This page contains links to recent blogs by Lincoln Mitchell
We have treated the Constitution as a sacred text for so long that if we shatter that conceit, we are left with very little guidance for how to form a functioning, cohesive and democratic state, so we continue to accept the Constitution even as its democratic deficits directly immiserate so many of us. That is the American conundrum as we head into 2022. Happy New Year.
The American media has been covering politics as a horserace, giving equal times and credence to both sides, for so long that it is very hard to change. However, the overarching story in the US now is the threat to democracy posed by the GOP. Ignoring that in favor of false equivalencies and continuing to treat both sides as roughly equal is not just lazy and bad for democracy, but, by overlooking the true nature and goals of the Republican Party, is also deeply partisan.
The vision that Moscone and Milk shared, and that was groundbreaking at the time, of a city whose government was as diverse as its people, where discrimination for any reason-including sexual orientation-was outlawed, where neighborhoods have a bigger say in what happens in the city and, yes, where police power is reined in, ultimately became the ideas that formed the core of progressive urban governance everywhere in the US.
Trump’s Covid policy, and recent revelations about how he endangered the life of Joe Biden are not just stories that demonstrate his erratic behavior and tenuous grip on reality, but a reminder of the danger Donald Trump represents in so many different ways and that even though the disgraced former president has always been a big buffoonish, we must continue to take him very seriously.
Ultimately, the recent Virginia elections tells us much less than we would like to think about what will happen in the 2022 or 2024 US elections, but they provide a roadmap for both parties. Much of what happens in those elections will depend on how well the parties can follow those roadmaps.
Trump’s point that the election-the one in which Trump lost decisively-rather than the assault on the Capitol, is the problem. In other words, in Trump’s addled authoritarian mind, it is the election itself that threatens to destroy America. The second part of the comment does not just minimize the harm done by the protestors, but suggests that they were the ones legitimately and patriotically exercising their rights. This is nothing short than an endorsement of mob rule over free and fair elections.
There are never any guarantees in politics. Sinema and Manchin could decide to sabotage any major spending bill. The Delta variant could regain strength, or a more deadly and infectious new variant could emerge. Despite those possibilities, there is a clear path forward for Joe Biden’s presidency and a clear roadmap for improving his fortunes that are now lower than at any point during his relatively young presidency.
The upshot of all of this is that Georgian democracy is stuck in neutral; more accurately it is stuck in a slow reverse. But, there is another loser in this election as well, the foreign powers, specifically the EU and the US who bought into the political crisis narrative several months ago and forced a strange deal onto the government and then did nothing when the government broke the deal.
This contract ratchets up tension not just between Australia and China, but between the US and China. That, not the contracting question itself, is the more important story here.
One of the most radical, and rarely discussed, ways that September 11th changed the US is that since that day many Americans have begun to think of ourselves as victims. It is true we were attacked that day and the people who died in those attacks or because of their efforts to help on that day were indeed victims. However, the shared sense of national victimhood was a paradigm shift that went well beyond those individuals and their families who were genuinely victims.
Many Americans live in a flawed but largely functioning democracy that has a weaker social support system than many affluent countries, but still has a commitment to some equality and government services, but other Americans live in right-wing states that are the policy love-child of Ayn Rand and Jerry Falwell and whose leadership continues to participate in the Trump death cult.
The foreign policy establishment is overwhelmingly supportive of an expansive role in the world. This is in some cases due to strongly held ideas, in rare cases due to overt greed or nefarious intentions, but in most cases due to something much more banal-bureaucratic logic.
Asking Republicans who feign earnest concern about America’s national security, or more ironically how the rest of the world sees us, about January 6th and the Trump administration more generally is not partisanship, it is, in fact, balanced journalism. However, almost nobody in the media did this.
Events in Afghanistan over the last few days have been a long time coming. They may, in fact, demonstrate how President Biden mishandled the drawdown of troops, but they are better understood as what may be the final chapter in an overly ambitious war that flummoxed American policy makers over two decades and four presidential administrations.
In recent weeks, the Republican Party has taken an even stranger, darker and more murderous approach to Covid. While their previous policies led directly to the deaths of Americans because they simply ignored the danger of Covid and resisted medical interventions from masks to social distancing to vaccines, current GOP policy essentially mandates that people directly or indirectly expose themselves to the virus and seeks to punish those who would like to prevent that.
The multiple sexual harassment allegations against Governor Cuomo and the detailed report substantiating these allegations and providing a fuller picture of the extent of Cuomo’s abusive and depraved behavior should disqualify him from continuing to hold public office. However, the entirety of Cuomo’s career, not just what appears to be its final inning, is a model for how the Democratic Party should not do politics in New York, or anywhere else.
Cutting back on activities to save the elderly, the most vulnerable and ourselves in the face of a genuine public health threat was one thing. Staying home in the middle of summer or not sending children to school in the fall because of the beliefs of a deeply deluded, uncaring, selfish and reactionary political party death cult hybrid is an entirely different issue.
Moreover, whether they truly believe this or are doing it for political reasons becomes less important with every passing day. If you perform ignorance, cult-membership, dishonesty and racism for half a decade, you become ignorant, part of a cult, dishonest and racist-and that is the plight of the Republican Party six months into the Biden presidency.
It was somehow appropriate that no sooner had President Biden finished a major speech about the American departure from Afghanistan before political crises erupted in two countries much closer to home. Recent events in Cuba and Haiti are unrelated and different from each other, but they are a reminder that regardless of the intentions of any functioning president, the US cannot ignore the rest of the world.
Describing any country as the best, now or ever, is also completely meaningless. What are the criteria for this? How is the idea of best country measured? Who is being asked to decide? How would we know if this were, or were not the best country? Nonetheless, in America this is not just a boast or a slogan, but something that is widely believed.