a self-portrait, giving the title a new frisson of meaning. Paul sits and looks straight ahead, wearing a similar spattered smock, the paint tubes scattered around her feet. She is older and looks a bit stoic, somewhere between happy and sad, but peaceful.13
This version is more visually muted than Freud’s—it’s darker in color and has a single figure, and there is no action frozen on the canvas. It does not have quite the same obvious thrill of upturned power dynamics, the woman artist wielding her brush over a lounging male nude. In this portrait, she is simply sitting. But of course, as she has told us, this is not so simple at all. Of all the paintings in the book, this one perhaps crystallizes most essentially the act of sitting, which animates so much of Paul’s work. It also manages to capture most clearly that strange liminal space she occupies, that perhaps we all occupy, moving between subject and object, caught in a flux of power and attention, in a single canvas.14


thenation--2020-11-09--An Epic Mural Prophesies Large-Scale Climate Destruction

New York–based artist David Opdyke had already been addressing climate change , among other political issues , by way of semi-monumental sculptures and bas-reliefs for a good decade and a half when , in the mid-2010s , he began to shift the polarities of his practice .
He took vintage postcards of the American pastoral from the early 20th century ( hand-tinted black-and-white photographic vantages celebrating local courthouses , highways , parks , dams , recreation areas , forests , or agricultural vistas ) and injected them with trenchant contemporary political commentary by means of subtly compressed painterly interventions .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2017 , he reverted to the monumental , gradually unfurling This Land , an epic gridlike mural , more than 16 feet long by eight feet high , consisting of over 500 such individually treated postcards .
What from a distance at first presents itself as a single bird ’ s-eye view of a vast alpine vista ( mountains , lakes , sunrise ) , upon close examination , sure enough , proves to be fashioned out of hundreds of those postcards celebrating the American dream as conjured up at the turn of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ advance closer still , Opdyke ’ s myriad sly interventions within and between cards begin to reveal a harrowing nightmare vision of the potentially rampaging effects of global warming : fires , floods , droughts , tornadoes , plagues of locusts , murders of crows , butterflies adrift in the snow , a cacophony of political responses , panicked traffic jams , pipelines run amok slathered with livid graffiti , immiserated homeless encampments , Alcatraz Island given over to high-rise luxury apartment buildings ( secure prisons for the rich ) , even an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the months I was working on the piece , ” Opdyke recalls , “ I figured I was portraying the way things could well get in two or three decades if climate change continued to go unaddressed .
But two years on and it ’ s pretty obvious the timeline has proved much , much tighter : The fires out west , the pandemic , hurricanes barreling in one hot on the next—they ’ re all already here now.
” Opdyke ’ s piece , which has been touring the country ( Ann @ @ @ @ @ @ @ N.D. ; Chicago ) , will remain on view until well after an election that may constitute our very last chance to confront that looming future .
This Land appears through January 15 , 2021 , at the Mana Contemporary arts center in Jersey City and will receive wider exposure in the form of a lavishly illustrated monograph , out this month from Monacelli/Phaidon .

This article appears in the November 16/23, 2020 issue.
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New York–based artist David Opdyke had already been addressing climate change, among other political issues, by way of semi-monumental sculptures and bas-reliefs for a good decade and a half when, in the mid-2010s, he began to shift the polarities of his practice. He took vintage postcards of the American pastoral from the early 20th century (hand-tinted black-and-white photographic vantages celebrating local courthouses, highways, parks, dams, recreation areas, forests, or agricultural vistas) and injected them with trenchant contemporary political commentary by means of subtly compressed painterly interventions. Then for a year, starting in 2017, he reverted to the monumental, gradually unfurling This Land, an epic gridlike mural, more than 16 feet long by eight feet high, consisting of over 500 such individually treated postcards.
What from a distance at first presents itself as a single bird’s-eye view of a vast alpine vista (mountains, lakes, sunrise), upon close examination, sure enough, proves to be fashioned out of hundreds of those postcards celebrating the American dream as conjured up at the turn of the last century. But when you advance closer still, Opdyke’s myriad sly interventions within and between cards begin to reveal a harrowing nightmare vision of the potentially rampaging effects of global warming: fires, floods, droughts, tornadoes, plagues of locusts, murders of crows, butterflies adrift in the snow, a cacophony of political responses, panicked traffic jams, pipelines run amok slathered with livid graffiti, immiserated homeless encampments, Alcatraz Island given over to high-rise luxury apartment buildings (secure prisons for the rich), even an actual ark under construction. “During the months I was working on the piece,” Opdyke recalls, “I figured I was portraying the way things could well get in two or three decades if climate change continued to go unaddressed. But two years on and it’s pretty obvious the timeline has proved much, much tighter: The fires out west, the pandemic, hurricanes barreling in one hot on the next—they’re all already here now.”
Opdyke’s piece, which has been touring the country (Ann Arbor, Mich.; Grand Forks, N.D.; Chicago), will remain on view until well after an election that may constitute our very last chance to confront that looming future. This Land appears through January 15, 2021, at the Mana Contemporary arts center in Jersey City and will receive wider exposure in the form of a lavishly illustrated monograph, out this month from Monacelli/Phaidon.