Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

Poisoning the well for profit and cruelty

Among would-be Rambos who fancy themselves patriots, artifacts from the American Revolution serve to justify, well, whatever antisocial, anti-American behavior needs justifying. Sacking the U.S. Capitol comes to mind. They’ll wave Gadsden flags and sport tee shirts citing Thomas Jefferson’s “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Etc.

But when they’re not sacking capitols and bear-spraying police, and when their crooked lawyers are not working to overturn elections that don’t go their way, these miscreants employ a more ancient tradition: poisoning the well. Smithsonian Magazine provides a thumbnail history of “an early form of biological warfare,” the practice of belligerents as ancient as the Sumerians and as recent as the Israeli Army and ISIS iterally poisoning wells to inflict suffering on civilians. RationalWiki describes metaphorically poisoning the well as “a rhetorical technique and logical fallacy that uses the association of negative emotions to distract a subject from actual evidence in an argument,” adding, “Poisoning the well is an appeal to hate.”

Brother, do many on the right hate the country they claim so loudly to love. Abusive men, take note, the Republican Party is acting out one of those dreary murder ballads with America. If they can’t have her, nobody can.

Robert Reich sees in Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan how thoroughly the right has poisoned the well of democracy by undermining human decency. He finds no one admirable in the Donald-Michael-Allen-Stormy-David saga revealed in court testimony. What has our American experiment in self-government come to when so many from MAGA foot soldiers to presidents and Supreme Court justices lack the basic honor and integrity to conduct it as intended?

This cast of characters — and there are many, many others like them in Trump world — are loathsome not because they have violated the law, but because they have contributed to creating a harsh society in which everyone is potentially bought or sold.

It’s a sell-or-tell society, a catch-and-kill society, a just-take-care-of-it society. A society where money and power are the only considerations. Where honor and integrity count for nothing.

I am not naive about how the world works. I’ve spent years in Washington, many of them around powerful people. I have seen the seamy side of American politics and business.

But the people who inhabit Trump world live in a more extreme place — where there are no norms, no standards of decency, no common good. There are only opportunities to make money off others and potential dangers of being ripped off by others.

When most sites where you might read this see you only as data to be mined, your humanity has been stripped. You’ve been reduced to a commodity to be bought and sold. Nothing more.

John Pavlovitz (someone you should read) noted in 2021 that the right-wing war on “woke” is an assault on basic human decency:

“Woke” is Republican-speak for those of us who believe every America adult should have a voice in the electoral process of this nation,
for people who don’t believe a human being’s body, gender identity, or sexual orientation are anyone else’s business,
for we who are sickened at the violence against the Asian community: the direct result of the irresponsible rhetoric of a Republican president,
for Americans who are disgusted that a cancer diagnosis now often necessitates a gofundme page, because we are making illness a financial death sentence,
for people who will not abide the assassination of unarmed people of color by members of a police force infected with white supremacy,
for those who grieve the way this nation is ravaged by preventable gun violence because those who profit from it have such a stranglehold on our lawmakers—
for those of us who exhibit the slightest empathy whatsoever toward migrant families or the working poor or people of color, when we see how hostile our nation has been to them and how oppressive it still is.

It’s woke to want fair elections.
It’s woke to be anti-racist.
It’s woke to be anti-fascist.
It’s woke to trust Science.
It’s woke to wear a mask in a pandemic.
It’s woke to be the parent of a bullied child.
It’s woke to want to be addressed with the gender you identify with.
It’s woke to want a less-polluted community.

Anything that brings equity gets this label from the Right because inequity is its only goal.

Their goal is not to water the tree of liberty. Their goal is to poison the well of democracy, to render it unusable by the rest of us who share this land, to sabotage its very foundations.

The rule of law is one of those foundations. Equal justice under law is on trial in Manhattan (and in pending Trump cases).

See the New York Times this morning for what it looks like in the West Bank where the law protects the lawless but not the disfavored, where lawbreakers become lawmakers:

The two-tier situation has only become worse during the past year. We scrutinized a sample of three dozen cases from the West Bank since Oct. 7 that shows how much the legal system has decayed. In cases ranging from stealing livestock to arson to violent assault, not a single suspect was charged with a crime; in one case, a settler shot a Palestinian in the stomach while an Israel Defense Forces soldier looked on, yet the police questioned the shooter for only 20 minutes and never as a criminal suspect.

Where does the extremist right mean to take the United States? Behold the template:

In the West Bank, a new generation of ultranationalists has taken an even more radical turn against the very notion of a democratic Israeli state. Their objective is to tear down Israel’s institutions and to establish “Jewish rule”: anointing a king, building a temple in place of the Jerusalem mosques sacred to Muslims worldwide, imposing a religious regime on all Jews.

The Times investigation continues here. As Republican lawmakers threatened the International Criminal Court last month, you have been warned.

Now, what are you prepared to do about it?

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The Supremes are more than doing their part

I noted last week that Bolts magazine was featuring a reader Q&A with an election law expert and they have published some of them today. It’s quite interesting even if a little bit depressing. But we’re used to that when it comes to this subject.

Here’s one example:

What’s the most underrated case where this court weakened voting rights, but that we just don’t talk about enough? — Anonymous

There are two cases that hardly anyone has heard of but that have had a major impact on the way the Supreme Court treats the constitutional right to vote: Anderson v. Celebrezze, in 1983, and Burdick v. Takushi, in 1992. Anderson dealt with the desire of an independent candidate to gain ballot access after a state’s deadline for turning in enough signatures. Burdick was about an individual’s attempt to write-in a candidate instead of choosing one of the candidates listed on the ballot. (These two cases are the subjects of Chapters 1 and 2 of my new book.) But the specific disputes in these cases are less important than the judicial test that came out of them.

These two cases began the Supreme Court’s descent into its underprotection of the right to vote by failing to apply the highest judicial standard, known as strict scrutiny. 

Previously, the court in the 1960s had strongly protected voters by requiring a state to prove that it had a really good reason for a law that infringed upon the right to vote, and that the law actually achieved that goal. But in Anderson, the court began to weaken that test, instead balancing the burden that a law imposes on voters with a state’s interests in regulating the election as it wishes. Burdick went further, accepting a state’s desire to run its election as it sees fit. These two cases comprise what election scholars call the “Anderson–Burdick” balancing test. 

Now, states no longer have to explain, with specificity, their reasons for a law to have the Supreme Court uphold its voting regulation. As far as this court is concerned, a state can simply offer a more general assertion that it’s looking to “prevent voter fraud” or “ease election administration,”  even when doing so is at the expense of voters’ easy access to the ballot.

Check out the full Q&A if you are interested in this subject. This Court is fully engaged in the right’s assault on democracy — and they’ve been playing a very long game.

Remember, the only reason they are so intent upon doing this is because they know they are on the wrong side of history, the party of the wealthy, landowning class, and will not win if everyone has a right to vote and exercises it. They’re been trying to ensure that doesn’t happen since the founding of the republic.

Just today:

#BREAKING: #SCOTUS issues stays in Louisiana congressional redistricting case; clears way for second majority-minority House district in 2024 election.

The three Democratic appointees publicly dissent, with Justice Jackson worrying about the apparent expansion of Purcell. pic.twitter.com/QXrbQwY7YS

— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) May 15, 2024

Marjorie Taylor Greene: Americans are looking at Republicans and laughing at us. They think we are a complete joke pic.twitter.com/2xrY6DQvD9

— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) May 15, 2024

It’s nervous laughter, but laughter it is.

Even the faithful just aren’t that into her anymore:

In the past, Family Research Council, founded in 1983 by Focus on the Family, and Concerned Women for America, founded in 1978 by the late Beverly LaHaye, both endorsed Greene 100% and applauded her for her work opposing LGBTQ rights and other issues.

Now, both groups are criticizing Greene’s latest “bizarre conundrum”: the effort to take down House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has a long association with their movement.

“Stop the madness,” said FRC President Tony Perkins in the organization’s The Washington Stand, which says it provides “news and commentary from a biblical worldview.”

“I thought the goal of government was to work for the people — not just take political pot shots at the other party,” said Perkins, who has mentored Johnson for decades.

FRC criticized Greene as well as the 10 Republicans who supported her latest effort to oust Johnson, calling them “the irrational wing of the GOP,” “GOP rebels,” “attention seekers” and “rogue members” and blaming their “selfish ploy” for the House’s “disruption and chaos,” “soap opera” and “kindergarten atmosphere.”

“Strangely enough, Democrats seem to be the reasonable party here,” said the Washington Stand in March. The outlet’s articles run in other conservative outlets, including the American Family Association’s The Stand and The Patriot Post.

When you’ve lost Tony Perkins …

And yes, I realize that the stock market isn’t the economy. But the economy is doing well too:

The week so far. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/bKRTVbpQoO

— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) May 15, 2024

Four years ago, this was what Trump told people. He says the same thing today and is never quizzed by anyone about how he justifies saying it considering how wrong he was. The one rationalization he gives is that the markets are up in anticipation of his win and that he hopes they crash before he becomes president again because he doesn’t want to be Herbert Hoover.

Trump in 2020: You have 401ks? Oh, you’re going to only vote for Trump, because otherwise, those 401(k)s are going to be worthless. That’s a big incentive

(The Dow just hit 40,000 for the first time ever in history under President Biden) pic.twitter.com/4vz16ghDPy

— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) May 16, 2024

Whatevs???

From The Washington Post, “US inflation eased last month in first slowdown of 2024” –

Led by lower food and auto prices, inflation in the United States cooled slightly last month after three elevated readings, likely offering a tentative sigh of relief for officials at the Federal Reserve as well as President Joe Biden’s re-election team.

Consumer prices rose 0.3% from March to April, the Labor Department said Wednesday, down slightly from 0.4% the previous month. Measured year-over-year, inflation ticked down from 3.5% to 3.4%. And a gauge of underlying inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, reached its lowest level in three years…..

……Wednesday’s report provides a dose of reassurance that the pace of price increases may be resuming its slowdown. While the latest figures show inflation still well above the Fed’s 2% target, it’s the first time this year that the year-over-year figure has declined. And price increases cooled in some service industries, such as hotels, health care and auto repairs, that had previously kept inflation elevated.

The report “was a tiny step in the right direction,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com. “The fight against inflation is not yet over, but the worsening trend observed in the first quarter of 2024 may have ended……

…..Among individual items in April, grocery prices slipped, providing a break to shoppers. Egg prices, which have been volatile after a bout of avian flu, fell 7.3%. New and used car prices also dropped. By contrast, prices for gas and clothing both jumped.

Will anyone notice or are Americans in such a funk that they can’t see it? Someday they will, of course. The question is whether it will be in time to help Joe Biden or will they vote for Trump and give him all the credit?

I don’t usually watch Morning Joe because I’m on the west coast and it’s on very early for me. But the segment above has been circulating today and I thought it was worth sharing. It’s about the polling — specifically how the political press goes nuts over every bit of bad news for Biden in every NYT poll when others are showing a tighter race.

For all we know, the NY Times poll is entirely right and the others are all wrong. It’s certainly possible. It’s a good poll with experienced and qualified analysts. But the rush to assume that even when there are other legitimate polls that suggest otherwise is a problem because it’s helping to set Trump up to challenge the results of the election if it doesn’t go his way. If the country is programmed to believe that Trump is way ahead in the polls and Biden is in much deeper trouble than he is after months of this kind of press coverage, his people (and probably others) will be predisposed to believe Trump’s lies about a rigged election.

If these polls are correct then we will have bigger problems but if Biden wins, there will be regrets for flogging these negative polls so hard to the exclusion of the others that showed it was much closer. The media needs to be careful of how they talk about the horse race in light of this. And the Democrats should take heed too and stop their perennial pearl clutching over every bump in the road. It is always detrimental on some level but it’s downright dangerous now.

Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020. Since then, he hasn’t shown up for a debate.

Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again.

Well, make my day, pal. pic.twitter.com/AkPmvs2q4u

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 15, 2024

The AP reports:

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump on Wednesday agreed to hold two campaign debates — the first on June 27 hosted by CNN and the second on Sept. 10 hosted by ABC — setting the stage for the first presidential face-off in just weeks.

[…]

Trump, in a post on his Truth Social site, said he was “Ready and Willing to Debate” Biden.

Hours later, Biden said he accepted an invitation from CNN, adding, “Over to you, Donald.” Trump said on Truth Social he’d be there, adding, “Let’s get ready to Rumble!!!” And soon after that, they agreed to the second debate on ABC.

“Trump says he’ll arrange his own transportation,” Biden wrote on X. “I’ll bring my plane, too. I plan on keeping it for another four years.”

Trump is convinced that Biden is such a doddering, drooling old fool that he’ll fall asleep during the debate. (This is rich considering that it’s actually drowsy Don who’s falling asleep every day in court.) His entire campaign is predicated on the idea that Biden is so ancient that he can’t run the country like the vital, virile superman Donald Trump. And yet, whenever the country tunes in to watch Biden fall off the stage he actually does quite well and Trump whines that he was on drugs.

Biden needs to be seen by a national audience right now to prove that this is all crap. It’s ridiculous but between the Republicans, the mainstream press and Biden’s lack of bronzer, hair dye and Aquanet he’s seen by the public as much older than Trump despite the fact that they are actually the same age — and Trump is the one showing signs of dementia, not Biden.

The much anticipated testimony by former Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen finally arrived this week and from the sound of many of the talking heads on television it’s been a huge disappointment. They were apparently expecting the former president’s one-time personal “fixer” to melt down on the stand in a fit of rage or lunge at his former boss but instead the carefully prepared Cohen was subdued and succinct, admitting his lies and misdeeds in service of Donald Trump with a sorrowful mien.

The prosecution’s case has been meticulously laid out through testimony from the people with whom Trump conspired to create fake news items about his political rivals in 2016 and their scheme to buy up negative stories about him. This was accompanied with testimony from his loyal, former assistants creating a timeline delineating what the former president knew and when he knew it.

And then there was Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress who received the hush money payoff, taking the stand to dramatically verify that the story they were trying to suppress was true. All of this has been backed up by a paper trail that even includes handwritten notes by Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg on incriminating documents outlining the crime Trump is charged with committing.

But the full story is best told through Michael Cohen who ties all the various strands of the plot together. In the last two days of direct and cross examination he has woven the tale of a nefarious scheme hatched by Donald Trump, a tabloid smear merchant, women with whom the married Trump had sexual relationships along with some lawyers and accountants to illegally suppress information and cook the books to aid Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016. Most legal observers think he’s done a good job of it, in spite of the baggage he carries as a convicted felon. (As every TV lawyer has pointed out at least once, witnesses who flip on their co-conspirator bosses are, by definition, not pure and innocent but they testify for the government in courtrooms around the country every day.)

At this writing Cohen in still in the midst of cross examination by Trump’s defense lawyers who appear to be suggesting that Cohen is angry with Trump for failing to pick him for a plum position in the White House that he’s lying about his personal plot to spend his own money and lie for him repeatedly, which seems a bit strained. When asked by Trump’s attorney why he would have done such things, Cohen replied, “I was deep in the cult of Donald Trump.”

Considering where he is today, there’s certainly a lesson in that but it’s obvious that some people who should know better are not heeding it. I’m speaking of the elected Republicans who are now making pilgrimages to Manhattan to demonstrate their fealty to the Dear Leader, even down to their clothes and the placement of their flag pins:

Dressed by daddy. pic.twitter.com/2cfkCCG08E

— Brian Guest (@brguest20) May 14, 2024

Cults often have uniforms, The only thing missing is a red MAGA hat to make it complete.

I called this last week when I wrote about Florida Senator Rick Scott’s appearance in court, after Trump was reported to have complained that he was getting no support from the party in his time of need. I expected that the VP wannabes would be making the trek right quick, elbowing each other out of the way to gain his attention. Sure enough, this week we have seen contenders, J.D. Vance, R-Oh., Gov. Doug Burgam, R-N.D., Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fl., and MAGA Trump superfans, Sen., Tommy Tuberville, Vivek Ramaswamy and last but hardly least, the Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. (S. Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and Marco Rubio of Florida had better step it up.)

These GOP luminaries are supposedly there to provide moral support to the Republican nominee for president. As J.D. Vance told Fox News:

“I mean, look, I was there to support a friend. Recognizing that sometimes it’s a little bit lonely to sit up there by yourself, I offered to come in and maybe just be a friendly face in the courtroom. And that’s all I wanted to do.”

Please. That’s not really what they’re there to do for Donald Trump. They come into the courtroom for about 45 minutes or so then they leave and hold a press conference outside. They rant about the trial being a witch hunt and a sham and say all the things Trump is precluded from saying because of the gag order imposed by the judge to stop him from putting the family members of the the court employees, the witnesses and jury members in danger. It’s a blatant act of defiance of the spirit of the law from a group of people who take an oath to uphold it.

Senator Tuberville, a man with absolutely no filter, told Newsmax that this is a coordinated strategy:

Hopefully, we have more and more senators and congressmen go up every day to represent him and be able to go out and overcome this gag order. And that’s one of the reasons we went, is to be able to speak our piece for President Trump.

Perhaps the most shocking performance of the group so far was Speaker Johnson, the man who is second in line to the presidency, who called the trial a sham and, like most of the others, even lied about the judge’s daughter putting her in the cross hairs of the crazy MAGA followers in defiance of the gag order. What a low, low moment for American politics.

Trump is naturally very pleased with this unctuous display of sycophancy. He came before the cameras on Tuesday and said “I have a lot of surrogates and they are speaking very beautifully.” If it could be proved that he “directed” them to do this, he would go to jail for violating the gag order but Trump’s mob boss style is well-understood. They all know very well what Trump wants them to say without him ever having to tell them.

All of these grasping sycophants are now “deep in the cult of Donald Trump” just as Michael Cohen was all those years ago. As MSNBC’s Chris Hayes so sharply observed yesterday,

You’re watching the next iteration of people auditioning to be the next version of that guy up on the stand … Here you have this set of people who seem to bear no connection to the ghost of Christmas future of the man on the stand who was himself this supplicant figure and you wonder which one of them is going to end up in the same position.

"There's a weird thing happening in that courtroom!"

WATCH: @Chrislhayes shares what it's like watching Trump, Cohen, Ramaswamy, Eric & Lara Trump and others from inside the courtroom. pic.twitter.com/ZuoykbJsf7

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) May 14, 2024

I think they all are in one way or another. No one escapes unscathed. They are all so blinded by ambition and the ecstasy of being in this exciting moment that they are failing to see that they are heading down exactly the same humiliating path that led Cohen to that witness stand this week having to confess to the whole world that he was a fool who destroyed his life trying to please this man who has never cared for anyone but himself.

He’s losing a troubling number of Republicans

It’s Wednesday, so Donald “88 Counts” Trump is not in court. He is free to golf and complain his criminal trial means he’s unable to campaign for president.

Tuesday featured three additional presidential primaries in Maryland, Nebraska, and West Virginia. Politico’s lede: “Donald Trump showed weakness in the suburbs in Tuesday’s primaries, while Joe Biden’s problem with the protest vote appeared to fade.”

Zombie Nikki is still a problem for Trump:

A week after Nikki Haley earned 22 percent of the vote in Indiana’s open GOP primary, the widespread expectation was that different rules in the states voting on Tuesday would take a huge chunk out of support for her zombie presidential candidacy.

That didn’t exactly happen. Even though Haley likely won’t end up matching her Indiana total in Maryland, Nebraska or West Virginia, there are still some warning signs for Trump in the results.

Unlike Indiana, where voters can pick any primary ballot they’d like, the GOP primary was open only to registered Republicans in Maryland and Nebraska, and registered Republicans and independents in West Virginia.

Despite its semi-open primary, West Virginia was the Trumpiest of the three states: The former president captured 88 percent of the vote there. But there were significant pockets of Trump resistance among Republicans in Maryland and Nebraska.

Bad news for Biden Trump

As for Joe Biden, another caveat to the Democratic fretting over the polls. Politico notes:

It’s been a paradox for Democrats fretting about Biden’s standing in the polls: Republicans are more likely to say they’ll vote for Trump in general-election polling than Democrats are for Biden, but there are more protest votes in the primaries against Trump.

That continued Tuesday in Maryland and Nebraska, where Biden outran Trump significantly by percentage. In Nebraska, Biden was breaking 90 percent of the vote against Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), even as Trump was stuck in the low 80s against Haley. And in Maryland, the “uncommitted” ballot line was poised to earn about 10 percent of the vote, with the greatest concentrations in the Republican counties of far Western Maryland.

There was still some “protest” vote for Biden in West Virginia, “with Jason Palmer, the surprising winner of the March caucuses in American Samoa, drawing more than 10 percent of the vote.” Ho-kay.

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Don’t lose your nerve, Joe

A friend who like others is permanently frustrated with “the Democrats” said Monday she wants them to show more fight. No argument here.

We saw feistiness from Joe Biden during and in the wake of his State of the Union address: a flurry of hard-hitting internet ads went after his wannabe fascist opponent. But as college protests proliferated over the body count in the Gaza Strip, it feels as if the Biden campaign has dialed it back. It’s not helping that some polls show him trailing Donald Trump in several battleground states.

Tuesday’s Axios story that claims Biden doesn’t believe he’s behind, writes Dan Pfeiffer, got “Democrats reverting to their natural state of worry verging on panic.” Pfeiffer argues that campaign is not in denial about current polling. Running a campaign. especially a presidential campaign, is largely about “mood management,” he explains. What makes it worse is Democrats vent their anxieties in public while you rarely see a poll unfavorable to Donald Trump on Fox News:

Of course, the Biden folks are putting their best face forward. What do these reporters want them to say? OMG, WE ARE LOSING!!! And then crawl under the nearest table and assume the fetal position? Of course, they are confident, but that’s not the same as cockiness or denial.

But what are they doing?

I doubt the campaign agrees Biden is down by such large margins in Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada. I also doubt the Biden Campaign agrees that Trump is winning historically significant shares of young, Black, and Hispanic voters. But if we focus on how the campaign is deploying resources, it is obvious this will be an incredibly close election that could come down to a few thousand votes in the six battleground states. The Biden Campaign is raising money and spending it at a frenetic pace. They are running millions of dollars in television and digital ads monthly. According to the Biden Campaign, by the end of this month, they will have 200 offices and 500 staffers across the six battleground states polled by the NYT and North Carolina.

The time and money spent shows that they aren’t in denial about the demographic challenges. This campaign is targeting Black and Hispanic voters much earlier than previous campaigns. Last week, the campaign announced major ad buys in Black, Hispanic, and AAPI media. Finally, over the last several months, the President has highlighted his efforts to cancel student debt, fight climate change, and decriminalize marijuana — all issues of particular importance to younger voters.

I have known the people running the Biden Campaign for decades. These are very smart, experienced, data-driven political operatives. They know what they are doing. They are not readying themselves for defeat. Whether you think the latest polls are right or wrong, the operatives are making perfect moves. I am not saying Biden will win. This is a very tough election and he is facing a lot of headwinds, But if he loses,, it won’t be because of complacency or denial on the part of his campaign.

That’s all reassuring. Mastering the mechanics is vital. But what the Biden campaign also needs to manage is my friend’s mood and yours. Elections are not about good policy. They are for better or worse about feelings. Lately, about vibes. About the economy, inflation, etc., yes, but about more.

Michael Tomasky scratches his head over Trump getting credit for Biden’s economic accomplishments. Part of the problem is the media’s need to balance any good news about Biden’s accomplishments with criticism (even up-is-down lies) from Republicans. The numbers are good for the Biden economy, but it’s people’s perceptions that drive them. It’s no good if Biden’s economic numbers are terrific and no one knows it.

The New Republic cautions that conservative plans for dismantling the government under a second Trump administration could roll back a century of progress on public health. Food that’s safe to eat, air that’s safe to breathe, water that’s clean, and access to medical care when you get sick is on the line. Democrats need to be seen fighting for them, not just touting their policies and statistics.

Republicans are the bad guys here, bent on tearing down the fabric of the country. Conservatives don’t like social changes over the last couple of decades? How will they feel about losing the health insurance Democrats won them? How will they feel about losing their Medicare and Medicaid, about having their Social Security benefits cut? How will the rest of us feel about seeing marginalized communties driven back into the closet?

Biden needs more than numbers. He needs a narrative, a story with heroes. And he needs to press the attack. In its absence, the right with its multi-tentacled media machine will advance its own and win the battle of public perceptions.

Remember Maverick losing his nerve near the end of Top Gun? But then he calls on his reserves — “Talk to me, Goose.” —and the radarman on the carrier calls out, “Maverick’s reengaging, sir.” Biden and “the Democrats” need to do the same.

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