[oregontim]

I'm still hoping that we have a constitutional change of leadership. It's the first time in my life I've worried about that.

If we manage that, then ...

1. I hope that the Dems can manage to pull the country together on an orderly and unified response to Covid. I hope they can speak enough to all (instead of just Dems) to depoliticize precautions, masks, contact tracing, CDC, FDA, and careful reopening with respect for jobs and kids in school as well as the virus.
   
2. I hope that the Dems in power manage to slow the pendulum on tribalism and division. I've been voting Dem since the Peace and Freedom party folded in the 1970s, but I'm not a party loyalist. I do blame the current GOP for sanctioned racism, misogyny, corruption, attacks on our longstanding institutions, attacks on the free press, purposeful and intentional lying, and, well (note to self: take a breath) ... that. But I don't want the Dems, if and when they are in power, to wield it the way the GOP has.
   

No doubt that trends allowed Trumpism. It wasn't just the GOP. Cable TV diluting the old equal time rules. Social media as amplified word of mouth, followed by paid social media as amplified fake and artificial word of mouth. The cult of celebrity. The change in a manufacturing economy as competitors emerged and the world (a la Thomas Friedman) flattened. A cultural bias towards ignorance and away from meritocracy as elites.


But the GOP piled on savagely. They allowed a president to make division a political strategy. They encouraged the lies and corruption. They chose not to oppose racism, alt-right violence, xenophobia, misogyny, and an assault on decency, and an attack on our institutions and the fundamentals of a free press. They put party first, before country.


And now the Dems, if they take power, need to not respond in kind. Push that pendulum back towards the center. Incorporate reasonable Republicans into the narrative.

This issue — the school openings in this thread — is an example of everything that's wrong. We can't seem to discuss the pros and cons without being pulled into taking sides between president and science.


Another example is the current Supreme Court disaster. This isn't just about good and evil, where Dems are good and GOP evil. The Dems made this possible. In our public discourse, we seem to have forgotten that the Dems changed the rules on Supreme Court nominations in 2013, making a mistake that the GOP took cruel advantage of in 2016 with Merrick Garland and again today with Judge Barrett. Dem-sponsored rule changes made this possible.


On Nov. 21, 2013, Senate Democrats deployed the “nuclear option,” so named because of its explosive impact on Senate rules and traditions. They voted 52-48 to reinterpret the words “three-fifths” in Rule 22 to mean “simple majority.” As Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, would later explain, 52 senators made 60 equal 51.


If the Dems win,may they please restore sanity, and checks and balances, to government.

[oregontim]

I'm still hoping that we have a constitutional change of leadership. It's the first time in my life I've worried about that.

If we manage that, then ...

1. I hope that the Dems can manage to pull the country together on an orderly and unified response to Covid. I hope they can speak enough to all (instead of just Dems) to depoliticize precautions, masks, contact tracing, CDC, FDA, and careful reopening with respect for jobs and kids in school as well as the virus.
   
2. I hope that the Dems in power manage to slow the pendulum on tribalism and division. I've been voting Dem since the Peace and Freedom party folded in the 1970s, but I'm not a party loyalist. I do blame the current GOP for sanctioned racism, misogyny, corruption, attacks on our longstanding institutions, attacks on the free press, purposeful and intentional lying, and, well (note to self: take a breath) ... that. But I don't want the Dems, if and when they are in power, to wield it the way the GOP has.
   

No doubt that trends allowed Trumpism. It wasn't just the GOP. Cable TV diluting the old equal time rules. Social media as amplified word of mouth, followed by paid social media as amplified fake and artificial word of mouth. The cult of celebrity. The change in a manufacturing economy as competitors emerged and the world (a la Thomas Friedman) flattened. A cultural bias towards ignorance and away from meritocracy as elites.


But the GOP piled on savagely. They allowed a president to make division a political strategy. They encouraged the lies and corruption. They chose not to oppose racism, alt-right violence, xenophobia, misogyny, and an assault on decency, and an attack on our institutions and the fundamentals of a free press. They put party first, before country.


And now the Dems, if they take power, need to not respond in kind. Push that pendulum back towards the center. Incorporate reasonable Republicans into the narrative.

This issue — the school openings in this thread — is an example of everything that's wrong. We can't seem to discuss the pros and cons without being pulled into taking sides between president and science.


Another example is the current Supreme Court disaster. This isn't just about good and evil, where Dems are good and GOP evil. The Dems made this possible. In our public discourse, we seem to have forgotten that the Dems changed the rules on Supreme Court nominations in 2013, making a mistake that the GOP took cruel advantage of in 2016 with Merrick Garland and again today with Judge Barrett. Dem-sponsored rule changes made this possible.


On Nov. 21, 2013, Senate Democrats deployed the “nuclear option,” so named because of its explosive impact on Senate rules and traditions. They voted 52-48 to reinterpret the words “three-fifths” in Rule 22 to mean “simple majority.” As Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, would later explain, 52 senators made 60 equal 51.


If the Dems win,may they please restore sanity, and checks and balances, to government.