POLITICO NIGHTLY: Why some people still haven’t gotten Covid

 

View in browser   BY MYAH WARD With help from Joanne Kenen and Alice Miranda Ollstein People walk past a Covid testing site in New York City. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images GENE THERAPY — We all know that person who seems Covid-proof. They’ve been exposed countless times. Their spouse and kids all had Covid, yet they somehow avoided it. Then there are people who have been infected two or three times, sometimes within a span of just a few months. Others are dealing with long Covid months after a mild infection. The lingering questions about why this virus affects people so differently have become more urgent as vaccine immunity wanes, and as Omicron variants cause reinfections that are driving a rise in hospitalizations in the U.S. Global scientists, with expertise in immunology and microbiology, are now turning to human genetics to figure out how a dwindling number of people have managed to avoid infection for more than two years. Nearly 60 percent of Americans have caught the virus, including 3 out of 4 children, according to the CDC. IHME estimates this figure exceeds 75 percent. Genetics doesn’t explain everything about how Covid decides to attack a person. Numerous factors — including vaccination status, age, overall health and lifestyle, where you work, whether you mask regularly — play a role. Even exposure to past coronaviruses, which were first discovered in the 1950s, might explain why some people have immune systems that were better prepared to fight a novel virus, Jagdish Khubchandani, a professor of public health at New Mexico State University, told Nightly. But by studying genes and other biological traits, scientists are trying to better understand why some people might be more resistant to Covid infection, knowledge that could be harnessed to improve vaccines and develop new drugs to fight the disease. In one international study, scientists are screening and studying the genetics of people who believe they are resistant to Covid infection. Researchers are trying to figure out exactly what unique genetic and immune characteristics might make someone more vulnerable — or immune — to Covid. Another, more controversial human-challenge study actually infected healthy, young adults with the virus in a controlled setting. The U.K. study injected 34 adults, ages 18 to 30, with a small dose of the virus. The individuals were kept in quarantine for two weeks in an isolation unit at a hospital in London. In the participants who became infected, the virus replicated rapidly, Nicolas Noulin, director of clinical scientist at hVIVO, and a co-author of the human trial, told Nightly. Other participants never got sick, while other uninfected patients had low levels of the virus for a short period of time, which shows their bodies were actively fighting the virus. Susceptibility to many diseases, including sickle cell anemia and malaria, is related to genetics. Similarly, with Covid, “there’s something about our genetic structure where we have an over-expression or a deficiency of some kind of protein or enzyme through a gene that makes us vulnerable or protects us,” Khubchandani said, though scientists have more studies to do before they figure out what these genetic differences might be, and what they mean. One theory is that your DNA could affect how your immune system reacts to the virus or determine if you have fewer receptors in your nose, throat and lungs for the virus to latch on to, Noulin said. Some people just “fit” the virus better. “The virus is like a key and a lock, so if you have a key and a lock, then you have a match,” he said. “If the key is not perfectly fitted to the lock, you may still be able to attach but it will not be as efficient as an effective match.” Answering these questions is complicated because so many factors are at play, Khubchandani said, and the studies aren’t easy to conduct. Finding people to actually participate in such a trial is challenging, as is tracking down people who truly were never infected with Covid, not just those who had an asymptomatic infection and didn’t know it. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at mward@politico.com, or on Twitter at @MyahWard.   DON'T MISS DIGITAL FUTURE DAILY - OUR TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER, RE-IMAGINED:  Technology is always evolving, and our new tech-obsessed newsletter is too! Digital Future Daily unlocks the most important stories determining the future of technology, from Washington to Silicon Valley and innovation power centers around the world. Readers get an in-depth look at how the next wave of tech will reshape civic and political life, including activism, fundraising, lobbying and legislating. Go inside the minds of the biggest tech players, policymakers and regulators to learn how their decisions affect our lives. Don't miss out, subscribe today.     FROM THE HEALTH DESK THE PILL AFTER DOBBS — Joanne Kenen and Alice Miranda Ollstein email Nightly: The Birth Control Pill, once a symbol of women’s sexual and reproductive autonomy, remains one of the most popular methods of contraception, even though people have a lot more choices than they did when the pill became available in the early 1960s. The Pill itself has changed in the intervening six decades; it now contains lower doses of hormones and is safer. But how and where women obtain the Pill is changing — and may change more given that reproductive health landscape is expected to look very different when the Supreme Court rules in the Mississippi case that is likely to end or at least severely restrict the abortion rights protected by Roe v Wade in 1973. Here are five scenarios for the future of the Pill after Roe: — The Status Quo . Even as the rest of the reproductive health landscape changes, it’s possible that access to the Pill could be more or less the same. Right now, doctors or other health care providers like physician assistants or nurse practitioners can prescribe birth control pills (including via telemedicine and apps). The pill is covered by health insurance at no cost under Obamacare (though not every health plan covers every brand.) — Pharmacy Prescriptions. At least 17 states plus Washington, D.C., already allow pharmacists to prescribe the Pill, although some are still putting those rules into effect, said Elizabeth Nash, who tracks state reproductive health policy for the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights. But it’s not clear how widely known this option is, or how many pharmacists have been trained. As Nash noted, pharmacies have signs all over the place about flu and shingles shots, but she’s yet to see one saying, “Get your birth control pills here!” — Primary Care. Advocates have long pushed for making the Pill and other contraceptive methods a greater part of routine primary care, and routine care right after childbirth. They say that if a patient of child-bearing age goes to see a primary care provider — for any reason — family planning should be addressed, and the patient who wants it should be able to walk out of the office that very day with a prescription in hand (or a device implanted, injected, or inserted). Primary care needs to be “more proactive,” said Mark Edwards, co-founder of Upstream USA, a nonprofit that has begun working in several states to train providers in primary care settings to counsel and provide patients with the Pill or other method of their choice. — Over the Counter. A campaign is underway to make the Pill an over-the-counter drug that doesn’t require a prescription (and it could then be purchased online too, so people wouldn’t have to deal with pharmacists who oppose it for all or some of their customers.) “I hear about so many barriers young people in particular face when a prescription is required — from long wait times for appointments to health care providers refusing to prescribe birth control because of their religious or moral beliefs,” said Angela Maske, who manages the #FreeThePill Youth Council. Several other former prescription drugs have moved over the counter in recent years, including some common painkillers and allergy meds, and more than 100 other countries sell birth control pills without a prescription, including South Korea and the U.K. The FDA still needs to sign off on safety grounds. (The Pill is now very low risk, but like other medicines it’s not zero risk.) It’s also not clear how the Affordable Care Act insurance coverage requirement would play out as the law currently covers prescribed methods of contraception. “There is a move to get it out of the clinical setting,” said Alina Salganicoff, who directs the women’s health policy program at the Kaiser Family Foundation. But there are questions including that if it’s OTC, “How do you get Medicaid or private insurance to pay for it?” — Restricted access in a post-Roe world. Some conservatives have raised the possibility of restricting certain contraceptives but how far and how fast this push would go and whether it would affect the Pill is speculation at this point. Emergency contraception — sometimes referred to as a “morning after” pill — which is a misnomer given that most brands work for at least three and up to five days — is a more likely initial target for reduced access or outright bans. Some abortion opponents perceive emergency contraception (which can also include one type of IUD) as a form of early abortion. But the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and other medical groups say that emergency contraception can prevent pregnancy in several ways, including by blocking ovulation. But it does not terminate a pregnancy. If you want to know more, Joanne and Alice wrote more about contraception access and policy in POLITICO Magazine the other day. WHAT'D I MISS? — Biden invokes Defense Production Act to increase supply of U.S. infant formula: President Joe Biden announced today that he was invoking the Defense Production Act to speed up the manufacturing of U.S.-made infant formula, as well as directing government agencies to use the Defense Department’s commercial aircraft to pick up products from overseas. The DPA requires suppliers to send necessary resources to infant formula suppliers before other customers who have requested the goods. — Biden resists Ukrainian demands for long-range rocket launchers: Ukrainian officials are growing frustrated with the Biden administration’s resistance to providing U.S.-made long-range rocket systems , a weapon Kyiv says is critical to outgunning Russia in the heavy artillery duels raging across the Donbas. Officials across the Ukrainian government have pleaded with the U.S. for months to send the Multiple Launch Rocket System, or MLRS. But three people familiar with the issue say the Ukrainians are concerned that the White House is holding back over worries the weapon could be used to launch strikes inside Russia, thereby expanding and prolonging the conflict. — U.S. reopens embassy in Ukrainian capital: The United States has reopened its embassy in Ukraine’s capital, three months after fears of what became a brutal Russian invasion prompted its closure. The decision to send a small contingent of U.S. diplomats back to Kyiv as part of a soft reopening of the embassy is intended to signal that the United States stands with Ukraine against Russia. It is a move U.S. lawmakers from both parties, as well as Ukrainians, have been hoping to see for weeks. But Biden administration officials had hesitated, in large part due to ongoing security concerns, even as other countries reopened their missions. — Trump pushes Oz to declare victory in undecided Pennsylvania primary: Former President Donald Trump said today Mehmet Oz should declare victory over opponent Dave McCormick in the too-close-to-call Pennsylvania GOP battle for Senate nomination — reprising his conspiratorial playbook from the 2020 presidential election that led to the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. “Dr. Oz should declare victory. It makes it much harder for them to cheat with the ballots that they ‘just happened to find,’” Trump said on Truth Social, the social media platform that he helped found. — Sweden, Finland submit applications to join NATO: Sweden and Finland formally applied to join NATO today at the military alliance’s headquarters in Brussels. There is already broad support for the countries’ membership , and militaries in both Finland and Sweden already cooperate closely with NATO allies. But the formal ratification of Helsinki and Stockholm’s accession is expected to take months, requiring approval from all 30 members. — Granholm ‘bullish’ on Congress passing clean energy tax credits: Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said today she is “bullish” that Congress will ultimately pass some form of clean energy tax credits — particularly as moderate Democrat Joe Manchin conducts bipartisan meetings with senators on an energy bill. The bipartisan infrastructure law that passed last year “is sort of the spine of the president’s clean energy and energy future agenda, but the tax credits are the lungs of it,” Granholm told POLITICO’s Sustainability Summit. “They absolutely need to pass and I am feeling actually pretty bullish about it at this very moment.” — Health Secretary Xavier Becerra tests positive for Covid-19: Becerra tested positive this morning ahead of a meeting with other health ministers , spokesperson Sarah Lovenheim said in a statement. “He is fully vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19, and is experiencing mild symptoms,” she said. Lovenheim added that Becerra last saw Biden on Thursday. “Biden is not considered a close contact” as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she said. AROUND THE WORLD DEFAULT POSITION? Washington is willing to let a provision allowing Russia to make bond payments expire , U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced today — a move that increases the chance Moscow will default on its foreign debt, Paola Tamma writes. The clause, which falls under the U.S. sanctions regime, has allowed Russia to service its foreign debt so far with the approval of the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. It’s set to expire on May 25. “The expectation was for it to be time limited. It’s reasonably likely to expect that the license will be left to expire,” Yellen said, speaking to reporters in Bonn, Germany, ahead of a G7 finance ministerial meeting. “A final decision hasn’t been taken yet, but I think it’s unlikely that it would continue.” Yellen also addressed the question of what the West can do about Russian oil exports — the subject of intense debate right now in the EU, which wants to include oil in its next sanctions package but has so far been stymied by Hungary's resistance. One approach, Yellen said, is to impose a tariff or price cap on Russian oil exports. “Oil and gas revenues are very substantial source of revenues for Russia,” she said. “We would like to do what we could to diminish those revenues.”   STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today.     NIGHTLY NUMBER Half a percentage point The margin under which Pennsylvania law requires an automatic statewide election recount if the top two candidates in a race are within half a percentage point of each other, which Oz and McCormick currently are. PARTING WORDS More than 4,000 pallets of New York-made hand sanitizer, called NYS Clean, totaling more than 700,000 gallons sit on an old runway at the State Preparedness Training Center in Oriskany, just outside Utica in Central New York. | Joseph Spector/POLITICO CAN’T WASH YOUR HANDS OF THIS — In the first days of the Covid-19 pandemic, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced New York would use prison labor to address a hand sanitizer shortage and make bottles that were superior to “products now on the market.” New York made so much of the “NYS Clean” hand sanitizer — a whopping 11 million bottles, to be exact — that it still doesn’t know how to get rid of it, Joseph Spector writes. On a former airport runway in Central New York sit 706,172 gallons of NYS Clean, in an array of bottle sizes, on 4,000 pallets that stretch the length of three football fields — out in the open, covered in tarps and likely never to be used, much of it already expired. It will likely cost New York millions of dollars to dispose of it, possibly shipped out of state in hundreds of trucks to be incinerated, according to environmental experts and officials familiar with the process. “There is a way to properly dispose of it,” said Diana Aga, the director of the RENEW Institute at the University of Buffalo, which studies environmental issues. “The issue here is the volume.” Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter Chris Suellentrop @suellentrop Tyler Weyant @tweyant Myah Ward @myahward   FOLLOW US

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RSN: FOCUS | David Sirota: Progressives Win Key Primary Races Despite Millions Spent to Back Corporate Democrats

 

18 May 22

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FOCUS | David Sirota: Progressives Win Key Primary Races Despite Millions Spent to Back Corporate Democrats
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Excerpt: "Progressives won in some primary elections despite opposition from within the Democratic Party, as well as deep-pocketed outside groups."

We look at Tuesday’s primary elections across five states, which could set the tone for this year’s midterm elections in November. Progressives won in some primary elections despite opposition from within the Democratic Party, as well as deep-pocketed outside groups. “What you’ve seen is a surprising backlash at the voter level to all of the money that flooded in,” says investigative journalist David Sirota of The Lever. “It’s been a pretty good night for progressive candidates, despite all that money.”

Voters went to the polls in Tuesday’s primary elections in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Oregon, North Carolina and Idaho. In Pennsylvania, state Senator Doug Mastriano won the Republican gubernatorial primary. Mastriano is a far-right politician who backed the overturning of the 2020 presidential election and funded charter buses to take supporters to Washington on January 6th ahead of the insurrection.

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania’s closely watched Republican Senate primary is too close to call. Television doctor Mehmet Oz, who is backed by Donald Trump, has a narrow lead over hedge fund executive Dave McCormick, though he is expected to make up a lot of the difference with mail-in votes. The winner will face Democrat John Fetterman, who defeated Congressmember Conor Lamb even though Lamb was endorse by much of Pennsylvania’s Democratic establishment. Fetterman, who’s Pennsylvania’s current lieutenant governor, had to miss his victory party Tuesday night. He suffered a stroke on Friday and spent Primary Day in a hospital, where he had a pacemaker implanted.

In other races, the progressive candidate Summer Lee has declared victory over Steve Irwin in a closely watched congressional race in Pennsylvania, but the race hasn’t been called yet. Irwin received major funding from AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and the Democratic Majority for Israel. She addressed supporters last night.

REP. SUMMER LEE: We showed them throughout this race that when we build coalitions, that when we cross all over the county, when we cross and build a multiracial, multigenerational movement of people of all religions and all genders and all races, all ages, that when we come together, we can’t be stopped!

AMY GOODMAN: In North Carolina, the Trump-backed Republican Congressmember Madison Cawthorn lost the primary Tuesday. The 26-year-old was seen as a rising star in the Republican Party, but his campaign faltered after a slew of scandals, including allegations of insider trading. Also in North Carolina, Trump-endorsed Ted Budd beat incumbent and former Governor Pat McCrory.

Meanwhile, in Idaho, Trump-endorsed Lieutenant Governor Janice McGeachin lost her primary to incumbent Governor Brad Little.

And in Kentucky, Charles Booker has won the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, becoming the first Black candidate in Kentucky to win a major party nomination for the U.S. Senate. He’ll face Republican Senator Rand Paul in November.

For more, we’re joined by two guests. We’ll begin with David Sirota, investigative journalist, founder of the news website The Lever, editor-at-large for Jacobin and former adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders during his presidential campaign. In a few minutes, we’ll turn also to Nina Turner, who earlier this month lost her Ohio congressional primary after facing massive spending and attacks by super PACs.

David, let’s begin with you. You have a piece headlined “They Are Not Even Pretending Anymore: Democratic leaders are joining with oligarchs to try to permanently destroy the progressive movement.” But why don’t we go through the states and the primaries that you feel are most significant right now?

DAVID SIROTA: Sure. I mean, I think — look, I think the leadership and the super PACs that you mentioned really did make an effort to rig these primaries, many of which you’ve reviewed the results on, to rig them in a way to preference corporate candidates. There was a lot, millions of dollars, that flooded into the key races in Oregon and Pennsylvania and North Carolina to try to preference the conservative candidates over the progressive candidates in those races.

And there’s some good news this morning, as you mentioned, which is that many of the progressive candidates seemed to — at least right now seemed to have overcome that effort to defeat them. Summer Lee, a great example, huge amount of money spent by AIPAC and the DMFI super PAC to try to preference Steve Irwin, a guy who had been a corporate lawyer running union avoidance at a corporate law firm, trying to preference him over state Representative Summer Lee. It looks like, if the results hold, that she will win that race.

In Oregon, two congressional races out there, Kurt Schrader, the incumbent Democrat, he had cast a key vote to kill President Biden and Democrats’ drug pricing legislation. He was very tight with the pharmaceutical industry. A pharmaceutical front group put a lot of money into that race to try to preference him in that race. President Joe Biden endorsed Schrader despite Schrader playing that pivotal role trying to stop Biden’s own purported agenda. It looks like his opponent is going to defeat him in that race. Also in Oregon, a crypto billionaire, one of Joe Biden’s biggest donors, put a ton of money into a separate race for a relatively unknown candidate, and a state representative, Andrea Salinas, ended up winning that race.

So I think that one of the takeaways — and then you add in, of course, the Fetterman race, where he won that primary in Pennsylvania for Senate. Taken together, I think what you’ve seen is a surprising backlash, at the voter level, to all of the money that flooded in. And it’s been a pretty good night for progressive candidates, despite all that money.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, David, could you talk a little more about Pennsylvania? Obviously, it’s always a critical state. Talk about the lieutenant governor, John Fetterman, the front-runner in the Pennsylvania race. What is a little of Fetterman’s history, if you can, as well as of the Republican candidates in that race?

DAVID SIROTA: Sure. Look, Fetterman is a guy who had run for Senate before. He actually ran in a primary to defeat an incumbent and win the lieutenant governor slot a few years back. He is a progressive candidate. He has run as kind of an anti-establishment candidate. And I should have mentioned before, a couple of these candidates portrayed themselves on the campaign trail as kind of the opposite of Joe Manchin. That includes John Fetterman. So, John Fetterman running as the opposite of Joe Manchin in a state that neighbors West Virginia and then winning that contested primary, again, I think that’s a huge thing in that race.

And Fetterman won in a race where there were many candidates. And one candidate, Conor Lamb, the incumbent congressman, had gotten backing from a lot of the state’s political — Democratic political machinery, had a super PAC come in for him, a super PAC that The Lever reported had links to the health insurance industry. And Fetterman ended up nonetheless winning that primary. And so, again, I think that’s a very, very big success for the progressive movement. Fetterman is organized and sort of seen as the progressive candidate. Him being able to win such a high-profile primary, I think, again, against the establishment, that is a significant blow to the Democratic establishment.

AMY GOODMAN: Even as he had a stroke and had a —

DAVID SIROTA: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: — pacemaker put in on Election Day.

DAVID SIROTA: Yes, absolutely. And I think that’s to his credit, in the sense of how much organizing and how much grassroots support that he had. And I should add, he made the case throughout the state that the Democrats keep putting up effectively centrist candidates — quote-unquote, “centrists” — corporate-aligned candidates, who have trouble winning working-class voters. So Fetterman, it seems, is making an argument that Democrats have to win back the working class, and the way to do it is to make more progressive populist arguments.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And the Republicans in that race? Dr. Oz seems to have a slight — a tiny lead right now in that race?

DAVID SIROTA: That’s right. We don’t know who the nominee is going to be. It’s Dr. Oz versus another candidate who comes from Wall Street, are kind of neck and neck in that race. Look, I think Dave McCormick, the other candidate, if he wins, he could end up being a tougher general election nominee, in the sense that he could portray himself kind of as a Glenn Youngkin-like candidate — that candidate, who is now the governor of Virginia, who had sort of one foot in the Trump movement and then one foot in the business community. So, I think Oz potentially is a weaker candidate in the general election, but we don’t know who’s going to be there.

Of course, you mentioned the Mastriano race, in the governor’s race. That’s also a hugely important race nationally and in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is a purple state, a swing state, but there’s been such gerrymandering in that state that there’s a Republican Legislature. If the state — and Doug Mastriano is a far-right Republican gubernatorial nominee going up against Josh Shapiro, the Democratic nominee, a guy who I grew up with. I happen to know Josh Schapiro for 40 years, grew up in my town, who is a progressive candidate who has gone up against Trump election deniers, has prosecuted a student debt company, a major pipeline company. If Mastriano wins that race, the Republican Legislature could very quickly end abortion rights at the state level in that state. And as you alluded to, Mastriano and the Republican Legislature could also send Republican electors in the 2024 presidential campaign, despite what voters in Pennsylvania decide in that campaign. So that gubernatorial race, I would argue, is one of the most important races in the entire country.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And I wanted to ask you about something that was not on the ballot yesterday but will be very important come November, is what’s the redistricting in New York state. The Democrats there attempted to basically politically gerrymander the state to counter what Republicans have been doing in other states. That was thrown out by the courts. And now the imposed redistricting lines have pitted a whole bunch of veteran Democrats in very tough situations. Jerry Nadler has now been put into a district with Carolyn Maloney. They’re going to have to fight each other. You have veterans like Hakeem Jeffries, who’s considered a potential speaker of the House, and Nydia Velázquez being redrawn out of their own districts, that they’re no longer living in the districts that they represent. Could you talk about whether this attempt by the Democrats in New York has essentially backfired on them?

DAVID SIROTA: Yeah, I mean, it sure looks like that. It looks like a situation where Republicans could actually make gains in New York. And if you believe the polls at the top, at the top of the ticket, Joe Biden’s approval ratings, I think Democrats are facing headwinds. So you’ve got a situation in New York where Democrats could have maximized their representation, and because of this court process, you have a situation where Republicans are going to have a lot more — potentially a lot more competitive races to run in, in a year when Joe Biden may pull down parts of the ticket. So you may have a situation where a reliably blue state is actually producing more Republicans for the House of Representatives, which could prove decisive to the midterm elections in terms of the House majority.

AMY GOODMAN: This issue, of course, of redistricting is very important all over the country. We’re speaking to David Sirota, investigative journalist, founder of the news website The Lever, editor-at-large for Jacobin and a former adviser for Bernie Sanders during his presidential campaign. He wrote a piece this week headlined “They Are Not Even Pretending Anymore: Democratic leaders are joining with oligarchs to try to permanently destroy the progressive movement.”

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Buffalo and 'replacement theory'

This past Saturday, a white man walked into a grocery store in Buffalo, New York — with an assault rifle and body armor — and shot 13 people, killing 10 of them.

The man openly espoused the racist myth that white people are being “replaced” by people of color.

And he specifically targeted Black people in a Black neighborhood for his murderous rampage.

Our hearts are broken, and we are grieving for the victims’ families and the people of Buffalo.

Sociologists have definitively shown that mass shootings are social acts. They even consider them “contagious” — with each massacre making another more likely.

In fact, mass shootings in the United States are about six times more likely now than they were in the 1970s. They have been happening even more frequently over the past five years.

It is very difficult to conclude anything other than this:

Racist, hateful, and violence-normalizing speech from leading political and cultural figures has contributed to the rise in mass shootings — especially those where Black people, other people of color, immigrants, Jews, and Muslims are targeted.

• That includes the noxious “replacement theory” that motivated the Buffalo shooter and other recent perpetrators of racist violence.

• As The New York Times reports, this once-fringe myth “has become an engine of racist terror, helping inspire a wave of mass shootings in recent years and fueling the 2017 right-wing rally in Charlottesville, Va., that erupted in violence.”

• The notion that white people are being “replaced” is aggressively promoted by Fox News — in particular on Tucker Carlson Tonight, the most-watched cable “news” program in America.

• The ideas and terminology of “replacement theory” are also being expressed more and more by leading Republican politicians.

This is all frightening and sickening stuff — and we have to be honest about what we’re dealing with.

On the one hand, it taps into deep reservoirs of racism, bigotry, and xenophobia that course through American history.

On the other hand, it is a product of this moment, of Fox News, Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump, and more.

Neither racialized violence nor mass shootings can be “fixed” with a single executive order or legislative act (though we need many of those).

As part of the process to direct our country away from this horror, each of us must consistently reject hateful discourse and demonstrate instead our commitment to equality and decency, love and solidarity.

Add your name if you agree:

Multiracial democracy is an ideal worth fighting for, even if it remains a work in progress. Politicians and talking heads who seek to double down on our nation’s history as a white supremacist patriarchy must be condemned, confronted, and defeated. There is no other way to achieve real, lasting justice and equality.

In peace,

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen
 
 

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