It's been a long time since I was in the Hideout neighborhood. While digesting the news about them, I also looked at another place where I've been entertained. Exit too, is gone. I missed that. But then my ability to stay up and out that late is also gone.
Maher is right. It was forseeable since election denialism took over Republicans and they started fielding candidates to take over elections. And it was baked in when Democrats in Congress failed to pass a new Voter Rights Act to prevent it. And let us never forget that was due to the refusal to overturn the Senate filibuster rules by Joe Manchin and Kirstin Sinema. For shame.. There well never be another chance..
The problem is the Republican Party, has been since the Southern Democrats joined it in retaliation to the passage of the Civil Rights Act because of the GOP's "state's rights" plank. Atwater showed the GOP how to abuse the media to their advantage, with his dirty politics, from his experience with Southern Democrats who were now in the GOP, to win over the worst among the electorate on hate and fear, not issues. The Democrats, liberals who stayed in the party, never developed or never had the fight necessary to oppose the GOP's combined conservatism and libertarianism and so here we are.
Still, it is important to vote Democratic but force them to FIGHT because claiming the "higher ground", "going high when they go low" has NOT worked. The GOP will use democracy to tyrannize those that don't agree with them as they did to women in the unconstitutional Dobbs decision. It will get worse if the GOP maintains power.
I love Maher, but come on, his predictions of the end of democracy are over the top, just as were his predictions that Trump "wouldn't leave" last time. Granted, he was more right about that than I realized he would be, but we still didn't come anywhere close to an actual coup. There was never any genuine prospect of Trump occupying the Oval Office after he lost to Biden.
We are about to have a midterm election that will have a reassuringly normal result: the party in power, with low approval and economic gripes ascendant, will get a "shellacking." This happens almost every time. Republicans will lose support with their maniacal obsession with cutting rich people's taxes and screwing over ordinary people, and Democrats can and will return to power, sooner rather than later if they start campaigning like Tim Ryan. (And before you say that, yeah, well, he's gonna lose, note that Ohio is super red at this point and Ryan should easily beat the R-D spread).
The difference this time is that there are lots of election deniers on the ballot and the whole party has turned into Sarah Palin. I get it. But why is it so hard to grasp that a whackadoo secretary of state, say, cannot actually just do whatever he wants? Maher and others talk as though there is no such thing as rule of law in this country, as though judges are just in the tank for one side or another. This is -- really obviously -- way off, and one of the reasons we are not Hungary or Pakistan or Russia or various other places where liberal democracy is a joke. Trump-appointed judges threw out his bullshit last time, and they will throw out Trumpy bullshit this time. I have no reason to suspect otherwise. The Federalist Society does not simply name a bunch of hacks. An old friend of mine was on the list and was nominated by Trump -- a more thoughtful, honorable fellow you'll never meet.
Bottom line: I don't think the predictors of doom have a persuasive story of how it will actually happen. As soon as that whakadoo does something crazy, he'll be hauled into court by the other side.
I'm not discounting the possibility there could come a time when democracy dies in America. But, sheesh, we're quite a ways off. As soon as a candidate is actually able to steal an election, give me just one, I will start to despair. I just don't think we're there. I don't think we'll see that this time, and I don't think we'll see it in two years.
Not on message for Election Day, I guess, but the democracy-on-fire talk is counterproductive for two reasons. First, persuadable voters don't buy it. They think "both sides" do shit. (That's why they're persuadable. They're ideologically and factually illiterate.) Second, it sends the good guys off their game. The good guys need to be focused on expanding their appeal and winning elections instead of constantly whining about how the system is rigged and about to be rigged more. I thought that would have been obvious.
Maher's assertion "... no one in America can be persuaded of anything anymore anyway" troubles me. Is it that no one remains persuadable, or actual persuasion is even ATTEMPTED less and less?
My children around middle-school age used to declare what they thought were truths, and when I questioned how they knew whatever they had declared, would roll their eyes and dismiss my question with, "Mom!!! EVERYONE KNOWS [whatever]." It took years of patient refusal to accede to what "everyone" knew or did to train them that I could be persuaded to their way of thinking, but only if they presented me with facts and reasoning rather than loud overblown indignation. They did learn, and the thinking skill has served them well.
Of course, substituting noisy emotion for rational debate is to be expected of children. It's frightening when adult citizens of a democracy do likewise and expect that tantrums will cause them to get their way.
Here's why Maher might be / could be made to be wrong: All the conditions of authoritarianism he describes as headed our way, these were the daily conditions of life for [three hundred?] years for Black people in America. But Black people found a thousand ways to resist, to push back, fight back, gain space, win allies, and dilute the power of white supremacy to a very large degree. They fought every day, in every generation. The odds to succeed most of the time were awful. But they, and their allies, and people everywhere of good faith persisted and have so far wrestled white power to a draw. Maher sounds like he's done fighting, but that's a privilege others won't share. Press on!
this was the best grp of PS visual tweets yet! loved 4 of the 5 - but had to vote for the one with the guy climbing the ice wall - i've been telling that one to my kids [now in their 30s] for yrs!
I sort of agree with Eric's opening paragraph. An engaged and knowledgeable electorate are the foundation of a strong democracy. A predominantly uninformed electorate that is driven by short-hand emotional appeals is not a good thing for democracy, regardless of the ideological bent of the herders.
"Of course I would rather you not vote today if you don’t appreciate the gravity of the threat to democracy itself posed by so many Republican candidates, but either way, traditional non-voters should get out there while they still have the chance, as we see in the following item." --Zorn
The false accusation is that republicans are undermining democracy in America with their “extreme” positions, or that as a whole they are extremist characters in themselves; people commonly see this claim on TV or read about it in the papers every day. Another way of saying this is that – especially in an election season -- politically zealous (republican) people holding everyday strict moral beliefs are vying for political power in democratic territory; it seems to me that what is going on is that the Democrats have established a media narrative accusing the Republicans of undermining democracy, augmented by the public narrative claiming that the January 6th insurrection of the United States Capitol was an explicit attack on democracy (the structure and ideology) itself, as if domestically the republicans represent an invading foreign power -- another political ideology – like fascism, totalitarianism, or socialism, for example. The claim assumes truth in esse (in essence). This is deceptive, dishonest, and apathetic as pertains to power and control in America, especially since it is this fictitious narrative that we hear projected in the media every day. Who will save us? Is the republican situation any better? No. They’re like two mad dogs in a ring fighting to the bloody death; and how does this help America? What are our limits on free speech and do they include dogmatic moralism, which it seems is pro et contra (for and against) many everyday issues of life? How are people to conduct themselves with respect to political discussion in America, especially during election season?
Hey Eric, any current reflections on Bill Maher's apoplectic pre-apocalyptical prognostication? I have to admit I shared his worries, although maybe at a slightly lower temperature.
This group of visual tweets is the best you have presented! If I could have, I would have given them all a vote!!
It's been a long time since I was in the Hideout neighborhood. While digesting the news about them, I also looked at another place where I've been entertained. Exit too, is gone. I missed that. But then my ability to stay up and out that late is also gone.
Maher is right. It was forseeable since election denialism took over Republicans and they started fielding candidates to take over elections. And it was baked in when Democrats in Congress failed to pass a new Voter Rights Act to prevent it. And let us never forget that was due to the refusal to overturn the Senate filibuster rules by Joe Manchin and Kirstin Sinema. For shame.. There well never be another chance..
The problem is the Republican Party, has been since the Southern Democrats joined it in retaliation to the passage of the Civil Rights Act because of the GOP's "state's rights" plank. Atwater showed the GOP how to abuse the media to their advantage, with his dirty politics, from his experience with Southern Democrats who were now in the GOP, to win over the worst among the electorate on hate and fear, not issues. The Democrats, liberals who stayed in the party, never developed or never had the fight necessary to oppose the GOP's combined conservatism and libertarianism and so here we are.
Still, it is important to vote Democratic but force them to FIGHT because claiming the "higher ground", "going high when they go low" has NOT worked. The GOP will use democracy to tyrannize those that don't agree with them as they did to women in the unconstitutional Dobbs decision. It will get worse if the GOP maintains power.
John Greenfield offers the best reporting on the Hideout situation I've read so far.
I don't believe the Hideout should face permanent closure.
I love Maher, but come on, his predictions of the end of democracy are over the top, just as were his predictions that Trump "wouldn't leave" last time. Granted, he was more right about that than I realized he would be, but we still didn't come anywhere close to an actual coup. There was never any genuine prospect of Trump occupying the Oval Office after he lost to Biden.
We are about to have a midterm election that will have a reassuringly normal result: the party in power, with low approval and economic gripes ascendant, will get a "shellacking." This happens almost every time. Republicans will lose support with their maniacal obsession with cutting rich people's taxes and screwing over ordinary people, and Democrats can and will return to power, sooner rather than later if they start campaigning like Tim Ryan. (And before you say that, yeah, well, he's gonna lose, note that Ohio is super red at this point and Ryan should easily beat the R-D spread).
The difference this time is that there are lots of election deniers on the ballot and the whole party has turned into Sarah Palin. I get it. But why is it so hard to grasp that a whackadoo secretary of state, say, cannot actually just do whatever he wants? Maher and others talk as though there is no such thing as rule of law in this country, as though judges are just in the tank for one side or another. This is -- really obviously -- way off, and one of the reasons we are not Hungary or Pakistan or Russia or various other places where liberal democracy is a joke. Trump-appointed judges threw out his bullshit last time, and they will throw out Trumpy bullshit this time. I have no reason to suspect otherwise. The Federalist Society does not simply name a bunch of hacks. An old friend of mine was on the list and was nominated by Trump -- a more thoughtful, honorable fellow you'll never meet.
Bottom line: I don't think the predictors of doom have a persuasive story of how it will actually happen. As soon as that whakadoo does something crazy, he'll be hauled into court by the other side.
I'm not discounting the possibility there could come a time when democracy dies in America. But, sheesh, we're quite a ways off. As soon as a candidate is actually able to steal an election, give me just one, I will start to despair. I just don't think we're there. I don't think we'll see that this time, and I don't think we'll see it in two years.
Not on message for Election Day, I guess, but the democracy-on-fire talk is counterproductive for two reasons. First, persuadable voters don't buy it. They think "both sides" do shit. (That's why they're persuadable. They're ideologically and factually illiterate.) Second, it sends the good guys off their game. The good guys need to be focused on expanding their appeal and winning elections instead of constantly whining about how the system is rigged and about to be rigged more. I thought that would have been obvious.
Maher's assertion "... no one in America can be persuaded of anything anymore anyway" troubles me. Is it that no one remains persuadable, or actual persuasion is even ATTEMPTED less and less?
My children around middle-school age used to declare what they thought were truths, and when I questioned how they knew whatever they had declared, would roll their eyes and dismiss my question with, "Mom!!! EVERYONE KNOWS [whatever]." It took years of patient refusal to accede to what "everyone" knew or did to train them that I could be persuaded to their way of thinking, but only if they presented me with facts and reasoning rather than loud overblown indignation. They did learn, and the thinking skill has served them well.
Of course, substituting noisy emotion for rational debate is to be expected of children. It's frightening when adult citizens of a democracy do likewise and expect that tantrums will cause them to get their way.
Here's why Maher might be / could be made to be wrong: All the conditions of authoritarianism he describes as headed our way, these were the daily conditions of life for [three hundred?] years for Black people in America. But Black people found a thousand ways to resist, to push back, fight back, gain space, win allies, and dilute the power of white supremacy to a very large degree. They fought every day, in every generation. The odds to succeed most of the time were awful. But they, and their allies, and people everywhere of good faith persisted and have so far wrestled white power to a draw. Maher sounds like he's done fighting, but that's a privilege others won't share. Press on!
this was the best grp of PS visual tweets yet! loved 4 of the 5 - but had to vote for the one with the guy climbing the ice wall - i've been telling that one to my kids [now in their 30s] for yrs!
I sort of agree with Eric's opening paragraph. An engaged and knowledgeable electorate are the foundation of a strong democracy. A predominantly uninformed electorate that is driven by short-hand emotional appeals is not a good thing for democracy, regardless of the ideological bent of the herders.
"Of course I would rather you not vote today if you don’t appreciate the gravity of the threat to democracy itself posed by so many Republican candidates, but either way, traditional non-voters should get out there while they still have the chance, as we see in the following item." --Zorn
The false accusation is that republicans are undermining democracy in America with their “extreme” positions, or that as a whole they are extremist characters in themselves; people commonly see this claim on TV or read about it in the papers every day. Another way of saying this is that – especially in an election season -- politically zealous (republican) people holding everyday strict moral beliefs are vying for political power in democratic territory; it seems to me that what is going on is that the Democrats have established a media narrative accusing the Republicans of undermining democracy, augmented by the public narrative claiming that the January 6th insurrection of the United States Capitol was an explicit attack on democracy (the structure and ideology) itself, as if domestically the republicans represent an invading foreign power -- another political ideology – like fascism, totalitarianism, or socialism, for example. The claim assumes truth in esse (in essence). This is deceptive, dishonest, and apathetic as pertains to power and control in America, especially since it is this fictitious narrative that we hear projected in the media every day. Who will save us? Is the republican situation any better? No. They’re like two mad dogs in a ring fighting to the bloody death; and how does this help America? What are our limits on free speech and do they include dogmatic moralism, which it seems is pro et contra (for and against) many everyday issues of life? How are people to conduct themselves with respect to political discussion in America, especially during election season?
Hey Eric, any current reflections on Bill Maher's apoplectic pre-apocalyptical prognostication? I have to admit I shared his worries, although maybe at a slightly lower temperature.