thenation--2020-10-28--A White House Adviser Was Involved in Surveillance of Protesters

Last month , The Nation reported that the Department of Homeland Security ( DHS ) accessed Portland protesters ’ phones , spurring a response from the Senate Intelligence Committee .
Since then , Congress ’ s investigation has sought the testimony of more high-ranking federal officials than previously known—including a former White House staffer .
At a closed hearing before the House Intelligence Committee this September , Bryan Pendleton , a high-ranking official in the DHS ’ s intelligence division , testified about the Portland operation , according to both current and former intelligence officials familiar with the matter .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Intelligence & Analysis ( I & A ) division called Homeland Identities , Targeting , and Exploitation ( HITEC ) , which focuses on acquiring information about threats by using sophisticated technical methods like digital forensics .
“ Generally , Dr. Pendleton testified that I & A leadership asked HITEC to explore providing technical assistance to the Federal Protective Services in exploiting protesters ’ phones , and further , that such leadership requested updates on multiple occasions , ” said a committee official .
This appears to confirm a key part of my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sought to access protesters ’ phones in Portland .
“ We interviewed HITEC Director Dr. Bryan Pendleton on September 10 , 2020 , ” the official said .
“ He testified that because FPS did not possess a search warrant for the phones in question , HITEC did not assist FPS with their exploitation.
” But Pendleton may not have been entirely forthcoming .
“ Pendleton tried to play both sides of the fence , ” a former senior I & A intelligence officer claimed of his testimony , explaining that he came @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Portland operation .
In addition , the committee has sought the testimony of Stephanie Dobitsch , who previously served as Vice President Mike Pence ’ s special adviser for the Middle East and North Africa and is described as a “ Special Advisor to President Trump ” in a 2019 foreign lobbying disclosure .
Dobitsch also served as an intelligence officer with the National Counterterrorism Center before joining I & A as acting under secretary for Intelligence Enterprise Operations , making her the third most senior intelligence official at the DHS , according @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she played a central role in the Portland operation , according to two former intelligence officers with knowledge of the matter .
However , the DHS has been reluctant to provide Congress with Dobitsch ’ s testimony .
“ DHS has been slow in making her available , despite the committee making it clear she is a priority witness , ” a committee official said of Dobitsch .
Asked to describe the nature of Dobitsch ’ s work , the White House did not respond ; a spokesperson for the Office of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Counterterrorism Center ’ s parent agency , replied , “ We don ’ t confirm employment details and don ’ t have anything for you.
” Dobitsch does not appear to have faced any consequences for her involvement in the controversial Portland operation .
While little is publicly known about Dobitsch , a Federal Register notice dated October 16 , 2020 lists her as one of the high-ranking Senior Executive Service members eligible to serve on the DHS ’ s Performance Review Board .
The University of Scranton , a private Jesuit university @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a 2007 newsletter .
It describes Dobitsch ’ s “ Intensive Arabic Studies ” as preparing her for her work with an unnamed “ US government agency.
” Members of the secretive US intelligence community sometimes decline to publicly acknowledge their agency affiliation , and Dobitsch worked for one such agency—the Pentagon ’ s Defense Intelligence Agency—prior to joining the National Counterterrorism Center .
After joining the DHS , Dobitsch was “ promoted like crazy , ” scoring three promotions in about a year , the former senior I & A intelligence officer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ started taking the open source intelligence reports and memos and directing them to be changed to suit Trump ’ s narrative , ” he added , referring to I & A ’ s production of intelligence reports on journalists covering the Portland protests .
After news of these reports was broken by The Washington Post , a firestorm of controversy ensued and the DHS ’ s chief intelligence official , Bryan Murphy , was removed from his role and reassigned .
A former high-ranking DHS official said that Murphy ’ s background in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A .
Like Dobitsch , Murphy spent years working on counterterrorism matters involving foreign groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS , which he remained focused on while at I & A instead of domestic groups , the official said .
Like Dobitsch , Murphy had been close to the White House , spending considerable time attending meetings at the National Security Council ( NSC ) , an agency located in the Executive Office of the president .
“ He tried to set himself up as NSC ’ s liaison , ” the former @ @ @ @ @ @ @ move was , given that NSC is focused on policy rather than intelligence assessment .
After the Portland controversy , some of I & A ’ s intelligence officers began taking copious notes on the orders they were being given , in anticipation of subpoenas from Congress or investigation by the inspector general .
Despite this , a former intelligence officer familiar with the matter alleged that Dobitsch was careful to cover her tracks by refusing to memorialize certain directives on paper .
“ She never takes notes and shreds everything…so HPSCI [ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ] will never get her , ” the former intelligence officer said .
Every DHS source I spoke to seemed pessimistic about the likelihood that anyone would face consequences for their involvement in the Portland operation .
“ He ’ s back at work and they seem to be happy with his work , ” the former senior I & A intelligence officer said of Pendleton , after his testimony to Congress in the closed hearing .

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In October, The Nation reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accessed Portland protesters’ phones, spurring a response from the Senate Intelligence Committee. Since then, Congress’s investigation has sought the testimony of more high-ranking federal officials than previously known—including a former White House advisor.
At a closed hearing before the House Intelligence Committee this September, Bryan Pendleton, a high-ranking official in the DHS’s intelligence division, testified about the Portland operation, according to both current and former intelligence officials familiar with the matter. Pendleton serves as director of the DHS Intelligence & Analysis (I&A) division called Homeland Identities, Targeting, and Exploitation (HITEC), which focuses on acquiring information about threats by using sophisticated technical methods like digital forensics.
“Generally, Dr. Pendleton testified that I&A leadership asked HITEC to explore providing technical assistance to the Federal Protective Services in exploiting protesters’ phones, and further, that such leadership requested updates on multiple occasions,” said a committee official. This appears to confirm a key part of my September report about how the DHS sought to access protesters’ phones in Portland.
“We interviewed HITEC Director Dr. Bryan Pendleton on September 10, 2020,” the official said. “He testified that because FPS did not possess a search warrant for the phones in question, HITEC did not assist FPS with their exploitation.”
But Pendleton may not have been entirely forthcoming. “Pendleton tried to play both sides of the fence,” a former senior I&A intelligence officer told The Nation explaining that Pendleton came clean about only some aspects of the Portland operation.
In addition, the committee sought the testimony of Stephanie Dobitsch, who previously served as Vice President Mike Pence’s special adviser for the Middle East and North Africa and is described as a “Special Advisor to President Trump” in a 2019 foreign lobbying disclosure. (While the White House did not respond to a request for comment on her assignment, a representative for Dobitsch denies that she ever served as an advisor to the President.) Dobitsch also served as an intelligence officer with the National Counterterrorism Center before joining I&A where a Committee official says she serves as Acting Under Secretary for Intelligence Enterprise Operations of DHS I&A, making her “essentially the third most senior I&A official who is often the senior reviewer of intelligence products.” (Following the initial publication of this article, Dobitsch’s representative said that she has never served as Under Secretary—acting or otherwise—but that she “currently is performing the duties of one of the deputy under secretaries in her part of DHS.”) There, she played a central role in the Portland operation, according to two former intelligence officers with knowledge of the matter. (Dobitsch’s representative disputes this.) However, the DHS was apparently reluctant to provide Congress with Dobitsch’s testimony. “DHS has been slow in making her available, despite the committee making it clear she is a priority witness,” a committee official said of Dobitsch. (Dobitsch’s representative said that she did testify shortly after this article’s initial publication in what he called “a long-planned, voluntary appearance”; when asked for comment, an Intelligence Committee member’s office appeared to confirm that the hearing took place but did not provide specifics, citing the classified nature of the testimony.) 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
Asked to describe the nature of Dobitsch’s work, the White House did not respond; a spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the National Counterterrorism Center’s parent agency, replied, “We don’t confirm employment details and don’t have anything for you.” Current Issue View our current issue
While little information is publicly available about Dobitsch, a Federal Register notice dated October 16, 2020 lists her as one of the high-ranking Senior Executive Service members eligible to serve on the DHS’s Performance Review Board. The University of Scranton, a private Jesuit university in Pennsylvania, includes her name in a 2007 newsletter. It describes Dobitsch’s “Intensive Arabic Studies” as preparing her for her work with an unnamed “US government agency.” Members of the secretive US intelligence community often decline to publicly acknowledge their agency affiliation, and Dobitsch worked for one such agency—the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency—prior to joining the National Counterterrorism Center.
Following the initial publication of this article, Chase Jennings, Press Secretary for DHS, said via email, “Ms. Dobitsch and Mr. PendIeton are honest and effective intelligence professionals that have served their country for many years. It is unfortunate that a reporter felt the need to resort to innuendo—lobbed by an unnamed person—when that reporter lacks actual facts showing any wrongdoing of exemplary, career intelligence professionals. Instead, he clutters his article with tidbits—unconnected to anything notable—such as the fact that an official was mentioned in a college newspaper article more than ten years ago.”
After joining the DHS, Dobitsch was “promoted like crazy,” scoring three promotions, the former senior I&A intelligence officer said. (A representative for Dobitsch disputes this, saying she has not been promoted at all unless you count her current role as one of the acting deputy under secretaries.) “It was her that started taking the open source intelligence reports and memos and directing them to be changed to suit Trump’s narrative,” he alleged, referring to I&A’s production of intelligence reports on journalists covering the Portland protests. A representative for Dobitsch vigorously denied this, alleging that “Ms. Dobitsch has never been involved in politicization of any intelligence” and has actively resisted such efforts. The representative also said that DHS has produced to the Intelligence Committee documents demonstrating that Ms. Dobitsch forcefully pushed back on another official’s apparent effort to attribute certain violence to individuals inspired by Antifa, whether or not the evidence supported such attribution. When asked for a copy of these documents to verify his claims, however Dobitsch’s representative declined to produce them.
After news of these reports was broken by The Washington Post, a firestorm of controversy ensued and the DHS’s chief intelligence official, Bryan Murphy, was removed from his role and reassigned.
A former high-ranking DHS official said that Murphy’s background in counterterrorism did not gel with I&A. Like Dobitsch, Murphy spent years working on counterterrorism matters involving foreign groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS, which he remained focused on while at I&A instead of domestic groups, the official said. Like Dobitsch, Murphy had been close to the White House, spending considerable time attending meetings at the National Security Council (NSC), an agency located in the Executive Office of the president. “He tried to set himself up as NSC’s liaison,” the former official said, noting how unusual the move was, given that NSC is focused on policy rather than intelligence assessment.
After the Portland controversy, some of I&A’s intelligence officers began taking copious notes on the orders they were being given, in anticipation of subpoenas from Congress or investigation by the inspector general. However, a former intelligence officer familiar with the matter alleged that Dobitsch generally avoided taking notes or otherwise memorializing activities. (A representative for Dobitsch also denied this.)
Every DHS source I spoke to seemed pessimistic about the likelihood that anyone would face consequences for their involvement in the Portland operation.
“He’s back at work, and they seem to be happy with his work,” the former senior I&A intelligence officer said of Pendleton, after his testimony to Congress in the closed hearing.
Update: this article has been updated to reflect comments from both DHS and a representative for Dobitsch, and to clarify the nature of her role in the Portland operation.


thenation--2020-10-28--The Return of the Trump-Obama Feud

The Return of the Trump-Obama Feud

Donald Trump often gives the impression that he ’ d rather run against anyone else than Joe Biden .
Trump ’ s stock in trade is venomous bigotry , so he has little to work with against Biden , a straight white Christian man and steadfastly middle-of-the-road Democrat .
Trump ’ s preferred moniker for Biden ( “ Sleepy Joe ” ) suggests the problem : It ’ s hard to feel threatened by someone who is sleepy .
Much of Trump ’ s campaign rhetoric has been taken up with linking Biden with other politicians who are more easily @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anti-Semitism .
To properly work up his followers , Trump needs to invoke the more active agents of evil like “ Crooked Hillary ” and “ Crazy Bernie.
” Trump has repeatedly suggested that Biden is just a stalking horse for figures like Kamala Harris , Bernie Sanders , Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , Hillary Clinton , Nancy Pelosi , and Cory Booker .
Lurking behind them all is the biggest devil in Trump ’ s personal demonology , Barack Obama .
Speaking in Lansing , Mich. on Tuesday , Trump predicted that if Biden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ quickly replaced by Harris .
“ That ’ s why they ’ re talking about the 25th Amendment , right ?
” Trump asserted .
“ Three weeks .
Three weeks in , Joe ’ s shot , ‘ Let ’ s go Kamala , are you get ready ?
’ ” Some anti-Trump commentators mistakenly thought Trump was suggesting Biden would be shot , but the clear implication is that Biden would be physically and intellectually too frail to carry out the duties of his office .
The previous day in Lititz @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Joe Biden has made a corrupt bargain in exchange for his party ’ s nomination .
He ’ s handed control of his party over to the socialist , Marxists and left-wing extremists .
And if Biden wins , the flag-burning radicals on the streets will be running your government.
” The ‘ Dark Winter ’ of Covid-19 Overshadows the Debate Trump ’ s decision to attack Biden ’ s associates rather than just Biden himself is a strategic mistake .
It leads to diffuse and contradictory arguments .
Historically , voters have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ candidates , let alone presidential allies .
It ’ s the top of the ticket that counts , but Trump is all too quick to move the argument away from Biden .
Trump has never successfully defined Biden .
Expanding the field of insults to include a pantheon of prominent Democrats only makes Trump ’ s argument even more incoherent .
Is Biden , as Trump sometimes suggests , the avatar of 47 years of failed policies that haven ’ t fixed any problems ?
Or is he the front man for a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
Is Biden so doddering that he ’ s a few weeks away from handing over the presidency to Kamala Harris ?
Or is he the cunning mastermind behind an international crime family with tentacles in China and Ukraine ?
Trump ’ s inability to focus on a clearly defined argument against Biden has created an opportunity for Biden ’ s surrogates .
Because Trump is so eager to attack those around Biden , they have the opportunity to serve as effective distractions and foils .
Every moment Trump focuses on attacking a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s failing at the essential task of drawing a contrast that makes him look better than Biden .
Of all of Biden ’ s surrogates , none has taken to the task of baiting Trump with quite as much glee as Obama .
The Trump/Obama feud is of course of long standing .
Much of Trump ’ s particular brand of racism seems to be fueled by resentment that a Black man was once a popular president .
Trump built his base with the Republican right by championing birtherism .
Obama famously humiliated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Dinner of 2011 by making jokes at the real estate magnate ’ s expense .
As if in revenge , Trump has been obsessively focused on tearing down Obama ’ s legacy with moves like withdrawing from the Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear deal .
Over the last week , Obama has taken a more prominent role in being the foremost Trump goader .
As Charles Pierce noted in Esquire , we are not seeing the familiar Obama who likes to elevate debate ( the “ Inspirational Obama , and Devotional @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) but rather “ Snarkmaster Obama.
” This is an Obama who is openly incredulous that so unfit and buffoonish a figure as Trump should replace him .
His voice dripping with scornful amazement , Obama has hammered home at Trump ’ s deep character flaws .
Last Wednesday speaking in Philadelphia , Obama said : I never thought Donald Trump would embrace my vision or continue my policies but I did hope for the sake of the country that he might show some interest in taking the job seriously , but it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t shown any interest in doing the work or helping anybody but himself and his friends or treating the presidency like a reality show that he can use to get attention .
And by the way , even then his TV ratings are down .
So you know that upsets him .
After the Philadelphia speech , Obama reportedly told a friend , “ Oh man , that felt good.
” Feeling he had hit the right note of derision , Obama was eager to do a repeat performance .
Obama returned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a speech in Orlando , Fla. , saying that Trump values the presidency as “ a reality show that can give him the attention that he craves , and he does crave attention.
” In the Orlando speech , Obama also said : Obama ’ s speeches are clearly getting under Trump ’ s skin .
Less than an hour after Obama ’ s Philadelphia speech , Trump tweeted , “ Nobody is showing up for Obama ’ s hate laced speeches .
47 people !
No energy , but still better than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ told a rally , “ Barack Hussein Obama showed up too .
You know how many people he ’ s drawing at these rallies ?
He ’ s drawing flies , flies .
20 , 30 , 40 .
Not quite this crowd.
” Trump then grumbled at the fact that Obama is considered a good speaker and handsome .
Trump muttered that when Obama “ gets up and then they say , ‘ Oh , he ’ s so rhetorically good.
’ I never thought he was a good speaker personally .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ say he ’ s so handsome .
He ’ s so handsome .
Oh , okay , he ’ s so handsome .
He ’ s so handsome .
Oh , okay .
All right.
” Trump ’ s undisguised jealousy of Obama is not just squalid ; it ’ s also a strategic mistake .
Obama isn ’ t on the ballot .
Whatever racial resentment Trump can stoke by going after Obama appeals only to voters already in Trump ’ s camp .
Trump needs to make the case against his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the polls in the Trump-Biden contest have been remarkably stable , almost like two parallel lines , with Biden since early June consistently 7 percent to 11 percent ahead of Trump .
The lack of fluctuation has many causes , but one is that Trump really hasn ’ t made the effort to go after Biden .
Trump been content with fighting ghosts of previous battles .
If Trump loses next week , one factor in his defeat will be that he can ’ t let go of his Obama obsession .

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Donald Trump often gives the impression that he’d rather run against anyone else than Joe Biden. Trump’s stock in trade is venomous bigotry, so he has little to work with against Biden, a straight white Christian man and steadfastly middle-of-the-road Democrat. Trump’s preferred moniker for Biden (“Sleepy Joe”) suggests the problem: It’s hard to feel threatened by someone who is sleepy.
Much of Trump’s campaign rhetoric has been taken up with linking Biden with other politicians who are more easily attacked via racism, sexism, and anti-Semitism. To properly work up his followers, Trump needs to invoke the more active agents of evil like “Crooked Hillary” and “Crazy Bernie.” Trump has repeatedly suggested that Biden is just a stalking horse for figures like Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and Cory Booker. Lurking behind them all is the biggest devil in Trump’s personal demonology, Barack Obama.
Speaking in Lansing, Mich. on Tuesday, Trump predicted that if Biden is elected, he’ll be quickly replaced by Harris. “That’s why they’re talking about the 25th Amendment, right?” Trump asserted. “Three weeks. Three weeks in, Joe’s shot, ‘Let’s go Kamala, are you get ready?’” Some anti-Trump commentators mistakenly thought Trump was suggesting Biden would be shot, but the clear implication is that Biden would be physically and intellectually too frail to carry out the duties of his office.
The previous day in Lititz, Pa., Trump said, “Joe Biden has made a corrupt bargain in exchange for his party’s nomination. He’s handed control of his party over to the socialist, Marxists and left-wing extremists. And if Biden wins, the flag-burning radicals on the streets will be running your government.” More From Jeet Heer The Indigenous Roots of Robbie Robertson’s Rock and Roll Revolution August 14, 2023 Why Does This Racist Keep Getting Silicon Valley Money? August 11, 2023 When Phallocrats Go Limp August 4, 2023
Trump’s decision to attack Biden’s associates rather than just Biden himself is a strategic mistake. It leads to diffuse and contradictory arguments. Historically, voters have only been marginally influenced by vice presidential candidates, let alone presidential allies. It’s the top of the ticket that counts, but Trump is all too quick to move the argument away from Biden.
Trump has never successfully defined Biden. Expanding the field of insults to include a pantheon of prominent Democrats only makes Trump’s argument even more incoherent.
Is Biden, as Trump sometimes suggests, the avatar of 47 years of failed policies that haven’t fixed any problems? Or is he the front man for a socialist revolution that will utterly transform America? Is Biden so doddering that he’s a few weeks away from handing over the presidency to Kamala Harris? Or is he the cunning mastermind behind an international crime family with tentacles in China and Ukraine? Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Current Issue View our current issue
Trump’s inability to focus on a clearly defined argument against Biden has created an opportunity for Biden’s surrogates. Because Trump is so eager to attack those around Biden, they have the opportunity to serve as effective distractions and foils. Every moment Trump focuses on attacking a Biden surrogate is a moment he’s failing at the essential task of drawing a contrast that makes him look better than Biden.
Of all of Biden’s surrogates, none has taken to the task of baiting Trump with quite as much glee as Obama. The Trump/Obama feud is of course of long standing. Much of Trump’s particular brand of racism seems to be fueled by resentment that a Black man was once a popular president. Trump built his base with the Republican right by championing birtherism. Obama famously humiliated Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner of 2011 by making jokes at the real estate magnate’s expense. As if in revenge, Trump has been obsessively focused on tearing down Obama’s legacy with moves like withdrawing from the Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear deal.
Over the last week, Obama has taken a more prominent role in being the foremost Trump goader. As Charles Pierce noted in Esquire, we are not seeing the familiar Obama who likes to elevate debate (the “Inspirational Obama, and Devotional Obama, and Better Angels Obama”) but rather “Snarkmaster Obama.”
This is an Obama who is openly incredulous that so unfit and buffoonish a figure as Trump should replace him. His voice dripping with scornful amazement, Obama has hammered home at Trump’s deep character flaws. Last Wednesday speaking in Philadelphia, Obama said:
I never thought Donald Trump would embrace my vision or continue my policies but I did hope for the sake of the country that he might show some interest in taking the job seriously, but it hasn’t happened. He hasn’t shown any interest in doing the work or helping anybody but himself and his friends or treating the presidency like a reality show that he can use to get attention. And by the way, even then his TV ratings are down. So you know that upsets him.
After the Philadelphia speech, Obama reportedly told a friend, “Oh man, that felt good.” Feeling he had hit the right note of derision, Obama was eager to do a repeat performance.
Obama returned to this theme the following Tuesday in a speech in Orlando, Fla., saying that Trump values the presidency as “a reality show that can give him the attention that he craves, and he does crave attention.”
In the Orlando speech, Obama also said:
If [Trump] had been focused on Covid from the beginning, cases wouldn’t be reaching new record highs across the country this week. If we were focused on Covid now, the White House wouldn’t be having its second outbreak in a month. The White House. Let me say this, I lived in the White House for a while. It’s a controlled environment. You can take some preventative measures in the White House to avoid getting sick, except this guy can’t seem to do it. He’s turned the White House into a hot zone.
Obama’s speeches are clearly getting under Trump’s skin. Less than an hour after Obama’s Philadelphia speech, Trump tweeted, “Nobody is showing up for Obama’s hate laced speeches. 47 people! No energy, but still better than Joe!”
On Monday, Trump told a rally, “Barack Hussein Obama showed up too. You know how many people he’s drawing at these rallies? He’s drawing flies, flies. 20, 30, 40. Not quite this crowd.” Trump then grumbled at the fact that Obama is considered a good speaker and handsome. Trump muttered that when Obama “gets up and then they say, ‘Oh, he’s so rhetorically good.’ I never thought he was a good speaker personally. I really never did. Then they say he’s so handsome. He’s so handsome. Oh, okay, he’s so handsome. He’s so handsome. Oh, okay. All right.”
Trump’s undisguised jealousy of Obama is not just squalid; it’s also a strategic mistake. Obama isn’t on the ballot. Whatever racial resentment Trump can stoke by going after Obama appeals only to voters already in Trump’s camp.
Trump needs to make the case against his actual rival. Compared to 2016, the polls in the Trump-Biden contest have been remarkably stable, almost like two parallel lines, with Biden since early June consistently 7 percent to 11 percent ahead of Trump. The lack of fluctuation has many causes, but one is that Trump really hasn’t made the effort to go after Biden.
Trump been content with fighting ghosts of previous battles. If Trump loses next week, one factor in his defeat will be that he can’t let go of his Obama obsession.


thenation--2020-10-29--Some Advice for White People on Halloween

When I was eight years old , I dressed up as Senator Ted Kennedy for Halloween .
I remember strongly advocating for this costume .
I don ’ t know why my parents let me do this , but it was the Reagan era and people were desperate .
My parents got me a little blue suit , a faux briefcase and wrote “ TED KENNEDY ” on it , greyed out my hair , and off I went .
1 Later that evening , neighborhood kids—including some of my “ friends ” —jumped me and stole my candy .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ me at school the next day .
I get it now .
Those who would defend the liberal social safety net must be prepared for pushback from non-empathetic forces who view all tax as theft .
My assailants simply did not understand the difference between a progressive levy on marginal income versus outright piracy .
As my father would say years later when I reminded him of my childhood that he largely drank through , “ Ted Kennedy lost two brothers in the struggle for justice .
You lost some candy.
” 2 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ though my parents let me walk out of the house surely knowing that I was about to get my ass kicked , they did not lighten my face to make a stupid costume work .
Because that would have been wrong .
And unnecessary .
And offensive .
If you are Black like me , you should never feel so excluded from the cultural discussion that you feel the need to lighten your beautiful complexion just to fit in .
And if you are white , and you want to make your own @ @ @ @ @ @ @ don ’ t wear Blackface .
It ’ s never okay .
There ’ s never an appropriate day for it .
Put the shoe polish down .
3 There is scholarship available for people who really don ’ t understand why Blackface is offensive .
The practice comes from shows designed to dehumanize people with dark skin .
The truth is out there for the Megyn Kellys of the world , and people who refuse to learn the history of this offensive practice deserve no sympathy for their willful ignorance .
Blackface @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no exception for white people who claim they don ’ t mean it that way .
There is no dispensation for white people who claim to do it as an “ homage ” to some character or celebrity .
The color of a person ’ s skin is never their most essential or defining feature .
People who wear blackface are self-identifying as prejudiced , no matter how racist-bone-free they claim to be .
4 Yet every year , there are people who darken their skin in the name of a costume .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ s degrading .
It ’ s hateful .
Still , if I ’ m honest , what really offends me about people who wear blackface for a costume party is their shocking lack of creativity .
Our universal ancestors did not draw on caves so that their future progeny could dye themselves for lack of a more evolved sense of artistry .
5 It is not hard to dress up as something without changing your skin color .
I could dress up as a MAGA thug without changing my skin color .
All @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hats , a water gun poking out of my fly , and an American Flag shirt appropriately stained with barbeque sauce .
No face painting required .
I could go as a QAnon quack : I ’ d need a Starfleet uniform and would have to fashion a tin-foil headpiece in the shape of a Klan hood .
It would take people a second , but they ’ d get the costume .
6 My costumes would work , without face shenanigans , because I ’ m making fun of political movements .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ somebody ’ s race or culture .
I ’ m not making fun of “ the white race , ” so I don ’ t need my face to be white in order to stick the landing .
7 Unfortunately , there are still too many people who don ’ t understand the difference between dressing up as a concept and caricaturing a culture .
Even beyond the clearly wrong instances of blackface , there are people who walk out of the house bedecked in all manner of bigoted artifacts to make a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s sombrero industry stays in business because of Halloween .
I have no idea why they even make bone-through-nose clip-ons other than to invite white people to be racist .
Right now , there is probably some white lady telling her boyfriend that she can totally wrap a towel around his head to look like a turban .
White people treat Halloween like The Purge—a movie about the one night a year it ’ s okay to kill people—but for racism .
8 Treating other people ’ s cultures as a costume is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a problem if you are making fun of that culture ; it ’ s a problem if you think you are lauding that culture .
There ’ s no “ good ” way to dress up as “ Polynesian , ” even if your kid loves Moana .
Instead , there are good ways to dress up as Moana , and none of those ways requires face paint .
( Hint : you need an oar . )
9 Two years ago , I ended up in a long offline conversation with a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to dress up as Black Panther , and the parent was convinced that this was the one time it was acceptable to wear blackface .
I pointed out that Black Panther wears a mask , but the parent argued that this actually helped their point , that the kid should be able to wear blackface under the mask so it wouldn ’ t be offensive to anyone , but the kid would feel more like Black Panther daubed in the blackface that only he knew about .
10 We ’ re Going to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Recover From Trump After , you know , choking back the urge to throw the parent off a waterfall , I inquired whether the kid would be drinking vibranium tea and running down criminals during Halloween .
No , of course not , the parent said , Black Panther is make-believe , after all .
Well , I asked , “ How the f**k do you get that the ‘ Panther ’ part is make believe but think the ‘ Black ’ part is something your kid can really be ?
” 11 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them , come from a deeply biased place where other people ’ s races and cultures can be used as a prop in some white fantasy narrative .
That ’ s why it ’ s always wrong .
12 The parent shut up , or I walked away—I forget which happened first .
But I was later informed that the parent did not end up slathering their kid in shoe polish under his mask .
Which made me feel good .
Having had the snot beaten out of me one Halloween , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kids from that fate .
13

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When I was 8 years old, I dressed up as Senator Ted Kennedy for Halloween. I remember strongly arguing for this costume. I don’t know why my parents let me do this, but it was the Reagan era and people were desperate. My parents got me a little blue suit, wrote ted kennedy on a faux briefcase, grayed out my hair, and off I went.
Later that evening, neighborhood kids—including some of my “friends”—jumped me and stole my candy. Then they ate it in front of me at school the next day. I get it now. Those who would defend the liberal social safety net must be prepared for pushback from non-empathetic forces who view all tax as theft. My assailants simply did not understand the difference between a progressive levy on marginal income versus outright piracy. As my father would say years later when I reminded him of my childhood, which he largely drank through, “Ted Kennedy lost two brothers in the struggle for justice. You lost some candy.”
Anyway, the point is, even though my parents let me walk out of the house surely knowing that I was about to get my ass kicked, they did not lighten my face to make a stupid costume work. Because that would have been wrong. And unnecessary. And offensive. If you are Black like me, you should never feel so excluded from the cultural discussion that you feel the need to lighten your beautiful complexion just to fit in. And if you are white, and you want to make your own stupid costume work, well, just don’t wear blackface. It’s never okay. There’s never an appropriate day for it. Put the shoe polish down.
There is scholarship available for people who really don’t understand why blackface is offensive. The practice comes from shows designed to dehumanize people with dark skin. The truth is out there for the Megyn Kellys of the world, and people who refuse to learn the history of this offensive practice deserve no sympathy for their willful ignorance. Blackface is racist by definition: There is no exception for white people who claim they don’t mean it that way. There is no dispensation for white people who claim to do it as an “homage” to some character or celebrity. The color of a person’s skin is never their most essential or defining feature. People who wear blackface are self-identifying as prejudiced, no matter how racist-bone-free they claim to be.
Yet, every year, there are people who darken their skin in the name of a costume. It’s racist. It’s degrading. It’s hateful. Still, if I’m honest, what really offends me about people who wear blackface for a costume party is their shocking lack of creativity. Our universal ancestors did not draw on caves so that their future progeny could dye themselves for lack of a more evolved sense of artistry. 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
It is not hard to dress up as something without changing your skin color. I could dress up as a MAGA thug without changing my skin color. All I need is one of their stupid hats, a water gun poking out of my fly, and an American Flag shirt appropriately stained with barbeque sauce. No face painting required. I could go as a QAnon quack: I’d need a Starfleet uniform and would have to fashion a tinfoil headpiece in the shape of a Klan hood. It would take people a second, but they’d get the costume. Current Issue View our current issue
My costumes would work without face shenanigans, because I’m making fun of political movements. I’m not making fun of somebody’s race or culture. I’m not making fun of “the white race,” so I don’t need my face to be white in order to stick the landing.
Unfortunately, there are still too many people who don’t understand the difference between dressing up as a concept and caricaturing a culture. Even beyond the clearly wrong instances of blackface, there are people who walk out of the house bedecked in all manner of bigoted artifacts to make a costume “work.” This country’s sombrero industry stays in business because of Halloween. I have no idea why they even make bone-through-nose clip-ons other than to invite white people to be racist. Right now, there is probably some white lady telling her boyfriend that she can totally wrap a towel around his head to look like a turban. White people treat Halloween like they’re in a version of The Purge—a movie about one night a year when it’s OK to kill people—but where free rein is given to racism.
Treating other people’s cultures as a costume is the entire problem. It’s a problem if you are making fun of that culture; it’s a problem if you think you are lauding that culture. There’s no “good” way to dress up as “Polynesian,” even if your kid loves Moana. Instead, there are good ways to dress up as Moana, and none of those ways requires face paint. (Hint: You need an oar.)
Two years ago, I ended up in a long offline conversation with a white parent. Their white kid wanted to dress up as Black Panther, and the parent was convinced that this was the one time it was acceptable to wear blackface. I pointed out that Black Panther wears a mask, but the parent argued that this actually helped their point, that the kid should be able to wear blackface under the mask so it wouldn’t be offensive to anyone, but the kid would feel more like Black Panther daubed in the blackface that only he knew about. More from Mystal We’re Going to Need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to Recover From Trump Elie Mystal
After, you know, choking back the urge to throw the parent off a waterfall, I inquired whether the kid would be drinking vibranium tea and running down criminals during Halloween. No, of course not, the parent said; Black Panther is make-believe, after all. Well, I asked, “How the fuck do you get that the ‘Panther’ part is make believe but think the ‘Black’ part is something your kid can really be?”
All uses of blackface, all of them, come from a deeply biased place where other people’s races and cultures can be used as a prop in some white fantasy narrative. That’s why it’s always wrong.
The parent shut up, or I walked away—I forget which happened first. But I was later informed that the parent did not end up slathering their kid in shoe polish under his mask. Which made me feel good. Having had the snot beaten out of me one Halloween, I’m always happy to save other kids from that fate.


thenation--2020-10-29--In Key Cities, Activists Are Mobilizing Black Voters Biden Isn’t

Detroit may be a car capital , but Wendy Caldwell-Liddell wants to meet at the bus station .
The 29-year-old founder of Mobilize Detroit canvasses there regularly , because she knows she ’ s likely to meet people mainstream Democrats are failing to reach—people who have to go to work , or take care of their children , and are using a public service to get there .
People , in her words , who are “ on a mission.
” That would be a good description of Caldwell-Liddell herself .
A 29-year-old urban planner and grant-writing consultant by trade @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two , she doesn ’ t have a lot of time to spare .
Yet , since August , she ’ s been coming to the Rosa Parks Transit Center and other local hubs every week in an attempt to mobilize Detroit voters .
It wasn ’ t easy at first .
“ A lot of people [ are ] just completely uninterested in choosing between Trump and Biden , uninterested in the national elections just as a whole , ” she told me in early October .
But she found her stride @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and began approaching people about local issues instead : police surveillance , housing and gentrification , and water shutoffs , to name a few .
“ A lot of people out here tell me , ‘ I have never voted before , ’ but they hear the local issues I ’ m talking about , and that makes them want to register , ” she said .
The experience has also crystallized her frustration with Democratic candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris , who have come to Detroit not to talk—and above @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to give speeches to “ people who already support them.
” “ What does that do for people out here at the bus stops ?
” she asks .
In the Motor City , as in many others , those who don ’ t own a car are disproportionately Black and working class .
Many of those Caldwell-Liddell talks to are preoccupied by the cost of car insurance , or inadequate bus service , or underfunded schools .
“ Those same folks may feel so apathetic…about the oppression that they deal with every @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out to the polls is not your first priority , ” she said .
Particularly when the candidates on offer are doing so little to address their day-to-day concerns .
Still , little by little , Caldwell-Liddell is gaining ground .
By focusing on local issues , she said , Mobilize Detroit has been able to convince reluctant voters that they “ can send a real big ripple effect .
And yes , inadvertently , we are probably getting people who will vote for Biden to the polls.
” That could have a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In Detroit , which is nearly 80 percent Black , some 41,000 fewer voters showed up to the polls in 2016 than in 2012 , while nearly 3,000 voted for a third party or left the presidential choice blank .
At the same time , turnout in predominantly white , rural Michigan counties increased .
The combination was enough to cost Hillary Clinton her slim lead in the state , allowing Donald Trump to crack the “ blue wall ” with a margin of just 10,700 votes .
This year , with expanded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ interest , overall turnout looks set to increase dramatically nationwide .
That includes in Michigan , where Democratic-leaning areas , including Wayne County ( anchored by Detroit ) , have so far seen the highest number of early ballots returned .
That combination does not bode well for Trump .
But there ’ s less than a week to go—and , of course , Election Day itself , when Republicans are expecting a surge in turnout of their own .
For Nicole Small , many aspects of this year ’ s election feel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 34 , was born and raised in Detroit and currently serves as vice chair of the city ’ s Charter Commission .
She still lives on the city ’ s Northwest Side , not far from where Biden and Trump campaign offices sit just a few blocks apart .
The GOP outpost in itself is another novelty since 2016 .
Dubbed the “ Black Voices Community Center , ” it ’ s a testament to the Trump campaign ’ s renewed pitch to Black voters , and Small calls it “ scary ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have working in the office are actually from Detroit , ” she said .
“ They ’ re Black Detroiters .
And they ’ re active voters.
” Caldwell-Liddell , too , has seen signs that Trump is peeling at least a small share of prospective Black voters away from the Democrats .
She estimates that 10 percent of those she ’ s canvassed have told her they plan to vote for Trump , with some crediting him for the expanded unemployment benefits they received under the CARES Act .
( For those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and outs of Capitol Hill , she said , it was less obvious that Democrats won those benefits than that Trump signed them into law . )
She ’ s confident that she ’ s convinced at least a few to change their minds .
Yet she says it ’ s been despite , rather than thanks to , the reputation of the Democratic standard-bearer .
Small , who voted for Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primaries , likewise regrets that the party once again settled on a business-as-usual candidate this year .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , with really touching Black voters , ” she said .
But the 79-year-old socialist maintains a young , energized base , she added , which Biden distinctly lacks .
Survey data compiled by the Poor People ’ s Campaign has shown that the most common reason people give for not voting is that they are “ disillusioned with their voting prospects ” : They don ’ t like the candidates or their platforms , aren ’ t interested , or feel that their vote won ’ t change things .
Those attitudes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 40 percent of all nonvoters .
( The next most common reason nonvoters gave was that they were too busy . )
Pew analysis of Census surveys shows that the sharpest drop in turnout in 2016 was among Black voters—something not seen in 20 years .
Michael Dawson , political scientist at the University of Chicago , says this reflected a wide range of factors , including voter suppression , active disinformation campaigns from a variety of anti-Democratic interests , and , of course , Barack Obama ’ s absence from the ticket @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in particular : the Clinton campaign ’ s failure to actively engage Black voters .
“ As a political scientist we know that the way you turn people out is , [ if not ] knocking physically on doors , certainly mobilizing them , contacting them , putting in the work , ” Dawson told me .
“ The Clinton campaign wasn ’ t doing that in the Black community , and that was an extraordinarily dumb strategic error.
” Mobilization is especially key when it comes to Black working-class voters , Dawson @ @ @ @ @ @ @ consistently less likely to vote than their higher-income counterparts : The gap stood at nearly 22 percent in 2016 , according to survey data compiled by the Poor People ’ s Campaign .
In Rust Belt states like Michigan and Wisconsin , where Black eligible voters are more likely to be low-income or poor than in almost any other swing state , that gap is all the more vital for candidates to bridge .
Bernie Sanders staked his “ political revolution ” on precisely such a strategy , perhaps even more explicitly this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ didn ’ t work .
Sanders ’ s defeat in Michigan , a state he won in 2016 , all but sealed the Democratic nomination for Biden .
The former vice president , for his part , has repeatedly presented Black voters as his “ firewall , ” while emphasizing a message of bipartisanship designed to win back the elusive white swing voter .
Yet , as political scientists David C. and Sam Fulwood III have argued , this rhetoric misses the “ real ‘ swing voters ’ ” : the predominantly young @ @ @ @ @ @ @ see their interests represented by either party .
What would it take for progressives to win back their trust ?
Milwaukee , another former Midwestern powerhouse gutted by deindustrialization , poses the question in especially stark terms .
Plans to host the Democratic National Convention there this summer were scuttled by the pandemic .
But in recent months , the city has been the site of steady protests , especially for Black lives and the Fight for $ 15 , and sometimes linking the two .
The vibrancy of the protests reflects a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ranked the most segregated metropolitan area in the country , with historian Marc V. Levine of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee calling it “ the epitome of a 21st century racial regime.
” One ZIP code in particular has come to symbolize these inequities : 53206 , which bounds about three square miles on the city ’ s majority-Black North Side .
As of 2018 , nearly half of the ZIP code ’ s residents lived below the poverty line .
Unemployment is high , but so is the share of working poor : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ five of the ZIP code ’ s employed residents earned wages that put them below the federal poverty line in 2018 , compared to about one in 20 nationwide .
And that was when the economy was at a peak—well before Covid-19 hit .
Upper Cutz barbershop sits just on the edge of 53206 , opposite an empty lot and , behind that , the remains of a linen plant that closed in 2005 after operating in the neighborhood for almost 75 years .
Midway down the block , a colorful sign entreats @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Vote Nov. 3.
” But that call rings hollow with the barbers I spoke to at Upper Cutz , just as it did when The New York Times visited in 2016 .
A few days after Trump ’ s election , several people at Upper Cutz and around the neighborhood told the paper they hadn ’ t voted , and didn ’ t regret it .
Altogether , their district saw Milwaukee ’ s largest drop in turnout that year since 2012 , part of a trend that—as in Michigan—contributed to Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ Politicians don ’ t come through here until it ’ s voting time , ” barber Jahn “ Justice B ” Toney told me when I visited in early October .
The message is clear : “ They ’ re not really trying to help us .
They ’ re just trying to help themselves .
When it comes to this year ’ s candidates , his coworker is even more cutting .
“ The two zombies ?
” he asks , with a laugh .
It ’ s impossible to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ course , without talking about voter suppression .
The 2016 election was the first major poll to be conducted under the state ’ s voter ID law , passed by Republican former governor Scott Walker .
As in other states , the law played a well-documented role in keeping Black , low-income , and generally Democratic-leaning voters away from the polls .
One survey suggests that the ID requirement alone could have deterred up to 45,000 votes—roughly the number Trump won by .
Yet the vast majority of nonvoting Milwaukeeans who responded to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an obstacle .
Instead , as writer Malaika Jabali has pointed out , a strong plurality of them gave the same reason for not voting as their counterparts nationwide : They didn ’ t like the candidates or just weren ’ t interested .
For Jabali , it ’ s “ evidence that disillusionment is a far more significant factor than voter suppression in deflating turnout among voters of color.
” “ It ’ s like we ’ re asking our masters to give us more scraps , ” Toney told me .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” I asked if anything had changed since 2016 , when he told the Times he wrote in Sanders .
“ Nothing ’ s changed , ” he said .
“ It ’ s actually gotten worse in the last four years.
” With the pandemic and the spike in gun violence , his coworker added , this year has been especially bad .
But the bottom line , for Toney , is that it ’ s “ nothing different than what we ’ ve been dealing throughout the history of the United @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said he ’ s voted consistently since Obama first ran in 2008 , including in local elections , and plans to again this year .
But he hasn ’ t decided who he ’ ll vote for , and anyway , he ’ s not convinced it will change anything .
“ The questions you ’ re asking me—I ’ m giving the same answers I gave 10 years ago , when Barack was running , ” he said .
“ The system is designed to keep our community the way it is.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ one of the young Milwaukeeans working to change that system .
Along with local organizations including Black Leaders Organizing for Communities ( BLOC ) and Citizen Action Wisconsin , she ’ s been working year-round to bridge the energy and radical politics of the movement for Black lives with the push to get out the vote .
For her , the connection between issues like policing and gun violence—and , in turn , to the ballot box—is not abstract .
“ In 2017 , I lost my aunt to gun violence .
Her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was actually a police officer , and was able to use his work-issued gun to murder my aunt , ” she said .
Washington says such violence is sadly “ normalized ” in Milwaukee .
For her , though , it was a call to action .
She got involved with anti–gun violence groups soon after her aunt ’ s murder , and now serves as state policy associate for March for Our Lives , the most prominent national youth group organizing around the issue , as well as executive director of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ Plain and simple , police violence is gun violence , ” she said .
And ending those forms of violence means addressing their root causes—from education , to the criminal justice system , to “ making sure kids have somewhere to go home where they feel safe.
” This year will mark Washington ’ s first presidential election , and she ’ s adamant that her generation has a decisive role to play at the ballot box .
“ Especially here in Wisconsin , Gen Z…can make or break who ends @ @ @ @ @ @ @ battleground state , ” she said .
“ So really us as young people , doing what we can to make sure other young people show out for the polls , and getting out the vote , is super-duper important.
” She said social media has been key to that effort , and judging from her peers online , she ’ s confident that Milwaukeeans are more mobilized than they were four years ago .
She wouldn ’ t say who she planned to vote for , though .
Dawson , the political @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Black-led social movements will contribute at least indirectly to defeating Trump at the polls .
“ Activists have realized that down-ballot voting matters , ” he said , and “ mobilizing people around progressive local issues will help the general cause at the national level as well.
” There ’ s been some evidence of that down-ballot momentum in and around Detroit , where a surge in turnout in the 2018 midterms powered Rashida Tlaib to Congress from the third-poorest district in the country .
This August , she won her reelection primary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a pandemic—buoying hopes that the political revolution is far from over .
Mobilize Detroit ’ s Caldwell-Liddell stresses that her efforts are geared toward not just the presidential contest this November but also ballot initiatives , next year ’ s city council races , and beyond .
“ This is a time that we start making the decision on who represents us , ” she tells would-be voters .
“ When you start framing the conversations like that , people are flying into our movement in droves .
”

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Detroit may be a car capital, but Wendy Caldwell-Liddell wants to meet at the bus station. The 29-year-old founder of Mobilize Detroit canvasses there regularly, because she knows she’s likely to meet people mainstream Democrats are failing to reach—people who have to go to work, or take care of their children, and are using a public service to get there. People, in her words, who are “on a mission.”
That would be a good description of Caldwell-Liddell herself. A 29-year-old urban planner and grant-writing consultant by trade, as well as a mother of two, she doesn’t have a lot of time to spare. Yet, since August, she’s been coming to the Rosa Parks Transit Center and other local hubs every week in an attempt to mobilize Detroit voters. It wasn’t easy at first.
“A lot of people [are] just completely uninterested in choosing between Trump and Biden, uninterested in the national elections just as a whole,” she told me in early October. But she found her stride when she set the presidential election aside, and began approaching people about local issues instead: police surveillance, housing and gentrification, and water shutoffs, to name a few.
“A lot of people out here tell me, ‘I have never voted before,’ but they hear the local issues I’m talking about, and that makes them want to register,” she said.
The experience has also crystallized her frustration with Democratic candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, who have come to Detroit not to talk—and above all listen—to marginalized would-be voters, but to give speeches to “people who already support them.”
“What does that do for people out here at the bus stops?” she asks.
In the Motor City, as in many others, those who don’t own a car are disproportionately Black and working class. Many of those Caldwell-Liddell talks to are preoccupied by the cost of car insurance, or inadequate bus service, or underfunded schools. Current Issue View our current issue
“Those same folks may feel so apathetic…about the oppression that they deal with every single day, that no, going out to the polls is not your first priority,” she said. Particularly when the candidates on offer are doing so little to address their day-to-day concerns.
Still, little by little, Caldwell-Liddell is gaining ground. By focusing on local issues, she said, Mobilize Detroit has been able to convince reluctant voters that they “can send a real big ripple effect. And yes, inadvertently, we are probably getting people who will vote for Biden to the polls.” 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
That could have a major ripple effect nationally, too. In Detroit, which is nearly 80 percent Black, some 41,000 fewer voters showed up to the polls in 2016 than in 2012, while nearly 3,000 voted for a third party or left the presidential choice blank. At the same time, turnout in predominantly white, rural Michigan counties increased. The combination was enough to cost Hillary Clinton her slim lead in the state, allowing Donald Trump to crack the “blue wall” with a margin of just 10,700 votes.
This year, with expanded absentee voting and a surge in election interest, overall turnout looks set to increase dramatically nationwide. That includes in Michigan, where Democratic-leaning areas, including Wayne County (anchored by Detroit), have so far seen the highest number of early ballots returned.
That combination does not bode well for Trump. But there’s less than a week to go—and, of course, Election Day itself, when Republicans are expecting a surge in turnout of their own.
For Nicole Small, many aspects of this year’s election feel eerily reminiscent of 2016. Small, 34, was born and raised in Detroit and currently serves as vice chair of the city’s Charter Commission. She still lives on the city’s Northwest Side, not far from where Biden and Trump campaign offices sit just a few blocks apart.
The GOP outpost in itself is another novelty since 2016. Dubbed the “Black Voices Community Center,” it’s a testament to the Trump campaign’s renewed pitch to Black voters, and Small calls it “scary” to see.
“The people they have working in the office are actually from Detroit,” she said. “They’re Black Detroiters. And they’re active voters.”
Caldwell-Liddell, too, has seen signs that Trump is peeling at least a small share of prospective Black voters away from the Democrats. She estimates that 10 percent of those she’s canvassed have told her they plan to vote for Trump, with some crediting him for the expanded unemployment benefits they received under the CARES Act. (For those who don’t follow the ins and outs of Capitol Hill, she said, it was less obvious that Democrats won those benefits than that Trump signed them into law.)
She’s confident that she’s convinced at least a few to change their minds. Yet she says it’s been despite, rather than thanks to, the reputation of the Democratic standard-bearer.
Small, who voted for Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primaries, likewise regrets that the party once again settled on a business-as-usual candidate this year.
“Bernie has his issues, too, with really touching Black voters,” she said. But the 79-year-old socialist maintains a young, energized base, she added, which Biden distinctly lacks.
Survey data compiled by the Poor People’s Campaign has shown that the most common reason people give for not voting is that they are “disillusioned with their voting prospects”: They don’t like the candidates or their platforms, aren’t interested, or feel that their vote won’t change things. Those attitudes spiked in 2016, accounting for some 40 percent of all nonvoters. (The next most common reason nonvoters gave was that they were too busy.)
Pew analysis of Census surveys shows that the sharpest drop in turnout in 2016 was among Black voters—something not seen in 20 years. Michael Dawson, political scientist at the University of Chicago, says this reflected a wide range of factors, including voter suppression, active disinformation campaigns from a variety of anti-Democratic interests, and, of course, Barack Obama’s absence from the ticket. But he singles out one factor in particular: the Clinton campaign’s failure to actively engage Black voters.
“As a political scientist we know that the way you turn people out is, [if not] knocking physically on doors, certainly mobilizing them, contacting them, putting in the work,” Dawson told me. “The Clinton campaign wasn’t doing that in the Black community, and that was an extraordinarily dumb strategic error.”
Mobilization is especially key when it comes to Black working-class voters, Dawson said. Nationally, low-income voters are consistently less likely to vote than their higher-income counterparts: The gap stood at nearly 22 percent in 2016, according to the Poor People’s Campaign. In Rust Belt states like Michigan and Wisconsin, where Black eligible voters are more likely to be low-income or poor than in almost any other swing state, that gap is all the more vital for candidates to bridge.
Bernie Sanders staked his “political revolution” on precisely such a strategy, perhaps even more explicitly this year than in 2016. But it didn’t work. Sanders’s defeat in Michigan, a state he won in 2016, all but sealed the Democratic nomination for Biden.
The former vice president, for his part, has repeatedly presented Black voters as his “firewall,” while emphasizing a message of bipartisanship designed to win back the elusive white swing voter. Yet, as political scientists David C. Barker and Sam Fulwood III have argued, this rhetoric misses the “real ‘swing voters’”: the predominantly young people of color who don’t see their interests represented by either party. What would it take for progressives to win back their trust?
Milwaukee, another former Midwestern powerhouse gutted by deindustrialization, poses the question in especially stark terms. Plans to host the Democratic National Convention there this summer were scuttled by the pandemic. But in recent months, the city has been the site of steady protests, especially for Black lives and the Fight for $15, and sometimes linking the two.
The vibrancy of the protests reflects a harsh backdrop. Milwaukee has repeatedly been ranked the most segregated metropolitan area in the country, with historian Marc V. Levine of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee calling it “the epitome of a 21st century racial regime.”
One ZIP code in particular has come to symbolize these inequities: 53206, which bounds about three square miles on the city’s majority-Black North Side. As of 2018, nearly half of the ZIP code’s residents lived below the poverty line. Unemployment is high, but so is the share of working poor: according to Levine, nearly one in five of the ZIP code’s employed residents earned wages that put them below the federal poverty line in 2018, compared to about one in 20 nationwide. And that was when the economy was at a peak—well before Covid-19 hit.
Upper Cutz barbershop sits just on the edge of 53206, opposite an empty lot and, behind that, the remains of a linen plant that closed in 2005 after operating in the neighborhood for almost 75 years. Midway down the block, a colorful sign entreats, “Let your voice be heard: Vote Nov. 3.”
But that call rings hollow with the barbers I spoke to at Upper Cutz, just as it did when The New York Times visited in 2016. A few days after Trump’s election, several people at Upper Cutz and around the neighborhood told the paper they hadn’t voted, and didn’t regret it. Altogether, their district saw Milwaukee’s largest drop in turnout that year since 2012, part of a trend that—as in Michigan—contributed to Trump’s knife-edge win in the state.
“Politicians don’t come through here until it’s voting time,” barber Jahn “Justice B” Toney told me when I visited in early October. The message is clear: “They’re not really trying to help us. They’re just trying to help themselves.”
When it comes to this year’s candidates, his coworker is even more cutting.
“The two zombies?” he asks, with a laugh.
It’s impossible to talk about turnout in Wisconsin, of course, without talking about voter suppression. The 2016 election was the first major poll to be conducted under the state’s voter ID law, passed by Republican former governor Scott Walker. As in other states, the law played a well-documented role in keeping Black, low-income, and generally Democratic-leaning voters away from the polls. One survey suggests that the ID requirement alone could have deterred up to 45,000 votes—roughly the number Trump won by.
Yet the vast majority of nonvoting Milwaukeeans who responded to that survey did not cite ID as an obstacle. Instead, as writer Malaika Jabali has pointed out, a strong plurality of them gave the same reason for not voting as their counterparts nationwide: They didn’t like the candidates or just weren’t interested. For Jabali, it’s “evidence that disillusionment is a far more significant factor than voter suppression in deflating turnout among voters of color.”
“It’s like we’re asking our masters to give us more scraps,” Toney told me. “I’m tired of that.”
I asked if anything had changed since 2016, when he told the Times he wrote in Sanders.
“Nothing’s changed,” he said. “It’s actually gotten worse in the last four years.” With the pandemic and the spike in gun violence, his coworker added, this year has been especially bad. But the bottom line, for Toney, is that it’s “nothing different than what we’ve been dealing throughout the history of the United States of America.”
The 49-year-old barber said he’s voted consistently since Obama first ran in 2008, including in local elections, and plans to again this year. But he hasn’t decided who he’ll vote for, and anyway, he’s not convinced it will change anything.
“The questions you’re asking me—I’m giving the same answers I gave 10 years ago, when Barack was running,” he said. “The system is designed to keep our community the way it is.”
Tatiana Washington, 19, is one of the young Milwaukeeans working to change that system. Along with local organizations including Black Leaders Organizing for Communities (BLOC) and Citizen Action Wisconsin, she’s been working year-round to bridge the energy and radical politics of the movement for Black lives with the push to get out the vote.
For her, the connection between issues like policing and gun violence—and, in turn, to the ballot box—is not abstract.
“In 2017, I lost my aunt to gun violence. Her husband shot and killed her. He was actually a police officer, and was able to use his work-issued gun to murder my aunt,” she said.
Washington says such violence is sadly “normalized” in Milwaukee. For her, though, it was a call to action. She got involved with anti–gun violence groups soon after her aunt’s murder, and now serves as state policy associate for March for Our Lives, the most prominent national youth group organizing around the issue, as well as executive director of the Black feminist youth group 50 Miles More.
“Plain and simple, police violence is gun violence,” she said. And ending those forms of violence means addressing their root causes—from education, to the criminal justice system, to “making sure kids have somewhere to go home where they feel safe.”
This year will mark Washington’s first presidential election, and she’s adamant that her generation has a decisive role to play at the ballot box.
“Especially here in Wisconsin, Gen Z…can make or break who ends up winning, and this is a battleground state,” she said. “So really us as young people, doing what we can to make sure other young people show out for the polls, and getting out the vote, is super-duper important.”
She said social media has been key to that effort, and judging from her peers online, she’s confident that Milwaukeeans are more mobilized than they were four years ago. She wouldn’t say who she planned to vote for, though.
Dawson, the political scientist, is optimistic that resurgent, Black-led social movements will contribute at least indirectly to defeating Trump at the polls.
“Activists have realized that down-ballot voting matters,” he said, and “mobilizing people around progressive local issues will help the general cause at the national level as well.”
There’s been some evidence of that down-ballot momentum in and around Detroit, where a surge in turnout in the 2018 midterms powered Rashida Tlaib to Congress from the third-poorest district in the country. This August, she won her reelection primary with even greater turnout—in the middle of a pandemic—buoying hopes that the political revolution is far from over.
Mobilize Detroit’s Caldwell-Liddell stresses that her efforts are geared toward not just the presidential contest this November but also ballot initiatives, next year’s city council races, and beyond.
“This is a time that we start making the decision on who represents us,” she tells would-be voters. “When you start framing the conversations like that, people are flying into our movement in droves.”