I’d much rather read about them.
“May you live in interesting times.”
Damn that old Klingon curse!
Well, it’s no big surprise when the vast majority of one party’s politicians chooses to remain hostage to the whims of possibly the most venal and corrupt man ever to hold the Presidency. All because they crave power more than they love the country.
I felt like a Trump was inevitable since 2008. I knew after the Tea Party started up what it would lead to.
The worst part is I feel the only way we can stop the problem is to fight fire and fire, and that has a chance of burning everything.
As for the Ceasar reference, I think we’re beginning our own Social Wars now.
America though has always been in its death throws, it’s just the weird period between 1940 to 1980 where something there existed a consensus as to belonging to a unified society. Basically 1812 to 1865 was a constant life-or-death struggle to not lose money that turned into a real life-or-death struggle and one side twisting their I’m not losing my money into a half a million death war.
The US central political system from the beginning has resisted centralization because of the systemic problems caused by the very framework of the government. The system is “designed”, probably not purposefully but that’s how it’s turned out to be, to still be a weaker Federal system that encourages by its construction inaction, deadlock, and effectively an inability to act.
The problem then isn’t that we should just decentralize because the people who want decentralization want the worst possible things and to be given permission to get those things, so the other side can’t let them have their way, so now nobody gets their way and nobody wins, so we can’t decentralize without throwing millions of people under the bus - which is what 1873 to 1965 was, just throwing millions of Americans under the bus because the other side made it too hard to deal with.
Excellent post, with one nitpicky question: wouldn’t the Hayes-Tilden election deal that threw black people (especially in the former CSA) under the bus have happened in 1876 or so?
(also “throes”, but that was no doubt speech-to-text-related)
To the larger point of your post though, in the US it always comes down to race + the prerogatives of the wealthy overriding everyone else’s. And since the US never had an official aristocracy, there was always less of the concept of “noblesse oblige” because no one was officially “noblesse.”
Perhaps Grant’s federal support of Black Americans lost mojo in his second term. I need to finish reading my Ron Chernow biography.
I think you could say the Supreme Court cases in 1873 really kicked off the process of “de-reconstruction” that eventually led to the compromise of 1877 and the end of reconstruction, but tbh the date was less important than the concept.
I actually don’t think the US always comes down to race - i think it always comes down to money. But the American problem is, to put it as simply as possible, fester politics, a political system that doesn’t actually offer within itself solutions to difficult issues.
Good?
Without plea deals, hundreds of separate trials will move forward, a time-consuming process now extended by a case backlog resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Moreover, without evidence provided under plea bargains, federal prosecutors may have a harder time building cases against leaders of the violence on more serious charges such as conspiracy or violation of laws intended to fight organized crime.
Sounds like it’s making the job tougher to convict these idiots.
Thrag
7098
Hmm, I wonder why the GOP is against a commission to investigate the events of 1/6/21?
I think they have plenty on the ~460 arrested thus far. It’s getting more people arrested where that data comes into play, IMHO.
Emptywheel (emptywheel.net) regularly does a review of what the government is making public. The last arrest I can think of off the top o’ me head was near the end of April. And that was over a month after the warrant was issued. I don’t think we’re anywhere near the throwing hands up that no-one else will be roped in.
Back when I realized what was really going on with the Republican Party… probably 1 year after GWB was elected to his first term, I drew way too many parallels of our country’s path and its intersection with the disintegration of the Roman Empire. It’s only gotten worse since, including all the lead in the pipes and the batshit insane authoritarian leaders.
ShivaX
7102
looks at 35 House Republicans
looks at Mitt Romney
waits for Tommy to find a new excuse
It took Tommy Tuberville less than 4 years to turn my Cincinnati Bearcats football team from nationally ranked contenders to AAC also-rans (but we’re doing much better again now thanks to Luke Fickell). How much damage can he do with a 6-year Senate run? I mean, Alabama can’t sink much lower, so at least there’s that…
Banzai
7104
The commission is set up as bipartisan, evenly split between dems and gop, with dem as chair, gop as vice chair. The dems gave the GOP all of the things they asked for and the gop are still saying no. Surprised?
CraigM
7105
Absolutely not.
Which is why the dem response should be: fuck you, you get nothing.
