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First, will Democrats allow people to practice their faith even if some tenets of that faith conflict with progressive principles? For example, two bills in Congress demonstrate that clash. They both would amend federal civil rights law to require fair treatment of L.G.B.T.Q. people in housing, employment and other realms of life. One, the Fairness for All Act, would allow for substantial exceptions for religious institutions. A Catholic hospital, say, wouldnt be compelled to offer gender transition surgeries. The other, the Equality Act, would override existing law that prevents the federal government from substantially burdening individuals exercise of religion without a compelling government interest.

Right now, Democrats generally support the latter bill and oppose the former. But supporting the Fairness for All Act, which seeks to fight discrimination while leaving space for religious freedom, would send a strong signal to millions of wavering believers, and it would be good for America.

Second, will Democrats stand up to the more radical cultural elements in their own coalition? Jonathan Rauch was an early champion of gay and lesbian rights. In an article in American Purpose, he notes that one wing of the movement saw gay rights as not a left-wing issue but a matter of human dignity. A more radical wing celebrated cultural transgression and disdained bourgeois morality. Ultimately, the gay rights movement triumphed in the court of public opinion when the nonradicals won and it became attached to the two essential bourgeois institutions marriage and the military.

Rauch argues that, similarly, the transgender rights movement has become entangled with ideas that are extraneous to the cause of transgender rights. Ideas like: Both gender and sex are chosen identities and denying or disputing that belief amounts is violence. Democrats would make great strides if they could champion transgender rights while not insisting upon these extraneous moral assertions that many people reject.

The third question is, will Democrats realize that both moral traditions need each other? As usual, politics is a competition between partial truths. The moral freedom ethos, like liberalism generally, is wonderful in many respects, but liberal societies need nonliberal institutions if they are to thrive.

America needs institutions built on the you are not your own ethos to create social bonds that are more permanent than individual choice. It needs that ethos to counter the me-centric, narcissistic tendencies in our culture. It needs that ethos to preserve a sense of the sacred, the idea that there are some truths so transcendentally right that they are absolutely true in all circumstances. It needs that ethos in order to pass along the sort of moral sensibilities that one finds in, say, Abraham Lincolns Second Inaugural Address that people and nations have to pay for the wages of sin, that charity toward all is the right posture, that firmness in keeping with the right always has to be accompanied by humility about how much we can ever see of the right.

Finally, we need this ethos, because morality is not only an individual thing; its something between people that binds us together. Even individualistic progressives say it takes a village to raise a child, but the village needs to have a shared moral sense of how to raise it.

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Opinion | How Democrats Can Win the Morality Wars - The New York Times

The Democratic Party has a lot of problems right now. Many of these problems lie outside its control: A global wave of inflation and continuing waves of coronavirus infection have prevented the recovery Joe Biden imagined when he took office last year, and the partys slender majority gives it very narrow room to maneuver legislation through Congress.

That said, Democrats still have some room to improve their situation. They retain their congressional majority until January, and Joe Manchin has expressed his willingness to negotiate a bill to raise taxes on the rich and fund at least some new programs, including support for green energy. And yet their main response to a looming political and policy catastrophe appears to be fatalistic acceptance.

The Manchin situation is exceptionally strange. Manchin has outlined in public the contours of a deal he would accept, while privately conveying to fellow Democrats that he expects them to write a bill that meets his terms. This is an extremely counterproductive and maddening way to operate. At the same time, Democrats need to accept the world as it is and try to make the deal.

Instead, they seem to be shrugging their shoulders. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is trying to negotiate with Manchin, which is good, but everybody else seems indifferent or resigned to failure. Politico reports that Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin laughed incredulously when asked about a last-gasp party-line bill and said:

I put so much time into immigration on reconciliation. It took a year of my legislative life. I have nothing to show for it. I wish Chuck well on reconciliation. Im going to focus my legislative efforts in the 60-vote world.

Homer Simpson once told Bart, Son, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try. The point of that line was supposed to be that it was terrible advice, but Durbin appears to be following that idea in earnest. He worked really hard on some provisions in Build Back Better that any clear analysis would have shown from the outset never stood a serious chance of enactment. And now hes tired of working and just wants to give up.

Ive seen progressives express a similar exasperation. When confronted with the idea of making a deal with Manchin, they reflexively insist he cant be bargained with. And maybe not! But the chances of a deal are not zero. There is very little to lose by trying. Even a failed effort would at least demonstrate they exhausted every possible avenue.

A similar passivity comes through in some reporting via Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell. Trying to figure out why the administration has failed to reverse the Trump tariffs, a step that would at least partially bring down prices and alleviate the worst economic threat they face, she finds:

From my own conversations with senior officials, the answer seems to involve perceived short-term political liabilities. Politicos worried about how Republicans might portray measures such as tariff repeal (soft on China!). Democrats also feared alienating important constituencies, such as organized labor.

The Biden administration has done an enormous amount for organized labor. Biden has steered the National Labor Relations Board in a staunchly pro-organizing direction while giving a historic public endorsement to new organizing drives at Amazon and Starbucks. These are morally and strategically correct decisions. But tariffs are an area in which the narrow interests of labor diverge from the national interest. Allowing the fear that a couple unions will complain despite Bidens overall record of support for labor to prevent concrete steps to alleviate a crisis is utterly self-defeating.

The Biden administration and Democrats in Congress have been highly solicitous of the demands of their constituent interest groups. But now they are headed into a disaster. They are going to lose control of Congress without having even passed any significant social reforms. They may well be headed into a recession. An increasingly dangerous Republican Party may win control of the government without even needing to subvert the election.

None of the options are great, but simply coasting into November as if the plan might still work out is foolhardy. Democrats should instead be acting as if their party is on a course for disaster, because it is.

Irregular musings from the center left.

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Is the Democratic Party Giving Up Already? - New York Magazine

Elon Musk moved to Texas and now appears to embrace the politics of the Republic Party and Texas Governor Greg Abbott

In the weeks since Tesla CEO Elon Musk began his gambit to acquire Twitter, hes grown comfortable voicing partisan political viewsusually on the social media platform he covetsincluding insults aimed at California, President Joe Biden and the libs. Musk now plans to vote Republican, he saysjoining a party that derided him in the past as a crony capitalist who benefited from Democratic policies but now sees him as an ally.

California used to be the land of opportunity, and its a beautiful state, Musk said during a video appearance at this weeks All In Summit in Miami. He then listed factors he says would make it impossible now to build a plant in the Golden State such as Teslas massive new Austin-based Giga Texas factory. California's gone from a land of opportunity to the land of taxes, over-regulation and litigation, the Tesla CEO added. This is not a good situation, and really, there's got to be like a serious cleaning out of the pipes in California.

For years, as he built Tesla from a moonshot startup into the worlds dominant electric-vehicle company, Musk courted Democrats in California, where most of Teslas customers live, and nationally. He and his company benefited from the partys policy and environmental prioritiesespecially electric-vehicle subsidieswhich helped Teslas customer base grow. In recent months, both before and since he began his pursuit of Twitter, Musk appeared to veer to the rightfor example, crossing swords with Democratic Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren over their proposals to raise taxes on billionaires and lobbing insults at Biden for failing to include him at White House EV events.

Last year, Musk moved Teslas headquarters to Texas from Silicon Valley (and his residence to Austin from Los Angeles) to take advantage of lower taxes, lower cost of living and a more relaxed regulatory environment. Since then, his rhetoric has skewed ever more definitively toward the conservative side, culminating in a tweet yesterday in which he announced his intention to vote for Republican politicians going forward.

In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party, he tweeted Wednesday after Tesla was dropped from S&Ps ESG Index. But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican.

GOP via Twitter

California-bashing from naturalized American Musk, the worlds wealthiest person based on his stakes in Tesla and SpaceX, is notable partly because his former home state remains by far the best market for Teslas electric vehicles in North America. Its also debatable whether the company could have survived its rocky early years without Californias Zero-Emission Vehicle program, which created an opportunity for Tesla to sell emissions credits to other automakers that resulted in billions of dollars in free revenue over the years. (Teslas Fremont, California, plant, essentially a gift from Toyota in 2010, was also massively helpful.)

Nobody ever accused Elon Musk of gratitudeor even a sense of proportion, says Mary Nichols, former chair of Californias powerful Air Resources Board, which crafted the ZEV program and championed Tesla as it evolved from a startup to high-volume manufacturer. He certainly would not be where he is without the ZEV mandate and the cash he got from selling his credits to the other OEMs.

Nobody ever accused Elon Musk of gratitudeor even a sense of proportion

Musk hasnt elaborated on why he now sees Republicans as kinder than the rival party that helped Tesla get its start, although the GOP welcomed his newfound loyalty by immediately using it for fundraising. Musk has echoed conservative talking points about woke progressive extremists and owning the libs on Twitter in recent weeksalong with crude jokes about transgender people and his opposition to plastic straw bans intended to help the environment.

The billionaires confirmation that he would invite former President Donald Trump back to Twitter after his ban for comments supporting the Jan. 6 insurrection and lies about the 2020 election was cheered by some conservatives. Likewise, Musks intention to make the platform welcoming for controversial views in pursuit of an absolutist view of free speech has boosted his popularity among outspoken politicians and commentators, including Representatives Marjorie Taylor Green and Matt Gaetz and Fox Newss Tucker Carlson.

Prepare for blue check mark full scale meltdown after @elonmusk seals the deal and I should get my personal Twitter account restored, Green tweeted on April 25.

Twitter

Shares of Tesla were little changed on Thursday, closing at $709.42 in Nasdaq trading, the lowest since August 2021. Theyre down 41% this year.

Texas is the capital of Americas oil and gas industry and not synonymous with the clean-tech endeavors Musk is associated with, but he praised its greater flexibility, relative to California, this week. The Lone Star States further shift to the political rightincluding strict new policies on abortion, treatment of transgender youth and voting rights, while relaxing rules on gun ownershipalso dont trouble Musk, according to Governor Greg Abbott.

Elon had to get out of California because in part of the social policies in California, Abbott told CNBC last year, noting that he speaks with Musk frequently. Elon consistently tells me that he liked the social policies in the state of Texas.

Elon Musk at the opening of Tesla's Giga Texas plant on April 7 in Austin, Texas.

When asked about whether his more polarizing views could hurt Teslas image with some consumers, Musk was unfazed. Im confident that we will be able to sell all the cars we can make, he said this month at a Financial Times conference. Currently, the lead time for ordering a Tesla is ridiculously long, so our issue is not demand, it is production.

His newfound conservative orientation carries both risks and a potential upside for Tesla, says auto-industry analyst Ed Kim.

Conventional wisdom says that its generally good business sense for CEOs to stay away from regularly expressing their politics, but Tesla has always bucked conventional wisdom in just about every way, says Kim, president of AutoPacific, an industry consultant in Santa Ana, California. As electric vehicles continue to be more mainstream and become more common away from the traditionally EV-friendly and liberal coasts, Musks continuing proclamations of his politics could potentially strengthen his popularity as well as Teslas in more traditionally conservative parts of the country.

Musks frustration with Biden stems from the presidents failure to reference Tesla when praising efforts by U.S. manufacturers such as General Motors and Ford in accelerating the production and sales of electric vehicles. The White House also excluded Musk from meetings with U.S. CEOs to discuss battery and EV technology, though Biden acknowledged Tesla as an EV leader at a February briefing on charging infrastructure.

Conventional wisdom says that its generally good business sense for CEOs to stay away from regularly expressing their politics, but Tesla has always bucked conventional wisdom in just about every way

But it was the Obama-Biden Administration that, like California, helped get Tesla off the ground. The Energy Department awarded Tesla a low-interest loan for $465 million in January 2010 that allowed the company to set up its Fremont plant to begin production by 2012. Though it proved a good investment by the U.S.Tesla repaid the loan with interest many years ahead of schedule in 2013the support from a Democratic administration was derided as crony capitalism by 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

When government rather than the market routinely selects the winners and losers, enterprises cannot predict their prospects, and free enterprise is replaced with crony capitalism, Romney said in a March 2012 speech in Santa Barbara, California. Solyndra, Ener1, Fisker and Tesla are examples.

Three of the four companies Romney referenced ended in bankruptcy (though Fisker is back with a new EV startup), but Tesla become the worlds most valuable automaker and top EV seller.

Nichols, currently a visiting fellow at Columbia Universitys Center on Global Energy Policy, said regardless of Musks comments, shes glad of Californias impact on Tesla.

I own a Tesla Model 3 and will always be proud that our regulations made him the worlds richest man (maybe) while prodding all the others to move much more aggressively into the age of electric transportation.

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Elon Musk Bites The Hand That Fed Him By Bashing California And Democrats - Forbes

Millions of dollars in attack advertisements are hitting television screens in Illinois castigating Aurora Mayor Richard Irvins (R) track record as an attorney for defendants accused of violent crimes.

But the advertisements targeting Irvin arent coming from his main rival for the Republican nomination for governor. They are funded by Democrats, more than a month before the Republican primary takes place in late June.

The Democratic Governors Association has spent millions in both Illinois and Nevada, where incumbent governors are seeking reelection, in an apparent effort to weaken their likely Republican opponents.

The DGA is wasting no time in educating the public about these Republicans, said Christina Amestoy, the groups senior communications advisor. These elected and formerly elected officials want to deceptively retell their histories, and were just filling in the gaps.

So far, the DGA has dropped $8.4 million on television ads across Illinois, including more than $4 million in the Chicago market alone. Those ads target Irvin, the leading Republican ahead of next months primary, in which he faces state Sen. Darren Bailey (R) and a handful of other contenders. The winner of the GOP primary will face Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) in November.

And Democrats have spent $2.3 million in Nevada, targeting Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo (R). Lombardo leads attorney Joey Gilbert (R) and former Sen. Dean Heller (R) in the race to take on Gov. Steve Sisolak (D).

The group is also spending early money on what is likely to be an effort to boost an independent candidate in Oregon in hopes of syphoning votes away from the newly minted Republican nominee. The DGA has funneled at least $61,000 to a group called Oregonians for Ethics, which is preparing advertisements that will paint former state Sen. Betsy Johnson, an independent, as a conservative.

Johnson, elected as a Democrat to represent a timber-heavy district on Oregons Pacific Coast, is trying to build a multiparty coalition in her bid to become the states first independent governor in nearly a century. This week, she touted support from both former Gov. Ted Kulongoski (D) and former Sen. Gordon Smith (R).

Instead of standing up for our values, she sided with the right wing to advance their agenda, says a digital ad paid for by Oregonians for Ethics, citing Johnsons votes against raising the minimum wage and a cap and trade proposal.

Johnson will vie against former state House Speaker Tina Kotek (D) and former House Republican Leader Christine Drazan (R), who won their respective primaries this week.

The early spending comes after Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D) ran an unconventional advertisement spotlighting state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R) and his support for former President Donald Trump. That ad reminded both Republican and independent voters of Mastrianos ties to Trump, dual missions with two very dissimilar goals.

On Tuesday, Mastriano and Shapiro both won their primaries in the race to replace term-limited Gov. Tom Wolf (D).

Republicans say the early spending is a sign that Democrats have already hit the panic button in the midst of an unfavorable political climate.

The DGAs spending decisions indicate they are very worried about their incumbent governors chances as their failed records are being litigated for voters, said Jesse Hunt, a spokesman for the Republican Governors Association. There isnt enough money for them to meddle in the nearly dozen states where Democrats are in danger of losing their hold on the governors office.

Meddling in another partys primary, or goosing an independent candidate in hopes of syphoning off votes from a rival, is a rare but not unheard-of occurrence in modern politics.

In 2012, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) ran advertisements slamming then-Rep. Todd Akin (R) as too conservative ahead of the Republican primary a message that conservative voters wanted to hear. Akin won the GOP primary, and McCaskill trounced him that November.

That same year, allies of Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) ran advertisements attacking Dan Cox, the Libertarian Party nominee, as an arch conservative. Cox took just 6.5 percent of the vote a share that might otherwise have gone to then-Rep. Denny Rehberg (R). Tester won with just 48.6 percent of the vote.

Republicans in 2020 tried their own late trick, paying for ads that elevated state Sen. Erica Smith (D), a progressive Black woman. Smith took almost 35 percent of the vote against former state Sen. Cal Cunningham (D), national Democrats preferred candidate though Cunningham lost to Sen. Thom Tillis (R) after details of a sordid affair sunk his campaign.

Thirty-six states will elect governors this year, including eight states where incumbents are not seeking a new term. Democrats have strong chances to pick up seats in Maryland and Massachusetts, where popular Republican governors are retiring, while Republicans are aiming to knock off Democratic incumbents in key states like Wisconsin, Michigan, Maine and Kansas.

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Democrats spend big in GOP governor primaries - The Hill

Shortly after the draft supreme court opinion overturning Roe v Wade was leaked to the public, Californias governor, Gavin Newsom, condemned conservative attacks on abortion rights and pledged that his state would be a sanctuary for those seeking to end a pregnancy.

But Newsom also directed some of his most pointed remarks toward fellow Democrats.

Where the hell is my party? Wheres the Democratic party? Newsom said. This is a concerted, coordinated effort, and yes, theyre winning. They are. They have been. Lets acknowledge that. We need to stand up. Wheres the counter-offensive?

Even as Democrats have denounced the courts provisional decision to overturn Roe and vowed to defend abortion rights, their efforts at the federal level have largely failed to live up to their rhetoric. A vote last Wednesday in the Senate to codify Roe and protect abortion rights nationwide was once again blocked, as Democrat Joe Manchin joined all 50 Republican senators in opposing the bill.

The failure of Democrats in Washington to shore up abortion rights, even as they control the White House and both chambers of Congress, has complicated the partys messaging to voters about the likely end of Roe. Some frustrated Democrats are instead turning their attention to state and local policies that could protect reproductive rights even if Roe falls.

Abortion rights supporters frustration with Democratic inaction at the federal level has been on display since the draft opinion leaked earlier this month. At a protest outside the supreme court last week, abortion rights demonstrators chanted: Do something, Democrats.

Progressive members of Congress have also argued for the urgent need to pass federal abortion rights legislation, calling on senators to amend the filibuster to get a bill approved.

People elected Democrats precisely so we could lead in perilous moments like these - to codify Roe, hold corruption accountable, [and] have a President who uses his legal authority to break through Congressional gridlock on items from student debt to climate, progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on Twitter.

The stakes of Democratic inaction are high, as abortion is certain or likely to be outlawed in 26 states if the court follows through with overturning Roe. Last weekend, the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, warned that Republicans may go even further if they regain control of the White House and Congress, floating the idea of a national abortion ban.

Republicans would probably face widespread public outcry if they advanced a nationwide ban. A poll %09https:/www.monmouth.edu/polling-institute/reports/monmouthpoll_US_051122/">released by Monmouth University last week found that just 9% of Americans support the idea of a national ban, while 64% support keeping abortion legal. However, abortion rights advocates warn that the threat of a nationwide ban will be real if Republicans take back Congress and the White House.

Republicans are definitely passing a national abortion ban once they have the power to do it, said Shaunna Thomas, co-founder and executive director of the reproductive rights group UltraViolet. Theyve been signaling they were going to pack the supreme court in order to overturn Roe. I dont think people took them seriously enough. And so people really need to learn the lesson here and take them very, very seriously on this point.

Progressive groups like UltraViolet have called on Democrats to amend the Senate filibuster, which would allow a bill codifying Roe to get through the upper chamber with a simple majority of support. But Manchin and fellow Democrat Kyrsten Sinema have made it clear they will not support a filibuster carve-out, and the vote last Wednesday failed to even attract the 50 votes that would be necessary if the Senate rules were changed.

Our constitutional right to abortion has to be more important than their loyalty to arcane Senate procedures that are not even laws, Thomas said. People watched them carve the filibuster out to raise the debt ceiling. If they can do it for that, they should be able to do it for this.

Democratic congressional leaders have encouraged members of their party to direct their criticism toward Republicans rather than each other. In a Dear colleague letter to House Democrats last week, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, warned of Republicans wish for a national abortion ban and said their policies could even criminalize contraceptive care, in vitro fertilization and post-miscarriage care.

Make no mistake: once Republicans have dispensed with precedent and privacy in overturning Roe, they will take aim at additional basic human rights, Pelosi said.

Christina Reynolds, vice-president of communications at Emilys List, which promotes pro-choice female candidates for office, insisted that voters who support abortion rights will know to hold Republicans accountable in the midterm elections this November. Republicans have gotten us here in a large number of ways, Reynolds said.

But Democratic candidates running for office this fall will have to paint a longer-term picture of how the party plans to protect abortion rights, even if they cannot prevent the court from overturning Roe.

The Democratic party has to move away from this message about how we can fix everything right away, said Kelly Dietrich, CEO of the National Democratic Training Committee. This is a lifetime struggle. Government is hard. We will need you to vote this November, next November and every November after that because the people who want to take away your rights arent going to stop.

In the meantime, Democrats have an opportunity to turn their attention to the state and local offices that may be able to help protect abortion rights if Roe falls, Dietrich argued.

The fight for the next 10-plus years is going to be at the state and local levels, he said. Its going to be in the state legislatures. Its going to be in the city councils and at all the different local government forums we have around the country that arent big and sexy.

Some of those efforts are already under way across the country.

In Michigan, where a 1931 abortion ban is still on the books and could go back into effect if Roe is overturned, the Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, has filed a lawsuit to block implementation of the law. Several county prosecutors also signed on to a statement saying they would not pursue criminal charges in connection to the 1931 law.

One of those prosecutors was Democrat Karen McDonald in Oakland county, the second-largest county in Michigan. She said that, despite her despair over the likely end of Roe, she was committed to finding ways to ensure her neighbors rights and healthcare access.

It is a sad, tragic moment, McDonald said. But I am not going to spend one minute of my energy letting that tear me away from what I think is absolutely critical right now, which is we all need to pay attention and support and fund and help elect [those candidates] who want to protect our right to choose.

Oakland county was once a Republican stronghold, but it has become increasingly Democratic in recent years. McDonald said she has heard from members of her community who previously supported Republicans and are now rethinking their politics in light of the supreme courts expected decision.

I know a lot of women who voted for Trump and are now saying I will never, ever ever, vote for a pro-life candidate. They just didnt think it would happen, McDonald said. So I think this is really turning politics on its head.

Thomas agreed that many Americans who support abortion rights seem to have been taken aback by the provisional decision to overturn Roe, even after Republicans obtained a 6-3 majority on the court. Conservatives have also been calling for the end of Roe for decades, and Trump promised to nominate anti-abortion justices to the supreme court.

I dont think its surprising that people had to see it to believe it, despite having heard this, particularly from Black and brown women who have been bearing the brunt of these attacks at the state level for a long time, Thomas said. As an organizer, I will tell you, its never too late to join the fight. And the time is really now.

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'We need to stand up': Democrats criticized for inaction on abortion - The Guardian US