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| Photo of stack of newspapers by Daniel R. Blume, Wikimedia Commons |
Jay Kuo, "There Is No Joy in Trumpville":
This has been a disastrous week—one for the record books, truly—in Trumpland. Three separate calamities went down this week, and we would be remiss to focus on just any one of them.
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| President Donald J. Trump 2 March 2019, at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Oxon Hill, MD; official White House photo by Tia Dufour, at Wikimedia Commons |
Heather Cox Richardson, "Letters from an American: December 3, 2002":
The leader of the Republican Party has just called for the overthrow of our fundamental law and the installation of a dictator.
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| Merriam-Webster dictionary |
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| Right Wing Watch, 25 November 2022 |
As a former president and now candidate for re-election dines with a white supremacist anti-Semite Holocaust denier, enlightening commentary:
Good commentary I've just read on the youth vote in the recent U.S. elections and what it may signify for the future:
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| Detail from Rogier van der Weyden's "Descent from the Cross," 15th century, Prado Museum, Madrid, at Wikimedia Commons |
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| Gabriela Ruellan, Nine different shades of red to illustrate the look and scope of the color red, at Wikimedia Commons |
Two sobering assessments of the results of the recent U.S. elections that call on us who may be tempted to celebrate the vindication of democracy not to do that prematurely:
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| Gallup Values and Belief poll, May 2021, in Record-High 70% in Justin McCarthy, "U.S. Support Same-Sex Marriage" |
Some noteworthy recent commentary on the cross-party move in the U.S. Senate to offer legislative protection to same-sex marriage — though the details of this move are not yet entire clear — and on the political connections between that issue and the abortion issue. Jennifer Rubin, "The Senate’s victory on same-sex marriage should terrify the GOP," notes that for Republicans to go after same-sex marriage when they are still smarting from the political reaction to the highly unpopular Dobbs ruling would be politically unwise, to say the least:
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| Michael Gerson, 18 January 2014, photo by AvianMaid, at Wikimedia |
Journalist Michael Gerson died yesterday. He was 58 years old and died of kidney cancer.
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| National Bureau of Economic Research study graphic showing excess deaths by political party throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, in Marty Schladen, "Study: More Republicans than Democrats likely died of COVID" |
A few days back, I posted a link to commentary by Jonathan V. Last about how the much higher and empirically proven Covid death rate in heavily Republican counties may be affecting elections (dead voters do not usually vote). Lucian K. Truscott takes a close look at the data regarding this:
More recent commentary on white Christian nationalism and its strong (political) appeal to many U.S. Christians: in the BBC documentary "Faith on the Frontlines" above, Robert P. Jones of PRRI tells narrator Barbara Usher:
Tim Miller, "Democracy was on the ballot. And attempts to end it were met with universal scorn," insists, pace pundits who want to downplay the role concern about embattled democracy played in the recent U.S. elections, democracy was, indeed, on the ballot — and it performed well:
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| Photo by Tyler Merbler from January 6 attempted insurrection |
Several days ago, I told readers about a new a new series of videotaped/podcast discussions about white Christian nationalism being offered by historian and religion scholar Jemar Tisby. The series is entitled "White Nation Under God." The first episode in this five-part series was broadcast on Wednesday, 11 November and is now available online. Its thematic focus:
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| Washington Post headline, 15 November 2022 |
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| NPR headline, 15 November 2022 |
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| Guardian headline, 15 November 2022 |
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| Photo of stack of newspapers by Daniel R. Blume, Wikimedia Commons |
Joyce Vance, "Democrats Hold the Senate—and the Ability to Appoint Federal Judges," explains why the Democrats retaining control of the Senate is so important: it's about judicial appointments:
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| Photo of stack of newspapers by Daniel R. Blume, Wikimedia Commons |
Kristin Kobes du Mez's tribute to Twitter as the band keeps playing while the ship begins sinking is moving and also sad: such good destroyed by an ill-intentioned egomaniac with way, way too much power solely because he has money. She writes,
I headed the posting I just made about two valuable upcoming discussions of white Christian nationalism in the U.S. with a video from Joy Ann Reid's MSNBC "ReidOut" program. The video features a discussion between Reid, journalist Tim Miller, and Robert P. Jones of PRRI. In the video, Jones talks about how drastically out of step the Republican party, with its plans for a national ban of abortion, is with the American public, as only 1 in 10 Americans supports such a ban.
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| Photo of stack of newspapers by Daniel R. Blume, Wikimedia Commons |
More dissection of the results of this week's U.S. elections, with continuing claims that "abortion rights proved a hugely motivating force for voters in Tuesday’s midterms" (Moira Donegan) and an astonishing statement by Trump that he rigged the 2018 Florida gubernatorial election in favor of DeSantis, a claim commented on by Heather Cox Richardson and Aaron Rupar:
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| Photo of stack of newspapers by Daniel R. Blume, Wikimedia Commons |
Post-election commentary continues. Here are some pieces I've read that I'd like to recommend:
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| PRRI, 2022 American Values Survey |
As Oriana Gonzalez reports, not only did voters in Michigan, California, and Vermont just vote for constitutional protections for abortion rights in their states, but voters in the conservative state of Kentucky voted against a proposed amendment stating that a constitutional right to abortion does not exist in Kentucky. The Supreme Court and the Republican party are clearly out of step with where most Americans are when it comes to the issue of abortion rights, but, as Gonzalez also notes, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America (and a Catholic), has stated that if Republicans gain control of either house of Congress, her group's "number one issue" will be to see a national abortion ban enacted.
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