It All Lands on Merrick Garland's Doorstep

 

The incomparable Michael Schmidt interviewed Alex Aronson, a young attorney who's expert on judicial ethics and so-called "dark money" in politics, asking for his analysis of how Trump managed to skate away from legal accountability for his biggest apparent crimes. 

Aronson put his finger on the exact problem that too frequently characterizes Democrats in a political crisis -- their timidity, their evident afraidness of what people will say, what reprisals will come if they take bold and appropriate action. Democrats seem sometimes to be burdened by a debilitating self-consciousness. How many campaign tribunals have I sat in and heard a candidate say about a proposed bold message, "But that might upset so-and-so!" when upsetting said Mr. So-and-So is exactly what needs to happen. Show some courage of your convictions. Take a lesson from Donald Jethro Trump.

Aronson's analysis:

The repeated failures by Democrats and the Justice Department to hold Mr. Trump accountable — whether that was during his first term or when he was indicted twice when he was out of office — [those failures created a bigger monster] .... Biden should have clearly signaled on his first day in office that his administration would aggressively pursue accountability for wrongdoing .... Biden and the rest of his administration, including Merrick B. Garland, ... were far too focused on restoring norms than trying to hold Mr. Trump and his administration accountable .... “Garland’s hesitation to pursue accountability out of fear of Trump’s inevitable baseless accusations ultimately helped Trump delay accountability until he escaped it altogether.”

 O hindsight, you are so magical and always right.

 

It's a New Day

 

I trust that Democrats will give Joe Biden a hero's send-off at the National Convention on August 19. He saved us from a horrible future in 2020, and he may have just saved us again from the same fate. Self-sacrifice is all too rare in the Age of Trump, and Joe Biden has shown that he's a man of courage and faith in the future. I admire him for the decision, which could not have been easy.

The path forward may prove complicated. I don't know, but our progressive outlook in North Carolina just shot up several points.

A Significant Development

 

Congressional Democratic leaders, Democratic candidates at all levels all across the country, and major Democratic donors are quietly -- occasionally loudly -- sending the message to President Biden that it's time to step aside and let a younger candidate turn the tide back against the would-be dictator. A phalanx of New York Times reporters, featuring Carl Hulse, Michael Schmidt, and Peter Baker, ran down in this morning's Times many of the thread-pullers who are attempting behind the scenes to unravel President Biden's determination.

I reported down-thread that the virtual roll-call of delegates that would cement Biden's nomination is supposed to begin August 5th. Putting that off sends a very clear message, doesn't it?

...Mr. [Chuck] Schumer [Senate Majority Leader] weighed in this week to appeal to party leaders to hold off on beginning a swift virtual roll call they had considered starting as soon as next week to cement Mr. Biden as the nominee, according to a person familiar with his thinking who insisted on anonymity to describe it. The Senate leader spoke with Mr. [Hakeem] Jeffries [House Minority Leader], and both agreed to push the party to put off the start of that process, according to a second person familiar with their involvement, who also declined to be named discussing it.

Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the co-chairman of the party’s rules committee, which determines when and how the nomination will proceed, called Jen O’Malley Dillon, the Biden campaign chief, on Tuesday afternoon to inform her that the roll call should be delayed, according to a person made aware of the call who described it on the condition of anonymity.

Bowing to the pressure, top Democratic National Committee officials announced on Wednesday that the virtual roll call would take place during the first week of August instead.

 

Joe Biden Has Less Than a Month To Drop Out

 

Once President Biden is nominated for the presidency by the National Democratic Convention, replacing him on the ballot will be fraught. The delegates will actually vote virtually on his nomination on August 5th, two weeks before the August 19 Convention in Chicago. The WashPost reports that election law experts say that if Biden drops out before he's officially nominated by the party, "replacing him on the ballot would be relatively straightforward." If he waited until after the delegates vote, then all hell could and would break loose.

If Biden were to drop out before delegates vote, then a legal challenge by Republicans to his replacement -- whoever that turned out to be -- would lack standing in the courts, because the decision on who the Democrats choose to run is their decision, not the Republican Party's.

The real problem for Democrats if Biden should wait to drop out until after he's officially nominated are the various ballot deadlines in different states -- the date when ballots have to start being printed. We don't want to go there.

Immediately following the Debate From Hell, I wrote that I wanted an open nominating convention -- let 'er rip and we could count the corpses later. I've changed my mind. Thomas Mills wrote on July 5th a compelling rationale for why Biden's replacement would have to be -- needs to be -- Kamala Harris. And I agree with him. She would strengthen several factions of the Democratic and progressive alliance, especially women and Black voters, and I believe she would help energize the most seriously unenergized portion of our coalition -- young voters.

Mainly, I think, with Kamala we would experience a great surge of relief that we were not doomed -- irrevocably doomed -- to another Trump presidency and that we at least have a fighting chance.

Of Course Trump Lied (Like a Cheap Walmart Rug), But It Doesn't Matter

 

Many of my fellow Democrats took the lemon that was Thursday night and have been busily making lemonade, occasionally spiked with a good dash of grenadine and a jigger of Tequila. "Look at all the lies Trump told!" they shout, giving ample evidence and seeking any comfort they can find in these stormy seas. The best fact-checker in the business, Daniel Dale, did a whole segment about the lies on CNN, or if you'd prefer to read his analysis at length, go here.

None of it actually matters, especially in that part of the electorate that I work most closely with, college-age skeptics who are more than likely registered Unaffiliated and who generally distrust both political parties, but who are children of the age in that style matters more than substance. In fact, style is substance. One person looked alive and in control. The other didn't. That's awfully hard to overcome among people who spend their lives watching rather than reading (though Joe's performance the next day in Raleigh may have helped, but how many saw that speech compared to the millions who tuned in to the debate?)

I love that man. I memorably got to sit in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing room in 1981 and watch Judiciary Chair Joe Biden grill Reagan's nominee Sandra Day O'Connor for the Supreme Court. With grace and good humor, he spared with her, and I've remembered him ever since as a good man who upholds the best values of our history. The morning after that terrible debate, I posted down-column a cri de coeur begging for some alternative to Joe, but I know that's not going to happen. We've been dealt our hand, and we have to play it as bravely as we can.

But we can't kid ourselves that the debate didn't hurt Joe's chances in North Carolina, especially among the unaffiliated and more especially the young unaffiliated. Which means for us personally as campaign operatives that all our door-knocking persuasion shifts to the down-ballot -- the governor's race, all the rest of the Council of State races, judge races, legislative seats, and local candidates -- a universe certainly rife with MAGA extremism at every level and a fiery determination for revenge and retribution.

Give Us an Open Democratic Convention!

 

Well that was awful. A catastrophe. You know what I'm talking about. Trump is a crisis for our nation, and now Joe Biden is a crisis for the Democratic Party.

Joe needs to step aside. Let us have an open Democratic presidential convention in August. A loud, angry, smelly political convention that nominates someone capable of beating Donald Trump. Let the power-brokers do their broking. Let the pressure groups apply their pressure. Churn that cream into butter. Someone will emerge that we can all get behind.

Gavin Newsom, who's shown himself fully capable of going straight for Trump's esophagus. Pete Buttigieg, who's supernaturally smart and can turn Republican ignorance back on itself. Stacey Abrams. Jamie Raskin, who knows a poltroon when he sees one. Hakeem Jeffries. Joe Neguse. Hell, Beto O'Rourke.

I'm sure Kamala Harris would put herself forward, and maybe she could rally everyone. Someone is going to have to rally everyone, and I'll be good with whoever that is. (I don't think Joe Manchin would dare.)

Give us a genuine open convention, and let's see if we can turn this ship around.

Do Democrats Have a Pulse? Maybe

 

I had just finished reading -- and agreeing with -- Thomas Mills' editorial attacking the Democrats' insecurity about making a big issue out of Trump's 34 felonies -- Democrats look "weak, uncertain, and incompetent," Mills wrote, while Republicans are unified in attacking the justice system itself -- when I also noticed that Joe Biden may also have read Thomas, because Biden went after Trump yesterday as a "convicted felon" at a campaign event: “For the first time in American history a former president that is a convicted felon is now seeking the office of the presidency,” Biden said at a fundraiser in Greenwich, Connecticut. “But as disturbing as that is, more damaging is the all-out assault Donald Trump is making on the American system of justice,” he continued, going on to call Trump “unhinged.”

What set Thomas Mills off was the memory of how John Kerry went into a mute and defensive crouch when he was "swift-boated" in 2004 and that Democrats seems to be similarly unsure how to play Trump's convictions in 2024:

[Kerry's] lead pollsters told us [Mills was working on the Kerry campaign team at the time] that the ads were not affecting Kerry’s numbers and that his war record was still his strongest single attribute. They believed that the controversy would die down and that we would not hear about criticism of Kerry’s heroics going down the stretch in the period from Labor Day to Election Day. They would not respond with attacks on Bush and would address the ad’s criticism mainly through the press.

I thought then, and believe now, that it was the most naive response to an attack I had seen up to that point in my political career.

We know now, after decades of frustrating experience, that Democrats are by nature naive, by nature hesitant, by effing nature always worried what someone -- anyone -- is going to think of them if they do anything to fight back, so I took it as a good sign that Dark Brandon is willing to go nose-to-nose with Trump's fat, felon face.

We'd Like To See More "Irish" in Biden

 

The point is to be more aggressive and show some imagination. [The Biden team] have the daring — Biden just stood on a Michigan picket line in a union cap! But there’s so many more ways to lean in.

--Jonathan Martin, in Politico

Rahm

Jonathan Martin's long opinion piece, "Here's How Biden Can Turn It Around," in Politico rings a few bells -- some heavy dolesome and some tinkling bright -- and is well worth the read. Full of hard truths and good politics -- specific suggestions about where Biden needs to go and what he needs to stage and how he needs to deal with Hunter's whole mythology and his own mythic age, and what to do with "Bidenomics" (the consensus is "trash it in the nearest dumpster").

I found the following suggestion particularly hilarious, considering I haven't forgiven Rahm Emanuel for how he treated Howard Dean:

The president should call [Rahm] Emanuel [US Ambassador to Japan] back stateside and have him chair the reelection. Doing so would demonstrate a willingness by Biden to broaden his inner circle, create a manic urgency in the campaign that is Emanuel’s trademark and, by elevating one of the most ferocious operatives of our times, signal that when Trump goes low the Democrats will go fucking lower.

I like the spirit of that. 

.     .     .     .

Title above refers to a slang phrase that was popular where I grew up: "Get one's Irish up." 

Dictionary: 

1. INFORMAL•US

   cause one to become angry.

   "if someone tries to make me do something I don't want to do, it gets my Irish up"

   
   

Don't Read Polls

 

This morning, Thomas Mills on PoliticsNC.com was taking up the thorny subject of Biden's bad polling and the incipient panic spreading among Democratic Party activists -- he was defending Biden -- and he wrote a paragraph that I immediately copied down for its historic wisdom:

Is 82 too old to run for president? Maybe, but nobody is going to challenge him. There’s no cabal of Democratic insiders who could edge him out. The party is a loose coalition of interest groups, not a small group of power brokers. The infighting in the party is legendary and often leads to Democrats getting defined by extremes that actually have little power but get a lot of lip service. As Will Rogers famously said, “I’m not a member of any organized political party. I’m a Democrat.”

Factions. Madison warned us about them. But in the Democratic Party, they're essential DNA and maybe too its potential strength -- when and if the factions unite for a cause. Trump's running for president again, and Mark Robinson's running for governor -- that could be the cause.

Dark Brandon

 

“I’m gonna be fine with your jokes,” President Biden said; then added, while putting on aviator sunglasses: “But I’m not sure about Dark Brandon.”

Google it and catch up, if you're lost.

That's a photo from Saturday's White House Correspondents' Dinner. After making his own remarks -- full of some good stuff -- funny zingers, jokes about his age, and clear declarations of support for traditional American values, especially a respect for a free press and a fierce defiance directed at Russia -- "Surrender the Hostages!" -- Biden was just turning the evening over to comedian Roy Woods Jr. when he whipped out the glasses and made the comment quoted above.

Age Is More Than a Number. It's an Advantage

 

Joe Biden and I are the same age. Pretty much. Joe was born on November 20, 1942. I was born 16 months later in March 1944. War babies. Joe's age is being held against him. People who don't know anything outside the Fox News bubble -- which means they're ignorant, honey -- like to throw around the word senile, as though that's a game-stopper. I don't know if anyone is accusing me of that, but they probably should. I'm in worse shape than Joe.

Yes, I see the slippage. We all live in our bodies like houses that are constantly falling down around us. I watch the foundation crumbling, the plaster cracking, the paint peeling, the wiring go fritz. I still have my words. I just can't always find them when I want them. And the names of people I've known for decades are suddenly just disappeared. It's frustrating. It's maddening. But I still know a hawk from a handsaw and have a pretty good grip on reality, which is more than we can say for those intellects who call Joe senile because he has the same problem I have, losing his words sometimes. Doesn't matter. He's good at playing poker. Also chess, where he's often three steps ahead of Kevin McCarthy, who seems to be playing checkers.

By any metric -- say, the accomplishments of the Obama admin at this same point in his first term -- Biden's first two years have been stunningly consequential. I'm not going to do the tedious work here of listing all the stuff he's initiated and signed into law (because I need to get out in my garden), but it's extensive, starting with the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure and Jobs Act and includes the appointment of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. And the way he laughed at the Republican peanut gallery at the last State of the Union, and out-maneuvered them into a cul-de-sac, denying angrily that they want to cut Medicare and Social Security. If that's senile, I'm a new admirer of senility.

A Good Man

 

And by any measurement that I value, a good president.

Potentially running against this:

Cawthorn Said He Would Destroy OSHA To Save COVID

 

Two days ago President Joe Biden announced that he is ordering new federal safety regulations that call for businesses with more than 100 workers to require vaccinations against the coronavirus and paid time off to get vaccinated -- or weekly testing for employees who refuse the vaxxing. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is charged with drafting an "emergency temporary standard" to carry out the mandate, provided for in the legislation that President Richard Nixon signed creating OSHA. Some 80 million workers will be affected.

“Some of the biggest companies are already requiring this — United Airlines, Disney, Tyson Foods and even Fox News,” President Biden said during a speech Thursday. Many companies, including United Airlines and Tyson Foods, were already moving toward requiring vaccines. Business Roundtable, a powerful lobbying group, released a statement supporting the administration’s new orders:

“Business Roundtable welcomes the Biden administration’s continued vigilance in the fight against Covid,” said the group, whose members include leaders of General Electric, Amazon, Goldman Sachs and dozens of other large companies. “America’s business leaders know how critical vaccination and testing are in defeating the pandemic.”

How did some Republican governors (many of whom want to be president, to inflict their particular brand of cavalier ignorance on additional millions) react to Biden's order? They stayed true to their Trumpist ignorance. Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina said he would fight Biden and his party “to the gates of hell.” “@JoeBiden see you in court,” Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota wrote on Twitter. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida -- oh who cares?

And what did the punk freshman from the 11th district of North Carolina do? He tweeted two days ago, at 6:32 p.m., "I'm filing a bill to gut OSHA." That was perhaps a premature threat, as Cawthorn can't even write his own signature without a good headstart, let alone legislation dissolving a Federal agency that is charged with guaranteeing a safe work environment. Cawthorn's tweet has subsequently disappeared. Perhaps someone over the age of idiot explained to the baby congressman what OSHA is and what it does for American workers.

What's Clear Today: Washington Dems Are NOT Going to Force the Voting Rights Issue

 

...momentum on Capitol Hill has palpably shifted away from the voting rights push....

--Mike DeBonis, WashPost

Sen. Joe Manchin
"Folksy is as folksy does"

Yeah, we can tell. Voting rights, schmighter lights. That's yesterday's cause. Today what's exciting the Senate is the budget agreement, a whopping big budget negotiated by moderates and progressives, particularly senators Mark Warner (Virginia) and Bernie Sanders (Vermont). 

So while the Texas Democrats are being hailed as "brave, bold, and courageous" (Chuck Schumer), as "defenders of the Constitution" (Jeff Merkley),  and as "freedom fighters" (Amy Klobuchar), they're also being parked in Back Burner Plaza. Hope they like the view for the next long month because their mission hit its media peak days ago and nothing's changed. Meanwhile, praise of their Texas courage costs nothing, while action has become impossibly pricey for Democrats prone to panic.

The prime target of the Texans' attention, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, apparently presented a stone wall, although he visited amicably with the Texans (folksy is as folksy does). But he's not budging, at least not without presidential pressure, which ain't coming, or the calling of the question on the Senate floor. Forced to vote, what's the fallout for him? And for us?

Bottomline: President Joe Biden himself -- ex-Senator Joe Biden -- favors not the suppression of the filibuster. I had not wanted to believe it, but isn't it clear by now? He's a traditionalist, sentimental about the unique and arcane traditions of the Senate, and he clearly has no stomach for squelching one of those traditions.

Barring Biden's pressure on Manchin, Chuck Schumer could announce that there'll be no August recess at all until there's a vote on limiting the filibuster, carving out a ban on the Rule of 60 when a Constitutional right also hangs in the balance. But Schumer has seemed frozen -- not a good look. Has Manchin threatened to re-register as Republican if the Democrats get too frisky?

Meanwhile, the president came to Capitol Hill for lunch with the Senate Democratic Caucus two days ago, a meeting reported as upbeat and congratulatory because it was devoted "to the massive multi-trillion-dollar climate and safety-net plan, not to breaking a voting rights stalemate months in the making."

Voting rights? All but abandoned, on their way to being forgotten.

If the citizens whom the Senate thinks will benefit most from that big budget cannot get access to a ballot, cannot participate in the functioning of democracy, then all the spending in the world won't save us from the return of Trump.

What President Biden Left Out of His Speech Yesterday

 

It was a good speech on voting rights. It was a forceful speech, impassioned even. It called for action. But it was not action. It was a speech.

With the Senate filibuster in place, Democrats have no chance to take action to pass voting rights protections, and the filibuster did not get a mention in President Biden's speech. There is no path to protecting the voting rights of all the people that wouldn't require an end to the filibuster.

Congressman Jim Clyburn

Days before Biden's speech, Congressman Jim Clyburn was lobbying the White House about pushing a "filibuster carve-out," to end the filibuster on issues of constitutional rights like access to the ballot. "Biden could 'pick up the phone and tell [Sen.] Joe Manchin, "Hey, we should do a carve out." ' Clyburn said, referring to the centrist West Virginia Democrat who has resisted filibuster reform. 'I don't care whether he does it in a microphone or on the telephone — just do it.' ”

That from the man who is generally credited with making Joe Biden president by endorsing him in the South Carolina primary early in 2020.

If the For the People Act and the reauthorization of the 1965 Voting Rights Act don't pass the Senate now, Clyburn said, “Democrats can kiss the majority goodbye.” “I can see in a state like Georgia — where people stepped up in January in a way nobody thought they ever would — I can see the disappointment in the voters to the extent that [Sen. Rafael] Warnock would not be back,” he added.

Biden's weak on the filibuster issue, apparently still believing in his ability to convince some Republican senators and, barring that, that a few million $$ can educate voters to overcome Republican roadblocks to voting: "In response to Clyburn’s comments, a White House official noted Biden’s respect and admiration for the congressman and the president’s support for a talking filibuster, which requires a senator or group of senators to physically be on the floor to stall a bill. But Biden has dodged questions about whether he believes filibustered legislation should no longer have to meet a 60-vote threshold to pass."

Existential is a word much overused at the moment, so how about we just admit that this is a life-or-death moment for the Republic?

President Biden: A Speech on Voting Rights Ain't Gonna Cut It

 

Watauga County Board of Elections meeting, 
2013, immediately after a Republican majority
took over following the election of
Pat McCrory.
BOE observers are standing. The Board adjourned
to a much larger room to accommodate the crowd.

The White House announced it, that President Joe Biden will be delivering "a major speech" on voting rights on Tuesday in Philadelphia, the cradle of the Constitution. I'm reminded that President Obama delivered major speeches -- often soaring masterpieces of rhetoric -- when he was otherwise dead in the water because of Mitch McConnell. Have Democratic presidents in the Age of McConnell learned nothing? Where is Schumer?

I know ... Joe Manchin and the goddamn filibuster, an unmovable object blocking the way, but Senate Democrats have got to do something, even if it's wrong (worrying they'll do something "wrong" is the everlasting terror of Democrats, but please!). Make Manchin vote in public, make him say why deep-sixing "rule by the minority" is against his religion. Force the issue on him, along with the spotlight -- his role in the greatest shrinking of the right to vote since the Civil War. Make him vote. Make him vote every week, every month, every day if necessary and keep him on the griddle. Then make the Republicans stage an actual stand-up-and-talk-the-thing-to-death filibuster. Let them explain along the way about why it's a good thing to squeeze people out of participating in their government.

The National Democratic Party -- bless its heart! -- has essentially conceded that nothing is going to happen in Congress to pass the For the People Act. Biden's given up, and he designated Vice President Kamala Harris to deliver the concession, that voting rights ain't gonna be nationalized and there'll be no salvation from state-by-state voting restrictions meant to keep Republicans in power in perpetuity. Kamala Harris was announcing a $25 million "‘I Will Vote’ initiative to address and overcome efforts across the country to make voting more difficult and burdensome." The money will go to voter education, voter protection, targeted voter registration, and technology. In other words, the strategy of the national Democrats has become "grit your teeth and learn to live with it."

$25 million. Okay, that's not nothing, but it also screams capitulation. I've always expected more from Democrats, and I've always gotten less.

Hey, President Biden! Cut This Out!

 

Reporting by Sean Sullivan and Michael Scherer, in the WashPost:

...In the first few months of Biden’s presidency, at least five children of his top aides have secured coveted jobs in the new administration. They include two sons and a daughter of the White House counselor, the daughter of a deputy White House chief of staff and the daughter of the director of presidential personnel.

The pattern — which continued this week with the Treasury Department's announcement that it was hiring J.J. Ricchetti, son of Biden counselor Steve Ricchetti — has drawn concerns from ethics experts, diversity advocates and others. They say it is disappointing that Biden didn’t shift even further from the practices of Donald Trump’s presidency, which they felt reeked of nepotism and cronyism.

"Reeked" is the right word! 

Pity, Joe Mancin

 

Joe Manchin doesn't care that progressives hate him. He recently taunted "liberals" mad at him for being out of step on many issues including the elimination  of the filibuster:

“What are they going to do, they going to go into West Virginia and campaign against me? Please, that would help me more than anything.”

He says he believes in the Cookie Fairy and a "bipartisan Senate." He doesn't believe that. He is not dumb enough to believe that 10 Republicans will voluntarily vote someday for something Biden wants, if everyone will just compromise. He doesn't believe that. It's a convenient excuse for being really terrified of your constituents. Do we need to be reminded? West Virginia voted for Trump last fall by 40 points. Manchin holds his seat because he's so "regional."

Found this summation of Manchin by Jonathan Martin in the NewYork Times very helpful:

A former high school quarterback who friends say still relishes being at the center of the action, Mr. Manchin is something of a unicorn in today’s Congress. As a pro-coal and anti-abortion Democrat, he reflects a less-homogenized era when regionalism was as significant as partisanship and senators were more individual actors than predictable votes for their caucus.

Twice elected governor before claiming [Robert] Byrd’s [Senate] seat, he’s the only lawmaker standing in the way of an all-Republican congressional delegation in West Virginia .... he is an unlikely majority-maker of the Democratic Senate.

"Still relishes being at the center of the action." Got it! Wants to be loved and thought of as civic savior by his voters. Who happen to hate Biden and hate most Democrats. I almost feel sympathy for Manchin's balancing act. But not his character.

So this news reached us last week: Joe Manchin's wife Gayle has been named by President Biden to head the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC). 

(I say "head" when the title is actually Federal Co-Chair, because the structure of the ARC also includes a figurehead co-chair, mandated to be the governor of one of the constituent states. Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia is currently Federal Co-Chair. But the civilian Co-Chair is the real showrunner. Has always been that way.)

What are Gayle Manchin's qualifications? The White House on Friday cited her career as an educator and her service as the first lady of West Virginia, when Manchin was the state’s governor from 2005 to 2010. In other words, she's the "missus" of somebody Biden needs to make happy. First thing I thought: The ARC appointment for Manchin's wife is reward for Manchin's vote for the American Rescue Plan (ARP).

What is the ARC? It's an economic development partnership agency established in 1965 through which the federal government works with 13 states and 420 counties across the Appalachian region to theoretically help invest in communities and spur job creation. The criticism of the ARC by actual Appalachian activists tended to highlight the ARC's aggressive four-laning of highways, to get the coal, gas, timber, you name it -- out of state faster.

I'm hoping that Biden can get more out of this clear case of social bribery than just the vote for the ARP. The vote on ending the filibuster as we know it? The vote on an infrastructure bill that will put a tax on every coal baron in the state of West Virginia? The vote on voter rights?

"It's About Time!" -- The Rest of Us Get Some Help From Congress

 

The following, published by Chair Diane Tilson on the Watauga County Democratic Party website:

March 11, 2021 -- President Joe Biden signed The American Rescue Plan into law

 

It’s about time.

 

For generations now, Congress has refused, for the most part, to recognize and act on legislation that actually helps millions of hard-working Americans trying to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Instead, tax cuts and other legislation of all stripes have made life even more satisfying for those who already have everything they need or want and then some. The rest of us got stiffed.

 

So we had pretty much given up on the people we elected to represent us, deciding that Congress is woefully broken and out of touch with the daily challenges we face. To hide what they were really doing, Congress pitted us one against the other, hoping we would lose sight that we were all in the same boat and would throw each other overboard instead.

 

Meanwhile, tens of millions of us are out of work (a level not seen since the Great Depression); 22 million of us can’t afford to provide food for ourselves or our families; nearly 1 in 5 of us who pay rent have fallen behind on it; and 81 million of us are struggling to buy necessary household needs. The Child Care employment sector is devastated. Morethan 2.5 million women have been forced to drop out of the workforce in the past year to teach their kids online instead; many of us cannot afford even basic health care; and over a half million of us are dead from COVID.

 

Not all of this can be chalked up to COVID, of course. Congress has in fact been taking from the working class to give to the entitled class for the last 40 years. The result is that the state we find ourselves in now is something so big only the Federal government can fix it.

 

Enter the “American Rescue Act” Congress passed on March 10.

 

Finally the Congress many of us had given up on came through, and in a big way. No wonder 70% of all of us, regardless of political persuasion, support the plan. That’s because, at long last, 85% percent of us will directly benefit from it.

 

This bill is designed to help those of us who earn $75,000 a year or less ($150,000 or less for those of us who file our taxes jointly), and here’s what it means to you and your family:

 

ŸFor starters, all of us will receive a direct stimulus check for $1400. A family of four will receive a check for $5,600.

 

ŸTo lift up those of us with dependent children 17 years old and younger, monthly child-credit payments of $250 to $300 will begin this July. This single move will cut childhood poverty in America in half.

 

ŸFor those of us who have lost our jobs, $300 weekly unemployment payments will run through Labor Day.

 

ŸFor those of us who can’t afford medical care, health insurance premiums will go down from 150% to zero.

 

Ÿ$350 billion will be coming to state and local governments to shore up devastation from COVID.

 

ŸThere is funding to help struggling families for food, rent, and mortgage assistance. 

 

An obstruction

Here’s high fives to President Joe Biden and those in Congress who stood up for us. To those in Congress who refused to vote for the bill, complaining about the deficits they themselves created in handouts to their well-funded and demanding donors over the years, shame on you for trying to sink our leaky boat once and for all. We’ll remember.

 

Sincerely,

Diane Tilson, Chairwoman

The Watauga County Democratic Party