Desi Doyen is on the money at the end of today’s BradCast when she cites a Twitter user who recently asserted: “The GOP has become a virus: it now exists solely to replicate itself.” If you’ve yet to notice, the 160 days between now and the critical 2020 Presidential election will be about little more for Republicans than a desperate attempt to suppress certain voters; to game the results of those who do manage to vote; and, of course, to do anything possible to distract from the fact that more than 100,000 Americans have now tragically died on Trump’s watch over just the past 3 months, tanking the economy in the bargain, thanks to his disastrously failed response to the coronavirus. We discuss all of those things on today’s program. [Audio link to the full show is posted below.]
First, Trump today is pretending to be furious about the fact that Twitter placed a very polite “Get the facts about mail-ballots” link under two of his misleading tweets on Tuesday about absentee voting fraud. He is feigning outrage, claiming the company is biased against Republicans and that he has the power to shut them down. The RNC and Trump’s campaign, of course, are all playing along with the phony fury, because they love playing both victim and strongman at the same time, and because it all helps distract the media from his ongoing unspeakable failures as President.
In fact, not only did Twitter do him a favor by placing those links on his tweets, helping to bring attention to his disinformation (which can also been seen as instructions for his followers on how to defraud the November election), but the company didn’t even bother to label his most offensive recent tweets, such as the ones in which he accused MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough of murdering a staffer who tragically died in the then-Florida Republican Congressman’s office in 2001.
At the same time, Facebook is allowing the Trump Campaign to run hundreds of paid, false political ads making the same misleading claims, as that social media company simply allows false paid-for propaganda ads from politicians, even if they are meant only to disinform, distract and undermine the 2020 election itself.
It should also be noted anytime any media outlet reports on Trump’s false claims about absentee voter fraud, that he is a voter fraud criminal himself, after voting by absentee in Florida where he has no legal permanent residence, in violation of state law.
As to voter suppression and Florida, we reported yesterday on the excellent ruling by a federal judge who gutted the GOP state legislature’s new poll tax law over the weekend. The measure was enacted to undermine a Constitutional Amendment adopted by state voters in a 2018 mid-term landslide. Despite the enormous bipartisan voter support for Amendment 4, which could allow some 1.5 million former felons to vote in the Sunshine State for the first time, Gov. Ron DeSantis (who barely won his election that same year) has now announced plans to appeal the court’s ruling that gutted the poll tax passed by Republicans in hopes of countering Amendment 4.
Florida, however, is hardly the only state in the union with GOP-controlled legislatures attempting to undermine recent bipartisan ballot box landslides. In Missouri, on the heels of the adoption of a landmark state Constitutional Amendment in 2018 meant to end extreme partisan gerrymandering in the Show-Me State, the gerrymandered GOP state legislature is rolling out what our guest today describes as REDMAP 2.0.
We’re joined by FairVote senior fellow DAVID DALEY who, literally, wrote the book on the GOP’s successful plan to take control of state legislatures in 2010 to implement crippling partisan gerrymanders during redistricting after that year’s decennial Census. Now, as Daley detailed in a recent New York Times op-ed, MO Republicans are rolling out an even more invidious scheme to undermine the voters’ intent with another Constitutional amendment on this November’s ballot.
He describes the plot — which includes an unprecedented plan to count only voting age citizens during redistricting — as a “dress rehearsal” for GOP-controlled states in the rest of the country. The plan, which would “dramatically” shift voting power from Democratic-leaning urban areas to white, Republican-leaning rural areas, is being adopted for nationwide roll-out by the rightwing American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), he reports.
“It changes the definition of representation and it overwhelmingly tilts this in the direction of conservatives and Republicans,” he tells me. “Total population has been the guiding standard that everybody has used for a long time. If you were to change this to say that the baseline that we’re going to count is not everybody, but only citizens who are over the age of 18, then what you are doing is eliminating huge numbers of people. You are curating and manicuring an electorate that is older, more rural, more conservative, and of course, whiter.”
As Dems are finally trying to win the last battle by rolling back what happened in 2010 a decade later, Daley argues they need to get ready — immediately — to figure out how to counter the GOP’s newest ugly war on this front.
“I don’t think Democrats are paying enough attention to this,” he says. “This is a Presidential election year. Democrats are thinking about the White House, about the Senate, about holding on to the House. But there’s so much more at risk in this election. This is the last election before these maps are going to be drawn for another decade. … The Republicans are going to have a 2020 ‘REDMAP 2.0’ plan, and if Democrats are not equally focused on playing offense and defense, they are going to get check-mated.”
We also discuss Daley’s newly published book, UNRIGGED: How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy‘, documenting recent, critical (and successful!) citizen-led efforts to restore democracy across the nation…
The Klausutis death has some interesting details, but if her relatives have no issue or problem with what occurred, then who am I to go further?
But many folks may not be old enough, or may not remember, just what was going on back in the summer of 2001, that provides the context for understanding
how far gone US corporate media was,
even in 2001.
The real disgrace back in 2001, was how the media handled 2 (TWO) different deaths to congressional aides in the summer of 2001.
All of the US press and media were all over the story when Rep Gary Condit’s aide Chandra Levy went missing in May, 2001.
The coverage was wall-to-wall for a couple months or so. CNN and the other corporate networks went saturation with the story, bathed in its salaciousness (they did have an affair, it was revealed), and it took up much of the full hour of the main broadcast, as I remember, for many weeks.
Then, (as I learned a couple of years later), aide Lori Klausutis was found dead IN THE CONGRESSIONAL OFFICE of Rep Joe Scarborough in mid-July of that year (only 2 months after Levy’s disappearance).
***For this story***, there was a total blackout in ALL media—-NO COVERAGE AT ALL. Nada. Zilch. N.O.T.H.I.N.G.
The big diff?
Condit—Democrat.
Scarborough—Republican.
During the massive coverage of the Levy/Condit story, rumours had been circulated, most likely by GOPers, that Rep Condit hired the a biker gang to kill Levy to cover up an affair.
Other rumours were circulated as well.
Levy’s body was found in a Washington park a year later. She was very possibly the victim of a serial killer. Condit, who was absolved of guilt, served another year and a 1/2 before losing a primary and retiring from congress.
The main thing about the 2 deaths was the deplorable difference and separation in the way the media handled them.
Most of the general public was unaware of the Klausutis case, since major outlets covered ONLY the Condit story and totally ommitted the Klausutis story. Then, on Sept 11th, 2001, all other stories were wiped from the news, and like Lori, the issue was buried.
IMO, that was an early clear look at how extremely partisan the corporate media could be.
Of course, we all know that so much better now.
But that was an early wake-up call for me.
And naturally, it was brilliantly discussed on Bradblog back in 2004:
https://bradblog.com/?p=448
For the curious, here is a picture of Lori Klausutis (maiden name, Bolterstein), circa early 90s (probably HS):
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-702H...stein%2529.jpg