Friday, December 31, 2021

Something to Know- Part 2 31 December

Professor Richardson has her list of events of 2021, as well.


On January 6, insurrectionists trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election stormed the U.S. Capitol and sent our lawmakers into hiding. Since President Joe Biden took office on January 20, just two weeks after the attack, we have been engaged in a great struggle between those trying to restore our democracy and those determined to undermine it. 

Biden committed to restoring our democracy after the strains it had endured. When he took office, we were in the midst of a global pandemic whose official death toll in the U.S. was at 407,000. Our economy was in tatters, our foreign alliances weakened, and our government under siege by insurrectionists, some of whom were lawmakers themselves. 

In his inaugural address, Biden implored Americans to come together to face these crises. He recalled the Civil War, the Great Depression, the World Wars, and the attacks of 9/11, noting that "[i]n each of these moments, enough of us came together to carry all of us forward." "It's time for boldness, for there is so much to do," he said. He asked Americans to "write an American story of hope, not fear… [a] story that tells ages yet to come that we answered the call of history…. That democracy and hope, truth and justice, did not die on our watch but thrived."

Later that day, he headed to the Oval Office. "I thought there's no time to wait. Get to work immediately," he said.

Rather than permitting the Trump Republicans who were still insisting Trump had won the election to frame the national conversation, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as the Democrats in Congress, ignored them and set out to prove that our government can work for ordinary Americans.

Biden vowed to overcome Covid, trying to rally Republicans to join Democrats behind a "war" on the global pandemic. The Trump team had refused to confer during the transition period with the Biden team, who discovered that the previous administration had never had a plan for federal delivery of covid vaccines, simply planning to give them to the states and then let the cash-strapped states figure out how to get them into arms. "What we're inheriting is so much worse than we could have imagined," Biden's coronavirus response coordinator, Jeff Zients, said to reporters on January 21. 

Biden immediately invoked the Defense Production Act, bought more vaccines, worked with states to establish vaccine sites and transportation to them, and established vaccine centers in pharmacies across the country. As vaccination rates climbed, he vowed to make sure that 70% of the U.S. adult population would have one vaccine shot and 160 million U.S. adults would be fully vaccinated by July 4th.   

At the same time, the Democrats undertook to repair the economy, badly damaged by the pandemic. In March, without a single Republican vote, they passed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan to jump-start the economy by putting money into the pockets of ordinary Americans. It worked. The new law cut child poverty in half by putting $66 billion into 36 million households. It expanded access to the Affordable Care Act, enabling more than 4.6 million Americans who were not previously insured to get healthcare coverage, bringing the total covered to a record 13.6 million.

As vaccinated people started to venture out again, this support for consumers bolstered U.S. companies, which by the end of the year were showing profit margins higher than they have been since 1950, at 15%. Companies reduced their debt, which translated to a strong stock market. In February, Biden's first month in office, the jobless rate was 6.2%; by December it had dropped to 4.2%. This means that 4.1 million jobs were created in the Biden administration's first year, more than were created in the 12 years of the Trump and George W. Bush administrations combined.

In November, Congress passed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that will repair bridges and roads and get broadband to places that still don't have it, and negotiations continue on a larger infrastructure package that will support child care and elder care, as well as education and measures to address climate change.

Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal report that U.S. economic output jumped more than 7% in the last three months of 2021. Overall growth for 2021 should be about 6%, and economists predict growth of around 4% in 2022—the highest numbers the U.S. has seen in decades. China's growth in the same period will be 4%, and the eurozone (the member countries of the European Union that use the euro) will grow at 2%. The U.S. is "outperforming the world by the biggest margin in the 21st century," wrote Matthew A. Winkler in Bloomberg, "and with good reason: America's economy improved more in Joe Biden's first 12 months than any president during the past 50 years…."

With more experience in foreign affairs than any president since George H. W. Bush, Biden set out to rebuild our strained alliances and modernize the war on terror. On January 20, he took steps to rejoin the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Accords, which his predecessor had rejected. Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasized that Biden's leadership team believed foreign and domestic policy to be profoundly linked. They promised to support democracy at home and abroad to combat the authoritarianism rising around the world.

"The more we and other democracies can show the world that we can deliver, not only for our people, but also for each other, the more we can refute the lie that authoritarian countries love to tell, that theirs is the better way to meet people's fundamental needs and hopes. It's on us to prove them wrong," Blinken said. 

Biden and Blinken increased the use of sanctions against those suspected of funding terrorism. Declaring it vital to national security to stop corruption in order to prevent illicit money from undermining democracies, Biden convened a Summit for Democracy, where leaders from more than 110 countries discussed how best to combat authoritarianism and corruption, and to protect human rights.

Biden began to shift American foreign policy most noticeably by withdrawing from the nation's twenty-year war in Afghanistan. He inherited the previous president's February 2020 deal with the Taliban to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan by May 1, 2021, so long as the Taliban did not kill any more Americans. By the time Biden took office, the U.S. had withdrawn all but 2500 troops from the country. 

He could either go back on Trump's agreement—meaning the Taliban would again begin attacking U.S. service people, forcing the U.S. to pour in troops and sustain casualties—or get out of what had become a meandering, expensive, unpopular war, one that Biden himself had wanted to leave since the Obama administration. 

In April, Biden said he would honor the agreement he had inherited from Trump, beginning, not ending, the troop withdrawal on May 1. He said he would have everyone out by September 11, the 20th anniversary of the al-Qaeda attacks that took us there in the first place. (He later adjusted that to August 31.) He promised to evacuate the country "responsibly, deliberately, and safely" and assured Americans that the U.S. had "trained and equipped a standing force of over 300,000 Afghan personnel" who would "continue to fight valiantly, on behalf of the Afghans, at great cost."

Instead, the Afghan army crumbled as the U.S began to pull its remaining troops out in July. By mid-August, the Taliban had taken control of the capital, Kabul, and the leaders of the Afghan government fled, abandoning the country to chaos. People rushed to the airport to escape and seven Afghans died, either crushed in the crowds or killed when they fell from planes to which they had clung in hopes of getting out. Then, on August 26, two explosions outside the Kabul airport killed at least 60 Afghan civilians and 13 U.S. troops. More than 100 Afghans and 15 U.S. service members were wounded. 

In the aftermath, the U.S. military conducted the largest human airlift in U.S. history, moving more than 100,000 people without further casualties, and on August 30, Major General Chris Donahue, commander of the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division, boarded a cargo plane at Kabul airport, and the U.S. war in Afghanistan was over. (Evacuations have continued on planes chartered by other countries.) 

With the end of that war, Biden has focused on using financial pressure and alliances rather than military might to achieve foreign policy goals. He has worked with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies to counter increasing aggression from Russian president Vladimir Putin, strengthening NATO, while suggesting publicly that further Russian incursions into Ukraine will have serious financial repercussions.

In any ordinary time, Biden's demonstration that democracy can work for ordinary people in three major areas would have been an astonishing success.

But these are not ordinary times.

Biden and the Democrats have had to face an opposition that is working to undermine the government. Even after the January 6 attack on the Capitol, 147 Republican members of Congress voted to challenge at least one of the certified state electoral votes, propping up the Big Lie that Trump won the 2020 presidential election. Many of them continue to plug that lie, convincing 68% of Republicans that Biden is an illegitimate president.

This lie has justified the passage in 19 Republican-dominated states of 33 new laws to suppress voting or to take the counting of votes out of the hands of non-partisan officials altogether and turn that process over to Republicans.

Republicans have stoked opposition to the Democrats by feeding the culture wars, skipping negotiations on the American Rescue Plan, for example, to complain that the toymaker Hasbro was introducing a gender-neutral Potato Head toy, and that the estate of Dr. Seuss was ceasing publication of some of his lesser-known books that bore racist pictures or themes. They created a firestorm over Critical Race Theory, an advanced legal theory, insisting that it, and the teaching of issues of race in the schools, was teaching white children to hate themselves. 

Most notably, though, as Biden's coronavirus vaccination program appeared to be meeting his ambitious goals, Republicans suggested that government vaccine outreach was overreach, pushing the government into people's lives. Vaccination rates began to drop off, and Biden's July 4 goal went unmet just as the more contagious Delta variant began to rage across the country.

In July, Biden required federal workers and contractors to be vaccinated; in November, the administration said that workers at businesses with more than 100 employees and health care workers must be vaccinated or frequently tested. 

Rejecting the vaccine became a badge of opposition to the Biden administration. By early December, fewer than 10% of adult Democrats were unvaccinated, compared with 40% of Republicans. This means that Republicans are three times more likely than Democrats to die of Covid, and as the new Omicron variant rages across the country, Republicans are blaming Biden for not stopping the pandemic. Covid has now killed more than 800,000 Americans.

While Biden and the Democrats have made many missteps this year—missing that the Afghan government would collapse, hitting an Afghan family in a drone strike, underplaying Covid testing, prioritizing infrastructure over voting rights—the Democrats' biggest miscalculation might well be refusing to address the disinformation of the Republicans directly in order to promote bipartisanship and move the country forward together. 

With the lies of Trump Republicans largely unchallenged by Democratic lawmakers or the media, Republicans have swung almost entirely into the Trump camp. The former president has worked to purge from the state and national party anyone he considers insufficiently loyal to him, and his closest supporters have become so extreme that they are openly supporting authoritarianism and talking of Democrats as "vermin."

Some are talking about a "national divorce," which observers have interpreted as a call for secession, like the Confederates tried in 1860. But in fact, Trump Republicans do not want to form their own country. Rather, they want to cement minority rule in this one, keeping themselves in power over the will of the majority. 

It seems that in some ways we are ending 2021 as we began it. Although Biden and the Democrats have indeed demonstrated that our government, properly run, can work for the people to combat a deadly pandemic, create a booming economy, and stop unpopular wars, that same authoritarian minority that tried to overturn the 2020 election on January 6 is more deeply entrenched than it was a year ago. 

And yet, as we move into 2022, the ground is shifting. The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol is starting to show what it has learned from the testimony of more than 300 witnesses and a review of more than 35,000 documents. The fact that those closest to Trump are refusing to testify suggests that the hearings in the new year will be compelling and will help people to understand just how close we came to an authoritarian takeover last January.

And then, as soon as the Senate resumes work in the new year, it will take up measures to restore the voting rights and election integrity Republican legislatures have stripped away, giving back to the people the power to guard against such an authoritarian coup happening again. 

It looks like 2022 is going to be a choppy ride, but its outcome is in our hands. As Congressman John Lewis (D-GA), who was beaten almost to death in his quest to protect the right to vote, wrote to us when he passed: "Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part."

Notes:

https://khn.org/morning-breakout/covid-deaths-skew-higher-than-ever-in-red-states/

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/581708-unvaccinated-adults-more-than-three-times-as-likely-to-lean-republican-kff

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/11/04/fact-sheet-biden-administration-announces-details-of-two-major-vaccination-policies/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/11/10/why-do-some-still-deny-bidens-2020-victory-heres-what-data-says/

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/07/us/elections/electoral-college-biden-objectors.html

The "vermin" and "national divorce" quotations are tweets from Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) but I didn't want to spread them on social media. They were retweeted by several other Republicans.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/opinion/john-lewis-civil-rights-america.html



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Juan
Democrats want to fix bridges, provide childcare and lower drug costs. Republicans don't. These are political facts and voters should be aware of them."-
Magdi Semrau

Something to Like About Robert Reich

This time of every year, we are inundated with stuff that concerns events and views of the past year.   This year is no exception, but I like the simplicity that Professor Reich lays out.   Professor Richardson has done the same thing, and her piece will be sent out later today.   I hate to clog up one email with both:

2021 in the rear-view mirror

Where do we go from here?

Dec 31

Friends,

Here we are together at the end of a very long year.  Many of us dared to hope that in 2021 we would see an end to this global pandemic, some healing in the wake of Trump's vitriol, and a renewed commitment to our country's social contract -- the one that that commits to shared growth, equality of opportunity, and dignity for all Americans.

We made progress towards those ends (please take heart in that) but the real work has just begun. As we reckon with ongoing challenges and brace ourselves for the midterm elections, we need access to clear, accurate information. We also need to be fortified by communities of thoughtful and committed people. 

That's why I began this newsletter. Please share it with your friends, families, colleagues, and social media networks.

Share Robert Reich

I've focused on issues that the mainstream media has omitted or misrepresented: The real economy rather than the stock market. How the jobs numbers show workers flexing their power and demanding better from their employers. How inflation is a result of corporate power rather than social spending. How both Democrats and Republicans are captured by monied interests like Big Pharma, the cryptocurrency lobby, and private equity. I've shared a few of my own experiences to reveal how we became obsessed with the federal deficit and why CEO pay has skyrocketed

I've shown the power relationships undergirding the news -- connecting the dots between politicians and their backers (for example, Joe Manchin and the coal industry, Kyrsten Sinema and the pharmaceutical industry), confronting political violence (including the legacy of January 6), and demanding accountability.

I've written about the importance of being resilient in the face of challenges. I've shared with you what keeps me optimistic (including teaching this inspiring generation of young people). And I've taken heart from the stories and insights many of you have shared about how you stay hopeful in times of despair

The work directly ahead of us in 2022 could not be more important. We must protect voting rights -- which won't happen until we deal with the filibusterAnd we need to recognize that the costs of doing nothing about climate change, a wildly dysfunctional health care system, lack of childcare, and deteriorating schools are far higher than any legislation we might pass to address these problems.

To take on these big systemic issues, we need to be tenacious, smart, and strategic. We also need to root ourselves in public morality and the common good. And in the face of disinformation and lies, we need to spread the truth as widely as possible, even to those who disagree or may seem apathetic. 

Share Robert Reich

So please share this newsletter. We have a big year ahead of us.

With gratitude,
Robert Reich


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Juan
Democrats want to fix bridges, provide childcare and lower drug costs. Republicans don't. These are political facts and voters should be aware of them."-
Magdi Semrau

Thursday, December 30, 2021

Something to Know - 30 December

Two things today:   (1) Our intrepid mobile news bureau (from Manhattan Beach to the Southwestern UK countryside) we have this article that defines MAGA and that Trumpism has no political agenda other than following a political philosophy similar to the white supremist doings of 160 years ago.

 (2) A more detailed history of the current Select House Committee and its work in putting together testimony and evidence concerning specific individuals, in a conspiracy with a former president, in the events of January 6.  https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/december-29-2021

America First: An Excavation of Trumpism and the Trump Agenda
by Harvey J. Graff

Increasingly, Republicans endorse "the Trump Agenda" — including some who had criticized Donald Trump for his election Big Lie and role in the January 6 insurrection. It is noteworthy and revealing that no one articulates a clear, coherent position for Make America Great Again (MAGA) or America First. One preview briefly emerged in the form of an America First Caucus party platform, from Marjorie Taylor Greene and other radical right-wing congressional Republicans. It was quickly repudiated and withdrawn in the face of withering condemnation for its commitment to white, Anglo-Saxon supremacy, among other failings and falsehoods.

Trumpism lacks a legislative agenda. That is almost a point of pride. It consists far more of opposition and grievances than endorsements or supportive positions. The Affordable Care Act was never repealed or replaced. The oft-promised "Infrastructure Week" never arrived. In the absence of a statement of principles and policies, paralleling the lack of a party platform in Trump's 2020 re-election campaign, we are left to reconstruct it from statements and silences, actions and inactions.  

Digging deeper and sifting the evidence

Attacking institutions and the Constitution

America First is an active danger to the conduct, faith, values, and institutions of American democracy and the U.S. Constitution. Self-described as conservative, it rejects both conservatism and liberalism as we have understood them historically. It ignores traditional conservative Republican principles that respect facts, debate, tolerance, and limited government. The Trump Agenda is never "political," but its opposition and critics are always "politically motivated." All opposition is demonized collectively and equally as radical socialist or Marxist regardless of the misapplication of those amorphous labels. Trumpists reject Republican critics as "RINOs."

Strengthening the presidency, weakening the executive branch

Trump's unprecedented and often illegal interference with government agencies also damaged the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, Defense, and State, among others. His corruption of authority promoted subservience to the Chief Executive. Trump frequently appointed acting, unconfirmed political leaders, who were susceptible to executive interference. They were often incompetent and inexperienced, refusing to follow recommendations of professional staff and ignoring the law. Several permanent cabinet secretaries were accused of ethics violations and some of illegal activities.  

Isolating America

America First contradictorily stands for a weaker United States internationally in economy, security, reputation, trustworthiness, and influence. Isolationism benefits no one. Trump himself proudly claims economic advancement. His presidency is best known for its 2017 tax reduction that overwhelmingly favored the wealthy and large corporations, and failed to stimulate economic growth. Corporate gains fueled stock buy-backs, off-shore investments, and rising market shares, not expansion of business.  

Weakening the economy

Much-touted tariffs and other trade policies failed to benefit consumers, corporations, or farmers. Instead they led to mounting deficits and swelling national debt. They boosted Chinese economic growth as its economy grew faster; American imports rose, increasing the trade imbalance. America First resulted in the U.S. falling behind. American competitiveness did not advance.  

Rampant deregulation damaged the environment but did not stimulate job creation or economic growth. The loss of manufacturing jobs accelerated. Restrictions on immigration contributed to labor force shortages for both highly trained and unskilled workers. They did not protect "American jobs or workers." Claiming to be "the party of American workers," Trumpism appeals primarily to white, non-union, non-urban workers. Yet, it opposes policies that would benefit most workers including the Biden administration's American Rescue and American Jobs Plans. It is aggressively anti-union.

Similarly, policies touted to advance minorities, such as improvement zones, reinforce segregation. Trumpists oppose equity in housing, employment, education, public safety, and justice. America First reframes equity as "anti-white racism."

Overall, America First benefitted the wealthy, large corporations, and high tech, despite mounting Republican complaints about the latter two groups — about "cancel culture," censorship, and other allegations. Yes, the economy grew, with the advantage of the momentum inherited from the Obama administration. But the rate of growth slowed; overall growth was very unequal, benefitting the stock market far more than average workers, racial and ethnic minorities, and women. This held true for income, wealth, and employment.  

Fostering national insecurity

National security suffered under Trump's efforts to reduce U.S. commitments and his active neglect of international alliances and multinational cooperation. Alienating traditional allies did not make the U.S. stronger. Trump's affinity for autocrats, especially Vladimir Putin, is well-documented. Russia faced no consequences for election interference, cyber warfare, alleged bounties on American soldiers, poisoning of Alexei Navalny, civil rights violations, and more. China was not the only other winner; North Korea's and Iran's nuclear programs increased as bluster replaced diplomacy.  

Withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, on false grounds, damaged efforts at a unified response to climate change. Trump denied that documented phenomenon, as well as other established science. His inadequate response to the Covid pandemic is a tragic reminder of that. Cumulatively, America First measurably weakened the U.S.'s international standing and influence.

Unearthing an anti-social agenda

Restricting rights

By statements and actions, Trumpism endorses racism, sexism, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, anti-immigrant sentiments, and anti-Asian American hate. It fuels endless grievances, resentment, and polarizing divisiveness. America First is rooted in a politics of fear, loathing, and hysterical opposition.  

Without explanation or evidence, the Trump administration radically restricted immigration, banned Muslim travelers, criminally separated families, treated migrant children inhumanely, and deported residents illegally.  

Similarly, right-wing Republican Trump supporters continue to attack reproductive rights and the civil rights of LGBTQ citizens and Indigenous Peoples, especially at the state level. They vilify and even violently attack the free speech of peaceful protesters and the First Amendment rights of the legitimate press, one of Trump's favorite targets. Trump and his allies condemn the media as the "enemy of the people," their reporting as "fake news." We are still learning about Trump's illegal deployment of the Department of Justice and FBI toward these ends. In sharp contrast, the speech of Trump, his allies, and his supporters is staunchly defended against false claims of "canceling" or censorship. Concerns about Big Tech overreach and their free speech are highly selective. So too is the endorsement of law and order and support for law enforcement. Blue lives sometimes matter.

America First is not committed to democracy. It frequently contradicts itself on constitutional matters. Its acceptance of Equal Protection, First Amendment, and voting rights is inconsistent. Trump's distortions of the 2020 presidential election unleashed a national campaign to suppress voting rights, especially of urban minorities.  Trumpism rejects majority rule. Of course, Trump never won a majority of votes in his two elections.

Support for the Second Amendment and "religious liberty" far exceeds the letter of the law and the judicial record. But the First Amendment does not receive equal protection. Today's hot-button issue — the well-funded, highly organized, national campaign to "ban" critical race theory and teaching about race — is anti-democratic. It is ignorant of these subjects, a vile attack on education, teachers, children, and documented history — the very basis of national identity and common understanding.  

Assaulting truth

America First consistently assaults truth, facts, objectivity, transparency, accountability, and honesty. (The Washington Post documented more than 35,000 lies from Trump alone.) It advocates "alternative facts" and "alternative realities." This strategy rejects logic, common sense, assessment, and fact-checking. Public opinion, which never supported Trump and America First, counts for little. Bipartisanship, compromise, debate, and negotiation are never goals or practices. Neither is taking responsibility for actions.  

On one hand, the anti-social Trump Agenda rejects documented history. Trump attempted to replace it with a highly selective, incomplete, and inaccurate alternative. He tried to substitute his notorious 1776 Commission on "patriotic education," a distorted version of the national past, for well-documented curricula like the 1619 Project. The continuing attempt to ban racial sensitivity training and the condemnation of "critical race theory" are parallels, rooted in fear of the truth. An effort to block modern architecture and mandate neo-classical design for federal buildings remains one of the sillier examples.

Rejecting science

On the other hand, the assault on science and denial of public health is a more immediate and deadly element of the anti-social Agenda. Rejecting science, expertise, empirical data, established institutions, and recognized authority — the "deep state" — is another plank in the unwritten platform. Trump's personal contempt for science punctuated his rhetoric and characterized his policies, exemplified by the EPA's unscientific and sometimes illegal deregulations.

The greatest damage came with the pandemic, which fully exposed the Agenda and its consequences. Trump hid compelling evidence of the virus, then denied its severity. He refused to accept responsibility, then recklessly interfered with HHS, CDC, and FDA. His lying and obstruction contradicted any effort at a coherent federal response. Inexplicably, medical authorities succumbed to political will, violating their professional oaths. Without evidence, Trump proposed ingesting bleach and endorsed taking hydroxychloroquine. He blamed China and the WHO for his failures. Trump simultaneously claimed absolute federal authority but held the states — without adequate guidance or resources — responsible for public health actions. The result: more than half a million lives lost along with massive disinformation and deep social and political divisions.

Promoting cruelty, inciting violence

America First is also committed to cruelty and violence. Beyond verbal incriminations, it embraces the resumption of the federal death penalty after a lengthy hiatus; law enforcement agencies' violence against peaceful protesters, especially people of color; and family separation and inhumane treatment of immigrant children. It accepts attacks against Asian Americans and refuses to condemn white supremacists. It fails to endorse international human rights campaigns or ban animal abuse (due to failed or rejected regulatory efforts in various federal agencies).

Gun violence becomes the accepted "fair price" for an expansive view of Second Amendment rights. Trump regularly sanctions his supporters' violent responses to those with whom he disagrees, including the media and protesters.

Exposing more layers

Endorsing the Big Lie

Overshadowing these characteristics is Trump's Big Lie: denial of the truth about the 2020 presidential election, which led to the January 6 insurrection and deadly attack on Congress. Trump and his allies continue to challenge access to voting across the country, dismissing the testimony and evidence of knowledgeable parties. These include the Director of Cybersecurity; the Attorney General; secretaries of state, governors, and local elections officials; and state and federal judges, including the Supreme Court. They threaten the fair results of popular voting at the national and state levels with calls for state, congressional, and judicial overruling of the electorate. Claims of protecting "election security" or "election integrity" substitute for evidence of irregularities. They are also racist dog-whistles. America First denies reality, propagates radical disinformation on social media and allied right-wing media, and foments dangerous extremism and violence.  

Cancelling culture

America First is obsessed with an incoherent phenomenon that it calls "cancel culture." Rich in contradiction and hypocrisy, condemning "cancel culture" inadequately stands in for policy. It pretends to replace politics, economics, and socio-cultural issues with a distracting and blurring pivot to "culture." "Cancelling" refers to any criticisms, actions, or opinions with which adherents disagree. It is boundless, ranging from an odd obsession with Dr. Seuss' publisher removing six books from print (within their legal rights) and a brief removal of "Mr." from the Potato Head doll, to publishers ending contracts (within their rights).

"Cancelling" also comprises the legitimate actions of both public and private organizations, including Major League Baseball's moving its All Star game away from Atlanta in response to Georgia's restrictive new voting law or the statements of private corporations on civil rights and voting legislation. These actions are purposefully confused with unconstitutional censorship. For reasons that are not clear, the Trump Agenda's own efforts to restrict women's or LGBTQ rights, limit voting access, "ban" basic parts of historical and legal education, or penalize corporations for public statements are not viewed as "cancelling." That is consistent with Trumpism.

Limiting communication

America First's approach to communication and governance links all these components. Both are minimalist and depend on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, rather than coherent expression, arguments, or cogent explanations. Soundbites, punchlines, slogans, and dog-whistles are the lingua franca. Trump himself is a product of Facebook, his principal source of fund-raising, and Twitter — his favorite means of communication until he was banned following the insurrection. Failure to communicate responsibly parallels refusal to govern responsibly.  

Hitting bottom

Trumping America First

The final element is a defining question: Can there be a Trump Agenda or America First without Donald J. Trump? The Agenda is rooted in a cult of personality that cannot be cloned or closely imitated. It is based in near-total obedience, unquestioned fealty, even defacement and humiliation to one charismatic figure who brooks no dissent. Rep. Liz Cheney is only the most prominent of many victims, whose conservative credentials fail to compensate for her honesty on some crucial issues. Such components are emblematic of autocracy, not democracy.

The politicians competing to replace Trump as the leader of the Republican Party or candidate for the 2024 presidential nomination lack his affinities, charisma, or aplomb, for better or for worse. Unlike Trump, they will have to run on their documented records and face a measure of accountability. That may well spell the end of the Trump Agenda, albeit with lasting damage to our democracy, polity, society, and culture. That is the MAGA legacy.

 ---------------------------------------

Harvey J. Graff is Professor Emeritus of English and History at The Ohio State University. He is the author of many books on social history. 
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Juan
Democrats want to fix bridges, provide childcare and lower drug costs. Republicans don't. These are political facts and voters should be aware of them."-
Magdi Semrau

Wednesday, December 29, 2021

Re: Something to Know - 29 December

I love her last two paragraphs…



On Wed, Dec 29, 2021 at 6:32 PM Juan Matute <juanma2t@gmail.com> wrote:
Sorry, I'm late.   I thought about not sending anything, but this particular story, as only a history professor could present, is a moment in our past that we need to know about.  It happened, and we own it, and we are filled with shame that it happened:


On the clear, cold morning of December 29, 1890, on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, three U.S. soldiers tried to wrench a valuable Winchester away from a young Lakota man. He refused to give up his hunting weapon; it was the only thing standing between his family and starvation. As the men struggled, the gun fired into the sky.

Before the echoes died, troops fired a volley that brought down half of the Lakota men and boys the soldiers had captured the night before, as well as a number of soldiers surrounding the Lakotas. The uninjured Lakota men attacked the soldiers with knives, guns they snatched from wounded soldiers, and their fists.

As the men fought hand-to-hand, the Lakota women who had been hitching their horses to wagons for the day's travel tried to flee along the nearby road or up a dry ravine behind the camp. The soldiers on a slight rise above the camp turned rapid-fire mountain guns on them. Then, over the next two hours, troops on horseback hunted down and slaughtered all the Lakotas they could find: about 250 men, women, and children.

But it is not December 29 that haunts me. It is the night of December 28, the night before the killing.

On December 28, there was still time to avert the Wounded Knee Massacre.

In the early afternoon, the Lakota leader Big Foot—Sitanka—had urged his people to surrender to the soldiers looking for them. Sitanka was desperately ill with pneumonia, and the people in his band were hungry, underdressed, and exhausted. They were making their way south across South Dakota from their own reservation in the northern part of the state to the Pine Ridge Reservation. There, they planned to take shelter with another famous Lakota chief, Red Cloud. His people had done as Sitanka asked, and the soldiers escorted the Lakotas to a camp on South Dakota's Wounded Knee Creek, inside the boundaries of the Pine Ridge Reservation.

For the soldiers, the surrender of Sitanka's band marked the end of the Ghost Dance Uprising. It had been a tense month. Troops had pushed into the South Dakota reservations in November, prompting a band of terrified men who had embraced the Ghost Dance religion to gather their wives and children and ride out to the Badlands. But, at long last, army officers and negotiators had convinced those Ghost Dancers to go back to Pine Ridge and turn themselves in to authorities before winter hit in earnest.

Sitanka's people were not part of the Badlands group and, for the most part, were not Ghost Dancers. They had fled from their own northern reservation two weeks before when they learned that officers had murdered the great leader Sitting Bull in his own home. Army officers were anxious to find and corral Sitanka's missing Lakotas before they carried the news that Sitting Bull had been killed to those who had taken refuge in the Badlands. Army leaders were certain the information would spook the Ghost Dancers and send them flying back to the Badlands. They were determined to make sure the two bands did not meet.

But South Dakota is a big state, and it was not until late in the afternoon of December 28 that the soldiers finally made contact with Sitanka's band, and it didn't go quite as the officers planned: a group of soldiers were watering their horses in a stream when some of the traveling Lakotas surprised them. The Lakotas let the soldiers go, and the men promptly reported to their officers, who marched on the Lakotas as if they were going to war. Sitanka, who had always gotten along well with army officers, assured the commander that his band was on its way to Pine Ridge anyway, and asked his men to surrender unconditionally. They did.

By this time, Sitanka was so ill he couldn't sit up and his nose was dripping blood. Soldiers lifted him into an army ambulance—an old wagon—for the trip to the Wounded Knee camp. His ragtag band followed behind. Once there, the soldiers gave the Lakotas an evening ration, and lent army tents to those who wanted them. Then the soldiers settled into guarding the camp.

And they celebrated, for they were heroes of a great war, and it had been bloodless, and now, with the Lakotas' surrender, they would be demobilized back to their home bases before the South Dakota winter closed in. As they celebrated, more and more troops poured in. It had been a long hunt across South Dakota for Sitanka and his band, and officers were determined the group would not escape them again. In came the Seventh Cavalry, whose men had not forgotten that their former leader George Armstrong Custer had been killed by a band of Lakota in 1876. In came three mountain guns, which the soldiers trained on the Lakota encampment from a slight rise above the camp.

For their part, the Lakotas were frightened. If their surrender was welcome and they were going to go with the soldiers to Red Cloud at Pine Ridge, as they had planned all along, why were there so many soldiers, with so many guns?

On this day and hour in 1890, in the cold and dark of a South Dakota December night, there were soldiers drinking, singing and visiting with each other, and anxious Lakotas either talking to each other in low voices or trying to sleep. No one knew what the next day would bring, but no one expected what was going to happen.

One of the curses of history is that we cannot go back and change the course leading to disasters, no matter how much we might wish to. The past has its own terrible inevitability.

But it is never too late to change the future.

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