Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

Precious few, but not no principled conservatives

Only a fool would predict a new Donald Trump scandal will finally collapse his support. The Trump shock troops who cover their lawns and trucks and boats and bodies in loud professions of their MAGA faith are too far gone.

Trump has spent his life flouting the law using his daddy’s money, his own notoriety, and a bevy of attorneys to keep himself out of the hoosegow. It’s the habit of a lifetime of crime. Laws that apply to ordinary people are but annoying flies Trump swats away. He believes his shit doesn’t stink (contrary to reports) despite attracting swarms of prosecutorial flies.

If anything does end Trump, it won’t be a bullet or another criminal indictment or an investigation into his illegally accepting $10 million in 2016 from an account tied to the Egyptian General Intelligence Service. It might be a personal insult to ordinary Americans. Like the families of fallen soldiers he’s already described as losers and suckers. Only this time, he did not issue the insult on foreign soil but at Arlington National Cemetery.

Perhaps Trump’s exploitation of the nation’s war dead last month to film a campaign commercial was the last straw. And he may still evade accountability for that. A sane candidate would let the matter drop. Not Trump. He’s too entitled for that.

On Wednesday at Duke University, former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, already a prominent Trump opponent, endorsed Trump’s Democratic opponent for president, Vice President Kamala Harris.

The Duke Chronical reports:

Former Congresswoman Liz Cheney revealed she will vote for Vice President Kamala Harris at a Wednesday Duke event titled “Defending Democracy.”

Peter Feaver, professor of political science and director of the Duke Program in American Grand Strategy, who moderated the event, asked Cheney if she wanted to “make news” by endorsing a presidential candidate.

Cheney had previously not weighed in on which candidate she would be supporting in the 2024 presidential election.

“Because we are here in North Carolina, I think it is crucially important for people to recognize … that Trump poses something that should prevent people from voting for him, but I don’t believe we have the luxury of writing in candidates’ names — particularly in swing states,” she said. “And as a conservative, and someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this and because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”

Her comments elicited a standing ovation from the audience.

The Associated Press:

The daughter of former vice president Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney has been perhaps Trump’s highest-profile Republican critic. She joins other Republicans like her former Jan. 6 committee member, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger and former Rep. Denver Riggleman, as backers of Harris. More than 200 alumni of the Bush administration and former Republican presidential campaigns of the late Sen. John McCain and Sen. Mitt Romney also announced their endorsement of Harris last week.

Asked for comment, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung responded: “Who is Liz Cheney and what does she do?”

Dripping with contempt, that comment from Cheung, Dear Readers, is Trumpism in a nutshell. With all the attendant misogyny.

The Harris campaign responded (ABC News):

“The Vice President is proud to have earned Congresswoman Cheney’s vote. She is a patriot who loves this country and puts our democracy and our Constitution first,” Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote. “As she noted in her powerful remarks, this election is a choice between the fundamental threat Donald Trump poses to our democracy and a leader who will stand up for our freedoms and the rule of law in Vice President Harris.”

Jimmy McCain, son of the late Republican Senator John McCain, also endorsed Harris following Trump’s Arlington commercial shoot. The BBC reports that three generations of McCain family members are buried at Arlington:

He added: “The point of Arlington Cemetery is to go and show respect for the men and women who have given their lives to this country. When you make it political, you take away the respect of the people who are there.”

Mr McCain, who was previously an independent, said he has changed his voter registration to Democrat and plans to vote for Ms Harris for president in November.

Trump’s Arlington Cemetery incident may not have finally tipped the scale for Cheney, but surely played a role. Let it not be said that there are no principled conservatives left. Precious few, but not none.

You know it’s the first day of school in America when…

Prior to today's horror in Georgia, there were 133 incidents of gunfire, 38 deaths, and 81 injuries on school grounds in 2024 (source: Everytown for School Safety).

Ring ring goes the bell. #GunControlNow

— Dennis Hartley (@denofcinema5) September 5, 2024

I’ve run out of words on this subject, so I am reposting this (again).

(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on February 14, 2023)

Tell me why: A therapeutic mixtape

In a 2016 piece about the mass shooting at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub, I wrote:

But there is something about [Orlando] that screams “Last call for sane discourse and positive action!” on multiple fronts. This incident is akin to a perfect Hollywood pitch, writ large by fate and circumstance; incorporating nearly every sociopolitical causality that has been quantified and/or debated over by criminologists, psychologists, legal analysts, legislators, anti-gun activists, pro-gun activists, left-wingers, right-wingers, centrists, clerics, journalists and pundits in the wake of every such incident since Charles Whitman perched atop the clock tower at the University of Texas and picked off nearly 50 victims (14 dead and 32 wounded) over a 90-minute period. That incident occurred in 1966; 50 years ago this August. Not an auspicious golden anniversary for our country. 50 years of this madness. And it’s still not the appropriate time to discuss? What…too soon?

All I can say is, if this “worst mass shooting in U.S. history” (which is saying a lot) isn’t the perfect catalyst for prompting meaningful public dialogue and positive action steps once and for all regarding homophobia, Islamophobia, domestic violence, the proliferation of hate crimes, legal assault weapons, universal background checks, mental health care (did I leave anything out?), then WTF will it take?

Well, that didn’t take:

Morning dawned Tuesday on East Lansing to a rattled Michigan State University campus hours after a mass shooting left three dead and five others critically injured.

An alert was sent at 8:31 p.m. Monday, telling students to “run, hide, fight” with a report of shots fired at Berkey Hall and at the MSU Union.

Two people were killed at Berkey Hall, said university Interim Deputy Police Chief Chris Rozman. The gunman then moved to the MSU Union, where another was killed.

Students were told to shelter in place as authorities searched for the gunman. The 43-year-old suspect was Anthony McRae, Rozman said at a news conference Tuesday. McRae was found off campus early Tuesday before he could be arrested; he had died from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. […]

McRae was not affiliated with the university, and authorities didn’t know early Tuesday why he came to MSU.

“We have absolutely no idea what the motive was,” Rozman said.

“Absolutely no idea” indeed. As in, I have absolutely no idea why our legislators cannot seem to take even one tiny infinitesimal step forward on enacting sensible gun reform.

OK…I have some idea:

Every single shooting could be one of the last. Instead we continue the endless debate that drives the inaction which brought us here. Until we start making our response to these shootings finding common ground and acting like we did after Parkland- this won’t end. https://t.co/IbNHEqA11g

— David Hogg 🟧 (@davidhogg111) February 14, 2023

And today, Michigan’s governor (as any decent and compassionate leader reflexively does) has donned the mantle of Consoler-in-Chief:

Too many of us scan rooms for exits when we enter. Many have gone through the grim exercise of figuring out who would be our last call. Last night, kids at MSU made those calls. They worried for their lives, their friends, their fellow Spartans

We can't keep living like this. pic.twitter.com/SgDgQ3CbD1

— Governor Gretchen Whitmer (@GovWhitmer) February 14, 2023

It appears the governor and I are of like mind:

School hijinx in America, then and now. (L) 1950s: How many students can you fit in a phone booth? (R) 2023: How many students can you fit in a safe room? #GunControlNow #GunReformNow pic.twitter.com/cD38Bf5HlK

— Dennis Hartley (@denofcinema5) February 14, 2023

Saddest of all, the MSU shootings occurred on the eve of a grim anniversary:

As I sit here crying for my family & our loss of Jaime 5 years ago in Parkland, I'm watching the press conference in Michigan where treating physician is crying. Gun violence breaks families & breaks communities. BEFORE IT IS YOUR LOVED ONE, DEMAND WE FIX THIS ONCE & FOR ALL.

— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) February 14, 2023

You remember Parkland, right? In my review of the 2020 documentary After Parkland, I wrote:

So where are we at today, in the two years since a gunman opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle at Stoneman Douglas High, killing 17 people and wounding 17 others in just 6 minutes? According to a 2019 AP story, a report issued in February of last year by a student journalism project “…concluded that  1,149 children and teenagers died from a shooting in the year since the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School,” citing that the stats cover “school shootings, domestic violence cases, drug homicides and by stray bullets”. Mind you, nearly another year has passed since that report was released. […]

The most powerful moments [in After Parkland] are in the beginning, which contains a collage of real-time cell phone audio of the Parkland incident. The chilling sounds of automatic gunfire and students screaming in pain and terror brought to mind Martin Luther King’s quote ”Wait has always meant never ”. If every lawmaker was locked in chambers and forced to listen to that audio on a continuous loop until they passed sensible gun reform, perhaps they would all finally reach their breaking point.

You know what “they” say-we all have a breaking point. When it comes to this particular topic, I have to say, I think that I may have finally reached mine. I’ve written about this so many times, in the wake of so many horrible mass shootings, that I’ve lost count. I’m out of words. There are no Scrabble tiles left in the bag, and I’m stuck with a “Q” and a “Z”. Game over. Oh waiter-check, please. The end. Finis. I have no mouth, and I must scream.

Something else “they” say…music soothes the savage beast. Not that this 10-song playlist that I have assembled will necessarily assuage the grief, provide the answers that we seek, or shed any new light on the subject-but sometimes, when words fail, music speaks.

As the late great Harry Chapin tells his audience in the clip I’ve included below: “Here’s a song that I could probably talk about for two weeks. But I’m not going to burden you, and hopefully the story and the words will tell it the way it should be.” What Harry said.

“Family Snapshot” – Peter Gabriel

“Friend of Mine” – Jonathan & Stephen Cohen (Columbine survivors)

“Guns Guns Guns” – The Guess Who

“I Don’t Like Mondays” – The Boomtown Rats

“Jeremy” – Pearl Jam

“Melt the Guns” – XTC

“Psycho Killer” – The Talking Heads

“Saturday Night Special” – Lynyrd Skynyrd

“Sniper” – Harry Chapin

“Ticking” – Elton John

More reviews at Den of Cinema

—Dennis Hartley

I think he’s finally broken:

Trump, who has done nothing but complain since he lost the 2020 election: “Kamala Harris does nothing but complain. Always complaining about this or that…She does nothing but talk. Nothing but gripe. Nothing but complain about the terrible border or the economy and inflation.” pic.twitter.com/v2XnREg5o5

— Republican Voters Against Trump (@AccountableGOP) September 4, 2024

Has there ever been anyone with less self-awareness on this planet?

Is there any doubt that Ginni is speaking for her husband here?

Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, privately heaped praise on a major religious-rights group for fighting efforts to reform the nation’s highest court — efforts sparked, in large part, by her husband’s ethical lapses.

Thomas expressed her appreciation in an email sent to Kelly Shackelford, an influential litigator whose clients have won cases at the Supreme Court. Shackelford runs the First Liberty Institute, a $25 million-a-year organization that describes itself as “the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious liberty for all Americans.”

Shackelford read Thomas’ email aloud on a July 31 private call with his group’s top donors.

Thomas wrote that First Liberty’s opposition to court-reform proposals gave a boost to certain judges. According to Shackelford, Thomas wrote in all caps: “YOU GUYS HAVE FILLED THE SAILS OF MANY JUDGES. CAN I JUST TELL YOU, THANK YOU SO, SO, SO MUCH.”

Shackelford said he saw Thomas’ support as evidence that judges, who “can’t go out into the political sphere and fight,” were thankful for First Liberty’s work to block Supreme Court reform. “It’s neat that, you know, those of you on the call are a part of protecting the future of our court, and they really appreciate it,” he said.

These many “judges” she speaks of must be the corrupt wingnuts on the Supreme Court since all other judges already have to adhere to an ethics code. Only her husband and his cronies aren’t subject to one.

It’s interesting that a religious liberty organization is weighing in on this. I guess Jesus was in favor of judicial corruption.

You’d think that Ginni would keep a low profile since she’s been exposed as a right wing provocateur and coup plotter. Then again, why? Nothing will ever come of it. She’s teflon and so is her husband. They do what they want. It’s yet another sad illustration of the fact that our system requires people of integrity to run it and if they fail, it requires people of integrity to police it. It’s not working out.

This Frontline feature on Clarence and Ginni is worth watching if you haven’t seen it:

Sigh. Trump’s assassination attempt was an inside job:

Just hours after the assassination attempt against Donald Trump on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, high-profile allies of the ex-president began promoting unfounded conspiracy theories and blaming President Joe Biden and Democrats, without evidence, for causing the horrific attack. Trump and his surrogates have continued nonstop ever since with this coordinated messaging, which security experts have told me could provoke retaliatory violence from pro-Trump extremists. In late August, backers of Project 2025 joined the effort pushing this dangerous propaganda.

On Aug. 29, podcast host Monica Crowley interviewed Trump and proposed without evidence that he may have been targeted for murder from within the Biden administration.

“The more we see what happened that day, the more suspicious it all looks,” said Crowley, a former Trump administration spokesperson and a credited contributor on the Project 2025 policy tome detailing a hard-right agenda for a second Trump presidency. “Does it look increasingly to you like this was a suspicious—maybe even inside job?”

“Well, it’s strange,” Trump replied. Then he speculated about the deceased gunman’s father hiring “the most expensive lawyer” and suggested a partisan conspiracy involving former Justice Department prosecutor Andrew Weissmann and Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias. Weissmann quickly denounced Trump’s comments as false on social media. A spokesperson for Elias Law Group told me that no one from the firm has had any involvement in any aspect of the case.

Trump further claimed in the podcast interview, first reported by Media Matters for America, that the FBI had failed to gather evidence from the gunman’s cellphone. That’s untrue: FBI Director Christopher Wray and other FBI officials have spoken publicly about the bureau’s extensive investigation into the gunman’s background and activity, including his various digital communications.

Trump and Crowley then riffed about the JFK assassination, with Crowley reiterating the baseless conspiracy theory about the attack on Trump: “You were shot five or six weeks ago, and the imperial media, the regime, they’ve all buried it. They don’t want anybody talking about it, which also lends credence to this idea that this is very suspicious and could have been an inside job.”

“Yeah, true,” Trump interjected. “They don’t wanna talk about it.”

“Of course not,” she said.

“Tells you bad things,” Trump said, starting to draw a connection with the broader conspiracy theory at the core of his campaign.

This will be an article of faith before the election. There’s no way Trump can accept that it was just some young would-be mass shooter Republican kid. It has to be a conspiracy.

Trump’s a racist

Just watch this:

We all know old guys like him and the women who love them. There are a lot of them. And plenty of young ones too. His condescending appeal that he’s “done more for the Blacks” than any other president makes my head explode. What is he, Lady Bountiful distributing some leftovers from the castle kitchen to the peasants?

He’s a racist and a misogynist and a raging xenophobe. We know tht, of course, but it’s good to be reminded.

Trump wants one

Oh right. That continuing resolution expires this month:

Donald Trump is pressuring Republicans to shut down the government at the end of this month if Congress doesn’t pass a GOP-backed proposal to establish new election rules nationwide.

Trump has called on Republicans in Congress to link funding the government with the SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship to vote — in a bid to target non-citizen voting, which is already illegal. And House Republican leaders are considering adopting the strategy and picking a fight with Democrats.

The deadline to fund the government is Sept. 30. The GOP-led House and Democratic-led Senate have to agree on how to move forward in order to prevent a shutdown, and Democrats have decried the SAVE Act as a poison pill.

“I would shut down the government in a heartbeat if they don’t get it,” Trump said on the “Monica Crowley Show” last week.

“It should be in the bill. And if it’s not in the bill, you want to close it up,” he said. “So I’m not there but, you know, I have influence.”

He oversaw the longest shutdown in history when he was president and learned absolutely nothing.

This is being pushed from the inside by Freedom Caucus types led by Chip Roy of Texas who thinks this is some kind of magic bullet that will help them keep the House. Apparently, they think that the country will turn on the Democrats once they learn that they are refusing to pass a bill making it illegal for undocumented migrants to vote — even though it’s already illegal. Trump, of course, thinks this will strengthen his case that the election was stolen which is all he cares about.

I don’t think they’re going to shut down in the middle of an election. It’s risky and they don’t have time to play games down in Washington when control of the House is so precarious. But you never know. They’re just that nuts.

Hello from the Moms for Liberty National Summit in Washington, where Trump is speaking tonight pic.twitter.com/Z8yFoqwTJE

— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) August 30, 2024

Trump kitsch is the worst American politics has ever produced, by far. From golden statues to t-shirts to murals and beyond it is the most gawdawful dreck ever made. Books will be written about it, graduate theses will be based on it. In fact there should be a museum dedicated to it someday, just so we don’t ever forget it.

This latest painting may be the worst:

MAGA artist says he just won the election for Trump with his new painting: “500 years from now, that is going to be the new Mona Lisa. The painting that the world speaks of. Because this painting is going to change the course of this election.” pic.twitter.com/QnGFaSf8h2

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) September 4, 2024

Here it is. It’s called “We Did It Joe” depicting Biden in a dunce cap in the corner, a nuclear explosion and Kamala Harris wearing a hammer and sickle grinning maniacally while eating the innards of a bald eagle:

I’m just going to leave that there because the NY Times Nicholas Kristof tells me that I need to stop demeaning the Trump followers. It’s not nice.

Lex Fridman: There's a moment where you had some hesitation about Epstein releasing some of the documents on Epstein. Why the hesitation?

Trump: I don't think I had… I mean, I'm not involved. I never went to his island, fortunately. But a lot of people did. pic.twitter.com/yfSnqADDZx

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) September 3, 2024

One of the articles of faith about the 2020 election among the MAGA crowd is that Joe Biden couldn’t possibly have won the election because he “campaigned from his basement” and never spoke before the big crowds as Donald Trump did. Biden didn’t campaign from his basement, of course, but he did run a very non-traditional campaign because the whole country was under a modified lockdown due to the COVID 19 pandemic. Large indoor gatherings that did take place, such as the one Trump held in Tulsa during the summer were super-spreader events that ended up with many people getting sick and some dying. That fall, Donald Trump himself showed up at a presidential debate knowingly infected and he soon ended up in the hospital and came close to dying himself.

Unlike Trump, Biden followed the advice of the scientists and they found ways to campaign without exposing themselves and the public unnecessarily. Despite all that, Trump and the right wing media insisted that Biden must have cheated because he didn’t barnstorm all over the country.

So what are we to make of the fact that in this campaign Trump can barely rouse himself to leave his cushy surroundings at Mar-a-lago and is more likely to be found on the golf course than giving a speech or holding a rally. Sure, does that but at a much slower pace than he did in his first two campaigns. He’s doing some non-traditional media, appearing on podcasts and giving interviews over the phone or at Mar-a-lago and he’s appeared at some right wing media confabs and made a foray to a plant in Pennsylvania last week. But the events are few and far between compared to the past.

He even skipped the traditional labor day blitz that every presidential candidate does as the kick-off to the fall campaign. Even if they have nothing positive to say about unions, Republican candidates always take advantage of the fact that people have a day off and are waking up to the fact that the campaign has begun. They usually fly around to various venues and hold rallies or show up at the state fair, as Kamala Harris and Tim Walz did on Monday.

Trump did nothing. He didn’t hold even one public event and while UPI reported that he was to hold a video call with current and retired members of the United Auto Workers I can find no record of it happening. His only campaign event this whole week isn’t scheduled until Saturday in Wisconsin.

As mentioned, he is doing media but even that is far less energetic that what we’re used to seeing from him. Last night he did an obscure X interview show and seemed desultory and depressed. If it was anyone else I would have thought he’d popped a Xanax before he went on. And the rallies he is doing are boring rehashes of the same old tunes.

One could almost say that Trump is campaigning from his basement. The question is, why? He knows what it takes to campaign for president. It’s been his life’s work for the past decade.

I might guess that he’s still very spooked by the assassination attempt and is resistant to going before the public. I can’t say that I would blame him. It was a very close call and it would freak anyone out. (He would never admit that, of course.) Or maybe it’s just that his heart isn’t really in it now that he thinks the Supreme Court has given him a get-out-of-jail-free card with its immunity ruling.

It’s also possible that his age has caught up with him and he just doesn’t have the “strength and the stamina” to campaign properly anymore. It certainly appeared that way in the interview on X last night and the Moms for Liberty appearance a few days back. He has never looked so frail — and some of the things he is saying are simply delusional. For instance, at the Moms for Liberty gathering he made insane claims that schools are performing transgender surgery on kids:

Trump says, "Your kid goes to school and comes home a few days late with an operation."

I'll give CashApp $1000 to anyone that shows proof of a middle school or high school that operated on a child and changed their gender.pic.twitter.com/McG4wakYTz

— Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) September 1, 2024

Before Biden withdrew there was a lot of loose talk coming from the campaign that Democratic states like New Jersey and New Mexico were in play. That was always hype but they were extremely confident that they had the election in the bag. Today, not so much.

The Boston Globe reported that a top volunteer in New Hampshire had informed the staff that the campaign had determined that the state is no longer a battleground state. (That volunteer has been fired.)

And AdImpact, which tracks political advertising released some startling numbers on Monday:

Reservations in Presidential Battlegrounds#PAPol:🔵$70.8M🔴$70.6M#GAPol:🔵$39M🔴$38.7M#MIPol:🔵$55.2M🔴$6.6M#AZPol:🔵$34.9M🔴$9.9M#WIPol:🔵$33.1M🔴$3.5M#NCPol:🔵$26M🔴$2.8M#NVPol:🔵$19.5M🔴$1.4M
Omaha market: 🔵$7M🔴$0

— AdImpact Politics (@AdImpact_Pol) August 30, 2024

You will notice that the Trump campaign is only competing in Pennsylvania and Georgia. All the other swing states are apparently being left to their own devices. This is surprising to say the least. They do have less money to play with than the Democrats but you’d think they’d at least try to hedge their bets. But the consensus is that they have decided that if they can hold all their 2020 states they will put all their money on picking up those two states which will bring them to exactly 270. If they lose either one (or N. Carolina) that’s the ballgame.

Just as likely they’re really just planning on a post election legal challenge in any or all of those states, claiming that the Democrats stole the election. You can certainly bet they’ll do it in Pennsylvania and Georgia where they are already plotting with local officials. Trump himself has said repeatedly that “our primary focus is not to get out the vote, it is to make sure they don’t cheat.”

If they can find a way to throw the election to the House, as they wanted to do in 2020, they will win and I kind of suspect that Trump would actually prefer to do it that way. It’s the ultimate power play, to make the Democrats lose through a post-election ploy that’s engineered by Trump and his cronies. In his twisted mind, I think that would even validate his Big Lie.

All of this probably explains why Trump isn’t really bothering to campaign much. He’ll spend some time in Pennsylvania and Georgia and make some perfunctory stops in some of the other swing states just to keep it close enough to contest. He’ll keep doing right wing media, the purpose of which is as much to keep his followers charged up about the alleged stealing as anything else. But unless he wins those two big states, which he might, he’s really preparing for the post election Big Lie Part II. He’s old and tired and at this point I think he’d rather whine than win.

I’ll have what she’s having

Michael Podhorzer offers a thread of observations on why unions are gaining public approval where other institutions are losing it:

You may have heard that public support for unions “has been increasing”—but you probably haven’t heard just how big a deal that is in the context of the last 15 years. Since the Great Recession, we’ve seen the credibility of, and approval for, just about every major institution plummet—yet we’ve seen support for unions substantially increase.

Why is this happening? I call it the “fuck yeah factor.” A lot of us who strongly support unions already have at least some agency in our working lives (like good pay and benefits, the ability to telecommute, and so on). We might read about a successful UAW strike and think, “Yay! Good for them!”

That’s not the experience of most working-class people in America, especially if they do not belong to a union. They and their peers often have little or no agency in their work life—unpredictable schedules, no paid leave, dangerous working conditions, and the ever present threat of being fired at will.

When they see other working-class people like them standing up to their bosses and winning, it’s a game-changer. They don’t think, “Yay! Good for them!” They think, “Fuck yeah! I want that too!”

The “fuck yeah” factor is exactly what scares plutocrats like Musk and Trump the most. It’s the seed of social proof that blossoms into meaningful solidarity and powerful collective action.

As Frederick Douglass famously said, “power concedes nothing without a demand” – and a true “demand” is much more than, say, a preference revealed on an issue poll.

Entrenched power will only respond to demands that are wielded by a countervailing power. For ordinary people, that means collective power.

To be clear, voting is an essential democratic freedom, but it’s not the collective power I’m talking about.

Voting is like going to a restaurant and choosing between entrees on the menu. Collective power is like sitting at the table deciding what’s on the menu.

The Great Recession taught America’s nuevo poor a valuable and painful lesson, one former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm cast bluntly at the DNC convention in 2012 in attacking Mitt Romney, Republicans’ presidential candidate:

He loves our cars so much, they have their own elevator. But the people who design, build, and sell those cars?

Well, in Romney’s world, the cars get the elevator; the workers get the shaft.

She didn’t have to tell them. They lived it. The contrast in 2024 is even starker, writes Podhorzer:

On one side: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris walking the picket line with striking UAW workers, and Harris launching her campaign in Milwaukee declaring her support for the freedom of working people to join unions. On the other side: Trump and Elon Musk gleefully cackling about firing striking workers, as Musk and other plutocratic Trump supporters hope for the Federalist Society (FedSoc) Supreme Court justices to declare the entire NLRB, if not collective bargaining itself, unconstitutional. As this post will show, their hostility to unions is a prerequisite for the success of their broader political project. 

Unions are one of the two institutions left with equalizing power for ordinary people. The other is evangelical churches that have “taken over the Republican Party and fueled the MAGA movement.”

Podhorzer cautions:

If you (like many Americans) think Project 2025 is just a right-wing extremist fantasy that can never become law, think again. Many of its wishlist items have already been enacted in RTW states, such as banning abortion, eliminating DEI programs, and undermining the independence of our elections. Trump can try to distance himself from Project 2025 all he wants, but there’s no question that he and Vance are deeply linked with it, both in terms of personnel and ideology, and that Project 2025 is likely to serve as a playbook for a Trump-Vance administration.

Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Unions as democratic institutions help ordinary workers offset the power of the power-hungry. When they win against the growing strength of America’s oligarchs, unions “fuck yeah” inspire others to want some of that. Social proof. Not simply “what do people like me think?” but “what do people like me do?”

As in, “I’ll have what she’s having.” Americans love to see the little guy win against the powerful. And the powerful have won quite a lot in the 21st century. Unions are growing in public favor because they demonstrate we don’t have to live in a world of, by, and for plutocrats.