By Zamboni
President Biden is campaigning in Pennsylvania today, and he's got the NATO summit starting on Tuesday. With that and more going on, it would be nice if the pundits would pivot to Republican threats to democracy, both here and around the world, because — despite all the breathless speculation about Capitol Hill meetings today — there are members of Congress who have noticed a yawning gap between what the commentariat thinks is important and what voters care about.
For example, Representative Sean Casten (D-IL) visited his district over July 4 and talked to his constituents. "Lots of them are really nervous about the future of our country right now," he tweeted. "The divisiveness in Washington, but more the reactionary backlash. They can't understand why rights they took for granted are being taken away.
"I kept telling them that reactionaries — by definition — don't attack democracy because their ideas are popular. They attack democracy because a government that reflects majority will opposes their values."
Exactly. And polls and focus groups are starting to show that respondents fundamentally understand what's at stake. (Democrats, you need to listen, and don't go off, shall we say, half-cocked.)
The good news is that Project 2025, the anti-democracy manifesto crafted for the Republicans by the Heritage Foundation, the Koch brothers and Christian nationalists, is getting attention at last — partly thanks to celebrities like Taraji P. Henson, who sounded the alarm at the BET Awards last weekend. (So much attention, in fact, that Trump has been forced to deny he knows anything about it.)
Online searches for Project 2025 have skyrocketed. Here's a handy video with an excerpt from Henson's speech and a concise summary of the manifesto from journalist and CUNY professor Marc Lamont Hill.
Finally, happy birthday to George W. Bush, who was The Worst Person Who Ever Lived until Benedict Donald came along. George Conway had a special message for him: "Could you do the country a big favor and urge it not to elect a certain convicted felon and psychopath whom I assume you detest as much as the rest of us? Thanks in advance!"
We cats have our paws crossed for the coming week. Meanwhile, we HISS and PURR at the same time.
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