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Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: The start of a new year brings out old problems [1]

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Date: 2025-01-06

Jarvis De Berry/MSNBC:

In a city that’s so dependent on tourism, an attitude that “the show must go on” isn’t surprising. Still, it left some New Orleanians expressing a long-standing sorrow that what’s good for the people who visit the city is always prioritized over what’s good for the people who call it home.

Less than 36 hours after Wednesday’s attack and before we knew the names of all of the victims, New Orleans reopened Bourbon Street to pedestrians.

Will Bunch/Philadelphia Inquirer:

Las Vegas, New Orleans, and the ugly truths America won’t talk about A deadly U.S. New Year's Day inspires demagogues with little talk about root causes of PTSD, misogyny, and unchecked male rage. Two important things linger in the haze of pyrotechnics and death over Las Vegas and New Orleans. The first and most immediate is the clear intent for Trump and his allies to shamelessly use both justifiable fear and deliberate falsehoods, in an increasingly ill- or uninformed America, to gain acceptance for their political agenda of starting 2025 with mass deportations of immigrants who had nothing to do with this. But we should also worry about America’s powerful tendency for avoidance when it comes to the ugly truths about why such a seemingly prosperous nation is also so remarkably violent, the real reasons why mass murder keeps happening, the troubling overlaps with 2020s' U.S. (and world) politics, and what we can do about it. Five days later, it’s clear that the roots of this latest spasm aren’t found in the deserts of Syria but ingrained in the modern demons of American life, in both our excessively militaristic culture and also in the overlapping crisis of male anger and rage that arguably also put Trump back on top in the November election.

x Schiff: If the president goes forward with pardoning vast numbers of people involved in January 6 violence, he will begin his new administration the way he ended his last administration, and that is by celebrating violence against our democracy. pic.twitter.com/2fl5lYl7zi — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 5, 2025

Gerardo Marti/American blindspot:

The Day Before January 6th The Jericho March rally reveals the religious roots of the siege on the Capitol On January 5, 2021, a day before the infamous attack on the U.S. Capitol, Trump supporters, fueled by a potent blend of fervent faith and fervent nationalism, gathered in Washington D.C. for the "Jericho March." What may have seemed like a mere prelude to the next day's events, this religiously charged rally weaved together the threads of Christian symbolism, conspiracy theories, and calls to action that culminated in the insurrection the next day. The attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th was a culmination of many factors, but the role of religion, particularly as manifested in the January 5th Jericho March, cannot be ignored. It provided a platform for weaving together Christian symbolism, conspiracy theories, and calls to action.1

Joe Biden/Washington Post:

What Americans should remember about Jan. 6 Four years ago, our democracy was put to the test — and prevailed. We should be proud that our democracy withstood this assault. And we should be glad we will not see such a shameful attack again this year. But we should not forget. We must remember the wisdom of the adage that any nation that forgets its past is doomed to repeat it. We cannot accept a repeat of what occurred four years ago. An unrelenting effort has been underway to rewrite — even erase — the history of that day. To tell us we didn’t see what we all saw with our own eyes. To dismiss concerns about it as some kind of partisan obsession. To explain it away as a protest that just got out of hand.

x It’s important we don’t forget what happened on Jan. 6. ⁦@SergeantAqGo⁩ was there and writes “What I Saw on Jan. 6 Still Haunts Me” for NYT. https://t.co/n19nqdlp3v — Jim Acosta (@Acosta) January 5, 2025

Jonathan Weisman/New York times:

How the Democrats Lost the Working Class The theory seemed sound: Stabilize financial markets, support the poor and promote a more secure, integrated world. But blue-collar workers were left behind. “Today, the targets of that rage are immigrants and welfare mothers and government officials and gays and an ill-defined counterculture,” Mr. Reich cautioned. “But as the middle class continues to erode, who will be the targets tomorrow?” His message went largely unheeded for 30 years, as one president after another, Republican and Democratic, led administrations into a post-Cold War global future that enriched the nation as a whole and some on the coasts to staggering levels, but left many pockets of the American heartland deindustrialized, dislocated and even depopulated.

Seth Masket/TUSK:

What to know about Democrats losing the working class This is still mostly about race Jonathan Weisman’s substantial New York Times piece “How Democrats Lost the Working Class” is important and I commend it to your attention. But there are a few key points about US politics that one should recognize before digging into the article: A substantial chunk — let’s say 90% — of the story about the working class leaving the Democratic Party over the past 50 years is a story about race. To simplify, it’s about working class whites starting in the 1970s, and Latinos more recently, being mobilized against the Democratic Party due to resentment toward Blacks. We have never had a consensus definition of “working class.” It could mean people without a college education, or lower-income people, or people in specific types of jobs like manufacture or service, or something else. It is also a populist cultural designation — one that Donald Trump has exploited well — signifying the tastes of “regular” people (often somehow rural whites) who might have money but still want to stick it to elites. Just who has left the Democratic Party and when is highly contingent on one’s conception of “working class.”

x You are a thief and a hypocrite- best to keep quiet. You are lucky you’re not in prison. — Martina Navratilova (@Martina) January 5, 2025

Richard L Hasan and Jeremy Stahl/Slate:

One Possible Explanation for Justice Merchan’s Last-Second Decision to Sentence Trump Justice Juan Merchan, in an 18-page opinion and order, rejected a number of Trump’s arguments against his sentencing, including that a president-elect is entitled to the same immunity as a president. He also rejected a motion to dismiss Trump’s case in the interest of justice. Among the factors the court found weighing against dismissal was Trump’s character: “Defendant’s disdain for the Third Branch of government, whether state or federal, in New York or elsewhere, is a matter of public record. Indeed, Defendant has gone to great lengths to broadcast on social media and other forums his lack of respect for judges, juries, grand juries and the justice system as a whole.” In a related scathing footnote, Merchan accused Trump’s lawyers of engaging in “dangerous rhetoric” in attacking the integrity of the court. The footnote might also signal something about the peculiar timing of the ruling, so close to Trump’s reascent to the presidency and with no time left for any sentence to be carried out. In it, Merchan all but accuses Trump’s attorneys, led by Trump’s nominee for deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, of attempting to intimidate the judge in their recent pleadings. The implication could be that Merchan is laying down a marker that he will go ahead with the sentencing at this late date to demonstrate that the judiciary will not be intimidated by the incoming president. Merchan notes specifically that Trump’s filings “accuse … this Court of engaging in ‘unlawful’ and ‘unconstitutional’ conduct,” adding that such terms are synonymous with “criminally punishable.” Merchan then cited Chief Justice John Roberts’ recent paean to the sanctity of judicial independence. “Attempts to intimidate judges for their rulings in cases are inappropriate and should be vigorously opposed.”

Cliff Schecter on the MAGA civil war:

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