I know you are dying for deep thoughts and insight about today’s infrastructure votes. But it’s Friday and I spent the whole day in bed after getting the Moderna booster shot.
So let’s start with this palate cleanser.
Karma update
Shot.
Chaser.
A Texas real estate agent who bragged after Jan. 6 that as a blonde White woman she would not be going to jail for joining in the assault on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob was sentenced Thursday to two months of incarceration.
It was one of the harshest penalties imposed to date on a participant in events at the Capitol who was found guilty only of a petty offense.
“For better or worse, you’ve become one of the faces of January 6,” U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper of D.C. told Jenna Ryan, 50. She gained national attention by defending her conduct at the Capitol in media interviews and on Twitter. Because of that notoriety, Cooper said, people would look to her sentence as evidence of “how our country responded to what happened.”
He continued, “I think the sentence should tell them that we take it seriously, that it was an assault on our democracy . . . and that it should never happen again.”
Is today finally Infrastructure Day? For real?
Maybe. Not really. Sort of.
As we start the day, it seems likely that (1) the House will finally pass the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill (BIF) and send it to President Biden’s desk. (2) Maybe they’ll also pass their own version of the $1.75 trillion social spending bill (BBB), which is DOA in the Senate.
Yeah, this should work.
CRT Revisited
No space here to relitigate the issue, but this is a very useful thread from freelance journalist Rachel Cohen (I’ve unrolled it).
[W]hen Republicans like Youngkin talk about banning teaching CRT, they are saying among other things that they won't support teaching that America is fundamentally racist, that some people are inherently disadvantaged/oppressed, advantaged, oppressive.
(She links to this):
To @Nate_Cohn’s point — check out the section of Glenn Youngkin’s speech on critical race theory from his final campaign rally in Loudoun County, and how he frames it. This is basically what he always said on the stump in the race’s closing weeks: https://t.co/LfKDxL77FiAs an aside: watch some Youngkin. Obviously he's a Republican. It's *not* Obama '08. But there is that implicit aspiration to a postracial, colorblind society. It lets the GOP assert that it's the other side dividing by race. It's a big turn from the Trump eraNate Cohn @Nate_Cohn
Note here he claims he supports teaching 'dark parts' of U.S. history. (does he mean it? devil's in detail of vague intimidating statutes) but should be noted that many progressives have responded to CRT attacks precisely by saying GOP wants to avoid teaching dark history.
So if you're a parent and you're hearing activists say "they want us to stop teaching about slavery and lynching and redlining" and Youngkin goes "of course we will teach about those things" — it's a different terrain.
Many have said, "but CRT isn't even taught in K-12! it's a *law school* level concept!" ...but that doesn't really hold water. and who actually thinks younger students are not capable of learning about racism being systemically embedded in society? Not me & probably not you.
A lot of this obfuscates is the real debate over how we teach about systemic racism in schools, and how much and relatedly, the question of how fundamental racism is to America's story, past and present. these are not settled questions in K12 or in academia.
[I] spent time over the summer digging into messaging guides on the left being developed to counter CRT attacks. I was sympathetic to their task, it's a hard challenge. And I’m no PR expert. But I am pretty good at detecting *avoidance* in talking points https://theintercept.com/2021/07/27/critical-race-theory-education-history.
Multiple things can be true at the same time:
'CRT' -- yes it's being used as a dog whistle, exploited as a wedge, oft misconstrued from its original scholars' vision
There's also this very real tension right now in defining how race and racism will be taught in schools.
Et tu, NYT?
Remarkable coming from The New York Times editorial board: “Democrats Deny Political Reality at Their Own Peril.”
Familiar takeaways like “wake-up call” and “warning shot” don’t do justice here because the danger of ignoring those trends is too great. What would do justice, and what is badly needed, is an honest conversation in the Democratic Party about how to return to the moderate policies and values that fueled the blue-wave victories in 2018 and won Joe Biden the presidency in 2020.
(!)
Democrats, looking left on so many priorities and so much messaging, have lost sight of what can unite the largest number of Americans. A national Democratic Party that talks up progressive policies at the expense of bipartisan ideas, and that dwells on Donald Trump at the expense of forward-looking ideas, is at risk of becoming a marginal Democratic Party appealing only to the left.
(!)
Many in the president’s party point to Tuesday as proof that congressional Democrats need to stop their left-center squabbling and clock some legislative wins ASAP by passing both the bipartisan infrastructure bill and a robust version of the Build Back Better plan, the larger social spending and environmental proposal. They believe this will give their candidates concrete achievements to run on next year and help re-energize their base.
But Tuesday’s results are a sign that significant parts of the electorate are feeling leery of a sharp leftward push in the party, including on priorities like Build Back Better, which have some strong provisions and some discretionary ones driving up the price tag. The concerns of more centrist Americans about a rush to spend taxpayer money, a rush to grow the government, should not be dismissed.
(!)
As our colleague Mona Charen notes:
Quick Hits
1. “Family Values” and the GOP Class of 2022
Must-read from Amanda Carpenter in today’s Bulwark:
Herschel Walker, Eric Greitens, and Sean Parnell are all considered serious contenders to win the Republican nominations for Senate seats in, respectively, Georgia, Missouri, and Pennsylvania. Each of them has been accused of aggressively threatening and violating women in their lives.
If they win their party’s nominations, it may complicate life for the aspiring Youngkins of 2022.
2. Not My Party: Dems in Trouble—the Price of Incompetence
3. Policing for Profit Targets Low-Income People Who Can’t Afford to Fight Back
Jennifer McDonald writes in the Bulwark:
The perverse incentives that allow police and prosecutors to keep what they seize have made civil forfeiture into the behemoth it is today. But policymakers can curb these abuses by reforming state and federal forfeiture laws. To protect Americans from losing property unjustly, Congress and state legislatures must end civil forfeiture and the financial incentive that fuels it.
Cheap Shots
You stay classy, Schlapps.
Not at all, insane, reckless, and deranged.
When you are too crazy for Newsmax.
Newsmax has pulled White House correspondent Emerald Robinson off the air following her bizarre claim that COVID vaccines contain bioluminescence that some say can be tracked by the Devil.
Thank you. The podcasts are always enjoyable, but I look forward to those with Bill Kristol perhaps even more than the rest.
The first infrastructure that needs dealt with is ridding the congressional leadership of the Party of Dummy’s of everything 20th century, Nancy and Chuckie, and their old ways.
Nancy is no longer capable of controlling her caucus, whether educating/convincing them on their legislative plan, nor exerting her power to achieve her desired out come.
Chuckie has proven too me that he hasn’t the wherewithal to pushback effectively against moscow mitch, hence he too needs to go!
It is my not so humble opinion that changing leadership is a very close second to messaging in order of importance to expanding majorities in both houses.
Top attack point against the candidates of the Party of Liars Cheats and Thieves is LCT state legislatures moving to give the majority party the right to overturn any majority vote they don’t like.
They should have started that attack a couple months ago.
A very rude and obnoxious attack on some incumbent should, needs to lead every evening news broadcast in states where they are passing legislation to over turn election result if the majority doesn’t like the out come.
They should also be answering the question; “will you ever accept that a Party of Dummy’s candidate wins fairly/without cheating?”
There is a reason I’ve tagged them POD’s, it’s a cause they just can’t stop being stupid!