Week in Review: Why Democrats Lose Even When Republicans Are So Endlessly Terrible

Saturday, November 9, 2024 ■ The Week in Review 'Ready to Fight' for Climate, Students Walk Out Over Trump "We won't stand by while Donald Trump's dangerous agenda threatens everything we believe in," said one student. By Jessica Corbett • Nov 8, 2024 Self-Styled Working Class Fighter Trump Readies Cabinet Shaped by Billionaires "Fascism backed by Big Money is one of the most dangerous of all political alliances," said former Labor Secretary Robert Reich. By Julia Conley • Nov 8, 2024 DNC Chair Jaime Harrison Calls Sanders Critique of Election Loss 'Straight Up BS' "Typically, after a major electoral defeat," said one progressive strategist, "party leaders step aside to create opportunities for fresh perspectives and voices that haven't yet had a chance to lead." By Julia Conley • Nov 7, 2024 Trump Spokesperson Affirms Day 1 Plans for Nation's 'Largest Mass Deportation Operation' "As always, we will go to court to challenge illegal policies, but it is equally essential that the public push back, as it did with family separation," one rights advocate said. By Olivia Rosane • Nov 7, 2024 Did Plutocrats Like Mark Cuban and Tony West Help Sink Harris? "We could see it happening in real-time, right after the convention, when the party consultants and the big donors got their hooks in," said one critic. "They'll be fine though." By Jessica Corbett • Nov 7, 2024 Unions Say Building Worker Power Is Only Way to Defeat Trump's Fascist Right "No one—not Donald Trump or JD Vance, nor any one CEO—can stop solidarity," said AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler. "Organized labor is the path forward." By Jake Johnson • Nov 7, 2024 Sanders Slams 'Big Money Interests' and Consultants That Control Democratic Party After Loss to Trump "While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change," said the Vermont Independent. "And they're right." By Jessica Corbett • Nov 6, 2024 Progressive Forces Vow 'Unprecedented Resistance' to Trump 2.0 "We're more prepared than ever to block the disastrous Trump policies we know are coming," said one climate group. By Julia Conley • Nov 6, 2024 Progressives Say Trump Win Spotlights Rot of Political System 'Bought and Paid for by Billionaires' "These monied interests are on the frontlines of destroying our democracy, taking away the power of voters through their unprecedented spending in elections," said the executive director of Justice Democrats. By Jake Johnson • Nov 6, 2024 Global Fears for the Future as Fascist Donald Trump Wins Second Term "The world is a more dangerous place this morning." By Jake Johnson • Nov 6, 2024

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■ Opinion We Will Need Each Other to Confront King Trump We are seeing in real time how autocracy happens, by creating hopelessness and despair among the mass of people who once might have fought back. By Will Bunch • Nov 8, 2024 Progressives Must Challenge for the Leadership of the Democratic Party—and Win We must now be ready to stand up at this challenging moment in our history, confident that our policy agenda suits the needs of 21st century America and provides a pathway out of America’s interminable political crisis. By Alan Minsky • Nov 7, 2024 Democrats Ignored Every Warning and the Results Are Catastrophic Now that a fascistic party has won the presidency along with the Senate and apparently the House as well, the stakes for people and planet are truly beyond comprehension. By Norman Solomon • Nov 7, 2024 Why Democrats Lose Even When Republicans Are So Endlessly Terrible In large part the campaign reflected the direction the Democratic Party establishment has taken, away from working class issues since the advent of neoliberal policies in the 1970s and carried out by most Democratic Party presidents since. By Chuck Idelson • Nov 7, 2024 With Trump’s 2nd Win, American Politics as We Know It Is Over It’s long been clear that this country needs a new politics. To use a shopworn phrase, let’s build back better—after this third and most devastating hurricane of the season. By John Feffer • Nov 6, 2024 Why Did the Democrats Lose? Because They Gave Up on the Working Class 40 Years Ago It really hurts to have called this one. I so wanted to be wrong. By Les Leopold • Nov 6, 2024

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Public Citizen: King Trump

 

Public Citizen

citizen.org

Today is July 4 — the day we traditionally join together as a nation to celebrate our independence from a tyrannical monarchy.

But the United States Supreme Court has now enshrined in law the very thing we fought to gain our independence from two and a half centuries ago.

As you no doubt know by now, the court has ruled that U.S. presidents are immune from prosecution for almost anything they do in office.

• That means if Donald Trump becomes president again, he could take bribes in exchange for handing out pardons.

• And, with this travesty of a Supreme Court ruling, he would face zero legal consequences.

• Donald Trump could have SEAL Team Six assassinate a political rival — or anyone else, for that matter, including you.

• And, with this travesty of a Supreme Court ruling, he would face zero legal consequences.

• Donald Trump could order a military coup so that he can remain in power.

• And, with this travesty of a Supreme Court ruling, he would face zero legal consequences.

• I am not exaggerating. Describing exactly these hypothetical actions by a future president, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissent what the result would be if anyone tried to bring criminal charges: “Immune, immune, immune.”

The Supreme Court has granted U.S. presidents the type of immunity associated with kings, not elected officials.

The choice facing each and every one of us is this:

Do we consent to be subjects of a de facto king?

Do we give in to a self-fulfilling prophecy of despair?

Or do we stand for what we know to be right, even if the fight just got even harder?

I know what the answer is for Public Citizen.

We stand and fight.

We organize day after day after day.

We mobilize with everything we’ve got.

We campaign with the same force and resolve that has kept us powering forward — and winning, even when the chances of success seemed infinitesimal — for over 50 years.

We rise up together.

And we do not, do not, do not give up.

Are you with us?

Please donate today to help Public Citizen keep fighting.

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If donating today is not a good fit, that’s okay. Either way, thank you for being part of this shared project called Public Citizen.

For democracy, justice, and progress,

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen
 
 

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RSN: FOCUS: Neal K. Katyal | It's the Worst Possible Time for Trump to Make False Claims of Authority

15 April 20

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FOCUS: Neal K. Katyal | It's the Worst Possible Time for Trump to Make False Claims of Authority

Neal K. Katyal, The New York Times
Excerpt: "He does not have 'total' authority over states."

teach my law students that every so often in the law, the best way to understand the veracity of a claim is just to say it out loud. They got a great example of this on Monday when President Trump made a contribution to the legal lexicon: “When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total. And that’s the way it’s got to be. It’s total.”

In terms that would even have made President Richard Nixon blush, our commander-in-chief sounded more like the leader of some tinpot dictatorship than of the United States.

Our Constitution was designed to reject such arrogation of power. Separation of powers and federalism aren’t fusty concepts designed to please rebellious aristocrats; they are the living embodiment of our founders’ desire to divide and check power — not vest “total” “authority” in one person, no matter how wise that person may be.

EXCERPT:

It is true that the Constitution and laws give presidents enormous powers in defense and foreign policy as well as in emergencies. Indeed, one other thing I tell my students is that if you are the president in a time of emergency, it takes real effort to make a claim so outlandish that it can’t be supported. But Mr. Trump managed to do exactly that. The 10th Amendment could not be clearer in forming the flip side to the Declaration’s grievance against King George III: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” And the health authorities at issue in the response to the coronavirus crisis are the ones at the heart of state governments — what scholars have called “the police power” for decades.

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