Category: US Senate

Here’s what it really means for the Republican Party to embrace fascism

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I got a response from a concerned reader and citizen yesterday that I’d like to discuss today. It was in reaction to Tuesday’s piece about Alan Wolfe, the political scientist and sociologist who seemed to predict, in 2004, the Republicans’ turn toward fascism. He wrote in an obscure supplement to an obscure journal only niche readers saw, but reading this 17-year-old essay is like reading a profile of the Republican Party in 2021.

In my piece, I said the pundit corps still seems to hesitate using the word “fascism” even after all we’ve seen. I said that’s probably because it calls to mind images of gas chambers. It doesn’t take genocide to make a fascist, though. As Wolfe made so clear, all it takes is a totalizing worldview in which everyone in the out-group is the enemy.

To which my concerned citizen pointed out something worth dwelling on: “Hesitancy to call the GOP ‘fascist’ is justified in many minds because so many GOP elites aver that they are simply giving lip-service to MAGA and don’t really believe in it.” Continue reading.

The dark history behind a revealing Fox News chyron

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For decades, the GOP claimed the mantle of an economically conservative party and exploited societal issues such as racism and abortion to bolster their electoral support. Yet over the past few years, a reversal has occurred, such that the GOP’s cultural identity now eclipses any pretense of an economic agenda. As an example, just this week, Fox News declared, “Critical Race Theory Replaces Economy as Top Issue.”

Over the course of the 1980s through the 2000s, American conservative thought was often framed as primarily economically oriented. The Republican Party, however, gained electoral support by appealing to societal resentments. From Ronald Reagan’s “welfare queen” to encouraging turnout with anti-LGBTQ legislation, the GOP augmented cultural wars. It knew how to exploit culture to win elections and power.

Yet during all this time, the GOP had an economic agenda—”fiscal conservatism”—that appealed to voters less moved by resentment. This agenda revolved around deregulation of industry, reductions in government spending and tax cuts. The GOP also had an even broader vision: deconstruction of the social safety net as established by the New Deal and the Great Society. From Reagan to Newt Gingrich to George W. Bush, Republican leaders mounted attacks on the safety net, largely centered on privatization and incentives to encourage Americans to choose other options. Continue reading.

‘They wouldn’t care if I was dead’ — staffer fallout from Jan. 6 continues

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Denial of insurrection, always-on work culture piles on trauma

A congressional staffer froze recently when elevator doors opened and there stood a member of the House who has downplayed the violence of the Jan. 6 insurrection. Some congressional employees are shaken by what they see as the whitewashing of the attack, and the denials have reignited lingering trauma.

One House employee who works in the Capitol building and heard the rioters banging on their office door said seeing the lawmakers try to erase the destruction is jarring.

Thirteen staffers interviewed by CQ Roll Call, who were granted anonymity to speak candidly about their mental health and how they are coping, point to comments like those from Rep. Andrew Clyde. Despite helping barricade the House chamber from rioters, the Georgia Republican downplayed the events of Jan. 6 at a hearing earlier this month as“acts of vandalism” and said the rioters were “orderly” and looked like “a normal tourist visit.” Continue reading.

With Capitol insurrection commission delayed in the Senate, Rep. Phillips calls for filibuster reform

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WASHINGTON, DC — With the Senate vote on the bipartisan commission to investigate delayed, Rep. Phillips issues the following statement:

“I value tradition. Like most Americans, I yearn for the days when Senators debated rather than divided and broke bread rather than our collective trust in government. But here we are, just months removed from an insurrection, merging from a pandemic, witnessing graphic displays of corruption, and at risk of irretrievable erosion of faith in elections – the very foundation of our democratic republic. I believe a bipartisan January 6 Commission and HR1, the For The People Act, are too important to forgo without debate, deliberation and a floor vote in the Senate. So it’s time to call on tradition and return the filibuster to its roots; the talking filibuster. Senators who wish to prevent a bill from a facing a simple majority vote would have to be so committed to obstruction that they’re willing to speak on the floor for as many hours or days or even months as it takes to force the others to concede. I believe in tradition, and tradition dictates Senators should be debating and voting, or have to work a whole lot harder to do nothing at all.”

Senate confirms Clarke as first Black woman to lead DOJ civil rights

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The Senate on Tuesday voted to confirm Kristen Clarke as the new head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division in a tight 51-48 vote, with Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) the only Republican to cross party lines and vote for her.

Clarke will be the first Black woman to lead the influential wing of the Justice Department and will serve as assistant attorney general for civil rights.

The civil rights division’s tasks include investigating local law enforcement agencies and taking on state voting restrictions around the country. Continue reading.

Man charged with bringing molotov cocktails to Capitol on Jan. 6 has Texas militia ties, contacted Ted Cruz’s office, court papers allege

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An Alabama man charged with bringing five loaded firearms and 11 molotov cocktails with napalm-like properties to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 approached Sen. Ted Cruz’s Washington home and office weeks earlier to discuss “election fraud” and previously joined an armed-citizen camp at the Texas border, new court filings alleged Monday.

The new U.S. allegations came in a federal judge’s ruling ordering the continued detention of Lonnie Leroy Coffman, of Falkville, Ala., citing evidence that he had potential plans to coordinate with others and was prepared for political violence.

The 71-year-old Army veteran is awaiting trial on charges of possessing some of the deadliest unregistered weapons and explosives on the day of the riots that breached the Capitol, led to assaults on nearly 140 police officers and forced the evacuation of Congress. Continue reading.

Romney first GOP senator to say he would vote for Jan. 6 commission bill

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Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said on Monday that he would support a House-passed bill to create a commission to probe the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Romney’s comments make him the first GOP senator to say he would vote for the bill, which needs the support of 10 Republicans to pass the Senate.

Asked how he would vote if Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) tried to start debate on the House bill, a move that requires 60 votes to defeat a filibuster, Romney told reporters, “I would support the bill.” Continue reading.

50 years later, the culture wars debate over the child care crisis has barely budged

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Conservative counterproposals to Biden’s families plan look to promote the traditional family at a time when marriages and birthrates are at record lows.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have laid the groundwork for a national child care system, saying it would have placed the government on “the side of communal approaches to child rearing [and] against the family-centered approach.”

Fifty years later, as President Joe Biden makes subsidized child care for low- and middle-income families a major plank of his legislative agenda, the socially conservative argument against his plan sounds much the same as the one Nixon aide Pat Buchanan was making when he wrote that veto message.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., argued that Biden’s prescription would “incentivize women to rely on the federal government to organize their lives” in an interview with the Fox Business Network soon after Biden announced his plan last month. In a tweet, she compared the proposal to Soviet-style child care. Continue reading.

National Guard’s Capitol security mission ends as lawmakers feud over protection needs, costs

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National Guard personnel will fully depart the U.S. Capitol grounds this week, military and congressional officials said Monday, bringing an end to the security mission that began when armed troops were dispatched to help quell the attack by supporters of former president Donald Trump.

The National Guard was deployed Jan. 6 to help beat back a crowd of about 10,000 rioters who had besieged the building and clear out the approximately 800 who had broken inside. Why it took the National Guard more than three hours after the breach to arrive continues to be a matter of contentious discussion on Capitol Hill, where House lawmakers recently grilled Trump’s former acting defense secretary for details about that day.

“These airmen and soldiers protected not only the grounds, but the lawmakers working on those grounds, ensuring the people’s business could continue unabated,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement. “They lived out in very tangible ways the oath they took to support and defend the Constitution.” Continue reading.

MSNBC’s Morning Joe notices something ‘strange’ about the GOP ‘personality cult’

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MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough noticed something “strange” about the “personality cult” that has developed around former president Donald Trump in the Republican Party.

The GOP has lost control of the House, Senate and White House since Trump was first elected, but the “Morning Joe” host said the more they lose, the more they seem to love the twice-impeached one-term president.

“It really is strange,” Scarborough said. “The more Republicans lose, the more of a personality cult Donald Trump seems to develop. You can look at his losses in ’17 and ’18 — historic losses. I mean, Republicans losing like they’ve never lost before in the House of Representatives, just as far as a pure, pure vote totals, [and in] ’19, they started losing governorships in the South and then in ’20, they lost the big race, lost the race for their presidency, lost Georgia, lost the Senate, lost the House.” Continue reading.