Protect us from the rest of you

Aldous Pennyfarthing on Daily Kos asked:

Is there a word for being really shocked and alarmed—and yet not at all surprised—by a new piece of information? Maybe something from German with, like, 80 letters, seven umlauts, and a couple Klingon-worthy expectorations?

What we’re shocked about, yet not surprised, is various GOP Congresscritters taking credit for the American Rescue Plan which passed with zero GOP votes. As they always do. Lying seems to be a traditional value. However, that means voters don’t recognize that the relief came from Democrats. It is up to Democrats make some noise about it. In an article posted just a few hours before the cease-fire in Israel, Mark Sumner of Kos discussed what is going on in Congress. On Wednesday, over 130 House Democrats issued a letter saying the US should use its pending arms sales to Israel to encourage a cease-fire. On Thursday, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Mark Pocan, and Rashida Tlaib introduced resolutions to block $735 million in arms sales that are ready to go. AOC noted American arms sales to Israel contributed to the death and suffering of millions of Palestinians. Sanders said “we cannot simply let another huge arms sale go through without even a congressional debate.” I’ve heard moves like this one are a big difference between this attack on Palestinians and the last one. Perry Bacon Jr. in a column for The Washington Post says there are four huge problems in America and he doesn’t see solutions to any of them. The first problem is the Republican Party. They no longer believe in democracy at the federal and state level. I’ve written a lot about this. The second problem is America is polarized into Team Blue and Team Red. Biden polls well above the nasty guy’s highest rating, but his approval won’t ever be high because so many Republicans will always disapprove of him. In addition, the party not in the White House tends to gain seats at midterm elections. The third problem is media companies avoid describing Republicans as anti democracy. Faced with a choice between neutrality and core values they are choosing neutrality. Also, businesses are backtracking on their pledge to not donate to insurrectionists. The fourth problem is moderate Democrats (such as Joe Manchin) and never Trumpers (such as Mitt Romney) don’t appreciate the direness of the situation or don’t care. Leah McElrath tweeted something that is very important, that I hadn’t thought of in quite these terms.

Some of you don’t understand the stakes, and it shows. Some of us are fighting for democracy because it’s all we have to protect us from the rest of you.

Georgia Logothetis, in her pundit roundup for Kos, quoted Dana Milbank of WaPo:

Pretty much everything the Trump-occupied Republican Party has been doing these days violates the basic tenets of democracy that American schoolchildren are taught. But the Trumpy right has come up with an elegant remedy to relieve the cognitive dissonance: They want to cancel civics education. If the voters don’t know how the government is supposed to function, they’ll be none the wiser when it malfunctions — which has been pretty much all the time.

Laura Clawson of Kos reported Republicans are complaining that Biden is not a good bad guy. He’s so nice and empathetic (plus boring and scandal free) it is hard to portray him as a bad guy, to demonize him. But, that’s OK, there are other people to demonize.

Bigger bogeymen, like Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, if you get the drift. Sen. Bernie Sanders also makes the list, because you can try to demonize an old white guy if he’s a shouty Jewish socialist. And this campaign cycle will probably see at least one antisemitic ad campaign featuring Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. To the extent they talk about him at all, Republicans will try to paint Biden as a puppet of the rest of the Democratic Party.

Marissa Higgins of Kos reported:

Organizers in Heritage of Pride, the nonprofit that plans New York City Pride events, are banning police and corrections officers from participating in Pride celebrations until at least 2025, as reported by the Associated Press. Why? Because having police participate in Pride events, like the parade, can be frightening and exclusionary for many groups who want to attend celebrations freely, like trans folks, undocumented folks, and sex workers. Especially so when we consider ongoing instances of police brutality against people of color in the United States.

Instead, they will use private security, community leaders, and volunteers. Organizers are well aware that the city won’t allow such a huge event to happen without a big police presence, but officers will stay one block away and respond only when necessary.