AOC's Instagram Live recording
Listening to this now. Will update with thoughts afterwards.
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From Nov. 2021 - "Democrats’ Betrayals Are Jeopardizing American Democracy"
Go read the full article, I implore you. The following is the opening paragraphs and then an excerpt of Franklin Roosevelt. But the entire article is excellent and it was written in 2021.
American democracy is in the midst of a meltdown — the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and Republicans' intensifying crusade to limit voting rights and deny election results make that abundantly clear. Conflict-averse Democrats in Washington, D.C., are on the verge of letting this turn into a full-fledged nightmare. Torn between their corporate donors and the electorate, they are studiously avoiding the two key questions: What is really fueling this crisis? And how can it be stopped?
The answer to the first question can be seen in headlines this week about billionaires growing their fortunes by $2 trillion during the pandemic, and now creating an overheated market for luxury yachts, all while one in five households just lost their entire life savings. Americans keep voting to change this crushing dystopia and yet they continue being force-fed more of the same — most recently with Democrats threatening to side with their financiers and abandon their whole economic agenda. Such betrayals from both parties have been telling more and more of the country that democracy is a farce.
It was the following insight about Roosevelt's observations that made me want to capture it here:
Once elected, Roosevelt championed a then-radical program of government investments and interventions in the economy, directly employing millions of the jobless, investing in public infrastructure, and subjecting powerful financial institutions to tough regulations. Though the New Deal was hardly perfect, the agenda was an unprecedented investment in America's working class, helping restore some faith in democratic government as a force for good.
The year before a fulminating Nazi rally in a packed Madison Square Garden in New York, FDR warned that the global rise of fascism was the result of democratic governments doing the opposite of the New Deal and protecting an economic status quo enriching a tiny handful at the expense of everyone else.
"Democracy has disappeared in several other great nations, not because the people of those nations disliked democracy, but because they had grown tired of unemployment and insecurity, of seeing their children hungry while they sat helpless in the face of government confusion and government weakness through lack of leadership," he said in a 1938 radio address. "Finally, in desperation, they chose to sacrifice liberty in the hope of getting something to eat."
To know Roosevelt's analysis was correct is to look at how his investments ultimately rescued the economy, beat back fascists, got him re-elected in landslide elections, and created a 40-year epoch we now call the New Deal era. His prescience was also confirmed by what concurrently happened in Germany, where leaders imposed spending cuts.
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Barack's charisma remains incredibly impressive. His ownership of stepping on stage was fantastic. The "Only person stupid enough to speak after Michelle Obama" was a great line too.
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The swelling of support around Harris feels historic. The mobilization and general mentality feels monumental. Hearing that Harris' campaign raised $250 million dollars in its first few days is incredible.
From this article:
ActBlue, which acts as the fundraising platform for Harris for President, and many other Democrats, on Sunday alone took in almost $67 million, according to a third-party ActBlue tracking program. President Biden’s announcement was made around 2:00 PM ET that day.
On Monday, as of 3:30 PM ET, ActBlue has taken in another $35 million – for a 25-hour total of over $100 million.
...
In addition to the $100 million infusion Democrats just received, Politico reports, “Future Forward, the flagship super PAC blessed by President Joe Biden, received $150 million in new commitments from major Democratic donors in the 24 hours since the president announced he would step aside from the race.”
“Future Forward already had $122 million on hand as of the end of June, according to Federal Election Commission filings.”
That means approximately $250 million – about a quarter of a billion dollars – was just added to the coffers of Democratic campaigns, including Kamala Harris’s, and PACs
My TikTok feed has also been awash with videos supporting Harris. I was introduced to the "Divine Nine" which is a term for the National Pan-Hellenic Council, nine historically African American fraternities and sororities. They have fully thrown their support behind Harris and are working to mobilize their groups to help her campaign.
This definitely feels like a moment.
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"Rainbow Reload" is an LGBTQ+ gun group
I've come to have strong feelings on gun control which amount to "get rid of them all" - but this was an interesting read about one of the gun groups growing on the left.
In March 2023, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson did a segment on Democrats and gun control. At the top of the show, he called out Rainbow Reload, an LGBTQ+ gun group in New Hampshire. "Rainbow Reload. They're packing heat," he said. "You can't have guns, but faithful servants of the Democratic Party can."
After being spotlighted on national television, Rainbow Reload's social media got hacked and members received death threats. But instead of scaring people away, the attention prompted more supporters to join and new Rainbow Reload chapters sprouted in Tennessee and Vermont.
Gun owners are an anomaly within the LGBTQ+ community. According to research from UCLA and the Pew Research Center, gun owners in the U.S. are more likely to be straight and Republican, rather than queer and Democratic. While there is no specific data on how many gun owners in the U.S. identify as LGBTQ+, queer gun rights groups across the country are noticing that more LGBTQ+ people are becoming interested in gun ownership, and they are turning to their own community to learn.
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Jamelle Bouie is one of the TikTok accounts I follow where I try to watch almost everything he posts. He's a contributor for the New York Times, and he addresses political and world topics in a very thoughtful way. This video is part of a series responding to a video by another TikToker who puts forward the idea that the Democratic party now only exists to lose to Republicans in service to corporate funder's demands.
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"How the Dark Brandon Meme Evolved From an Online Joke to Joe Biden’s Unlikely Weapon"
A fun little read. I knew they had sold the merch, but interesting to see these numbers.
The Biden campaign started capitalizing on the popularity of the Dark Brandon meme when the president officially announced his reelection bid in April. At that time, the campaign included the Dark Brandon meme as an Easter egg on Biden's reelection website, debuting a 404-error page with a Dark Brandon image, as well as a $32 Dark Brandon t-shirt.
To date, Dark Brandon products have accounted for more than 54% of the online store's total revenue, according to the Biden campaign, and drive nearly 76% of all clicks to the website. The Dark Brandon t-shirt and the Dark Brandon mug are the number one and number two products in the entire store.
The success of Dark Brandon-themed products even motivated the Biden team to launch a "Malarkey Monday" campaign, where new Dark Brandon products are added to the story every Monday.
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Sen. Feinstein officially confirms this term is her last
It was coming, but glad to have this officially announced so the Dems can get their ducks in order and figure out who to put forward for her seat now rather than continue the backroom conversations to avoid unseamliness.
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Hakeem Jeffries' speech
The other part of the House elections last night was that Jeffries finally officially became the first non-White leader of a congressional party. And, along with that, he delivered a hell of a speech.
Here is the excerpt when he ran through the alphabet (a small excerpt of his larger speech,) with the bolded parts being my favorites:
House Democrats will always put American values over autocracy, benevolence over bigotry, the Constitution over the cult, democracy over demagogues, economic opportunity over extremism, freedom over fascism, governing over gaslighting, hopefulness over hatred, inclusion over isolation, justice over judicial overreach, knowledge over kangaroo courts, liberty over limitation, maturity over Mar-a-Lago, normalcy over negativity, opportunity over obstruction, people over politics, quality of life issues over QAnon, reason over racism, substance over slander, triumph over tyranny, understanding over ugliness, voting rights over voter suppression, working families over the well-connected, xenial over xenophobia, ‘yes, we can’ over ‘you can do it,’ and zealous representation over zero-sum confrontation.
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Newsom says he won't run in 2024
I have to admit, I'm rather surprised. I didn't expect him to challenge Biden, but for him to say he won't run regardless if Biden runs or not is surprising. I have to believe that is simply him trying to push as much political spotlight for 2024 off himself as possible, and if Biden did decide not to run again, he'd find a way back into the race.
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"Democrats now control all House seats along the Pacific Ocean for first time in memory"
Largely an interesting tidbit but ultimately isn't meaningful. More of a notable anomaly that ties well into the larger discussion of polarization. I thought it was notable that this has not happened since before Washington became a state.
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Peltola holds her Dem. seat in Alaska, first Alaskan native elected to Congress
And, also important, she kept Sarah Palin out.
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Schumer reportedly to name Sen. Patty Murray to President Pro Tempore, succeeding the retiring Leahy
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced at the Senate Democratic lunch Wednesday that he will nominate Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) next month to serve next year as Senate president pro tempore, a position that is third in line to the presidency.
Notably, this would make her the first woman to hold the role.
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Katie Hobbs defeats Kari Lake for AZ Govenor, nearly completing the crash and burning of the supposed "Red Wave"
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"Elizabeth Warren: Democrats Just Held the Senate. Here’s What We Do Next."
Elizabeth Warren is, perhaps, the US politican I most respect and look up to. I voted for her in the primary and I'm still sad she didn't win. But her words here are good as a look at what the Democratic party should do given the outcomes of this midterm.
President Biden presided over the best midterm elections for the party in the White House in 20 years — despite Washington insiders predicting that Democrats would be wiped out.
Donald Trump did his party no favors with his preening and support for downright awful candidates who lost. Nevertheless, this electoral success belongs to Mr. Biden, who ignored ivory-tower economists and out-of-touch pundits claiming that bold action to help families was bad politics. Instead, Mr. Biden delivered significant economic progress for working people.
Voters rewarded Democrats for protecting the lives and livelihoods of struggling families in a pandemic; modernizing infrastructure, not just talking about it; allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices; capping insulin costs for older Americans; making tax-dodging corporations pay up on billions in profit; lowering carbon emissions and reducing utility bills; and canceling student debt for over 40 million Americans.
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Maxwell Alejandro Frost might become the first Gen-Z member of Congress
Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-FL) has defeated Kat Demings in the primary for Florida's 10th District. The district is reliably a democratic district which would make it seem likely that Frost could become the first Gen-Z congressperson.
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"Biden signs Inflation Reduction Act into law, setting 15% minimum corporate tax rate"
Today is the day.
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"Manchin’s Inflation Reduction Act is really a climate and energy bill. What’s in it?"
More info on the bill that was announced last night. I appreciate Vox's breakdowns.
Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer claimed in their joint statement that the bill delivers enough on climate to cut pollution by roughly 40 percent by 2030. (Economic modelers at Rhodium Group said that after an initial review of the bill, the 40 percent figure was “plausible.”) The legislation helps move the US a little closer to its stated goal of cutting pollution in half within the decade.
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The Forward Party - a new Centrist third party
From their WaPo editorial today:
David Jolly is a former Republican congressman from Florida and is executive chairman of the Serve America Movement. Christine Todd Whitman is a former Republican governor of New Jersey and co-founder of the Renew America Movement. Andrew Yang is a former Democratic presidential candidate and is co-chair of the Forward Party.
And here is their one-sheet touting this party's priorities
Free People. Revitalize a culture that celebrates difference and individual choice, rejects hate, and removes barriers so that each of us can rise to our full potential.
Thriving Communities. Reinvigorate a fair, flourishing economy and open society where everyone can live a good life and is safe in the places where we learn, work, and live.
Vibrant Democracy. Reform our republic to give Americans more choices in elections, more confidence in a government that works, and more say in our future.
Maybe I'm cynical, but I will be shocked if this works. In college I thought of myself as libertarian (small l, though I did cast some votes for big Ls.) I still like the libertian utopic vision where people take care of people and government can be small - but it simply isn't true.
As for the reality of a third party in American politics - we've had buzzing gnats of third parties for years but no one comes close to competitive in size. This just feels to me like a big swing in hopes of hitting a home run when the odds are heavily saying they're going to be another strike out against the political Ohtanis of the world.
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Manchin finally agrees to a bill, surprises everyone
The new compromise bill includes $430 billion in new spending on energy, electric vehicle tax credits and health insurance investments. It more than pays for itself by raising minimum taxes for big companies and enforcing existing tax laws, Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.
The bill would impose a 15% minimum tax on corporations with profits over $1 billion, raising $313 billion over a decade, they wrote. Companies could claim net operating losses and tax credits against the 15%.
The U.S. corporate tax rate dropped to 21% from 35% after a 2017 tax cut pushed by then-President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans, but many companies pay much less than that, and some of the largest pay no federal taxes, research groups including the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy have found.
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