Republican Stupidity

Josh Marshall published a member newsletter at TPM the other day on the topic of how to save American biomedical research. It’s long but worth a read. Here’s a gift link. I’ll include an excerpt below, but in a nutshell, Marshall says the draconian cuts Republicans are making to biomedical research are happening largely under the radar and that it’s urgent to get the word out now.

Every major disease affecting Americans has what we might call a disease community built up around it. These are a mix of survivors, people suffering from the disease, family members, loved ones and caregivers. To a lesser degree, it involves clinicians and those in the caring fields. Sometimes those communities are strongly tied to the quasi-official fund-raising and public awareness organization to the specific disease. But sometimes they’re not. The key is that these aren’t top-down organizations. They’re genuine mass membership organizations and even movements. Often there are a handful of different organizations. But the point is these communities are out there, regardless of precisely how they’re constituted. They’re made up of people who care deeply about the issue and who can make their voices heard. I first started thinking about this when I was speaking to a former NIH researcher and he mentioned to me how he was about to do a Zoom meeting open to members of a breast cancer–focused organization in a mid-sized to large state. Just in that one state and focused on that one (albeit common) disease, the group had about 80,000 members.

Something clicked in my head. And when I did some more poking around, I learned that what’s happening at NIH and in biomedical research generally was only just beginning to make itself known in these disease communities. Put these two things, these two groups, together — the researchers who know what’s happening and the disease communities who need to know — and it’s like a spark in a room filled with gas fumes.

This is really the entire story. I’ve written in other posts about how we’ve learned over recent months that the modern American university is simply not equipped for this kind of assault. It lacks the tools and experience. I’ve described the challenges the researchers have communicating with the broader public. But these people — the people in the disease communities — are all people who speak human. There are lots and lots of them. They will show up at town halls. In their nature, they transcend ordinary political divisions. This is what has to happen. When the people in the world of biomedical research — let’s cut the technical language: disease cure research — make sustained contact with the people in each of these dozen or so disease communities and help them understand what’s happening, that’s the point when I think everything will change.

But will it happen?

And how soon?

I don’t know if this will happen or the timeline, but from what I hear from my contacts in that community, time is running out. The damage is already considerable, and remember, no one asked for this. So, it’s a vulnerability for Republicans if it can be communicated effectively.

I’m not really a “joiner,” so I don’t participate in any groups that have to do with my particular health issue. But I do still get treatment, and I’m thinking of making some flyers to hang in facility bathroom stalls, etc., urging anyone who sees it to access the facts about the cuts and call their federal representatives to object to it. Other suggestions welcome!

Open thread.

Saving Biomedical Research (Open Thread)Post + Comments (72)

Republican town halls that go off the rails are my favorite news genre these days, so when I saw this photo on Bluesky featuring a then-unidentified woman flashing peace signs while cops carried her out of Mike Lawler’s (R-NY) town hall, I was immediately interested in the backstory.

Now we have it, thanks to Mother Jones reporter Julianne McShane. An excerpt:

(Emily Feiner) was one of several people forcibly removed by state troopers after asking Lawler what it would take for him to stand up to the Trump administration. The moment, which was caught on video and quickly went viral on social media, serves as the latest example of Republican lawmakers endorsing seemingly drastic measures to silence calls for accountability from the constituents they represent…

But Lawler’s apparent efforts to stamp out dissent quickly unraveled. “I asked [Lawler], given all the unconstitutional acts by this administration, did he have a red line, and what was it?” Feiner told me. “Because he’s done nothing yet, while presenting himself as a moderate, to indicate that he is, in any way, going to act as a check on this administration.”

According to Feiner and a friend who filmed the incident and was also removed from the event, Jennifer Cabrera, who is also chair of the local chapter of the Working Families Party, Lawler did not directly answer the question, and instead started talking about the appropriations process. So Feiner called out: “Answer the question, answer the question.”

After that, the cops dragged Feiner out. Here’s a brief interview with the ejected constituent that MoJo posted on Bluesky:

“I think this says that they will not tolerate us being active participants in our democracy—they want an autocracy,” Emily Feiner told Mother Jones.

Meet the 64-year-old retired social worker who went viral after being forcibly removed from her representative’s town hall.

[image or embed]

— Mother Jones (@motherjones.com) May 6, 2025 at 4:45 PM

More from the linked article:

Authorities also reportedly removed attendees from recent town halls held by Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has reportedly told members to skip in-person town halls after many were met by protesters demanding accountability in the early weeks of Trump’s term, baselessly alleging that those who were showing up were “professional protesters.”

Feiner—who, for the record, says she is not a paid protester—says that even if Republicans stop showing up, defenders of democracy should not. “Everybody doesn’t have to do what I do, but everybody has a role: Be a body, be there. Let your elected representative know that you care, that you’re watching.”

She’s right. We gotta keep showing up.

Open thread.

Constituent Service (Open Thread)Post + Comments (174)