Josh Marshall
Bob Dylan turns 80 today.
If you’re inclined to celebrate here’s a series of interviews from 1971 never published until last year. The interviews were conducted by Dylan’s friend Tony Glover, an accomplished musician and author in his own right. The two met when they were both kids playing in the Minneapolis music scene before Dylan left for New York City. Then Glover was the bigger deal. That was the start of a lifelong friendship. And the origin of the relationship makes these interviews much more expansive and open than Dylan’s frequently evasive and secretive way of approaching interviews.
Political violence is always anathema to democracy. This is the case not least because what we think of as civic democracy requires high-trust environments over high-fear environments. The latter make civic life brittle and tenuous. But what is really lethal to democracy is less acts of terroristic, high profile violence (say an Oklahoma City bombing) but when violence and the threat of violence begin to seep into the ordinary process of governmental decision-making. And of late I’ve seen smatterings of examples of this from around the country. The numbers are very, very small – at least the ones I’ve seen. So I don’t know whether I’m simply seeing them more, or whether they are just the knock-on effects of the massive disruptions of COVID or something more persistent and grave.
For a few decades New York City had mayor’s races between representatives of the city’s Democratic establishment and silent majority type Republicans who presented themselves as hedges against the city’s excesses. That role was embodied for a dozen years by Rudy Giuliani. Then it was taken over in a considerably more muted form by Michael Bloomberg. After the transition from Michael Bloomberg to Bill deBlasio that all kind of ended. Republicans have scarcely even registered in the last two elections and there’s little sign they will in 2021.
And yet something funny is happening in this year’s mayor’s race as candidates jockey to succeed deBlasio. The race is being dominated by one candidate running on conventional retail politics (Andrew Yang) and another on public safety (Eric Adams). They’re both in the high teens or maybe 20%. Various candidates supported by the city’s progressive movement, its leaders, influencers, etc. are simply not getting much traction.
We’ve covered an endless number of stories over the twenty year history of TPM. But if there’s one through-line, one consistent and especial focus throughout, it’s voting rights and democracy. The site started in a contested election, our big stories in 2002 were big voter suppression stories in South Dakota and New Hampshire. The US Attorney Firing scandal was in fact a voter suppression story. Firing those US Attorneys was just a step to get the suppression moving.
I’m proud to say there’s no publication in the United States that has devoted more of its resources to this issue over a longer period of time than TPM. The franchise is the central architecture of equality and the sheet anchor of the American republic. That’s always been the case. But people are especially attuned to that fact now after the shocking events of the 2020 election and the Republican party’s current effort to clamp down on voting across the country.
That’s why we’re launching The Franchise, a weekly newsletter devoted to democracy and voting rights in the United States.
There’s a rural county in California where the local militia is threatening violence if the local government doesn’t do what it’s told on COVID.
The Perps Never Support the Cops
Yesterday in a close door Senate GOP caucus meeting, Mitch McConnell announced he can’t support the Jan 6th commission deal which Kevin McCarthy’s negotiator negotiated apparently because McCarthy assumed nothing would ever come of it before it blew up in his face. According to Axios, McConnell hasn’t yet come up with any clear reasons why he opposes such a commission other than vague suggestions about its work interfering with the DOJ’s probes. The main concern is that the commission might subpoena members or “alienate members of the GOP base, as well as former President Trump.”
Earlier this week, the number two GOP Senate leader John Thune expressed support for the Commission and said he expected it to pass. Yesterday he said that after hearing that McCarthy had pulled his support he wasn’t so sure.
On a January 6th Commission, ex-President Trump tells congressional GOP leaders that “this discussion should be ended immediately.”
Just this afternoon we’ve seen two developments on a possible Jan 6th Commission. The House GOP will formally ‘whip’ the vote, i.e., they’ll use the party apparatus to get all their members to vote no. This seems more than anything to be a signal to Donald Trump from McCarthy and Scalise that they are all-in to protect him. Does anyone GOP member not know what’s expected of them from Trump, McCarthy and Scalise? Of course not.
At the same time, TPM alum Sahil Kapur reports that Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) seems to be in support of the bill. Rounds isn’t a Senate fire breather. But he’s not a Romney/Murkowski type either.
Trump’s Puppy Speaks
Kevin McCarthy’s turnabout on a Jan 6th Commission proposal that was negotiated by his chosen negotiator and, by all indications, at his direction is a good reminder – for anyone who needed reminding, and really who are you who needed reminding? – of the reality of bipartisan negotiations in the Trump era. As I noted yesterday, Rep. Katko does not appear to have been freelancing. McCarthy chose him to negotiate on his behalf. And reporting suggests Katko worked from McCarthy’s directives and kept him in the loop. But once the deal was announced McCarthy felt he needed to torpedo it.
I want to take a moment to thank all the former members who’ve rejoined over the last couple weeks. And thanks so much to those of you who’ve become members for the first time. Joining our community and supporting our team’s work is hugely important. It always has been. In many ways though it’s even more meaningful and important now. We get it. It’s been a really long five years of Trump. Trump was brutalizing for some, exhausting for many more. He made news both unwatchable but also unmissable. I long compared the experience of Trump as comparable to life with an abuser. It breeds hypervigilance. Or maybe it’s like news about a sick relative, the last thing you wanted to hear and the first thing you read.
Now that’s done. We don’t know for how long or whether it’s just an intermission. But right now we have a functioning, not-clearly-corrupt executive branch. We even have one that is expansive and reformist in its vision and scope of action. We may have an ex-President at war with the republic … but not a current one. And that, for now, makes all the difference.