Raising enough hell might finally get it done…

People often claim that the Democrats’ messaging is weak.  I guess I can get that, especially vis-à-vis what happened late last week, with enough Republicans voting against the PACT Act* for it to fail. 

What we, the Dems, need is some people like Jon Stewart to raise a little lot of hell.  If Dems “came out swinging” on the issues they feel passionate about, maybe it could get the media’s attention.  (So far, Beto O’Rourke is one of the few passionate Dems I’ve seen.  And he is still lagging in the polls behind bastard Greg Abbott for Governor of Texas.)

Yes, we Dems need outrage.  We need passion.  We need to call a Republican spade a Republican spade.  Call them out!  Make a scene.  That always get the media’s attention, since the media always goes where the trouble goes.  But Jon is making “good trouble.”  And without media, our messages, especially “good trouble messages” go nowhere. 

Well said, Jon (warning, strong language):

-Does America owe the veterans, less than 1% of the population, anything?

-Does not passing the PACT Act disgust you as much as it disgusts me?

-Am I just blowing off some steam here?  (Oh, you betcha!)

______________________________

*The PACT Act, also known as the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022, is a bill that directly addresses the impact on veterans and others who were exposed to environmental toxins, burn pits, radiation, and Agent Orange while serving.

Republican Party racism steps into daylight

A Washington Post opinion piece makes it about as plain as it can be made:

Opinion | A hero of the Trump right shows his true colors: Whites only

Thank you, Viktor Orban, for showing us where the American right is heading.

The Hungarian strongman, who derailed his country’s nascent democracy, has been a darling of the MAGA crowd for his anti-immigrant policies. He has enjoyed a fawning interview and favorable broadcasts from Budapest by Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, and he has been invited as a featured speaker to next week’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Texas alongside a who’s who of Republican senators, governors and members of Congress, as well as former president Donald Trump himself. Several such luminaries addressed a CPAC gathering in Hungary in May, at which Trump described Orban as “a great leader, a great gentleman.”

During a July 23 address (in which he said immigration should be called “population replacement or inundation”) he gave voice to the belief underlying his nationalism: He opposes the mixing of races.

“Migration has split Europe in two — or I could say that it has split the West in two,” he said, after commending to his listeners a 50-year-old racist treatise. “One half is a world where European and non-European peoples live together. These countries are no longer nations. They are nothing more than a conglomeration of peoples.” He went on to contrast that with “our world,” in which “we are willing to mix with one another, but we do not want to become peoples of mixed race.”

That was too much even for Orban’s longtime adviser Zsuzsa Hegedus, who resigned and lambasted the prime minister for “a pure Nazi speech worthy of Goebbels.” She said the speech could “please even the most bloodthirsty racists” and suggested he was “advocating an openly racist policy that is now unacceptable even for the Western European extreme right.”

But not for the American right! CPAC’s organizer confirmed to me on Wednesday that Orban is still scheduled to address the group next week. “Let’s listen to the man speak,” Matt Schlapp, chairman of the Conservative Political Action Coalition, told Bloomberg News on Tuesday. Orban’s name remained on CPAC’s speakers list, along with Trump; some two dozen GOP House members; Sens. Ted Cruz (Tex.), Rick Scott (Fla.) and Bill Hagerty (Tenn.); Fox News’s Sean Hannity; Texas Gov. Greg Abbott; and former Trump aides including Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller.

Republicans have hailed Orban as “Trump before Trump” (Bannon), whose government is doing “so many positive things” (Sen. Ron Johnson). Among the things it has been doing: seizing control of the judiciary and media, banning the depiction of homosexuality, demonizing Jewish billionaire George Soros, expelling asylum seekers and erecting a wire fence on the border, forcing out the country’s top university, and halving the size of parliament and redrawing districts to keep itself in power.

At its core, Orban’s rule has been about sustaining, and being sustained by, white nationalism. His July 23 speech was an extended articulation of the “great replacement” conspiracy idea — embraced by Carlson and House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), among others — that non-White people are plotting to wipe out White people.

One would think that given how sophisticated GOP propaganda can be, they would be less blatant about their racism. There's nothing wrong with opposing most immigration on grounds of overpopulation and/or concern for the environment. But, maybe Republicans cannot base their opposition to immigration on either ground because they do not believe either is a problem. That leaves racism as the cause.

Well, at least Republicans are being honest about their motive. That's a refreshing change.

Political moderates make their move

A Washington Post opinion piece announces the merger of three political groups: 

Opinion | Most third parties have failed. Here’s why ours won’t.

David Jolly is a former Republican congressman from Florida and is executive chairman of the Serve America Movement. Christine Todd Whitman is a former Republican governor of New Jersey and co-founder of the Renew America Movement. Andrew Yang is a former Democratic presidential candidate and is co-chair of the Forward Party.

Political extremism is ripping our nation apart, and the two major parties have failed to remedy the crisis. Last week, the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol led us to relive one of the darkest days in U.S. history. The chilling culmination of an attempted electoral coup in the United States was the strongest evidence yet that we are facing the potential demise of our democracy.

Polarization is fueling a spike in political intimidation. In the past two years, we’ve seen death threats and assassination plots against members of Congress, governors, Supreme Court justices and even the vice president of the United States.

If nothing is done, the United States will not reach its 300th birthday this century in recognizable form. That’s why we are coming together — Democrats, Republicans and independents — to build a new, unifying political party for the majority of Americans who want to move past divisiveness and reject extremism.

Americans have lost faith in government. Nearly 8 in 10 say the country is headed in the wrong direction, according to a recent survey, and two-thirds of voters think neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have the right priorities.

Shockingly, roughly 30 million Americans believe violence against the current government is justified. The same number want to forcibly return former president Donald Trump to the White House. This is what happens when democracies fail: People feel their voices are not heard and radicalize to take up arms, leading to mainstream talk about “civil war.”

How do you remedy such a crisis? In a system torn apart by two increasingly divided extremes, you must reintroduce choice and competition.

The United States badly needs a new political party — one that reflects the moderate, common-sense majority. Today’s outdated parties have failed by catering to the fringes. As a result, most Americans feel they aren’t represented.

Most third parties in U.S. history failed to take off, either because they were ideologically too narrow or the population was uninterested. But voters are calling for a new party now more than ever.

For the first time in modern history, roughly half of Americans consider themselves “independents,” and two-thirds say a new party is needed (and would vote for it). Surprisingly, a majority of Democrats and Republicans say they want another option, too.

As leaders and former elected officials, we’re tired of just talking about a third way. So this month, we’re merging our three national organizations — which represent the left, right, and center of the political spectrum — to build the launchpad for a new political party called Forward.

The two major parties have hollowed out the sensible center of our political system — even though that’s where most voters want to see them move. A new party must stake out the space in between. On every issue facing this nation — from the controversial to the mundane — we can find a reasonable approach most Americans agree on.

On guns, for instance, most Americans don’t agree with calls from the far left to confiscate all guns and repeal the Second Amendment, but they’re also rightfully worried by the far right’s insistence on eliminating gun laws. On climate change, most Americans don’t agree with calls from the far left to completely upend our economy and way of life, but they also reject the far right’s denial that there is even a problem. On abortion, most Americans don’t agree with the far left’s extreme views on late-term abortions, but they also are alarmed by the far right’s quest to make a woman’s choice a criminal offense.

To succeed, a new party must break down the barriers that stand between voters and more political choices. Accordingly, we will passionately advocate electoral changes such as ranked-choice voting and open primaries; for the a reasonable approach most Americans agree on; and for the nationwide protection of voting rights and a push to make voting remarkably easy for anyone and incredibly secure for everyone.

Without such systemic changes, Americans will be left with a closed system and fewer options on the ballot. These reforms go hand in hand with a new party.

Some call third parties “spoilers,” but the system is already spoiled. There are more than 500,000 elected positions in the United States, but a recent study found more than 70 percent of races on ballots in 2020 were unopposed or uncontested. A tiny sliver of U.S. congressional seats will have close races this November. The two major parties have shut out competition, and America is suffering as a result.

That’s why we’re proposing the first “open” party. Americans of all stripes — Democrats, Republicans and independents — are invited to be a part of the process, without abandoning their existing political affiliations, by joining us to discuss building an optimistic and inclusive home for the politically homeless majority.

Our merged organizations are just the starting point, the launchpad for this movement. We are planning liftoff at a national convention next summer and will soon seek state-by-state ballot access to run candidates in 2024 and beyond. We are actively recruiting former U.S. representatives, governors, entrepreneurs, top political operatives and community leaders to make it happen.

America’s founders warned about the dangers of a two-party system. Today, we’re living with the dire consequences. Giving Americans more choices is important not just for restoring civility. Our lives, our livelihoods and our way of life depend on it.

Two quibbles need to be made. One is this announcement conveys a feeling of equivalence between the Dem and Repub parties. They are not equivalent. Of the two, the Republican Party is far more radical, mendacious, authoritarian and anti-democratic.

The other is an implied assertion that all Democrats are leftist extremists. That is just not true. Of the two parties, the GOP is far more radical right than the Dem party is radical left. Unlike the radical left in the Dem party, radical right is mainstream and dominant in the GOP. 

But other than those two things, the idea of (i) trying to save democracy by imposing election integrity by law, (ii) ending gerrymandering, and (iii)  trying to find reasonable policies that most Americans agree on, is very appealing. 

The laissez-faire capitalism files: Corporate opposition to climate change measures

“Social responsibility is a fundamentally subversive doctrine" in a free society, and have said that in such a society, "there is one and only one social responsibility of business–to use it resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.” -- Milton Friedman, 1969

“Most big businesses dictate the rules of the game by corrupting and subverting governments. They routinely operate with deception and fraud. They always try to minimize competition as much as possible.”-- Germaine, 2022

The Guardian writes:

Leaked: US power companies secretly spending millions to protect profits and fight clean energy

The CEO of the biggest power company in the US had a problem. A Democratic state senator was proposing a law that could cut into Florida Power & Light’s (FPL) profits. Landlords would be able to sell cheap rooftop solar power directly to their tenants – bypassing FPL and its monopoly on electricity.

“I want you to make his life a living hell … seriously,” FPL’s CEO Eric Silagy wrote in a 2019 email to two of his vice-presidents about state Senator José Javier Rodríguez, who proposed the legislation.

Within minutes, one of them forwarded the directive to the CEO of Matrix, LLC, a powerful but little-known political consulting firm that has operated behind the scenes in at least eight states.

Rodríguez was ousted from office in the next election [he lost by 40 votes]. Matrix employees spent heavily on political advertisements for a candidate with the same last name as Rodríguez, who split the vote. That candidate later admitted he was bribed to run.

Hundreds of pages of internal documents – which are only coming to light now because Matrix’s founders are locked in an epic feud – detail the firm’s secret work to help power companies like FPL protect their profits and fight the transition to cleaner forms of energy.

In Florida, Matrix’s work touched almost every level of politics, from influencing local mayoral and county commission elections to combating attempts to reshape the state constitution. In each of those cases, Matrix was working against politicians or policies fighting to curb the climate crisis by encouraging renewable power.

Matrix employees had a Jacksonville journalist spied on after he wrote critically about FPL. And in 2020, Matrix even harnessed the power of the press for itself, when its employees acquired control of The Capitolist, a Tallahassee-based political news site which it used for favorable coverage, leaked records show.

Big polluting corporations do not hesitate to use sleaze, slanders and lies to protect profits. There is far too much money in polluting for big polluters to not fight tooth, claw and dagger against any efforts to even try to deal with climate change. Corporations have great power to subvert and corrupt governments and politicians with a combination of dark free speech and campaign contributions (bribes). It is therefore no surprise that the US cannot act decisively to at least try to deal with climate change.

This is just laissez-faire capitalism as usual. Social conscience is non-existent. The only relevant moral value is profit. Nothing else counts.

Fascist Republican Party oppression is intensifying

America’s radical right Republican Party is increasingly aggressive about tracking down and persecuting people they want to track down and persecute. The GOP is dead serious about this. Gizmodo writes:

Republicans Warn Google Not to Limit Search for 

Misleading Anti-Abortion Clinics...Or Else

They said attempts to limit “crisis pregnancy centers,” in search results would, “constitute a grave assault on the principle of free speech.”

A coalition of 17 state attorney generals are pressuring Google to prevent it from limiting the search results of so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” known for masquerading as legitimate abortion clinics and persuading pregnant people away from receiving abortions.

Critics warn unrestricted search results could steer abortion seekers toward these clinics, potentially putting their health at risk. Republicans, on the other hand, say efforts to limit those bad faith clinics in search results amounts to market discrimination against anti-abortion organizations.

In a letter spearheaded by Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, the Republican lawmakers pushed back against earlier pleas from Democrats and claimed Google’s decision to moderate its results, “would constitute a grave assault on the principle of free speech.” The Republicans then lashed out at previous Democratic efforts to pressure the company before proceeding to, seemingly unironically, threaten Google if they didn’t get their way.

“We wish to make this very clear to Google and the other market participants that it dwarfs: If you fail to resist this political pressure, we will act swiftly to protect American consumers from this dangerous axis of corporate and government power,” the lawmakers wrote.

If Google does opt to alter the search results, Republicans say they will conduct investigations to determine whether or not the actions violate antitrust or religious discrimination laws. In other words, don’t moderate your search results…or else.  

Tuesday’s letter comes partly in response to a June study conducted by the Center for Countering Digital Hate which found 11% of Google searches in trigger law states for the terms “abortion clinic near me” and “abortion pill” directed users toward so-called crisis pregnancy centers, which the CCCDH refers to as “anti-abortion fake clinics.” Google Maps results led users to such clinics 37% of the time. Though these organizations often present as neutral health clinics, critics say their main purpose is actually to dissuade women from going through with abortions. One of those critics is Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who last month introduced a new regulation that would direct the Federal Trade Commission to prevent these clinics from engaging in misleading advertising.

“Anti-abortion fake clinics are the conversion therapy wing of an anti-abortion movement that is hell-bent on sending people to jail for abortion, miscarriage, and pregnancy,” Reproaction Co-Founder and Executive Director Erin Matson, said in a statement. “Misleading online advertising targeting abortion seekers is not a new concern, although it becomes more urgent as constitutional protections for abortion disappear.”

Fascist threats by the GOP are now right out in the open. No one can deny or downplay it, except of  course nearly all Republicans and non-republicans who support the GOP. 

As usual, Republicans fall back on crackpot motivated reasoning in issuing their threats. They are demanding that false and misleading advertising by crisis pregnancy centers be forced on people. That is not a concern about free speech. It is a concern that their hate of abortions will be thwarted. The GOP does not care about any speech except its own lies, slanders and other forms of dark free speech. 

American democracy, truth, the rule of law and civil liberties are all in the fight of their lives. All of them are under a massive, direct fascist attack by the Republican Party. This fascist GOP effort is nationwide, not just in the federal government.

Another person sees the threat

The threat to democracy, the rule of law and civil liberties I keep arguing is present seems to still be slowly sinking with more people. In my opinion, that’s good. We can all hope it’s just not too little or too late. A Washington Post opinion piece opines:

Certainly, dumping a compulsive liar, authoritarian narcissist and possible defendant in multiple criminal cases could be a plus for Republicans. But it’s not a panacea. The two most dangerous features of Trumpism are very much alive and dominate the GOP.

First, the party has inarguably turned antidemocratic. It wants fewer voters. It wants partisan control of election administration. Many “mainstream” Republicans still leave open the possibility they would have refused to certify Joe Biden’s victory. And state parties continue to drum out of their ranks 2020 truth-tellers such as Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers. Remember: Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) was the only Republican senator willing to debate a national voting rights bill, including a reinstatement of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

Second, the Republican Party has gone all-in when it comes to White Christian nationalism, insisting the state use its power to impose reactionary religious views.

Indeed, it’s arguably more important for Republican politicians to be warriors for Christian nationalism and generators of racial grievance than Trump apologists. Republican Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas continue to build their brands around fear-mongering against critical race theory, anti-immigrant animus and attacks on LGBTQ families. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.)[1], chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, put out a multi-part plan strewn with talking points on abortion, LGBTQ Americans and race with ample references to Christianity, including a declaration that “the nuclear family is crucial to civilization, it is God’s design for humanity, and it must be protected and celebrated.” More than 70 percent of House Republicans voted against a bill that would protect gay marriage.

So while it’s true that some Republicans are moving on from Trump, his two legacies — authoritarianism and ethno-nationalism — still dominate the GOP. The threat to pluralistic democracy remains.

YAY!! Someone else is calling out Christian nationalism for the fascist threat it is. I feel vindicated in calling them out. They are just as nasty as demagogue dictators because that is exactly what they openly support.  

But, the author did leave out something that is just as influential in the GOP as its fascism and its Christian nationalism, namely its laissez-faire capitalism. Three toxic dogmas, fascism, Christian nationalism and laissez-faire capitalism are all squarely aimed at democracy, the rule of law and civil liberties.

Footnote: 

1. Don’t forget Scott’s blast at climate change in his 11 point plan to make American corrupt and fascist:

The weather is always changing. We take climate change seriously, but not hysterically. We will not adopt nutty policies that harm our economy or our jobs.

The Republican Party will vehemently argue that anything that is done to try to deal with climate change is hysteria and damaging to the economy and jobs. The Republican Party is a fascist, pro-pollution, pro-corruption party built on divisive dark free speech and voter ignorance.