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Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: The decadent conservative movement crystallizes in CPAC [1]
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Date: 2023-08-28
Washington Post:
CPAC urged to probe more sexual misconduct claims against chair Matt Schlapp A senior board member of CPAC’s parent organization resigned as he urged more scrutiny of Schlapp’s alleged conduct A senior board member of the parent organization behind the prominent Conservative Political Action Conference who resigned on Friday urged an independent investigation into additional allegations of sexual misconduct against Chairman Matt Schlapp. The vice chairman of the board of the American Conservative Union, Charlie Gerow, announced his resignation on Friday in a letter to other directors that called on them to authorize an investigation including any additional allegations that they or staff have become aware of, according to multiple people familiar with the letter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
Sexual misconduct. Fear of retaliation. And let’s throw in lavish lifestyle.
CPAC isn’t the only place you’ll find it, either. Just look at the party leader.
Will Bunch/Philadelphia Inquirer:
Journalism fails miserably at explaining what is really happening to America Momentous week of GOP debate, Trump's arrest gets 'horse race' coverage when the story's not about an election but authoritarianism. They stood on an arena stage in Milwaukee under a massive sign that read “Democracy” — the metaphorical 800-pound gorilla that loomed over this strange political event but was never really discussed. When the dust finally settled after two hours of the first televised debate of the 2024 GOP primaries, nothing — from the rude kids-table outbursts from the impertinent Vivek Ramaswamy to the doomed efforts by Nikki Haley or Mike Pence to be the grown-ups in the room — actually mattered inside the airy Fiserv Forum except for one thing. All those not-so-wonderful people out there in the dark. A mob that raged, and which ultimately ruled. This audience seemed to only care about The Man Who Wasn’t There — Donald Trump, who was too busy refueling his private jet for his next arrest to bother attending. The restive crowd reached its peak when its bête noire, the anti-Trump turncoat Chris Christie, dared try to challenge Ramaswamy’s outburst that POTUS 45 “was the best president of the 21st century.” It filled the basketball arena with boos.
Just Security:
The Hatch Act Bars Meadows’ Removal Bid Meadows, however, had no authority as Chief of Staff to engage in the charged conduct. He was subject to the Hatch Act, a law that clearly forbade all federal employees from engaging in the sort of conduct charged. A provision of the Hatch Act, 5 U.S.C. § 7323(a)(1), negates the possibility of the link Meadows proposes. Put more strongly, the Hatch Act severs any evidentiary or legal thread with which Meadows could hope to tie the Chief of Staff’s official authority to the charged conduct. The law unambiguously prohibits the Chief of Staff from using “his official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election.” 5 U.S.C. § 7323(a)(1). To stitch together the severed thread between his conduct and his former role, Meadows tries in vain to pretend that the Hatch Act does not exist — or that it is inapplicable, unconstitutional, or amenable to violation by presidential aides. But that thread cannot be mended. In tersely declaring “[t]he state is wrong” to point out that he could not have committed the charged conduct in his official capacity (Def’s Reply at 3), Meadows would have the court ignore this legal prohibition. The very purpose of the Hatch Act was to place political acts of the kind charged here beyond the reach of the office of Chief of Staff to the President. A person who holds the position of White House Chief of Staff may never use their official authority as a government employee to influence an election. We know this absolute bar well, as one of us served as Director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics and another of us served as White House Special Counsel for Ethics and Government Reform. As a matter of established law, the Fulton County criminal charges allege acts that could have only been committed in a personal capacity. Those personal acts can have no “connection” or “association” with Meadows’ former federal office. That is why Meadows’ concession is fatal to his argument.
x So just a weekend reminder that the reason why Raffensperger taped the infamous call was that this was the culmination of huge pressures put on his office by the Trump team over weeks so he taped the call because he feared what was coming. It was anything but a one time thing. — Eric Segall (@espinsegall) August 26, 2023
Aaron Zitner/Wall Street Journal:
Why Tribalism Took Over Our Politics Social science gives an uncomfortable explanation: Our brains were made for conflict The differences between the parties are clearer than before. Demographic characteristics are now major indicators of party preference, with noncollege white and more religious Americans increasingly identifying as Republicans, while Democrats now win most nonwhite voters and a majority of white people with a college degree. “Instead of going into the voting booth and asking, ‘What do I want my elected representatives to do for me,’ they’re thinking, ‘If my party loses, it’s not just that my policy preferences aren’t going to get done,’ ” said Lilliana Mason, a Johns Hopkins University political scientist. “It’s who I think I am, my place in the world, my religion, my race, the many parts of my identity are all wrapped up in that one vote.”
x e.g. for a large swath of the public, the primary reason Biden does or does not get credit for an apparently improving economy is because it either supports or is a threat to their identity to do so.
That is powerful (something Trump intrinsically, if not intentionally, gets). — Patrick Murray (@PollsterPatrick) August 26, 2023
Aaron Ruper and Thor Benson/”Public Notice” on Substack, featuring Tom Bonier:
Why you shouldn't sweat the 2024 polls — yet Trump and Biden are basically tied. Yikes! But it's not time to panic. In short, Bonier knows what he’s talking about. And he doesn’t think you should lose sleep over the polls showing Biden and Trump tied. “It’s been a grueling political climate in this country since Trump entered the scene, and there’s a lot of fatigue,” Bonier told us. “It’s not surprising that people look at a [2020] rematch and say they don’t want that. I do think that’s more about Trump than Biden, but those polls don’t capture the true dynamic we’ll see as we get closer to the election.” Bonier also shared his insights about the lessons of 2016, why polls overestimated GOP strength last year, and much more. A transcript of the discussion, lightly edited for clarity, follows.
x From the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Department:
“Portions of these manifestos detail the shooter's disgusting ideology of hate. This shooting was racially motivated and he hated black people.” pic.twitter.com/GDBRg937Ak — . (@suttonimpaQt) August 26, 2023
x It should not be lost on anyone that this occurred on the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington & Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic“I Have a Dream” speech. Sixty years later, racism remains embedded in this nation.
https://t.co/9bxfU0UjXb — Kat Stafford (@kat__stafford) August 26, 2023
Oliver Darcy/CNN Business:
Fox News apologizes to Gold Star family after facing backlash over false story Fox News apologized Saturday to a Gold Star family for publishing a false story last month claiming that the family had to pay $60,000 to ship the remains of their fallen relative back from Afghanistan because the Pentagon refused to pay. “The now unpublished story has been addressed internally and we sincerely apologize to the Gee family,” a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement, referencing the family of fallen Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, who was one of 13 service members killed in a terror attack at the Kabul airport in 2021 while assisting with US withdrawal efforts. The apology came after a Military.com report this week drew attention to the issue and indicated that the right-wing outlet’s top executives had repeatedly been notified by senior members of the Marine Corps that it was pushing a false story.
x Republicans are stuck in three yesterdays: The one associated with Trump, the tea party rebellion during the Obama years, and—it glows in a sacred conservative stratosphere—the tradition of Ronald Reagan. What’s missing? The future.
Free link to my column
https://t.co/4SxK8ywfhg — EJ Dionne (@EJDionne) August 27, 2023
Chris Suellentrop/Washington Post:
Imagining a church of the nones There might be no greater force reshaping the country in ways we don’t fully understand than the rise of the “nones,” the term for people who do not belong to a particular religious faith. Most nones, as Post Opinions columnist Perry Bacon Jr. points out in a searching and personal essay about his own quest for belonging after leaving his church, are former Christians. They’re not all young — while 40 percent of adults between 18 and 29 are nones, so are around 20 percent of people older than 65. They’re not all Democrats, either — about 15 percent of Trump voters in 2020 were nones, as were a third of Biden voters, Perry notes. “In their new book ‘The Great Dechurching,’ Jim Davis, Michael Graham and Ryan Burge estimate that about 40 million Americans used to attend church but don’t now,” Perry writes. “I could not have imagined when I was a kid or even a decade ago that I would be in this group.”
x Better would be:
An orange shirt saying
“I was P01135809’s lawyer for a few weeks and all I got was this lousy t-shirt”@ProjectLincoln @TheRickWilson @reedgalen
https://t.co/vCKq4lZJYK — Xeorge Xonway (@gtconway3d) August 27, 2023
Michael Powell/The Atlantic:
What Can Liberalism Offer Oliver Anthony? A hit country artist offended progressives. A Democratic senator from Connecticut became an unlikely defender. By proposing a broader conversation, [CT Senator Chris] Murphy has given himself an intriguing task. At times, he wonders if liberals can recognize a primal call of pain for what it is. Anthony sings in an argot filled with cultural allusions that may sound offensive or at least alien to some (one commentator criticized his supposedly inferior use of rhyme). Progressives who want to fix a broken economy, Murphy argues, better find a way to hear out people like Anthony. It was with that in mind that a few weeks ago Murphy typed out a post on X (formerly known as Twitter): a. I think progressives should listen to this. In part, bc it’s just a good tune. b. But also bc it shows the path of realignment. Anthony sings about the soullessness of work, shit wages and the power of the elites. All problems the left has better solutions to than the right. Murphy’s comment did not please his tribe. Some social-media liberals—skeptical that ties between Democrats and the rural working class can be repaired—decried Murphy’s apostasy and wondered archly if he had hit his head. Others muttered that the 50-year-old second-term senator deserved a primary challenge.
Read that with this:
x Oliver Anthony shuts down Republicans for claiming “Rich Men North of Richmond”: “It’s aggravating seeing people on conservative news trying to identify with me like I’m one of them... I wrote that song about [GOP presidential candidates]. That song has nothing to do with Biden.” pic.twitter.com/upG2Y6x9kY — No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) August 25, 2023
Cliff Schecter on the Kubrik stare:
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