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From The Reporter’s Notebook
Riffing off The Washington Post’s new slogan, “Democracy Dies In Darkness,” journalist Michael Wolff asked President Donald Trump’s senior counselor Kellyanne Conway if she takes personally the fact that she is “the darkness,” TPM’s Kristin Salaky reported. “This coverage of you this ‘Democracy Dies In Darkness’ because I’m gonna tell you, when they say ‘Democracy Dies In Darkness’ you’re the darkness,” Wolff said to cheers from the crowd at the Newseum. “I’m not the darkness,” Conway shot back.
Agree or Disagree?
Josh Marshall: “Setting aside the moral calculus (where there’s little reason to have high expectations), what’s striking is the political calculus, or rather Trump’s inability to grasp the current political calculus. The upshot of the repeal debacle was that Republicans realized that they would take a big political hit if people lost what they’d gained under Obamacare. Everybody focused on the so-called ‘Freedom Caucus’. The truth is that it was really GOP moderates who killed repeal – certainly when you figure in both the House and the Senate. In many cases, these weren’t really moderates. They were folks like Sen. Tom Cotton, pretty diehard conservatives, who were nonetheless opposing the repeal bill from the left. “
BUZZING: Today in the Hive
From a TPM Prime member: “The arguments about national sovereignty are akin to those of states rights in many ways. A bloody civil war was fought in the USA to more or less settle that issue. Yes, conservatives still claim to be keen on states rights but they have demonstrated many times they are willing to ride roughshod over states rights to enforce their point of view if they have the Federal power to do so, therefore I consider the issue more or less settled. Internationally there are a few accords such as the Geneva convention with weak enforcement mechanisms. I consider it acceptable that the USA said that chemical weapons violated international agreements and took action – I do sincerely hope that it is a deterrent and that it was not an action that was premature and hit the wrong party. There are a few other examples where ‘moral authority’ is exerted by international agreements. An example is that WHO has the right to name and therefore shame countries that do not report public health events of international significance, i.e. disease outbreaks, chemical spills, etc. WHO does not have a police force to go in and enforce public health law, but failure to report can lead to name and shame and that has such strong potential adverse effects on things like trade and tourism that most countries cooperate. Weak tea as they say, but something. That was why I feel the EU is so important as a multinational body with some teeth, although due to nationalism it has a serious democratic deficit. It is all the old argument that the nation state is too big for the small problems and too small for the big problems. But, it is not an easy path to global governance. I do not know if we will make it there while there is still something left to govern. “
Related: Trump Reverses His Position On NATO, China, Russia And More
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