Welcome to the Monday evening edition of Progressives Everywhere!
It was a big day for fascism and right-wing hatred, so let’s dive right in!
Trump’s obvious failures are… bad news for Biden?
National: I’ll hit the election and state news in a bit, but I want to first focus on the scary news coming out of Washington and the absurd storylines being spun around it.
Ever since the mass Black Lives Matter protests broke out in June in response to the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the punditry class has spent an inordinate amount of time speculating about what it could mean for the presidential election, the prism through which they view everything. Their Twitter takes and columns have largely suggested that ongoing protests and violence will be bad for Joe Biden, who somehow, despite not being in office for the last four years, will be held responsible for the disorder being provoked by the sitting president and his performative far-right provocateur and enablers.
Despite the fact that Biden’s lead in the polls has only increased since June, pundits doubled down on those “good for Trump” predictions this weekend after violence broke out in Kenosha, WI as a result of police officers putting seven bullets into the back of an unarmed Black man and paralyzing him. The murder of two protestors by a rageful little white nationalist teen and devout Trump stan did nothing to change that calculus; somehow, Trump inspiring a twerpy Nazi kid to shoot people is something for which Biden has to answer. Similarly, far-right maniacs literally waving Trump flags stormed into Portland on Saturday night, which is again, somehow seen as Biden’s responsibility.
Bad-faith conservative media plays a role in this onslaught of idiocy, both on mainstream opinion pages (today’s tripe from Bret Stephens is laughable) and in right-wing publications. Conservatives have been banging the drum for Biden to address civic unrest and violence, as if he were responsible for any of it, and suggesting that he wouldn’t be able to handle the problem as effectively as Donald Trump, who of course is causing it in the first place. That narrative is leaking over to straight news stories, like this piece published today at CNN. This excerpt says it all:
Biden is under growing pressure to mount a high-profile response to Trump's searing attacks that brand him the tool of left-wing anarchists and ‘Defund the Police activists during a summer of protest and unrest following the death of George Floyd with a police officer's knee on his neck in May.
Who is applying that pressure? Ultimately it’s the news media, including outlets like CNN itself, taking the bait time and again and running with it, spinning a narrative out of muscle memory. Even brilliant reporters like George Packer have been falling into the trap; Packer suggested that Biden has to disavow violence and assuage the fears of a bunch of white people who were profiled in an anecdotal NY Times piece last week (how Black people feel about it all seems to be irrelevant). This quote from Packer blows my mind:
Ordinarily it’s the incumbent president’s job to show up at the scene of a national tragedy and give a unifying speech. But Trump is temperamentally incapable of doing so and, in fact, has a political interest in America’s open wounds and burning cities.
Biden, then, should go immediately to Wisconsin, the crucial state that Hillary Clinton infamously ignored. He should meet the Blake family and give them his support and comfort. He should also meet Kenoshans like the small-business owners quoted in the Times piece, who doubt that Democrats care about the wreckage of their dreams. Then, on the burned-out streets, without a script, from the heart, Biden should speak to the city and the country.
If it’s so clear that Trump is incapable of handling this problem, why is the pressure then on Biden to step up? Why is Trump the default winner when it’s his fault?
As the nation descends into chaos and an uncertain future, more and more of the reporting has relied on tropes found in history books about a very different country. They see this race through the lens of Rick Pearlstein’s new book, Reaganland, which chronicles the country’s hard-right shift in the late ‘70s. The ghosts of President Nixon’s “silent majority,” Reagan’s domination of the suburbs, and George H.W. Bush’s race-baiting path to defeating Dukakis in 1988 linger over the coverage of this election, shaping the conventional wisdom with an outdated view of the United States.
This is a very different country than what it was in the ‘70s and ‘80s. We are still clearly plagued by bone-deep racism, but far more Americans are willing to recognize and work to improve that. The suburbs have gone blue. Texas is majority-minority. The two new generations of voters are the two most progressive in history. We’ve had four years of a remarkably stupid liar in office, someone who is so loathed (54% strong disapproval in a recent poll!) and very clearly doesn’t give a shit about any of this. He is his own worst enemy; he cannot even credibly fake any compassion, like a George W. Bush; instead, he belches the quiet part out loud. Just watch this:
Donald Trump doesn’t just own this violence, he’s investing everything in it. This morning, news came out that a Super PAC backed by the GOP’s heavy hitters will be dropping $30 million on ads that play on the “LAW & ORDER” theme that Trump hammers home on Twitter every few days.
I’m not being naive or overly optimistic. I don’t think Biden is guaranteed a victory this fall; Republicans fight too dirty and Americans are too unpredictable for that. But I also don’t think playing into these tropes or quivering in fear of media analysis is particularly useful or even reflective of reality.
Joe Biden gave an address in Pittsburgh today condemning violence on both the left and right. He slapped the wrists of the people he desperately needs to turn out this November in an effort to assuage the pundits who exist in a different universe. Let that be the end of it.
News You Need to Know
Georgia: A federal judge ruled that Georgia has to accept and count absentee ballots that are postmarked by November 3rd and arrive within three days after that.
Until today, all ballots had to be received by November 3rd.
Yes, I’ve already updated AbsenteeBallots.info!
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger promised to appeal the ruling, which could set a precedent for other states.
Florida: The head of Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity tendered his resignation to Gov. Ron DeSantis today, jumping ship from one of the biggest bureaucratic disasters of the year.
Florida’s unemployment insurance system was purposely designed by vampiric former Gov. Rick Scott to be as difficult to use as possible, a reflection of his hatred for any sort of public assistance. It’s also one of the stingiest in the country for people who actually do get through.
The system basically collapsed during the peak of COVID-19, with over two million requests piling up by June.
Many claims are still backed up and people are not happy.
Texas: The same unemployment system disaster is playing out in Texas. Shocker, right?
Over four million people have applied for unemployment in the state this year.
Oof: “People who have abandoned their calls each day has nearly doubled from an average of 1,416 in April to 2,651 in July.”
National: A federal court ruled today that Congress is irrelevant and the President can do whatever he wants.
Honestly, I’m not kidding.
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