Author: A.T.

Why We Lost: The Elephant In The Bathroom

Presumably, you’ve seen Defense-Secretary-designate Pete Hegseth’s mom’s letter?

So now to the topic at hand:

The first reason we lost the election goes all the way back to Ronald Reagan’s victory in 1980 and the staggering rise in inequality it kicked off, as described in two minutes here — and in Nick Hanauer’s seminal 2014 must-read ‘pitchforks’ piece.  People are pissed.  And when people are pissed, they are more than ever susceptible to demagoguery.

The second reason is that we failed adequately to explain the causes of inflation and adequately to show that we understood how badly it was hurting people.  And adequately to explain our plan to tame it with a “soft landing” — which we did — rather than the old-fashioned way, with a crushingly painful recession.  We would never have gotten everyone on board with those explanations but could have done a lot better.

The third reason was how we handled — and, again, failed adequately to explain — our handling of immigration.  The President was slow to fix the border crisis because he wanted to keep the pressure on for a permanent legislative fix that would stand up in court.  And he got it!   A tough bi-partisan bill that was on the verge of fixing everything — until Trump instructed Mitch McConnell, et al, to kill it.  It was an unpatriotic act of breathtaking selfishness and we shouldn’t have let him get away with it.  Remember how Republicans voted 52 times to kill Obamacare?  We should have voted 52 times to fix the border, with ever increasing fanfare, until every American knew just what was in the bill, how well it would have worked, and how Trump was the only thing keeping the border “open.”

The fourth reason is the one I’d like to address in some detail here: over-wokeness.  Long-time readers know I’ve been ranting about this for years. (Bill Maher sums it up in 56 seconds.)

In speech after speech, Democrats should have said, in effect:

Look:

If ‘woke’ means being alert to the feelings of others and treating them fairly, then we’re woke.  Indeed, most Republicans are, too.

But when it means everybody has to walk on eggshells for fear of inadvertently giving offense or losing their jobs — it’s gone too far.

People must be allowed to speak freely and . . . if they do inadvertently offend . . . be allowed to apologize.

Indeed, they must be allowed to not apologize if they don’t think they did anything wrong . . . or even if they don’t care whether they did anything wrong . . . and even if the apology seems lame or insincere . . .

. . . while the rest of us should feel equally free to think they’re idiots.

It’s a free country.  Some of us, sometimes, ARE idiots.  And people can disagree over who’s an idiot and who’s not.

(Best, of course, would be for the offenders to explain why they don’t think they said anything hurtful — or why they don’t care that they did — and then to listen to the offended party.  In at least a few cases, better understanding might be reached on both sides.)

And we should have given examples:

STATUES — It’s woke to remove those that glorify men who led the fight for slavery; over-woke to advocate removing statues of the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence.

PRONOUNS — Woke to respect the wishes of all who feel the need to specify theirs (though the grammarian in me chokes at calling a single person “them”); over-woke to implicitly pressure the rest of us to specify ours in solidarity.

TRIGGER WORDS — I may need further education on this one (I’m old) but am I really not allowed to say, “Shoot for the stars, kids!” or “Shoot! I forgot my phone charger!”  Really?

Three more:

DEFUND THE POLICE — No Democratic candidate advocated literally doing it (voters of both parties saw the need for improvement and welcomed, for example, the widespread adoption of body cams that resulted).  But the over-woke slogan itself, while well-intentioned, was a gift to Republicans.

$5 MILLION PER PERSON REPARATIONS — No Democratic candidate supported this either; but the over-woke proposal was itself a gift to the party of White Christian Nationalism.

CANCEL CULTURE — Political correctness, especially on college campuses, has gone way too far — and we should be decrying that just as loudly as our Republican friends are.

Older readers will understand when I say: we badly needed some Sister Soulja moments this past year.  With them, we might well have won the trifecta that the other team narrowly did. 

WHICH BRINGS ME TO THE ELEPHANT IN THE BATHROOM

Most Americans don’t know a lot of trans people.  It’s easy to fear — even to despise — what you don’t know.

Just as Republicans for decades exploited homophobia, now they’ve found fertile ground to exploit fear of trans people.*  And Anti-Trans Ads Were A Key Trump Strategy.  (Click that link for details.)

Until more of us get to know trans people that strategy will have legs.

Americans could do a lot worse than getting to know these two:

Take 7 minutes to watch Congresswoman Sarah McBride on last week’s “Face the Nation.”  

Or 2 to watch the “Will & Harper” trailer.

It’s really hard for anyone, I think, to fear or loathe Sarah or Harper.  A certain lingering discomfort?  Sure — maybe.  Rome wasn’t built in a day.  But the more people come to know wonderful trans people like these (or my friend Martine Rothblatt, whose work may one day save their children’s lives), the less potent Republican anti-trans ads — and legislation — will be.

Which is one reason it’s so great Sarah will soon take her seat in Congress.

And so great, I think, that Republicans have over-reached by making a big deal out of where she should go to the bathroom.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has forbidden her to go the ladies’ room.  And presumably, male Republicans won’t be thrilled sharing their men’s rooms with her — so is the idea that she shouldn’t be allowed to go to any public bathroom?

It reminds one of this must-see scene in “Hidden Figures” (2 minutes) where the brilliant NASA mathematician . . . well, just watch.

That was America not so long ago.

If today’s Republican idea is that all Americans must, by law, use only the bathroom that corresponds to the genitals of their birth, how will we enforce this?  With medical examiners outside every public bathroom?  Randomized spot checks?

Will fines be imposed by the bathroom police?  Prison sentences for repeat offenses?  Will we be required to present birth certificates every time we need to pee?

Or will we just grow up?

Is not the common-sense solution simply for people who are uncomfortable in a particular restroom simply to leave as quickly as they can?  Or if they see someone scary entering the restroom ahead of them, simply to delay their own entry until the scary person comes out?  Or use the restroom one flight down?

It’s not perfect — but what is there about public restrooms that is?

In short, why make “a federal case” out of this (which, to her credit, Congresswoman-elect McBride has not done).

Likewise, gender and sports.

Why is that a federal case?  Is it not best left to the common sense of coaches to determine who can compete with whom?

Why not leave it to, say, the NCAA, whose thinking on the issue you can read here: Understanding the NCAA: Transgender Student-Athlete Participation Policy (but will find nowhere referenced in the 30,000 TV spots Republicans ran targeting football fans in advance of the election).

And while we’re at it, gender issues aside, how about other physical advantages and disadvantages?  Can a 180-pound 16-year-old be allowed to compete against 12-year-olds?  How about a 150-pound 15-year-old?  Where do you draw the line?  Is the United States Congress the best place to decide this?  Or the state legislature?  Why not leave it to the coaches — and resign ourselves to the fact that nothing is perfect or ever will be.

In the meantime, what should Democrats say and do?

I’m with Seth Moulton, the Democratic Massachusetts Congressman widely criticized within his own party for saying recently that our approach to trans issues should allow for honest discussion and nuance.

We need to show we understand people’s concerns and do our best to allay them — not cancel them for being fearful for their daughters’ safety or for being less woke than we.

The bottom line, argues Anand Giridhara: “Wokeness is good, actually. But we need a plan for the still-waking.”

 

*Happily, after literally decades of struggle, most Americans — not all — have come to know, and often to like, friends, relatives, neighbors, co-workers, and classmates who happen to be gay.  Or bi- or lesbian.  Today, most Americans don’t care that an openly gay man runs the most valuable company in the world or that Trump’s Treasury Secretary-designate has a husband.  Most would get a kick out of having Ellen DeGeneres or Martina Navratilova, or the lesbian governors of Massachusetts and Oregon, over for dinner.

 

Finally A Good Cabinet Pick

Nixon Reacts to Trump’s Cabinet Picks – by Andy Borowitz.

Delicious, especially for those of us old enough to remember Nixon.

Of Trump’s three key Cabinet picks — State, Treasury, and Defense — one is excellent, one is acceptable, and one is not.  I hope the Senate has the good sense to discern which is which.

(So how did this highly competent Treasury nominee get on Trump’s radar without being a Fox News personality or one of his defense attorneys?  It turns out that Scott Bessent is a long-time pal of fellow South Carolinian Blaine Trump, for 25 years Trump’s sister-in-law.*)

Joel Grey reflects on Cabaret.

I’ve seen it twice.  Once, in Boston, in the 1966 try-out he refers to.**  Once last year, in the remarkable production you can still see.  I was beyond clueless the first time.  A little less so, now.

And, yes, I’ve been to the Kit Kat Club.  But that’s a story for my next book.

PRKR

Dave K: “Wondering if you have any insight as to its rise to 91 cents.  Could it be time to sell?”

→ If all goes really, really well, it’s $10+.  If badly — zero.  How much of a gambler are you?

*Of no relevance to Treasury, but of relevance to me: Scott and his husband John have two kids.  Decades ago, I dreamed of a time when being gay would be no big deal.  Who cares?  Ho-hum.  ChatGPT even gives me credit for coining the term “ho-hum-ization.”  Well: when Scott is confirmed by the Republican Senate, we’ll be one step closer.  

**My dad had sent me.  Beefeater gin was his client.  The production wanted a case a week in return for using it as a prop.  Dad wanted my opinion whether it would be okay for the brand.

 

 

 

And So It Begins. How Does It End?

Ed Luce begins his piece in The Financial Review:

It is time to study Caligula.  That most notorious of Roman emperors killed what was left of the republic and centralised authority in himself. Donald Trump does not need to make his horse a senator; it will be enough to keep appointing charlatans to America’s great offices of state.

Rome was not destroyed by outsiders. Its demolition was the work of barbarians from within.

The question of whether Trump consciously wants to destroy the US federal government is irrelevant. You measure a leader by his actions not by his heart. To judge from what Trump has done within a fortnight of winning the presidency, his path is destruction.

David Remnick ends his piece in The New Yorker:

One of the perils of life under authoritarian rule is that the leader seeks to drain people of their strength. A defeatism takes hold. There is an urge to pull back from civic life.

An American retreat from liberal democracy—a precious yet vulnerable inheritance—would be a calamity. Indifference is a form of surrender. . .  Vladimir Putin welcomes Trump’s return not only because it makes his life immeasurably easier in his determination to subjugate a free and sovereign Ukraine but because it validates his assertion that American democracy is a sham . . . All that matters is power and self-interest . . . Putin reminds us that liberal democracy is not a permanence; it can turn out to be an episode.

One of the great spirits of modern times, the Czech playwright and dissident Václav Havel, wrote in “Summer Meditations,” “There is only one thing I will not concede: that it might be meaningless to strive in a good cause.” During the long Soviet domination of his country, Havel fought valiantly for liberal democracy, inspiring in others acts of resilience and protest. He was imprisoned for that. Then came a time when things changed, when Havel was elected President and, in a Kafka tale turned on its head, inhabited the Castle, in Prague. Together with a people challenged by years of autocracy, he helped lead his country out of a long, dark time. Our time is now dark, but that, too, can change. It happened elsewhere. It can happen here.

Do something.

 

Why Didn’t We Buy Private Prison Stocks?!

The Brennan Center for Justice reviews Trump’s Mass Deportation Plans.  Hence the rise in prison stocks.

It really seems as though, having won just 49.5% or so of the popular vote compared to Kamala’s 48.5% or so — “a landslide,” in his view — Trump is preparing to govern like a dictator:

> His hand-picked Supreme Court is largely in his pocket — see Stench and Antidemocratic — as is Congress.  So, with his iron grip on the Executive, all three branches of government.

He aims to . . .

. . . by-pass the Senate in confirming Cabinet secretaries because his nominees would not pass FBI background checks (ironically, neither would he; he is deemed a national security threat by the intelligence community);

. . . use the Justice Department to wreak vengeance on his enemies;

. . . fire generals not loyal to him;  

. . . stifle the press — “the enemy of the people.”

He prefers dictators to democratically elected leaders.

For years, while married to Ivana, he kept this book of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside.

It’s true that he got about 3% more votes in 2024 than he did in 2020 . . . but could that be because some people forgot what they thought of him in 2020?  (He left office with an approval rating around 34%.)  Or because some of them didn’t believe he was serious about doing the things he said he’d do?  Or because they didn’t know what tariffs are or that they would be the ones ultimately paying them?

The tragedy in this whole landslide business is that the largest block of eligible voters — about 90 million — voted for neither Trump nor Harris.  They stayed home.

Fred was one of them.  He writes:

Don’t you find it odd that the party that is worried about democracy is the one that lied to the American people for a year about their candidate’s cognitive decline so that nobody could run against him, and then appointed by fiat an ill-prepared candidate who had never received a vote in a primary?  Is this the democracy you are proud of?  By the way, I just turned 64 and have never seen worse tickets than Harris-Waltz and Trump-Vance and they happened to be the same election.  I didn’t think anyone could top McGovern-Eagleton (Shriver) but I lived long enough to be proven wrong.  I was too embarrassed to even leave my house on Election Day.

I replied:

Thanks, Fred. I don’t know for sure — I hope to find out — but my strong suspicion is that neither Joe nor the people around him believed, a year out, that he was in mental decline that would prevent his Administration from continuing to do a good job.

My guess – again, just my guess – is that insiders were as shocked and dismayed by the debate as the rest of us.  That they — and surely “the party” as a whole — had believed up until that point he had the judgment and experience, and respect of world leaders, required to continue to do the job well.

So I don’t think “the party” lied to the country for a year.

As to the rest:

Once Nancy Pelosi and others did persuade the President to step aside, everyone felt an overriding imperative to do whatever gave us the best chance to win.  Taking a month or two to hold a primary might have been the best course but would have meant time and money fighting each other instead of Trump.

Having first thought an “open convention” would be galvanizing, I remember being persuaded that, no, uniting behind the V.P. made more sense.  Reasonable people could disagree and did.

(If just a few of the 90 million who stayed home had instead chosen what in their minds — like yours — would have been “the lesser of two evils,” so she had won by a hair instead of losing by a hair, I think a lot of people would have agreed that not holding a primary was smart.)

That said, she was not “appointed by fiat” — she and others worked the phones in order to amass a majority of the delegates, persuading them that this was the best course.

Finally, I think Vice President Harris is a lot better than you think she is and might well have surprised you on the upside, had she won.  But that’s just my opinion and I respect yours.

BONUSES:

1. The largely wacky — but disturbing — view from Russia: What Is Trump to Putin? A Harbinger of America’s Collapse.

2. Robert Reich: How to Hope in a Near Hopeless Time.

Do something.

 

Your Republican House at Work

But first . . .

Two small bright spots:

> Klamath River: Salmon return to lay eggs in historic habitat after dam removal.

> It’s a nice story: Our twelfth Treedom Farm has now been planted (alongside 58 others).  My thanks to those of you who helped!  To help fund the next dozen, click here.

Two big dark spots:

> Stench: The Making of the Thomas Court and the Unmaking of America.

> Tom K.:   “Another must-read about the Court: Antidemocratic: Inside the Far Right’s 50-Year Plot to Control American Elections.”

And now . . .

One big travesty:

James Comer hails from Kentucky, one of the country’s biggest “taker” states, meaning it receives much more from the federal Treasury than it pays in in taxes.  Most red states do — the states that decry federal spending.

He’s chaired the House Oversight Committee since 2023.

Per Wikipedia:

[As chair], Comer has declined or stopped investigations into former President Donald Trump, while starting an investigation on President Joe Biden and his family. . . .

After Joe Biden ended his 2024 presidential re-election campaign, Comer began an investigation into the new Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, and also began an investigation into the new Democratic vice-presidential nominee, Governor Tim Walz.

A couple of months ago he chaired a hearing entitled “A Legacy of Incompetence: Consequences of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Policy Failures.” . . . issuing this “hearing wrap-up” entitled “Biden-Harris Administration’s Disastrous Record Hurting Americans.”

In part:

Chairman James Comer: “Three and a half years ago, when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took office, they promised to ‘Build Back Better.’ The fawning media told us that ‘the adults are back in the room.’ But three and a half years later, the economy is suffering, the border is broken, and crises continue to erupt worldwide. Everything Joe Biden and Kamala Harris has touched has failed.”

Your tax dollars are going to pay his salary, so it’s worth asking just what quality of work he is producing.

The economy: after three and a half years the unemployment rate is down from 6.3% to 4.1%.  The S&P 500 is up 60%.  Wages are outpacing inflation.  The Economist calls our economy “the envy of the world.”  Crushing as the COVID supply-chain-ignited inflation has been for so many, it has been largely tamed without the recession everyone predicted.

The border is only broken now because Trump killed the bi-partisan bill that would have fixed it.  It’s. That. Simple.

Worldwide crises do erupt, but ChatGPT tells me that slightly fewer U.S. service members died in Biden’s first two years than in Trump’s last two.  Our country’s Atlantic and Pacific alliances are far stronger now than they were when Biden took office.

Everything they’ve touched has failed?  Really?  How about the CHIPs Act?  Or the record number of Americans covered by health insurance?  Or the bipartisan bill Trump was never able to achieve (and that Comer voted against) that has launched 66,000 infrastructure projects — including at least 325 in Kentucky?

Comer worked so hard to find something to impeach Biden for — and failed.  It was easy to find things to impeach Trump for — twice.  And the second time, a wide bi-partisan majority of Senators (though not the needed two-thirds) voted to convict.

Does anyone doubt that, had the vote been by secret ballot, the vote would have been overwhelming?

Do something?

 

What To Do?

Many who find Matt Gaetz unqualified to lead the Justice Department . . . or are troubled by Pete Hegseth’s tattoos .. . . or by Tulsi Gabbard’s connection to a cult leader* . . . or by the worm in Bobby’s brain** . . .

. . . are looking for something to do.

And here it is:  Indivisible: A Practical Guide to Democracy on the Brink.

Meanwhile, not to depress you further, but because everyone needs to know this stuff, I again bring to your attention Stench: The Making of the Thomas Court and the Unmaking of America.  It’s even worse than you thought.

* Or by her aunt’s assessment: “Once again I find my niece’s apparent penchant for parroting extremist toadies such as Tucker Carlson and vile strongmen such as Vladimir Putin, to be problematic and deeply troubling,” she said. “​It gives me no pleasure to ​note that Tulsi’s single governing principle seems to be expedience, which is in effect no principle at all.”

** In fairness, not as unusual as it sounds, though the bear and the whale are kind of unique.

 

She’s Canceling Christmas

It looks as though once all the votes are in Trump will (again) have won fewer than Biden won in 202o.  So “landslide” may not be exactly the best word to describe Trump’s narrow 2024 popular vote win.

“Tragic,” I think history will show, would be a better one.

But a win it undeniably was.  Deeply troubling to our allies; celebrated in the Kremlin.

Instead of incarcerating a designated national security threat, we’re soon inaugurating one.

Think about that.

Instead of censuring or expelling a reviled member of Congress, we may soon swear him in as Attorney General.

I think not, because of the secret ballot that allowed Republican senators to cross Trump and select John Thune as their leader.  I think Thune will resist Trump’s request to circumvent public hearings on his picks for Attorney General, Secretary of Defense, and others.

We’ll see.

(Had Trump’s second impeachment trial also been a secret ballot, the vote for conviction — instead of the wide but insufficient 57-43 — would have been overwhelming and the Senate might have voted to forbid his running again.  But without a secret ballot, they lacked the courage.)

In the meantime, as we work to understand how to do better in 2026, there’s the story of Texas Latinos who’ve flipped.  A quick, jarring read.

And Ruy Teixeira’s, Where Have All the Democrats Gone? (summarized here).

BONUS

My Husband And His Family Voted For Trump — So I’m Canceling Thanksgiving And Christmas.