It's my great honor to be on the continent of Africa – first here in Ghana, then to Tanzania and Zambia.
I look forward to meeting with leaders, young people, and entrepreneurs as we work together to invest in the innovation and ingenuity across the continent. pic.twitter.com/imBoTwpldz
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) March 26, 2023
Celebrate our accomplishments!
US Vice President Kamala Harris is joined by Idris Elba and Sheryl Lee Ralph during a visit to a music studio in Accra, Ghana https://t.co/QNqyIM60ll pic.twitter.com/bk32h1IO5S
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 28, 2023
Have you heard that the median age in Africa is 19?
Vice President Harris has, and she wants everyone to know it.
Here’s our look at how she’s centering her trip on the challenges and opportunities of the continent’s youth. https://t.co/IsgeSHhxiG
— Chris Megerian (@ChrisMegerian) March 29, 2023
… For Harris, it’s not a piece of trivia but the driving force behind the stepped-up U.S. outreach to African countries. Washington is racing to build partnerships on the oldest inhabited continent with the youngest population, a test that could reshape the economy in Africa and, by extension, the rest of the world.
In the near future, “1 in 4 people on this earth will be on this continent,” Harris said during a conversation with reporters. “Just on that alone — the demographics of it all alone — if you put aside the present and the past, if we are to be forward-looking in terms of national policies and priorities, we have to look at this continent.”
As part of that effort, Harris on Wednesday announced more than $1 billion in public and private money for women’s economic empowerment. The money is expected to come from a mix of nonprofit foundations, private companies and the U.S. government, and it’s intended to expand access to digital services, provide job training and support entrepreneurs…
Harris is the highest-profile member of President Joe Biden’s administration to visit Africa this year. While in Ghana, she paid particular attention to economic development and young people.
She visited a skate park and recording studio, released a Spotify playlist of African musicians, spoken before thousands of young people, and invited celebrities, civil rights leaders and businesspeople to join her at a banquet in her honor.
It’s a carefully calibrated campaign to reframe how Americans view opportunities in Africa, something that senior officials from Harris’ office described as central to her goals for the trip. New investments could not only benefit U.S. businesses but also alleviate one of the most pressing challenges here.
Vice President Kamala Harris was greeted by schoolchildren, dancers and drummers as she arrived Sunday in Ghana for the start of a weeklong visit to Africa intended to deepen U.S. relationships.
Read More ????https://t.co/idElZxCGXx pic.twitter.com/cC4cblbZR4
— theGrio.com (@theGrio) March 26, 2023
“The stories must be told.”??
An emotional ????US @VP Kamala Harris nearly breaks down after walking the dark dungeons of the Cape Coast Castle in Ghana????, the last point from where many enslaved Africans were shipped to the Americas under colonialism. ?? pic.twitter.com/IkjiV3maBF
— Kenneth Awotwe Darko (@TheKennethDarko) March 28, 2023
Let me tell you a little bit about our tour with Vice President Harris today at Cape Coast Castle.
Near the Door of No Return, Harris walked into the dungeon that once held enslaved women, carrying a bouquet of white flowers that she had been gifted earlier.
— Chris Megerian (@ChrisMegerian) March 28, 2023
The tour guide explained that the women imprisoned there would gaze up toward the sky through holes in the ceiling and sing songs hoping for death, “because death means freedom.”
Then the guide sang the song to Harris as she stood there in the dungeon, the words echoing off the walls of the dimly lit chamber.
Harris left the flowers there, then walked through the Door of No Return. She gazed out at a harbor that was filled with small fishing boats, but long ago had been the final point of departure for a cruel journey to the Americas.
When Harris spoke after the tour, she discarded her prepared remarks, and she talked about “the anguish that reeks from this place.”
And she spoke of the endurance of the African diaspora.
“All of us, regardless of our background, have benefited from their fight for freedom and justice.”
Kamala Harris, who is in Ghana and will also visit Tanzania and Zambia, said the United States would continue to push for all bilateral creditors to provide 'meaningful debt reduction' for countries that need it https://t.co/9VLBf6aqFK pic.twitter.com/aLXAJg8Fcd
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 28, 2023
CBS News aired a great segment discussing @VP Harris’ travel to Africa detailing policy and the administration’s priorities.
I want to highlight the last question on the symbolism of the first woman Vice President of the U.S. in this moment.
Full video in comments. #VPinAfrica pic.twitter.com/XKyvymZMWY
— ? Owning My Space ? (@JuneSummer1) March 28, 2023
You can feel the excitement in the air! We are all looking forward to welcoming @VP Kamala Harris to Tanzania tonight. So grateful for the support we've received from @ikulumawasliano, @mfa_tanzania and many others to make this visit a success. ?????????? https://t.co/Bhm08Fc4Ha
— Ambassador Michael Battle (@USAmbTanzania) March 29, 2023
Today, @VP met with women entrepreneurs, where she announced more than $1B in private sector commitments to empower women across the continent.
Why is this important? @VP is using her global leadership position to advance the standing and status of women around the world. pic.twitter.com/PMblMkip9K
— Rachel Palermo (@RachelPalermo46) March 30, 2023
For the first time ever, @NBA hosted an all-girls @JrNBA clinic in Ghana.
We want every young girl to know that you can do anything you set your mind to. Women and girls must have equal access to opportunities on and off the court. pic.twitter.com/YOdQIlz9cF— Douglas Emhoff (@SecondGentleman) March 29, 2023
Someday…
Full video here ?? https://t.co/mJyqeaPMRX
— Qondi (@QondiNtini) March 27, 2023
Baud
Thanks, AL. I hope you are feeling better.
It occurred to me I haven’t heard any Biden news in about two weeks, and it’s nice having a president I don’t have to keep my eye on.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
Great thread, much appreciated AL!
Elizabelle
Median age of 19. Wow. What a meaningful trip. Thank you for highlighting it. Will pay more attention.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
rikyrah
Thanks for covering this trip. There have been some fantastic pictures from it. Of course, the MSM has ignored this trip.
And, next week will have another hit piece, fueled by anonymous sources about the “concern” about the job that the VP is doing😒😒😒
rikyrah
Did BJ post on how the MOUSE screwed over DeSantis?😂😂😂😂
Narya
Baud
bookworm1398
This follows trips to Africa by Jill Biden, Blinken and Yellen and the President is expected to visit also this year.
zhena gogolia
Ooh, Idris!
Spanky
I didn’t see this mentioned yesterday. I hope it was. It was a bfd at the time to this 19 year old.
zhena gogolia
You bring the great posts, AL! I’ll have to savor this one later when I have time.
Spanky
@zhena gogolia: The Veep knows how to choose her fellow travelers.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: “Where is Biden? What is he doing? Is he cowering in his basement? Questions are being raised!”
Geminid
Various news sites report that Senator Fetterman will resume work April 17, after the Senate recess that begins today. I’m hoping the docs at Walter Reed spring him soon, so he’ll get to spend some time at home with his family.
raven
Kay
@raven:
Oh yay. I was hoping Trump would pick it up. He’s the gift that keeps on giving, as Betty Cracker says.
Baud
@Kay:
Like herpes.
Kay
@Baud:
The minute I read it I thought “oh, I know who can use this effectively!”
The Trump/DeSantis fight brings me great pleasure. I think Trump is easier to beat. It’s so efficient. No one on our side has to do anything or spend anything- Trump is just destroying him.
rivers
Amazingly Politico has a very favorable article on her trip. The headline is “Harris finds footing and a jubilant audience, halfway around the world from Washington.” While of course they have to first point out that in their opinion she hasn’t previously “found( her) footing”, nonetheless the article presents a very sympathetic and positive picture of her performance on the trip. I think it might be the first time I’ve seen that in the MSM.
Baud
@rivers: I’ll take it, even though the media is blaming Harris for their own blind spots.
Baud
@Geminid:
👍
Kay
@Baud:
Wouldn’t it be wild if 50 years from now Trump turned out to be what destroyed the GOP in the US? I mean, obviously we’re not there yet but his malicious influence seems to have no end in that party. None of them (who matter, who might beat him) have the spine to hit back. Chris Christie says he will hit back but Chris Christie was the most unpopular governor in the country when he left office- 15%. Chris Christies constituency is the cast of Morning Joe and the political team at the NYTimes. He’s not popular. He’s never going to be President.
Nelle
Thank you for highlighting this. My sister moved to then Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo, to both work as a nurse and teach nursing in a small village near the Angolan border in the late 1970s. She married a man who came back to run the hospital after he had studied in the United States. They have been in the States for the last two decades and are preparing to retire in Kinshasa this spring, to run his NGO centered on leadership, peace-building, and self-sustaining agriculture. He was a soccer star, headed to medical school, when his spine was nearly severed in an accident. In spite of that, he pivoted to public health (his PhD is in that). After a surgery gone wrong about four years ago, he is mostly bed-ridden, but feels he will be cared for better in Kinshasa than he can be here. And he needs to be on his beloved land in his last years. Not sure if I will see my sister again after she leaves, but she too is committed to the DRC.
I wish we could, as a country, recognize our debt to the people of Africa, the richness of the people who we took from there and elevate the value of what they have brought to this country. We whine when a vote doesn’t go the way we want. Think of the centuries of endurance and effort that descendents of those stolen from that continent have displayed in this country. Humbling and worthy of honour.
Baud
@Kay:
I don’t think the GOP will be destroyed. The most that I expect is that it will be forced to moderate on noneconomic issues somewhat.
Eolirin
@Kay: It’ll be their base voters that broke the party even then. Trump is only unassailable because those base voters are rabid racists who’ve tasted blood and won’t settle for less.
Geminid
@Kay: Chhis Christie has the eight idea, but does not have the qualities himself to take the nomination away from Trump. I’m not sure any potential candidate does. The one that I that I think comes closest is Mike Pompeo.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@raven: .333 is a good batting average, a lousy winning percentage, and a truly awful ratio of truth to lies.
Geminid
@Baud: The party might not be destroyed, but the ideology it’s embracing could marginalize it at the national level for the rest of this decade and beyond.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Baud: If the GOP doesn’t die, it’s going to destroy us as a nation. One or the other is going to die in the next twenty years, I figure.
Eolirin
@Baud: They could easily refuse to do that, and they’ll end up like the CA GOP if they do.
It’s harder to see how that happens in places like Mississippi and Arkansas, but if Georgia and AZ durably flip to us and we make progress in shoring up WI we won’t be able to lose the presidency, and if we can finally flip NC, we won’t lose the senate.
If Texas and Florida are places we can eventually win, that’s game over for them nationally. If they double down on their current policies that might be possible.
Geminid
@Geminid: That should be “Chris Christie has the right idea…”
mrmoshpotato
@Bruce K in ATH-GR:
Settle down. Not a single game has started. :)
Oh, and Happy Opening Day!
DAY BASEBALL for the Cubs.
lowtechcyclist
@Spanky:
Can’t say I noticed that particular date at the time. The peace treaty had been signed a couple months earlier, we were getting out, my draft number was in the 200s, and only a handful of people had been drafted from the previous birth year (1953). I’d pretty much stopped paying attention.
Besides, I was on spring break, and my favorite cousin had gotten married the previous weekend. (I remembered to send her and my BIL a ‘happy 50th’ card. :-)
Kay
@Eolirin:
I’m wary of “voters are the problem” analysis not because they aren’t the problem but because it lets the most powerful individuals in the system off the hook. Voters, as individual actors, don’t have that much power. Presidents, senators and governors do.
Cameron
The continent of Africa? I’m pretty sure Sarah Palin advised us that it was the country of Africa.
mrmoshpotato
@Eolirin:
@Kay: The problem is that the GOP has been a goddamned pile of shit since Nixon. (your decade is your preference)
Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride
@Matt McIrvin: You must have missed a day at LGM. Erik Loomis just claimed that Biden is as bad on immigration as Trump. Apparently it doesn’t matter that the courts have ruled against Biden when he’s tried to change Trump’s policies, because complying with their rulings means “giving up” or something.
And, just because I can, “St. Bees Saga,” episode 4:
There was an old man of St. Bees
Who went broke getting useless degrees.
Though he lived on dry toast,
He could happily boast
B.F.A.s, LL.Ms, and D.D.s.
Kay
@Eolirin:
I think it’s important to keep responsibility/accountability proportionate to power. So a single voter does not have as much responsibility as a president or Supreme Court justice or senator because a single voter does not have that much power. And everyone thinks of themselves as single voters- no one thinks they are responsible for some voting bloc.
Over the years when John Cole would periodically apologize for his (tiny) role in supporting the Iraq invasion I always thought it was shouldering too much. He just didn’t have that much power or influence. It’s great to apologize but honestly? John Cole didn’t invade Iraq.
Geminid
@Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride: Eric Gloomis is the kind of person Harry Truman was talking about when he said, “I wouldn’t hire them to pound sand into ratholes.”
Shalimar
@Kay: Trump used to send Chris Christie on McDonald’s runs during the 2016 campaign. Chris Christie is an ass-kissing lickspittle who pretends he has courage.
mrmoshpotato
@Cameron: She can see Africa from her house.
Aussie Sheila
@Kay: Love it! You hit nailed it re Christie’s fan base. He looks like a big fat bully boy, except not tough enough to mix it with trump. I look forward to the republicans debates. Not enough popcorn in the world. 😅
Princess
This is an important trip, crucial for American interests. The way Harris has shaped it is a huge part of why it is going to matter. We’ve been sitting on our hands for too long with respect to Africa. No doubt American white supremacy has played a role in that.
Kay
Fucking centrists. So predictable. There is no issue where the centrist “solution” is not “immediately figure out a way not to anger the far Right and then they’ll all become moderates”
After the far Right court gutted Roe and ended womens bodily autonomy Matthew Yglesias’ advice to Democrats was to promote a 15 week national abortion ban because he STILL BELIEVES that Democrats compromising will somehow cause the far Right to meet Democrats in the middle. This has NEVER HAPPENED and did not happen with Roe- they immediately banned all abortions, no exceptions for even life/health of mother, but centrists still believe! If we had just pre banned abortion we could have banned it less.
Now we’re not even allowed to discuss gun regulations. We’re just forcing them to buy more guns!
There’s like a huge pundit effort to hold conservatives harmless for their own actions. All bad behavior by conservatives is CAUSED by liberals or Democrats somehow angering or inciting them. It’s ludicrous.
WaterGirl
@Kay: Let them fight!
Kay
Matthew Yglesias promoted charters schools for years under the theory that if Democrats didn’t go along with privatizing schools in terms of charters Republicans would privatize all schools.
There are now hundreds of crappy charters in Ohio AND we have unregulated funding of any entity that calls itself a private school. Too. In addition.
Guess what? A big group of centrists abandoned public schools and promoted charter schools because they toldus if they didn’t Republicans would just jam thru vouchers and twenty years later we have charters AND unlimited and unregulated vouchers. What we still don’t have are Democrats who support public schools.
Another pre compromise that worked out great. Republicans played the charter people like fiddles. Once they got their foot in the door with charters they jammed thru vouchers, which is exactly what the pro public school advocates said would happen.
JPL
@Kay: When I read that, I said aloud “what a fking asshole”
Just keep in mind that here are more of us.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: …and spend scores of millions tearing each other down, while Biden makes bank.
I think Biden would have done better in 2020 if he’d gone into August with a bigger war chest. He finally achieved fundraising parity in the last 3 months of the campaign, but Trump still had a year’s head start. Next year’s dynamic could be the opposite in this respect.
JPL
@Kay: GA narrowly voted down a voucher bill for education last night. It will come back next year though, and I hope that all the dems are ready.
Old School
The median age in Africa is 19?
Is that because of a baby boom? Early mortality? Something else?
Eolirin
@Kay: I’m happy to blame aggregate voter behavior; that’s supposed to be the check on that power, and our system isn’t so degraded (yet) that there’s no recourse to abuse, when voters do their job and hold to their end of the social compact.
The US electorate too often is refusing to do that, and it’s why we have problems. If we took our role, in the aggregate, more seriously, we’d have much better outcomes.
And if Republicans, as a whole, wanted to course correct, they would have no problem doing so. Trump doesn’t have any particular hold on the party in a direct way. He siphons up money and doesn’t use it as leverage on other politicans, since he won’t spend any of it on other people, he isn’t in the room when it comes to decision making on party platforms or direction, and shows no interest in anything other than him self. He exists outside of all of the traditional power structures.
What he does have a death grip on is the base voter; they want Trump, which is why Trump has power. It’s the only reason Trump has power. He’d be a joke of a has-been pseudo celebrity otherwise. He’s got a parasitic relationship with the rest of the party and if they could get rid of him without killing themselves they would. But they can’t, because their voters won’t let them.
Like, I’m more inclined to your view on this on the left, because we still have some degree of a functional party apparatus at a national level.
But on the right that’s all broken down. The truth of it is that all of their politicians are effectively powerless at this point. Even McConnell has been rendered ineffectual going by the nomination contests in 2022. Politicians are being forced into losing positions and incredibly bad candidates are getting nominations because no part of the party is strong enough to push back against the fanatics that are determinate in primary voting. It’s all been hollowed out.
It’s kind of amazing to say that after decades of that being the other way round, but that’s where we are.
Geminid
@Old School: That’s an interesting question. Maybe less childhood mortality.
lowtechcyclist
@Eolirin:
But the GOP base is what it is now on account of Trump. He’s the one that took the party from dog whistles to saying all the formerly quiet parts loud and proud. And that drew in a lot of people for whom the party, to be blunt, hadn’t been racist and misogynist enough until then.
Between bringing them in, and enabling those who picked up on the dog whistles to let their freak flags of hate proudly fly, it really is a very different party than it was eight years ago. What they are doing now in states they control, they wouldn’t have dared to do back then.
Kay
@JPL:
They have decades of info on vouchers because places like Milwaukee and Ohio have had limited voucher programs for decades. Private schools have never outperformed public schools – not for any population of students- not the lowest income or the middle incomes. It may hold for the really pricey private schools but it doesn’t matter because no can use a voucher to pay for a school with 20k annual tuition.
People choose private schools for all kinds of reasons but the argument that they are better schools, academically, the justification for why the PUBLIC should pay for them, just doesn’t hold. It never has.
Vouchers are entirely ideological. There is no public policy justification for them. I mean, if voucher schools couldn’t beat the much-maligned public schools in Cleveland or Milwaukee they aren’t going to beat public schools anywhere. This experiment has been conducted. It failed.
Matt McIrvin
@Old School: Both. Africa is the one continent where many (though NOT all) countries still follow the old poor-country pattern of high birthrate and high mortality, especially among infants and children.
Soprano2
@rikyrah: But Faux News has talked about it. On Monday I was in a restaurant where one of the TV’s was on Faux. The chyron was “Kamala goes to Africa with a bagful of cash”. I assume the story wasn’t flattering. LO
I think it’s so dumb when the press talks about how Kamala “isn’t visible” or “isn’t doing anything”, as if they have no agency to change anything about her visibility! Somehow something or someone is preventing them from covering her, they have nothing to do with that. *rolleyes
WaterGirl
@Geminid: Yes! Also…
Prayer to the universe: please keep Bernie out of the race for 2024.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: I thought that Trump just turbocharged the Tea Party movement. He galvanized the same people who knocked Eric Cantor out in 2014. I’m sure Trump brought in more people, but the coalition that won him the nomination preexisted him. As the late M.D. Russ put it, “…Trump just answered the casting call.”
Soprano2
@Kay: When I heard that story this morning I laughed out loud. I guess DeSantis thought Disney got wildly successful by being stupid and not knowing how to get around his dumb law.
Bupalos
@Kay: I agree on the tactical advantage, and I agree Trump is probably easier to beat in a general election. It’s too easy to forget though that Trump is a prominent part of a global attack on democracy, and that without skill on our side and some cross-party solidarity, he may be able to do as much damage while losing an American election as he did winning one.
Eolirin
@lowtechcyclist: He brought into the light things that already existed and were waiting for a means to express themselves.
If Trump didn’t exist someone else would have eventually filled that void; as much as I hate electoral politics as consumerism, the country is deeply in its thrall, and when you have an unmet market need someone is eventually going to fill it. I don’t think you can make a credible argument that Trump created that market need rather than exploited it. He isn’t a leader or a visionary.
Like, the contrast is Nixon and Reagan, where there was an actual realignment and refocusing of what it meant to be a conservative. Or Clinton and now Biden on our side. (albeit in different directions. Obama actually feels somewhat like a transistionary figure between the two). In all of those cases there are a lot more people involved than just the heads of the party, and there’s more going on than just Trump in the GOP transformation, but notably, everyone pushing in that direction on the right are outsiders wrecking the existing power structures by appealing to the worst impulses of the base. They’re all grifters out for self enrichment, and they’re succeeding mostly because their base is really susceptible to being grifted.
They need to take responsibility for that on some level or things can’t get better.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for US?
@Kay: Yeah I think TFG would be easier to beat. #1, a majority of Americans have fully decided they don’t want him in the WH under any circumstances. #2 he seems to have lost the plot – standing there with his hand over his heart to scenes from J6 might play to the most loyal of his base but the vast majority of Americans are still somewhat pissed about what happened that day. #3 every bad decision the SCOTUS has made and will make can be hung around his neck and they will make many more.
Honestly I think the fact that the repeal of Roe can be hung around his neck will be enough. I mean I’m sure if that is damaging enough he’ll start spewing some BS about how he had no idea that would be the result of his judicial appointments and who are those folks anyway I never met them and it was all Mitch picking them, and besides look at the dozens of women who I paid for abortions for I’m like the king of abortion supporters. But that won’t play this time around.
mali muso
Thank you for highlighting VP Harris’ trip to the continent. After I finished my Peace Corps service, DH and I took a road trip south to visit Ghana. I will never forget walking through those same dungeons in the Cape Coast Castle. I’m not a religious person, but both DH and I felt our spirits being almost physically drained while walking through those rooms. The malevolent force of the evil perpetuated there is palpable. It’s so important to remember and to tell the true stories of history.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
They may have been the same people, but they were being a damn sight less public about it even in the Tea Party era. “Taxed Enough Already”? “Don’t Tread On Me” Gadsden flags? If it was all about the racism and sexism and anti-queer stuff, they weren’t flying that flag out in public.
Matt McIrvin
@Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride: Even if it’s kind of unfair, I don’t really mind Loomis pounding Biden on immigration because somebody has to be the constituency for that. Greatly expanding legal immigration is an unpopular position and I think Biden knows it, but it’s also morally and practically right. It’s not going to happen soon but it will happen never unless somebody is unreasonable about it.
OzarkHillbilly
@Geminid: Tyhat’s OK, I speak Geminid.
Soprano2
@Kay: I think it’s ironic that they use minorities when they advocate for vouchers – “Why do you want poor black kids stuck in terrible schools?” they whine – and then the minute they get vouchers all the better-off white kids use them to flee to private schools without many minorities. That’s the real reason they want vouchers, to be able to use public money to pay for their kids to go to the lily-white religious school
And yes, the private and religious schools aren’t any better even though they can pick and choose their students, unlike the public school that has to take everyone.
lowtechcyclist
@Eolirin:
That segment of the electorate went for an awfully long time without being marketed to. And in a country where, for eons, maybe 50% of citizens over 18 voted, I’m sure both parties have given plenty of thought to how to get the other 50% off the sidelines. So I’m not keen on the inevitability notion on anything less than a span of decades.
Just in general, sure, there are historical forces that shape things, but individual people also make a difference, and can and do change the direction that history takes.
Eolirin
@Soprano2: Even the attacks on abortion were really about building a political coalition that would reinstitute segregation without actively calling for one so it makes sense that they’d weild education policy to those ends as well.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: All that being true, there is more than a little truth to the statement that, “Trump is a symptom, not the cause.” The GOP has been heading in this direction since ’68.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: Terrorist manifestos often argue that the terrorists have a moral duty to kill civilians in democratic countries that do bad things, because those civilians are the government and therefore bear responsibility. Osama bin Laden emphasized that angle frequently.
The thing is, if taken seriously, the incentives there run to having a dictatorship just to do the dirty work and keep your hands clean.
Bupalos
This is beautifully written. The saddest thing about the latest backlash is the way it seeks to bury and deny a part of American history that can and will make us all stronger as people and as a country. The best thing about this backlash is that, like all backlashes, it’s a nearly mindless reaction and can be rendered temporary. That can happen by mindful advocates persisting and finding new ways to connect this history to the present, and as you allude to, especially to the gifts this past brought to the present, often through pain and suffering.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
We’re living in a time where everyone wants the privilege to be unreasonable in support of their issue. That’s fine, but the let’s not waste time asking ourselves why the GOP got so powerful.
Lapassionara
@Bupalos: A lot of people thought Trump would be easier to beat in 2016, and look how that turned out.
The Republicans go into an election with a built-in advantage because of the Electoral College. I always prefer that they nominate someone sane and with some knowledge of governing.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
I’m sure terrorists will respect that distinction.
Bupalos
@OzarkHillbilly: I’d place a turning point more specifically in 1980, which I think of as the real end of New Deal coalitions and politics, and the determined march towards increasing inequality.
Eolirin
@Bupalos: Nixon set the template for Reagan though. Like, yeah the 80s is the actual inflection point, where the shift took, but without Nixon we probably don’t get Reagan.
If MLK and Bobby hadn’t been killed, we’d be living in a very different country.
JPL
@Lapassionara: Special thanks goes to Jim Comey. Even today some rwnj’s are convinced that she had classified info on her phone.
gene108
@Kay:
The media portrays taking on Trump like a schoolyard put down contest, with possible nominees dunking on Trump with Yo’ Mama jokes or something.
The reality is no Republican can hit back against Trump. To hit back means to criticize Trump. To find a point of disagreement with what Trump’s done. Officially, most Republicans have no problems with what Trump’s done throughout his life. Hard to “hit back”, when a Republican has to publicly agree with everything Trump’s done.
Kay
@Soprano2:
Because they’re operating under the assumption that Catholic schools in Cleveland and Miwaukee are better than the public schools in those places. I say “Catholic schools” because 90% of the vouchers in Cleveland and Milwaukee are going to Catholic schools. Well, Catholic parishes. Money is fungible so whatever the parish doesn’t spend on a school stays with the parish, so it’s a church subsidy too. Problem is, that isn’t true. It’s widely believed! It just isn’t true. They have compared test scores for decades now. It simply isn’t true that “private” is better than “public” in low income areas. And if it isn’t better in low income areas why would it be better in high income areas with better funded public schools? It won’t be. The big test for vouchers was low income areas – that’s where they had to beat public schools. They failed, They didn’t beat them. They’re not going to beat them in leafy suburbs either.
Bupalos
@Lapassionara: Well, Trump can have won and also have been one of the easier-to-beat candidates. Those aren’t necessarily exclusive.
Though I do think 2016 Tump dovetailed nicely with the surprising force of social media and the then-unappreciated role of global authoritarianism. Maybe there are new unknowns that turn out to put new wind in his sails, but I tend to think he’s a pretty rigid puzzle piece, one that fit a particular political moment which created its own passing. Democratically speaking, that is. Unfortunately just winning elections isn’t the only thing we have to worry about with this clown.
Jeffro
A Christie-trump debate would be like watching those guys on American Chopper yell at each other, only for 90 straight minutes. Which some people like to watch! Just not from their potential president.
Eolirin
@gene108: There’s an easy way to criticize Trump though; he’s a loser and a liar (it doesn’t mean you can’t be a liar yourself to call him out on it even).
I think the bigger issue is that the base doesn’t want to hear it. He’s acquired totemic representation for their id, and an attack on him is an attack on them. The second that stops being the case, he’s done.
Kay
@gene108:
It’s wild to watch though. They’ve backed themselves into this impossible corner. There is nothing- nothing- they won’t give up for Trump now. I just think we look back on this in 20 years and it’s a DISASTER for them. It gets worse every year and there doesn’t seem ot be any end to it.
Donald Trump has now lost them 2 elections in a row and still they are doubling down on him. He lost. He failed on the only measure that matters in politics which is winning your re-elect. All the rest is bullshit and Trump knows it which is why he fills the space with blather. He lost in ’20 and his “movement” lost in ’22. He’ll lose again in ’24.
OzarkHillbilly
@Bupalos: I say ’68 only because that is when they embraced the Southern Strategy. Once they decided to pander to the racists it became all too easy to feed the next bit of hatred. That’s why Reagan began his presidential run in MS with a state’s wrongs speech.
YMMV.
Jeffro
Btw there are several good articles today about Republicans’ refusals to act in any way on guns. NYT has a story up about how they’re actually loosening gun restrictions.
Only GOP voters can make something happen at this point. And they don’t even have to vote for the (gasp/horror) Democrat! Just reach out to their blessed reps and tell them, “enough”.
Eolirin
@Kay: There’s a powerful and pervasive belief in this country that government provided services are always inferior to privately provided ones that persists regardless of how much evidence exists to the contrary, so it’s a dammed easy lie to push.
ryk
@Eolirin:
I don’t think it’s going to stop any time soon though. They literally worship him. I recently ran across an advertisement for 1911 pistols and Thompson sub machine guns emblazoned with the American flag and the phrase “Trump Save America.” It’s mind boggling to me.
Eolirin
@ryk: It may not, but when it does it’ll be sudden and all at once. Unless he dies first, which at his age is a distinct possibility, and then he’ll be turned into a mythical figure with the base and the rest of us will (mostly) just move on, much like Reagan.
zhena gogolia
@Kay: This morning’s NYT headline is something like “Shared Shrug in Washington about Gun Control.” Oh, it’s shared, is it? So it’s both parties that are obstructing gun control?
No, it’s that Biden has no hope of doing anything about it BECAUSE OF THE REPUBLICANS. Could you make it clear in your framing that the blame is not SHARED???
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
The NYT is garbage.
Gin & Tonic
Latvia says “Those Russian citizens living in Latvia who have not passed the national language test necessary for the extension of the residence permit and will not leave the country voluntarily will be forcibly taken to land border crossing points [and evicted from the country]”
Soprano2
@Kay: Oh I know that it’s true that the religious Catholic schools aren’t better, but that’s how they market the idea of vouchers to the voters, as a way to help those poor black kids (that they don’t really care about) escape the bad public schools (that they don’t want to do anything to improve). They use a sympathetic group of people – poor black parents trying to do the best for their kids – to get support for what they really want to do, which is to expand vouchers to everyone so the wealthy people sending their kids to a $15,000/year school can get half of that tuition (that they’re already paying!) paid for by the taxpayers. Notice how they mostly cast the poor black parents aside as soon as they get the vouchers passed
They will continue to lie about the Catholic schools being better because even though there are studies that prove it isn’t true, talking about studies makes people’s eyes glaze over. They show pictures of kids wearing uniforms and sitting at attention at desks in clean classrooms, and people think “How can it not be better?”. I’ve even heard the advocates say that even if the education isn’t better, other things about the school are better so that justifies the vouchers, and besides shouldn’t parents have a choice? *rolleyes
cmorenc
@Eolirin:
NC native here – NC has for 40 years been among the most seemingly promising red-to-blue trending states, yet it has remained tantalizingly 1-3 pts leaning gop for 40 uears.
Brachiator
@gene108:
That’s pretty much it. The GOP leadership protected Trump and praised him. A Republican contender can’t say that Trump ever did anything wrong.
TS
@Baud:
After 4 years of wondering each day what the next horror story would be – it has been a pleasant change.
lowtechcyclist
Wisconsin school bans Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus duet from class concert (dailykos.com)
Actually, a first-grade class was banned from performing their version of a Dolly/Miley duet, “Rainbowland.” Because, you know, LGBTQ acceptance.
Dolly’s too controversial for Wisconsin. Sheesh.
sdhays
@Geminid: Yeah, Ron DeShittest is finding out that if you want to run at the king, you’d best not miss. Once he decided he wanted to run for President in 2024, he needed to put himself on a war footing with regard to Trump. Instead, he decided to follow the same strategy as Jeb! “Please clap” Bush, and, I don’t know, assume that Trump would hold his fire until he actually announced?
I think we’re finding that Ron’s success in Florida says a lot more about the (awful) state of Florida politics than it says about Ron as a politician, much like Scott Walker before him. I don’t know that he’s harder to beat than Trump (if, say, Trump tripped on a stair and broke his neck tomorrow).
lowtechcyclist
@sdhays:
Neither do I. On that score, I’m not offering any predictions; my predictometer has been busted since 2016.
The only thing I am sure of is that the best course for our side is being behind Biden/Harris all the way, from now on forward. None of this bullshit about either one of them needing to be replaced, no primary challenges, none of that.
TheTruffle
@Eolirin:
Florida used to be a purple state but the state Dem party is a hot mess, or so I’ve heard. They need to rebuild.
Texas is a bright red state with a handful of blue dots. I love Austin and the surrounding area, but those are exceptions. If the 2022 election proved anything, it is that Texas is NOT trending blue. That is wishful thinking on the Dems’ part.
Maybe North Carolina is a better prospect? I’m bummed Cheri Beasley didn’t win. My understanding is that it is barely a swing state at this point. It just needs a nudge.
satby
wonderful comment, I totally agree.
jonas
@Gin & Tonic: That has to include a large number of young men avoiding the draft in Russia — does Latvia really want to return a bunch of draft-age men to Russia just to see them sent to Ukraine to fight? Or are they targeting rich, oligarch types who have set up shop in Latvia, but still retain significant ties — business and otherwise — with Russia? I can see why they’d want to get rid of those folks.
Gin & Tonic
@jonas: There is a very significant population of ethnic russians in Latvia, and has been for decades. The reason for that is left as an exercise.
Recently, the Latvian government has taken a number of steps to reduce the use of the russian language and promote the use of Latvian. One of them is to require those residents who are there on a residence permit (not citizens) to pass a basic Latvian-language exam in order to extend their residence permit. Now, apparently, those who do not do so are to be expelled. I do not have a demographic breakdown of russians in Latvia on residence permits, but a significant portion have been there for a long time.
Ksmiami
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: the party needs to be obliterated for America to succeed and survive. Bring it on.
UncleEbeneezer
FX’s series Snowfall had an entire episode titled “The Door of No Return” a couple weeks ago. It’s really a stand-alone episode, so even if you aren’t a regular fan/watcher, I’d highly recommend checking it out. All you need to know is that Leon is one of the former crack dealers who decided to get out of the game and Wanda is the girl next door who became a junkie/prostitute but is now trying to clean up her life. It’s a great hour of tv with Leon (Isiah John) and Wanda (Gail Bean) looking absolutely stunning in some gorgeous African prints :):
Kay
@Soprano2:
Schools are local so it’s different everywhere, but our local Catholic school is known to not be “better” academically than the public schools. But, prior to vouchers, some parents chose it for religious reasons but other parents chose it because our public school district is 50% low income and the private school parents wanted a school with fewer low income students. But now, with vouchers, parents who are not religious and who are low income are moving to the Catholic school, which upsets the families who have always attended the Catholic school.
Boo hoo. Unintended consequences of Right wing policy, again. Rigbt wingers here HAD an affordable option to keep their kids away from the public school kids and now the public school kids are in their school. In 5 years the Catholic school will have every single challenge the public schools here currently have, because their student body will look much more like the public schools.
Ksmiami
@Soprano2: never ever never ever mess with the Mouse…
Kay
Far Right judges completely out of control. Has there been polling on term limits for judges? I bet it polls at 70 per cent.
Ohio has age limits for judges and judges tried to overturn it. The judges lost by 40 points.
sab
@Kay: I graduated from public school, but with two years in fancy private schools. My husband had all twelve years in Catholic schools. I have no doubt whatever that public schools are better, so our kids were public school kids all the way.
Kathleen
@Nelle: Your post is beautiful. Thank you for sharing your sister’s story.
Kathleen
@mrmoshpotato: Also Happy Opening Day for Cincinnati!
WaterGirl
@Baud: Why did you wait until now to tell us? //
Ksmiami
@Kay: we need to remove every single far Rt judge. Impeach them all. Worthless pieces of shit.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: Is it wrong that I think that’s a good thing that Latvia is doing that?
Geminid
@Kathleen: And the Washington Nationals will open at home against the Atlanta Braves. It will be sunny and cool (47°) at the 1:05 pm gametime.
This will be a rebuilding year for the Nationals. The franchise is being sold, also.
Kathleen
@Bupalos: I think 1968 was a significant first step in mainstreaming “fringe” right wing beliefs from the 50’s/early 60’s. Rethugs were still emplying inside voice racism a la Atwater. Reagan was a huge step forward but benefitted from groundwork laid in ’68.
UncleEbeneezer
@Eolirin: Thank you. Voters have agency about their choices and politicians are only granted power through votes. Period. I’m tired of this notion that Trump/GOP supporters are some blameless, naive children who just can’t help themselves. They have the same access to the same information that we all have. We manage to see the GOP and its’ horrific politicians and polices for the evil that they are, they can too. There is plenty of information about how Fox, OAN, Qanon etc., peddle nothing but lies and why nobody should listen to them. There’s plenty of information out there for how scientific consensus works and historical truth are determined, how Gender really is understood by experts, and what really happened in US history. Nobody deserves a pass for being too lazy, too busy or just plain unwilling to embrace reality in favor of right-wing fantasy-land. When you look at the arc of the historical dark side of our politics in this country, it’s not the horrible leaders who jump out to me, but the fact that they had enough of the populace to put them into power in the first place.
UncleEbeneezer
@Ksmiami: We don’t have the numbers to impeach them, sadly.
Montanareddog
@rikyrah:
And which “concern” will that be? The one where she passive and invisible, or the one where she is pushy and upstaging POTUS”?
Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride
@Matt McIrvin: Unfortunately, the only position Loomis considers acceptable, “open borders,” couldn’t get majority support today even among Democrats and liberals. And until he has both houses of Congress back, I don’t see how Biden could get there even if he wanted to.
emmyelle
I know this is not the point of, well, anything, but as someone who has “complicated hair” in common with VP Harris (meaning that in the right, controlled environment, my hair looks awesome and is considered my best physical attribute, but in, you know, nature, it’s a wild crazy mess), I love that her hair is completely messed up as she made that stunningly beautiful and important speech in one of the most historically consequential spaces on the planet.
Kay
@sab:
Well, it depends. Some private schools are better than some public schools. But that isn’twhat voucher proponents in Cleveland and Milwaukee sold the public. They sold the public the promise that lower income children would have access to BETTER schools with vouchers. That isn’t true.
There’s some nostalgia with Catholic schools that gets in the way of honest analysis. If you attended Cathlic schools during the period where Catholics had a huge, basically unpaid, educated female teacher pool (nuns) then you will have an unrealistic view of todays Catholic schools, whch no longer have that advantage. Their teachers come from the same pool of applicants that public school teachers come from, and they pay less than public schools.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Absolutely absurd
UncleEbeneezer
@Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride: I know a wonderful Latina woman who works at CHIRLA, a prominent Immigration Rights organization in Los Angeles. She’s been doing this work for decades and would laugh in Loomis’ face at the suggestion that Biden has been anywhere near as bad as Trump.
I know another Latina woman who is an immigration attorney and former-activist. She loves to shit on Dems and claim BothSides bullshit and we need a Third Party!!1! etc. Looking at her FB posts from Fall of 2016, she never even mentions the upcoming election or the importance of keeping Trump out of office.
Anyways, Loomis bases all of his views on the sentiments of the latter, while ignoring the former, even though the former make up the vast majority of immigration advocates who ya know, have common sense.
Kathleen
@Geminid: WI’ll be 60 at game time at 4 here on Cincy. The Opening Day Parade is going on now. It is like a holiday here. The parade is awesome. One of the Reds lives in my building!7
rikyrah
@Eolirin:
Because, our base wants to help this country and not destroy it.
It’s that simple.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Truth.
It failed completely. And now, that there’s data about how they failed..
Now, they don’t even pretend with the ‘ they are better’. It’s just a financial smash and grab.
rikyrah
@gene108:
THIS
They have NO POLICY DIFFERENCES WITH THEM.
They aren’t going to condemn his lack of COVID Policy.
They aren’t going to condemn his separating children from their parents at the border.
They have no issues with him – POLICY WISE.
rikyrah
@TheTruffle:
I truly believe Texas is Voter Suppressed.
Roberto el oso
@Gin & Tonic: I believe the proportion of ethnic Russians in Latvia is somewhere under 30%, although a majority of these, especially the ones who are middle-aged and younger, are bilingual and therefore had no problem passing the language requirements for fulltime residency.
I spent some time in Riga in 1998-99 and the situation was tense but manageable. The older Russians, some of whom refused to speak Latvian, had largely moved there in the decade after the end of WWII (a typical Soviet policy applied to the entirety of the Baltics). After the breakup of the USSR the tables were turned and many Latvians refused to speak Russian, even though they were fluent, with shopkeepers, tram conductors, cops, and just average folks going so far as to play dumb if one tried to speak Russian to them.
In the early 2000s, (can’t remember the exact date), the President of Latvia came and delivered a lecture at the university where I was working (Rice, Houston), and spent a portion of her talk describing the language requirements, which were quite easy, it seemed to me, the most difficult part being able to recite the now-restored Latvian national anthem (a couple of verses + chorus).
I’m curious as to what the situation is in Estonia and Lithuania, where the ethnic Russian/native percentages are different
BTW, G&T, I am a longtime fan of your extremely knowledgeable commentary on Adam Silverman’s nightly Ukraine updates. Thank you.
Paul in KY
@Old School: My wife is from Africa. Her father has 23 kids (among 2 women).