Do not underestimate Gen Z Let’s push back on the narrative that young people are not excited about their likely choice of two old men for president in 2024. They are. But that’s not the end of the story. The Independent interviewed young voters at the North Carolina Young Democrats’ annual convention in Durham earlier this month. (Full disclosure: I attended and was one of the event’s sponsors.) Granted, it was a biased crowd: “The thing that I think people miss the most right now about what’s happening is there’s this narrative that young people are not engaged in politics,” North Carolina Democratic State Party Chair, Anderson Clayton, said. “[People say that] they don’t care. They’re not going to vote this year. And I’m like, ‘No, they are.’ Because young people are not stupid. They are a lot smarter than people give them credit for.” Maxwell Frost (D-FL), the youngest member of Congress, pointed to young voters’ support of Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign as evidence of their voting behavior. “A lot of young people really loved Bernie Sanders, right?
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It’s been a nightmare and it just got worse. Today’s horror, in which starving Palestinians rushed a rare humanitarian aid station, trampling each other out of desperation when IDF soldiers fired into the crowd resulting in over a hundred dead and 800 injured is one of the worst yet. There can’t be any more vivid example of just how out of control the war has become or a greater necessity for Israel to put an end to this nightmare right now. They are not going to “eliminate Hamas” through attrition and creating a more and more desperate population is only going to radicalize even more of them. They have more than made their point and have, in the process, revealed themselves to be ruthless and brutal, giving up much of whatever moral authority they had left. This is indefensible, even in light of the terrorist attack on October 7th. The Biden administration said they had been on the verge of a ceasefire agreement and this may have thrown a monkey wrench into it.
Stephen Moore, formerly of the Club For Growth, is on board Project 2025. That’s not good news. The Guardian reports: Stephen Moore, a conservative economist whose controversial remarks about women cost him a seat on the Federal Reserve board in 2019, is now co-author of a plan to radically reform the US treasury as part of Project 2025, a vast rightwing effort to advance radical policy proposals for Donald Trump’s possible White House return. “Project 2025 is all about forcing a far-right agenda on to everyday Americans,” said Tony Carrk, the executive director of the progressive watchdog Accountable.US, which produced an extensive report on Moore’s views and positions. “So it’s no wonder they tapped a notorious social security opponent like Stephen Moore to help write their policy schemes.” Moore, Carrk said, had “dedicated his career to slashing social security benefits and taxes for billionaires”. Trump always says he will protect SS and medicare but it’s just a campaign promise.
That’s pretty subtle… and funny.
Dan Pfeiffer on the Supremes’ decision to help Trump’s delaying tactics: Thanks to the shenanigans of Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump appointed three justices to the Supreme Court. Yesterday, the MAGA justices thanked Trump by giving him a massive, possibly campaign-altering gift. On Wednesday afternoon, the Supreme Court agreed to take on Trump’s claim that former presidents are immune from criminal prosecution for acts that occurred while they were in office. The icing on the cake is that the Supreme Court scheduled the hearing on an “expedited basis” for April 22nd, further delaying Trump’s trial. Thanks to a corrupt Supreme Court, the most important of Trump’s four (yes, four!) criminal trials may not be finished before Americans cast their ballots in November. There is no reason for the court to wait six weeks before holding the hearings. On a matter this urgent, they could have moved much faster. Every day of delay helps Trump avoid accountability. If Trump wins in November, he could preemptively pardon himself or have his Department of Justice drop the charges.
Is it just fear because of the Dominian lawsuit? Has Rupert sent down the word? I just don’t know. But there is a shift at Fox News: Doocy and Cavuto are among the few who are doing this. Hannity and In graham and the rest are still fervently licking Trump’s boots, including letting him and his allies flog the Big lie. But the network has obviously made a decision to allow these other views on the network which is new. And they cover Haley pretty thoroughly too. I don’t know that this will penetrate the cult but it’s worth noting.
Here we are again looking right down the barrel of a government shutdown because one half of one of the three branches of government is completely dysfunctional under GOP leadership. We’re talking about the Republican House of Representatives of course. They are simply incapable of passing legislation. In fact, 2023 was the least productive year since the Great Depression with congress passing just 27 bills that became law. (In 1948 President Harry Truman famously called the legislative branch the “do nothing congress” because they only managed to pass 511 bills.) This is the third time in six months that the country has been on the brink of a shutdown because the hard right in the House is holding their breath until they turn blue. It’s not clear what they want except perhaps to cause more chaos. The last time it cost Speaker Kevin McCarthy his job and the same fate may very await Speaker Mike Johnson as well. There’s nothing in his performance so far that suggests he has the skill or the desire to finesse this situation. There’s no need to reiterate the saga that continues over the Ukraine and border funding.
Bye Mitch: I don’t think anyone who reads this blog needs me to recite chapter and verse of what this man has done to America with his “ends justify the means” tactics. We all know what he’s done. But even he isn’t hardcore enough for the MAGAs. He says that he knows the politics of his party and he knows that they have become so extreme that they will no longer tolerate him. He’s lost control of them. God help us if Trump wins another term and gets a congressional majority.
Trump really did say his rambling is “total genius” and “if I were cognitively impaired, I think I’d know about it.” How about this? He has been addled for years. But whether it’s encroaching dementia of some kind or just his panic and distraction over the legal and financial problems he’s facing, he’s getting worse. I know I don’t have to point out what would happen if Joe Biden said anything like that.
Also, this happened: We can’t let these people take power. We just can’t.