Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Using The Levers

Jon Chait is exactly right. As of this moment, the Republican Party is not desperate for additional economic stimulus, but in very short order they will be.  ANY additional "must pass" legislation must come with a vigorous and enforceable system for remoting voting in November.

Republicans are increasingly hostile to the idea of democracy.  There is simply no other way to put it. They have relied ever more increasingly on vote suppression and voter purges. What we are seeing right now is the terrible impact the virus is having on urban, poor communities of color. As far as the GOP is concerned...that's fine. They literally don't give a shit that New York is suffering.  But it WILL come to their states.  Florida and Georgia are discovering that now, and Texas figures to be close behind.  You have to think that these megachurches will become little Ground Zeroes for spread.

When that happens, Democrats have to fight every impulse that some of them have to "meet in the middle."  They need more people like Warren and Harris and others who are already realizing the balance of power is shifting back to the party with a plan. Focusing on securing a free and fair election in November is critically important.  As we are seeing right now, having an incompetent reality TV star as president is a really dangerous idea.

Trump will lose a free and fair election, so he is invested in preventing one from happening.  Democrats need to make that their top priority, even more than stimulating the economy.

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