42.3% to 42.3%

 

You have to see this. A brand new public poll shows our race in an EXACT TIE.

August 18 NC-Sen Poll
Cheri Beasley: 42.3%
Ted Budd: 42.3%

This race is in a dead heat, and we have to make sure we have the resources to win.

Cheri needs you today: Please donate $5 or whatever you can to flip this seat and expand the Senate majority.

Despite over $8 million in outside spending against us, our race is tied. Cheri is fighting for every single vote in every single county – no matter how small. And it’s working.

Republican super PACs are going to dump in tens of millions against us to try to buy this seat, but we’ve proven that they should not underestimate Cheri Beasley.

We have what it takes to go toe-to-toe with an ultra-conservative insider and his corporate special interests and WIN. But only if we do this together.

Can you please make a $5 donation to make sure we have the resources necessary to flip this seat? We only ask because your support is so important.

Let’s do this!!

- Team Beasley

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TED BUDD IS RUNNING FOR SENATE IN NORTH CAROLINA 
HIS OPPONENT IS CHERI BEASLEY - MAYBE A BETTER CHOICE 

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As Bitcoin Crashes 34 Percent in a Week, U.S. Congressman Ted Budd Pushes Bank Regulator to Approve More Crypto National Bank Charters

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 20, 2021 ~

Congressman Ted Budd of North Carolina

Yesterday, Bitcoin put on a display that should put to rest any lingering doubts that it is a stable currency that could be used to pay for products or services. The current month Bitcoin futures contract at the CME swung between a low of $30,250 to a high of $43,530 – a difference of $13,280 in one trading session. From its intraday high of $58,140 on Wednesday, May 12, to its close one week later on Wednesday, May 19, Bitcoin had lost 34 percent of its value.

As we explained here at Wall Street On Parade on May 12, some of the smartest minds in the investment community think Bitcoin is very bad for America. One of the most iconic investors in America, Warren Buffet, stated in May 2018 that Bitcoin is “probably rat poison squared.” In January of the same year, Buffet told CNBC in an interview that “In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending.”

Also in 2018, Bill Harris, the former CEO of Intuit and PayPal, wrote a detailed critique of Bitcoin for Vox, under the headline: “Bitcoin is the greatest scam in history.”

In July 2019, NYU Professor and economist Nouriel Roubini offered this analysis of Bitcoin and crypto in a Bloomberg News interview: “It is not a means of payment, nobody, not even this blockchain conference, accepts Bitcoin for paying for conference fees cause you can do only five transactions per second with Bitcoin. With the Visa system you can do 25,000 transactions per second…Crypto’s nonsense. It’s a failure. Nobody’s using it for any transactions. It’s trading one sh*tcoin for another sh*tcoin. That’s the entire trading or currency in the space where’s there’s price manipulation, spoofing, wash trading, pump and dumping, frontrunning. It’s just a big criminal scam and nothing else.”

None of that sound logic seems to have found its way to the office of Congressman Ted Budd, who represents North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District.

At a House Financial Services Committee hearing yesterday, called to take testimony from and question banking regulators, Budd sounded like a lobbyist for the crypto industry. The exchange went as follows with the newly appointed acting head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Michael Hsu:

Budd: “Comptroller Hsu, the OCC has received a number of applications from crypto trust banks, and after conditionally approving three – I believe it’s three, you can correct me on that if it’s a different number – I think they were Anchorage, Protego, and Paxos. So what is the timetable for approving the remaining charters that are out there?”

Hsu: “I don’t know the timetable right now. It’s under review. It’s under discussion. I just got here. This is my tenth day I believe. We’ve got this in the pipeline to look at. We’re not going to drag it out. That I can tell you…”

Budd: “Love to stay in touch with you on that…”

Budd also specifically asked about Figure Technologies and its request for a bank charter. Sounding like one of Figure’s inhouse attorneys, Budd said that since Figure plans to take deposits there should be no issue with the litigation issue over non-depository bank charters. Budd asked Hsu: “Do you know if that application is on course?”

Hsu said Figure was part of the applications that are under review. (You can watch the segment of Budd posturing for the crypto banks at yesterday’s House hearing in the video below.)

In January, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors filed a lawsuit in federal district court to block the OCC from granting a national bank charter to Figure Technologies.

Budd next turned his attention to Randal Quarles, the Vice Chair for Supervision at the Federal Reserve. Budd wanted to know if the Fed was going to deny the crypto banks that don’t take deposits access to its payment system. Budd asked what the basis for that would be.

Quarles said the issue has been put out for public comment.

Budd’s home district in North Carolina is located more than 500 miles from Wall Street and yet, for some reason, six of the largest Wall Street banks rank within the top 50 donors to his 2019-2020 campaign according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Those banks include: Bank of America Merrill Lynch, $16,250; UBS Americas, $15,000; Wells Fargo, $10,250; Goldman Sachs, $10,000; Morgan Stanley, $10,000; Citigroup, $9,500; and Bank of New York Mellon, $9,000. (The money does not come from the bank itself but from its employees or their family members and/or its Political Action Committee.)

On April 28, Budd announced his candidacy for the 2022 Senate election in North Carolina to replace retiring Senator Richard Burr. That campaign is going to cost big bucks and Budd apparently feels being a proponent of crypto trading and crypto banks is a good position to stake out.

Budd also tends to stick with the hard right within the Republican party. He was among the 147 Republican lawmakers who objected to the certification of electoral votes from the 2020 presidential election after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

As U.S. regulators delicately straddle the fence on crypto matters out of fear of upsetting the hard right among Republican lawmakers, China has shown actual guts in dealing with the issue. On Tuesday, the People’s Bank of China released a statement that reiterated that cryptocurrencies can’t be used as a form of payment because they are not real currencies.

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The Latest: Greg Casar is disrupting the narrative

A better world is possible, if we fight for it. If we organize for it. That’s why I’m running for Congress. To stop the attacks on Texans’ basic rights. To win Medicare For All, good jobs, affordable housing, and a strong democracy. This is our fight, our future.

Our Fight. Our Future. | Greg Casar for Congress Launch Video

Did you see the latest profile on Greg from Al Día?   The right-wing wants you to believe that Republican Latino candidates are ready to turn Latino areas in Texas red — but Greg is disproving that narrative, winning as a progressive Latino in a Latino-majority district.  We’re building the progressive movement in Texas – one that energizes Latino voters – that will benefit generations to come. Will you chip in $3, $5, or $10 to help us continue this vital work? CHIP IN NOW Latino voters want to see results. Greg Casar is proof that progressive power can not only win, but win big. Here’s how Greg inspires Latino voters, from Al Día:   1. When it comes to policy, Greg gets results.   From authoring historic paid-sick-days laws, to raising wages for Austin's lowest-paid employees, to leading the largest affordable housing elections in Texas history — voters know Greg is someone who delivers.   2. Greg is not afraid to fight for everyone, Black, White, and Brown.   Not the typical politician to hide behind a desk or his Twitter profile, Greg has inspired voters by delivering food, water, and blankets during the Texas electrical grid failure. He was arrested protecting immigrant families from Gov. Abbott. We inspire voters when we show we’ll fight for them.    3. Texans believe in Greg Casar, because he believes in them.   It’s easy to write off southern states as a lost cause when it comes to progress, but the reality is that hard-working activists, movement leaders, and dedicated community members are working every day to fight for a more equitable, inclusive Texas — and Greg is bringing that spirit to Congress. To quote Greg: “Texas is not a red state. It’s an unorganized state.”     We’re organizing Latino voters across TX-35, from East Austin to downtown San Antonio, and are ready to deliver for all working families. Will you chip in $5 to help us continue to organize Texas voters to drive historic turnout on November 8?    In this together, Laura Laura Hernandez Holmes Campaign Manager Greg Casar for Congress  P.S. You can read the full Al Día profile of Greg here.

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2 points separate us from losing fair elections and abortion rights

 

As soon as I saw that Wednesday's Marquette University Law School Poll showed Tony neck and neck with Trump-backed extremist Tim Michels, I knew it was time to mobilize. As Tony's Finance Director, it's my job to ensure he's ready to fight back against big money attacks that distort his record. Tim Michels has already spent $12 million of his own money to beat Tony, and this poll result will encourage him and Donald Trump to spend more and attack even harder. That's why I need your help. We need to raise another $64,100 before our midnight rapid response deadline on Sunday. Can I count on you to rush a donation? Onward, Haley   Support Tony Paid for by Tony for Wisconsin.

RSN: FOCUS | Bernie to Bolsonaro: Stop Undermining Democracy

 

 

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FOCUS | Bernie to Bolsonaro: Stop Undermining Democracy
Andre Pagliarini, Jacobin
Pagliarini writes: "With the leftist Lula set to win Brazil's presidency, far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro is sowing doubts about the election process. So now, Bernie Sanders is putting Bolsonaro on notice and insisting the US oppose any government that takes power illegitimately."

With the leftist Lula set to win Brazil’s presidency, far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro is sowing doubts about the election process. So now, Bernie Sanders is putting Bolsonaro on notice and insisting the US oppose any government that takes power illegitimately.

On November 8, 2019, former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was released from prison after serving over five hundred days on dubious corruption charges that have since been dropped. Lula’s imprisonment had galvanized much of the international left, including many of its most recognizable figures. Jeremy Corbyn, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Noam Chomsky, Argentine president Alberto Fernández all expressed enthusiastic support for Lula during his incarceration. His most vocal supporter in the US government during that dark time was, perhaps unsurprisingly, Senator Bernie Sanders.

Sanders has long championed the kind of working-class political project that Lula led for decades as the national face of the Workers’ Party (PT), which governed Brazil from 2003 until 2016. “During his presidency,” Bernie tweeted upon Lula’s release from prison, “Lula da Silva oversaw huge reductions in poverty and remains Brazil’s most popular politician. I stand with political and social leaders across the globe who are calling on Brazil’s judiciary to release Lula and annul his conviction.”

In a remarkable political turnaround, Lula now seems poised to win the presidential election this October, besting the far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in every poll taken this year. And once again, Sanders is lending his voice to a growing chorus of observers in Brazil and abroad concerned about the fate of Brazilian democracy.

Bolsonaro has been all but announcing his intentions to subvert Brazilian democracy for months. In addition to calling for a greater military role in the vote-counting process, he has openly debased his country’s electoral institutions in the hopes of throwing a race that does not currently favor him into disarray. On July 18, he convened foreign diplomats stationed in Brazil and expounded on absurd and already debunked conspiracy theories about vulnerabilities in Brazil’s voting system. Thanks to Bolsonaro, in Brazil, like the United States, the idea that the voting system is routinely manipulated by corrupt officials and unscrupulous partisans has become a delusion of the right-wing hive mind. This cynical strategy has produced actual violence and could well lead to more.

Last month, Sanders and key staffers met with a delegation of Brazilian activists who urged Congress to pay attention to Bolsonaro’s actions and the presidential campaign in the world’s fourth-largest democracy. The visit was organized by the Washington Brazil Office (WBO), a new progressive think tank. (Full disclosure: I am a faculty fellow of the WBO and coeditor of its weekly election newsletter.)

Sanders has since said he will present a “Sense of the Senate” resolution after Congress is back in session next month to demonstrate “support for a free and fair election and call on the U.S. to break ties with Brazil if it’s led by an illegitimate regime.” The visiting activists, who work in areas like environmental protection, LGBTQ rights, indigenous resistance, and racial justice, also met with Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin, a vocal opponent of the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.

Predictably, Bolsonaro supporters are decrying the WBO as a puppet of George Soros and — even more cynically given the US history of backing right-wing coups in the region — a fresh attempt at election manipulation by Washington. Still, Sanders seems to recognize the delicate nature of a US politician commenting on an election abroad. Asked why he is pushing “a non-binding resolution when he could put forward a bill with more teeth,” as Politico put it, Sanders replied that “this is a start . . . it’s important for the people of Brazil to know we’re on their side, on the side of democracy and we can go further.” The senator is surely wary of playing into Bolsonaro’s self-victimizing narrative that he is being targeted by a nefarious cabal of international leftists.

But solidarity is not imperialism — it is its antithesis. “It would be unacceptable for the United States to recognize and work with a government that actually lost the election,” Bernie argued after the meeting organized by the WBO. “It would be a disaster for the people of Brazil, and it would send a horrific message to the entire world about the strength of democracy.” With Lula comfortably ahead in the polls, there is little ambiguity in what Bernie is saying: the former president — who left office in 2011 with an approval rating in the eighties — should be allowed take power if so elected.

In a pleasant surprise, the Biden administration appears to be on the same page. In May, Reuters reported that CIA director William Burns explicitly urged top Brazilian officials to stop questioning their country’s ability to carry out a free and fair election. That the CIA would apparently weigh in on the side of democracy struck many as a welcome shift from its long history of supporting right-wing autocrats around the world. Others found the news either unconvincing, self-serving, or ridiculous.

The point, however, is not that the CIA are suddenly “the good guys,” as some skeptical commentators put it disbelievingly. It’s that the CIA — and, by extension, the Washington establishment — currently sees no benefit to its interests in President Jair Bolsonaro’s antidemocratic meddling. That’s objectively good news not only for the Brazilian left, but the vitality of Brazilian democracy.

There is a broad front emerging against Bolsonaro, both in Brazil and internationally, and it will have to continue from now, during the campaign, through Brazil’s inauguration day on January 1, 2023. Sanders, a lifelong champion of progressive and left-wing causes abroad, is a natural partner in this struggle. His forthcoming resolution is a welcome reminder that these bonds of solidarity must be built and maintained in union halls, international left organizations, and yes, even the corridors of power in Washington.

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I'm ready to defeat Ron Johnson. Are you with me?

When I decided to run for U.S. Senate, I knew that my path here would be different than most. I don't come from a wealthy family. I didn't enter this race with a bunch of wealthy donors lining up to write big checks to this campaign. My mom was a public school teacher and my dad built catalytic converters at the General Motors plant. Those jobs were our family's ticket to the middle class. Ever since I was a little kid, my parents taught me never to settle for what is, but to reach for what can be. It was how I graduated high school at the age of 16 and went on to be elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly when I was 25. Then, after careful thought and consideration, I decided to get in this race to defeat Ron Johnson. It was a big decision. I knew that this was going to be one of the most competitive U.S. Senate races in the entire country. And it is a race that we must win if we're going to defend the Democratic Senate majority. But I was willing to bet that if I decided to run, people would come together in large numbers to be a part of this campaign. Because the truth is that no single person can flip Wisconsin's Senate seat alone. It will only happen if we're in this together. So today, I need your help to reach the goals we've set for our campaign. These goals are not arbitrary. They're what we need to raise to flip Wisconsin's Senate seat for Democrats. So I am asking: Can you please split a $15 contribution between my campaign for U.S. Senate and the Democratic Party of Georgia today? Any amount you can give will fund the crucial investments we need to make to win this race, hold Georgia, and expand our Senate majority. Every donation will help put us in a position to flip this seat. Thank you for chipping in today, if you can afford it. All my best, Mandela       Paid for by the Democratic Party of Georgia. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. www.georgiademocrat.org   Democratic Party of Georgia P.O. BOX 89202 Atlanta, GA 30312 United States

 

EXCLUSIVE NEW BERNIE STICKER

 

Bernie never gives up, and neither do we. After fighting to make the Inflation Reduction Act more progressive and offering a series of amendments voted down by corporate Dems, a photographer snapped an iconic shot of Bernie resting on the Senate stairs. Bernie’s frustration with corporate lobbyists killing his popular proposals is so relatable, but we also share his perseverance. That’s why we commissioned an exclusive new vinyl sticker of Bernie on the stairs to remind us that despair is not an option. Chip in $10 or more now, and we’ll send you one of these exclusive “Bernie on the stairs” stickers! Get Your Sticker As Senate Budget Chairman, Bernie has aggressively pursued a progressive policy agenda that directly helps working people - and we are shifting the window of what’s possible. While corporate Dems were able to weaken the bill, it still passed, and if Bernie hadn’t fought so hard it would have been much weaker or not happened at all. Click here to stand with Bernie against corporate Dems and extreme Republicans by chipping in $10 or more to claim your very own “Bernie on the stairs” sticker→ In solidarity, Our Revolution

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POLITICO NIGHTLY: Biden’s looming student loan crunch

 

View in browser   BY MYAH WARD ROCK AND A HARD PLACE — President Joe Biden has just 12 days to meet his self-imposed Aug. 31 deadline to decide whether he’ll use executive action to forgive thousands of dollars in student loans for millions of Americans. The timing matters here: The president’s long-delayed decision is now set to arrive around Labor Day, traditionally the start of the fall campaign. For months, Democrats have nudged Biden to announce loan forgiveness — and fast — with the hope this could give the party a much-needed enthusiasm boost among young voters in the midterm elections. While Biden is expected to extend the payment pause , the White House has offered few hints about what the president will do on loan forgiveness. Biden has been slow to embrace the expensive and, depending on who you ask, controversial, move to cancel any amount of student debt. When Nightly asked about Biden’s upcoming decision, the White House responded with an answer from press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s Aug. 9 briefing, in which she said the president would have a decision by the end of the month. “When it comes to the cancellation — look, I just said the president understands firsthand the burden — the burden that a student loan has on families, it puts on families. And we’re just going to continue to assess our options for cancellations. So, no decisions have been made on that,” she said. It won’t be as simple as deciding if $10,000 — the baseline amount the administration has been eying — is the right amount to forgive. Biden will also have to decide if he’d like to target this relief to certain borrowers, such as those earning less than $125,000. Progressives are calling for universal forgiveness — though the president has indicated his preference for limits on who receives the relief. Whatever he decides, Biden is bound to spark a noisy debate. “The one thing this discussion doesn’t lack is people with an opinion,” Jonathan Fansmith, director of government relations at the American Council on Education, which represents 1,700 colleges and universities, told Nightly. Loan forgiveness will fuel GOP talking points about big government spending, with a populist dimension. As Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell’s office framed it: “Democrats Want Working Families to Eat Elites’ Grad School Debt.” On the campaign trail, Republicans like Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance has carried a similar tune, calling loan cancellation a “massive windfall to the rich, to the college educated, and most of all to the corrupt university administrators of America.” The University of Michigan. | Bill Pugliano/Getty Images Many Democrats are also bound to be frustrated. Progressives have called on Biden to go big or go home, and cancel up to $50,000 for student loan borrowers with no income caps. As Fansmith put it, the party’s left wing may dismiss a smaller figure than that as a “half-gesture.” Then you have the school of moderate Democrats — some shudder at the prospect of just $10,000. Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, in a floor speech this summer, slammed the notion that loan forgiveness will do anything to “address the absurd cost of college or fix our broken student loan program.” Bennet backs loan forgiveness only if it’s tied to other reforms to fix the lending system. His address tapped into another critique of loan forgiveness — the price tag of the plan. At an estimated $230 billion if Biden moves forward with the $10,000 income-based plan, Bennet argued that this money could accomplish other policy priorities such as a two-year extension of the child tax credit. Among the general electorate, a majority of Americans — 55 percent — generally support a move to forgive up to $10,000 of a person’s student loan debt. But this support narrows as that dollar figure rises, an NPR/Ipsos poll found in June. And Americans, at a whopping 82 percent, would rather the government focus on making college more affordable, while just 16 percent said forgiving debt should take priority. The division is clearer along partisan lines. An Economist/YouGov poll from July showed that just 28 percent of Republicans support forgiveness, compared to an overwhelming 70 percent of Democrats. Fansmith notes that Biden could avoid the fraught middle ground by going all in or all out. The president could move forward with universal forgiveness and please a larger group of Democrats, or he could announce he’s decided against loan relief all together — acknowledging the reality that debt forgiveness is really just “a band aid on a gunshot wound” when it comes to the underlying problems driving the student debt crisis. “Middle ground usually leaves most people dissatisfied,” Fansmith said. “That’s what they say — the mark of a good compromise is that everybody’s a little unhappy. Well, that might be good for a compromise, but it’s not good for political outcomes.” 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 @MyahWard.   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.     WHAT'D I MISS? — Judge: Prosecutors cannot enforce Michigan’s abortion ban: A Michigan judge today blocked county prosecutors from enforcing the state’s 1931 ban on abortion for the foreseeable future after two days of witness testimony from abortion experts, providers and the state’s chief medical officer. The ruling comes after the state Court of Appeals said earlier this month that county prosecutors were not covered by a May order and could enforce the prohibition following the fall of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court. David Kallman, an attorney representing two Republican county prosecutors, said an appeal is planned. Gov. Gavin Newsom. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images — California voters want Biden to step aside — and see Newsom as a top contender to succeed him: Californians overwhelmingly do not want Biden to seek another term and see Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom as a prime contender to succeed him, according to a new poll. A new Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll of California voters underscored the peril for Biden and potential for Newsom. A resounding 61 percent of voters surveyed online Aug. 9-15 said Biden should not run in 2024, including about half of Democratic voters and most independents. Newsom and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — who finished first in the 2020 California primary — were tied as Democratic and independent voters’ top choice to replace Biden, followed by Vice President Kamala Harris. — Appeals court backs ruling to release DOJ memo on Trump prosecution: A federal appeals court ruled today that the Justice Department must make public an internal memo senior lawyers there prepared in 2019 about whether then-President Donald Trump’s actions investigated in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of ties between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia amounted to crimes prosecutors would ordinarily charge. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Justice Department failed to meet its legal burden to show that the memo from the department’s Office of Legal Counsel was part of a genuine deliberative process advising then-Attorney General William Barr on how to handle sensitive issues left unresolved when Mueller’s probe concluded in March 2019. — Louisiana officials stall New Orleans flood funds over abortion: A Louisiana commission is withholding approval of New Orleans flood control funds over city officials’ opposition to the state’s strict abortion ban. The Louisiana State Bond Commission has twice voted to delay approval of a future $39 million line of credit for a power station to run New Orleans drainage pumps that would protect the city’s 384,000 residents from flooding and have been described as critical for the city’s ability to adapt to climate change. AROUND THE WORLD Liz Truss. | Christopher Furlong/Getty Images SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP — Liz Truss’ conservative allies in Washington adore her. Democrats opposed to Brexit distrust her. The Georgetown set wonders about her intellectual capacity, writes Ryan Heath and Ella Creamer. Speak to 19 people who’ve worked with Truss — as POLITICO did, from the White House and Congress to federal agencies, think tanks and the British diplomatic ranks — and you’ll hear about as many different versions of the woman poised to become Britain’s next prime minister. That represents a branding problem in Washington for Truss, who needs support from both parties to have any chance of securing a long-sought bilateral trade deal with the United States. Working most obviously in her favor is simply that she is not Boris Johnson. The White House shed few tears over the political undoing of the outgoing prime minister. But that doesn’t mean Truss will be embraced. While close advisers prefer to call her “values-driven” and “pragmatic,” colleagues in London concede she can be “ideological.” One thing is certain: Britain’s chief diplomat isn’t afraid to ruffle feathers.   INTRODUCING POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don’t miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY.     NIGHTLY NUMBER $775 million The cost of the new military package the United States is sending to Ukraine . The U.S. will send a slew of weapons including new drones, armored vehicles and artillery. The shipments indicate that Washington and Kyiv expect hard fighting on the ground in the coming weeks. PARTING WORDS ASK THE ‘COUPOLOGISTS’ — More than 18 months after the events of Jan. 6, 2021, Americans are still struggling to understand what happened that day, writes Joshua Zeitz. So… was it an insurrection? A coup, albeit a failed one? A political protest gone awry? A pathetic show of white power cosplay or the portent of something darker and more dangerous in our nation’s not-distant future? The oft-repeated assertion that “this is not who we are” — that Jan. 6 was an aberration — ignores a deep tradition of antidemocratic violence that courses through the veins of American history — from the mob that killed the abolitionist newspaperman Elijah Lovejoy in 1837 to Bleeding Kansas in the 1850s, from the Civil War itself to Reconstruction and Redemption, Jim Crow and the destruction of Native American nations in the service of building homesteads for free white people in the American West. This may not be who we are, but it’s most definitely who we’ve been. So what did happen on Jan. 6? To help answer that question, POLITICO Magazine assembled a roundtable of distinguished scholars and writers — Ruth Ben-Ghiat, professor of history and Italian studies at New York University; Ryan McMaken, editor of Mises Wire and The Austrian; Scott Althaus, political science professor and director of the Cline Center for Advanced Social Research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; and Matt Cleary, associate professor of political science at Syracuse University — who specialize in the study of political instability and polarization, not just in the United States, but globally. Over the course of an hour, they came at that question from multiple disciplines, different regional and historical frameworks and diverse ideological viewpoints. Read their conversation here. Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter Charlie Mahtesian @PoliticoCharlie Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh Myah Ward @myahward Naomi Andu @naomiandu   FOLLOW US

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