BC POLITICS
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So shortly after the 2016 election, I pointed out how odd it was that the Reason homepage was dominated by stories either mocking and ridiculing the left for being fearful of what was to come, or articles about how Trump might actually be good for libertarians.

 Now, in 2020, we have one party so upset about the election, they’re openly fomenting a crisis of democracy. Here’s the Reason homepage today. There’s one article about all of that. There’s a hell of a lot more about the threat posed by Joe Biden. And more riciduling the left.
I’m picking on Reason. And I’ll add that there are people there who have sufficiently grasped the threat the last four years, despite the general editorial direction of the magazine. But it really underscores the disappointment I’ve had with my fellow libertarians in general ...
... in the Trump era. We’re supposed to be the alarmists. Proudly! We’re supposed to the ones who overreact when government overreaches. Because alarmism is a hell of a lot better than complacency. And history tells us that governments tend not to give powers ...
... back once they’ve claimed them. In the Trump era, too many libertarians not only stopped being alarmists, they spent most of their time scolding and ridiculing the people who were. I mean, it’s still bizarre to me that the philosophy that ...
... wants to abolish the FBI, CIA, DEA, BATF, and DHS (among others) generally only had scorn for “defund the police.” The police are never going to be abolished. Yet instead of embracing the momentum, forging alliances, and converting it into useful reform, many libertarians ...
... belittled the activists pushing “defund” as impractical, radical, pie-in-the-sky. *We* are supposed to be radical, impractical, pie-in-the-sky!

A big part of this is that many libertarians still see the left as a bigger threat than the right. I’m baffled by this given...
... the last four years, and what’s happening right now. With the exception I guess of regulation and (sort of) taxes, Trumpism has devoured all the areas in which libertarians are supposed to have common ground with the right.

Part of it is also probably stems from the fact...
... that libertarians disdain politics and Sorkinesque visions of government, and Trump has made a farce of all of that. That’s fine. I get it. We shouldn’t turn to politics to solve all our problems. But we do need to acknowledge that simply choosing to ignore politics comes ...
... from a position of — dare I say it — privilege. If you’re DACA, or have family who is undocumented, or have lived here for 20 years under TPS, you can’t just “live an apolitical life.” We seem to get this when it’s a small business owner worried about Biden’s regulatory ...
... policy. We seem far less able to empathize with people protesting racism in policing, or ICE abuses, or CBP brutality. This administration wants to zero out refugee intake, unleash the military on protesters, and has openly said any election Trump doesn’t win is ...
... fraudulent. (I could go on.) Yet I’ve had Trump supporting libertarians — prominent ones — tell me over the last two years the real threat to liberty right now is Antifa, or a Black Lives Matter leader who once said she’s a Marxist.

I’m glad Biden’s win means libertarians...
... will go back to being alarmists. But given the approach too many libertarians took during the Trump years, I suspect it’s going to be even more difficult to get people to listen.

And I can’t really blame them.

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Again, at such a key moment in UK and at such high political levels, evidence of deep misunderstanding of EU: The PM is under pressure in some quarters to delay #Brexit vote to allow her first to “improve” deal in Brussels BUT EU is determined not to budge at this stage

2) All EU leaders watching tomorrow’s vote. Of course they want to avoid a no deal #Brexit BUT they feel the deal - so painfully negotiated between EU and UK - is too fresh to re-open. Clarifications, yes but fundamental renegotiations, no.

3) The EU’s international reputation as a tough deal-maker is at stake here too. If Brussels now suddenly “gives in” to U.K. on EU red lines (eg backstop) then that would weaken the EU’s reputation in future trade negotiations with other non EU countries

4) Also on backstop the EU is unlikely to cave in to favour a relationship with a leaving member state (UK) against the explicit wishes and ignoring the deep concerns of a continuing member: Ireland.

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Today in #GRAHAMNC I went to a permitted March to the Polls lead by Rev Drumwright and others. Starting at a Black AME church, Rev Drumwright started the march by asking folks what our intentions were. TO VOTE the crowd chanted. Its the last day of Early Voting in #NC.


We then marched, escorted by police, about half a mile towards the center of Graham, chanting and singing. We moved slowly, because of the many elderly folks and families with small children. Graham is a small town in #AlamanceCounty.


Alamance County is known as "No Chance Alamance" because of rampant inequality and a judicial system generally known to be hostile to Black and Brown folks, and poor white folks. We believe that we can change that at the polls this year.

As the march approached the center of Graham where a large Confederate statue is, we kneeled in rememberance of George Floyd. His neice and nephew were in the crowd.


Moments after we were done kneeling a police officer started to yell that we had to be off the street. Folks were confused because we had been escorted there and had a permit. I moved my child up onto the sidewalk. They started pepper spraying us. My child couldn't run because
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All the challenges to Leader Pelosi are coming from her right, in an apparent effort to make the party even more conservative and bent toward corporate interests.

Hard pass. So long as Leader Pelosi remains the most progressive candidate for Speaker, she can count on my support.


I agree that our party should, and must, evolve our leadership.

But changed leadership should reflect an actual, evolved mission; namely, an increased commitment to the middle + working class electorate that put us here.

Otherwise it’s a just new figure with the same problems.

I hope that we can move swiftly to conclude this discussion about party positions, so that we can spend more time discussing party priorities: voting rights, healthcare, wages, climate change, housing, cannabis legalization, good jobs, etc.
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I told you they’d bring this up


I was wondering why that tweet had so many stupid replies. And now I see


Seriously, this was “the night before.” If you’re at the march where they’re changing “Jews will not replace us” and “Blood and soil,” you’re not a “very fine person.” Full stop.


There are 3 important moments in that transcript.

1.) When someone asked Trump about a statement *he had already made* about there being blame on “both sides,” he said the “fine people” line.


2. Trump does clarify! “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and white nationalists — because they should be condemned totally “

Okay!

Then adds that there were “many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists.”
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@julia_azari
This idea - that elections should translate into policy - is not wrong at all. But political science can help explain why it's not working this way. There are three main explanations: 1. mandates are constructed, not automatic, 2. party asymmetry, 3. partisan conpetition 1/


First, party/policy mandates from elections are far from self-executing in our system. Work on mandates from Dahl to Ellis and Kirk on the history of the mandate to mine on its role in post-Nixon politics, to Peterson Grossback and Stimson all emphasize that this link is... 2/

Created deliberately and isn't always persuasive. Others have to convinced that the election meant a particular thing for it to work in a legislative context. I theorized in the immediate period of after the 2020 election that this was part of why Repubs signed on to ...3/

Trump's demonstrably false fraud nonsense - it derailed an emerging mandate news cycle. Winners of elections get what they get - institutional control - but can't expect much beyond that unless the perception of an election mandate takes hold. And it didn't. 4/

Let's turn to the legislation element of this. There's just an asymmetry in terms of passing a relief bill. Republicans are presumably less motivated to get some kind of deal passed. Democrats are more likely to want to do *something.* 5/
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