Politics

There are 146 posts filed in Politics (this is page 9 of 15).

Remembrance of the 2nd anniversary of the January 6th Insurrection

Two years ago today, Donald Trump sent a mob to the US Capitol to disrupt the counting of the Electoral College votes and attempt to have Donald Trump named the winner of the 2020 presidential election. We did not know then that this was the final step of a coup-conspiracy to keep Donald Trump as president. I was at my laptop computer, watching the events of the day on C-SPAN, thinking this was going to be the final step to take for the election of Joe Biden as president. Instead, a horrifying set of events unfolded where our democracy hung in the balance. In the end, the rioters left, and the counting of the electoral votes was completed. I have a liveblog that I created that day, it is still amazing to me the comments of the senators and congressmen/women who tried to protest the results of the election. The work of the House January 6th committee has documented what led up to the events of January 6th. In the published version of the report from HarperCollins, MSNBC legal correspondent contributed a foreward describing the eight crimes of this coup-conspiracy (parts of this are available as a podcast and a Substack newsletter, and discussed on the Brian Lehrer Daily Politics podcast).

Last year, there was a ceremony at the Capitol where the only Republicans in attendance were Liz Cheney and her father, Dick Cheney. Today, the House Democrats met on the steps of the Capitol in remembrance of this event, with one Republican attendee.

Joe Biden gave a speech and awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal to individuals who helped keep that election safe.

A remembrance rally was held in Washington DC:

Let us not forget, so that this cannot ever happen again…

What deserves the label “conservative”?

Frank McPherson continues exploring the use of the terms “conservative” and “liberal”, looking at the current makeup of the Supreme Court, and discussing recent court cases that infringe on the liberty of the people. An interesting article was published on The Federalist web site, putting forward the idea that “conservatives” should stop calling themselves conservatives because of changes in our culture, and should think of themselves as revolutionaries. I disagree with The Federalist – I think many of the people referred to in the article are seeking to attack and hurt our democracy. One last interesting observation on terms of speech – a recent podcast I listened to hosted by Vicki Robin described “category disruption” to not let “conservatives” be the sole definers of the term:

From the transcript: “Vicki Robin: Totally. I think another thing listening to you, I think is sort of like a tool we can use is category disruption. For example I’m conservative, I want to conserve nature. I want to conserve relationships. I want to conserve meaning. I want to, you know, I want to conserve intact ecosystems. I’m conservative. So I’m gonna take it. I’ll take conservative, I’ve got it now, you know, and so but I’m liberal because I think, you know, there is no no particular group has a, you know, a purchase on the truth. We’re finding truths together. We’re evolving. You know, it’s like I’m pro life. I want every child to have enough food and security, etc. You know, it’s like we have to be courageous and category mixing.”

Wrapping up the January 6th Committee hearings

My wife and I watched the final hearing this week from the House January 6th Select Committee on the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 (also, see C-SPAN archive collection. It was a day that I remember well, having kept a liveblog of the day’s events (also see posts here and here). I think that the committee has done an excellent job of telling the story of what led up to this event and how Donald Trump was the central figure in trying to overturn the 2020 election. My fervent hope is that the Department of Justice is going to pursue Trump and hold him accountable for his crimes (i.e., indict, arrest, and convict him!). The site JustSecurity.org has a January 6 clearinghouse of information on this event, well worth checking out, as well as a citizen’s guide to the evidentiary record.

The most striking part of the hearing was the documentary video of the congressional leaders at Fort McNair filmed by Alexandra Pelosi (Nancy Pelosi’s daughter). CNN also carried more of this footage the evening of the hearing (also here). It was riveting. One question came up in my wife and I discussing the hearing – how was it that Alexandra Pelosi came to be there that day? And for myself, how is it that this is the first time this footage is coming to public view? Was she planning to make a documentary with this? Her Wikipedia page says she works for HBO, but she has not released any documentaries since 2020. I hope that some journalist will dig into this a little more.

Using non-violence techniques to achieve goals

In a recent post on Waging Nonviolence, organizer George Lakey related a story about use of non-violence training and techniques in a boycott of South African sport teams during the apartheid era. Through these trainings, anti-racism and anti-apartheid groups were able to work together to come up with a plan to stage de-centralized civil disobedience events. The New Zealand government could not handle this approach, and cancelled a tour by the South African rugby team.

With the upcoming mid-term elections, there may be problems resulting from election protestors and disrupters. These techniques may be of use in this troubled time. We will have to wait, watch, and perhaps take action to preserve our democracy through civil disobedience.

Upholding our democracy

The United States is having challenges in maintaining and upholding democracy. In Oregon, all of the candidates for governor have all called each other “extreme” for one reason or another. In many states, people who deny the results of the 2020 presidential election won their primaries and are candidates for high office. The Democracy Day journalism collaborative held an event in September 2022 to highlight issues and seek solutions. In a post on Waging Nonviolence, the group outlined seven ideas for coming together as partisans for democracy:

  • Look beyond electoral politics
  • Define “anti-democratic” behavior beyond partisan identities
  • Bridge the understanding of “anti-democratic” behavior to mobilize against it
  • Calling out toxic othering
  • Now is not the time for neutrality
  • Partisanship for democracy versus bipartisanship
  • A cross-ideological democracy movement is both necessary and possible

This post is excellent reading, with many links to supporting material. As for each of us, let us do what we can to help uphold our democracy.

Explainers on Donald Trump legal troubles

In an earlier post, I gave some examples of explainers (a form of journalism that provides the essential background knowledge necessary to follow events in the news). Recently, I have seen some good examples concerning Donald Trump and his legal troubles.

Axios.com – Presidential Records Act and Trump search explained

JustSecurity.org – Expert Backgrounder: Criminal Statutes that Could Apply to Trump’s Retention of Government Documents 

CNN.com – Opinion: Trump is worried after FBI search — and he should be

Best links from 8th January 6th committee hearing

CNN: The damning case against Trump that the January 6th committee has uncovered – and what comes next

Flux: The January 6th hearings demonstrate how to move forward when dialogue is impossible – For the first time since Donald Trump emerged on the scene, a national political conversation is excluding obviously malicious nonsense