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This post originally appeared on Media Matters.

Amid a heated atmosphere of anti-media Republican rhetoric that has at times turned into violence against journalists, McClatchy is reporting that Republican plans for the 2018 elections will feature a deliberate strategy to help GOP candidates win elections fueled by public hatred of reporters.

An open campaign against an institutional pillar of a democratic state would be a frightening thing to watch. Theres also every reason to believe it could work.

After all, President Donald Trump was elected last November after a campaign that regularly featured scathing personal insults against individual journalists and the institution writ large. His speeches were built in part on jeering at the press to the delight of his audience, including disgustingly ridiculing the physical disability of a reporter who had debunked one of his falsehoods. He threatened to change the laws to make it easier to sue reporters and to use the power of the state to retaliate against news outlets whose coverage he disliked. His campaign manager manhandled a reporter during a campaign event.

Trumps attacks on the press regularly resulted in oceans of unfavorable coverage (but little collective action of the sort that might have brought a change in the candidates behavior). Commentators warned that he was setting the stage for authoritarianism. His mockery of the reporters disability was turned into negative campaign advertisements that were in heavy rotation in swing states.

He won.

In an election decided by so few votes, it is extremely difficult to determine the cause of victory. I wouldnt go so far as to say he won because of his attacks on the press. But they were self-evidently not disqualifying.

Targeting the press might not move swing voters in the 2018 midterms indeed, polls show that voters broadly disapprove of such attacks. But that wouldnt be the purpose of such an effort. As McClatchy explains, this is a base mobilization strategy aimed at getting Trump die-hards to the polls on Election Day.

Those voters are primed for such an effort. Conservatives have inculcated their voters for decades with claims that journalists are biased liberals who cannot be trusted. When Trump took that argument to its natural conclusion, lashing out at reporters at his rallies as a candidate and then as president, those voters cheered him on. Since his election, the president has sought to delegitimize the press and other sources of critical information about his administration, condemning their reports as deliberate efforts to push fake news.

Voters take their cues from their partys leaders, and the available polling data show that the GOP base has followed the president as he has increasingly wallowed in these anti-media conspiracy theories. Polls show that four out of five Republicans agree with Trumps statement that certain news organizations are the enemy of the American people, like the way he talks about the press, and believe the mainstream press frequently publishes fake news. Trust in the press has fallen throughout the public at large in recent years, but the numbers among the Republicans the reported strategy seeks to target are truly catastrophic.

The hermetically sealed media bubble that conservatives have built in recent decades serves both as a cause of this plummeting support for journalists and a key weapon for Republican strategists seeking to utilize this anti-press strategy. In order to build their audiences, outlets like Fox News and Breitbart.com regularly tell their viewers and readers that the mainstream press cannot be trusted. This has led to the creation of a parallel right-wing media apparatus that ensures conservatives can detach from reality in favor of a steady news diet of alternative facts. Those outlets are eager to assist the White House by delegitimizing any negative information reported about the president as more evidence of a biased press, and they will surely assist Republicans in their efforts to win votes by slamming the media.

It is dangerous to weaponize criticism ofinstitutions at the heart of the democratic process for partisan gain. Such an effort echoes ones weve seen before in countries that used to be free. The consequences of this strategy could be dire for our political system.

Republican politicians should refuse to engage in these tactics. Republican leaders should disavow this strategy immediately. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI)* and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have an outsized influence on the political strategies their candidates use by virtue of the huge war chests they help assemble. If they want to stop it, they can.

Unfortunately, there is little evidence so far that they will. To this point, GOP leaders have responded to the presidents attacks on the press with polite statements of disagreement and disdain for the idea that they should have to respond to his statements. Since the campaign, they have put their desire for political victories over any worries about the disastrous downsides of Trumps presidency. Meanwhile, rank-and-file members have started parroting Trumps framing of negatives stories as fake news.

With Trumps agenda stalled and few legislative accomplishments to point to, conservatives have seized on a breathtakingly cynical strategy to maintain power. The most frightening part is that it might work.

*CORRECTION: This post originally identified Ryan as representing Ohio he is the representative for Wisconsins 1st District.

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Republican strategists say they will run against the media in 2018. Here's why that could work. - Salon

On the eve of the Democratic National Convention, protesters march for action on climate change. (AP Images / Sipa USA)

Greg Lemons is the staunchly Republican mayor of Abita Springs, a bite-size town in rural Louisiana that both draws its water and gets its name from the famous and pristine aquifer that flows beneath its soil. A chatty and cheerful fellow, Lemons like to think of himself as a pragmatic leader, the sort of person who strives to fix problems instead of fight about them. Nevertheless, in late 2014, he found himself in a legal brawl.

It was autumn of that year when he first heard that the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources had approved an exploratory drilling permit for a proposed fracking project just outside of town. The project, which had been approved despite the mayors protests, didnt sit well with him. He feared it would degrade the communitys environment, disrupt its quality of life, and ruin its reputation.

We are very sensitive about our water here, says Lemons, adding that much of his towns economic activity, including the locally based Abita Brewing Company, is based on the renowned quality of its aquifer. I was not content to stay silent about it.

In late December 2014, he sued, arguing in state court that the drilling permit violated local zoning ordinances. Though Abita Springs quickly lost its legal case and exploratory drilling commenced, the fracking project ultimately folded for financial reasons. In the meantime, Lemons learned some important lessons.

While he fought the frackers, with their noxious chemicals and earth-shattering drills, the mayor started reading up on alternatives to oil, gas, and coal. He educated himself about solar panels and wind farms, about energy-efficient lighting and electrical vehicles. He learned about the jobs that these technologies could help create and the budget savings they might enable. Being a business-minded member of the GOP, he liked what he saw. Soon enough, he was enamored with the economic and environmental promise of green energy.

It convinced me that we need to develop sustainable energy sources and we need to start now, he says. We should have started a long time ago.

So, alongside other residents in his town of 2,500, he set to work. He formed a committee to research and develop renewable-energy plans for the city. He started replacing all the towns light bulbs with energy-efficient alternatives. He initiated talks with local electricity providers, hoping to obtain solar-powered street lights, install solar panels on municipal buildings, and perhaps even develop a solar farm outside of town in the months and years ahead. He crafted a plan to bring electric vehicle charging stations to Abita Springs. And in March of this year, in order to signal an official commitment to these lofty goals, Mayor Lemons joined the Sierra Clubs Ready for 100 campaign, announcing that his town will strive to run on 100 percent renewable energy by 2030.

Little Abita Springs, in other words, is putting the Trump administration to shame. And its not alone. As the White House withdraws from the Paris climate agreement, as it capitulates to the reactionary agenda of fossil-fuel interests, small towns and large cities alike are stepping into the breach.

The very day Trump turned his back on Paris, 285 mayors across the country announced that they would still uphold the agreements goals. Thirty cities, meanwhile, have joined the Sierra Clubs Ready for 100 campaign, committing themselves entirely to renewable energy in the coming decades. And though large progressive centers like San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, often get the most attention, its tiny towns and small cities above all that have acted quicklyand with strong commitmentto reshape their energy economies to save money, create jobs, and combat climate change. From Abita Springs to Georgetown, Texas, and Greensburg, Kanas, little communities laboring out of the spotlight are walking away from fossil fuels, and fast.

There is a really diverse set of cities that have pledged to do this, says Shane Levy, a spokesperson for the Sierra Clubs Ready for 100 campaign. Some cities, like San Francisco, Madison, Boulder, which are more progressive, might be making the commitment out of concern for climate change. But a lot of it has to do with cost and autonomy, and some of the more rural and conservative cities are among the leaders in actually following up and making the transition.

Take, for example, Greensburg, Kansas, a tiny heartland town of 700 people that was nearly wiped off the map by a massive tornado back in 2007. After its harrowing run in with the weather, residents decided to rebuild the community around green energy. Just months after the tornado, the city council adopted a sustainable comprehensive plan that charted the course for obtaining renewable power. Five years later, Greensburg started getting every bit of its electricity from solar and geothermal sources as well as a 12.5 megawatt wind farm that sits outside the towns borders. Oil, gas, and coal have been cut out entirely.

Consider Georgetown, Texas, too. Its transition to renewable energy started in 2010, when students at locally based Southwestern University convinced officials there to work with the city-owned utility, Georgetown Utility Systems, to derive all the campuss electricity needs from wind and solar sources. Seeing the budgetary stability that decades-long, fixed-rate renewable energy contracts offered the school, the city soon followed suit and signed up for long-term renewable energy contracts of its own.

It was originally a business decision, says the citys conservative Republican mayor, Dale Ross. Our main mission was to mitigate two kinds of risk: the first was price volatility in the energy market and the second was regulatory risk from government policies. That was the challenge and we found the solution in wind and solar.

But then if you want to get philosophical, he adds, dont we have moral and ethical obligation to leave the planet in a better condition than we found it?

This year, Georgetown, which sits in the center of Texas oil-and-gas country, started getting all of its energy from wind and solar farms around the region. And, increasingly, its in good company.

Small cities like Burlington, Vermont, and Aspen, Colorado, also boast a 100 percent renewable status, while many others are close behind. Grand Rapids, Michigan, for instance, currently gets 27 percent of its energy from green sources and aims to run on 100 percent renewable energy by 2025. This past January, Bowling Green, Ohio, a town of 31,000, unveiled the largest solar farm in the state, a 20 megawatt public-private partnership that will power roughly 3,000 homes.

The very day Trump turned his back on Paris, 285 mayors announced that they would still uphold the agreement's goals.

We have had a sense that the environment and energy are nonpartisan issues here at the local level, says Bowling Green Councilman Daniel Gordon, a Democrat, who supported the project. We dont have debates about whether climate change is real, everyone agrees that it is.

Then there are towns and cities like Moab, Utah; Pueblo, Colorado; and, yes, Abita Springs that are just getting started.

LeAnn Pinniger Magee, who chairs the mayors Abita Committee for Energy Sustainability, says the towns first step is to install solar panels on its big electric welcome sign and also install an electric vehiclecharging station on site. The project, she estimates, will be completed this summer, and shortly afterward the town plans to launch a solar-powered street light pilot program that, if successful, could save it $20,000 a year in electricity costs.

We are just three months into this, she says but we have so much support from the community that we are confident that we can make some big changes within the next five years.

Mayor Lemons, for his part, likens realizing his towns renewable-energy dreams to eating an elephant.

You take one bite at a time, he says.

It will take a lot of small bites to make up for the Trump administrations decision to skip the meal altogether. Then again, there are a lot of committed people at the table, and more are joining every day.

On June 2, the day after Trump withdrew from the Paris agreement, the mayor of Pittsburgh announced his citys intention to generate all of its electricity from renewable energy by 2035. Santa Barbara, California, soon followed suit, declaring on June 6 that it would like to run entirely on renewable energy by 2030. Later this month, meanwhile, the nonpartisan US Conference of Mayors will vote on a resolution that would declare its support for 100 percent renewable energy in cities nationwide.

Its up to us as leaders to creatively implement clean energy solutions for our cities across the nation, said Steve Benjamin, mayor of Columbia, South Carolina, and vice president of the US Conference of Mayors, in a recent statement about the proposed resolution. Its not merely an option now; its imperative.

Indeed, whether or not the fossil-fuel lobbyists and their friends in the Trump administration want it, the clean- and renewable-energy revolution is well underwayand its urban.

Read more here:
Even Republican Mayors Are Rejecting Trump's Energy Policies - The Nation.

News & Observer

NC Republican group's $100 offer to debate anyone News & Observer In Asheville, the Buncombe County Republican Party wants to hold a debate with a group that doesn't share its conservative views. The party announced Monday that it will make a $100 donation to charity if any organized political or neighborhood group ...

More here:
NC Republican group's $100 offer to debate anyone - News & Observer

Greg Gianforte, the congressman-elect who punched and "bodyslammed" a Guardian reporter, will perform 40 hours of community service and pay a $300 fine after pleading guilty to assault. He must also attend 20 hours of anger management courses.

Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs was asking Gianforte a question on May 24 when the Republican candidate threw him to the ground.

"A Gallatin County judge sentenced Gianforte to 40 hours of community service, 20 hours of anger management classes and a $300 fine," Montana Public Radio's Eric Whitney reports.

According to Whitney Bermes, a reporter for the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the judge initially gave Gianforte four days in jail, where under the terms of a jail work program he would be able to spend two of those days working.

The judge, for whatever reason, reportedly change the sentence within minutes to specify community service instead of jail time.

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After physically attacking a reporter and allowing his spokesman to lie about it in an official statement, Republican congressman-elect Greg Gianforte has formally apologized to his victim. He is also donating $50,000 to the Committee to Protect Journalists. My physical response to your legitimate question was unprofessional, unacceptable, and unlawful. As both a candidate for []

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Excerpt from:
Republican Greg Gianforte, who punched reporter, sentenced to 40 hours community service - Boing Boing

Tom MacArthur. Photo: Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images

House Republicans are scared. Last week, Arizona congresswoman Martha McSally warned donors that her political prospects were falling with President Trumps approval numbers. I have an R next to my name and right now, this environment would have me not prevail, McSally said in a leaked recording. After winning her district by 14 points last year, a recent poll found McSally trailing a generic Democrat.

And shes far from the only Republican who sees a big blue wave cresting.

Republicans are growing increasingly worried that they will lose the House of Representatives, Politico wrote in its Playbook Monday morning. The pervasive pessimism comes as there continues to be a dearth of legislative victories, and a toxic political environment that appears to be worsening.

For Politico, the upshot of this pessimism is clear: Republicans will be less willing to take risks as they shift into political survival mode.

But that begs the question: For House Republicans, what constitutes a political risk?

After all, the House GOP was already navigating a toxic political environment in early May. And yet, when the time came to vote on a health-care bill that less than 20 percent of the public supported, self-styled moderate Republicans from competitive districts toed the party line.

At the end of the day, all those town-hall protests and calls to congressional offices did put the fear of 2018 into their hearts. But that fear pushed them further to the right. As the Washington Post reported:

Moderates considered the risk of voting for a bill that condemned thousands of poor people to preventable deaths for the sake of increasing income inequality. Then, they contemplated the risk of bucking their partys leadership, donors, and base for the sake of protecting nonaffluent cancer patients.

And most decided they were much more afraid of doing the latter.

This is important context for Tom MacArthurs weekend visit to Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster. MacArthur represents a New Jersey district whose registered voters are only 2 percent more Republican than Democratic. He was co-chairman of the House GOPs Tuesday Group, a caucus of self-identified moderate Republicans. And yet, when his partys widely despised health-care bill died an untimely death, he decided to spearhead the effort to bring it back to life.

Now, hes counting on the widely despised president and GOP donor class to get him reelected. As Politico reports:

The event was closed to press, but MacArthur campaign strategist Chris Russell said Trumps remarks focused on MacArthurs role in revamping the House GOPs Obamacare replacement bill.[Trump] talked about the health care fight, Russell said. [He was] very complimentary of Tom and his efforts on health care and, moving forward, sees him as a leader in Washington.

MacArthur will be a test case for whether the high turnout rate of elderly white people combined with the deep pockets of right-wing billionaires can insulate House Republicans from public opinion (and/or democratic accountability).

Only 8 percent of Americans want the health-care bill that MacArthur revamped to pass the Senate. Only 38 percent like having Donald Trump as their president.

MacArthur thinks his survival depends on preaching to that small, well-funded choir. Judging by developments in the Senate, many of his fellow GOP moderates think the same.

Rightwing media is encouraging Trump to pull the trigger. And the only people that could punish him for doing so are congressional Republicans.

Keep an eye on what African-American voters and D.C. suburbanites do.

Body-slamming a journalist has worked out pretty well for Greg Gianforte.

But there was some good news for the White House in the decision.

Almost 10,000 commuters will be affected and have been instructed to warn their employers in advance.

Reince Priebus called his job a blessing, while Pence with greatest privilege of my life.

Republican aide, when asked if the public can see the bill, replies, We arent stupid.

The public can tune in at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

His one-year-old centrist party is poised to win an unlikely majority in Frances parliament, bolstering his presidential mandate.

It was technically true we did not have a counter-intelligence file case open on then President-elect Trump. Vindication?

Tom MacArthur represents a swing district in a blue state. But hes still more afraid of losing the conservative base than the center.

A group of enterprising lawyers thinks it might be, whether all roads lead to Russia or not.

They were photographed trudging toward their new home on Sunday evening.

Their attorneys general will argue that the president has violated the Constitutions emoluments clause.

Trump may have helped provoke a dangerous escalation of tensions in the Persian Gulf.

Watching a risky career move unfold in real time.

The president is reportedly worried about large-scale protests against him.

James Comey wasnt the only one receiving unwanted phone calls from the president.

Read the original post:
Vulnerable House Republican Ties Himself to Trump - New York Magazine