Over night, the unnecessary (record corporate profits) tax bill that no one wants (see Public opposition to tax bill grows as vote approaches) passed. Trump Steaks for everyone, and you’ll like it. Now eat up. Bill comes due election day, 2018 (see graph above).
Will Bunch/Philly.com:
Do you have a fire-safety plan for U.S. democracy on the day Trump fires Mueller?
Here’s the good news: Beth Sweet of Chester County, Pa. — and thousands of people like Sweet — already have that middle-of-the-night fire drill for democracy all mapped out. Sweet is a leader for the western Philadelphia exurbs of a nationwide effort called “Nobody Is Above the Law — Mueller Firing Rapid Response,” a project led by MoveOn.org and endorsed by other left-leaning political groups.
Sweet — who’s already helped lead one protest this week, against the GOP tax bill, which drew 300 people outside Rep. Ryan Costello’s West Chester office on Monday — admitted that “people are getting burned out because this is a big fight and every day there is something new.” Yet she predicted the firing of Mueller, if it happens, could draw hundreds to downtown West Chester, that “people will be charged up.” Nationally, more than 100,000 people have already signed up for this hypothetical protest, and the actual event could draw far more.
What we need is more hot takes on how Trump will be reelected.
Josh Kraushaar/National Journal (free):
The new reality: Americans are voting their values, not their pocketbooks. And that’s alarming news for Republicans looking to hold their increasingly tenuous congressional majorities. It’s also a danger signal for Trump if he’s thinking about running for reelection in 2020.
Trump’s conduct in office is the defining issue in the country, one so central to next year’s midterms that Democratic candidates don’t even need to mention the president’s name to rile up their supporters. The big battles that have driven activists in the Trump era—the president’s travel ban, outrage over Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, the fight to preserve legal status for children of undocumented immigrants—are rooted in the nation’s cultural divisions….
But it’s more likely that Trump has permanently squandered any goodwill with his racial demagoguery, ill-informed tweets, and acidic attacks against his critics—all taking place alongside Robert Mueller’s exhaustive investigation examining why Trumpworld has acted so solicitously towards Russia. It’s why his approval rating is stuck in the dumps despite an awfully productive first year in office. And it’s why his political fortunes—along with those of his adopted party—aren’t likely to change much no matter how good things get for Americans.
Conservatives still can’t wrap their brains around the idea that the electorate doesn’t want they they consider wonderful achievements.
Bill Scher/Politico:
What Will It Take To Beat Trump? The Case for a Generic Democrat
Democrats don’t need inspiration or revolution to win in 2020. They just need somebody bland and inoffensive. Kind of like Doug Jones.
“But they don’t have a message!!!!” you say. Sure they do. Democrats are fair and competent and that’s all they need to say and be. I remind you of this from the VA election this past November:
Virginia voter: “It could have been Dr. Seuss or Berenstain Bears on the ballot - I would voted for them if they were a Democrat
Zac McCrary/Medium:
Base solidification, a Democratic turnout surge, and sufficient success with independent, white suburban voters were ALL absolutely necessary for the Jones’ campaign to thread the needle to win a Senate race in a state that Donald Trump carried with 62%. While some pundits argue that Democrats must focus disproportionately on base motivation or, conversely, should largely target voters who’ve moved toward Republicans over the past couple of cycles — the lesson that Senator-elect Doug Jones (D-AL) provides is clear. Democrats should (and likely must) employ an “all of the above” strategy to win tough states and districts in 2018 and beyond.
As for the tax bill, the modern GOP is the evolution of the spoils system. when they are in power, they govern just for them.
David Dayen/TNR:
An alleged kickback to sway Senator Bob Corker shows how self-interest drives the nation's capitol today.
Corker, who is already under federal investigation for alleged insider trading involving a real-estate firm, spent the weekend making a series of less-than-convincing statements justifying his switch. He first told IBT that he hadn’t read the bill. Then he wrote an angry letter to Senate leaders questioning how this provision got into the bill. As #CorkerKickback trended on Twitter, the senator also claimed that the language was part of the House version of the legislation. Experts rejected that. “This new language can’t be found in either the House-passed or Senate-passed bills,” Matt Gardner of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy told IBT.Corker, who is already under federal investigation for alleged insider trading involving a real-estate firm, spent the weekend making a series of less-than-convincing statements justifying his switch. He first told IBT that he hadn’t read the bill. Then he wrote an angry letter to Senate leaders questioning how this provision got into the bill. As #CorkerKickback trended on Twitter, the senator also claimed that the language was part of the House version of the legislation. Experts rejected that. “This new language can’t be found in either the House-passed or Senate-passed bills,” Matt Gardner of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy told IBT.
Sally Q Yates/USA Today:
Who are we as a country? Time to decide
Not only is there such a thing as objective truth, failing to tell the truth matters. We can’t control whether our public servants lie to us. But we can control whether we hold them accountable for those lies or whether, in either a state of exhaustion or to protect our own political objectives, we look the other way and normalize an indifference to truth.
We are not living in ordinary times, and it is not enough for us to admire our nation’s core values from afar. Our country’s history is littered with individuals and factions who have tried to exploit our imperfections, but it is more powerfully marked by those whose vigilance toward a more perfect union has prevailed.
So stand up. Speak out. Our country needs all of us to raise our collective voices in support of our democratic ideals and institutions. That is what we stand for. That is who we are. And with a shared commitment to our founding principles, that is who we will remain.
WaPo:
After Trump and Moore, some evangelicals are finding their own label too toxic to use
“It’s still a painful identity for me, coming from this election,” said Paul Johnson, one of the students at Fuller.
Discomfort with the term “evangelical” began in some quarters with the Moral Majority in the Reagan years, which helped make “evangelical” synonymous with the Republican Party. Ever since, evangelicals have disagreed with each other about mixing faith and politics.
Such debates intensified last year when President Trump was elected with the overwhelming support of white evangelical voters after a vitriolic campaign that alienated many Americans. Most recently, after Senate candidate Roy Moore drew strong majorities of white evangelicals in Alabama despite reports of his pursuit of teenage girls when he was in his 30s, some Christians across the country said they weren’t sure they wanted to be associated with the word anymore.
If you are unaware, Christopher Stroop started a hashtag on twitter called #emptythepews. Pretty fascinating read.
NiemanLabs:
THE FIREHOSE OF FALSEHOOD
None of this is brand new; politicians have always sought to smear journalism they didn’t like. What’s new is that the attack is no longer about this or that story, but about journalism itself. It’s a challenge to the very notion of an independent accounting of facts. And in 2018, as tension builds on a host of stories from the Russia investigation to dozens of contested Congressional elections, we’ll see this challenge mount. Here are four key tactics we can expect to see more of:
David Frum/Atlantic on a Charles CW Cooke — Jennifer Rubin fight:
Conservatism Can't Survive Donald Trump Intact
The conservative intellectual world is whipsawed between its distaste for Trump and its fear of its own audience. The conservative base has become ever more committed to President Trump—and ever less tolerant of any deviation. Those conservative talkers most susceptible to market pressure—radio and TV hosts—have made the most-spectacular conversions and submissions: Mark Levin, Tucker Carlson. With reason. The same day that Cooke launched himself into Jennifer Rubin, another contributor to the National Review special issue, Erick W. Erickson, announced that he had lost his Fox News contract. Erickson had precisely followed Cooke’s advice, conscientiously seeking opportunities to praise Trump where he could. That halfway support did not suffice for his producers….
Charles Cooke arraigned Jennifer Rubin for being dragged to new political positions by her resistance to Trump. She is not alone. Bill Kristol quipped on Twitter: “The GOP tax bill's bringing out my inner socialist. The sex scandals are bringing out my inner feminist. Donald Trump and Roy Moore are bringing out my inner liberal. WHAT IS HAPPENING?”
Good question, and here’s the answer: What is happening is the revelation that politics is dynamic, that new facts call forth new responses. Cooke touts these alterations as deviations from principle. But really this is a game that can be played by anyone who has access to Google. For example, the same Cooke who produced a sharply personal attack on Rubin in 2017 condemned, back in 2014, “partisan post-rationalization, decorated with insecure-albeit-amusing ad hominem attacks.” We all change our minds, apparently.