“We were not a regular administration,” said Donald Trump in his final remarks as president, an understatement if there ever was one. “Have a nice life,” he added, and with that, he was gone, declining to appear at Biden’s inauguration, leaving the task to Mike Pence instead. Perhaps it was for the better.
Joe Biden has some very big challenges in front of him, but I hope he and the congressional leadership also take care of a small piece of business with a quickness: Take all these fences down. Calls for unity from inside a fortified Green Zone ring hollow, and besides, this is a city where regular people live. We need it back. If there are warnings of some kind of mob forming, those warnings will appear on social media long before they materialize in the capital. All you need is some extra guards on those days, not a permanently fortified monstrosity.
Today we published a photo essay by Ron Haviv that documents this historic moment, one I hope is relegated to history.
Reporter Mike Giglio, meanwhile, spent the weekend with militia members and produced this fascinating dispatch. There are hopeful signs of some post-insurrection self-reflection.
Biden, meanwhile, also has to guard against the curse of the first midterm. Save for George W. Bush, every president since Harry Truman has suffered losses in his first midterm election, some of them utterly crippling. But Biden has the pieces he needs to avoid that fate, he just has to put it together right. My piece on that from today is here.
If Democrats don’t make the best use of the power they have now, the newsletter I send four years from today will be quite a dour one.
Far from Washington, the story of the smearing of Alex Morse continues. Despite there being no actual allegations against him, UMass launched an investigation anyway. They found he did nothing wrong, but still published a very long and detailed report about his once-private romantic life. You have to read this one to believe it.
Just checked my PO box...no check. Well, the mail's been slow. I'll give it a few more days. Seriously, there are people, like me, who take things literally. I distinctly heard, if Georgia flips its Senate seats, we'll get $2,000 checks immediately. If this doesn't happen, 2022 midterms will be a disaster.
I agree with your premise that Biden has the experience to prevent this from happening. When he was a high school student, JFK and LBJ were elected. LBJ was an original. A powerful senator from Texas who became Majority Leader and would use his intimidating power both physically and politically to get his agenda passed.
When he became President in November, 1963, a grieving nation did not know what to expect. In less than a year, an election would take place, not midterms. He knew something big had to happen...and that something big was the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
LBJ was shrewd. He knew passage of this act would turn the south, including his home state, against the Democratic Party for the next half century, but he did the right thing. He used the power of his office and his physicality to end a deadly filibuster and pass this historic event. In November, 1964, LBJ won election with over 61% of the popular vote. Yes, a major factor was a Republican candidate voters feared might get us into a nuclear war, but he wasn't afraid to take a chance and think big. MLK credited him with saving the Act from defeat.
Biden has the same opportunity with the $2000 checks. If he wants to think big, these checks will become a monthly event. No one will be upset getting a check with your signature on it. Just think of all the survival issues this will help to address.
You and I are both parents (we hear the kids in the background during TYT, Rising telecasts...more on this later). We make hundreds of decisions every day to keep our kids safe and health...I trust there are tens of millions of parents that do likewise and will know how to properly use the benefit of monthly checks.
Back to the kids...we love hearing them in the background. It brings levity to what are often depressing news reports. It's also a healthy reminder that our kids represent the segment of our population that will be most impacted but these decisions, policies and issues.
Thanks Heavens -- the insane clown is GONE (see book by Matt Taibbi with the same title - written long before T's candidacy). For your readers, Ryan, you are also proven loyal servant of DNC Family in your theater of objectivity...
“One party with two wings…” A less polite description – one Mafia with two Families (DNC and GOP). Mafia is united in its common interests – progressives are its major threat – to be corrupted/adopted or eliminated. Intercept has been "adopted".