- Adam Serwer on how MAGA lost even when they won, i.e. because American society has changed;
- Robert Reich has ideas about what should be on the Democrats’ agenda;
- So does Dahlia Lithwick at Slate;
- Andrew Prokop at Vox looks at the three reasons the GOP think they lost;
- And Paul Krugman suggests that Democrats force Trump to use his veto power, echoing a comment a made yesterday.
Following up on a comment from Ken Paxton, noted yesterday, of an “America our founders gave us versus something they would never recognize.”
The Atlantic, Adam Serwer, today: Even Where MAGA Won, MAGA Lost, subtitled “A vision of a multicultural America emerges from this election.” [gift link]
Leading with this:
One of the biggest Republican wins in an otherwise-terrible midterm night for the GOP was the victory of the Trump-supporting Byron Donalds in Florida’s race for governor. Donalds will become the first Black governor of that state. If you could resurrect Jefferson Davis and tell him that the governor of Florida will be a Black Republican married to a white woman, he would crawl straight back into his coffin.
Conservatives presumably want to retain the values common in the founders’ era. They probably don’t actually mean it, because they don’t realize what those values were, but that’s what they say.
Then this:
That this was MAGA’s big win in a night of defeats is remarkable, given the movement’s hostility toward diversity, and its nostalgia for an America where rigid race and gender hierarchies were enforced by the state. Even where Republicans won, in other words, President Trump’s racially exclusive conception of American citizenship lost. Trump could browbeat corporate America into eliminating DEI programs; he could threaten colleges to let in fewer students of color; he could direct the full power of the federal government toward deporting immigrants. But he could not will away the America that actually exists.
Going on with many examples. And concluding:
In September, Trump said, “America does not belong to those who hate it. America belongs to those who love it.” But the way MAGA talks about the America that actually exists—as opposed to the one it imagines once existed—doesn’t sound like love at all. Whether or not Americans believe in multiculturalism, we are multicultural. One is an ideology; the other is a fact.
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Now we get to the stage where commentators anticipate what will, or should, happen next.
Robert Reich, today: Office Hours: What Should Be #1 on the Democrats’ Agenda?, subtitled “Their priority when they take over Congress?”
Even with full control of Congress, it won’t be easy. Trump will remain in the White House. He’s likely to veto whatever the Democrats try to do and ignore whatever they say. He and his Cabinet officers won’t willingly testify before congressional committees investigating the regime’s actions, pleading executive privilege.
He has four items:
- Impeach and convict Trump of high crimes and misdemeanors;
- Reform our broken system of campaign finance;
- Enact a wealth tax on billionaires;
- Enact Medicare for All.
He acknowledges the challenges with each of these.
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A similar piece from Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick.
Slate, Dahlia Lithwick, today: What Democrats Must Do Now
Affordability. Accountability. Supreme Court reform. Investigations into all sorts of abuses. Probably not impeachment, even if many Americans are anxious for it.
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Looking back.
Vox, Andrew Prokop, yesterday: Whose fault is the GOP’s cataclysmic defeat? 3 theories are gaining steam on the right., subtitled “Was it Iran? The tariffs? Trumpism more broadly? The narrative warfare has begun.”
This seems to boil down to: the war; a rejection of Trumpism; and the economy.
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This piece echoes my thought from yesterday.
Paul Krugman, today: What Democrats Can Do, subtitled “Yes, Trump has veto power. Force him to use it.”
With this passing thought:
If we had a parliamentary system, the moving trucks would already be at the White House.
It’s odd that candidates who win their elections in early November don’t take office until January. I think this is another vestige of how laws were written two centuries ago, when it could have taken weeks for a new senator from a western state to make his way to Washington DC. Like the electoral college, this is a vestige of the constraints of a past that no longer exists.
But let’s get to the point.
Democrats won’t have the margin to override Trump’s vetoes. Still, they will control the agendas.
Everyone paying attention knows that Trump and his cronies have been stealing billions, but many Americans probably don’t grasp the full extent of the corruption. Gaining the ability to bring this corruption into the sunlight is critical to rebuild Americans’ faith in the integrity of government, as well as to hold Trump and his vandals accountable. Moreover, knowing that his days are numbered, the Trump gang have every incentive to engage in a wholesale smash-and-grab spree.
Then this. Exactly.
Pass highly popular legislation that would clearly benefit ordinary Americans and not the oligarchs, knowing full well that Trump will veto the legislation. Emphatically, the Democrats should not try to make deals with Trump, a man who never agreed to a deal that he didn’t subsequently try to break.
… When Trump vetoes a bill, they should attempt to override that veto, forcing each and every Republican to either to uphold Trump’s obstruction — making it clear that they are as culpable as he is — or to develop a spine and supply the additional votes required for such overrides.
And then suggestions of laws to pass. Some form of Medicare. Restore subsidies for ACA. Dealing with Russia and Ukraine.
Other obvious examples are:
· Refusal to spend more billions of dollars on a failed war with Iran
· Ending the Trump tariffs
· Policies to safeguard Americans against the dangers of AI and data center hegemony
· Reforming tax policy so that it no longer benefits the wealthy and enables corporate tax evasion
· Ending ICE abuses
· Ending self-harming immigration policies
· Reconstituting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and giving it enforcement powers
· Levying a windfall profits tax on oil companies
· Policies that benefit cost-effective green energy, like solar and wind farms
· Legislation that eliminates the ability of politicians and their family members to benefit financially from their officesOn all these issues and more, the Democrats should force Trump to use his veto power, making it clear to the country that he is the reason Americans are suffering under destructive policies that benefit the oligarchs, Trump and his cronies.
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Music:
More Mahler middle movements. 4 and 5 today.
