thenation--2020-12-15--The Madness of Kook Donald

The Madness of Kook Donald

A couple miles from my house , the neighborhood of East Sacramento is locally renowned for its extraordinary holiday light displays .
Each year , people come from miles around to drive or walk down its streets in a cooperative spirit of celebration .
This year those displays seem all the more poignant , with an entire neighborhood collectively making something beautiful despite the strictures of isolation .
My wife and son and I drove through this neighborhood on Friday evening .
It was , as it is every year , a riot of light and colorful imagery .
Except @ @ @ @ @ @ @ while every other house was decorated , one single house was defiantly unlit .
Instead of holiday lights , it had two enormous Trump signs , each a full story high and some 10 feet wide .
Looking for last-minute holiday gifts with a conscience ?
Check out The Nation Shop and help support The Nation ’ s journalism while you complete your list .
There was something remarkably discordant about the image .
Not about the political signs per se , but about their being displayed in lieu of lights , in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vast Trump lettering seemed to say so much more than just “ Trump.
” It seemed to be a deliberate effort to antagonize , to set off the owners as separate from , and meaner than , all those around them .
Which , now that I think about it , is how this whole period strikes me .
Back in October , during the scramble to get Amy Coney Barrett installed on the Supreme Court , Trump basically declared that he had secured a conservative supermajority on the court that would be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ need an assist post-election .
In the end , however , it turned out that even Trump ’ s justices didn ’ t want to play ball when the opportunity arose—despite the fact that a shocking number of Republican elected officials , including 18 state attorneys general and more than 60 percent of Republicans in Congress , signed on to Texas ’ s shameful effort to use the courts to trigger a coup .
Trumpists Are Ranting About Election Fraud as Americans Die of Covid We ’ re Now Facing Both a Public @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , all nine justices supported tossing out the Lone Star State ’ s efforts to overturn the election in four key swing states .
The three nominated by Trump—Barrett , Kavanaugh , and Gorsuch—were among the seven justices who said Texas didn ’ t have standing to bring the case in the first place .
More generally , conservative , Federalist Society judges from coast to coast have in these past weeks resoundingly rejected Trump ’ s efforts to overturn the election , and the country ’ s elite , conservative-pedigreed law firms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump .
The rulings by so many judges , up to and including the Supreme Court , should have put a stop to the madness of Trump ’ s seditionist antics .
But of course they haven ’ t ; and even as the Electoral College prepared to confirm Biden ’ s win , Trump was still trying to push ever-more-insane ways to overturn the will of the people .
On Saturday , Trump ’ s armed supporters massed in cities across the country .
Not surprisingly , counterprotesters quickly converged on these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stabbings in D.C. , and one person was shot in Olympia , Wash .
In Sacramento , Proud Boys ( with some help from anti-vaxxers ) and antifa activists clashed yet again , as they have done each weekend since the election .
All this came after Republican election officials in Georgia and Arizona reported that they were receiving a steady stream of death threats from Trump-supporting fanatics .
Trump ’ s response : To the delight of his amassed fans on the streets below , he took a Marine One helicopter joy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Meanwhile , through the weekend there was not a word from the White House or the president condemning the violence committed by Trump ’ s “ Stop the Steal ” crew .
In fact , his Twitter feed in the run-up to Monday ’ s Electoral College vote was clearly aimed at amping up the tensions rather than moving any closer to conceding defeat .
All weekend long , Trump slammed the Supreme Court , denounced his own attorney general—whom he would fire on Monday—and vowed that he was now gearing up for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ declared , “ WE HAVE JUST BEGUN TO FIGHT !
!
!
” Elsewhere , Trump sycophants in Congress pledged to challenge the Electoral College process in early January .
GOP party leaders in Texas and elsewhere have even begun talking of seceding unless Trump remains president .
And yet , despite the Noise , Trump ’ s efforts to overturn the election results have run aground .
His ongoing refusal to acknowledge the obvious is at this point an absurdity , an embarrassment .
It brings to mind Monty Python ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , as the Supreme Court unanimously acknowledged , substituting politician for pet , come January Trump ’ s presidency “ is no more !
It has ceased to be !
It ’ s expired and gone to see its maker !
This is a late parrot !
It ’ s a stiff !
Bereft of life , it rests in peace !
If you hadn ’ t nailed it to the perch it would be pushin ’ up the daisies !
It ’ s run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Anyone who is still sticking with Trump after this unanimous rejection of his fantasy claims by the Supreme Court , after all 50 states certified their results as being accurate , after Chris Krebs and other top election security officials declared the election was secure , after Attorney General Barr ’ s investigators failed to come up with evidence of fraud… well , at this point they ’ re as delusional—though not nearly as funny or as harmless—as the pet shop owner in the sketch who keeps waiting for the parrot to resurrect @ @

A couple miles from my house, the neighborhood of East Sacramento is locally renowned for its extraordinary holiday light displays. Each year, people come from miles around to drive or walk down its streets in a cooperative spirit of celebration. This year those displays seem all the more poignant, with an entire neighborhood collectively making something beautiful despite the strictures of isolation.
My wife and son and I drove through this neighborhood on Friday evening. It was, as it is every year, a riot of light and colorful imagery. Except this year, on one street, while every other house was decorated, one single house was defiantly unlit. Instead of holiday lights, it had two enormous Trump signs, each a full story high and some 10 feet wide. Looking for last-minute holiday gifts with a conscience? Check out The Nation Shop and help support The Nation’s journalism while you complete your list.
There was something remarkably discordant about the image. Not about the political signs per se, but about their being displayed in lieu of lights, in lieu of community good cheer. The vast Trump lettering seemed to say so much more than just “Trump.” It seemed to be a deliberate effort to antagonize, to set off the owners as separate from, and meaner than, all those around them.
Which, now that I think about it, is how this whole period strikes me. Back in October, during the scramble to get Amy Coney Barrett installed on the Supreme Court, Trump basically declared that he had secured a conservative supermajority on the court that would be at his beck and call should he need an assist post-election. In the end, however, it turned out that even Trump’s justices didn’t want to play ball when the opportunity arose—despite the fact that a shocking number of Republican elected officials, including 18 state attorneys general and more than 60 percent of Republicans in Congress, signed on to Texas’s shameful effort to use the courts to trigger a coup. More Signal:Noise Trumpists Are Ranting About Election Fraud as Americans Die of Covid Sasha Abramsky We’re Now Facing Both a Public Health and a Poverty Catastrophe Sasha Abramsky
On Friday, all nine justices supported tossing out the Lone Star State’s efforts to overturn the election in four key swing states. The three nominated by Trump—Barrett, Kavanaugh, and Gorsuch—were among the seven justices who said Texas didn’t have standing to bring the case in the first place. More generally, conservative, Federalist Society judges from coast to coast have in these past weeks resoundingly rejected Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, and the country’s elite, conservative-pedigreed law firms have also avoided going to bat for Trump.
The rulings by so many judges, up to and including the Supreme Court, should have put a stop to the madness of Trump’s seditionist antics. But of course they haven’t; and even as the Electoral College prepared to confirm Biden’s win, Trump was still trying to push ever-more-insane ways to overturn the will of the people. 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 My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung 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 My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung
On Saturday, Trump’s armed supporters massed in cities across the country. Not surprisingly, counterprotesters quickly converged on these gatherings. Four people were injured in stabbings in D.C., and one person was shot in Olympia, Wash. In Sacramento, Proud Boys (with some help from anti-vaxxers) and antifa activists clashed yet again, as they have done each weekend since the election. All this came after Republican election officials in Georgia and Arizona reported that they were receiving a steady stream of death threats from Trump-supporting fanatics. Current Issue View our current issue
Trump’s response: To the delight of his amassed fans on the streets below, he took a Marine One helicopter joy ride over the protests in D.C. Meanwhile, through the weekend there was not a word from the White House or the president condemning the violence committed by Trump’s “Stop the Steal” crew. In fact, his Twitter feed in the run-up to Monday’s Electoral College vote was clearly aimed at amping up the tensions rather than moving any closer to conceding defeat.
All weekend long, Trump slammed the Supreme Court, denounced his own attorney general—whom he would fire on Monday—and vowed that he was now gearing up for a post-courtroom struggle. One Trump tweet declared, “WE HAVE JUST BEGUN TO FIGHT!!!” Elsewhere, Trump sycophants in Congress pledged to challenge the Electoral College process in early January. GOP party leaders in Texas and elsewhere have even begun talking of seceding unless Trump remains president.
And yet, despite the Noise, Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results have run aground. His ongoing refusal to acknowledge the obvious is at this point an absurdity, an embarrassment. It brings to mind Monty Python’s “Dead Parrot” sketch. For, as the Supreme Court unanimously acknowledged, substituting politician for pet, come January Trump’s presidency “is no more! It has ceased to be! It’s expired and gone to see its maker! This is a late parrot! It’s a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed it to the perch it would be pushin’ up the daisies! It’s run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible! this is an ex-parrot!”
Anyone who is still sticking with Trump after this unanimous rejection of his fantasy claims by the Supreme Court, after all 50 states certified their results as being accurate, after Chris Krebs and other top election security officials declared the election was secure, after Attorney General Barr’s investigators failed to come up with evidence of fraud… well, at this point they’re as delusional—though not nearly as funny or as harmless—as the pet shop owner in the sketch who keeps waiting for the parrot to resurrect itself.


thenation--2020-12-15--The Border Patrol Is Cracking Down on Humanitarian Aid

In early October , for the second time in less than three months , Border Patrol agents raided a No More Deaths humanitarian aid camp about 11 miles north of the Arizona-Mexico border .
After being detained with her fellow volunteers , Paige Corich-Kleim watched as agents descended into the camp with military-style vehicles and weapons to terrorize and eventually detain 12 migrants seeking food , water , and medical aid at the camp .
Despite past victories in court establishing that humanitarian aid is not a crime and that No More Deaths should be able to operate freely without @ @ @ @ @ @ @ intimidation , its camps and the people seeking lifesaving assistance there continue to be threatened .
The group believes their unrelenting practice of investigating and publishing Border Patrol abuses could be one of the reasons they ’ ve seen an uptick in retaliation from the government and more frequent raids .
On July 31 , when the peak temperature of the day was about 110 degrees in the remote area of the camp , the Border Patrol and CBP ’ s paramilitary arm , the Border Patrol Tactical Unit ( BORTAC ) , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ armored vehicle , three ATVS , two helicopters , and over 20 marked and unmarked vehicles .
The agents , refusing to show a warrant and remaining unmasked , detained over 30 people seeking aid .
The day before the raid , the Border Patrol had placed the camp under lockdown with 24-hour surveillance , turning away anyone else seeking to enter the camp for aid .
In a No More Deaths press release describing the July raid , the group addresses the Border Patrol ’ s patterns of retaliation : We talked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ More Deaths for the past seven years who was present at the raid in October , about why the Border Patrol ’ s retaliation tactics are escalating along the Southwest border , how publishing CBP ’ s abuses is a tenet of the aid group ’ s activism , and what reports and documents are in the pipeline to be published next .
This conversation has been edited for clarity .
essica uriano : Can you describe the scene during the October raid ?
aige orich- leim The camp had been under surveillance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that point .
We were pretty aware of Border Patrol ’ s presence and thought that it was possible they would raid the camp .
It felt pretty tense .
We were still staffing the camp ; normally what we do there is we provide food , water , and first aid to people crossing the desert .
It ’ s an off-grid camp , so there ’ s a lot of maintenance we do , a lot of cooking and cleaning .
Especially now with Covid-19 , we ’ ve really upped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from people that live in Arivaca , which is the nearest town , that there was a caravan of Border Patrol vehicles , including an armored BearCat tank , that was seen staging in town .
We knew about 20 minutes before the raid happened that it was going to happen .
A big helicopter was hovering over the camp before they actually entered on foot .
It was a military-style raid .
The first wave that entered the camp was all BORTAC agents , which is the tactical arm of Border Patrol @ @ @ @ @ @ @ team .
They came in , guns drawn , in full camouflage .
The sun had just gone down , so it was totally pitch-black .
They detained all of the volunteers .
We were all sitting at the entrance of camp .
We were detained for about three hours .
We couldn ’ t see everything that was happening in the camp , but we definitely could see flashlights going around , and clusters of agents going around the camp with guns drawn to clear the area .
We later heard from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ came out that they saw flashlights chasing people .
All of the people that were at camp receiving aid were chased in the darkness .
Border Patrol detained 12 people there .
JS : Have you been present at raids before ?
If so , were they similar to this one or different ?
PCK : Border Patrol has entered the property five or six times since we ’ ve been there over the past 12 years .
I was present for the lead-up to the raid that happened in 2017 , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ warrant for .
I was there as they were increasing surveillance , and they set up a checkpoint at the entrance of camps .
Nobody could come or go in a car without getting pulled over and searched .
I left the morning that they actually came , issued the warrant , and raided the space .
But that one in 2017 was very different than these last two raids .
Volunteers filmed the whole [ 2017 ] raid , and agents did not have BORTAC support .
They just entered like normal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were a lot more escalated as far as violence and military-style tactical gear .
JS : Why does No More Deaths think that they ’ ve escalated in this way ?
PCK : I think the political climate has allowed them to do so .
It ’ s kind of a complicated question because Border Patrol has been a really violent and unaccountable agency for a long time .
We ’ ve been documenting their abuses since 2008 , but under the Trump administration , more explicitly racist and violent policies and tactics @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the president and by the political institutions .
They ’ ve been able to normalize and escalate all of these tactics over the years .
I think what we ’ re seeing now is Border Patrol is able to operate with even more impunity and in even more violent ways , and still get away with it .
JS : Does your group think a presidential change will create any tangible changes in this area ?
PCK : I think under Trump we ’ re seeing our organization getting targeted more , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t being targeted actively , the violence that ’ s happening along the border is still going to be happening .
The targeting of humanitarian aid is just an escalation of the targeting of migrants .
We were able to win in court against humanitarian aid being criminalized , but migration is still being criminalized .
That ’ s the core of it , and that ’ s the root problem .
Biden will likely stop wall construction , but I think under both Democrats and Republicans , we ’ ve seen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He might stop the wall , but then have more towers and checkpoints , more agents on the ground , or a virtual wall .
I don ’ t think that the border is going to be demilitarized .
Also , the last time Biden was in office with Obama , they deported about 3 million people .
Everybody was really upset and mobilized around family separation , but deportation is also family separation .
It ’ s important to remember that nothing under Trump is totally new .
It ’ s just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ No More Deaths uses publishing documents obtained through FOIA and other records requests about Border Patrol abuses as part of its activism .
In your experience , has this led to even more targeting of the organization ?
PCK : We ’ ve been documenting abuses since 2008 , and we ’ ve been active in the desert since 2004 .
The clearest examples that we ’ ve seen of retaliation were with the arrest of Scott Warren , one of our volunteers in Ajo .
We video recorded Border Patrol destroying water @ @ @ @ @ @ @ widespread interference with humanitarian aid by Border Patrol , and just about six hours after we released that report , Scott was arrested and charged with felonies .
With the raid back in July , we had just released documents from a FOIA request that were showing that the Border Patrol union had pressured the local sector to raid the aid station .
Right after that , we had a big increase in surveillance .
Border Patrol entered the property and arrested one person , and then later came back in force and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ve seen a pattern of it .
Those types of tactics , repressing and targeting groups that are being the most vocal , is meant to deter other people from speaking out .
It ’ s a tactic that goes along with just how secretive and unaccountable Border Patrol as part of the Department of Homeland Security is .
They aren ’ t open to the same level of scrutiny as a lot of other law enforcement agencies , even though they ’ re one of the biggest police forces and most well-funded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of popping up in cities and widening their jurisdiction .
It makes sense that when there are groups that are interacting with people and documenting the abuses that they are experiencing , they ’ re going to try to silence those people and silence that dissent .
We ’ ve also seen it in other ways within the interior , especially undocumented organizers and activists who are targeted by ICE for deportation for speaking out .
It ’ s part of a larger pattern of retaliation and trying to suppress dissent .
JS @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this three-part report called The Disappeared Report .
How was the information in these reports collected ?
PCK : A lot of it is based on interviews .
For part one , which is about deadly enforcement tactics , we interviewed people who had been detained by Border Patrol to understand and hear their stories about what was happening in the field when no one ’ s watching .
Part two is about interference with humanitarian aid .
When we go out to the desert and we leave food and water on trails @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a logbook so that we can track which areas have greater need .
We went back through about four years of our data and analyzed it , and saw really widespread destruction of aid .
Our most current one that ’ s going to come out in the next few months is about emergency non-response .
It is all based on information from a missing migrant hotline that used to be run by Coalición de Derechos Humanos , which is a local organization .
If you call 911 in the borderlands , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ They ’ ve essentially monopolized emergency response for undocumented people that are crossing the desert , but they don ’ t have the same standards or responses as if a citizen was lost , say , in a national park , for example .
The most recent report is looking at all of the cases in the hotline database and tracking patterns of an emergency non-response .
JS : Other than the immediate threat CBP poses for people traveling through the desert , what other elements compound the precarity of these trips ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s really impacting the border is the Covid-19 pandemic .
When people are detained in the desert , instead of working under any kind of public health emergency protocols , they ’ re just being driven to the nearest port and dropped off .
People are being taken and dumped in towns where there ’ s no infrastructure to handle an influx of people who ’ ve just been in the desert .
People might be medically compromised or just sick and exhausted , and they ’ re getting dropped off in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ support them .
We ’ ve also seen pretty bad practices within Border Patrol around mask wearing to try to prevent the spread of Covid-19 .
They ’ re not wearing masks , and conditions in detention have been really bad .
The US ’ s lack of an actual pandemic response is manifesting itself in really unique ways along the border .
JS : What kinds of conversations have been happening within your group about what happens next ?
PCK : One of the things that I really love about No More @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be really flexible and responsive to whatever pops up .
With Covid-19 , we ’ ve implemented a ton of new protocols .
We ’ ve changed our volunteer program .
Right now , the biggest thing on a lot of our minds is that winter is here .
Now it ’ s starting to freeze in the desert , which is something people don ’ t always think about .
People think about the extreme heat in the summer , but in the winter it also gets really cold .
So we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ putting out blankets .
We ’ ll just keep seeing what the needs on the ground are and adjusting our work to accommodate them .
It ’ s all very beyond us and what we ’ re able to control , but we are very committed to finding the most effective ways to intervene .
JS : How is the militarization of CBP that your group has been documenting for years connected to the abolition movement and calls for an anti-carceral country ?
PCK : Border patrol started in 1924 , but there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mid- ’ 90s , and that ’ s when the US started a border enforcement policy called “ prevention through deterrence , ” which is a policy that essentially walls off cities where it ’ s easier to cross , and pushes migration patterns into the remote desert areas .
The idea was that it would be so difficult and dangerous to cross , that people would stop .
That was put into place the same year as the North American Free Trade Agreement , which destabilized the Mexican agricultural economy .
Since @ @ @ @ @ @ @ steady increase in militarization along the border and a continual funneling of people into some of the most dangerous and remote corridors .
Over the past 10 , 15 years maybe , we ’ ve seen checkpoints pop up on all the roads leaving the borderlands region .
We ’ ve seen towers get put up and sensors buried in the ground , and all of this military infrastructure .
Another thing that happened in 1994 that people don ’ t always think of as relating to immigration enforcement was the Crime Bill @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the prison-industrial complex and was tied with the “ war on drugs.
” All of these policies really work hand in hand .
We see a lot of collaboration between ICE and local police forces , which then deport people , who then cross back through the desert , and may interact with Border Patrol .
Looking at people who are doing all of this current work towards abolition of the prison-industrial complex , we definitely see the ways in which that could also have a dramatic impact on people dying in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ getting picked up in the interior , they won ’ t have to cross through the desert to get back to their families .
The border is often used as a testing ground for a lot of technology and tactics as well .
When we see things that are tried out along the border , we can often expect them to pop up in the interior in cities .
A lot of people were talking about BORTAC showing up in Portland this year , and that wasn ’ t the first time they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ] .
People are seeing that there needs to be a whole , huge shift in how all of these things are functioning .

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In early October, for the second time in less than three months, Border Patrol agents raided a No More Deaths humanitarian aid camp about 11 miles north of the Arizona-Mexico border. After being detained with her fellow volunteers, Paige Corich-Kleim watched as agents descended into the camp with military-style vehicles and weapons to terrorize and eventually detain 12 migrants seeking food, water, and medical aid at the camp. Despite past victories in court establishing that humanitarian aid is not a crime and that No More Deaths should be able to operate freely without Customs and Border Protection (CBP) intimidation, its camps and the people seeking lifesaving assistance there continue to be threatened.
The group believes their unrelenting practice of investigating and publishing Border Patrol abuses could be one of the reasons they’ve seen an uptick in retaliation from the government and more frequent raids. On July 31, when the peak temperature of the day was about 110 degrees in the remote area of the camp, the Border Patrol and CBP’s paramilitary arm, the Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC), invaded the aid area accompanied by an armored vehicle, three ATVS, two helicopters, and over 20 marked and unmarked vehicles. The agents, refusing to show a warrant and remaining unmasked, detained over 30 people seeking aid. The day before the raid, the Border Patrol had placed the camp under lockdown with 24-hour surveillance, turning away anyone else seeking to enter the camp for aid. In a No More Deaths press release describing the July raid, the group addresses the Border Patrol’s patterns of retaliation: Looking for last-minute holiday gifts with a conscience? Check out The Nation Shop and help support The Nation’s journalism while you complete your list.
The initial detention and surveillance of Byrd Camp was set up just 24 hours after No More Deaths released emails from a FOIA request revealing the role of BORTAC—the tactical unit recently mobilized against protestors throughout the United States—and the Border Patrol Union’s role in a 2017 raid of the same aid station. The message is clear: expose Border Patrol abuses, face retaliation.
We talked to Corich-Kleim, a volunteer with No More Deaths for the past seven years who was present at the raid in October, about why the Border Patrol’s retaliation tactics are escalating along the Southwest border, how publishing CBP’s abuses is a tenet of the aid group’s activism, and what reports and documents are in the pipeline to be published next. This conversation has been edited for clarity. out west How Libertarianism Made Arizona a Covid-19 Hot Spot Jessica Suriano
—Jessica Suriano
J essica S uriano: Can you describe the scene during the October raid?
P aige C orich- K leim The camp had been under surveillance for a little over two days by that point. We were pretty aware of Border Patrol’s presence and thought that it was possible they would raid the camp. It felt pretty tense. We were still staffing the camp; normally what we do there is we provide food, water, and first aid to people crossing the desert. It’s an off-grid camp, so there’s a lot of maintenance we do, a lot of cooking and cleaning. Especially now with Covid-19, we’ve really upped our cleaning protocols. We got word from people that live in Arivaca, which is the nearest town, that there was a caravan of Border Patrol vehicles, including an armored BearCat tank, that was seen staging in town. We knew about 20 minutes before the raid happened that it was going to happen. A big helicopter was hovering over the camp before they actually entered on foot. 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 My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung 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 My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung Current Issue View our current issue
It was a military-style raid. The first wave that entered the camp was all BORTAC agents, which is the tactical arm of Border Patrol. It’s like a SWAT team. They came in, guns drawn, in full camouflage. The sun had just gone down, so it was totally pitch-black. They detained all of the volunteers. We were all sitting at the entrance of camp. We were detained for about three hours. We couldn’t see everything that was happening in the camp, but we definitely could see flashlights going around, and clusters of agents going around the camp with guns drawn to clear the area. We later heard from some people with other aid groups that came out that they saw flashlights chasing people. All of the people that were at camp receiving aid were chased in the darkness. Border Patrol detained 12 people there.
JS: Have you been present at raids before? If so, were they similar to this one or different?
PCK: Border Patrol has entered the property five or six times since we’ve been there over the past 12 years. I was present for the lead-up to the raid that happened in 2017, which was the first one they had a warrant for. I was there as they were increasing surveillance, and they set up a checkpoint at the entrance of camps. Nobody could come or go in a car without getting pulled over and searched. I left the morning that they actually came, issued the warrant, and raided the space. But that one in 2017 was very different than these last two raids. Volunteers filmed the whole [2017] raid, and agents did not have BORTAC support. They just entered like normal rank-and-file agents. The most recent raids were a lot more escalated as far as violence and military-style tactical gear.
JS: Why does No More Deaths think that they’ve escalated in this way?
PCK: I think the political climate has allowed them to do so. It’s kind of a complicated question because Border Patrol has been a really violent and unaccountable agency for a long time. We’ve been documenting their abuses since 2008, but under the Trump administration, more explicitly racist and violent policies and tactics are more widely accepted and endorsed by the president and by the political institutions. They’ve been able to normalize and escalate all of these tactics over the years. I think what we’re seeing now is Border Patrol is able to operate with even more impunity and in even more violent ways, and still get away with it.
JS: Does your group think a presidential change will create any tangible changes in this area?
PCK: I think under Trump we’re seeing our organization getting targeted more, but I think even if our organization isn’t being targeted actively, the violence that’s happening along the border is still going to be happening. The targeting of humanitarian aid is just an escalation of the targeting of migrants. We were able to win in court against humanitarian aid being criminalized, but migration is still being criminalized. That’s the core of it, and that’s the root problem. Biden will likely stop wall construction, but I think under both Democrats and Republicans, we’ve seen a gradual increase in border militarization. He might stop the wall, but then have more towers and checkpoints, more agents on the ground, or a virtual wall. I don’t think that the border is going to be demilitarized. Also, the last time Biden was in office with Obama, they deported about 3 million people. Everybody was really upset and mobilized around family separation, but deportation is also family separation. It’s important to remember that nothing under Trump is totally new. It’s just more egregious and explicit.
JS: No More Deaths uses publishing documents obtained through FOIA and other records requests about Border Patrol abuses as part of its activism. In your experience, has this led to even more targeting of the organization?
PCK: We’ve been documenting abuses since 2008, and we’ve been active in the desert since 2004. The clearest examples that we’ve seen of retaliation were with the arrest of Scott Warren, one of our volunteers in Ajo. We video recorded Border Patrol destroying water gallons and published a report talking about widespread interference with humanitarian aid by Border Patrol, and just about six hours after we released that report, Scott was arrested and charged with felonies. With the raid back in July, we had just released documents from a FOIA request that were showing that the Border Patrol union had pressured the local sector to raid the aid station.
The July raid on the No More Deaths camp. (Photo courtesy No More Deaths)
Right after that, we had a big increase in surveillance. Border Patrol entered the property and arrested one person, and then later came back in force and raided the whole space. We’ve seen a pattern of it. Those types of tactics, repressing and targeting groups that are being the most vocal, is meant to deter other people from speaking out. It’s a tactic that goes along with just how secretive and unaccountable Border Patrol as part of the Department of Homeland Security is. They aren’t open to the same level of scrutiny as a lot of other law enforcement agencies, even though they’re one of the biggest police forces and most well-funded ones. They’re now kind of popping up in cities and widening their jurisdiction.
It makes sense that when there are groups that are interacting with people and documenting the abuses that they are experiencing, they’re going to try to silence those people and silence that dissent. We’ve also seen it in other ways within the interior, especially undocumented organizers and activists who are targeted by ICE for deportation for speaking out. It’s part of a larger pattern of retaliation and trying to suppress dissent.
JS: You all have been working on this three-part report called The Disappeared Report. How was the information in these reports collected?
PCK: A lot of it is based on interviews. For part one, which is about deadly enforcement tactics, we interviewed people who had been detained by Border Patrol to understand and hear their stories about what was happening in the field when no one’s watching. Part two is about interference with humanitarian aid. When we go out to the desert and we leave food and water on trails, we document all of that in a logbook so that we can track which areas have greater need. We went back through about four years of our data and analyzed it, and saw really widespread destruction of aid.
Our most current one that’s going to come out in the next few months is about emergency non-response. It is all based on information from a missing migrant hotline that used to be run by Coalición de Derechos Humanos, which is a local organization. If you call 911 in the borderlands, the call gets routed to Border Patrol. They’ve essentially monopolized emergency response for undocumented people that are crossing the desert, but they don’t have the same standards or responses as if a citizen was lost, say, in a national park, for example. The most recent report is looking at all of the cases in the hotline database and tracking patterns of an emergency non-response.
JS: Other than the immediate threat CBP poses for people traveling through the desert, what other elements compound the precarity of these trips?
PCK: Right now, something that’s really impacting the border is the Covid-19 pandemic. When people are detained in the desert, instead of working under any kind of public health emergency protocols, they’re just being driven to the nearest port and dropped off. People are being taken and dumped in towns where there’s no infrastructure to handle an influx of people who’ve just been in the desert. People might be medically compromised or just sick and exhausted, and they’re getting dropped off in a place that has no resources to support them. We’ve also seen pretty bad practices within Border Patrol around mask wearing to try to prevent the spread of Covid-19. They’re not wearing masks, and conditions in detention have been really bad. The US’s lack of an actual pandemic response is manifesting itself in really unique ways along the border.
JS: What kinds of conversations have been happening within your group about what happens next?
PCK: One of the things that I really love about No More Deaths is that we are able to be really flexible and responsive to whatever pops up. With Covid-19, we’ve implemented a ton of new protocols. We’ve changed our volunteer program. Right now, the biggest thing on a lot of our minds is that winter is here. Now it’s starting to freeze in the desert, which is something people don’t always think about. People think about the extreme heat in the summer, but in the winter it also gets really cold. So we’re doing clothes donation drives and putting out blankets. We’ll just keep seeing what the needs on the ground are and adjusting our work to accommodate them. It’s all very beyond us and what we’re able to control, but we are very committed to finding the most effective ways to intervene.
JS: How is the militarization of CBP that your group has been documenting for years connected to the abolition movement and calls for an anti-carceral country?
PCK: Border patrol started in 1924, but there were very few agents around until the mid-’90s, and that’s when the US started a border enforcement policy called “prevention through deterrence,” which is a policy that essentially walls off cities where it’s easier to cross, and pushes migration patterns into the remote desert areas. The idea was that it would be so difficult and dangerous to cross, that people would stop. That was put into place the same year as the North American Free Trade Agreement, which destabilized the Mexican agricultural economy. Since then, there’s been a steady increase in militarization along the border and a continual funneling of people into some of the most dangerous and remote corridors.
Over the past 10, 15 years maybe, we’ve seen checkpoints pop up on all the roads leaving the borderlands region. We’ve seen towers get put up and sensors buried in the ground, and all of this military infrastructure. Another thing that happened in 1994 that people don’t always think of as relating to immigration enforcement was the Crime Bill, which really kickstarted the expansion of the prison-industrial complex and was tied with the “war on drugs.” All of these policies really work hand in hand. We see a lot of collaboration between ICE and local police forces, which then deport people, who then cross back through the desert, and may interact with Border Patrol.
Looking at people who are doing all of this current work towards abolition of the prison-industrial complex, we definitely see the ways in which that could also have a dramatic impact on people dying in the desert. If people aren’t getting picked up in the interior, they won’t have to cross through the desert to get back to their families. The border is often used as a testing ground for a lot of technology and tactics as well. When we see things that are tried out along the border, we can often expect them to pop up in the interior in cities. A lot of people were talking about BORTAC showing up in Portland this year, and that wasn’t the first time they’ve shown up [in cities]. People are seeing that there needs to be a whole, huge shift in how all of these things are functioning.


thenation--2020-12-15--Progressives Have a Bold Agenda. Biden Should Act on Their Priorities in His First 100 Days.

With the Electoral College confirming him as the next president , Joe Biden now faces his true test .
Will he act swiftly and boldly to meet the calamitous crises he inherits ?
Or will his penchant for working across the aisle , combined with sobering down-ballot election results , lead him to fail what he describes as a “ Roosevelt moment ?
” Biden embraced a remarkably progressive agenda during the campaign , but many of his early appointments—lacking vision or new ideas—and his skittishness about his executive powers augur poorly .
It will likely fall to progressive leaders @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up to that Roosevelt moment .
Unlike the early days of the Obama administration , they are rising to the occasion .
Looking for last-minute holiday gifts with a conscience ?
Check out The Nation Shop and help support The Nation ’ s journalism while you complete your list .
Thanks to growing electoral strength and successful protests , progressives enter 2021 with a growing consensus around a bold reform agenda .
And they are urging Biden not to wait for legislation—a tough prospect given a likely GOP-controlled Senate—but to act in his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and other similar actions .
Read the full text of Katrina ’ s column here .

EDITOR’S NOTE: Each week we cross-post an excerpt from Katrina vanden Heuvel’s column at the WashingtonPost.com. Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.
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With the Electoral College confirming him as the next president, Joe Biden now faces his true test. Will he act swiftly and boldly to meet the calamitous crises he inherits? Or will his penchant for working across the aisle, combined with sobering down-ballot election results, lead him to fail what he describes as a “Roosevelt moment?”
Biden embraced a remarkably progressive agenda during the campaign, but many of his early appointments—lacking vision or new ideas—and his skittishness about his executive powers augur poorly. It will likely fall to progressive leaders and movements to force Biden to step up to that Roosevelt moment. Unlike the early days of the Obama administration, they are rising to the occasion. Looking for last-minute holiday gifts with a conscience? Check out The Nation Shop and help support The Nation’s journalism while you complete your list.
Thanks to growing electoral strength and successful protests, progressives enter 2021 with a growing consensus around a bold reform agenda. And they are urging Biden not to wait for legislation—a tough prospect given a likely GOP-controlled Senate—but to act in his first days in office through executive orders and other similar actions.
Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.


thenation--2020-12-15--How has Religious Experience Changed in a Secular Age?

Last May , the writer Tara Isabella Burton published a piece in the New York Times Sunday Review about a nascent faith community .
A growing number of spiritually hungry young Americans , she wrote , were “ finding solace in a decidedly anti-modern vision of faith ” —attending Latin Mass , belting out Gregorian chants , even wearing veils to church .
Some of them , including the author , had begun to call themselves “ Weird Christians.
” Burton described the alluring aspects of traditional liturgy , from its intrinsic beauty to its historical role in providing succor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the power of religious aesthetics—of grand ecclesiastical architecture , pungent incense , and haunting melodies—and reported that for some young Christians , their faith was wedded to progressive political commitments .
Christianity , they insisted , could be “ a bulwark against the worst of modernity , ” offering an alternative to the dehumanizing gig work and ruthless Tinder swipes of 21st century capitalism .
The article offered a seductive glimmer of transcendence in an era that seems distinctly hostile to it .
One might assume that Burton ’ s new book , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Godless World , would expand on this intriguing subculture .
In addition to a tour of Weird Christianity , a reader might expect excursions into Weird Judaism , Weird Islam , Weird Hinduism , and other idiosyncratic expressions of traditional religion .
But it turns out that Strange Rites is not a study of how people are adapting long-standing faith traditions to the current moment .
Instead it mostly explores something like the opposite—that is , how people are infusing new cultural forms with quasi-religious meaning .
To tell this story , Burton @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fan fiction , the wellness industry , polyamory , social activism , and techno-utopianism .
In short , she has written a book that takes contemporary American culture and views its most prominent movements through a religious lens .
In doing so , she offers an insightful but limited overview of how these movements are providing four pillars ( meaning , purpose , community , and ritual ) that Americans were at one time more likely to seek at their local house of worship .
Burton starts her book by establishing the ostensible @ @ @ @ @ @ @ About a quarter of American adults , she notes , say they are religiously unaffiliated , and for those born after 1990 , that number climbs to almost 40 percent .
“ In fact , ” she writes , “ the religious Nones , as they are often known , are the single biggest religious demographic in America , as well as the fastest-growing one.
” Yet she argues that if we look deeper , we will see a more nuanced picture of these supposedly godless Americans .
Almost three-quarters of the Nones @ @ @ @ @ @ @ power , and many report engaging in practices that might be broadly considered religious .
She dubs this group the “ Faithful Nones.
” There are also those who consider themselves spiritual but not religious ( an identity selected by 27 percent of Americans ) ; many of them pray or meditate and might even identify with a particular faith tradition but do not regularly participate in organized religion .
Finally , the “ religious hybrids , ” as Burton calls them , formulate their own syncretism .
A representative member of this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attend services at a Presbyterian church , light Shabbat candles , and download the Headspace app for mindfulness meditation .
Burton collects all of these modes of 21st century faith and spirituality under the umbrella of the “ Religiously Remixed.
” For her , what the Remixed have in common is a resistance to institutions and the rules and demands that come with them , yet they remain drawn to the idea of divinity or the prospect of transcendence .
Burton finds the roots of this approach to religion—which she calls “ intuitionalist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” —deep in American history .
In the 1800s , Transcendentalism extolled the primacy of the self against the strictures of a society that was , in Ralph Waldo Emerson ’ s words , a “ conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members.
” Less-remembered movements such as New Thought ( with its focus on positive thinking ) and Spiritualism ( centered on communication with the dead ) likewise elevated personal experience above the authority and infrastructure of organized faiths .
At the same time , for all the historical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that reinforce the intuitionalist bent : the rise of consumer capitalism and the advent of the Internet .
Together , these juggernauts have instilled in Americans , especially younger generations , the expectation that we should be able to meet our need for the sacred in the same ultrapersonalized , digitized way that we seek romance or find tonight ’ s entertainment on Netflix .
“ Why force our beliefs into a narrow category of organized religion , with its doctrines and creeds , when we can cobble together a metaphysical system that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , spiritual , or aesthetic compromises ?
” she asks .
“ Why not combine meditation with sage cleansing with the odd Christmas service and its aesthetically pleasing carols ?
” Having sketched the contours of the Remixed and the context from which they emerged , Burton goes on to explore some of the specific expressions of their improvisatory new “ religions ” —the ways in which they instill meaning and purpose into their communities and practices .
A few of the arenas Burton surveys have unmistakable spiritual overtones .
Witchcraft , she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ She cites 2014 data from the Pew Research Center showing that 1 million Americans identify their primary religious affiliation as New Age , Neo-Pagan , or Wiccan .
( Witchcraft falls into her purview because , as a “ diffuse and decentered practice and spiritual system , ” it “ lends itself easily to contemporary intuitional eclecticism.
” ) Then there ’ s the wellness industry—a $ 4.2 trillion market , according to Burton .
Companies hawking wellness often vaguely invoke spirituality and foster a cultish vibe .
SoulCycle instructors shout out , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , for a purpose ” ; Goop sells a $ 185 Nepalese singing bowl and $ 40 tarot cards .
Wellness is explicitly , if not a full-fledged religion , at least religion-adjacent .
But Burton also considers several other worldviews that would appear to be entirely secular .
One is what she calls “ social justice culture , ” which she says adapts “ the personal and individualistic tenets of New Thought ( a repressive society warps our sense of cognition and ability to be our truest self ) and gives it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of society that must be struck down are racism , sexism , and other forms of bigotry and injustice.
” Another belief system is the techno-utopianism of Silicon Valley , which she writes is devoted to the self-optimization enabled by technological and biological advances ; for techno-utopians , transcendence means breaking free from the limits of the human body and supplementing the meager abilities of the human mind .
A third is “ reactionary atavism , ” the domain of alt-right trolls and Alex Jones acolytes , who yearn to reinstate the old @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of modernity .
Burton ’ s argument is that while the people who join these subcultures clearly differ from one another and are not consciously seeking substitutes for religion , their involvement is driven by some of the same motives that have always drawn people to religion : They want community , a sense of purpose , and a coherent narrative to make sense of the world .
And although none of these subcultures necessarily meet all of the criteria for a religion , “ they no longer have to : today ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can get their sense of community from one place ( an intense fandom , say ) and their sense of meaning from another ( social justice activism , or techno-utopianism ) .
” And for the ritual component , they might turn somewhere else altogether , like yoga classes or a witchy subscription box .
Burton is a sharp thinker and a lucid writer .
At her best , her aperçus are spot-on , as in her gloss on the “ theology ” of wellness : “ We are born good , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , by processed food , by civilization itself , into living something that falls short of our best life.
” She adds , with perhaps just a touch of exaggeration , “ The implicit mantra of wellness is equal parts Ayn Rand and John Calvin : you ’ re not just allowed but in fact obligated to focus on yourself—but , no matter how much you do , it will never be good enough.
” At other times , the religious framework is more of a stretch .
She writes that the adherents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ seek not salvation out there , but a purification down here , a kingdom of heaven that can be realized fully on this earth , rather than in a world to come… .
To transcend biology or to transcend deep-rooted prejudices is to achieve a kind of earthly divinity.
” While these parallels are provocative , they don ’ t entirely hold up under scrutiny .
Burton ’ s take on the world of progressive activism is sympathetic though not uncritical .
She is not wrong that many who are committed to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of purpose in activism and shared values—and , in some cases , exhibit a zeal equal to that of a devout believer .
But much of today ’ s social activism grows out of the imperative to change unacceptable conditions and address collective problems , not from a desire to fill a spiritual absence or achieve “ earthly divinity , ” and her portrayal at times elides that distinction .
In her discussion of techno-utopianism , Burton draws several illuminating connections between that ideology and common religious precepts .
The belief that individuals @ @ @ @ @ @ @ including death , has clear analogues in the religious belief in a soul and the afterlife , and the expectation of a coming Singularity , in which humans and technology fully merge , resembles eschatological visions .
Yet here , too , the religious analogies occasionally seem forced , as when Burton argues that techno-utopians see the body as the source of “ moral evil ” — “ those mortal meat sacks and shifty synapses that keep us from achieving our full and fully rational potential.
” It ’ s a clever line @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in this context feels misplaced .
Burton ’ s attitude toward the Remixed landscape can be a bit hard to gauge .
She sometimes appears to celebrate its freedoms and ingenuity , but at other times she lets loose quips that reveal a more disdainful attitude .
( “ Meaning , purpose , community , and ritual can all—separately or together—be purchased on Amazon Prime.
” ) She presents herself mostly as a neutral guide , although she does , unsurprisingly , express disapproval of reactionary atavism , which she calls the “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ She acknowledges that there is good reason for the decline of trust in institutions .
After all , although she doesn ’ t delve into their history , old-school religions have been responsible for untold repression , violence , and misery over the centuries ; many would see their withering as a sign of progress .
But she also emphasizes what would be lost without new spiritual institutions .
She is critical of the valorization of the self that she finds in much of Remixed culture .
This is particularly true in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are interwoven with most of the other subcultures—even Jones sells his own version of wellness with products like Super Male Vitality supplements and Wake Up America Immune Support Blend 100 % Organic Coffee .
Burton cites blog posts and Instagram hashtags that encourage self-care even when it means ditching friends and shirking responsibilities .
She worries that in some cases a spiritual patina could “ lend legitimacy to behavior that might , in other moral systems , be considered merely selfish.
” In a way , while not nearly as ambitious , Strange @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to update William James ’ s canonical 1902 book The Varieties of Religious Experience .
He also distinguished between institutional and what he called “ personal ” religion and focused on the latter .
While acknowledging that religion was nearly impossible to define , he offered this definition for the purpose of the book : “ the feelings , acts , and experiences of individual men in their solitude , so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine.
” ( He granted that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ supernatural , citing Buddhism as an example of a nontheistic religion . )
His account drew chiefly on the testimony of these “ individual men ” —and a few women—about their interior spiritual states .
James took pains to put into words what he termed “ religious feeling.
” “ There must be something solemn , serious , and tender about any attitude which we denominate religious .
If glad , it must not grin or snicker ; if sad , it must not scream or curse , ” he wrote .
Although @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was not about asserting or gratifying the self ; on the contrary , in these experiences , the sense of self tended to dissolve .
“ The essence of religious experiences , the thing by which we finally must judge them , ” he added , “ must be that element or quality in them which we can meet nowhere else.
” Surprisingly , even though Burton ’ s subject is also a more personal style of religion , religious feeling is all but entirely absent from her account .
Her four pillars @ @ @ @ @ @ @ confluence has the potential to produce religious feeling .
But without that feeling , those other ingredients may not add up to anything greater than the sum of their parts .
One reason for the omission may be that Burton does not seem to have extensively spoken with her subjects .
Only a handful of quotes are attributed to interviews , and most of her observations seem based on evidence gleaned from books and surveys , the media , and social media .
Her analysis centers on broad cultural movements rather than the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a result , Strange Rites does not examine the interior experiences of the Remixed in any depth—and interior experience is , of course , central to any authentic engagement with religion .
That said , there is another possible reason for the omission : The “ solemn , serious , and tender ” mood that James described may be increasingly elusive in today ’ s world .
Burton repeatedly stresses the centrality of the Internet to the Remixed scene .
Much as the rise of Protestantism is considered “ inseparable from the invention @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of mass literacy , ” so , too , does technology shape our current religions .
“ Anti-institutional , intuitional self-divinization is , at heart , the natural spirituality of Internet and smartphone culture , ” she asserts .
The Internet is ideal for finding like-minded souls , for learning about new belief systems , for purchasing the perfect herb-infused crystals .
But if I wanted to invent a mechanism for thwarting the emergence of that reverent , self-forgetting mood , I doubt I could do much better than a smartphone : beckoning @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deflating the ego , all while buzzing with alerts of ( usually bad ) news from the outside world .
This is not to say that religious feeling is impossible to achieve in our high-tech society .
From Burton ’ s piece on Weird Christianity , one gets the sense that her church ’ s evening prayer services are suffused with religious feeling—even though , because of the Covid-19 pandemic , they were taking place online .
In Strange Rites , however , Burton refers just once in passing to her own faith @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s a story for a different book .
”

This article appears in the December 28, 2020/January 4, 2021 issue.
Last May, the writer Tara Isabella Burton published a piece in the New York Times Sunday Review about a nascent faith community. A growing number of spiritually hungry young Americans, she wrote, were “finding solace in a decidedly anti-modern vision of faith”—attending Latin Mass, belting out Gregorian chants, even wearing veils to church. Some of them, including the author, had begun to call themselves “Weird Christians.” Books in Review Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World By Tara Isabella Burton Buy this book
Burton described the alluring aspects of traditional liturgy, from its intrinsic beauty to its historical role in providing succor throughout the ages. She wrote of the power of religious aesthetics—of grand ecclesiastical architecture, pungent incense, and haunting melodies—and reported that for some young Christians, their faith was wedded to progressive political commitments. Christianity, they insisted, could be “a bulwark against the worst of modernity,” offering an alternative to the dehumanizing gig work and ruthless Tinder swipes of 21st century capitalism.
The article offered a seductive glimmer of transcendence in an era that seems distinctly hostile to it. One might assume that Burton’s new book, Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World, would expand on this intriguing subculture. In addition to a tour of Weird Christianity, a reader might expect excursions into Weird Judaism, Weird Islam, Weird Hinduism, and other idiosyncratic expressions of traditional religion. But it turns out that Strange Rites is not a study of how people are adapting long-standing faith traditions to the current moment. Instead it mostly explores something like the opposite—that is, how people are infusing new cultural forms with quasi-religious meaning. To tell this story, Burton covers, among other familiar milieus, fan fiction, the wellness industry, polyamory, social activism, and techno-utopianism. In short, she has written a book that takes contemporary American culture and views its most prominent movements through a religious lens. In doing so, she offers an insightful but limited overview of how these movements are providing four pillars (meaning, purpose, community, and ritual) that Americans were at one time more likely to seek at their local house of worship.
Burton starts her book by establishing the ostensible faithlessness of the contemporary United States. About a quarter of American adults, she notes, say they are religiously unaffiliated, and for those born after 1990, that number climbs to almost 40 percent. “In fact,” she writes, “the religious Nones, as they are often known, are the single biggest religious demographic in America, as well as the fastest-growing one.” Yet she argues that if we look deeper, we will see a more nuanced picture of these supposedly godless Americans. Almost three-quarters of the Nones profess belief in some sort of higher power, and many report engaging in practices that might be broadly considered religious. She dubs this group the “Faithful Nones.” 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 My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung 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 My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung
There are also those who consider themselves spiritual but not religious (an identity selected by 27 percent of Americans); many of them pray or meditate and might even identify with a particular faith tradition but do not regularly participate in organized religion. Finally, the “religious hybrids,” as Burton calls them, formulate their own syncretism. A representative member of this subset might, for example, occasionally attend services at a Presbyterian church, light Shabbat candles, and download the Headspace app for mindfulness meditation. Burton collects all of these modes of 21st century faith and spirituality under the umbrella of the “Religiously Remixed.” For her, what the Remixed have in common is a resistance to institutions and the rules and demands that come with them, yet they remain drawn to the idea of divinity or the prospect of transcendence.
Burton finds the roots of this approach to religion—which she calls “intuitionalist,” as opposed to “institutionalist”—deep in American history. In the 1800s, Transcendentalism extolled the primacy of the self against the strictures of a society that was, in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s words, a “conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members.” Less-remembered movements such as New Thought (with its focus on positive thinking) and Spiritualism (centered on communication with the dead) likewise elevated personal experience above the authority and infrastructure of organized faiths.
At the same time, for all the historical continuity, Burton identifies two new factors that reinforce the intuitionalist bent: the rise of consumer capitalism and the advent of the Internet. Together, these juggernauts have instilled in Americans, especially younger generations, the expectation that we should be able to meet our need for the sacred in the same ultrapersonalized, digitized way that we seek romance or find tonight’s entertainment on Netflix. “Why force our beliefs into a narrow category of organized religion, with its doctrines and creeds, when we can cobble together a metaphysical system that demands of us no moral, ethical, spiritual, or aesthetic compromises?” she asks. “Why not combine meditation with sage cleansing with the odd Christmas service and its aesthetically pleasing carols?” Current Issue View our current issue
Having sketched the contours of the Remixed and the context from which they emerged, Burton goes on to explore some of the specific expressions of their improvisatory new “religions”—the ways in which they instill meaning and purpose into their communities and practices.
A few of the arenas Burton surveys have unmistakable spiritual overtones. Witchcraft, she notes, has become remarkably popular. She cites 2014 data from the Pew Research Center showing that 1 million Americans identify their primary religious affiliation as New Age, Neo-Pagan, or Wiccan. (Witchcraft falls into her purview because, as a “diffuse and decentered practice and spiritual system,” it “lends itself easily to contemporary intuitional eclecticism.”) Then there’s the wellness industry—a $4.2 trillion market, according to Burton. Companies hawking wellness often vaguely invoke spirituality and foster a cultish vibe. SoulCycle instructors shout out, “You were created by a purpose, for a purpose”; Goop sells a $185 Nepalese singing bowl and $40 tarot cards. Wellness is explicitly, if not a full-fledged religion, at least religion-adjacent.
But Burton also considers several other worldviews that would appear to be entirely secular. One is what she calls “social justice culture,” which she says adapts “the personal and individualistic tenets of New Thought (a repressive society warps our sense of cognition and ability to be our truest self) and gives it a firmly political cast: the Goliaths of society that must be struck down are racism, sexism, and other forms of bigotry and injustice.” Another belief system is the techno-utopianism of Silicon Valley, which she writes is devoted to the self-optimization enabled by technological and biological advances; for techno-utopians, transcendence means breaking free from the limits of the human body and supplementing the meager abilities of the human mind. A third is “reactionary atavism,” the domain of alt-right trolls and Alex Jones acolytes, who yearn to reinstate the old hierarchies destabilized by feminism and other forces of modernity.
Burton’s argument is that while the people who join these subcultures clearly differ from one another and are not consciously seeking substitutes for religion, their involvement is driven by some of the same motives that have always drawn people to religion: They want community, a sense of purpose, and a coherent narrative to make sense of the world. And although none of these subcultures necessarily meet all of the criteria for a religion, “they no longer have to: today’s mix-and-match culture means that the Remixed can get their sense of community from one place (an intense fandom, say) and their sense of meaning from another (social justice activism, or techno-utopianism).” And for the ritual component, they might turn somewhere else altogether, like yoga classes or a witchy subscription box.
Burton is a sharp thinker and a lucid writer. At her best, her aperçus are spot-on, as in her gloss on the “theology” of wellness: “We are born good, but we are tricked, by Big Pharma, by processed food, by civilization itself, into living something that falls short of our best life.” She adds, with perhaps just a touch of exaggeration, “The implicit mantra of wellness is equal parts Ayn Rand and John Calvin: you’re not just allowed but in fact obligated to focus on yourself—but, no matter how much you do, it will never be good enough.”
At other times, the religious framework is more of a stretch. She writes that the adherents of both techno-utopianism and social justice culture “seek not salvation out there, but a purification down here, a kingdom of heaven that can be realized fully on this earth, rather than in a world to come…. To transcend biology or to transcend deep-rooted prejudices is to achieve a kind of earthly divinity.” While these parallels are provocative, they don’t entirely hold up under scrutiny.
Burton’s take on the world of progressive activism is sympathetic though not uncritical. She is not wrong that many who are committed to social justice find community and a sense of purpose in activism and shared values—and, in some cases, exhibit a zeal equal to that of a devout believer. But much of today’s social activism grows out of the imperative to change unacceptable conditions and address collective problems, not from a desire to fill a spiritual absence or achieve “earthly divinity,” and her portrayal at times elides that distinction.
In her discussion of techno-utopianism, Burton draws several illuminating connections between that ideology and common religious precepts. The belief that individuals can be liberated from biological constraints, including death, has clear analogues in the religious belief in a soul and the afterlife, and the expectation of a coming Singularity, in which humans and technology fully merge, resembles eschatological visions. Yet here, too, the religious analogies occasionally seem forced, as when Burton argues that techno-utopians see the body as the source of “moral evil”—“those mortal meat sacks and shifty synapses that keep us from achieving our full and fully rational potential.” It’s a clever line, but the religious concept of evil in this context feels misplaced.
Burton’s attitude toward the Remixed landscape can be a bit hard to gauge. She sometimes appears to celebrate its freedoms and ingenuity, but at other times she lets loose quips that reveal a more disdainful attitude. (“Meaning, purpose, community, and ritual can all—separately or together—be purchased on Amazon Prime.”) She presents herself mostly as a neutral guide, although she does, unsurprisingly, express disapproval of reactionary atavism, which she calls the “most dangerous” of these movements.
She acknowledges that there is good reason for the decline of trust in institutions. After all, although she doesn’t delve into their history, old-school religions have been responsible for untold repression, violence, and misery over the centuries; many would see their withering as a sign of progress. But she also emphasizes what would be lost without new spiritual institutions. She is critical of the valorization of the self that she finds in much of Remixed culture. This is particularly true in the realms of wellness and self-care, which are interwoven with most of the other subcultures—even Jones sells his own version of wellness with products like Super Male Vitality supplements and Wake Up America Immune Support Blend 100% Organic Coffee. Burton cites blog posts and Instagram hashtags that encourage self-care even when it means ditching friends and shirking responsibilities. She worries that in some cases a spiritual patina could “lend legitimacy to behavior that might, in other moral systems, be considered merely selfish.”
In a way, while not nearly as ambitious, Strange Rites can be seen as an effort to update William James’s canonical 1902 book The Varieties of Religious Experience. He also distinguished between institutional and what he called “personal” religion and focused on the latter. While acknowledging that religion was nearly impossible to define, he offered this definition for the purpose of the book: “the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine.” (He granted that the “divine” might not include the supernatural, citing Buddhism as an example of a nontheistic religion.) His account drew chiefly on the testimony of these “individual men”—and a few women—about their interior spiritual states.
James took pains to put into words what he termed “religious feeling.” “There must be something solemn, serious, and tender about any attitude which we denominate religious. If glad, it must not grin or snicker; if sad, it must not scream or curse,” he wrote. Although it was “personal,” it was not about asserting or gratifying the self; on the contrary, in these experiences, the sense of self tended to dissolve. “The essence of religious experiences, the thing by which we finally must judge them,” he added, “must be that element or quality in them which we can meet nowhere else.”
Surprisingly, even though Burton’s subject is also a more personal style of religion, religious feeling is all but entirely absent from her account. Her four pillars are admittedly invaluable, and perhaps their confluence has the potential to produce religious feeling. But without that feeling, those other ingredients may not add up to anything greater than the sum of their parts.
One reason for the omission may be that Burton does not seem to have extensively spoken with her subjects. Only a handful of quotes are attributed to interviews, and most of her observations seem based on evidence gleaned from books and surveys, the media, and social media. Her analysis centers on broad cultural movements rather than the individuals who make them up. As a result, Strange Rites does not examine the interior experiences of the Remixed in any depth—and interior experience is, of course, central to any authentic engagement with religion.
That said, there is another possible reason for the omission: The “solemn, serious, and tender” mood that James described may be increasingly elusive in today’s world. Burton repeatedly stresses the centrality of the Internet to the Remixed scene. Much as the rise of Protestantism is considered “inseparable from the invention of the printing press and the spread of mass literacy,” so, too, does technology shape our current religions. “Anti-institutional, intuitional self-divinization is, at heart, the natural spirituality of Internet and smartphone culture,” she asserts. The Internet is ideal for finding like-minded souls, for learning about new belief systems, for purchasing the perfect herb-infused crystals. But if I wanted to invent a mechanism for thwarting the emergence of that reverent, self-forgetting mood, I doubt I could do much better than a smartphone: beckoning with temptations, by turns inflating and deflating the ego, all while buzzing with alerts of (usually bad) news from the outside world.
This is not to say that religious feeling is impossible to achieve in our high-tech society. From Burton’s piece on Weird Christianity, one gets the sense that her church’s evening prayer services are suffused with religious feeling—even though, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, they were taking place online. In Strange Rites, however, Burton refers just once in passing to her own faith before quickly adding, “But that’s a story for a different book.”


thenation--2020-12-15--People Are Taking the Wrong Lesson From Trump’s Failed Coup

Donald Trump was soundly defeated in his reelection campaign , and , at last , Republicans might be forced to take notice .
The mountain of frivolous lawsuits by Trump ’ s legal team has been defeated .
The Supreme Court rejected a last ditch effort by Texas to bait the court into overturning the election results in four critical states .
Even the judges Trump appointed specifically in the hope that they ’ d help him steal the election have basically responded to the President with “ new phone , who dis ?
” Now , electors have formally @ @ @ @ @ @ @ President of the United States .
At last , it seems , the nightmare is ending .
Trump tried to steal the election—and he failed .
He will be removed from office at noon on January 20 , 2021 , just as the Constitution requires .
We won .
Looking for last-minute holiday gifts with a conscience ?
Check out The Nation Shop and help support The Nation ’ s journalism while you complete your list .
But what exactly does that mean ?
Unfortunately , some people are taking the wrong lesson @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recent weeks I ’ ve seen some pundits crow that things did not fall apart , the center held : Our institutions proved able to resist the full force of Trumpism deployed against them .
David Lauter , the senior Washington correspondent for the Los Angeles Times , tweeted , “ So far , predictions of catastrophe have fallen flat : No violence , no huge lines , no big problems with USPS nor mass numbers of voters with ballot errors .
No efforts by GOP legislatures to interfere .
Just Rudy [ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his face .
Whimper , not bang.
” Brad Heath from Reuters wrote , “ The basic gears and sprockets of our democracy have so far proved pretty resilient .
Trump has attempted some pretty wild moves to subvert the election he just lost , but so far each and every one of them has failed.
” But that analysis appears overly sanguine .
Trump failed to steal the election because he and his legal team are incompetent criminals , not because our democratic institutions defeated him .
Saying that our democracy proved @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like saying the fences at Jurassic Park proved resilient against raptors .
Yes , technically Trump kept getting zapped on the electrified fence that is the federal judiciary .
But his willingness to try—and the willingness of large swaths of the Republican Party to help him—shows that if the guardrails give way for even a moment , Republicans will break out and start eating the votes of Black people .
This election witnessed new and destructive attempts by the GOP to win : Instead of merely trying to suppress the votes of Black @ @ @ @ @ @ @ those votes altogether .
In predominately Black city after predominately Black city , Republicans urged courts , state boards of elections , and secretaries of state to throw away ballots cast by legitimately registered voters on the basis of “ voter fraud.
” They offered no evidence for these allegations but expected officials to throw out literally hundreds of thousands of votes anyway .
And it almost worked .
In Michigan , for instance , the two GOP members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers , William Hartmann and Monica Palmer , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their county , which includes Detroit .
Palmer indicated she ’ d be willing to certify results everywhere in her jurisdiction except for precincts in that predominately Black city .
Even the four-member Board of State Canvassers didn ’ t vote unanimously to certify Michigan ’ s results .
One of the two Republicans abstained over “ concerns ” with election fraud—concerns that , again , were not substantiated by any evidence .
Once it became clear that the certification gambit would fail , Trump invited the state ’ s top two GOP @ @ @ @ @ @ @ apparent attempt to intimidate or bribe them into sending a slate of Trump supporters to the Electoral College .
The legislators balked at the idea .
But if they had caved , would other Republican-led legislatures have followed suit ?
Biden won Michigan by over 150,000 votes .
What would be happening there now if he had won the state by only 11,000 votes—which is about the margin by which Trump defeated Hillary Clinton there in 2016 ?
By how much are Democrats now required to win elections to make Republicans acknowledge the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ charades played out in other states , vanishingly few national Republican officials acknowledged Biden ’ s victory , instead choosing to support Trump ’ s baseless lawsuits to overturn the election .
Some went even further .
Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is being investigated for ethics violations because he allegedly tried to pressure a Georgia official into throwing out some counties ’ absentee ballots , the majority of which were for Biden .
Unfortunately , we now know that at least 126 Republicans in Congress are every bit as partisan and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s how many of them joined Texas ’ s lawsuit to overturn the election .
These Republicans seamlessly moved from “ Trump has every right to pursue his legal options ” to “ we should throw out the votes of every swing state that Biden won , ” as if nobody would notice the difference .
But we noticed , we saw that at least 126 Republican members of Congress are more committed to partisan victory than basic democracy .
We should never forget that .
This election revealed an entire network of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump and were willing to help him steal the election .
Who knew that the postmaster general could be turned into a weapon against democracy ?
Who would have thought that the head of the General Services Administration was such a weak and craven partisan ?
How many officials would Trump have fired if they stood in his way , as he did with cybersecurity chief Chris Krebs after he dared to tell people that the election was secure ?
The Trump legal team is so incompetent and the courts have been so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ amateur-hour lawsuits that people may be tempted to think that the courts , at least , will reject similar threats to democracy in future elections .
But I wouldn ’ t be so sure .
The next phase of the Republican project to own our electoral system is now clear .
Having seen the obstacles to throwing out the votes of Black people , conservative law professors and their Federalist Society coconspirators can be expected to start cranking out legal justifications to do just that .
Remember , 15 years ago , nobody @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would eviscerate the Voting Rights Act .
The provision requiring historically racist states and counties to receive clearance before changing their election laws was reauthorized by Congress with 390 votes in the House and signed by President George W. Bush in 2006 .
But just seven years later , Chief Justice John Roberts destroyed that provision as part of the right ’ s long-term effort to suppress the votes of Black people .
Who knows what conservative courts might be willing to do in future elections ?
I do not think the institutions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump just got whupped beyond the point that the corrupted institutions could save him .
Next time , we might not be so lucky .
As Samuel L. Jackson ’ s character says in Jurassic Park , right before he cuts the power to the fences , “ Hold on to your butts.
” Later in the movie , Jackson is eaten .

This article appears in the December 28, 2020/January 4, 2021 issue.
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Donald Trump was soundly defeated in his reelection campaign, and, at last, Republicans might be forced to take notice. The mountain of frivolous lawsuits by Trump’s legal team has been defeated. The Supreme Court rejected a last ditch effort by Texas to bait the court into overturning the election results in four critical states. Even the judges Trump appointed specifically in the hope that they’d help him steal the election have basically responded to the President with “new phone, who dis?” Now, electors have formally voted for Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States.
At last, it seems, the nightmare is ending. Trump tried to steal the election—and he failed. He will be removed from office at noon on January 20, 2021, just as the Constitution requires. We won. Looking for last-minute holiday gifts with a conscience? Check out The Nation Shop and help support The Nation’s journalism while you complete your list.
But what exactly does that mean?
Unfortunately, some people are taking the wrong lesson from Trump’s defeat. In recent weeks I’ve seen some pundits crow that things did not fall apart, the center held: Our institutions proved able to resist the full force of Trumpism deployed against them. David Lauter, the senior Washington correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, tweeted, “So far, predictions of catastrophe have fallen flat: No violence, no huge lines, no big problems with USPS nor mass numbers of voters with ballot errors. No efforts by GOP legislatures to interfere. Just Rudy [Giuliani] with hair dye dripping on his face. Whimper, not bang.” Brad Heath from Reuters wrote, “The basic gears and sprockets of our democracy have so far proved pretty resilient. Trump has attempted some pretty wild moves to subvert the election he just lost, but so far each and every one of them has failed.”
But that analysis appears overly sanguine. Trump failed to steal the election because he and his legal team are incompetent criminals, not because our democratic institutions defeated him. Saying that our democracy proved resilient against Republican attempts at subversion is like saying the fences at Jurassic Park proved resilient against raptors. Yes, technically Trump kept getting zapped on the electrified fence that is the federal judiciary. But his willingness to try—and the willingness of large swaths of the Republican Party to help him—shows that if the guardrails give way for even a moment, Republicans will break out and start eating the votes of Black people.
This election witnessed new and destructive attempts by the GOP to win: Instead of merely trying to suppress the votes of Black people, the party tried to nullify those votes altogether. In predominately Black city after predominately Black city, Republicans urged courts, state boards of elections, and secretaries of state to throw away ballots cast by legitimately registered voters on the basis of “voter fraud.” They offered no evidence for these allegations but expected officials to throw out literally hundreds of thousands of votes anyway. 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 My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung 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 My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung
And it almost worked. In Michigan, for instance, the two GOP members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, William Hartmann and Monica Palmer, initially refused to certify the results in their county, which includes Detroit. Palmer indicated she’d be willing to certify results everywhere in her jurisdiction except for precincts in that predominately Black city. Even the four-member Board of State Canvassers didn’t vote unanimously to certify Michigan’s results. One of the two Republicans abstained over “concerns” with election fraud—concerns that, again, were not substantiated by any evidence. Current Issue View our current issue
Once it became clear that the certification gambit would fail, Trump invited the state’s top two GOP legislators to the White House in an apparent attempt to intimidate or bribe them into sending a slate of Trump supporters to the Electoral College. The legislators balked at the idea. But if they had caved, would other Republican-led legislatures have followed suit?
Biden won Michigan by over 150,000 votes. What would be happening there now if he had won the state by only 11,000 votes—which is about the margin by which Trump defeated Hillary Clinton there in 2016? By how much are Democrats now required to win elections to make Republicans acknowledge the obvious results?
Meanwhile, as similar charades played out in other states, vanishingly few national Republican officials acknowledged Biden’s victory, instead choosing to support Trump’s baseless lawsuits to overturn the election. Some went even further. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is being investigated for ethics violations because he allegedly tried to pressure a Georgia official into throwing out some counties’ absentee ballots, the majority of which were for Biden.
Unfortunately, we now know that at least 126 Republicans in Congress are every bit as partisan and craven as Senator Graham. That’s how many of them joined Texas’s lawsuit to overturn the election. These Republicans seamlessly moved from “Trump has every right to pursue his legal options” to “we should throw out the votes of every swing state that Biden won,” as if nobody would notice the difference. But we noticed, we saw that at least 126 Republican members of Congress are more committed to partisan victory than basic democracy. We should never forget that.
This election revealed an entire network of functionaries who were captured and corrupted by Trump and were willing to help him steal the election. Who knew that the postmaster general could be turned into a weapon against democracy? Who would have thought that the head of the General Services Administration was such a weak and craven partisan? How many officials would Trump have fired if they stood in his way, as he did with cybersecurity chief Chris Krebs after he dared to tell people that the election was secure?
The Trump legal team is so incompetent and the courts have been so consistent in rejecting his campaign’s amateur-hour lawsuits that people may be tempted to think that the courts, at least, will reject similar threats to democracy in future elections. But I wouldn’t be so sure. The next phase of the Republican project to own our electoral system is now clear. Having seen the obstacles to throwing out the votes of Black people, conservative law professors and their Federalist Society coconspirators can be expected to start cranking out legal justifications to do just that.
Remember, 15 years ago, nobody would have thought that the Supreme Court would eviscerate the Voting Rights Act. The provision requiring historically racist states and counties to receive clearance before changing their election laws was reauthorized by Congress with 390 votes in the House and signed by President George W. Bush in 2006. But just seven years later, Chief Justice John Roberts destroyed that provision as part of the right’s long-term effort to suppress the votes of Black people. Who knows what conservative courts might be willing to do in future elections?
I do not think the institutions held during this election; I think Trump just got whupped beyond the point that the corrupted institutions could save him. Next time, we might not be so lucky. As Samuel L. Jackson’s character says in Jurassic Park, right before he cuts the power to the fences, “Hold on to your butts.”
Later in the movie, Jackson is eaten.