Prime content is available to paid members, please join us
Maybe Biden Can Hold This Country Together
Discussion
Join our users to read our prime articles
Michael Cohen suggested Trump may resign this fall, so Pence could pardon him. How about if our new Congress would impeach and remove Trump during those first 20 days in January? Maybe Barr, too.
If I were Trump, I wouldn’t trust Pence to pardon me, and I would understand that it wouldn’t help me any in the state of New York anyway.
If I were Pence, I wouldn’t see any upside in it. (Which is why Trump can’t trust him to do it.)
When I see things like this Biden video, I think that he just may be exactly what this country needs right now. There’s more to him than campaign rhetoric, he is a genuinely good person.
She’s wrong. Horribly so. There can be no reconciliation without Reconstruction, and the New Redeemers won’t go quietly no matter what. This was probably inevitable path, and we can face it head on or paper over it. Papering over it is fruitless in this environment. See Peter Turchin, who also argues how much Leaders and Leadership matters: Welcome to the Turbulent Twenties; We predicted political upheaval in America in the 2020s. This is why it’s here and what we can do to temper it. Our model is based on the fact that across history, what creates the risk of political… Read more »
He provides this graph
The last time we decided to make nice with ‘those people’ we got Jim Crow and the Lost Cause. We took it easy on the Japanese after they surrendered, and Japan has still not come close to reckoning with its past. OTOH, Germany became a pariah, dealt honestly with their past, tried to make amends, and is today one of the world’s most admired nations.
No peace with Trump cultists. No peace with Republicans. Rub their noses in it, it’s the only way they’ll learn.
Right-wing authoritarians will support their rightful authority figure unto death. That’s just how they work. IF Biden wins (it’s a toss-up IMHO) then Biden should attempt to bridge the divide with Republican VOTERS. He should, at the same time, call for OPEN INVESTIGATIONS of the last 4 years. The investigations NEED TO BE OPEN. If they are closed, then right-wing authoritarian voters will go all-in with Trump, and will attempt to burn everything down. Voices like Tom Cotton and Q-Anon Nazis will be there actively inciting rebellion. If Trump wins in 2020, then it probably doesn’t matter all that much,… Read more »
Very well written, as are other posts here. I very much agree with Kleinfeld on the foundational cause of our fate is racism and the civil war, a war that has never really been reconciled and where the hatreds of the south have spread and continue to this day. I have no idea what happens next and that includes whether Biden will win or not. I continue to feel he is far too like Hillary and is not pressing his advantage. I won’t bet on the outcome. If we win I feel something must be done to fix this mess… Read more »
It’s a sad state of affairs when seeking to obtain political representation for US citizens is seen as a hostile act. If we cede the power this time there is no coming back
This is easy. Trump and his crimes are symptomatic of the ongoing foreign threat against our democracy as waged by Moscow. As cynical as I feel saying it, there is nothing to unite a people like a common foreign threat. So the key is to hold RUSSIA accountable and then prosecute their American collaborators. It doesn’t have to be red scare hysteria, but a President Biden should be consistent that the foreign threat against our way of life must be met and dismantled. This can be the genesis of a Constitutional amendment to reverse Citizens United. It can also be… Read more »
We built a guillotine for Halloween.
The Democrats under Obama tried looking forward. That was a mistake in hindsight. This time, if Biden wins and the Democrats take the Senate by a good margin, show how our side (yeah, yeah, “that’s part of the problem” or some such wishy-washy platitude) can walk and chew gum while wearing a mask. Looking back to find out how we ended up with Russian interference in our elections is crucial. So is ferreting out the judges who lied their way onto the bench. Start with Beer Dude. I’m sure there are some Senators who would love to make a very… Read more »
Martin, So this is RK of the Federalist Society ? The same FS that is packing our courts with reactionary, racist judges ? Sure, she wants reconciliation because its the only way that her 2024 team – Cheney ? Jeb Jr ? Cotton ? Cruz ? Hawley ? — can again seize power. Sorry, but sometimes you’re a bit too much Josh Marshall for my taste. We need trials and jail terms for Trump, his family and their enablers. This will discourage many of the Bush Restorationists starting the same criminal behavior on 1/21/21 becasue they’ll know they cant get… Read more »
Probably not the same person. About Rachel Kleinfeld: Rachel advises governments and philanthropists in making major social change in democracies. As a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, she briefs elected officials and government leaders in the U.S., UK, and other allied countries. She is a frequent speaker to international organizations, private conferences, and at major public events, as well as a media commentator. A social entrepreneur, former founding organizational CEO, and author of three books, she is also the mother of two fierce and wonderful daughters, wife of a sculptor, lover of street food, and aficionado… Read more »
https://fedsoc.org/contributors/rachel-kleinfeld. It is not clear that RK has much of an affiliation with the FedSoc, but there’s the link.
I listened to some of her discussion on absentee voting and she seemed quite knowledgeable and supportive of it, but pointed out many of the problems. So I don’t know what it means to be affiliated with the Federalist Society, for her.
If Biden wins and we take the Senate, the only question is: are we still a nation of laws? If we are, then those who broke the law need to be brought to justice. Full. Stop.
Anything else – truth and reconciliation, or whatever you want to call it – will not be able to hide the fact that we, as a nation, will not apply our laws to the people at the top. (I know, I know, this is how it normally works. But these are not normal times . . . .)
I couldn’t make it past the rancid both-siderism of the piece–which no doubt was the price for getting it to run at all–on the first pass, but maybe I’ll slog through it later. I follow the basic points well enough, and I’ve been saying the same thing for a while now. There’s going to be shooting, substantial amounts of it, maybe as soon as election day itself, either way the polls go. This country has passed a tipping point, and at the very least we can expect some armed insurgencies along the lines of Bundy ranch escapades, and local authorities… Read more »
Errr…for what it’s worth, this is Longman’s website. He’s the owner, publisher, and editor. He can write whatever he wants.
Who told Martin what to write? Or did you think I was accusing him of both-siderism? I was talking about the article he based this piece on. It has a couple of awful sentences early in, but I really think the author just included them out of necessity for editorial approval.
I see the “holding the country together” challenge as a two-step dance. Step 1: Govern well. That means dealing with the pandemic, reviving the economy, improving health care, a Green New Deal (or something like it), dealing with the opioid crisis, criminal justice reform, anti-monopoly politics, immigration reform, universal (i.e., rural) broadband, voting and democracy reforms, etc. It’s a big list and it’s all necessary. To “hold the country together” it’s necessary that a significant, visible, and felt quantity of those benefits goes to rural and small town communities. Step 2: Multiple, open, and extensive investigations into government corruption over… Read more »
Meanwhile Joe gave a good speech about the president lack of interest in science as the West Coast is ablaze and near 200,000 are dead from the virus. He suggests the country will be ablaze if Trump is re-elected. Well you know Trump has little concern for Blue States. Maybe he will send help to the next hurricane on the gulf states. Fuck you Mr Trump, why not quit and run away to Moscow?
https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/15/politics/immigration-customs-enforcement-medical-care-detainees/index.html
“Whistleblower alleges high rate of hysterectomies and medical neglect at ICE facility“
Really? RM reporting now.