David Brooks Is Profoundly Stupid

Jon Chait lays out why.  But Brooks has been doing this schtick for years.  He gives a calm, tweed-ensconced take on why Dubya was really the smart one to invade Iraq or why Sarah Palin isn't really that dumb or why it's Obama that's the real partisan absolutist, not Mitch McConnell.

Brooks is the perfect distillation of the old GOP: He's an over-educated white guy who starts from a premise and then talks himself into taking a stupid position, because that's what his job is.

Under Siege

I'm teaching Russia right now in Comp Gov.  At the end of class, a student asked why we haven't done more to combat Russian meddling.

It's because Trump can't admit that he benefitted from that meddling.  Lord Smallgloves' tiny, fragile ego cannot permit this reality to penetrate "his government."

Today's Hofstadter

Richard Hofstadter wrote the seminal essay "The Paranoid Style in American Politics."

Jon Chait updates it to be the "Imbecile Style in American Politics."

People have asked what we really learned from the Wolff book?  Why do we care that Jake Tapper cut off Stephen Miller's mic?  These are people who have already assimilated the evidence that Trump is a profoundly limited intellect dealing with cognitive decline and a personality riddled with psychological pathologies.

And, yes, for many of the "Deplorables" that is precisely the point.

There are a bunch of mushy centrists, suburban, civic minded political neophytes.  These people check in and out of politics as the time progresses.  They desperately want to believe that Trump isn't everything that he is.  That would clash with their conception of their country.  They have to have their noses rubbed in Trump's manifest shortcomings.

No, it won't make a difference for the people who are cheering on a Senate run by Joe Arpaio.  Who cares?  It should make a difference on the college educated suburban voter outside Phoenix.

And that is where the Blue Wave should come from.

This Could Be Huge

The idea that partisan gerrymanders are unconstitutional is not something the Roberts Court is likely to support...but you never know what will get Anthony Kennedy going.

Is This Gonna Be A Thing?

I guess we have to talk about Oprah 2020 for some reason.

Democrats work under a double burden.  First, they must understand how government works and set out to make it work best.  That's the burden of being the party that believes that government should function well.

Secondly, because of their "elitist" reputation (which is itself a crock) they need someone with real charisma.  The obvious merits of Michael Dukakis, Al Gore, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton were on their ability to make government work better.  They were technocrats.  And they were boring.

Republicans - because they not only don't care if government works well, but actively hope it doesn't - are fine nominating celebrities (Reagan, Schwarzenegger, Trump).  They can take a half wit like Dubya and sell him as a Man of the People, despite his Andover, Yale and Harvard Business School background, because that is what they do.

Democrats win when they combine charisma and competence.  Clinton and Obama had tons of both policy chops and charisma.  Of course, Democrats have never tried to nominate someone who was purely a celebrity, so maybe that would work.  I'm doubtful.  I'm also doubtful of those who argue that Democrats don't have a deep bench.  I think Gillibrand, Booker and Murphy in the Senate alone constitute a very intriguing set of candidates.  I would say it's too early for Kamala Harris, but that's what they said about Obama. 

I also remember something my wife said after Trump won.  She wasn't sure she wanted to risk running a woman against Trump in 2020.  She didn't want to activate the sexism that existed against Hillary again.  It wasn't worth the risk.  How many white voters would you need to flip?  Probably not many at this point, but would it make more sense to nominate a Sherrod Brown or Chris Murphy to make damned sure that you aren't activating latent sexism and racism? 

Oprah is the Democratic answer to Trump: a media celebrity that speaks the language of the party's base.  I have little doubt that she could educate herself about the bullet points of policy in ways that Trump is cognitively unable to. 

We should worry, however, about assuming that Trump really did re-write the rulebook.  That celebrity is how we should select leaders. 

We should remember that if you want to be the party that makes government work, we have to have a candidate that knows how government works.

I Hate Illinois Nazis

It's increasingly clear that the hard right in this country is an authoritarian party.  Their commitment to the rule of law is weak; instead, they see the law as a cudgel to smash their enemies.  That - to put it mildly - is not the rule of law. 

Since the hard right dominates the entire Republican party because even non-authoritarian Republicans fear their base, we are basically faced with the fact that in Trump's America, the Republican Party is really closely aligned with the sort of political movement we associate with Erdogan, Le Pen and, yes, Putin.

The problem, of course, is that while some Republicans see themselves as principled small government conservatives, as long as they tolerate Trump and call for investigations into nontroversies like Uranium One or Clinton's goddamned emails, the difference between a Chuck Grassley and a neo-facist goober like Louie Gohmert is effectively meaningless.

The Republican Party needs to be beaten like a rented mule next November, and I say this not as a partisan, but as someone who fears the direction of our democracy is taking.

Attaboy, Jake

Jake Tapper gives a quick clinic on how to cover the Trumpatistas.

Meanwhile, Bannon tries to insinuate himself back into Trump's good graces. 

As Tapper put it:
“I get it. There’s one viewer that you care about right now and you’re being obsequious, you’re being a factotum in order to please him, okay?” Tapper finally interjected. “And I think I’ve wasted enough of my viewers’ time.”

Here is the critical reality of Republican politics: They are falling all over themselves to suck up to this obviously mentally unfit toad in the Oval Office.  They do it, because they realize he's a committed narcissist and whomever flatters him, has his ear.

As Trump spirals more and more out of control, they will simply suck up to him more and more.  This is the reality of Authoritarian Conservatism.  Sure, there are a few principled Small Government Conservatives who whimper ineffectually on the sidelines from time to time. 

But obesiance to Dear Leader is now the default position of all Republicans.

Go Into The Comments

There is a long standing rule of "don't read the comments" in things like Yahoo! or most news outlets.  You will be overwhelmed by trolls and ignoramuses.  It's depressing.

However, read the comments under this piece by right wing hack David Bossie.  They are glorious.

We Could All Die Waiting For Republicans To Do The Right Thing

Some GOP "strategist" believes that if the coming blue wave truly wipes out the GOP majorities, that they will turn on Trump and help remove him from office.  Loathsome human/toad hybrid Marc Thiessen believes that Trump should jettison the Alt-Right, now that Bannon is on the ropes.

This is, of course, nonsense.

Trump and the Alt Right have confounded establishment Republicans because they don't understand their own party.  Their party isn't the principled small government conservative party they think it is.  It is the seething, racist, sexist accumulation of grievances that Trump has exposed it as.  All the things Democrats have been saying about the GOP are true.

The GOP can't abandon Trump anymore than a fish can abandon water.

UPDATE: Chait puts it better.

As Mentioned

Susan Collins is a fool.

Wolff At The Door

The fallout continues from Michael Wolff's "tell-all" book about the Trump White House.  Because the Trump Crew are incompetent, they aren't able to settle on a strategy.  They call the book lies, then send a "cease and desist" letter to Bannon (for quotes he already provided).

There is ample reason to believe that many of the particulars of the book are imagined or stretched to make a point.  There is also ample reason to believe that the larger gist of the book perfectly captures this Versailles of the Very Stupid. 

Wolff's reporting on Ivanka Trump's disrespect for her father is the sort that could unmoor him.  He's a deeply stupid person - according to the people who know him, apparently - and has few emotional resources.

Hopefully he flames out before he starts a war.

Popcorn, Please

Steve Bannon and Donald Trump have gone to war with each other.  Bannon, by the way, is likely right that Trump will be exposed as a serial criminal money launderer.  And that the Trump team are a bunch of "jumos" whatever that is. 

Trump's Brown Shirts

Exist in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.  These are people who self-selected to join an agency that deports people for the crime of having improper paperwork.

Ezra Klein And The Chamber Of Regrets

Klein looks at all the things that didn't happened, that could've happened.  Frankly, in damage assessment mode, the lost opportunities we have suffered through are small potatoes.  Especially since Jon Chait thinks this is the year Trump makes his big move to destroy democracy.

Happy 2018!

Good Riddance

2017 was one of the worst years that I can remember, both nationally and personally.

Please improve on this, 2018.