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babylonsister
babylonsister's Journal
babylonsister's Journal
November 6, 2021
Newsmax to Implement COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate After Weeks of Attacking Vaccine Mandates
RULES ARE RULES
Corbin Bolies
Breaking News Intern
Updated Nov. 05, 2021 10:30PM ET /
Published Nov. 05, 2021 6:19PM ET
Newsmax to Implement COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate After Weeks of Attacking Vaccine Mandates
https://www.thedailybeast.com/newsmax-to-implement-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-after-weeks-of-attacking-vaccine-mandates?ref=homeNewsmax to Implement COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate After Weeks of Attacking Vaccine Mandates
RULES ARE RULES
Corbin Bolies
Breaking News Intern
Updated Nov. 05, 2021 10:30PM ET /
Published Nov. 05, 2021 6:19PM ET
Newsmax told its staff Thursday it intended to comply with the Biden administration’s company vaccine mandate, flying in the face of its daily programming attacking the mandate. Newsmax employees—including its anti-mandate hosts—will have to either submit their vaccination card by Jan. 4 or undergo weekly testing, according to a notice obtained by Mediaite. The announcement came the same day the conservative network sidelined White House correspondent Emerald Robinson after she falsely and bizarrely claimed on Twitter that the vaccines contained a luminescent enzyme called “luciferase” that tracked recipients.
In response to the company's mandate, Newsmax host and former Trump adviser Steve Cortes, tweeted on Friday that "I will not comply w/ any organization’s attempt to enforce Biden’s capricious & unscientific Medical Apartheid mandate.I will not be forced into the injection, nor will I disclose my vaccination status. No one should be pressured to choose between medical privacy & their job."
In response to the company's mandate, Newsmax host and former Trump adviser Steve Cortes, tweeted on Friday that "I will not comply w/ any organization’s attempt to enforce Biden’s capricious & unscientific Medical Apartheid mandate.I will not be forced into the injection, nor will I disclose my vaccination status. No one should be pressured to choose between medical privacy & their job."
November 6, 2021
“I don’t want to die for it”? Is there a sentence that was less likely to be uttered by a school board member prior to the past year? Thanks, Republicans!
more...
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/11/republicans-parents-bill-of-rights
Republicans: Schools Are Violating Parents' Rights by Teaching Kids Racism Is Bad
Levin Report
Republicans: Schools Are Violating Parents’ Rights by Teaching Kids Racism Is Bad
The GOP wants to introduce a “Parents’ Bill of Rights” so parents can abuse teachers for not telling kids all white people are perfect.
By Bess Levin
November 5, 2021
snip//
Of course, out here on planet Earth, parents haven’t been stripped of anything. Masks are required in schools where responsible adults want their staff and students to live, while only one state in the country has announced a vaccine mandate for schools, also in an effort to help prevent its constituents from getting sick and dying. (Incidentally, schools already required students to get a whole host of inoculations well before COVID-19 came along). And when it comes to talking about things like slavery, systemic racism, and the Holocaust, the parents who are against it simply can’t stand the idea that their children are learning that sometimes, white people do bad things. Meanwhile, there is nothing preventing parents from involving themselves in their children’s education in a reasonable way—emphasis on reasonable—or from pulling their kid out of a school if that’s what they decide to do.
Nevertheless, conservatives have whipped their base into such a frenzy over things like critical race theory, which most of them completely mischaracterize, and the coronavirus, which they also don’t understand, that parents have taken to violently airing their grievances as though their children have been subject to human rights abuses. Here’s a fun story from The New York Times:
It was only days after Sami Al-Abdrabbuh was reelected to the school board in Corvallis, Oregon, that the text messages arrived. The first, he said, was a photograph taken at a shooting range. It showed one of his campaign’s lawn signs—“Re-Elect Sami”—riddled with bullet holes. The second was a warning from a friend. This one said that one of their neighbors was looking for Mr. Al-Abdrabbuh. The neighbor was threatening to kill him.
Like many school board races this year, the one in May in Corvallis, a left-leaning college town in the northwest corner of the state, was especially contentious, swirling around concerns not only about the coronavirus pandemic but also the teaching of what Mr. Al-Abdrabbuh called the “dark history” of America’s struggle with race. Even months later, Mr. Al-Abdrabbuh, the chairman of the school board, is still taking precautions. He regularly speaks to the police and scans his driveway in the morning before walking to his car. He often mixes up his daily route to work. “I love serving on the school board,” he said. “But I don’t want to die for it.”
Like many school board races this year, the one in May in Corvallis, a left-leaning college town in the northwest corner of the state, was especially contentious, swirling around concerns not only about the coronavirus pandemic but also the teaching of what Mr. Al-Abdrabbuh called the “dark history” of America’s struggle with race. Even months later, Mr. Al-Abdrabbuh, the chairman of the school board, is still taking precautions. He regularly speaks to the police and scans his driveway in the morning before walking to his car. He often mixes up his daily route to work. “I love serving on the school board,” he said. “But I don’t want to die for it.”
“I don’t want to die for it”? Is there a sentence that was less likely to be uttered by a school board member prior to the past year? Thanks, Republicans!
more...
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/11/republicans-parents-bill-of-rights
November 5, 2021
https://politicalwire.com/2021/11/05/majorie-taylor-greene-visits-capitol-rioters-in-jail/
Majorie Taylor Greene Visits Capitol Rioters In Jail
November 5, 2021 at 11:27 am EDT By Taegan Goddard
Majorie Taylor Greene Visits Capitol Rioters In Jail
https://politicalwire.com/2021/11/05/majorie-taylor-greene-visits-capitol-rioters-in-jail/
Majorie Taylor Greene Visits Capitol Rioters In Jail
November 5, 2021 at 11:27 am EDT By Taegan Goddard
Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was finally granted access late Thursday night to enter the D.C. Department of Corrections to visit accused Jan. 6 rioters after months of trying, The Hill reports.
Said Greene: “I have never seen human suffering like I witnessed last night.”
Said Greene: “I have never seen human suffering like I witnessed last night.”
November 4, 2021
11/03/21 2:41pm
Yep, Trump Screwed Up The 2020 Census On Purpose
'There was a definite undercount of immigrant cities': Advocates say Trump influenced 2020 census
By Aysha Qamar
Last year, minority advocates representing multiple backgrounds called for people to partake in the 2020 census. Many of them feared that if undercounted, minorities would lose or miss out on funding. Lack of representation and participation in the census leads to a lack of funding or programming available for communities for an entire decade. Census totals are used to determine funding amounts for both local and state governments; without accurate numbers, funding cannot be distributed adequately. While not as “dire as some had feared,” that concern is now a reality.
According to a research report by the Urban Institute, the 2020 census—which cost approximately $14.2 billion—likely undercounted people of color at higher rates than previous censuses. The report, released Tuesday, notes that while the Census Bureau may have continued to overcount people who identified as white and not Latino, it likely failed to count nearly 2.5 million people in other racial and ethnic groups.
The Urban Institute estimates that nationwide, the net undercount rates by race or ethnicity were highest for Black people, followed by Latino people and Pacific Islanders. The report also found that the 2020 count could be the largest miscount of the true U.S. population in 30 years.
more...
https://crooksandliars.com/2021/11/yep-trump-screwed-2020-census-purpose
Yep, Trump Screwed Up The 2020 Census On Purpose
11/03/21 2:41pm
Yep, Trump Screwed Up The 2020 Census On Purpose
'There was a definite undercount of immigrant cities': Advocates say Trump influenced 2020 census
By Aysha Qamar
Last year, minority advocates representing multiple backgrounds called for people to partake in the 2020 census. Many of them feared that if undercounted, minorities would lose or miss out on funding. Lack of representation and participation in the census leads to a lack of funding or programming available for communities for an entire decade. Census totals are used to determine funding amounts for both local and state governments; without accurate numbers, funding cannot be distributed adequately. While not as “dire as some had feared,” that concern is now a reality.
According to a research report by the Urban Institute, the 2020 census—which cost approximately $14.2 billion—likely undercounted people of color at higher rates than previous censuses. The report, released Tuesday, notes that while the Census Bureau may have continued to overcount people who identified as white and not Latino, it likely failed to count nearly 2.5 million people in other racial and ethnic groups.
“Overall, these data show that some communities and their residents will be shortchanged for the next decade due to an incomplete count,” the report’s chief author, Diana Elliott, told reporters Tuesday.
The Urban Institute estimates that nationwide, the net undercount rates by race or ethnicity were highest for Black people, followed by Latino people and Pacific Islanders. The report also found that the 2020 count could be the largest miscount of the true U.S. population in 30 years.
more...
https://crooksandliars.com/2021/11/yep-trump-screwed-2020-census-purpose
November 4, 2021
Virginia lesson for Democrats: The media are not your friend
Out to bury Biden
Eric Boehlert
snip//
Democrats have been down this rocky road before. In November, 2009, just one year after Barack Obama’s landslide victory, Democrats lost both the Virginia and New Jersey governor’s races. But that didn’t end the Obama presidency. The following year he signed Obamacare into law and in 2012 he won re-election with relative ease.
One thing that has clearly changed since then though, is the caterwauling political press, which is treating Tuesday’s two-race results like a political earthquake that has all but destroyed Biden’s four-year term. Rushing to use every conceivable, hysterical adjective to describe a three point-loss in Virginia as the equivalent of the Democratic Party’s permanent demise, the press has eagerly lost all perspective and seems to relish the assignment of burying Biden. (WashingtonPost.com Wednesday night posted no less than 15 articles and columns about the Democratic loss.)
“Why Democrats Should Start Panicking About 2022” was a typically frenetic CNN headline. Or the networks’ claim that Tuesday’s two regional votes proved that Democrats had “misjudged the nation’s mood.” It’s funny because when Republicans lost the White House last year by 7 million votes, lost Arizona, Georgia, and the U.S. Senate, I don’t recall lots of pearl-clutching media commentary about how the GOP had “misjudged the nation’s mood.”
Compare that to how CNN calmly and rationally, in this dispatch, treated GOP wins in Virginia and New Jersey in November 2009. Back then, Republicans were hoping the wins would “fuel a national resurgence,” while Democrats downplayed the larger significance. That was it. There was no manufactured drama, no elaborate story arc, about how the Obama presidency was doomed to the trash heap of history.
snip//
Democrats are facing a mountain of challenges, including two intransigent senators who are blocking a legislative agenda that 99 percent of elected Democrats want passed and signed into law. They’re battling a GOP that long ago walked away from governing, and they’re facing off against an openly antagonistic press corps.
Eric Boehlert: Virginia lesson for Democrats: The media are not your friend
https://pressrun.media/p/virginias-lesson-for-democrats-theVirginia lesson for Democrats: The media are not your friend
Out to bury Biden
Eric Boehlert
snip//
Democrats have been down this rocky road before. In November, 2009, just one year after Barack Obama’s landslide victory, Democrats lost both the Virginia and New Jersey governor’s races. But that didn’t end the Obama presidency. The following year he signed Obamacare into law and in 2012 he won re-election with relative ease.
One thing that has clearly changed since then though, is the caterwauling political press, which is treating Tuesday’s two-race results like a political earthquake that has all but destroyed Biden’s four-year term. Rushing to use every conceivable, hysterical adjective to describe a three point-loss in Virginia as the equivalent of the Democratic Party’s permanent demise, the press has eagerly lost all perspective and seems to relish the assignment of burying Biden. (WashingtonPost.com Wednesday night posted no less than 15 articles and columns about the Democratic loss.)
“Why Democrats Should Start Panicking About 2022” was a typically frenetic CNN headline. Or the networks’ claim that Tuesday’s two regional votes proved that Democrats had “misjudged the nation’s mood.” It’s funny because when Republicans lost the White House last year by 7 million votes, lost Arizona, Georgia, and the U.S. Senate, I don’t recall lots of pearl-clutching media commentary about how the GOP had “misjudged the nation’s mood.”
Compare that to how CNN calmly and rationally, in this dispatch, treated GOP wins in Virginia and New Jersey in November 2009. Back then, Republicans were hoping the wins would “fuel a national resurgence,” while Democrats downplayed the larger significance. That was it. There was no manufactured drama, no elaborate story arc, about how the Obama presidency was doomed to the trash heap of history.
snip//
Democrats are facing a mountain of challenges, including two intransigent senators who are blocking a legislative agenda that 99 percent of elected Democrats want passed and signed into law. They’re battling a GOP that long ago walked away from governing, and they’re facing off against an openly antagonistic press corps.
November 4, 2021
Posted on Wed, Nov 3rd, 2021 by Jason Easley
Maize Hirono Says Democrats Need To Tell Voters Who’s Screwing Them Over
Democrats have largely refused to take the bait, but Sen. Maize Hirono said that it is her strategy to communicate to voters who is screwing them over.
Sen. Hirono (D-HI) told reporters:
https://twitter.com/morgan_rimmer/status/1455913317915049989?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1455913317915049989%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.politicususa.com%2F2021%2F11%2F03%2Fmaize-hirono-says-democrats-need-to-tell-voters-whos-screwing-them-over.html
Sen. Hirono offered any Democratic candidate some great advice. It is great to accomplish things and tell the voters what you have done for them, but if there has been one thing missing in all of the 2021 campaigns it is a message of what Republicans plan to do if they are restored to power.
For instance, voters can expect Republicans to undo and gut universal pre-k, the child tax credit, and the agreement to lower prescription drug prices. Instead of focusing on what happened in Virginia, Democrats should be telling voters who is out to screw them over.
With a year to go until the midterms, it is time for Democrats to go on offense.
Maize Hirono Says Democrats Need To Tell Voters Who's Screwing Them Over
https://www.politicususa.com/2021/11/03/maize-hirono-says-democrats-need-to-tell-voters-whos-screwing-them-over.htmlPosted on Wed, Nov 3rd, 2021 by Jason Easley
Maize Hirono Says Democrats Need To Tell Voters Who’s Screwing Them Over
Democrats have largely refused to take the bait, but Sen. Maize Hirono said that it is her strategy to communicate to voters who is screwing them over.
Sen. Hirono (D-HI) told reporters:
https://twitter.com/morgan_rimmer/status/1455913317915049989?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1455913317915049989%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.politicususa.com%2F2021%2F11%2F03%2Fmaize-hirono-says-democrats-need-to-tell-voters-whos-screwing-them-over.html
Sen. Hirono offered any Democratic candidate some great advice. It is great to accomplish things and tell the voters what you have done for them, but if there has been one thing missing in all of the 2021 campaigns it is a message of what Republicans plan to do if they are restored to power.
For instance, voters can expect Republicans to undo and gut universal pre-k, the child tax credit, and the agreement to lower prescription drug prices. Instead of focusing on what happened in Virginia, Democrats should be telling voters who is out to screw them over.
With a year to go until the midterms, it is time for Democrats to go on offense.
November 4, 2021
Who are these people, now in terrifying positions of power? Per HuffPost:
more...
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/11/stop-the-steal-gop-attendees-elected
More Than Half a Dozen "Stop the Steal" Attendees Were Elected to Public Office Last Night
Levin Report
More Than Half a Dozen “Stop the Steal” Attendees Were Elected to Public Office Last Night
You know, one that preceded the attack on the Capitol that left numerous people dead.
By Bess Levin
November 3, 2021
As you’ve probably heard by now, Tuesday did not go very well for Democrats. In Virginia, a guy who closed his campaign by suggesting he’ll ban Toni Morrison books was elected to serve as governor. In New Jersey, incumbent Phil Murphy eked out a victory, but the numbers were way too close for comfort in a state that Joe Biden won by 16 points. On Long Island, Democrats were hit with “staggering losses up and down the ballot.” Oh, and more than half a dozen people who attended Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally, the one that preceded the attack on the Capitol that left four people dead, were elected to public office.
HuffPost reports that at least eight Republicans who attended the January 6 rally in D.C. won local and state legislature races. While most of last night’s winners claim they didn’t take part in the actual insurrection, just the event that came before it, they all happily gathered to support the then president as he made baseless, outrageous claims that inspired hundreds of people to try and violently overturn the election. As a reminder, it was at that rally where Trump told his supporters, among other things:
“All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by emboldened radical-left Democrats, which is what they're doing. And stolen by the fake news media. That’s what they’ve done and what they're doing. We will never give up, we will never concede. It doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved.”
“Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore and that’s what this is all about. And to use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with: We will stop the steal.”
“I’ve been in two elections. I won them both and the second one, I won much bigger than the first.“
“Get your people to fight.”
“If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
“And Mike Pence, I hope you’re going to stand up for the good of our Constitution and for the good of our country. And if you’re not, I’m going to be very disappointed in you. I will tell you right now. I’m not hearing good stories.”
“So we’re going to, we’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I love Pennsylvania Avenue. And we’re going to the Capitol.”
“Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore and that’s what this is all about. And to use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with: We will stop the steal.”
“I’ve been in two elections. I won them both and the second one, I won much bigger than the first.“
“Get your people to fight.”
“If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
“And Mike Pence, I hope you’re going to stand up for the good of our Constitution and for the good of our country. And if you’re not, I’m going to be very disappointed in you. I will tell you right now. I’m not hearing good stories.”
“So we’re going to, we’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I love Pennsylvania Avenue. And we’re going to the Capitol.”
Who are these people, now in terrifying positions of power? Per HuffPost:
Among the Jan. 6 attendees who won office on Tuesday were two Republicans reelected to the Virginia House of Delegates: Dave LaRock and John McGuire. Earlier this year LaRock, responding to criticism from a Black elected official about his role in the insurrection, said the official should focus on “the needs of the colored community.” (He later apologized for the comment.) McGuire won his seat despite his Democratic opponent unearthing a photo showing him standing near men in paramilitary gear confronting police on Jan. 6. McGuire had previously claimed he hadn’t heard of the violence at the U.S. Capitol until returning home. The news, he said, had “shocked and horrified” him.
Marie March, a restaurant owner who bragged in a campaign advertisement about her attendance at the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally and who in a since-deleted Facebook post warned of a “coming Civil War” in which she would be willing to “fight and die” for both her “family” and “small businesses,” also won a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates on Tuesday.
Marie March, a restaurant owner who bragged in a campaign advertisement about her attendance at the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally and who in a since-deleted Facebook post warned of a “coming Civil War” in which she would be willing to “fight and die” for both her “family” and “small businesses,” also won a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates on Tuesday.
more...
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/11/stop-the-steal-gop-attendees-elected
November 4, 2021
Biden Dismisses Payments to Migrant Families
November 3, 2021 at 6:22 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard
Biden Dismisses Payments to Migrant Families
https://politicalwire.com/2021/11/03/biden-dismisses-payments-to-migrant-families/Biden Dismisses Payments to Migrant Families
November 3, 2021 at 6:22 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard
“President Biden said the U.S. wasn’t going to pay immigrant families who were separated at the Mexico border during the Trump administration, throwing into doubt settlements the Justice Department has been negotiating to resolve legal claims by the families,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said Biden: “That’s not going to happen.”
Said Biden: “That’s not going to happen.”
November 3, 2021
Millions consuming 'invisible toxic cocktail' of cancer-linked chemicals: study
By Sharon Udasin - 11/03/21 12:40 PM EDT
Millions of Americans are unknowingly ingesting water that includes “an invisible toxic cocktail” of cancer-linked chemicals, a new survey of the nation’s tap water has found.
The Environmental Working Group’s 2021 Tap Water Database, available to the public as of Wednesday, revealed contamination from toxins like arsenic, lead and “forever chemicals” — perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) — in the drinking water of tens of millions of households across all 50 states, as well as Washington, D.C.
“The Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Groundwater and Drinking Water has demonstrated for decades that it is utterly incapable of standing up to pressure from water utilities and polluters to protect human health from the dozens of toxic contaminants in America’s drinking water,” EWG President Ken Cook said in a press statement.
To compile the database, EWG researchers and scientists spent two years collecting and analyzing U.S. water contaminants from almost 50,000 water systems, a news release from the group said. The researchers attributed their findings to “antiquated infrastructure and rampant pollution of source water,” as well as obsolete EPA regulations that rely “on archaic science” and “allow unsafe levels of toxic chemicals in drinking water.”
more...
https://thehill.com/policy/equilibrium-sustainability/579857-millions-consuming-invisible-toxic-cocktail-of-cancer
Millions consuming 'invisible toxic cocktail' of cancer-linked chemicals: study
Millions consuming 'invisible toxic cocktail' of cancer-linked chemicals: study
By Sharon Udasin - 11/03/21 12:40 PM EDT
Millions of Americans are unknowingly ingesting water that includes “an invisible toxic cocktail” of cancer-linked chemicals, a new survey of the nation’s tap water has found.
The Environmental Working Group’s 2021 Tap Water Database, available to the public as of Wednesday, revealed contamination from toxins like arsenic, lead and “forever chemicals” — perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) — in the drinking water of tens of millions of households across all 50 states, as well as Washington, D.C.
“The Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Groundwater and Drinking Water has demonstrated for decades that it is utterly incapable of standing up to pressure from water utilities and polluters to protect human health from the dozens of toxic contaminants in America’s drinking water,” EWG President Ken Cook said in a press statement.
To compile the database, EWG researchers and scientists spent two years collecting and analyzing U.S. water contaminants from almost 50,000 water systems, a news release from the group said. The researchers attributed their findings to “antiquated infrastructure and rampant pollution of source water,” as well as obsolete EPA regulations that rely “on archaic science” and “allow unsafe levels of toxic chemicals in drinking water.”
more...
https://thehill.com/policy/equilibrium-sustainability/579857-millions-consuming-invisible-toxic-cocktail-of-cancer
November 3, 2021
https://crooksandliars.com/2021/11/josh-marshall-why-public-has-soured
11/03/21 4:16am
Josh Marshall On Why The Public Has Soured On Democrats
Lots of reasons, but a big one is the economy.
By Susie Madrak
As Wendy Williams would say, "How you doing?" I feel like crap, frankly. I was wrong to be optimistic about Virginia. Terry McAuliffe really tanked, and this morning, the cable stations are full of advice for Democrats. (Yes, Phil Murphy will win in NJ, but it's tighter than I expected.)
Josh Marshall writes about what he calls the real reason for last night's defeat in Virginia: Biden is unpopular. His approval rating dropped ten points. People are paying more for basic commodities and we have shortages of various consumer goods. (It's the economy, stupid!) Then there’s COVID. "It’s just the fact of the situation. People want COVID to be over. But it’s not over. He’s the President. He takes a hit for that," he writes in Talking Points Memo:
There are a lot of nagging issues that add up, and I've heard them all. For instance: Why is Louis DeJoy still running the postal service? What has happened to all his documented conflicts of interest? Why is Biden not hounding the Republicans for an attempted coup? Why is the Department of Justice sending such mixed messages in the sentencing for those who took part? Why is nothing happening to the people at the top of the coup? Why isn't Merrick Garland telling us what he's doing?
The other is messaging. Now, you cannot discount the huge advantage of having a media property like Fox that will repeat and amplify whatever batshit talking point Republicans manufacture, and now CNN and MSNBC are jumping on the bandwagon because they sure do miss those Trump ratings. The Republicans have that. So anything I say has to be seen in that light.
But our basic message is, hey, we're just the cleanup crew. Again and again, we're the people who come in and clean up the mess left behind by previous Republican administrations, and one of the biggest areas is the economy. But if you look at the polls, people still believe Republicans are better with the economy! Democrats tend to think results speak for themselves. They don't. Most people aren't economists. All they know is, gas is going up, groceries are going up, and they're nervous.
And McAuliffe screwed up. Instead of talking about his past accomplishments as governor, he concentrated on tying Youngkin to Trump. But the Trump memories are fading, and all Youngkin had to do was look reasonable. He did.
For years, I've been talking about how Republicans are a successful sales and marketing culture, and Democrats are an academic culture: "Didn't you see our white paper on this?" Democrats used to be able to sell their accomplishments and ideas. Now they speak in footnotes.
Josh Marshall On Why The Public Has Soured On Democrats
https://crooksandliars.com/2021/11/josh-marshall-why-public-has-soured
11/03/21 4:16am
Josh Marshall On Why The Public Has Soured On Democrats
Lots of reasons, but a big one is the economy.
By Susie Madrak
As Wendy Williams would say, "How you doing?" I feel like crap, frankly. I was wrong to be optimistic about Virginia. Terry McAuliffe really tanked, and this morning, the cable stations are full of advice for Democrats. (Yes, Phil Murphy will win in NJ, but it's tighter than I expected.)
Josh Marshall writes about what he calls the real reason for last night's defeat in Virginia: Biden is unpopular. His approval rating dropped ten points. People are paying more for basic commodities and we have shortages of various consumer goods. (It's the economy, stupid!) Then there’s COVID. "It’s just the fact of the situation. People want COVID to be over. But it’s not over. He’s the President. He takes a hit for that," he writes in Talking Points Memo:
Then there’s the other problem: President Biden looks weak. The pull out from Afghanistan plays some role in this. But the real driver is the months long spectacle of the President and his party unable to pass the basic legislation that makes up his agenda. Negotiating, begging, false starts, canceled votes. A President of the United States stymied by two obscure Senators the vast majority of Americans have never even heard of. Obviously this has deeply demoralized Democrats around the country – a fact which I think played a significant role in McAuliffe’s defeat. But for less committed voters – a smaller portion of the electorate but the floating segment that decides most elections – the President just looks weak. He says this and that is important but can’t seem to get this or that done. It’s through that prism that these voters view an uncertain economy. Regardless of what the President is trying to do, he can’t do it. If you’re not terribly ideological or plugged into the policy and legislative details what you see is a country beset with problems and an ineffective President. That’s a bad, bad combination for the President’s party.
This may all sound like I’m pretty down on Joe Biden. But that’s not it precisely. It is more that some situations are really, really hard to solve. After the horror of the Trump years Democrats swept back into office with extremely high expectations. Indeed, many Democratic partisans believe a list of big legislative items are of close to existential significance for the country as well as the Democratic party. And yet Democratic voters sent them into office with the slenderest of congressional margins. 50 senators. Vast expectations crashing against meager means.
For months Democrats have been demanding that Biden get tough with the two Senate hold-outs or simply make them fall into line. I sympathize. I’ve wanted to as well. But it’s not clear what power he has to accomplish that. Try harder isn’t a good answer to that question. People have the idea that Presidents can simply overawe legislators by being President. But that’s not really the case. They can do that when they have some tangible leverage. For Biden it’s not clear what that leverage is.
Notwithstanding this, I do fault some of the President’s advisors for what I can only call a certain lack of urgency, a sense that you just work through the legislative process and … well, it takes a long time and there’s nothing really you can do about that. But again, I’m not sure given the number of seats Democrats have in the House and the Senate what I would have actually done differently. I probably would have jumped up and down more and made the argument about urgency. But make things go faster or make recalcitrant Senators less recalcitrant? I’m not sure how I would have accomplished that.
This may all sound like I’m pretty down on Joe Biden. But that’s not it precisely. It is more that some situations are really, really hard to solve. After the horror of the Trump years Democrats swept back into office with extremely high expectations. Indeed, many Democratic partisans believe a list of big legislative items are of close to existential significance for the country as well as the Democratic party. And yet Democratic voters sent them into office with the slenderest of congressional margins. 50 senators. Vast expectations crashing against meager means.
For months Democrats have been demanding that Biden get tough with the two Senate hold-outs or simply make them fall into line. I sympathize. I’ve wanted to as well. But it’s not clear what power he has to accomplish that. Try harder isn’t a good answer to that question. People have the idea that Presidents can simply overawe legislators by being President. But that’s not really the case. They can do that when they have some tangible leverage. For Biden it’s not clear what that leverage is.
Notwithstanding this, I do fault some of the President’s advisors for what I can only call a certain lack of urgency, a sense that you just work through the legislative process and … well, it takes a long time and there’s nothing really you can do about that. But again, I’m not sure given the number of seats Democrats have in the House and the Senate what I would have actually done differently. I probably would have jumped up and down more and made the argument about urgency. But make things go faster or make recalcitrant Senators less recalcitrant? I’m not sure how I would have accomplished that.
There are a lot of nagging issues that add up, and I've heard them all. For instance: Why is Louis DeJoy still running the postal service? What has happened to all his documented conflicts of interest? Why is Biden not hounding the Republicans for an attempted coup? Why is the Department of Justice sending such mixed messages in the sentencing for those who took part? Why is nothing happening to the people at the top of the coup? Why isn't Merrick Garland telling us what he's doing?
The other is messaging. Now, you cannot discount the huge advantage of having a media property like Fox that will repeat and amplify whatever batshit talking point Republicans manufacture, and now CNN and MSNBC are jumping on the bandwagon because they sure do miss those Trump ratings. The Republicans have that. So anything I say has to be seen in that light.
But our basic message is, hey, we're just the cleanup crew. Again and again, we're the people who come in and clean up the mess left behind by previous Republican administrations, and one of the biggest areas is the economy. But if you look at the polls, people still believe Republicans are better with the economy! Democrats tend to think results speak for themselves. They don't. Most people aren't economists. All they know is, gas is going up, groceries are going up, and they're nervous.
And McAuliffe screwed up. Instead of talking about his past accomplishments as governor, he concentrated on tying Youngkin to Trump. But the Trump memories are fading, and all Youngkin had to do was look reasonable. He did.
For years, I've been talking about how Republicans are a successful sales and marketing culture, and Democrats are an academic culture: "Didn't you see our white paper on this?" Democrats used to be able to sell their accomplishments and ideas. Now they speak in footnotes.
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