The news distresses me. It has been true for a long while, yet even in a barrage of bad news, these trends got under my skin.
ITEM: “A North Carolina Republican congressional candidate floated a proposal to create a community review process that would determine whether survivors of rape and incest can get abortions.
“Bo Hines, the GOP candidate for North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District, wants to outlaw all abortions unless the mother’s life is at risk.
“‘He wants victims of rape and incest to be allowed to get an abortion on a case-by-case basis through a community-level review process outside the jurisdiction of the federal government,’ local news outlet WRAL reported.”
If you think a serious attempt at national legislation to ban abortion is impossible, that sounds like the conversation that Roe v. Wade would never be overturned before it was.
Anne Frank
ITEM: “Johnny Teague, who is running for Congress in a district that represents Houston, Texas, actually wrote a book in 2020 entitled ‘The Lost Diary of Anne Frank.’ In this book, which Teague claims is based on extensive and verifiable research, Anne Frank continues her diaries while under capture in Auschwitz, and her words now claim that she had accepted Jesus as her lord and savior – before eventually dying in the gas chambers.
“Let’s get one thing straight. This whole concept is pure, unadulterated horse…”
The number of antisemitic comments surged in 2021, and this is another banner year. It’s not just Kanye West or whatever he’s calling himself. Newsmax notes that ‘Antisemitism’ shot to the top of Google searches ahead of the midterms.
Alan Singer, a Long Island professor I’ve met, and a confirmed atheist, wrote I Am A Jew to take on the bigots.
ITEM: Herschel Walker and the Character Issue
“It’s this no-matter-what vote that’s really turning America into idiocracy. But it may be even worse than that. Whereas bad character and behavior used to be a political handicap, today it actually seems an asset.”
I watched Jordan Klepper Fingers the Midterms – America Unfollows Democracy last week. A scary half hour. Probably the weirdest bit was someone who insisted to Klepper that actor James Woods had replaced Joe Biden. What?
Crime
ITEM: Bail Reform: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (watch this!)
If you’ve seen Republican National Committee attack ads this political season, bail reform has been touted as the reason for increased criminality. This is despite the fact in almost all of the cases of violent crime cited, the alleged perpetrator was not out on bail.
The Republican candidate for governor, Lee Zeldin, falls squarely in that category. Frank Robinson noted why one ought not to vote for him. And my already-cast vote was definitely an anti-Zeldin ballot.
I’ve even seen it online, but also on the network news spewed by folks such as Congressman Michael McCaul that Paul Pelosi’s assault is a sign that bail reform is terrible, even though the alleged assailant hadn’t even been arrested.
ITEM: This brings me to the item that triggered the post, the attack on Mr. Pelosi, which has garnered all sorts of BS conspiracy theories. One guy, djt, asserted that the window in the Pelosi home was broken from the inside, which he knows because… IDK.
A lot of the noise is on Twitter. I understand there has been a recent change in ownership. These are just some of the reasons why the news distresses me. Finally, a poem: A ‘plague on both houses’—still ends up a plague.
Roger, this was a great (and very sad) post – as a Political Science major in college and graduate school, I never wanted to be a politician, but I found the process (at the time) interesting and worth studying. Going to SUNY Binghamton for my MA in Public Policy Analysis and Administration, I’d hoped to become a policy wonk, working for the Urban Institute or something similar – maybe government, but none of that happened, I went into fundraising. One of my professors in grad school, Richard Hofferbert, believed that what happens on a state and local level, has more effect on our daily lives than national politics. That is, until the overturning of Roe v Wade and threats to our democracy. The U.S. has gone stupid, with the MAGA/Far Right/QAnon bunch only listening to FOX (and worse), but the progressive wing of the Dems has set up the demise of the Democratic party – which used to represent the working class, but now seems to be limited to the two coasts and a number of metro areas. I can only hope that the GOP does not take over both houses, it seems that they’ll take one….
Armen – I was a poli sci major at New Paltz. I started in the Maters program in Public Admin at Albany in 1979 but dropped out. I went to Albany and got my Masters in Library Science 1990-1992.
It really is hard to believe the irrationality our politics has become , mostly as a result of the right wing . They will accept any I’ll chosen candidate to be their standard bearer no matter of their character flaws or past actions . The real question is why they can’t get better candidates ?
Yes, to paraphrase Michael Moore, the goal seems to be:
Keep them poor
Keep them sick
Keep them stupid.
He offers much more detail and eloquence.
Extremely troubling, for sure.
Breathe deeply, Roger. When I see the diversity of people in TV commercials, I can’t see us going backwards.
Su-sieee! We already have been going backward with the Voting Rights Act gutted, Roe overturned, and the electoral process very much at risk.