NY Times:
‘Lurching Between Crisis and Complacency’: Was This Our Last Covid Surge?
Rising immunity and modest changes in behavior may explain why cases are declining, but much remains unknown, scientists say.
It is difficult to tease apart the reasons that the virus ebbs and flows in this way, and harder still to predict the future.
But as winter looms, there are real reasons for optimism.
NY Times:
Why Many Black Americans Changed Their Minds About Covid Shots
Black Americans were once far less likely than white Americans to be vaccinated. But a wave of pro-vaccine campaigns and a surge of virus deaths have narrowed that gap, experts say.
“What people need to understand is some of the hesitancy is rooted in a horrible history, and for some, it’s truly a process of asking the right questions to get to a place of getting the vaccine.”
Philip Bump/WaPo:
People are getting Trump’s vote-suppression threat backward
If you don’t think that the GOP is concerned about turning Trump voters out to vote, you need only look at the gubernatorial race in Virginia. There, Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin is running a two-track campaign, presenting himself as a traditional Republican to mainstream Virginia voters but carefully reaching out to Trump’s base through more muted channels. One of those efforts, an appearance on former Trump adviser Seb Gorka’s radio show, was elevated by the anti-Trump group the Lincoln Project in an ad this week. But, otherwise, Youngkin’s been “dancing on the edge of a razor,” in the evocative phrasing of a Trump campaign staffer, balancing between the GOP’s two worlds.
Why? Obviously because he very much needs those Trump-supporting voters to transfer their enthusiasm to him. It’s not clear how much of the polling errors in the 2016 and 2020 presidential contests was a function of failing to capture support for Trump, but it’s hard not to notice that the polling in 2018 was right on the mark. There wasn’t a surge of polling-resistant Trump voters who came out that year, presumably helping to keep the polls from fritzing. If Youngkin benefits from energized Trump voters, his position is strengthened greatly.
To date, though, Trump’s shown little to no ability to shift his base’s enthusiasm to other candidates in general elections.
Greg Sargent/WaPo:
Trump’s latest eruption at Republicans captures a core insight about GOP voters
How to reconcile Trump’s renewed endorsement of Youngkin with his tacit threat to punish Republicans for failing to reverse his election loss by urging his voters to stay home? Here’s how: In Trump’s eyes, Youngkin’s relentless pandering to Trump’s lies about 2020 has, for now anyway, passed his litmus test.
NY Times:
Biden Announces Measures at Major Ports to Battle Supply Chain Woes
The Port of Los Angeles will join the Port of Long Beach in operating 24/7 as the administration struggles to address a problem that is boosting inflation.
Mr. Biden said Wednesday that the moves would almost double the number of hours that the Port of Los Angeles is open for business, in an effort to resolve a logjam that has slowed the shipment of manufactured goods from Asia. He praised the role of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union in stepping up to work extended hours and also urged the passage of an infrastructure bill that would make significant investments in ports, roads and factories for the longer term.
Greg Sargent/WaPo:
Trump cronies who defy subpoenas may be prosecuted. Here’s why that matters.
CNN reports that the select committee is likely to refer any Trump advisers and allies who defy subpoenas to the Justice Department for prosecution. As of now, one — Stephen K. Bannon — is not cooperating. What former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and political adviser Dan Scavino will do remains unclear.
If they have not indicated cooperation by the deposition deadlines of Oct. 14 and Oct. 15, the next step should be to refer the matter for Justice Department prosecution. But as CNN reports, it’s unclear what would happen then:
Holding non-compliant witnesses in criminal contempt would take the Justice Department agreeing to prosecute those individuals in federal court — a matter that Attorney General Merrick Garland has not weighed in on publicly to date or indicated if he would support.
In an interview, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a member of the select committee, weighed in strongly behind the idea that the Justice Department should act aggressively.
“Given the nature of the congressional investigation, the Department of Justice would have every reason to enforce criminal contempt referrals from Congress,” Raskin told me. “This is about protecting the democracy against violent insurrections and coups.”
John S Huntington/WaPo:
Manipulating elections is a conservative tradition
Trump is building on decades of right-wing willingness to game the rules to gain power despite being in the minority
Why have so many conservatives stood by Trump over the past year as he has actively attempted to overturn an election? The answer is because engineering elections is part of their political heritage.
Conservatives have spent generations attempting to exploit arcane and anti-democratic electoral structures to carve a pathway for minoritarian rule. This history can be traced back to voter disenfranchisement during the Reconstruction era, or even further, to the property-based requirements of the early republic. But we can find the roots of our bout with illiberalism, the one on display in the modern GOP, in the conservative backlash to the civil rights movement.
And that’s even without Watergate.