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Seth Meyers

Seth Meyers took aim at the Democratic party on Thursday Night, shifting focus from his usual target, Donald Trump. Obviously, its critical that we as a nation do everything in our power to prevent this obviously unhinged demagogue and his allies in the Republican party from regaining power, he said. And that unfortunately is where the Democrats come in. Oof. Its like if you said Avengers assemble, and only Hawkeye showed up.

If youve been paying any attention at all to politics, you know that Democrats are in dire straits right now, he continued. You dont need a poll to tell you that. All you have to do is watch any Joe Biden press conference with the sound off. Hes always doing that thing where he leans over the podium like every question is causing him physical pain.

Things are bad for Democrats, he added, and thats not just me saying that. Meyers pointed to the California representative Katie Porter, who warned her Democratic colleagues to act immediately to ease the cost of living under inflation or face dire consequences at the polls. After an emotional speech about her familys struggle with inflation prices during a private caucus meeting last week, Porter told Politico that it seemed like the first time the personal toll of inflation had sunk in for many of her colleagues.

Just to be clear, Im not saying inflation is somehow the Democrats fault, said Meyers. They just happen to be in charge now, so its on them to do something about it.

It is on Democrats to do something to improve peoples lives, he added, calling on lawmakers to extend the child tax credit, invest in green infrastructure, forgive student loan debt or expand healthcare. Look, I get it Joe Manchin is a giant ass ache. The dude rakes in cash from fossil fuels, drives a Maserati and lives in a yacht called Almost Heaven, which sounds less like the name of a yacht and more like the title of an early 2000s romcom starring Ryan Reynolds and Mandy Moore.

Manchin has been stringing Democrats along for over a year now, Meyers continued, so Democrats just have to call his bluff and say what will you accept? We will pass it. Which is why its frustrating, Meyers said, to read reports that Democrats are hesitating to put together a new Build Back Better bill reflecting Manchins terms after he killed it five months ago.

Call Manchins bluff and ask him what he wants, Meyers concluded. If Manchins bullshitting and his answer is actually that hes opposed to everything which is very possible then at least well know. And we can move on.

In Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel remarked on the first official report by North Korea of Covid in the country. How did Covid even get into North Korea? Did Kid Rock play Pyongyang and not tell us about it? he wondered.

Of course, the truth is, theres probably been many cases of Covid in North Korea, he continued. The country just hasnt acknowledged them for fear of angering their leaders mighty scrotum. The news, which state media called a major national emergency, has prompted a nationwide lockdown. So if you live in North Korea, just keep doing what youve been doing for the past 40 years, Kimmel said.

Kimmel pivoted to remarks by Joe Biden at a Democratic fundraiser in response to the leaked supreme court draft opinion overturning Roe v Wade. The draft decision basically says theres no such thing as the right to privacy. If that holds ... mark my words: they are going to go after the supreme court decision on same-sex marriage, Biden said.

Theyll come for same-sex marriage, theyll come for interracial marriage, theyll outlaw that peanut butter that comes with the jelly in the same jar, Kimmel quipped. These guys they might as well just come out and say, listen, heres the real story: if we cant get laid, nobody else is going to have any fun either.

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Seth Meyers: It is on Democrats to do something to improve peoples lives - The Guardian

In the wake of theleaked Supreme Court draft opinionthat could lead to overturning the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade, South Dakota Senator John Thune told "CBS Mornings" that he believes the issue needs to be at the hands of the people and their elected officials.

"The question for a lot of people is going to be, is it human life, and what does that mean? I think what you're going to see is state legislatures... are going to have to find political consensus, and some states are probably going to define it differently," Thune said.

The Republican senator voted against aDemocratic-led billthis week to protect abortion access on the federal level.

All 50 Republicans plus Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia voted against the bill causing it to fail. Thune told "CBS Mornings" that Democrats "knew the bill was going to fail" but they are using the issue of abortion as a distraction to other issues.

"I think that they're looking for something to distract from the economy, inflation, the border, and some of the issues they'd rather not talk about. I think this is an issue, this is a clear pivot on their part to get on something they think can play offense with. But a lot of it will come down to the politics on this issue is very contentious, always has been... How that plays politically remains to be seen," he said.

Most polls, including a CBS News poll conducted in November, indicated that a majority of Americans supported leaving Roe in place. Thune said that polls do not consider the many different scenarios that come into play.

"If you look at the way this polls, Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision said that states interest becomes compelling at point of viability. Which keeps moving back. Right now, 65% of Americans don't think you should have abortions past the first trimester, so the end of the second or third trimester. 80% of Americans believe you shouldn't have them after the second trimester," he said. "We're really out of step with the world... Most European nations, France is 12 weeks, Germany is 12 weeks. Most countries have found a political consensus around restrictions."

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Sen. Thune says Democrats are using issue of abortion "to distract" - Yahoo News

The Great Depression lived up to its name. In the election year of 1932 alone, the U.S. economy lost a quarter of its value. Unsurprisingly, Democrats, under the banner of Franklin Roosevelt, won big that year. Roosevelt took 42 of 48 states, and Democrats picked up nearly 100 seats in the House and 12 in the Senate. An economic rally in 1936 helped produce another big win for Democrats that year. Further economic progress and fears of war garnered a third win for Roosevelt in 1940, and satisfaction with the wars progress brought a fourth in 1944. Harry Trumans come-from-behind victory in 1948 secured five consecutive terms 20 years of Democratic control of the White House, and Democrats held the Congress for 18 of those.

None of that was inevitable. If Al Smith had somehow beaten Herbert Hoover in 1928, the crash would have occurred on the Democrats watch, and they would have likely incurred the blame. If Roosevelt had followed tradition and limited himself to two terms, perhaps Republican Wendell Willkie could have won in 1940, possibly giving his party credit for World War IIs outcome. But the way history panned out, Democrats had a very long stretch of national dominance which had even longer echoes on the Supreme Court.

Another peculiarity of American political history was in play there, as well. White southerners, among the most conservative people in the country on some issues (notably race), were strongly aligned with the Democrats for much of that period, thanks to their longstanding antipathy for the party of Lincoln. This ended up tempering some of the Democrats agenda but also securing large governing majorities for them.

The result was that Democrats almost exclusively named federal judges and Supreme Court justices for decades. Even when Republican Dwight Eisenhower assumed the presidency, many of his court appointees were relatively moderate (owing to Democrats congressional dominance and his own moderation). His administration was followed by another eight years of Democratic dominance. Of the 22 open Supreme Court seats between 1933 and 1968, 17 were filled by Democratic presidents. And Eisenhowers five nominees included Earl Warren and William Brennan, two future progressive icons.

William J. Brennan, nominated by President Dwight Eisenhower to be a Supreme Court justice, sits in a hearing room on Feb. 26, 1957, as the Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing on his nomination.|AP Photo

Democrats dominance of the courts during this era allowed for the success and duration of the New Deal for decades to come. Most of the progress on social issues that we associate with the Supreme Court emanate from that era. School integration, the right to legal counsel, abortion rights, the right to privacy, access to contraceptives, one-person-one-vote representation, minimum wage laws and more are products of that period of Democratic dominance. And as political scientist Kevin McMahon has written, Roosevelts appointments to the court paved the way for later civil rights advances.

In recent decades, however, those large Democratic majorities have faded. White southerners are overwhelmingly Republican these days. Today, the two parties are fiercely competitive at the national level; there really hasnt been a dominant party in the last three decades. And the fact that smaller states have an outsized influence in the Senate and the Electoral College means that Republicans get a bit of an edge in naming people to the courts. Republicans have filled six of the nine open Supreme Court seats in the 21st century, despite only winning the popular presidential vote once.

And some of that seems the result of chance, as well. A few tens of thousands of votes cast differently or just cast in different states would have meant a different outcome in the 2016 election and a very different court as a result.

The fact that chance played a role in reshaping the law should not minimize the important work political activists did throughout this time. In the mid-20th century, part of the progress Democrats made came from labor unions, civil rights activists, feminist organizations and others who saw the opportunities created by the court and pressed their advantages. Their work did more than just change policy; it changed beliefs about civil rights, womens role in society, the status of LGBTQ people, and more. Many beliefs that would have seemed unthinkably radical 100 years ago are largely taken for granted today in a way that a conservative Supreme Court cant reverse.

And the likely ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade wont be exactly due to chance either it was the result of a long intellectual push by legal thinkers on the right, as well as Mitch McConnells norm-defying decision to prevent hearings on Barack Obamas Supreme Court nominee throughout 2016 and then rush through Donald Trumps final pick in 2020.

Then-President Barack Obama walks with Judge Merrick B. Garland before announcing his nomination to the Supreme Court on March 16, 2016, in Washington, D.C.|Mark Wilson/Getty Images

With that Democratic electoral dominance gone and the judges it produced long since departed from the bench, what weve seen in recent years is an erosion or reversal of many of the achievements of the mid-20th century court. Voting rights have been hollowed out, gerrymandering is permitted and abortion is on track to be curtailed or outlawed in nearly half the states, and this court does not appear to be nearly done with its work.

In many ways, this is a return to a traditional pattern. Through its long history, the Supreme Court has usually been a pretty conservative actor, in several senses of the word. It places limits on government action and a bias toward the status quo, but has also tended to rule in favor of established power. The court of the mid-20th century was an historic aberration, and it took a highly unusual set of circumstances for that to happen.

Its not at all clear where this leads us, but liberals should not assume that history is on their side. If the courts are going to steer things back in the direction charted during the Democratic century, it will take a lot of organizing work and an ability to take advantage of the opportunities that chance provides.

Read this article:
The Supreme Court and the End of the Democratic Century - POLITICO

The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set newsroom policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or onbangordailynews.com.

The outer bounds of our political discourse seem to be stretching further afield. Elon Musk tweeted a cartoonreflecting this at the end of April.

In short, it shows Musk as a center-left, self-described liberal in 2008. Fast forward to 2021, the left flank is so far away that Musk is now center-right, despite not having changed his position. Its a modern take on Ronald Reagans famous quote: I didnt leave the Democratic Party. The party left me.

For political science nerds, the arena of mainstream political debate is called the Overton window. The quips from Musk and Reagan suggest that the Democrats are moving further left and once-mainstream Democrats are now on the right side of the political spectrum.

Anecdotes seem to prove that out. John Martin the Earl of Eagle Lake was once one of the most powerful Democrats in the state. For decades, he led the Maine House as speaker and held a firm grasp on his caucus. If you wanted to get Democrats to do something, the road went through Martin.

Now, he is seemingly retiringfrom service in Augusta. And according to the Bangor Daily News analysis, he was one of the Democrats most likely to buck his party over the past two years.

That is a world of difference.

History is instructive as well. Reading the national Democratic and RepublicanParty platforms from 1996 gives context. Democrats back then stated unequivocally the first responsibility of government is law and order. Their solution? Nothing is more effective in the fight against crime than police officers on the beat, engaged in community policing.

That is a far cry from defund the police.

Democrats in 1996 stated [w]e cannot tolerate illegal immigration and we must stop it.

They proclaimed they had worked hard over the last four years to rein in big government, slash burdensome regulations, eliminate wasteful programs, and shift problem-solving out of Washington and back to people and communities who understand their situations best.

This was good stuff.

Polling also hintsthat todays Democrats are further left than their forebears. Pew and Gallup have decades of data to fall back on.

In 1997, 28 percent of Democrats believed abortion should be legal under any circumstance. That number spiked to 49 percent in 2020. Nineteen percent of Republicans believed it should always be illegal back in 1997; that increased to 27 percent in 2020. Meanwhile, 59 percent of 2020s Republicans believed it should be legal in some circumstances.

In 2001, 72 percent of Republicans and 60 percent of Democrats believed taxes were too high. In 2021, 60 percent of Republicans still held that view a 12 percent drop while only 39 percent of Democrats felt the same, a 21 percent decrease.

There are some places the GOP has shifted leftward gay marriage and cannabis, most notably. I cant find any policy where Democrats have, on average, moved rightward.

It creates an interesting dynamic. Departing state Sen. Chloe Maxmin a clear progressive will be hitting the book circuitwith her new tome entitled Dirt Road Revival. Im looking forward to reading it; it is reported to be the handbook for Democrats to recapture rural communities like the majority of Maine.

Whether Maxmins prescription is effective or even heeded is yet to be seen. The recent poll on Maines upcoming election was telling. Diving into the detailsshows voters outside the major parties breaking 39 percent to 32 percent in favor of former Gov. Paul LePage.

The Overton window is about as wide open as it has ever been. Democrats have pushed towards the left flank. Will they extend too far and defenestrate themselves? Or do progressives have a handbook to bring voters along with them?

Well find out. But we are in a world where John Martin is among the most likely to oppose the Democratic Party, so anything can happen.

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When John Martin is one of the Democrats most likely to buck the party, you know it has changed - Bangor Daily News

Democrats on Capitol Hill are sounding alarms this week over the possibility that Donald Trump could return to Twitter, warning that providing the former president with such a powerful megaphone could lead to violence on par with last years Capitol riot.

Trumpwas bannedpermanently from Twitter on Jan. 8, 2021, just two days after a mob of his supporters attacked the Capitol in a failed effort to overturn President Bidens election win.

But with billionaire Elon Musk poised to take over the highly influential company, Trump may soon be back on the platform that helped propel his stunning political rise. Indeed, Musk on Tuesdaysaidthe ban was flat-out stupid and would be rescinded if and when his $44 billion takeover offer is finalized.

The would-be reversal has been hailed by Trumps allies and other conservatives, who are characterizing it as a victory for free speech over the woke policies of the nations Big Tech companies.

Trump has said he has no intention of returning to Twitter, though it remains to be seen if the allure of the 80 million followers he had amassed is enough to persuade him. But the prospect of Trumps return to the platform is stirring new fears from Democrats, many of whom were in the Capitol during the riot and fear another violent episode.

Why the concern?

Because he started an insurrection, the f idiot, said Rep. Juan Vargas (D-Calif.). And thats my fear that hed start violence again.

Vargas is hardly alone.

Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) stressed the importance of protecting free speech, but noted that even the First Amendment is not absolute. Because of Trumps history using Twitter to promote disinformation, lies, [and] ignite a very aggressive behavior from the general population, he suggested the 45th president should remain barred from the platform.

Its a tool that is sort of like the backbone of democracy, but you cant yell fire in a crowded theater, Espaillat said. To some degree, [Trump] has been irresponsible with it and dangerous with it. So for him to have access again to that is troubling, because he already has a pattern of behavior that has put democracy in danger. And we all saw what happened on Jan. 6.

Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) delivered a similar message. While Chu predicted that Trumps return to Twitter would inevitably lead to a flood of outrageous statements that might help her own party, she stressed that the threat of violence outweighs all other factors.

If he continues to incite the people towards violence, which he did with Jan. 6, then he should not be on [Twitter], she said. Because I draw the line at violence, hate crimes, things that would do harm to people. And hes shown that he will do that.

If Democrats are virtually united in their opposition to Trumps return to Twitter, however, theres less agreement about Congresss role in determining the outcome. Some lawmakers said that, because Twitter is a private enterprise, theres little the federal government can do to dictate its guidelines and content.

Thats a private company, said Vargas. I dont think we can do that.

Others disagreed, arguing Congress has a crucial role to play in establishing corporate guidelines a role thats particularly vital when it pertains to the massively influential world of technology and social media.

We have to decide in Congress, too, what the rules of the road need to be, said Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), a former Microsoft executive who now heads the New Democrat Coalition.I dont think that it should just be purely an arbitrary decision of a CEO of a company. I think Congress has to set the rules.

Trump leaned heavily on Twitter as a way to promote his unorthodox candidacy and churn countless headlines during his stunning ascension to the White House in 2016. His success on the platform paid enormous dividends, allowing him to build a massive base of supporters drawn to his unvarnished observations on national events and no-holds-barred approach to campaigning.

The gush of tweets continued throughout his time in office until the final weeks.

After the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, Twitter, which like other tech platforms had given world leaders wider latitude than other users, took the remarkable step of barring Trump from its platform, saying the president posed a threat of sparking additional violence.

After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence, the company wrote two days after the riot.

Republicans, already entrenched in a fight against cancel culture, lambasted the decision, accusing Twitter of censoring Trump only because he was a popular conservative voice.

Musk, the libertarian-minded founder of Tesla and the worlds wealthiest man, has long criticized Twitters policies, particularly when it came to culling voices from the platform. On Tuesday, he said the ban on Trump was not correct and that he would reverse it if he succeeds in acquiring Twitter.

Permanent bans should be extremely rare and really reserved for accounts that are bots, or scam, spam accounts, Musk said during a Financial Times summit on the future of automobiles. I think that was a mistake, because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.

Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who represents much of Silicon Valley, said hes planning to talk to Musk directly on the topic in the coming weeks. His advice, Khanna said, would be for Musk to establish a sturdy system of independent governance that would take the tough decisionmaking like questions of whether to ban certain users out of the hands of any one company leader.

I dont know why anyone would want to be making all the calls on Twitter. Its got to be one of the most controversial jobs in America, Khanna said. So to the extent that he can set up independent structures of governance to make those decisions, I think the better.

Khanna, like DelBene, argued for Congresss role in creating certain federal guidelines to govern powerful tech companies like Twitter. But unlike other Democrats, he also questioned the logic and legality of keeping Trump off of those popular platforms, especially if he runs for the presidency again in 2024.

There have got to be strong guardrails. And if there is further incitement of violence, then there have to be consequences, Khanna said. But I dont see how, if he becomes the nominee of the Republicans in 24 as a serious contender, how you can keep him off some of these public forums.

Link:
Democrats sound alarm about Musk bringing Trump back to Twitter - The Hill