Biden Should Govern Like a Republican

Joe Biden will get nothing through the US Senate as long as Mitch McConnell is running it. Joe Biden needs to take a page from George W. Bush, who won no mandate in 2000 -- it took the Republicans on the US Supreme Court to hand the presidency to him -- but he governed like he was surfing forward on a massive tidal wave of approval from the American public.

Or Biden could take a similar lesson from his immediate predecessor. Trump was always a minority president, but he governed like he had the biggest mandate on the block (White House insiders whispered that his mandate was really very small, well below average). Even after he lost his Republican majority in the US House, Trump still acted like nothing stood in his way.

There's some important things Biden can do by executive order, like first of all reversing all those Trump executive orders. Hey, Joe, govern like you have a pair. Impress the folks in the cheap seats.

I've Got To Get Hold of Myself

 

Okay, I'll confess. After the Ray Russell loss in the NC House District 93 race Tuesday night, I went to bed for 24 hours. Didn't necessarily sleep. Turned off all electronic devices, including WETS, but still developed a throb in my temples. Hugged my pillow and shrugged off Jake, who wanted a walk bad. Finally, this a.m., I still ain't pretty to look at, but at least I'm standing on my feet.

Researching in depth this morning what went down in North Carolina (see previous post down-column), it's like body blows to see that Christy Clark and Sydney Batch lost their House seats and J.D. Wooten and Terri LeGrand couldn't quite win their Senate races. (Setting aside for the moment the many other body blows we sustained in both Federal races and statewide in Council of State contests.) I've spent over three years researching and writing about the brave Democrats -- those folks I just mentioned and many more -- who were breaking into the Republican pods in our General Assembly, or trying to break in. It's demoralizing to see what gerrymanding continues to dish up.

It ain't just gerrymandering. Of course, maps count, but the larger fact is that overwhelming majorities in some locales, not all, have watched the Phil Berger/Tim Moore regime in Raleigh (I'll get to the Trump regime below) and consciously asked for another big helpin' of it. They're perfectly okay with the strangling of public education and the back-handing of the unemployed, the poor, and the sick. They're super okay with the coddling and the privileging of the rich at the expense of the middle class. They're just fine with the power-grabs, the deliberate suppression of black and young voters, the petty vendettas against a Democratic governor, and the attempted manipulation of the mechanics of voting to maintain their power. Worst of all perhaps, they're partisan enablers of a pandemic, libertarians with the public health. That's the government the people around me want (actually, more the voters in the County of Ashe -- the prime movers in Ray Russell's loss -- cause Watauga's blue). That majoritarian reality dominates many isolated progressives marooned in many other North Carolina counties.

Our local reality in North Carolina is one thing. Nationally, the shit is even deeper, even if Biden ekes out a win. Largely, in fact, because Biden ekes out a win. You think Trump goes away at all, or goes away without a big public stink? It'll be like trying to induce an unwilling spider monkey back into his cage. He ain't going until he's caused a big enough spotlight to guarantee the financial success of his next commercial enterprise, perhaps his own television network to rival Fox. The charm of a snake-oil drummer will not go wasted, along with the inherent gullibility of low-information voters, who also ain't gonna take losing gracefully. 

Trumpism is here forever. It's always been here, truth to tell. Trump has just awakened it with pure blarney -- "The hatreds and resentments you feel are the right hatreds and resentments to feed, and I'm here to help puff you up by insulting your enemies. Listening to me proves how smart you are!" Selling that line of bullshit takes the unmitigated skill of the carnival barker. Once hooked, the gulls are entertained by the spills and thrills of Trump's immorality and cruelty. "Owning the libs," dissing this media, and torturing illegal immigrants is great rippin' sport. 

Meanwhile, the Trump show is the Republican Party, and its elected officials going forward will probably now be even more leery of bucking the Trumpists. McConnell is still king of the Senate (you think he won't treat Biden the way he treated Obama?). But the Republican Party is also now a co-respondent in an unhappy marriage with Qanon and the KKK, the Proud Boys and militia dudes everywhere. Kids in cages was not just Trump public policy. It was irresistible catnip for the bloody-minded -- validation and flattery for their grudges.

That's the harsh reality in 2020 for North Carolina. It'll be even worse for Democrats in the Midterms of 2022. 

No Blue Wave in North Carolina

 

Results below in NC Senate and House races of interest. The red or the blue indicate winners.

NC Senate

SD1 -- Democrat Tess Judge attempts to unseat Republican Bob Steinburg.

SD7 -- Democrat Donna Lake challenges Republican Jim Perry, who was appointed to the seat.

SD9 -- Democrat Harper Peterson is running to keep the seat he won in 2018. Republican Mike Lee, who lost in 2018, is running to regain the seat. [At the moment, Lee leads Peterson by 1,468 votes.]

SD11 -- Democrat Allen Wellons goes against Republican Lisa Stone Barnes for this open seat.

SD13 -- Democrat Barbara Yates-Lockamy is trying to unseat Republican incumbent Danny Britt.

SD16 -- Democrat Wiley Nickel is defending the seat he won in 2018 against Republican Will Marsh.

SD17 -- Democrat Sam Searcy is defending the seat he won in 2018 against Republican Mark Cavaliero.

DeAndrea Salvador (SD39)

SD18 -- Democrat Sarah Crawford is favored against Republican Larry Norman in this redrawn district.

SD19 -- Democrat Kirk deViere is defending the seat he won in 2018 in a rematch with Republican Wesley Meredith.

SD20 -- Democrat Natalie Murdock is favored against Republican John Tarantino for this open seat.

SD24 -- Democrat J.D. Wooten is challenging Republican Amy Galey for this open seat.

SD25 -- Democrat Helen Probst Mills is trying again to unseat Republican incumbent Tom McInnis.

SD27 -- Democrat Michael Garrett is defending the seat he won in 2018 against Republican Sebastian King.

SD31 -- Democrat Terri LeGrand is challenging Republican incumbent Joyce Krawiec in this redrawn district.

SD36 -- Democrat Marcus J. Singleton is challenging Republican incumbent Paul Newton.

SD38 -- Democrat Mujtaba Mohammed defends the seat he won in 2018. He's favored to win easily against Republican Jack Brosch.

SD 39 -- Democrat DeAndrea Salvador is heavily favored in Sen. (now US Rep) Dan Bishop's former district, now redrawn. Salvador faces Republican Josh Niday

SD41 -- Democrat Natasha Marcus is defending the seat she won in 2018 against Constitution Party member Christopher Cole. No Republican filed to run.

SD48 -- Democrat Brian Caskey is challenging Republican incumbent Chuck Edwards.

SD 49 -- Democrat Julie Mayfield is favored to replace Sen. Terry van Duyn for this open seat against Republican Bob Penland.

NC House

HD1 -- Democrat Emily Bunch Nicholson is trying to unseat Republican incumbent Ed Goodwin.

Brian Farkas (HD9)

HD9 -- Democrat Brian Farkas is trying to unseat Republican Perrin Jones, who was appointed to the seat.

HD12 -- Democrat Virginia Cox-Daugherty is running to unseat Republican incumbent Chris Humphrey.

HD19 -- Democrat Marcia Morgan is running against Republican Charlie Miller for this open seat.

HD20 -- Democrat Adam Ericson is running to unseat Republican incumbent Ted Davis.

HD22 -- Democrat Albert Kirby Jr. is challenging Democrat-turned-Republican incumbent Bill Brisson. 

HD25 -- Democrat James D. Galliard is defending the seat he won in 2018 against Republican John Check.

HD35 -- Democrat Terrence Everitt is defending the seat he won in 2018 against Republican Fred Von Canon.

HD36 -- Democrat Julie von Haefen is defending the seat she won in 2018 against Republican Kim Coley.

HD37 -- Democrat Sydney Batch is defending the seat she won in 2018 against Republican Erin Pare. [At the moment, Pare is leading Batch by 2,249 votes.]

HD43 -- Democrat Kimberly Hardy is running against Republican Diane Wheatley for a seat currently held by Democrat Elmer Floyd. Hardy beat Floyd in the March primary. [At the moment, Wheatley is ahead of Hardy by 1,448 votes.]

HD45 -- Democrat Frances Vinell Jackson is challenging Republican incumbent John Szoka. [At the moment, Szoka is ahead of Jackson by 763 votes.]

HD46 -- Democrat Tim Heath is challenging incumbent Republican Brendon Jones. 

HD51 -- Democrat Jason Cain is challenging Republican incumbent John Sauls.

HD53 -- Democrat Sally Weeks Benson is running against Republican Howard Penny Jr. for this open seat, recently vacated by disgraced Republican David Lewis.

HD55 -- Democrat Gloria Harrington Overcash is challenging incumbent Republican Mark Brody. 

HD57 -- Democrat Ashton Clemmons is defending the seat she won in 2018, against Republican Chris Meadows.

HD59 -- Democrat Nicole Quick is challenging Republican incumbent Jon Hardister.

HD63 -- Democrat Ricky Hurtado is challenging Republican incumbent Stephen Ross. [At the moment, Hurtado is leading Ross by 395 votes.]

HD72 -- Democrat Amber Baker is heavily favored to win this open seat against Republican Dan Lawlor.

HD74 -- Democrat Dan Besse is running against Republican Jeff Zenger for this open seat. [At the moment, Zenger is leading Besse by 1,245 votes.]

HD82 -- Democrat Aimy Steele is running against Republican Kristin Baker for this open seat.

HD83 -- Democrat Gail Young is challenging Republican incumbent Larry Pittman. [At the moment, Pittman is ahead of Young by 1,431 votes.]

HD93 -- Democrat Ray Russell is defending the seat he won in 2018 against Republican Ray Pickett.

HD98 -- Democrat Christy Clark is defending the seat she won in 2018 against Republican John Bradford in a rematch.

HD103 -- Democrat Rachel Hunt is defending the seat she won in 2018 against Republican Bill Brawley in a rematch.

HD104 -- Democrat Brandon Lofton is defending the seat he won in 2018 against Republican Don Pomeroy.

HD105 -- Democrat Wesley Harris is defending the seat he won in 2018 against Republican Amy Bynum.

HD113 -- Democrat Sam Edney is challenging Republican incumbent Jake Johnson.

HD117 -- Democrat Josh Remillard is challenging Republican Tim Moffitt for this open seat. 

HD119 -- Democrat Joe Sam Queen is defending the seat he won in 2018 against Republican Mike Clampitt in a rematch.

 

Daymares or Cloudland on November 3rd

 

I'm about to do what I'm never supposed to do -- get into pointless speculation about our future in politics, the Democratic tribes and their respective throw-weights, if Joe Biden and Kamala Harris actually win today. (What else am I supposed to do on Election Day, when I've already voted and I'm no good on the phone? What else can I do, other than, say, replay compulsively Carly Simon singing "The River Runs"?)

The spaghetti fights that are coming! I'm not thinking of the armed Trumpists. They're someone else's problem. (The internal struggle for control of the Republican Party, if Trump loses, may resemble The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I'll have tourniquets and/or popcorn handy.) No, I'm thinking of the over-caffeinated and not at all demure Democratic activists from left and middle who are going to duke it out over the direction of the Party -- not to mention exert excruciating pressure on the Biden presidency and the presidential initiatives of the Biden/Harris administration.

I'm rumored to be a "progressive Democrat." A Bernie Sanders partisan. A dangerous liberal. Like Trump's working-class white men, my resentments are class based. If it hadn't been for a good education in a little podunk high school in West Texas, followed by more education at a West Texas Baptist college and then even more education at a Mormon-dominated university in Utah, I probably would have grown up stuck like amber on my tenant farmer rung, ambitious without wherewithal, angry and bitter about others moving on up. My resentment might have coagulated into reactionary politics. Saw it happen to plenty of others. 

"Think you're better'n me?" Trump's fan boys want to punch out educated people, media elites, scientists, and professors. 'Cause I am one of those educated people, I deserve punching-out because I've got it good, or at least better, and I'm probably a snob and a gun-control opportunist and an abortion-on-demand destroyer of traditional values. Some of that's true -- not the gun control part (I was actually the author once of a famous bumpersticker: "Democrats Arm Yourselves"), and I ain't no goddamn snob just because I have a vocabulary and read books. I won't apologize for my education, which is actually -- and ironically -- responsible for the loss of my religion. We had a saying at Wayland Baptist College that it produced either preachers or atheists. You got one guess.

But I still identify with my lower- and working-class roots. It's just that I pick Wall Street to hate. I pick smug rich people and bullies and people who cut me off in traffic. I say sometimes that I can't understand the enthusiasm for Trump among rural and working-class folks. But I do understand it. Trump's core base have every reason in the world to hate and cuss someone, anyone, the easy targets supplied by their leader for the supposed "level playing ground" which actually slants like a bitch. They just mistakenly blame their failure to rise on what they see as the privileging of racial minorities, the tyranny of science and Democratic governors, rather than the privileging of the already rich by an economic system whose dogma is: If you ain't got property, you ain't shit.

I want both the progressives and the moderates of my Party, going forward, to be strategic and practical. They won't be. My side will push too hard and at the wrong pressure points. The moderate/conservative, establishment side, which controls the wheels and cogs, will shut down dissent and breed more dissent. Crockery will get broken. Some people will leave the house and slam the door behind them. There could be a third party, or multiple third parties, and I might have trouble resisting the urge to join one. The tectonic plates will shift and buildings will crumble. I'm too old and tired for that additional chaos.

But the Party has got to be bold in standing for the working class against the forces that keep them subservient (and ignorant!). The Party's got to respect their religion and their traditionalism and actually help nurture its future, without simultaneously allowing church to dominate state. Bring broadband to everyone. Is that a middle way or a progressive way? Regulate assault weapons and atomic bombs but leave the household arsenals alone. Decriminalize a lot of petty offenses that catch up the most vulnerable and the most uneducated. Do not be jerks. Stop insulting and stereotyping those who are less. Stop the pity, too, because pity always runs downhill.

Bonus version:

And another, because that song needs -- demands -- a choir of young people:

Control of the NC Senate and House Is At Stake Tomorrow

 

The NC Senate and House races worth watching tomorrow, because redistricting in 2021 completely hinges on the outcomes -- not to mention a shitload of other crucial public policies. I'll be back on Wednesday with results in these races and more.

NC Senate

SD1 -- Democrat Tess Judge attempts to unseat Republican Bob Steinburg.

SD7 -- Democrat Donna Lake challenges Republican Jim Perry, who was appointed to the seat.

SD9 -- Democrat Harper Peterson is running to keep the seat he won in 2018. Republican Mike Lee, who lost in 2018, is running to regain the seat.

SD11 -- Democrat Allen Wellons goes against Republican Lisa Stone Barnes for this open seat.

SD13 -- Democrat Barbara Yates-Lockamy is trying to unseat Republican incumbent Danny Britt.

SD16 -- Democrat Wiley Nickel is defending the seat he won in 2018 against Republican Will Marsh.

SD17 -- Democrat Sam Searcy is defending the seat he won in 2018 against Republican Mark Cavaliero.

SD18 -- Democrat Sarah Crawford is favored against Republican Larry Norman in this redrawn district.

SD19 -- Democrat Kirk deViere is defending the seat he won in 2018 in a rematch with Republican Wesley Meredith.

SD20 -- Democrat Natalie Murdock is favored against Republican John Tarantino for this open seat.

SD24 -- Democrat J.D. Wooten is challenging Republican Amy Galey for this open seat.

Terri LeGrand (SD31)

SD25 -- Democrat Helen Probst Mills is trying again to unseat Republican incumbent Tom McInnis.

SD27 -- Democrat Michael Garrett is defending the seat he won in 2018 against Republican Sebastian King.

SD31 -- Democrat Terri LeGrand is challenging Republican incumbent Joyce Krawiec in this redrawn district.

SD36 -- Democrat Marcus J. Singleton is challenging Republican incumbent Paul Newton.

SD38 -- Democrat Mujtaba Mohammed defends the seat he won in 2018. He's favored to win easily against Republican Jack Brosch.

SD 39 -- Democrat DeAndrea Salvador is heavily favored in Sen. (now US Rep) Dan Bishop's former district, now redrawn. Salvador faces Republican Josh Niday

SD41 -- Democrat Natasha Marcus is defending the seat she won in 2018 against Constitution Party member Christopher Cole. No Republican filed to run.

SD48 -- Democrat Brian Caskey is challenging Republican incumbent Chuck Edwards.

SD 49 -- Democrat Julie Mayfield is favored to replace Sen. Terry van Duyn for this open seat against Republican Bob Penland.

NC House

HD1 -- Democrat Emily Bunch Nicholson is trying to unseat Republican incumbent Ed Goodwin.

HD9 -- Democrat Brian Farkas is trying to unseat Republican Perrin Jones, who was appointed to the seat.

HD12 -- Democrat Virginia Cox-Daugherty is running to unseat Republican incumbent Chris Humphrey.

HD19 -- Democrat Marcia Morgan is running against Republican Charlie Miller for this open seat.

HD20 -- Democrat Adam Ericson is running to unseat Republican incumbent Ted Davis.

HD22 -- Democrat Albert Kirby Jr. is challenging Democrat-turned-Republican incumbent Bill Brisson. 

Ricky Hurtado (HD63)

HD25 -- Democrat James D. Galliard is defending the seat he won in 2018 against Republican John Check.

HD35 -- Democrat Terrence Everitt is defending the seat he won in 2018 against Republican Fred Von Canon.

HD36 -- Democrat Julie von Haefen is defending the seat she won in 2018 against Republican Kim Coley.

HD37 -- Democrat Sydney Batch is defending the seat she won in 2018 against Republican Erin Pare.

HD43 -- Democrat Kimberly Hardy is running against Republican Diane Wheatley for a seat currently held by Democrat Elmer Floyd. Hardy beat Floyd in the March primary.

HD45 -- Democrat Frances Vinell Jackson is challenging Republican incumbent John Szoka.

HD46 -- Democrat Tim Heath is challenging incumbent Republican Brendon Jones. 

HD51 -- Democrat Jason Cain is challenging Republican incumbent John Sauls.

HD53 -- Democrat Sally Weeks Benson is running against Republican Howard Penny Jr. for this open seat, recently vacated by disgraced Republican David Lewis.

HD55 -- Democrat Gloria Harrington Overcash is challenging incumbent Republican Mark Brody. 

HD57 -- Democrat Ashton Clemmons is defending the seat she won in 2018, against Republican Chris Meadows.

HD59 -- Democrat Nicole Quick is challenging Republican incumbent Jon Hardister.

HD63 -- Democrat Ricky Hurtado is challenging Republican incumbent Stephen Ross.

HD72 -- Democrat Amber Baker is heavily favored to win this open seat against Republican Dan Lawlor.

Aimy Steele (HD82)

HD74 -- Democrat Dan Besse is running against Republican Jeff Zenger for this open seat.

HD82 -- Democrat Aimy Steele is running against Republican Kristin Baker for this open seat.

HD83 -- Democrat Gail Young is challenging Republican incumbent Larry Pittman.

HD93 -- Democrat Ray Russell is defending the seat he won in 2018 against Republican Ray Pickett.

HD98 -- Democrat Christy Clark is defending the seat she won in 2018 against Republican John Bradford in a rematch.

HD103 -- Democrat Rachel Hunt is defending the seat she won in 2018 against Republican Bill Brawley in a rematch.

HD104 -- Democrat Brandon Lofton is defending the seat he won in 2018 against Republican Don Pomeroy.

HD105 -- Democrat Wesley Harris is defending the seat he won in 2018 against Republican Amy Bynum.

HD113 -- Democrat Sam Edney is challenging Republican incumbent Jake Johnson.

HD117 -- Democrat Josh Remillard is challenging Republican Tim Moffitt for this open seat. 

HD119 -- Democrat Joe Sam Queen is defending the seat he won in 2018 against Republican Mike Clampitt in a rematch.

 

Georgia Republican David Perdue Should Not Have Shown Up Wednesday Night

 

I was unenthusiastic about Democrat Jon Ossoff's decision to take on incumbent Republican Senator David Perdue in Georgia. Ossoff had run unsuccessfully in 2017 in a special election in Georgia's 6th Congressional District. He lost, even though he raised a metric ton of money. I began to think he was a focus-group candidate, created in a backroom by campaign consultants, groomed because he checked a bunch of boxes for electability but lacked a core belief system that could energize a Democratic base.

I take it all back. Ossoff obliterated Perdue in a televised debate on Wednesday night, a take-down so savage (when have you ever seen a candidate call another candidate a "crook" to his face?) that Perdue has dropped out of the last debate with Ossoff which was supposed to be on Sunday night and which was agreed to back in September.

Here's a clip, but there was much more dismantling beyond this (and have you ever seen a better impersonation of that proverbial deer in the headlights than Perdue?):

If Texas Goes Blue, I'll Win a Bet

I have a bet on the outcome in Texas, and serendipitously I hear from my oldest friend in Texas with some on-the-ground analysis:

This election has rendered me manic-depressive. My emotions range from euphoria to depression. 

Today's polls suggest NC looks better than Texas. CNN's "poll of polls" has Biden +3 in NC. Texas polls are all over the place: from Trump +1 to Biden +4. I don't know that I can offer you much comfort about Texas. At least it's trending during the past year from Republican to leaning Republican to a toss-up. 

There is good news. 1.9 million new people registered in Texas since 2016. Much of that driven by grassroots registration and get out the vote drives. Beto has led the most successful recruiting with thousands of people, mostly young, to calling and texting and lately knocking on doors. My son hosted a webinar this Tuesday with Beto to talk about gerrymandering which became mainly about his efforts to flip the Texas House to control redistricting next year. He was pleased with the efforts of his army, but mentioned how much better they could have done if the Biden campaign had taken Texas seriously. Bloomberg is pumping in millions and Harris tomorrow will campaign in the Rio Grande Valley, Ft Worth, and Houston. 

Texas is 40% Latino and 2/3 voted Dem in 2016. One million Latinos turned 18 this year in the U.S. A large chunk in Texas. That group was one of Beto's targets. And the young Latinos are more liberal than their more conservative parents and grandparents. The best way to be a successful state Dem candidate in the valley is to be anti-abortion. Strong Catholic hold on the older Latinos. 

One million early voters in Texas are below 30 years old. In Houston, the young city officials are holding the polls open from 7am today until 7 pm Friday, the last day of voting. Yeah, 36 hours, through Thursday night without closing. Beto and the Dem campaign officials keep saying Texas is not a red state but a non-voting state. With enough voters who hadn't voted before, Texas is blue. Also, the concern about Biden's comments in the last debate about "transitioning" from fossil fuels is not as big a big deal in Texas as the Republicans hoped. Texas is not just an oil state anymore. Being a state without a state income tax, we attract all kinds of businesses and have become a leading state with technology centers as well as now big in windmill energy (you know about west Texas wind) and solar farms. 

Here's an interesting polling projection I read this morning: If all the electoral votes go to the candidate in each state who leads in the polling by 3% or more, Biden wins with 326 votes. And if the state polls are as wrong this year as in 2016, Biden wins by 335. I didn't believe that last number until I saw that there were more states where polls underestimated the Dem vote than overestimated the Dem vote.

As you can see, I'm not only manic-depressive, but also obsessed with this election. Counting the days. 

Gotta Love @Jakeli_117

 

'Anonymous' Is Anonymous No More

Remember the famous anonymous op-ed published in the New York Times in 2018, "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration," which later became a book titled "A Warning" by Anonymous?

Boy, I do. Those writings launched a whole cottage industry of speculation: "Who is Anonymous?" VP Mike Pence denied he wrote it. Ditto Mike Pompeo. DNI Dan Coats denied it but was forced out anyway. Someone, possibly on drugs, suggested that TreasurySec Steven Mnuchin wrote it. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen got fingered for it and denied it via her press secretary. Maybe SecDef Jim Mattis. Hilariously, maybe even Rick Perry, who is only tenuously literate. Kellyanne Conway, Wilbur Ross, Nikki Haley, Betsy DeVos (hahahaha!), Ben Carson, Mick Mulvaney, Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie, disgraced Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta, CIA Director Gina Haspel, White House counsel Don McGahn, and many others made the cut and were forced to deny it because Herr Trump was watching.

Turns out "Anonymous" was Myles Taylor, chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, so the closest anybody came to the truth was suggesting Kirstjen Nielsen, for whom Myles Taylor worked. He was in and out of the Oval Office and in meetings with Trump constantly. He absorbed his boss's knowledge and pain, since Nielsen was fired from the job for resisting "some of Mr. Trump’s demands — including shutting down the border with Mexico and shooting people crossing the border illegally in the legs to slow them down" (Michael D. Shear). 

As one of Ms. Nielsen’s top advisers, Mr. Taylor was part of the administration during some of the most controversial decisions of Mr. Trump’s first three years in office, including the ban on travel from predominantly Muslim countries, the decision to separate immigrant children from their parents at the border and the efforts to turn back asylum seekers.

Nielsen was fired in April 2019. Taylor left government soon after in June of that year.

Taylor is a moral hero. I don't care that he blew the whistle anonymously. I don't care that he comes out of the closet now, so close to the election. He was the first to say something's bad wrong with the strange man in the Oval Office. His was the first Molotov cocktail hurled over the wall in what became a blizzard of bombs, both Trump's astonishing subversion of ethics and morality, the revelations followed by placid, grazing cow satisfaction from his supporters (whom we all fear now like working scissors in the hands of a running toddler). Years later, after so much chaos, we can barely remember "I Am Part of the Resistance."

Taylor is also a calculating operator, and I respect that. He's an ideological conservative and deeply partisan. He says in his published confession, "...former Vice President Joe Biden is likely to pursue progressive reforms that conservatives oppose (and rest assumed, we will challenge them...)." He decided on anonymity out of pure tactical necessity: Trump was already well known as a vicious insulter of people he wanted his followers to hate as his enemies and enemies of the State. Blind hatred became the only reality. Taylor correctly calculated that his inside revelations about a man too clueless to rule and too corrupt to abide would get lost if he signed the op-ed. He knew that he would personally become the battered beachball for Trump and his social media tribe while his great concerns about a government going off the rails would be ignored.

He was right. He was strategic, which is what we all have to be as the Republic circles the drain.