Twenty-four hours to go (more or less) and the Trump nightmare will be over.
To mark this momentous occasion I’ve compiled a compendium of the most amusing/horrifying photos and video clips of the past four years. The photo above is, in my view, the defining picture of the Trump era, but it has lots of competition. I had to leave a lot on the cutting room floor in putting this together and, in fact, this article is so big I’m just posting the link (substack tells me it’s too large to email)! But you should click on it, because after four years of Trump we all need to laugh so we don’t start to cry.
Today, I’ve also got a bit of a palate cleanser. Earlier this month I spoke to Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Fred Logevall about his new biography of John F. Kennedy. Rather than publish the rather lengthy transcript it has become my inaugural podcast for Truth and Consequences. In our conversation we touched on Kennedy’s childhood; his remarkable self-confidence, even at a young age; whether the patriarch of the Kennedy clan, Joe Kennedy Sr. was a good father; Kennedy’s innate political skills; how JFK is often misread as a Cold War hawk; and the pitfalls of writing a biography on someone you either don’t like or like too much. Give it a listen, it was a fascinating discussion and we don’t talk about Donald Trump!
In case you missed it, I had some thoughts over the weekend on Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse’s efforts to deflect attention from his own moral cowardice during the Trump years. For the Boston Globe, I wrote about Joe Biden’s ambitious and progressive COVID-relief plans and why they just might make it through a divided US Senate.
Reading
Here are a few other articles worth checking out. Social media misinformation dropped dramatically after Donald Trump was permanently banned from Twitter. I strongly recommend reading Luke Mogelson’s dispatch from the Capitol riots. The people who invaded the Capitol are not the world’s smartest criminals. The New York Times takes a deep dive look at how the US so badly bungled the response to the coronavirus pandemic. Trump’s supporters are not moving on from the 2020 election.
This announcement didn’t get much attention, but President-elect Joe Biden’s decision to appoint Rohit Chopra to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is a big deal. Chopra is an ally of Senator Elizabeth Warren, who came up with the idea of the CFPB, so one can expect that the bureau, which was neutered by the Trump administration, will be playing a more active regulatory role in a Biden administration. This move comes at the same time that Biden nominated Gary Gensler to head the Securities and Exchange Commission. Gensler, also a Warren ally, has a reputation for being an aggressive bank regulator.
In addition, Biden plan to unveil immigration legislation that would provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, but doesn’t include provisions for further strengthening the border or increased deportations. Those were both moves that the Obama administration made in the hopes that it would entice Republicans to support compromise immigration legislation. It didn’t work. When you combine that with Biden’s COVID relief bill, which included a full-throated call for a $15 minimum wage, and dismissed concerns that it’s large price tag would increase the deficit there’s a lot to like here. Biden is not playing the usual Democratic game of trying to appear moderate or appease Republicans with preemptive political compromises (like Obama’s increased deportations). Instead, he’s clearly laying out an unabashedly progressive agenda, putting in place individuals who will carry it out, and demonstrating little apparent concern for the blowback he is likely to get from Republicans. That’s not just progressive … it’s progress.
Watching
This is amazing video journalism by the Washington Post that looks at how close the rioters got to being face-to-face with members of Congress. Also, check out Alec MacGillis’s curated piece examining videos posted to the right-wing social media site, Parler, from the insurrection.