We're in a civil war, but only one side knows it.
After 19 kids were massacred, Republicans ran to Tucker Carlson.
Welcome to a Tuesday evening edition of Progress Report.
I had a big premium edition of the newsletter planned for tonight, with stats about a number of important primary elections that came to a close today, updates on New York’s wild district drama, and a great story by Natalie about the rise of worker co-ops over the past few years.
Then a gunman in Texas took an AR-15 into an elementary school in Texas and mercilessly slaughtered at least 19 children and three adults. It’s impossible to think about anything else, save for the cowardice and failures that have made these kinds of atrocities a regular facet of our poisoned society.
So, tonight we’re going to look at the emergency we face right now, because it’s far deeper than I think most people — or at least political leaders — are willing to recognize. And on Wednesday night, I’ll send along the newsletter I’d originally planned for premium subscribers.
The United States is in the midst of a civil war. It may not be as explicit as the one waged between the north and the Confederate traitors, but that’s only because there has been no need for another declaration of secession; reactionary white supremacists and corporate proxies now wrap themselves in the American flag as they ransack the country from the inside.
The real violence is more diffuse, but no less devastating. Republican fascism’s institutional leaders and rhetorical messengers continue to enable and encourage regular acts of terrorism within our own borders, turning every city and town into a potential battlefield, every errand into a potential death march.
The weekly massacres — today it was 19 children in Texas, just over a week ago it was 10 Black shoppers in Buffalo. The militarized police violence. The deputizing of ultra-zealous radicals as bounty hunters to terrorize people that are simply trying to make choices about their own bodies. It all comes from the same place, from the same people.
Much has been made of the insidious reach of the racist “replacement theory,” which fueled the deluded Buffalo murderer. We don’t know yet what motivated the monster in Texas, but the rhetoric and laws there were undoubtedly contributors.
Last year, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law that permits anyone to carry a concealed firearm without obtaining a license. Earlier this month, he suggested that Texas’s public schools should no longer be required to educate migrant children.
Today’s massacre was carried out with a semi-automatic weapon in Uvalde, right near Texas’s southern border. It has a large Hispanic population.
In the wake of today’s massacre, Republicans pushed back on any calls for new gun control laws. Some went on Newsmax and Tucker Carlson’s Volksempfänger broadcast and suggested arming teachers instead. That today’s shooter evaded three different police did not seem to register or matter. Actual solutions are irrelevant. They will back whichever idiotic, cynical idea that they think will lead to the most fear and violence.
If leaders were stoking massive terror attacks in the same way in any other country, it’d be covered by the media as a coordinated campaign by extremist sectarian autocrats in a failed state.
Instead, because they slowly worked and exploited the flaws of the American constitution, they’re treated as legitimate participants in democracy by both the news media and the party that could actually do something about this unfolding nightmare. But the rigidity and corruption that forces Democratic leaders to stand sentinel over decimated institutions have invited this terror, and the active refusal to push back forcefully has permitted its grip to tighten.
Reminder: Last month, Greg Abbott began shipping desperate migrants to DC in order to troll the Biden administration. Today, Biden pledged to help Abbott with cleaning up a mass killing of children that he helped stoke. They should be on war footing against these Republicans, but instead, they’re offering a helping hand and legitimizing their cynical performances.
Democrats say they would pass gun control if they had the power, but blame their impotence on the stubbornness of a few individual senators. Yes, Joe Manchin’s response to the mass murder today was typically infuriating, but his intransigence has been fostered by a leadership that seeks to protect the members that most actively work to defeat the party’s initiatives and break its promises.
There is no better example than the Congressional primary election that took place tonight in an adjacent border district in Texas.
Progressive activist and former Hill staffer Jessica Cisneros squared off against incumbent Rep. Henry Cuellar in a runoff primary election in Texas’s 28th Congressional district. Cuellar, who has been in office for nine terms, is currently under FBI investigation, sports an “A” rating from the NRA, is staunchly anti-abortion, and regularly votes against core Democratic bills.
House leadership went all-in to help him survive the primary, with James Clyburn appearing at rallies in the district and Nancy Pelosi recording a robocall for Cuellar during the stretch run. Outside groups ran unspeakably disgusting and misleading ads about Cisneros, bombarding people’s homes with misogynist misinformation.
It seems as if Cuellar is going to win by 177 or so votes, entirely thanks to the help from Democratic leadership. They just saved a politician who actively works against everything the party is supposed to represent. I’m looking forward to seeing what they say when Cuellar is indicted.
Not all Democrats are this brazenly committed to sabotaging efforts to solve any of the existential problems we face. Sen. Chris Murphy had a powerful moment on the Senate floor today, even if it was ultimately just preaching to the converted C-SPAN crowd.
What we really need, however, is the sort of anger and urgency shown by Rep. Ruben Gallego during an impressive Twitter tear this evening:
Don’t wring your hands over the expletives. It’s the least that these ghouls deserve.
Rep. Gallego is a military veteran, which seems to give him a better understanding of the threats we face from violent extremists within our own borders. And undoubtedly, there are many other Democrats who understand it, too. But until party leadership is willing to recognize that we are living in a war zone, the right will continue to fire away, mutilating democracy and forcing all of us to live each week with the fear and grief that come from these mass murders.
Remember, they reacted within minutes to condemn pro-choice protestors who stood peacefully in front of Brett Kavanaugh’s house after the draft decision overturning Roe was leaked to the press. They voted within days to provide justices with round-the-clock Secret Service protection. By the way, none of the politicians that encouraged the January 6th insurrection have faced any consequences.
There is now another mass shooting generation. It won’t end here, either. Not until we have leaders that will fight back.
OK, let’s end on a hopeful note: In tomorrow night’s edition of the newsletter, we’ll look at several other primary election results from Tuesday night that suggest that Democratic voters are making it clear that they are tired of waiting for fighters.
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Biden has a genuine strength in that he really believes that by showing kindness to one's adversaries will ultimately bring them around, instead of whopping them on the head, but he seems to continually underestimate the gravity of the situation. When Trump refused to accept the loss of the election and perpetuated a fraud, a totally false proposition that the election count was rigged, blocking the peaceful transfer of power and the attempt to overturn the election. Trump breached the constitution and committed an act of war; He should have been arrested as soon as possible, but Biden, more so than Garland, has made a gigantic mistake by not doing so and this has enabled the further democracy link cutting, and perhaps Putin's attack
on Ukraine to destabilize the west. I just think that it is important to remember when the war officially, legally started. Keep up the great work.