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Off Message: There's Nothing Exciting Or Constructive About This
Off Message - There's Nothing Exciting Or Constructive About This
The middle path between real opposition and appeasement leads nowhere.
Brian Beutler
Nov 20, 2024
/snip/
That’s why I wrote earlier this week about Hakeem Jeffries and his insistence on dismissing questions about Donald Trump’s most deranged cabinet nominees. He’s the leader, he chooses the approach, he bears ultimate responsibility. But one reason he chose this approach is that it strikes a balance between Democrats who want to do real opposition politics, and those who want to do Vichy “opposition” politics.
Here’s a sampling from the latter group:
Polis is a governor, and Booker and Coons are senators, so of course they don’t explain Jeffries’ position as House leader directly. But it’s safe to assume some House Dems feel similarly, and rather than lead them away from a poor approach, Jeffries has decided blithe dismissal of Trump’s cabinet ministers is the best way to unite fighters and quislings.
This is misguided for many reasons, not least of which is that it takes the heat off Senate Republicans, who should now face a difficult, binary decision, knowing Democrats won’t be there to provide them cover. Stopping Trump’s worst nominees isn’t simply about dealing Trump a setback (though asserting Congress’s coequal powers against an aspiring tyrant is important for obvious reasons). It’s to protect the country from incompetent people of low character who stand to assume enormous power.
/snip
The middle path between real opposition and appeasement leads nowhere.
Brian Beutler
Nov 20, 2024
/snip/
That’s why I wrote earlier this week about Hakeem Jeffries and his insistence on dismissing questions about Donald Trump’s most deranged cabinet nominees. He’s the leader, he chooses the approach, he bears ultimate responsibility. But one reason he chose this approach is that it strikes a balance between Democrats who want to do real opposition politics, and those who want to do Vichy “opposition” politics.
Here’s a sampling from the latter group:
Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO): “I’m excited by the news that the President-Elect will appoint @RobertKennedyJr to @HHSGov. He helped us defeat vaccine mandates in Colorado in 2019 and will help make America healthy again by shaking up HHS and FDA. I hope he leans into personal choice on vaccines rather than bans (which I think are terrible, just like mandates) but what I’m most optimistic about is taking on big pharma and the corporate ag oligopoly to improve our health.” (Polis later hedged his support.)
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) similarly pretended RFK Jr.’s nomination has something to do with healthy food, rather than vaccine bans, quack science, and cuts to Medicaid.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) painted the Trump/Elon Musk plan to arrogate government spending power from Congress as a worthwhile exercise. “They could save tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars depending on how it is structured and what they do, this could be a constructive undertaking that ought to be embraced.”
Polis is a governor, and Booker and Coons are senators, so of course they don’t explain Jeffries’ position as House leader directly. But it’s safe to assume some House Dems feel similarly, and rather than lead them away from a poor approach, Jeffries has decided blithe dismissal of Trump’s cabinet ministers is the best way to unite fighters and quislings.
This is misguided for many reasons, not least of which is that it takes the heat off Senate Republicans, who should now face a difficult, binary decision, knowing Democrats won’t be there to provide them cover. Stopping Trump’s worst nominees isn’t simply about dealing Trump a setback (though asserting Congress’s coequal powers against an aspiring tyrant is important for obvious reasons). It’s to protect the country from incompetent people of low character who stand to assume enormous power.
/snip
6 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
...and even radicalization--not less. There is a tremendous amount of despair out there, and there are demagogues of every political stripe just waiting to take advantage. When the right time comes, they will. I don't care how many police or cameras or spy satellites the government has, they won't be able to control the chaos that the Trump regime will unleash. 
