“Pondering the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Pondering the Pundits”.
Paul Krugman : Who Broke Politics?
As far as anyone can tell, Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House — and the leader of what’s left of the Republican establishment — isn’t racist or authoritarian. He is, however, doing all he can to make a racist authoritarian the most powerful man in the world. Why? Because then he could privatize Medicare and slash taxes on the wealthy.
And that, in brief, tells you what has happened to the Republican Party, and to America.[..]
This has been an election in which almost every week sees some longstanding norm in U.S. political life get broken. We now have a major-party candidate who refuses to release his tax returns, despite huge questions about his business dealings. He constantly repeats claims that are totally false, like his assertion that crime is at record highs (it’s actually just a bit off historic lows). He stands condemned by his own words as a sexual predator. And there’s much, much more.
Any one of these things would in the past have been considered disqualifying in a presidential candidate. But leading Republicans just shrug. And they celebrated when James Comey, the director of the F.B.I., broke with policy to lay a heavy thumb on the election scales; if Hillary Clinton wins nonetheless, they have made it clear that they will try to block any Supreme Court nomination, and there’s already talk of impeachment hearings. About what? They’ll find something.
So how did all our political norms get destroyed? Hint: It started long before Donald Trump.
New York Times Editorial Board: Donald Trump’s Impeachment Threat
Donald Trump and other embattled Republican candidates are resorting to a particularly bizarre and dangerous tactic in the closing days of the campaign — warning that they may well seek to impeach Hillary Clinton if she wins, or, short of that, tie her up with endless investigations and other delaying tactics.
Of all the arguments advanced by the Trump forces, this has to be among the most preposterous. In effect, what they’re saying is, Mrs. Clinton won’t be able to govern, because we won’t let her. So don’t waste your vote on her. Vote for us. [..]
Beyond simple hypocrisy, the Republicans’ impeachment threat demonstrates their gathering disrespect for democracy. If they can’t gain control of government fairly, they’ll simply undermine it. It is the clearest warning yet that voters must deliver a firm rejection of the politics of division that Mr. Trump represents.
Barbara Ehrenreich: Forget fear and loathing. The US election inspires projectile vomiting
Back when America was “great” – say, in the 1970s – the most unpleasant emotions a presidential race might inspire were “fear and loathing”. We expected our political process to provoke antagonism and ennui. We did not expect it to trigger projectile vomiting.
But this year is different, with psychotherapists reporting widespread depression, insomnia and digestive problems among the electorate. Record numbers are voting early, by mail, as if to purge themselves of all connection to the proceedings.
Add in the realization that the whole world is watching this spectacle and the sensitive American is likely to feel something akin to physical shame – as if someone had walked in and found them deflowering a close relative or a pet. And just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse, the Clinton email scandal looped in penis-fetishist Anthony Wiener, estranged husband of Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin. The most sordid side of our democracy has been laid out for all the world to see.
Mark Ryffalo: We must listen to the Dakota Access pipeline protesters, not punish them
Last week, I was privileged to spend two days at the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota. Thousands of Native Americans have been camping along the Missouri river for months in an effort to defend clean water and sacred land from the Dakota Access oil pipeline.
I had my heart broken listening to the testimony of Chase Iron Eyes and Bobbi Jean Three Legs in a town-hall-style meeting. I had my hope renewed standing under grey prairie skies beside the Rev Jesse Jackson, bearing witness to the largest gathering of Native Americans in modern history. Representing hundreds of tribes, these courageous water protectors support the Standing Rock Sioux, defending their water and their way of life. [..]
Given this ongoing shift to clean energy – and the fact that renewables offer a more sustainable, more prosperous, and healthier future – it seems almost unbelievable that North Dakota authorities are spending energy and money violently defending a dying and dangerous system of energy production. This is not a conflict that can be resolved with brutality and ridicule. Rather, it must be faced with common humanity – with prayer, love and community, and first of all, with listening.
Like so many others who have heard the water defenders, I am standing 100% with Standing Rock – standing on the side of clean water, renewable energy and a just and healthy future for us all.
Jessica Valenti: I thought I was just scared of Trump – but it’s his America I fear
With the presidential election less than a week away, my once-composed optimism has given way to panic. Sheer, stomach-churning panic. You see, up until now I had done a somewhat decent job of not allowing myself to imagine the unimaginable: Donald Trump winning. But as election day looms closer, and the racism and sexism that infects Trump’s campaign is ratcheted up, it’s hard not to be terrified.
In the past week, a Ku Klux Klan newspaper endorsed Trump and white supremacists announced their plan for widespread voter intimidation. Trump rally-goers shouted antisemitic invective at reporters, and a historically black church in Mississippi was burned and “vote Trump” scrawled across the side. Another woman came forward to accuse Trump of sexual assault, and a Texas official called Hillary Clinton a “cunt”. [..]
This election has uncovered something vile about America. That so many people would support a despicable candidate is not news to those hurt every day by racism, sexism and xenophobia; we know it’s alive and well in our country. We’ve been dealing with it our whole lives. But to see this hatred on such flagrant, unapologetic display is something else entirely.
Even if Trump loses, this isn’t simply a bad dream that we’ll awaken from on 9 November.
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