Guest Post: Occasional Words from the Resistance – The first in a series of remarks from the desk of R.E. Vanella

Guest Post: Occasional Words from the Resistance – The first in a series of remarks from the desk of R.E. Vanella

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Unhappy the land where heroes are needed.  –Bertolt Brecht, Life of Galileo I am in here.  Like many of you I had a painful week.  I think dramatic vacillation between severe emotions has the same effect as ascending too quickly from great depths in the sea.  If I accelerate from rage directly to despondency in, say, less than two seconds I experience significant waves of nausea. I’ve concluded that the seriousness of this moment requires us to navigate through the storms of the body and the psyche and get on the same page.  There’s been mention of coming together.  So to that end and if you’ll permit me, I’d like to make a few remarks. What I am going to do, and what I strongly urge you all to do, is whatever it takes to prepare yourself for the fight ahead.  We’ve read polls, and spread memes, and spewed talking points, and told the jokes, and made predictions, and dismissed other people predictions, and also the videos.  It seems a little surreal that there was a game in this space around Republican primary season.  Has anyone else had this thought? Please know I mean no disrespect, but I’m in no mood to play now.

The November 15, 2016 Thread

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E.J. Dionne Jr. on Trumpian triumphalism:
To point out Clinton’s popular-vote advantage is not a form of liberal denial. It’s a way of beginning to build a barricade against right-wing triumphalism — and of reminding immigrants, Muslims, African Americans, Latinos and, yes, our daughters that most Americans stood with them on Election Day. It is also not true that the emerging political coalition that elected President Obama died on Nov. 8. That alliance maintained its national advantage, as the popular vote shows, and came within a whisker in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan of delivering the election to Clinton despite an onslaught of partisan congressional investigations, Russian meddling and the last-minute political intervention of the FBI. We dare not forget the power that was arrayed behind Trump because it is that power that must be resisted over the next four years.

Patty Blevins – What happened?

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An incumbent State Senator isn't supposed to lose. An incumbent President Pro Tempore of the State Senate really isn't supposed to lose. It just doesn't happen. So how did Lacey Lafferty's lawyer, Anthony Delcollo (the guy had as the least likely of Dave Burris' "fightin' three young'uns" to win) knock off Blevins? Or, I guess you might ask, how did Blevins let the seat go?

Election Results set up a showdown in the 10th

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Well, I won't doubt Harris McDowell and Bruce Ennis again, that's for sure. Both easily won reelection over what I thought were strong challenges by Republicans James Spadola and Carl Pace. It turns out the closest race among the three competitive races I highlighted before the election was the 8th SD, where Senator David Sokola held on against Republican upstart Meredith Chapman 51% to 47%. It turns out the surprise of the night was Republican Anthony Del Collo upsetting Senate President Pro Tem Patricia Blevins by 206 votes. Boy, getting that job of President Pro Tem seems like a curse recently. That reduces the Democratic majority in the Senate to razor-thin: 11-10. Indeed, Blevins' loss now makes the special election in the 10th Senate District do or die. Senator Bethany Hall Long, having been elected to be the next Lt. Governor, will likely resign the seat just before she takes office in mid-January. That would place the special election in either mid to late February or early March. The Democrats have a registration advantage in the 10th, with 15,600 Dems to 9,800 registered Republicans, but it is a competitive seat, with Republican John Marino getting 48.9% of the vote in 2014 amid the backlash to Hall-Long's husband's sign stealing scandal.

Ya’ll Need to Come and Get Your Boys

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Bill O’Reilly famously declared back in the spring that if any Republican other than Trump won the nomination that the GOP could count on the white aggrieved voters that powered his campaign would stay home. They didn’t stay at home, of course, because Donald Trump executed a campaign of dog whistles, outright demeaning rhetoric and spectacular lying to pick at the scab that is this country’s white grievances. Trump famously blamed trade deals and government complicity in the disappearance of the kind of good middle-class jobs at places like Bethlehem Steel or US Steel or American Motors or RCA that let you support a family right out of college. He told voters that he would bring these jobs back and that he would get rid of the trade deals, the regulations and the taxes that were holding back job creation in the US. On top of that, he blamed immigrants for taking jobs, used Obamacare as a proxy for poor people taking your stuff and impressively – for a guy born with a silver spoon in his mouth – made these people believe that he felt their pain.
The Death of a Moderate

The Death of a Moderate

Most likely you have never heard of the writer Jake Hinkson, but that's okay. He writes excellent crime fiction that is published by small and obscure book publisher, but that's not important here. He recently wrote a short political essay entitled "The Death of a Moderate: My Radicalization".

The November 14, 2016 Thread

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David Remnick: “The election of Donald Trump to the Presidency is nothing less than a tragedy for the American republic, a tragedy for the Constitution, and a triumph for the forces, at home and abroad, of nativism, authoritarianism, misogyny, and racism. Trump’s shocking victory, his ascension to the Presidency, is a sickening event in the history of the United States and liberal democracy. On January 20, 2017, we will bid farewell to the first African-American President—a man of integrity, dignity, and generous spirit—and witness the inauguration of a con who did little to spurn endorsement by forces of xenophobia and white supremacy. It is impossible to react to this moment with anything less than revulsion and profound anxiety.”