thenation--2020-05-06--The Press Is Amplifying a Dangerous Know-Nothing Ideology

Encouraged by near-saturation media coverage , the right-wing protests against commonsense social-distancing measures are getting out of hand .
While the absolute numbers involved in the protests are tiny , their effect—when amplified by the credulous , cheerleading tone of the coverage—is massive and dangerous .
On April 30 in Michigan , rifle-touting , Confederate-flag-waving , Trump-supporting militia types attempted to intimidate the legislature ( to predictably sympathetic tweets from the president ) .
These anti-lockdown rallies are popping up everywhere , often with nearly as many reporters covering them as there are protesters in attendance .
The right to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ life-threatening disease but also to infect others and worsen the crisis that threatens the world ’ s public health and economy has become a symbol of the extremist libertarian right wing , whose members make up a significant segment of Trump ’ s political base .
Governors—such as those in Georgia and Florida—who identify with Trump ’ s brand of faux libertarianism are embracing the right to infect , no matter the cost to their constituents , their country , and the world at large .
Fox News Has Always Lied to Old @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Them .
During a Pandemic , Trump ’ s ‘ Bullshit ’ Will Be Deadly Unfortunately , many in the mainstream media are mindlessly helping the protesters .
Take a look , for instance , at Politico ’ s coverage of the symbol of the mask : “ Wearing a mask is for smug liberals .
Refusing to is for reckless Republicans , ” a headline shouts , equating following the advice of medical experts with conservatives ’ ignoring global public standards .
The Politico story goes on to note that “ conservatives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as another example of the creeping nanny state.
” Only down below do we learn that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that people should wear masks in public because doing so “ reduces the ability of an asymptomatic infected person to spread the virus , ” as if observing commonsense safety regulations in the midst of a deadly pandemic is just another example of liberal snobbery .
Look , as well , to New York Times editorial page resident right-winger Bret Stephens , who wrote on April 24 in support @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who wished to quarantine New York City residents who showed up in her state .
“ No wonder , ” he concluded , “ so much of America has dwindling sympathy with the idea of prolonging lockdown conditions much further.
” Luckily for Stephens , his editors do not employ fact-checkers , or he would have to find another line of work .
Support for lockdowns is hardly dwindling .
A study by the COVID-19 Consortium for Understanding the Public ’ s Policy Preferences Across States ( a joint project of the Network @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Shorenstein Center at Harvard , and the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University ) states : We ’ ve been to this movie before .
It was called the Tea Party .
Many , if not most , members of the media gave two thumbs up to these so-called conservative activists and helped them reshape the Republican Party after the election of Barack Obama in 2008 .
Pundits cast the Tea Party as a patriotic movement focused on limiting government spending and adhering to the Constitution .
We now know , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was a plaything of the billionaire Koch brothers and their network of funders .
Scholarly scrutiny eventually demonstrated that its protesters were far more motivated by fear and anger over the belief that “ real Americans ” —meaning white conservative Christians like themselves—were losing the country to the kind of people who made up Obama ’ s victorious coalition .
Pat Buchanan , the conservative pundit and early avatar of what would become Trumpism , enunciated their real concern : the transformation of the United States into a “ multicultural , multiethnic , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whose avatar is Barack Obama ” and how to stop it .
Tea Party activists were never anywhere near as popular as the media pretended .
A column I wrote for the Center for American Progress in December 2011 noted that the percentage of Americans who said they agreed with the Tea Party had fallen from a not terribly robust 24 percent to just 20 percent by that time .
And yet the coverage treated the movement as if it were taking over the country .
( And with Trump in office , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But there was another incident during the Obama era that I find even more illustrative of how so many members of the media nourished this know-nothing Republican libertarian ideology that endangers us all today .
The 2012 Republican National Convention dedicated a full evening to purposely misrepresenting a single sentence spoken by Obama .
In a speech delivered on July 13 of that year at a campaign stop in Virginia , he made the mundane point that though it was important to root out wasteful government spending , it was also easy to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was the government , after all , whose investments helped to lay the foundation that enabled the success of the private economy .
Obama went on to cite the GI Bill , the Golden Gate Bridge , the Hoover Dam , and the moon landing as examples of the foundations of economic growth that for generations had supported America ’ s great fortunes .
These ideas were hardly controversial or even new .
Republicans immediately seized on Obama ’ s statement to make it appear that the president was claiming something he never @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney—who , today has been cast as a man of principle for being the only senator to defy the president on the question of impeachment—complained back then that “ to say that Steve Jobs didn ’ t build Apple , that Henry Ford didn ’ t build Ford Motors , that Papa John didn ’ t build Papa John Pizza…to say something like that , it ’ s not just foolishness .
It ’ s insulting to every entrepreneur , every innovator in America.
” But Romney ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s was truthful .
Nothing could be more obvious than the fact that the individuals Romney named did not build those companies alone .
Not only did thousands of other people contribute in each case to making those companies into what they would become , but their success also rested on a system of laws , regulations , roads , bridges , post offices , schools , and taxes—just as Obama said .
Here Romney , not Obama , was the one lying .
Obama challenged neither the visionary nature of these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He merely made the mundane , factual , and almost tautological point that they did not do it alone .
On July 24 , just days after the speech in question and well before the Republican convention began , the Obama campaign issued a statement clarifying that the word “ that ” referred to “ roads and bridges ” a sentence earlier .
The president recorded an advertisement in which , looking into the camera , he explained , “ Those ads taking my words about small business out of context ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Americans build their own businesses.
” But Romney was far from the only one who didn ’ t care about whether he was purposely misleading voters as to what Obama had said ; many in the mainstream media were perfectly happy to play along .
Despite a Washington Post Fact Checker column giving Romney ’ s statement three ( out of a possible four ) “ Pinocchios , ” and CNN ’ s calling it “ a theme out of context , ” many others ate it up .
The Wall Street Journal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the lies of the Swift boat campaign against John Kerry in 2004 , led the attack .
One of its columnists , James Taranto , went so far as to pretend that Obama ’ s remark “ was a direct attack on the principle of individual responsibility , the foundation of American freedom.
” A Washington Post blogger professed to see “ a level of resentment toward the private sector that was startling , even to [ Obama ’ s ] critics.
” In tribute to the effectiveness of their campaign , Republicans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the theme of the second night of their 2012 convention .
Press coverage , for the most part , focused not on whether the theme was honest but on whether it worked .
And most journalists decided not only that the attack was valid but also that Obama had only himself to blame and should stop bothering them with corrections .
As Aaron Blake wrote in a straight news story in The Washington Post , “ The problem with Obama ’ s latest exhortation that ‘ you didn ’ t build that ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ true .
The context of the remark makes it pretty clear that he ’ s referring to government-funded things like teachers and roads that make entrepreneurship possible.
” Rather , the problem , Blake concluded , was his “ emphasis.
” This was what invited Republicans to “ label Obama as a big-government tax-raiser.
” Slate ’ s then–senior editor Rachael Larimore dismissed questions of truth and falsehood as beside the point and even appeared to find them somehow morally objectionable .
In an article with the subheading “ It doesn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s why , ” she admitted that Romney ’ s statement was false and endorsed the fact-checkers ’ condemnation of it .
Nevertheless , she went on to say , she was unsympathetic to the Obama campaign : “ Obama supporters can complain all they want .
They can argue that when he said ‘ that , ’ he was talking about the roads and bridges , not the business itself .
It doesn ’ t matter .
And it ’ s pointless to blame Mitt Romney or the RNC or anyone else @ @ @ @ @ @ @ She found comical the idea that Obama ’ s supporters would “ try telling [ voters ] what their president ‘ meant.
’ ” The idea that it might be her professional responsibility to speak up for the truth and debunk falsehood was entirely alien to her—a quaint relic of a bygone era .
Chris Cillizza , a reporter at The Washington Post ( later recruited by CNN ) , explained it thus : “ My job is to assess not the rightness of each argument but to deal in the real world @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( if not always ) trumps reality .
I deal in the world as voters believe it is , not as I ( or anyone else ) thinks it should be.
” One could hardly ask for a better an example of what New York University professor Jay Rosen ’ s diagnosed in 2011 as the “ cult of the savvy , ” which he defined as the quality “ of being shrewd , practical , hyper-informed , perceptive , ironic , ‘ with it , ’ and unsentimental in all things political.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ more characteristic of the savvy style than statements like ‘ in politics , perception is reality.
’ ” Of course , as Rosen notes , perception is not reality : “ Reality is reality !
” So it ’ s no surprise that the miscreants demanding the right to infect themselves and others have no trouble receiving the loving attention of the uncritical mainstream media .
It ’ s as if we ’ ve been in training for this death march for decades .

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Encouraged by near-saturation media coverage, the right-wing protests against commonsense social-distancing measures are getting out of hand. While the absolute numbers involved in the protests are tiny, their effect—when amplified by the credulous, cheerleading tone of the coverage—is massive and dangerous. On April 30 in Michigan, rifle-touting, Confederate-flag-waving, Trump-supporting militia types attempted to intimidate the legislature (to predictably sympathetic tweets from the president). These anti-lockdown rallies are popping up everywhere, often with nearly as many reporters covering them as there are protesters in attendance.
The right to not only infect oneself with a potentially life-threatening disease but also to infect others and worsen the crisis that threatens the world’s public health and economy has become a symbol of the extremist libertarian right wing, whose members make up a significant segment of Trump’s political base. Governors—such as those in Georgia and Florida—who identify with Trump’s brand of faux libertarianism are embracing the right to infect, no matter the cost to their constituents, their country, and the world at large. More From Eric Alterman Conservative Jews Made a Terrible Bargain With Trump and the Right Over Israel December 21, 2022 Todd Gitlin Told His Truth Everywhere He Went February 8, 2022 Why the Media No Longer Cares About Nicaragua September 28, 2021
Unfortunately, many in the mainstream media are mindlessly helping the protesters. Take a look, for instance, at Politico’s coverage of the symbol of the mask: “Wearing a mask is for smug liberals. Refusing to is for reckless Republicans,” a headline shouts, equating following the advice of medical experts with conservatives’ ignoring global public standards.
The Politico story goes on to note that “conservatives attacked the left’s mask obsession as another example of the creeping nanny state.” Only down below do we learn that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that people should wear masks in public because doing so “reduces the ability of an asymptomatic infected person to spread the virus,” as if observing commonsense safety regulations in the midst of a deadly pandemic is just another example of liberal snobbery.
Look, as well, to New York Times editorial page resident right-winger Bret Stephens, who wrote on April 24 in support of Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo, who wished to quarantine New York City residents who showed up in her state. “No wonder,” he concluded, “so much of America has dwindling sympathy with the idea of prolonging lockdown conditions much further.” Luckily for Stephens, his editors do not employ fact-checkers, or he would have to find another line of work. Support for lockdowns is hardly dwindling. A study by the COVID-19 Consortium for Understanding the Public’s Policy Preferences Across States (a joint project of the Network Science Institute of Northeastern University, the Shorenstein Center at Harvard, and the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University) states:
We’ve been to this movie before. It was called the Tea Party. Many, if not most, members of the media gave two thumbs up to these so-called conservative activists and helped them reshape the Republican Party after the election of Barack Obama in 2008. Pundits cast the Tea Party as a patriotic movement focused on limiting government spending and adhering to the Constitution. We now know, however, that the “movement” was a plaything of the billionaire Koch brothers and their network of funders. Scholarly scrutiny eventually demonstrated that its protesters were far more motivated by fear and anger over the belief that “real Americans”—meaning white conservative Christians like themselves—were losing the country to the kind of people who made up Obama’s victorious coalition. Pat Buchanan, the conservative pundit and early avatar of what would become Trumpism, enunciated their real concern: the transformation of the United States into a “multicultural, multiethnic, multiracial, multilingual ‘universal nation’ whose avatar is Barack Obama” and how to stop it. Current Issue View our current issue
Tea Party activists were never anywhere near as popular as the media pretended. A column I wrote for the Center for American Progress in December 2011 noted that the percentage of Americans who said they agreed with the Tea Party had fallen from a not terribly robust 24 percent to just 20 percent by that time. And yet the coverage treated the movement as if it were taking over the country. (And with Trump in office, in many ways it has.)
But there was another incident during the Obama era that I find even more illustrative of how so many members of the media nourished this know-nothing Republican libertarian ideology that endangers us all today. The 2012 Republican National Convention dedicated a full evening to purposely misrepresenting a single sentence spoken by Obama. In a speech delivered on July 13 of that year at a campaign stop in Virginia, he made the mundane point that though it was important to root out wasteful government spending, it was also easy to take the principle too far. It was the government, after all, whose investments helped to lay the foundation that enabled the success of the private economy.
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business—you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet. The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative but also because we do things together.
Obama went on to cite the GI Bill, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Hoover Dam, and the moon landing as examples of the foundations of economic growth that for generations had supported America’s great fortunes. These ideas were hardly controversial or even new.
Republicans immediately seized on Obama’s statement to make it appear that the president was claiming something he never said and obviously did not believe. Presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney—who today has been cast as a man of principle for being the only senator to defy the president on the question of impeachment—complained back then that “to say that Steve Jobs didn’t build Apple, that Henry Ford didn’t build Ford Motors, that Papa John didn’t build Papa John Pizza…to say something like that, it’s not just foolishness. It’s insulting to every entrepreneur, every innovator in America.” But Romney’s statement was just as foolish as Obama’s was truthful. Nothing could be more obvious than the fact that the individuals Romney named did not build those companies alone. Not only did thousands of other people contribute in each case to make those companies into what they would become, but their success also rested on a system of laws, regulations, roads, bridges, post offices, schools, and taxes—just as Obama said. Here Romney, not Obama, was the one lying. Obama challenged neither the visionary nature of these entrepreneurs nor the importance of their contributions. He merely made the mundane, factual, and almost tautological point that they did not do it alone.
On July 24, just days after the speech in question and well before the Republican convention began, the Obama campaign issued a statement clarifying that the word “that” referred to “roads and bridges” a sentence earlier. The president recorded an advertisement in which, looking into the camera, he explained, “Those ads taking my words about small business out of context? They’re flat-out wrong.… Of course Americans build their own businesses.” But Romney was far from the only one who didn’t care about whether he was purposely misleading voters as to what Obama had said; many in the mainstream media were perfectly happy to play along. Despite a Washington Post Fact Checker column giving Romney’s statement three (out of a possible four) “Pinocchios” and CNN’s calling it “a theme out of context,” many others ate it up. The Wall Street Journal editorial page, which also energetically defended the lies of the Swift boat campaign against John Kerry in 2004, led the attack. One of its columnists, James Taranto, went so far as to pretend that Obama’s remark “was a direct attack on the principle of individual responsibility, the foundation of American freedom.” A Washington Post blogger professed to see “a level of resentment toward the private sector that was startling, even to [Obama’s] critics.”
In tribute to the effectiveness of their campaign, Republicans chose “We built it” as the theme of the second night of their 2012 convention. Press coverage, for the most part, focused not on whether the theme was honest but on whether it worked. And most journalists decided not only that the attack was valid but also that Obama had only himself to blame and should stop bothering them with corrections. As Aaron Blake wrote in a straight news story in The Washington Post, “The problem with Obama’s latest exhortation that ‘you didn’t build that’ is not that it’s not true. The context of the remark makes it pretty clear that he’s referring to government-funded things like teachers and roads that make entrepreneurship possible.” Rather, the problem, Blake concluded, was his “emphasis.” This was what invited Republicans to “label Obama as a big-government tax-raiser.” Slate’s then–senior editor Rachael Larimore dismissed questions of truth and falsehood as beside the point and even appeared to find them somehow morally objectionable. In an article with the subhead “It doesn’t matter what Obama meant. Here’s why,” she admitted that Romney’s statement was false and endorsed the fact-checkers’ condemnation of it. Nevertheless, she went on to say, she was unsympathetic to the Obama campaign: “Obama supporters can complain all they want. They can argue that when he said ‘that,’ he was talking about the roads and bridges, not the business itself. It doesn’t matter. And it’s pointless to blame Mitt Romney or the RNC or anyone else for taking it out of context.” She found comical the idea that Obama’s supporters would “try telling [voters] what their president ‘meant.’” The idea that it might be her professional responsibility to speak up for the truth and debunk falsehood was entirely alien to her—a quaint relic of a bygone era. Chris Cillizza, a reporter at The Washington Post (later recruited by CNN), explained it thus: “My job is to assess not the rightness of each argument but to deal in the real world of campaign politics in which perception often (if not always) trumps reality. I deal in the world as voters believe it is, not as I (or anyone else) thinks it should be.”
One could hardly ask for a better an example of what New York University professor Jay Rosen diagnosed in 2011 as the “cult of the savvy,” which he defined as the quality “of being shrewd, practical, hyper-informed, perceptive, ironic, ‘with it,’ and unsentimental in all things political.” Rosen wrote, “Nothing is more characteristic of the savvy style than statements like ‘in politics, perception is reality.’” Of course, as Rosen notes, perception is not reality: “Reality is reality!”
So it’s no surprise that the miscreants demanding the right to infect themselves and others have no trouble receiving the loving attention of the uncritical mainstream media. It’s as if we’ve been in training for this death march for decades.


thenation--2020-05-06--Democracy Wins in New York—and Bernie’s Back on the Ballot!

Last week , the Democratic commissioners of the New York Board of Elections did something unprecedented in election law : They threw legally qualified candidates off the ballot without their assent .
Yesterday , a district judge held that what the board had done was unconstitutional and ordered it to reinstate the presidential primary for June 23 .
Judge Analisa Torres ’ s decision was a lucid , thorough 30-page destruction of the board ’ s argument .
It was an especially important decision given that Donald Trump , whose disrespect for the law and desire for power are well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ justify canceling or closing down elections later this year .
The Board of Elections is planning to appeal to the Second Circuit , setting up a major court battle about just how far states can go in authoritarian ballot stripping because of the pandemic .
The question of the case boils down to this : During a public health crisis , do we lose our constitutional rights ?
Does the state still have to justify major burdens on our rights with well-tailored responses , or can it simply say “ pandemic ” and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have ?
The suit that led to yesterday ’ s decision was brought by Andrew Yang , Yang delegates , and delegates for Bernie Sanders , all of whom had qualified to appear on the ballot in the New York presidential primary , after that primary—originally scheduled for April 28 and then postponed to June 23—was canceled .
On April 3 , Governor Andrew Cuomo had pushed through a law that gave the same-party members of the Board of Elections total discretion to remove from the ballot any qualified candidates who had “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ commissioners of the Board of Elections then used that newfound power to get rid of 10 candidates and their delegates and cancel the primary .
The reasons they gave were that the candidates were no longer in the race ( something the candidates disputed ) , that the race was a foregone conclusion , and that we have a serious pandemic .
Sanders ’ s campaign—which had recently won 23 percent of the delegates in Kansas , despite his not actively campaigning in the state—called the move outrageous and pointed out that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the race .
Yang , like Sanders , was clear that while he had suspended his campaign , he had not terminated it .
In an affidavit for the case , Yang wrote that he “ believed and expected that [ his ] name would nonetheless stay on the ballot in states with upcoming elections.
” Yang and Sanders delegates , who had worked hard through the winter to get on the ballot ( no easy feat in New York ) , pointed out the practical reasons they wanted to be elected even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Every delegate gets a voice and votes in key decisions about rules and the platform at the Democratic National Convention .
If elected , they will have the power to vote on DNC rules , the DNC platform , the candidate for president , and the candidate for vice president .
In modern election law , limits on the right to vote—including ballot access limits—are subject to a balancing test , in which the reason for the limitation is weighed against the nature of the right being burdened .
If a state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ burden is enormous , and the decision is subject to the strictest scrutiny and highly unlikely to be found constitutional .
If , on the other hand , the state moves a polling location from a post office to a school , the burden on the voter is slight , and the state can give convenience justifications for the move , which will likely be upheld .
Courts have long recognized that a state ’ s ballot access rules affect both the rights of candidates and the rights of voters—and that these rights @ @ @ @ @ @ @ While a state has enormous leeway in crafting ballot access rules , that leeway extends only up to the time the rules are put in place ; it can ’ t create one set of expectations for how to get on the ballot and then change them after the fact .
Therefore , the burdens on the right to vote in this case were extremely severe : ballot stripping .
That means any justification must be stacked up against other ways the same goal could be achieved .
Plaintiffs ’ lawyers argued ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ decision should be subject to the strictest scrutiny , because the vote was taken away .
Judge Torres didn ’ t use that language , but she recognized the cancellation was a “ weighty imposition ” on the plaintiffs ’ rights , one that would require a serious , carefully and closely crafted justification .
This test the Board of Elections failed miserably .
It gave no thorough justification at the time of the decision but instead relied on generalities about how the candidates weren ’ t running and the need to protect @ @ @ @ @ @ @ board ’ s public health justification simply doesn ’ t hold up under scrutiny .
Judge Torres pointed out in her opinion that on the same date as the presidential primary , there are elections in most of the political units of the state , so it doesn ’ t make sense to cancel one election when the voters will be at the polls ( or mailing in absentee ballots ) anyway .
She noted that the few areas where there are no other primaries are rural : The election is going forward @ @ @ @ @ @ @ state—precisely those where the risk is highest .
She noted that no other state had canceled a primary , despite the national nature of the pandemic ; that the Board of Elections was offering absentee ballots to any voter who wanted one ; and that it still had seven weeks to plan for safety measures in those areas where no election would otherwise have been held .
Basically , she correctly concluded that the board can ’ t use a general claim of public health to justify such a severe burden on constitutional @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to address the health risk .
There are two other features of New York ’ s actions that are very troubling .
The law put absolutely no constraints on how the deciders—the Democratic commissioners of the Board of Elections—could determine which suspended candidates stayed on the ballot and which did not .
On its face , the law would allow the board to kick off Yang and keep Warren for no reason , just because it liked Warren better .
The commissioners ’ stated reasoning , while not mentioning personal dislike , came @ @ @ @ @ @ @ desire to remain on the ballot would render the vote a “ beauty contest.
” At best , this represented the commissioners ’ making an independent judgment on what counts as a serious election and what does not , something you never want a state official to do without guardrails .
Also , until the legislature acted on April 3 , the term “ suspend ” had no meaning in election law .
“ Terminate , ” on the other hand , has always been highly consequential .
For just that reason , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ word candidates used when they wanted to stay on the ballot but take time off , with the possibility—but not certainty—that they would return .
John McCain “ suspended ” his campaign for a few days in the middle of the financial crash of 2008 , asking for a debate to be canceled and saying he needed to focus on the historic crisis at hand .
Ross Perot “ suspended ” his campaign for three months in 1992 and then returned after his supporters demanded it .
When Gary Hart ’ s Monkey @ @ @ @ @ @ @ too , “ suspended ” his campaign , saying , “ Under the present circumstances , this campaign can not go on.
” Seven months later , Hart returned to the campaign trail .
If we allowed a state to change the meaning of the word “ suspend ” midstream and transform election laws in this way , it would open the door to stripping lots of states ’ rights .
Imagine if , between now and November , Trump were to encourage Republican states to cancel the presidential election for public health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ legislature change the ballot access rules in order to justify it .
If that would outrage you , then Cuomo ’ s move should outrage you , too .
It isn ’ t about Bernie or Yang ; it ’ s about whether the state can arbitrarily strip away our rights on any pretext .
The Board of Elections would be wise not to appeal this decision but instead spend all its time and limited resources working to make the June 23 election run smoothly .
Cuomo and New York state lawmakers should @ @ @ @ @ @ @ speak out opposing the appeal .
We have disagreed often in the past .
However , I wouldn ’ t wish any Democratic governor to be remembered as the governor who fought for the right of states to rip names off a ballot without due process .
Judge Torres ’ s decision is a rare cause for celebration—for the sake of our voting rights and for the future of the Democratic Party .
As the lawyers for the plaintiffs said in a statement late last night , “ The victory here is not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a victory for the voters and for the political process .
For Democrats to unite behind Joe Biden , for the thousands and thousands of supporters , particularly young supporters , to take up the fight against the Imperial President in the way which we need it to be taken up , the Democratic Party must be as open and democratic as possible .
”

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Last week, the Democratic commissioners of the New York Board of Elections did something unprecedented in election law: They threw legally qualified candidates off the ballot without their assent. Yesterday, a district judge held that what the board had done was unconstitutional and ordered it to reinstate the presidential primary for June 23.
Judge Analisa Torres’s decision was a lucid, thorough 30-page destruction of the board’s argument. It was an especially important decision given that Donald Trump, whose disrespect for the law and desire for power are well established, might use any precedent to justify canceling or closing down elections later this year.
The Board of Elections is planning to appeal to the Second Circuit, setting up a major court battle about just how far states can go in authoritarian ballot stripping because of the pandemic. The question of the case boils down to this: During a public health crisis, do we lose our constitutional rights? Does the state still have to justify major burdens on our rights with well-tailored responses, or can it simply say “pandemic” and gain arbitrary powers it would never otherwise have?
The suit that led to yesterday’s decision was brought by Andrew Yang, Yang delegates, and delegates for Bernie Sanders, all of whom had qualified to appear on the ballot in the New York presidential primary, after that primary—originally scheduled for April 28 and then postponed to June 23—was canceled. On April 3, Governor Andrew Cuomo had pushed through a law that gave the same-party members of the Board of Elections total discretion to remove from the ballot any qualified candidates who had “suspended” their campaigns. The Democratic commissioners of the Board of Elections then used that newfound power to get rid of 10 candidates and their delegates and cancel the primary. The reasons they gave were that the candidates were no longer in the race (something the candidates disputed), that the race was a foregone conclusion, and that we have a serious pandemic.
Sanders’s campaign—which had recently won 23 percent of the delegates in Kansas, despite his not actively campaigning in the state—called the move outrageous and pointed out that the Vermont senator had not dropped out of the race. Yang, like Sanders, was clear that while he had suspended his campaign, he had not terminated it. In an affidavit for the case, Yang wrote that he “believed and expected that [his] name would nonetheless stay on the ballot in states with upcoming elections.” Yang and Sanders delegates, who had worked hard through the winter to get on the ballot (no easy feat in New York), pointed out the practical reasons they wanted to be elected even if their candidate was a long shot: Every delegate gets a voice and votes in key decisions about rules and the platform at the Democratic National Convention. If elected, they will have the power to vote on DNC rules, the DNC platform, the candidate for president, and the candidate for vice president. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
In modern election law, limits on the right to vote—including ballot access limits—are subject to a balancing test, in which the reason for the limitation is weighed against the nature of the right being burdened. If a state stops someone from voting altogether, the burden is enormous, and the decision is subject to the strictest scrutiny and highly unlikely to be found constitutional. If, on the other hand, the state moves a polling location from a post office to a school, the burden on the voter is slight, and the state can give convenience justifications for the move, which will likely be upheld.
Courts have long recognized that a state’s ballot access rules affect both the rights of candidates and the rights of voters—and that these rights can’t be easily separated. While a state has enormous leeway in crafting ballot access rules, that leeway extends only up to the time the rules are put in place; it can’t create one set of expectations for how to get on the ballot and then change them after the fact. Therefore, the burdens on the right to vote in this case were extremely severe: ballot stripping. That means any justification must be stacked up against other ways the same goal could be achieved. Plaintiffs’ lawyers argued (and I agree) that the state decision should be subject to the strictest scrutiny, because the vote was taken away. Judge Torres didn’t use that language, but she recognized the cancellation was a “weighty imposition” on the plaintiffs’ rights, one that would require a serious, carefully and closely crafted justification. Current Issue View our current issue
This test the Board of Elections failed miserably. It gave no thorough justification at the time of the decision but instead relied on generalities about how the candidates weren’t running and the need to protect public health. More importantly, the board’s public health justification simply doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. Judge Torres pointed out in her opinion that on the same date as the presidential primary, there are elections in most of the political units of the state, so it doesn’t make sense to cancel one election when the voters will be at the polls (or mailing in absentee ballots) anyway. She noted that the few areas where there are no other primaries are rural: The election is going forward in the most populous areas of the state—precisely those where the risk is highest. She noted that no other state had canceled a primary, despite the national nature of the pandemic; that the Board of Elections was offering absentee ballots to any voter who wanted one; and that it still had seven weeks to plan for safety measures in those areas where no election would otherwise have been held. Basically, she correctly concluded that the board can’t use a general claim of public health to justify such a severe burden on constitutional rights when there are less burdensome ways to address the health risk.
There are two other features of New York’s actions that are very troubling. The law put absolutely no constraints on how the deciders—the Democratic commissioners of the Board of Elections—could determine which suspended candidates stayed on the ballot and which did not. On its face, the law would allow the board to kick off Yang and keep Warren for no reason, just because it liked Warren better. The commissioners’ stated reasoning, while not mentioning personal dislike, came pretty close—one claimed that Sanders’s desire to remain on the ballot would render the vote a “beauty contest.” At best, this represented the commissioners’ making an independent judgment on what counts as a serious election and what does not, something you never want a state official to do without guardrails.
Also, until the legislature acted on April 3, the term “suspend” had no meaning in election law. “Terminate,” on the other hand, has always been highly consequential. For just that reason, “suspend” has long been the word candidates used when they wanted to stay on the ballot but take time off, with the possibility—but not certainty—that they would return. John McCain “suspended” his campaign for a few days in the middle of the financial crash of 2008, asking for a debate to be canceled and saying he needed to focus on the historic crisis at hand. Ross Perot “suspended” his campaign for three months in 1992 and then returned after his supporters demanded it. When Gary Hart’s Monkey Business went ’80s-viral, he, too, “suspended” his campaign, saying, “Under the present circumstances, this campaign cannot go on.” Seven months later, Hart returned to the campaign trail.
If we allowed a state to change the meaning of the word “suspend” midstream and transform election laws in this way, it would open the door to stripping lots of states’ rights. Imagine if, between now and November, Trump were to encourage Republican states to cancel the presidential election for public health reasons and suggest that the Republican-controlled state legislature change the ballot access rules in order to justify it. If that would outrage you, then Cuomo’s move should outrage you, too. It isn’t about Bernie or Yang; it’s about whether the state can arbitrarily strip away our rights on any pretext.
The Board of Elections would be wise not to appeal this decision but instead spend all its time and limited resources working to make the June 23 election run smoothly. Cuomo and New York state lawmakers should acknowledge that they made a mistake and speak out opposing the appeal. We have disagreed often in the past. However, I wouldn’t wish any Democratic governor to be remembered as the governor who fought for the right of states to rip names off a ballot without due process.
Judge Torres’s decision is a rare cause for celebration—for the sake of our voting rights and for the future of the Democratic Party. As the lawyers for the plaintiffs said in a statement late last night, “The victory here is not just a victory for candidates, it is a victory for the voters and for the political process. For Democrats to unite behind Joe Biden, for the thousands and thousands of supporters, particularly young supporters, to take up the fight against the Imperial President in the way which we need it to be taken up, the Democratic Party must be as open and democratic as possible.”


thenation--2020-05-06--No Student Deserves to Fail During a Pandemic

When Gabriela Rivera left her Brown University dorm last month , she didn ’ t have the luxury of fleeing to a vacation home , like some of her classmates .
She knew many who were able to continue their schoolwork uninterrupted , even as campuses across the country closed to deter the spread of the coronavirus .
But for Rivera , the campus closures meant not only returning to her family ’ s home in Miami Beach , Fla.—it also meant picking up a part-time job as a translator for a paralegal office to help keep her family financially @ @ @ @ @ @ @ off from his two jobs ; her mother , an essential worker at a shipping facility , had her hours slashed in half ; and her uncle contracted the coronavirus .
“ It ’ s been kind of awful , ” Rivera said .
“ Right now , school is not my biggest focus .
I ’ m doing basically enough to get through and not get behind in terms of graduation.
” This story was produced for Student Nation , a section devoted to highlighting campus activism and student movements from students @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Student Nation , check out our archive .
Are you a student with a campus activism story ?
Send questions and pitches to Samantha Schuyler at samantha @ thenation.com .
The Student Nation program is made possible through generous funding from The Puffin Foundation .
As the pandemic has forced millions of college students to finish this semester ’ s classes online , inequities that had been previously mitigated through campus resources are being exacerbated .
Students who are privileged enough to return to a secure home life say they face far fewer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than students feeling the burden of the pandemic in extremis .
Whether it is because of unreliable Wi-Fi , sick family members , food or financial insecurities , or the time they take to homeschool younger siblings , many students fear they won ’ t be able to earn the same grades as they could while on campus .
To alleviate this burden , some schools , like the University of Maryland , Duke University and the University of California–Davis , have given students the option to take classes for a letter grade @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , like Columbia and Yale , have removed letter grades completely by making all classes pass/fail this semester .
But students like Rivera across the country feel that circumstances caused by the pandemic should cause no students to fail .
That ’ s why they ’ re pushing for their institutions to adopt a “ universal pass , ” which would eliminate letter grades and guarantee that every student passes the semester , regardless of academic performance .
Petitions have been created by students at more than 100 colleges across the country so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first in the nation to petition for their university to adopt a universal pass/fail policy and acted as mentors for students at other schools trying to advocate it on their own campuses .
Soon , students from other schools like Northwestern University followed suit .
Faculty senates at some schools like Stanford University and Johns Hopkins University adopted the universal pass/fail policies in late March after prompting by student petitions .
Students advocating UP argue that online learning puts underprivileged students at a disadvantage , especially those taking on child care duties and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health concerns , and attending to family crises .
They also argue that online classes do not accurately measure a student ’ s capability to succeed , especially without the myriad on-campus resources usually available .
“ I ’ m taking organic chemistry right now , ” Rivera said .
For her , the class doesn ’ t lend itself to online learning .
“ I think it ’ s a very tactile-visual thing that requires in-person presence.
” A sophomore studying neuroscience and planning to go to medical school , Rivera said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ frustrating .
“ Even though my professors have tried to make themselves more available , nothing is the same on the screen [ as ] it could be face-to-face , next to a chalkboard.
” Universities like Rivera ’ s have rejected the UP system , arguing that students need letter grades to show improvement , to boost GPAs that may have suffered if the student struggled in their first year , and in order to qualify for graduate , medical , and law programs .
“ For these students , letter grades @ @ @ @ @ @ @ showcase their resilience in the face of adversity , and help them secure access to future opportunities , ” Rashid Zia , dean of Brown University , wrote in an e-mail to students .
“ The hopes and concerns that these students have shared are very real , and they speak directly to how education can transform our lives and those of our communities .
For these reasons , we have decided against a ‘ universal pass ’ or mandatory S/NC system.
” Some programs , including Harvard Medical School , have said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from the spring 2020 semester but prefer a letter grade if students were given the option .
Other schools , like the University of California San Diego School of Medicine , said they will accept pass/fail grades without prejudice .
Ahmed El Sammak , a junior at Cornell , said universities need to be more considerate toward their students ’ well-being , not their GPAs .
He likens UP to social distancing : People are staying inside not to protect the average American but those most vulnerable .
UP is no different , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most vulnerable students , even if some would prefer not to opt in to UP .
El Sammak and other Cornell students have been advocating UP under the name Big Red Pass , which organized students to flood faculty inboxes with e-mails and sign a petition supporting the UP policy , and rallied for those affected by the pandemic to share their stories on the movement ’ s Facebook page .
Cornell ’ s student body and assembly both overwhelmingly voted to adopt a universal pass/fail option , but in early April , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ resolution , putting the decision in the administrators ’ hands .
Days later , the university administration instead opted to extend the deadline for students to take a class for pass/fail .
Student organizers have been disappointed with the administration ’ s response .
“ The ability to have grades be your priority this semester is in [ and ] of itself of privilege , ” El Sammak said .
“ I think [ Cornell ’ s ] administration forgot to weigh out the concerns of those people who are facing much more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pass/fail option has been implemented , students are still hoping to make it universal so that students don ’ t have to worry about whether choosing it will be beneficial or detrimental to their grades .
Matthew Mercier , a junior at the University of California–Berkeley , echoed other students ’ concerns , saying the only way to maintain the high academic standards Berkeley and other institutions expect of their students is to pivot to a universal pass/no pass system .
“ This is more than a once-in a-lifetime event that is affecting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if students are slacking off during these times .
They ’ re focused on so many different things , ” Mercier said .
“ If you look at [ some of ] the Ivies , if you look at MIT , Northwestern , Vanderbilt , all of them have taken the universal pass/no pass , which shows that they understand that students are having a tougher time with this , ” he added .
Students at some schools , like Georgetown University , have tried petitioning for a “ Double A ” policy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A or A- in their classes .
Instead , GU adopted a satisfactory/credit/no credit option for students looking to opt out of letter grades .
Nicolo Ferretti , GU ’ s undergraduate student body president , said he and his peers are now advocating UP , arguing that no student deserves to fail during a global pandemic .
Universities “ have to be empathetic right now , because everybody ’ s struggling , and some people are struggling a lot more than others , ” Ferretti , a junior , said .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ best intentions , ” he said , pointing out that this principle is part of the Jesuit value system Georgetown publicly embraces and repeatedly emphasizes .
“ If someone is fighting for this , if they ’ ve worked hard to get to Georgetown and showed commitment to learning in the past…you ’ ve got to assume that [ student ] wants this for a legitimate reason.
” Rivera , the Brown student , says this semester reflects , if anything , her ability to adapt to a new environment , not her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a first-generation college student from a low-income Latinx household , she hopes that universities like Brown , which she said prides itself on diversity and publishes pictures of minority students on brochures and application materials , will understand the needs of its most vulnerable students during the pandemic .
“ Your community is only as strong as your most vulnerable members , ” Rivera said .
“ And if you ’ re not protecting your most vulnerable members , then there ’ s no community .
”

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When Gabriela Rivera left her Brown University dorm last month, she didn’t have the luxury of fleeing to a vacation home, like some of her classmates.
She knew many who were able to continue their schoolwork uninterrupted, even as campuses across the country closed to deter the spread of the coronavirus. But for Rivera, the campus closures meant not only returning to her family’s home in Miami Beach, Fla.—it also meant picking up a part-time job as a translator for a paralegal office to help keep her family financially afloat. Her stepfather had been laid off from his two jobs; her mother, an essential worker at a shipping facility, had her hours slashed in half; and her uncle contracted the coronavirus. “It’s been kind of awful,” Rivera said. “Right now, school is not my biggest focus. I’m doing basically enough to get through and not get behind in terms of graduation.” This story was produced for Student Nation, a section devoted to highlighting campus activism and student movements from students in their own words. For more Student Nation, check out our archive. Are you a student with a campus activism story? Send questions and pitches to Samantha Schuyler at [email protected]. The Student Nation program is made possible through generous funding from The Puffin Foundation.
As the pandemic has forced millions of college students to finish this semester’s classes online, inequities that had been previously mitigated through campus resources are being exacerbated. Students who are privileged enough to return to a secure home life say they face far fewer obstacles to successfully completing their classes online than students feeling the burden of the pandemic in extremis. Whether it is because of unreliable Wi-Fi, sick family members, food or financial insecurities, or the time they take to homeschool younger siblings, many students fear they won’t be able to earn the same grades as they could while on campus.
To alleviate this burden, some schools, like the University of Maryland, Duke University and the University of California–Davis, have given students the option to take classes for a letter grade or a variation of pass/fail. Others, like Columbia and Yale, have removed letter grades completely by making all classes pass/fail this semester.
But students like Rivera across the country feel that circumstances caused by the pandemic should cause no students to fail. That’s why they’re pushing for their institutions to adopt a “universal pass,” which would eliminate letter grades and guarantee that every student passes the semester, regardless of academic performance.
Petitions have been created by students at more than 100 colleges across the country so far. Students at Yale were the first in the nation to petition for their university to adopt a universal pass/fail policy and acted as mentors for students at other schools trying to advocate it on their own campuses. Soon, students from other schools like Northwestern University followed suit. Faculty senates at some schools like Stanford University and Johns Hopkins University adopted the universal pass/fail policies in late March after prompting by student petitions. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
Students advocating UP argue that online learning puts underprivileged students at a disadvantage, especially those taking on child care duties and other jobs, battling unreliable technology or health concerns, and attending to family crises. They also argue that online classes do not accurately measure a student’s capability to succeed, especially without the myriad on-campus resources usually available. Current Issue View our current issue
“I’m taking organic chemistry right now,” Rivera said. For her, the class doesn’t lend itself to online learning. “I think it’s a very tactile-visual thing that requires in-person presence.” A sophomore studying neuroscience and planning to go to medical school, Rivera said that the switch to online has been frustrating. “Even though my professors have tried to make themselves more available, nothing is the same on the screen [as] it could be face-to-face, next to a chalkboard.”
Universities like Rivera’s have rejected the UP system, arguing that students need letter grades to show improvement, to boost GPAs that may have suffered if the student struggled in their first year, and in order to qualify for graduate, medical, and law programs.
“For these students, letter grades this semester—even if only in one class—could showcase their resilience in the face of adversity, and help them secure access to future opportunities,” Rashid Zia, dean of Brown University, wrote in an e-mail to students. “The hopes and concerns that these students have shared are very real, and they speak directly to how education can transform our lives and those of our communities. For these reasons, we have decided against a ‘universal pass’ or mandatory S/NC system.”
Some programs, including Harvard Medical School, have said that they will accept a pass/fail grade from the spring 2020 semester but prefer a letter grade if students were given the option. Other schools, like the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, said they will accept pass/fail grades without prejudice.
Ahmed El Sammak, a junior at Cornell, said universities need to be more considerate toward their students’ well-being, not their GPAs. He likens UP to social distancing: People are staying inside not to protect the average American but those most vulnerable. UP is no different, he says. Campuses should protect their most vulnerable students, even if some would prefer not to opt in to UP. El Sammak and other Cornell students have been advocating UP under the name Big Red Pass, which organized students to flood faculty inboxes with e-mails and sign a petition supporting the UP policy, and rallied for those affected by the pandemic to share their stories on the movement’s Facebook page.
Cornell’s student body and assembly both overwhelmingly voted to adopt a universal pass/fail option, but in early April, the Cornell Faculty Senate voted against the resolution, putting the decision in the administrators’ hands. Days later, the university administration instead opted to extend the deadline for students to take a class for pass/fail.
Student organizers have been disappointed with the administration’s response. “The ability to have grades be your priority this semester is in [and] of itself of privilege,” El Sammak said. “I think [Cornell’s] administration forgot to weigh out the concerns of those people who are facing much more pressing issues.”
At schools where a pass/fail option has been implemented, students are still hoping to make it universal so that students don’t have to worry about whether choosing it will be beneficial or detrimental to their grades. Matthew Mercier, a junior at the University of California–Berkeley, echoed other students’ concerns, saying the only way to maintain the high academic standards Berkeley and other institutions expect of their students is to pivot to a universal pass/no pass system.
“This is more than a once-in a-lifetime event that is affecting everyone; it’s not as if students are slacking off during these times. They’re focused on so many different things,” Mercier said. “If you look at [some of] the Ivies, if you look at MIT, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, all of them have taken the universal pass/no pass, which shows that they understand that students are having a tougher time with this,” he added.
Students at some schools, like Georgetown University, have tried petitioning for a “Double A” policy, where every student would receive an A or A- in their classes. Instead, GU adopted a satisfactory/credit/no credit option for students looking to opt out of letter grades. Nicolo Ferretti, GU’s undergraduate student body president, said he and his peers are now advocating UP, arguing that no student deserves to fail during a global pandemic.
Universities “have to be empathetic right now, because everybody’s struggling, and some people are struggling a lot more than others,” Ferretti, a junior, said. “You’ve got to assume the best intentions,” he said, pointing out that this principle is part of the Jesuit value system Georgetown publicly embraces and repeatedly emphasizes. “If someone is fighting for this, if they’ve worked hard to get to Georgetown and showed commitment to learning in the past…you’ve got to assume that [student] wants this for a legitimate reason.”
Rivera, the Brown student, says this semester reflects, if anything, her ability to adapt to a new environment, not her critical thinking or intellectual skills. As a first-generation college student from a low-income Latinx household, she hopes that universities like Brown, which she said prides itself on diversity and publishes pictures of minority students on brochures and application materials, will understand the needs of its most vulnerable students during the pandemic.
“Your community is only as strong as your most vulnerable members,” Rivera said. “And if you’re not protecting your most vulnerable members, then there’s no community.”


thenation--2020-05-06--Eavan Boland, Pillar of Irish Poetry: 1944–2020

In January 1991 I heard Eavan Boland—who died last Monday , April 27—read a poem at the inauguration of the Irish AIDS Quilt in Dublin , an exhibition that took place several years after the American AIDS Memorial Quilt had appeared .
Unlike the stateside ACT UP performances of high-decibel civil disobedience against HIV-related bigotry , in Ireland most rage against the pandemic was interior : People muffled their anguish within devastated hearts .
The Dublin exhibit constituted Ireland ’ s first large-scale affirmation of those lost lives : As with its US counterpart , each panel of the giant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and measured six by two feet—approximately the size of a burial plot .
But while so many AIDS victims worldwide were interred furtively , often without headstones , each quilt panel announced the dead person ’ s name in vivid fabric , with images and keepsakes of the departed sewn into the bright rectangle .
At the Irish AIDS Quilt poetry event , the grief suffusing the audience was expressed like a collective exhalation , because inside this shared sorrow trembled the liberation that public testimony makes possible .
That evening , Eavan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her poem that begins:1 And then the dark fell and “ there has never , ” I said , “ been a poem to an antibiotic … ” 2 Boland told the audience that she ’ d made the poem out of a night in a hospital when she watched liquid dripping through an arc of clear plastic tubing into the head of her infant daughter , safely asleep but hours earlier in danger of dying from meningitis .
In the poem , the author dozes in a chair and drifts into a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by Virgil but by Sappho , who points through the shadows at dead children:3 “ Cholera , typhus , croup , diphtheria , ” She said , “ in those days they racketed In every backstreet and alley of old Europe .
Behold the children of the plague.
” 4 “ What you have seen is beyond speech , beyond song , only not beyond love.
” 6 Boland ’ s AIDS Quilt reading followed just a few weeks after an inauguration of a different but also disruptive kind : the swearing-in of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mary Robinson as the first woman president of Ireland .
Over the course of both their careers , these two women from genteel families used the lever of their social and educational advantages to force open doors—some bolted shut for decades or centuries—behind which lurked the lives and memories of people without power .
Both projected their influential public voices to shake up notions of what constituted normal discourse about what gets inflicted upon human bodies—the violence of poverty , politics , gender-motivated crime , or economic expediency—to expose those who profited from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ position as head of state to welcome invisible people—refugees , the homeless , the unemployed , survivors of domestic violence or addiction or incarceration—but also to shame Western politicians whose nonchalance permitted butchery in Somalia , Rwanda , and Kosovo .
Boland wrote poems that locked horns with the conventional notion of History , which she considered a display case for heroes and fancy armor and equestrian monuments , as opposed to The Past , which she described as “ a place of shadows and whispers and failures and defeats.
” It is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ refers when he speaks of “ the great help Eavan Boland gives me , a gay Singapore poet , ” in being able to conduct a frank investigation of his own “ patriarchal and colonial literary heritage.
” 7 In numerous poems , Boland investigated the catastrophe that was the Great Famine of 1840s Ireland .
British landlords , believing that in spite of blighted crops , any food relief would corrupt the souls of the destitute , herded starving people into workhouses where inmates were conscripted into make-work projects such as breaking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exchange for soup .
Boland ’ s poem “ Quarantine ” is based on testimony from a 19th century witness of what happened:8 In the worst hour of the worst season of the worst year of a whole people9 The witness observed one young married couple , the wife burning with typhus , leave the workhouse on foot to return to the cottage they ’ d left:10 He lifted her and put her on his back .
He walked like that west and west and north .
Until at nightfall under freezing stars @ @ @ @ @ @ @ both found dead .
Of cold .
Of hunger .
Of the toxins of a whole history .
But her feet were held against his breastbone .
The last heat of his flesh was his last gift to her.12 How Poetry Can Bear Witness to Crisis and Revolution Boland wrote “ Making Money ” as an excavation of the leafy Dublin suburb where she ’ d raised her two daughters .
It considers the grim business conducted there a century earlier : Factory jobs producing the fiber-rich paper for British bank notes required @ @ @ @ @ @ @ issuing from caustic chemicals they boiled in vats full of lint , flax , and rags .
The poem likewise contemplated the ways in which Boland ’ s 2001 suburb had begun to stink of cash in a different way : from the turbo-charged rapacity of commercial-developer land grabs in the doomed delirium of the so-called “ Celtic Tiger.
” 13 Boland also turned her attention to women of great achievement but insufficient recognition .
She wrote an ode to Grace Murray Hopper , the American pioneer of computer programming , that ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in which she creates a portrait of the artist as scientist:14 Poet to poet , I imagine you at the edge of language , at the start of summer in Wolfeboro New Hampshire writing code…15 You are west of me and in the past .
Dark falls .
Light is somewhere else .
The fireflies come out above the lake .
You are combining binaries and zeroes.16 When Eavan Boland published her first book in the early 1960s , few women ’ s voices contributed to Dublin ’ s vigorous literary arguments .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Irish poetry , drama , and fiction are by women ; Boland ’ s nearly 60 years of luminous , indefatigable writing made a place for them .
Poet Mary O ’ Malley received the news of Boland ’ s sudden death “ as if a pillar of the house had fallen , ” then added : “ It hasn ’ t , of course—she built a strong and lasting shelter.
” 17

In January 1991 I heard Eavan Boland—who died last Monday, April 27—read a poem at the inauguration of the Irish AIDS Quilt in Dublin, an exhibition that took place several years after the American AIDS Memorial Quilt had appeared. Unlike the stateside ACT UP performances of high-decibel civil disobedience against HIV-related bigotry, in Ireland most rage against the pandemic was interior: People muffled their anguish within devastated hearts. The Dublin exhibit constituted Ireland’s first large-scale affirmation of those lost lives: As with its US counterpart, each panel of the giant quilt commemorated one person killed by AIDS and measured six by two feet—approximately the size of a burial plot. But while so many AIDS victims worldwide were interred furtively, often without headstones, each quilt panel announced the dead person’s name in vivid fabric, with images and keepsakes of the departed sewn into the bright rectangle. At the Irish AIDS Quilt poetry event, the grief suffusing the audience was expressed like a collective exhalation, because inside this shared sorrow trembled the liberation that public testimony makes possible. That evening, Eavan Boland read “The Journey,” her poem that begins:1
And then the dark fell and “there has never,”
I said, “been a poem to an antibiotic …”2
Boland told the audience that she’d made the poem out of a night in a hospital when she watched liquid dripping through an arc of clear plastic tubing into the head of her infant daughter, safely asleep but hours earlier in danger of dying from meningitis. In the poem, the author dozes in a chair and drifts into a tour of the underworld, guided not by Virgil but by Sappho, who points through the shadows at dead children:3
“Cholera, typhus, croup, diphtheria,”
She said, “in those days they racketed
In every backstreet and alley of old Europe.
Behold the children of the plague.”4
Further on, Sappho tells her:5
“What you have seen is beyond speech,
beyond song, only not beyond love.”6 Current Issue View our current issue
Boland’s AIDS Quilt reading followed just a few weeks after an inauguration of a different but also disruptive kind: the swearing-in of her university friend the human rights lawyer Mary Robinson as the first woman president of Ireland. Over the course of both their careers, these two women from genteel families used the lever of their social and educational advantages to force open doors—some bolted shut for decades or centuries—behind which lurked the lives and memories of people without power. Both projected their influential public voices to shake up notions of what constituted normal discourse about what gets inflicted upon human bodies—the violence of poverty, politics, gender-motivated crime, or economic expediency—to expose those who profited from populations considered disposable. Robinson used her position as head of state to welcome invisible people—refugees, the homeless, the unemployed, survivors of domestic violence or addiction or incarceration—but also to shame Western politicians whose nonchalance permitted butchery in Somalia, Rwanda, and Kosovo. Boland wrote poems that locked horns with the conventional notion of History, which she considered a display case for heroes and fancy armor and equestrian monuments, as opposed to The Past, which she described as “a place of shadows and whispers and failures and defeats.” It is to this reframing that Jee Leong Koh refers when he speaks of “the great help Eavan Boland gives me, a gay Singapore poet,” in being able to conduct a frank investigation of his own “patriarchal and colonial literary heritage.”7 Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Related Article Remembering Seamus Heaney Margaret Spillane
In numerous poems, Boland investigated the catastrophe that was the Great Famine of 1840s Ireland. British landlords, believing that in spite of blighted crops, any food relief would corrupt the souls of the destitute, herded starving people into workhouses where inmates were conscripted into make-work projects such as breaking stones and building roads to nowhere in exchange for soup. Boland’s poem “Quarantine” is based on testimony from a 19th century witness of what happened:8
In the worst hour of the worst season
of the worst year of a whole people9
The witness observed one young married couple, the wife burning with typhus, leave the workhouse on foot to return to the cottage they’d left:10
He lifted her and put her on his back.
He walked like that west and west and north.
Until at nightfall under freezing stars they arrived.11
In the morning they were both found dead.
Of cold. Of hunger. Of the toxins of a whole history.
But her feet were held against his breastbone.
The last heat of his flesh was his last gift to her.12 Related Article How Poetry Can Bear Witness to Crisis and Revolution John Washington
Boland wrote “Making Money” as an excavation of the leafy Dublin suburb where she’d raised her two daughters. It considers the grim business conducted there a century earlier: Factory jobs producing the fiber-rich paper for British bank notes required women to toil in the noxious air issuing from caustic chemicals they boiled in vats full of lint, flax, and rags. The poem likewise contemplated the ways in which Boland’s 2001 suburb had begun to stink of cash in a different way: from the turbo-charged rapacity of commercial-developer land grabs in the doomed delirium of the so-called “Celtic Tiger.”13
Boland also turned her attention to women of great achievement but insufficient recognition. She wrote an ode to Grace Murray Hopper, the American pioneer of computer programming, that’s simply entitled “Code” and in which she creates a portrait of the artist as scientist:14
Poet to poet, I imagine you
at the edge of language, at the start of summer
in Wolfeboro New Hampshire writing code…15
You are west of me and in the past.
Dark falls. Light is somewhere else.
The fireflies come out above the lake.
You are combining binaries and zeroes.16
When Eavan Boland published her first book in the early 1960s, few women’s voices contributed to Dublin’s vigorous literary arguments. Today, most of the influential works of Irish poetry, drama, and fiction are by women; Boland’s nearly 60 years of luminous, indefatigable writing made a place for them. Poet Mary O’Malley received the news of Boland’s sudden death “as if a pillar of the house had fallen,” then added: “It hasn’t, of course—she built a strong and lasting shelter.”17