Preserving the Union
Alphabet Workers Union launched today, so that's exciting. And yes, I'm with the union!
As for the rest of the week:
I was expecting some pretty mind-blowing stuff from the Trump lame-duck session, but I'm not sure I was expecting the latest election-theft attempt. This is the sort of criminal conduct that would have been an earth-shattering scandal for any previous administration. That call was Saturday, and it came out on Sunday.
The runoff Senate election in Georgia concludes tomorrow, so we'll see if Democrats can bring the turnout and/or if Trump manages to blow the whole thing up.
For Wednesday, it seems some Republicans are still pushing for Pence to do some sort of election interference under a legal theory that's a bit, well, let's just say that somewhat unsurprisingly the sitting Vice President doesn't get to just veto the presidential election. (I mean, seriously, if that's how it's supposed to work, someone really ought to have notified Al Gore!)
And there will certainly be a lot of Republican legislators pushing for Congress to just ignore the result of several state elections, as certified by those states governments. To be clear, there is no state in which multiple branches of government are in conflict about who the legitimate set of electors is, and Congress has no doubt that they have the actual results from those states' elections.
It is legit alarming that Republicans would be willing to just toss state elections and unconstitutionally appoint the President, and that they could probably get away with it if they had just won a few more House districts. But I think Maciej Ceglowski (of Pinboard fame) presents a compelling counter-point in this recent essay, responding to Zeynep Tufekci's argument that the Trump coup attempt is a serious threat:Zeynep argues that to dismiss the post-election theatrics because they are farcical misses the point-that Trump's flailing, comical attempt at stealing the election sets the stage for a more competent politician to run the same playbook in the future, attacking and undermining a legitimate election. She argues that if we don't hold politicians to basic norms of conduct now, we're not going to have those norms when we need them most.
But the lesson I take from the 2020 election is a much darker one-that we are worrying far too much about how Republicans might steal future elections, and not enough about how they can win those elections outright. [...]
The warning signs of Republican electoral strength are clear, if we choose to see them. Of the 11 Republicans to win a Democratic House seat so far, all are either women or minorities. The Republican Party, once it is rid of Trump's personal toxicity and naked racism, has a chance to deliver what we've been promising for years-a multiracial coalition of the working class, except united around a nativist, anti-elite platform.
Read the whole thing, it's fantastic. I think Maciej perhaps goes a bit too far in painting the stupid coup as a non-issue, but the overall point is right on. This entry was originally posted on Dreamwith.
comments are there.
As for the rest of the week:
I was expecting some pretty mind-blowing stuff from the Trump lame-duck session, but I'm not sure I was expecting the latest election-theft attempt. This is the sort of criminal conduct that would have been an earth-shattering scandal for any previous administration. That call was Saturday, and it came out on Sunday.
The runoff Senate election in Georgia concludes tomorrow, so we'll see if Democrats can bring the turnout and/or if Trump manages to blow the whole thing up.
For Wednesday, it seems some Republicans are still pushing for Pence to do some sort of election interference under a legal theory that's a bit, well, let's just say that somewhat unsurprisingly the sitting Vice President doesn't get to just veto the presidential election. (I mean, seriously, if that's how it's supposed to work, someone really ought to have notified Al Gore!)
And there will certainly be a lot of Republican legislators pushing for Congress to just ignore the result of several state elections, as certified by those states governments. To be clear, there is no state in which multiple branches of government are in conflict about who the legitimate set of electors is, and Congress has no doubt that they have the actual results from those states' elections.
It is legit alarming that Republicans would be willing to just toss state elections and unconstitutionally appoint the President, and that they could probably get away with it if they had just won a few more House districts. But I think Maciej Ceglowski (of Pinboard fame) presents a compelling counter-point in this recent essay, responding to Zeynep Tufekci's argument that the Trump coup attempt is a serious threat:Zeynep argues that to dismiss the post-election theatrics because they are farcical misses the point-that Trump's flailing, comical attempt at stealing the election sets the stage for a more competent politician to run the same playbook in the future, attacking and undermining a legitimate election. She argues that if we don't hold politicians to basic norms of conduct now, we're not going to have those norms when we need them most.
But the lesson I take from the 2020 election is a much darker one-that we are worrying far too much about how Republicans might steal future elections, and not enough about how they can win those elections outright. [...]
The warning signs of Republican electoral strength are clear, if we choose to see them. Of the 11 Republicans to win a Democratic House seat so far, all are either women or minorities. The Republican Party, once it is rid of Trump's personal toxicity and naked racism, has a chance to deliver what we've been promising for years-a multiracial coalition of the working class, except united around a nativist, anti-elite platform.
Read the whole thing, it's fantastic. I think Maciej perhaps goes a bit too far in painting the stupid coup as a non-issue, but the overall point is right on. This entry was originally posted on Dreamwith.
comments are there.